The Failure Squad is on the move. If they can’t beat the Aberrations, surely they can handle a Magical Girl?
This is the first time the Failure Squad has ever deployed because of a Magical Girl.
Since their opponent was the exceptionally agile Golden Luan, the Failure Squad requisitioned a Helicopter.
And because it’s well-known that Magical Girls generally avoid attacking official personnel and tend to hold back, the Helicopter was mostly loaded with offensive equipment rather than defensive gear.
It looked pretty shameless—so much so that even the Helicopter pilots were a little embarrassed, deliberately slowing down and flying more sluggishly than usual.
The battle outside the city was still raging on. Golden Luan hadn’t reached her limit yet and felt she could keep going.
Before long, she spotted another solitary Aberration, gnawing on the corpse of its own kind.
It was just a low-level Aberration.
Golden Luan did what she always did: she Enchanted her weapon—again overloading it and paying extra mana as the price.
She landed on the ground and charged in with her legs, refusing to use Blink Step.
She thought relying on Blink Step was a bad habit. Blink Step was her core skill; it let her rush to a nearby location with unfathomable speed—a charge, not teleportation—allowing her to ignore certain physical laws.
It was a skill she took great pride in, but she always resisted using it. She didn’t like relying on it for every little thing.
If she used Blink Step, it’d only take a few seconds to deal with a low-level Aberration.
Golden Luan gritted her teeth, fighting off the urge in her mind, and continued sprinting on foot.
The low-level Aberration dropped its meat and roared, charging toward Golden Luan.
Golden Luan treated it as a sparring partner, weaving left and right. After a minute of combat, she’d left two sword wounds on the low-level Aberration.
They were light wounds, not fatal.
The Aberration’s fists grazed Golden Luan’s body several times—so close that she was almost hit.
Golden Luan clenched her teeth, determined not to use Blink Step, wanting to strengthen her legs.
They fought for over two minutes. When the three Aberrations she’d shaken off earlier closed in again, Golden Luan finally couldn’t help herself and used Blink Step, instantly slaying the low-level Aberration.
Then, with another Blink Step, she turned and instantly killed the low-level Aberration among the three that had followed her.
Even after killing the Aberrations, Golden Luan felt uncomfortable—she had relied on Blink Step again.
She’d intended to shake off her dependence on Blink Step, but without it, she couldn’t even quickly take care of a low-level Aberration.
Is her Aberration-killing efficiency really that much worse than Silver Lynn’s?
When Silver Lynn fought low-level Aberrations, she could kill one in the blink of an eye. Even if a mid-level Aberration appeared, it was still a one-shot kill.
Even high-level Aberrations and officer-class Aberrations couldn’t withstand a single fully-charged mana cannon from her.
It was hard to imagine she was a rookie Magical Girl who’d debuted barely two months ago. Her style was so seasoned that she didn’t seem like a kid at all, nor like a new Magical Girl.
Golden Luan clenched her fists again, staring at the two roaring mid-level Aberrations at her feet.
In the end, she decided to use Blink Step. While being attacked from both sides by the two Aberrations, she used four Blink Steps to seriously wound one of the mid-level Aberrations.
After a bit more fighting, she finally managed to finish it off, exhausted and gasping for breath.
Staring at the remaining mid-level Aberration, Golden Luan steeled herself—not using Blink Step—determined to challenge her own limits by defeating the Aberration with only her legs, relying solely on her own body.
She had to break free from her dependence on Blink Step!
At this point, Huang Yi already knew what was happening here. The border Soldiers had tried to persuade Golden Luan, but she wouldn’t listen and went outside the city on her own.
Of course, the Soldiers reported this, so both the Failure Squad and Huang Yi found out.
Watching the drone footage, Huang Yi understood what this girl was feeling inside.
She was refusing to give in, spurred on by Silver Lynn.
As the boss of Tomorrow City, Golden Luan had her pride. She didn’t want to lose to the less-experienced Silver Lynn.
Though she could easily defeat Silver Lynn in a fight, when it came to dealing with Aberrations, Golden Luan lagged far behind her.
She wanted to surpass others in every way—she didn’t want to lose to Silver Lynn in this aspect.
That was the experts’ analysis, and Huang Yi accepted it.
Looking at the exhausted, gasping, golden-haired girl, Huang Yi tried to contact her multiple times, but couldn’t get through.
Golden Luan would hang up as soon as she saw the Phone Number, focusing all her attention on the mid-level Aberration.
Seeing this, Huang Yi had no choice but to contact Silver Lynn instead. Right now, only Silver Lynn might be able to help Golden Luan resolve her issues.
Song Wuli was still working when he got the text. Greta had requested leave, saying she had something to do and might be gone for several hours.
Song Wuli approved it—he had no reason to refuse.
Greta had been handling a hefty workload lately. She worked diligently and eagerly, always eager to learn and improve.
With such a diligent workhorse, Song Wuli had no reason not to make things easier for her.
Greta was truly grateful to this kind-hearted man.
After taking a break from work, Old Song checked his phone and finally saw Huang Yi’s message. He found the contents a bit baffling.
It said, if Silver Lynn had free time, she should go chat with Golden Luan—ideally take a walk or do something fun together.
The wording felt odd—wasn’t it usually Golden Luan who accompanied Silver Lynn to relax? But here, it was Silver Lynn being asked to accompany Golden Luan.
That didn’t seem right, did it?
Wasn’t Silver Lynn the victim these past few days? Yet judging from Huang Yi’s words, it was Golden Luan who now had a psychological issue?
He quickly checked the group chat of the Golden, Silver, and Crimson sisters. Everything was normal—nothing was amiss.
Crimson was still working out, occasionally posting photos to the group chat. She was very active.
Golden Luan, on the other hand, hadn’t said much—who knew where she’d gone.
Suddenly, Crimson posted more photos, apparently taken by someone else. One was of a Helicopter; inside, members of the Failure Squad could be seen.
Crimson muttered to herself for a while, guessing that Aberrations might have appeared, and said she wanted to go take a look.
Song Wuli typed out a few words telling her not to go.
He simply didn’t think much of Crimson’s abilities—nothing more. This little sister was too weak.
If she went to tail the Failure Squad, wouldn’t that be suicide? The Failure Squad had a lot of advanced weapons, and there was even a batch of new sensors about to be delivered to Tomorrow City.
Crimson might really get herself killed by the Failure Squad. Their standard was a cut above the Special Task Force.
She might be used to bullying the Special Task Force, but that didn’t mean she could bully the Failure Squad.
But Old Song’s words only made Crimson more rebellious. You look down on me? Then I’ll go anyway.
Ah, children will be children. Does she really think the Failure Squad is just eating rice, that they can’t handle a Magical Girl if they can’t handle Aberrations?
Encouragement.
Whatever.
His phone buzzed again with another message from Huang Yi, explaining the situation once more.
He said the Failure Squad was about to set out to capture Golden Luan, and that right now, Golden Luan was in a bad mental state and needed Silver Lynn’s help.
Oh, so that’s what was going on—no wonder Huang Yi was acting strange today.
But what did this have to do with Silver Lynn? Back when Silver Lynn wasn’t around, didn’t Golden Luan and Crimson get by just fine in Tomorrow City?
Thinking this, Song Wuli decided not to go. At most, he’d send Golden Luan a private message for some awkward small talk.
[What’s Big Sis doing?][Crying alone in a corner?][You’re not working out like Crimson, are you?][Are you all chasing a goal you’ll never reach?]
So awkward—even a 34-year-old man trying to act cute couldn’t stand himself.