Jin Luan: [Reject]
Huan Hong: [Is it that you’re unhappy being the one in the back? I have other plans, take a look.]
A new set of blueprints appeared.
This time, Yin Lin was in front, blocking the way while riding a pair of crutches.
Huan Hong sat in the middle, and Jin Luan sat at the very back.
Huan Hong: [Yin Lin’s defense is the strongest. She’ll take the hits up front, close the distance, and get us right beside the enemy. Once we’re close, we’ll airdrop into melee combat.]
Huan Hong: [I call this formation the Assault Form.]
Jin Luan: [Reject.]
Huan Hong: [Then tell me how you want to arrange the formation. You come up with a plan.]
While Huan Hong chatted with Xia Shiyao, Yao Ruoning got a fair amount of rest.
In the past, Xia Shiyao had been constantly watching her, which was enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle.
Xia Shiyao cared deeply about Yao Ruoning’s safety.
Learning that a particularly perverse enemy was active in the city, and that no bodies had yet been found, only made her more uneasy.
Based on past experience, Yin Lin had the ability to instantly vaporize enemies—even demon-level officers—leaving no trace behind.
So even if a gravity magic user was vaporized by a magic cannon, it was only natural.
This time, Xia Shiyao trusted Yin Lin’s judgment and her gut feeling.
She felt that in the seconds before the magic cannon exploded, the enemy who used gravity magic had teleported away.
This enemy was special, possessing high intelligence and behaving almost like a normal human.
It was only natural that they managed to escape.
Considering that the enemy could appear at any moment, Xia Shiyao waited here at the milk tea shop.
A large number of helicopters patrolled the city’s skies, while the Failure Squad stayed on standby above the city, ready to deploy anywhere at a moment’s notice.
They had learned their lesson from being lured out last time, nearly causing a disaster.
“Progress! Progress! Keep progressing!” The Failure Squad’s Vice-Captain was once again giving a pep talk to the team.
“I’ve always told you, to defeat the demons, we must constantly improve. Only through continuous progress can we avoid falling behind.”
“Just yesterday, we lost because we fell behind. Our understanding of the demons is outdated. They’ve learned human thought patterns and gained human experience and knowledge.”
“When we lose, countless lives are at stake.”
“We must remember yesterday’s failure and advance today—be smarter, stronger than the demons.”
The Vice-Captain kept lecturing, even though these words had been said many times before.
Suddenly, the Captain interrupted and asked the Monitor, “Have we detected any demon magic yet?”
The squad’s Monitor sat in front of multiple screens, watching sensor data across the city, shaking his head: “No demons detected, and no magical girls either.”
It would be better if the sensors were more sensitive, but technology limited them.
The sensors spread throughout the city weren’t sensitive enough.
They needed magical girls to pass close to the sensors before their magic signatures could be detected.
So it was very difficult to catch magical girls.
Demons naturally emitted strong magic with a heavy scent—like a person who hadn’t bathed in months, their stench could be smelled from afar.
Demons were easy for sensors to pick up.
The Failure Squad’s Monitor stared at the screens, never removing his headphones, not even to use the restroom.
The other team members anxiously waited as well.
Logically, demon incidents shouldn’t be happening this frequently.
Neither demons crossing the border nor those roaming the city should appear so often.
The Failure Squad couldn’t understand it; the Countermeasures Center couldn’t understand it; they had held countless meetings.
The experts were sick of meetings.
At the Countermeasures Center, a middle-aged man stood on stage and posed another question: “Why have demon border crossings increased twelvefold in the past month?”
Several options were listed:
1: It’s mating season.
2: Something is commanding the demons to intentionally attack the city.
3: Pure coincidence.
4: The demons are trying to boost their performance this month.
5: The demons are testing the city’s defenses and preparing a major assault.
6: Fake demons exist; someone is cosplaying demons and playing pranks.
The experts deliberated for a long time before casting their votes.
The middle-aged man studied the results in silence.
42% chose option 2.
33% voted for option 5.
And shockingly, 6% picked option 1.
Of course, it was that troublemaking Sociologist again.
They didn’t want him to speak, nor let him realize the situation, but overwhelming curiosity drove the man to call on the Sociologist.
He just wanted to ask why he chose option 1.
The expert stood up and introduced himself first: “I’m a Sociologist. According to social studies, vertebrates typically have mating seasons. Also, we know that magical girls are the protagonists in many R18 works and are perfect mating partners, whether for goblins or tentacle monsters…”
“Enough, sit down.” The middle-aged man cut him off.
The Sociologist couldn’t resist adding a few more words: “I speculate magical girls have a fatal attraction to demons, so…”
“Please shut up and sit down.” The man yelled, stopping him immediately.
The Sociologist could only close his mouth with regret.
Afterwards, the middle-aged man raised some other questions.
As usual, most answers were fairly reasonable, though there was always someone causing trouble—but it didn’t affect the big picture.
Late at night, the milk tea shop closed and Yao Ruoning finished work.
Xia Shiyao didn’t leave but insisted on following her home, claiming she wouldn’t feel at ease otherwise.
Trouble had arrived; Yao Ruoning couldn’t let her follow her home.
After much pleading, Xia Shiyao remained resolute, refusing to back down and insisting on being her bodyguard.
To hide the pilot, Yao Ruoning went to rest in the Little Room on the building’s Top Floor tonight.
Lying on the sofa chair, her small frame had its advantages—she could even lie down to sleep on a single seat.
Xia Shiyao wanted to invite her to stay over at her place, but Yao Ruoning naturally refused—not daring to go, nor wanting to.
Xia Shiyao didn’t press the issue.
Unable to invite her, she simply stayed in the building’s Little Room as well.
She spread some bedding on the floor and lay there, guarding the door.
That night, neither slept well.
It was difficult to endure.
Partly because there was an extra person nearby.
Song Wuli was not used to sleeping in a magical girl’s body, especially not in an unfamiliar place outdoors.
Her delicate body couldn’t adapt to the harsh environment.
She recalled the fairy tale Princess and the Pea, where to test if an unknown girl was truly a princess, a single pea was placed under twenty mattresses and twenty feather duvets.
The girl felt uncomfortable sleeping, as if something hard was poking her.
An exaggerated story, but at this moment, Yao Ruoning had the same feeling.
She closed her eyes but couldn’t fall asleep; her whole body ached.
Over there, Xia Shiyao wasn’t faring much better, tossing and turning, unable to sleep and feeling sore from the hard floor.
By early morning, when her biological clock triggered, Yao Ruoning slipped into a half-sleep before suddenly waking up.
Several helicopters rushed across the sky, flying fast and urgently.