The night had passed.
This planet, patched and repaired with countless fixes, had spun once more on its axis. In one region on its surface, an apparently ordinary city was starting another uneventful day.
In the city, a typical family of three sat eating breakfast, watching the morning news on TV, which was covering the events of the previous night.
A high-level Demonic Entity attacked the city, but thanks to the timely discovery and proper handling by the Eastern Union, a worsening of the situation was avoided.
“Mom, Mom, those are the marks left by Magical Girl Yinlin’s new magic attack,” the child said, pointing at the TV with a spoon.
“No, that’s from our human artillery shells,” the mother replied, patting the child’s head. “Hurry and eat your breakfast, or you’ll be late.”
“No, Mom, the holes from artillery are huge!” The child gestured excitedly, then made a long pole gesture: “Magical Girl Yinlin’s latest magic can make a really long little hole in the wall!”
“Heh.” The father couldn’t help but chuckle, watching the TV. “Look, even kids can’t be fooled.”
In the subway, children and office workers squeezed together.
Groups of students huddled, scrolling through news on their phones, watching reports from the scene and aerial footage from drones, witnessing the destructive power of the Demonic Entity.
A portion of the Pedestrian Street was damaged, with several stores destroyed.
A few employees were being interviewed, animatedly recounting what they’d seen the night before—until, apparently, something was said that got the audio muted.
“The official channel’s muted—no interview sound. Quick, switch to the local station, they have the interview audio,” some students whispered, passing the info along.
Immediately, they switched to another live channel, tuning in to another TV station’s news.
This station wasn’t muted, so they finally heard what the interview was about: Magical Girl Yinlin battling the high-level Demonic Entity.
“Oh my goodness, let me tell you how terrifying it was last night! That Demonic Entity could fly and burrow, leaving blood everywhere it went—it was horrible. Then that Magical Girl… swooped in, and with a single punch, sent that Demonic Entity flying!”
Reporter Yuwenbo held the microphone and asked, “To confirm, was it Magical Girl Yinlin?”
The interviewee replied, “Yeah, yeah, the little girl with silver hair.”
The students watching the news burst into laughter, discussing: [She sent the Demonic Entity flying with one punch?]
[If Yinlin had that kind of power, would she need to keep her distance every time?]
[That uncle cracked me up.]
Reporter Yuwenbo: “Isn’t Magical Girl Yinlin more of a ranged type? You saw her send the Demonic Entity flying with a punch… Can you describe exactly what you saw?”
“Huh? Ranged?” The interviewee thought for a moment. “Oh, maybe I remembered wrong. I saw that little girl throw something from the sky, and it knocked the Demonic Entity down—amazing!”
At school, teachers preparing for their lessons had all arrived early.
The sickly PE teacher jogged slowly around the track, earphones in one ear, listening to the news.
Some independent media and old acquaintances had also arrived.
“Hey family, I’m here on the scene again.” The sound of Liang Tai came through the earphones.
“Although I just started streaming, I’ve actually been here for a while now.”
“Thanks to Boss, Xiyan Player Y, and 32 others… let me check.”
“Thanks to Yi Wang Sheng Lai Shi, Divie, and Yinfeng’s Little Whip for the tips.”
“Let me look at the comments.”
“Was this Yinlin’s doing?”
“Probably. Let’s send the drone up and have a look at the scene.”
“Look—holes in the wall, holes in the ground—familiar, isn’t it?”
“No doubt about it, it’s Yinlin. She’s a real BOSS slayer. You know, in our city, it used to be a huge struggle to take down even a mid-level Demonic Entity, let alone a high-level one…”
“As everyone knows, it used to take days—curfews, lockdowns, nobody allowed out.”
“Praise Yinlin, right? No, we should praise the Magical Girl.”
A scene of peace and tranquility.
The city kept running as usual. Demonic Entities always found ways to break through the Human Alliance’s defenses and enter the city, and Magical Girls always seemed to appear just in time to deal with the havoc-wreaking Demonic Entities.
A strange balance was maintained.
Of course, this was really just Survivorship Bias. Those places where Magical Girls didn’t show up in time, or where Magical Girls and the Human Alliance were defeated, had already become history forever.
People began another day.
A familiar company, the planning team for the “Sparrow Chess” project.
“Morning, Liu.”
“Morning, Zhao.”
“Morning, Xiao Chang.”
“Morning, Cheng.”
“Sigh, morning, Qian.”
“Morning, guys.”
The air in Copywriting Team Two was filled with a cheerful mood. After clocking in, no one rushed to work. They wandered around their section, chatting about the high-level Demonic Entity incident.
They’d barely said a few words before Huang Yijun, now assistant to the director, showed up.
“Brothers, talking about Yinlin without me?” he said, joining in.
“Morning, Huang,” the younger ones greeted him.
Huang Yijun waved back, then steered the topic, “You all heard about what happened yesterday? Another high-level Demonic Entity showed up.”
“I saw the news as soon as I woke up—so scary, another high-level one.”
“I was in even more danger—it was near my home. I got an alert on my phone to evacuate. I’m still not fully awake, kinda tired.”
“Did you see anything?”
“I didn’t see anything, but I was nervous the whole time, worried Yinlin would blow up our place.”
“By the way, where’s Old Song?” Huang Yijun looked around and checked his phone for the time. “He should be here by now, right?”
“No idea. Haven’t seen Team Leader Song.”
Huang Yijun asked again, “What about that out-of-district person?”
“Greta? Haven’t seen her.”
It was just a casual question, no special reason.
They kept chatting, their curiosity about last night’s battle growing.
Work time arrived, but Song Wuli still hadn’t shown up.
That’s when Huang Yijun started feeling uneasy. He asked the supervisor and finally learned that Song Wuli had taken leave—just ten minutes ago.
What’s going on? Old Song took leave again?
Didn’t he already use up all his annual leave this year? Still taking days off? That’s not like Old Song at all.
He hurriedly sent a message to Song Wuli, asking why he’d taken leave. As a good friend, he was genuinely concerned.
No reply.
Half an hour later, still worried, he called—no answer, straight to voicemail.
He quickly checked with the supervisor again and got the reason: leave for research and study.
Huh? Research and study? What kind of reason is that?
Later, the supervisor found a free moment and explained the details.
Since becoming team leader, Song Wuli felt his knowledge wasn’t enough for the job and wanted to study more to improve himself.
So he planned to take a few days off to walk around the city, learn, and collect material.
As for daily tasks in Copywriting Team Two, he would handle them through remote work.
Given Old Song’s years of excellent work, the supervisor thought it over and agreed, but warned that taking leave like this too often wouldn’t do.
I want read this less and less with each chapters, it begun so well, and author just had to dumb down the MC in this part. With all the test already made on changing element and all, so many things the MC could have done but didn’t in the last part