“This child is injured, I’m taking her to the hospital!”
“Eh? Let me use healing magic—”
“No need. She’s ill, not something you can heal. I’ll leave things here to you!”
Luo You hurriedly dragged Xue away.
Now that she had established considerable authority, no one doubted her actions.
Then, Xue was taken by Luo You into a deserted grove, ready for a thorough and satisfying beating.
“Stop!”
Xue raised her hand to halt her, speaking righteously, “I didn’t do anything wrong! I just went out to buy a Cola, who did I provoke?”
“Your attitude is the problem!”
In the end, she still couldn’t avoid getting a few knocks on the head.
Luo You was helpless; after all, she was the one who gave Xue permission to go out.
Don’t be fooled by this girl’s silly look—she actually had common sense, at least for most things.
“Are you sure you didn’t do anything out of line?”
“Didn’t do anything!”
“Good. For the next month, don’t go out. Lay low for a while!”
Xue’s identity was special, and yet she still got dragged into this kind of incident.
If anyone caught onto her, it’d be a disaster.
Maybe they’d even uncover her true identity.
“What about my Cola?”
“You killed a Bajie and still can’t shop online? Did you really have to go out to buy it?”
“…Right.”
Does she really have any common sense?
Luo You couldn’t help but wonder.
***
Next to the Huahai Entertainment Center.
“Today, Huahai City’s Qianhuo Mall suffered a terrorist attack, resulting in 133 casualties, with the exact number still being counted. Among the attackers were Fusion Warriors. When our people attempted to rescue the hostages, the enemy’s Fusion Warriors suddenly went out of control, causing nearly all thirty hostages to be killed. This major security incident—”
“It’s worth mentioning that our city’s Magical Girl, Jinlin, turned the tide during this disaster. When there was no one left to deal with the rampaging Fusion Warriors, she successfully defeated the target. She also raised doubts about this terrorist attack, suspecting that it was a conspiracy aimed at Magical Girls…”
The news reporter’s voice echoed in the silent room from the television, each word as clear as a death sentence.
“The plan failed, huh.”
The young man still stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, smoking a cigar and blowing smoke rings.
But this time, it was clearly the real deal.
“Jinlin… looks like I misjudged her. This Magical Girl isn’t easy to handle at all.”
“Shouldn’t it just be coincidence? Maybe she really did arrive late.”
The middle-aged man with glasses behind him spoke up.
“No, it wasn’t coincidence.”
The young man exhaled a smoke ring onto the glass.
“This incident was orchestrated for Jinlin. She was the one who should have arrived first, but ended up late. Even though we managed to stall the SWAT team, she happened to show up just after them, clearing herself of all suspicion. And what was the result? Not only did we fail to frame her, she also saved people, defeated the out-of-control Fusion Warriors, and gained a reputation. All the benefits went to her alone.”
“This kind of player-takes-all move—I refuse to believe it was a coincidence!”
Bang.
The young man slammed the expensive cigar, bought with real gold and silver, onto the table.
Clearly, he wasn’t as calm as he’d appeared earlier.
“If you watched the live broadcast, you’d know—she voiced her doubts about the terrorist attack right on camera. It’s obvious she knows something!”
“And as far as I know, when the government’s Fusion Warrior squad went in, everyone stationed on the third floor had their limbs cut off and were tortured. I suspect Jinlin arrived much earlier, got information out of those three, and everything that happened after was under her control!”
The middle-aged man with glasses frowned.
“Would a Magical Girl do something like cutting off limbs and torture? Even Manjusaka wouldn’t go that far, right?”
“Who knows? Manjusaka already broke the bottom line for Magical Girls. It’s not surprising if someone even more extreme appears!”
“So what do we do? Jinlin caught on too fast this time, and Manjusaka will probably be on guard as well. It’s basically impossible to succeed now.”
They had hoped to get results on both fronts, but ended up failing at both.
The two of them would inevitably be held accountable.
“This was only a test. There’s more to come. The Order will handle it.”
The young man was unconcerned. No one expected to overturn the Magical Girls’ situation in one go and revert it back to what it was over a decade ago.
“What I care more about is that, among the thirty hostages this time, there were actually survivors.”
Those three rampaging Fusion Warriors were their handiwork.
They deliberately used imperfectly modified Fusion Warriors.
When the Jingwei Squad came to rescue the hostages, highly concentrated Boundary Sea matter, compressed inside the battle suits, was instantly injected into them, sending them into a total rampage.
During this process, some of the high-concentration Boundary Sea matter would leak out—hardly even Magical Girls could escape unscathed.
The plan was not only to frame Jinlin but also to see if they could take her out in the process.
If Jinlin didn’t show up, then all the hostages should have died anyway.
However, according to what he’d heard, there were survivors at the scene—more than one, in fact.
“Interesting. That high-concentration Boundary Sea matter was extracted from a near dragon-level dimensional beast. Anyone contaminated should have died. Even the Jingwei Squad members were pushed to the brink and chose suicide. How did those ordinary people survive?”
The young man stroked his chin with interest.
Maybe, among those survivors, someone had emperor-level potential for becoming a Fusion Warrior… Pfft! Anyone who believes that is an idiot!
But he was sure at least one person there had emperor-level potential.
Maybe that person absorbed all the Boundary Sea matter, letting those nearby survive by chance.
“Alright… Let me investigate this…”
The young man revealed a ferocious grin.
***
At the border of a certain country on the Eurasian continent.
Manjusaka, traveling incognito, suddenly stopped near her target location.
Her eyes opened wide.
“So that’s how it is… resorting to such tricks—how utterly unscrupulous.”
Her eyes seemed able to see through all obstacles, straight to the essence of things, instantly grasping the enemy’s plot.
Retreat? Impossible.
“Since you’ve laid out a Hongmen Banquet, you can perform as clowns for me.”
Manjusaka elegantly waved her hand.
Everywhere her gaze passed, she saw things far beyond the ordinary.
Moments later—
A huge explosion erupted in a skyscraper in this area.
As if prearranged, the media immediately flooded the scene with news, all of it slandering Manjusaka—claiming she had been captured across national borders and caused dozens of civilian deaths.
Within two hours, the whole world knew of the incident.
And just as the news was spreading—
Inside a certain branch of the Magic Alliance, Xingyue opened her eyes.
“Looks like some people just can’t wait any longer.”
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