Badge?
Are they talking about the badge that Biscuit Boy gave me when he begged for mercy?
Why is there suddenly news about it?
Song Wuli immediately perked up, wanting to ask on his phone, but worried about leaking information.
Huang Yi was like this, and so was Jin Luan—they insisted on meeting in person, so they must have their reasons.
But… what about work? He had already taken too many days off recently. If he kept this up, wouldn’t it be bad?
Chang Yong suddenly sent a message and submitted a draft.
Chang Yong: [Leader Song, can you take a look and see if there are any problems? I keep feeling like it’s not good enough.]
Seeing the title, Song Wuli was jolted awake. He was a team leader now, half management, able to do things others couldn’t.
So, he quickly contacted his supervisor, saying he had to go out and gather material again, that he’d heard of a folk story somewhere and wanted to listen, maybe use it for work.
The excuse was flimsy—his supervisor probably hesitated, taking a long time to reply.
Meanwhile, Song Wuli looked over Chang Yong’s draft and left some revision notes.
Finally, his supervisor replied after a brief exchange: Couldn’t you just look into this after work? Or check online, why do you have to investigate in person?
It seemed his supervisor was still a bit displeased about Song Wuli’s frequent leave.
Thinking about that crucial badge, Song Wuli gritted his teeth and kept chatting with his supervisor.
In the end, he got approval—though his supervisor’s dissatisfaction probably deepened.
Old Song hurriedly left the workspace, intending to transform and go find Jin Luan.
Then he suddenly remembered something—this city still had that covetous Magical Girl lurking around. He quickly turned back to grab his bag and took along his self-defense tools.
As a Magical Girl with formidable strength and firepower, carrying such things was a bit embarrassing.
But he saw himself as more human for now, so it was reasonable to carry self-defense gear.
After transforming, he slung on his backpack and headed out toward the outskirts.
Since he wasn’t in a hurry, he used a wind barrier to block the breeze and flew leisurely at 100km/h.
On the way, he scrolled through his phone, watching Liang Tai’s livestream, and even switched over to Yu Wubo’s TV station—no big issues were found.
In Liang Tai’s stream, he vaguely mentioned seeing a helicopter dispatched, with members of the failed squad on board, carrying capture weapons.
No idea where they were going, but nothing was seen inside the city.
Yin Lin remembered this detail and grew more cautious.
While flying, she deliberately climbed higher—above the clouds, it was peaceful, and if there was a helicopter, she’d hear it from far away.
Taking the detour wasted some time, but she wasn’t worried about making Jin Luan wait.
Anyway, Jin Luan hadn’t urged her—no new messages had come in.
A trip that should’ve taken 40 minutes, thanks to her detour, took a full hour before she got close.
From afar, she sensed a magical energy source, very much like what Jin Luan’s Magical Girl uniform would emit.
She focused her senses—there really were no other magic signatures in the area, neither demon nor any other Magical Girl besides Jin Luan.
If someone within 3 kilometers wore a Magical Girl uniform, she could easily sense it.
If a low-level demon was within 5 kilometers, she’d sense it easily as well.
If a Magical Girl or demon used magic of over 100 units within 10 kilometers, she’d sense that too.
These were rough measurements she’d gotten in her more than two months since debut—not completely accurate, maybe off by about 100%.
All in all, there was only one Magical Girl uniform’s aura nearby, so it was most likely Jin Luan.
She descended and saw that the Rescue Site below was a small grove of trees.
Strange—what needed to be discussed in a grove on the outskirts?
But it was understandable; it was easy to be spotted or filmed in the city during the day, and someone could even lip-read them. There must be experts in the Human Alliance for that.
Normally, being seen chatting wasn’t a problem, but if it was something crucial, Jin Luan probably didn’t want outsiders to know. Yin Lin had already filled in a reasonable explanation in her mind.
She didn’t see any helicopters or humans around—should be safe here, right?
She hovered four or five meters above the ground, perching on the treetops as if sitting on slender branches.
She had two reasons for not going down—not that she’d seen through a trap, but she wanted to look down on Jin Luan from above, gaining a bit of a height advantage.
Another small reason was that she didn’t want to get too close to Jin Luan in an isolated grove—felt like she’d get stuck together.
“Hey, I’m here. Just say whatever you have to say.” Yin Lin’s tone sounded impatient.
Of course, she was just acting—she was actually quite patient, very concerned about Jin Luan’s investigation results.
There was no reply from below, only some muffled, strange noises.
It sounded like something from an unhealthy film, and some indecent images popped into her mind, sirens going off as she realized something.
“I’ll count to three—if you don’t speak, I’m leaving… 3!”
She was gone as soon as she finished, without hesitation, sensing something was wrong. Her magic shield instantly snapped into place.
A very familiar whip suddenly lashed toward her, but Yin Lin, already on guard, dodged it.
So it really was Lǜ Ye up to no good. No wonder her indecent image sensor reacted—she’d almost become a lewd picture herself.
She gained altitude again, retreating to fifty meters away.
A strong wind gusted, making the trees below sway, revealing what was happening beneath.
Huan Hong had been changed into civilian clothes—her Magical Girl uniform was gone somewhere—and she was handcuffed, caught.
Jin Luan was in her Magical Girl uniform, also handcuffed, her arms twisted behind her back, tied to Huan Hong, back to back.
Lǜ Ye, meanwhile, wore normal clothes, without any magical aura.
Clearly, she’d deliberately concealed her magical signature to target Yin Lin.
To evade Yin Lin’s powerful detection, she couldn’t carry anything that emitted magic—so even the full set of uniform gifted after transformation couldn’t be used, nor could she use any magic requiring magical power.
The magic wand, though, was allowed.
Lǜ Ye knew some of the habits of Magical Girls—most rookies shared a weakness: a soft heart.
Just because they could overcome the psychological barrier to killing demons didn’t mean they could overcome the barrier to killing humans or other Magical Girls.
She’d already tested it a few days ago—Yin Lin didn’t dare use the Heaven-Splitting Spear to kill Lǜ Ye. For whatever reason, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
So, Lǜ Ye didn’t need to wear a Magical Girl uniform. She could fight Yin Lin in regular clothes with no problem.
She was taking advantage of a teenage girl’s inherent weakness—softness.
What’s more, these Magical Girls had bonds and friendships—like the protagonists of hot-blooded shounen stories, where friendship and bonds outweighed everything.
“Surrender now, or I’ll kill them.” LÇœ Ye gripped Huan Hong’s throat, using her as a hostage.
“Uh… Suit yourself, bye.” Without looking back, Yin Lin flew off.
Huh? What happened to the friendship and bonds between Magical Girls?