Back in the real world, Yin Lin didn’t go to work.
Instead, she continued practicing the things mentioned in the Contract Goddess’s teachings.
In the false space, there was no magic wand.
Without that thing, Yin Lin couldn’t cast magic, so she had no way to practice.
Only after coming out and holding the wand could she practice what she had just learned.
First was the [Mana Attribute Conversion].
This prerequisite talent was essentially about converting mana into various attributes like wind, lightning, water, fire, earth, light, darkness, and so on—turning mana from a [Raw Material] into a [Finished Component].
It was like turning particles into lithium ore, and then from lithium ore into a lithium battery.
Of course, a real lithium battery isn’t just lithium—that was merely an analogy used by the Contract Goddess.
[Mana Attribute Conversion] simulated this entire process of refining and manufacturing products.
The whole process was like consuming an MP pool from a magical girl to create the conditions necessary for using a specific magic—a very basic concept.
After mastering [Mana Attribute Conversion], the next step was to learn [Magic Construction].
For example, after converting mana into the lightning attribute, one would use [Magic Construction] to create a fully formed lightning magic spell—like assembling finished components into a finished product.
That was roughly the principle, but when actually practicing, some problems became apparent.
This stuff was too basic, but still quite difficult to accomplish.
It was obviously not something a teenager could easily grasp, nor was it a theory that an adult passing on knowledge to a teacher could understand.
Fortunately, the one teaching her was the Contract Goddess—the one who knew her inside and out.
The Goddess understood how Yin Lin could comprehend this knowledge and how best to teach her.
By practicing in the cemetery until late at night, Yin Lin finally learned the basic usage method, though it was still a bit clumsy and the speed wasn’t fast enough.
Covered in sweat, she sat down on an unknown tombstone to rest.
After calming down, she sensed something was off.
Hastily, she picked up her phone and searched for videos of herself.
She watched the scenes of her charging and firing the mana cannon.
Looking at those videos, her brows gradually furrowed.
She tried charging the mana cannon again, staring at the magic circle that appeared before her and fell into deep thought.
She canceled the mana cannon’s charge and began attempting to create the [Heaven-Splitting Spear] spell taught by the Contract Goddess.
After half an hour of trying, she still couldn’t succeed.
The more she attempted this spell, the more she sensed something was wrong.
Casting [Heaven-Splitting Spear] felt like constructing magic from scratch—a combination of a basic attack, another basic attack, and then a charged attack, all three moves chained together to form a skill.
But using the [Mana Cannon] felt like pressing a single button to unleash a move, automatically skipping a whole series of preparation steps and directly showing the final result.
The Contract Goddess had definitely done something sneaky again—this time, it was definitely not just about teaching the [Heaven-Splitting Spear] spell so simply.
She had many vague suspicions in her heart but would have to wait until the next time she confronted the Contract Goddess.
It was already very late, so she went to the milk tea shop to work for an hour.
At night, she saw a message from Huan Hong in the chat group of the Jin-Yin-Hong sisters, reporting on the situation at the crime scene—that was the Buffer Zone between the Border and the Aberration area.
Huan Hong had dealt with one aberration, and while fighting the second one in a tough, even match, the Defeated Team showed up.
Huan Hong hated those people and was also worried about being caught, so she disengaged and flew up to high altitude.
She took photos and sent many pictures and videos.
The Defeated Team used their so-called Photon Rifles to shoot the second low-level aberration to death.
Those things were pretty fierce; a few team members fired thousands of rounds in total.
Using exoskeletons’ high mobility, they dragged out the fight with the low-level aberration and ended the battle in half an hour.
Previously, special task forces or border guards needed several hours to deal with a single low-level aberration, even in open, spacious suburban areas suitable for combat.
The Defeated Team only took half an hour—that was already very impressive combat power.
They even brought a cameraman to film and record videos, apparently intending to use them for publicity.
They also filmed Huan Hong watching the fight from the sky, implying that the magical girls had been driven away and this was a victory for the Human Alliance.
They had both dealt with the aberrations and dealt a blow to the arrogance of the magical girls.
The Cross-Border Aberration Annihilation Operation still intended to continue, and the Defeated Team was clearly showing off their strength, trying to restore human trust in the Human Alliance.
However, they couldn’t continue their performance—the third aberration was dealt with by Jin Luan.
In the chat group of the Jin-Yin-Hong sisters, Huan Hong was complaining about how hard it was to be a magical girl—having to deal with aberrations and also guard against the Human Alliance.
Seeing her messages, Yin Lin couldn’t help but laugh.
That smile suddenly froze.
At that moment, she sensed a mana signature belonging to an aberration.
“Store Manager, I have something to do. I’m leaving early today.” She grabbed her dual staff and left.
Even other customers were curious—this was Yao Ruoning’s first time leaving work early on her shift.
Suddenly, they noticed that Xiao Yao’s Daily Uniform was still left behind.
The manager chased after her to give it back but looked around and saw no one.
In just a few seconds, Xiao Yao had vanished without a trace.
The manager had no choice but to put the Daily Uniform back in the shop.
At this moment, Yin Lin was already flying at about 200 kilometers per hour—the fastest speed she could sustain without breaking down.
Her hands gripped the staff tightly.
The wind resistance pushed her backward, rubbing her palms against the staff until they bled.
After flying for half a minute, she started losing strength.
She landed on a rooftop, quickly canceled her transformation, then transformed back into a magical girl and put on her uniform again.
She took off once more, flying toward the increasingly distinct aberration location, slightly reducing her speed this time to avoid overexertion.
At the same time, she opened a shield and began charging her power, stabilizing it at 5% without continuing to charge further.
She still preferred to use the mana cannon she was most accustomed to.
She soon arrived near her destination—only four kilometers from the milk tea shop.
This was a moderately crowded street with a small landmark nearby, a relatively new shopping mall.
The aberration’s aura Yin Lin sensed was underground.
That aura was different from low-, mid-, or high-level aberrations.
Not only was the mana signature extremely faint, but its characteristics were also very strange.
It required a very high level of perception to detect this aberration.
By reverse inference, she knew that whatever was underground was definitely something odd.
Yin Lin jumped directly from the sky, free-falling and smashing hard onto the ground, cracking the surface and leaving craters.
Protected by her shield, she was unharmed.
The huge noise attracted the attention of all nearby citizens.
“Look, it’s a magical girl.”
“Yin Lin! It’s really Yin Lin!”
“Post this on Weibo!”
Yin Lin got up from the ground and shouted at the top of her lungs, “There’s an aberration! Run!”
At her words, everyone scattered in a frenzy, but not too far—they still wanted to watch the show.
Yin Lin flew low, shouting all the way as she headed toward the shopping mall not far away.
Going through the main entrance was too slow and lacked impact, so she tried to crash through the tempered glass to make a big scene.
But her weight was too light; the impact wasn’t strong enough.
When she hit the glass, it made a dull sound and only showed faint cracks without shattering.
She then fell back to the ground again.