Though she hadn’t said anything, Lucia did not go to find Anya directly after work.
Clara said she was busy in the evening and had no time, but Lucia still wanted to go check on her brother’s place. Otherwise, it felt like a thorn stuck in her heart that she couldn’t pull out, a constant worry.
Some things had to be clarified, some conjectures needed to be confirmed.
So, after returning to her dorm to freshen up, she took the subway to this unfamiliar, fringe neighborhood where her brother lived.
Her understanding of the Blue Court area wasn’t thorough. She only knew the suburbs had poor security, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was bad about it. She naively thought that walking on the road in broad daylight wouldn’t lead to trouble…
After all, back on Earth, she’d heard that there were many Heroes in Central City. So many that if you tried to mug someone, you’d get beaten up by several self-proclaimed Heroes, and the person you were robbing might even be a Hero themselves.
But the reality was a bit different.
There were indeed many Heroes, but for criminal incidents not caused by Mutants, but by ordinary criminals, Heroes usually showed little interest.
After all, resolving such incidents didn’t earn records or bounties from the Association, only an official “Good Samaritan” encouragement fee from the authorities.
You couldn’t make money from it, nor did it count as experience for leveling up. At best, you’d earn some reputation.
Only if they happened to stumble upon it would they handle it, driven by a basic sense of morality—a mindset similar to most ordinary citizens. Therefore, these “minor matters” were mostly left to other departments.
Because of this, in the suburbs where the number of Heroes was already low, the ones who could truly be called Heroes were even fewer, leaving many hidden dangers. Only some part-time, independent Heroes operated here, fighting crime to earn some extra cash.
And now, an unnoticed danger was approaching Lucia.
Two figures wearing wide-brimmed hats, acting furtively, were following her.
The farther she got from the subway station, the more Cheap Rental Apartments and massive slum structures appeared. Oblivious, Lucia checked her phone’s navigation and confirmed the street names.
In the Blue Court area, only the vicinity around the subway station had decent security.
The farther out you went, the area was populated by those who couldn’t make it in Central City, people who didn’t even have the factor adaptation to become Mutants.
These people were almost all potential criminals, so naturally, the security wasn’t good.
“Third intersection, turn left… is this the street?”
“Oh, found it.”
Comparing the missing house numbers on either side, Lucia confirmed that the tall apartment tower in front of her—tall even by Blue Court standards—was the Cheap Rental Apartment her brother rented.
It looked shabby on the outside, probably quite old.
Just as Lucia was about to go upstairs, an old black van suddenly shot out from a roadside corner, screeching to a halt right beside her.
“Huh?”
Before Lucia could understand what was happening, the two men who had been following her rushed forward, covered her mouth, and forcibly dragged her into the van.
Was this… a kidnapping?
Suddenly kidnapped, Lucia struggled in terror. She’d heard the Blue Court had poor security, but she never expected someone would kidnap her, a penniless country girl, right on the street…
What ransom could they possibly get for her?
A large man with a round head and big ears turned around from the passenger seat.
His greasy skin was covered in green fluorescent scales, and his creepy vertical pupils gleamed with a lecherous light. He looked like a Mutant with lizard factors.
“Drive, quick! Someone might have seen us just now! Take her back to the base first!”
He grinned, his voice a guttural rasp.
“Human, you are destined to become a noble amphibious Mutant. Don’t worry, our Organization has excellent Modification technology.”
Lucia let out a wail and a scream, only to have her mouth gagged. The big man even commented, “Not bad looking… shame she’s still human…”
“Who wants to become an amphibian!?”
‘I really shouldn’t have come alone. Does my brother usually live in such a dangerous place? I’m done for…’
‘Wait, even a Lower-class Monster isn’t someone ordinary people can mess with. Maybe it’s fine for my brother to live here, but for me…’
‘Am I going to be Modified into a lizard?’
‘Just thinking about it is so ugly. I absolutely don’t want that…’
Just as despair began to take hold of Lucia, and she even started thinking of ways to kill herself, the driver of the black van suddenly cursed and slammed on the brakes.
Amidst the screeching sound, a pale arm smashed through the front windshield, grabbed the driver by the hair, and slammed his face into the steering wheel, knocking him out instantly.
The vehicle stopped.
In front of the van stood a girl.
She stood with her arms crossed, looking indifferently at the criminals inside the vehicle as if they were already dead.
She wore a red and gold dress. Her right white glove was stained with the driver’s blood, so she casually took it off and tossed it aside.
“That’s far enough.”
‘Is she a Hero too? She came so fast. Were they set up?’
“Damn it, you’ve got a death wish!”
The lizard-like man in the passenger seat pulled a light machine gun from near his feet, cursing as he opened fire; the kidnappers in the back also pulled out pistols and started shooting. At such close range, the little girl had no space to dodge—
However, the bullets hitting her body only sparked with dense white light, failing to harm her at all.
She didn’t even make a move to evade.
The lizard man immediately shouted, “Mana Shield! This girl’s a Magic Girl!”
The girl leaped lightly onto the roof of the van, raised her hand like a blade, and sliced through the steel roof, tearing it open. She kicked away a kidnapper who tried to take Lucia hostage and pulled Lucia out of the vehicle.
Held in the air by a girl even smaller than herself, Lucia was momentarily stunned.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes… thank you. I remember you are…”
“…I’m Kamui. You know me?”
Hearing Lucia say this, Kamui realized why she looked familiar.
“Yes, you came to our Company’s dormitory before.”
“Oh, it’s you…”
There had been that misunderstanding before, when she mistakenly thought Clara was doing some strange part-time job. The colleague who was with Clara at the time was this ponytailed girl in front of her.
They hadn’t really talked then, and she didn’t even know her name.
“What a coincidence. So, you were kidnapped? I’m not mistaken this time, am I?”
“No…”
The lizard man crawled out of the nearly wrecked van. His muscles swelled with a meaningless roar, bursting through his clothes. The green scales became harder, even shiny as if waxed.
“Meddling little brat! We were just recruiting members, what’s the problem?!”
“An Organization that recruits people this way should just shut down sooner rather than later.”
“Don’t think you’ve won just because you took out one of us! I wasn’t going all out before… this is my true form now!”
With his roar, the other kidnappers also unleashed their true forms—
They were still lizard Mutants.
“Tch, you guys are just too ugly.”
Kamui frowned and placed Lucia by the roadside.
Then she raised a hand, and a gleaming golden Spiked Mace appeared in her grasp. The seemingly incredibly heavy weapon was swung effortlessly by the little girl, finally resting casually on her shoulder.
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