Song Wuli was easily satisfied for the time being; a few worthless trophies were enough to send him on his way.
He recalled how he had initially rejected his identity as a magical girl, then tentatively used his magical girl powers to do some things he wanted to do, leading to the bet with the Goddess of Contract. Now, he didn’t even reject the identity that much anymore—he had even begun to accept it.
He had a growing feeling that he was going to lose the One-Year Bet with the Goddess of Contract.
Old Song stared at the trophies and let out a foolish grin.
Then came the bath and drying his hair.
As he looked at the familiar face of the old man in the mirror, wearing a look of happiness, he suddenly remembered something. His expression instantly turned solemn.
Wait, it hadn’t even been three months and he had already fallen as a magical girl. So why was the bet set for one year?
Even though Song Wuli wasn’t exactly the smartest type of person, he once again noticed that something was off.
Logically speaking, he had already lost by now. Therefore, the Goddess of Contract should have just set the bet for three months.
Why was it one year?
Just why?
Old Song scratched his head in thought. He scratched his head from the bathroom to the hall, and from the hall to the bedroom. His brain felt itchy, yet he still couldn’t figure out the reason.
He wanted to ask someone smart, but among the people he knew, only Huang Yi could tentatively earn his approval.
However, he couldn’t tell that semi-outsider about the contents of his deal with the Goddess of Contract.
While eating his late-night snack, he continued to ponder the issue of the One-Year Bet.
It was a simple snack: white rice and two fried eggs.
He ate the whites first, then the yolks.
Staring at the remaining yolks, certain hypotheses surfaced in his mind.
If he looked at the Goddess of Contract’s bet as a whole fried egg, then his fall over these past three months was like eating the egg whites.
In other words, during the remaining time, something even more important than these first three months would occur.
It was like the egg yolk, which was more prominent and vibrant than the egg white.
Without the egg white, the yolk alone could not take shape; conversely, without the yolk, the egg white could not take form either.
Old Song was very satisfied with the new philosophy he had realized, and then he ate the egg yolk in one bite.
Over the next three days, he continued to go to work according to his routine. He didn’t transform again, nor did he do anything special.
Jinluan and Wanhong began patrolling together again. These past few days, they hadn’t encountered Luye, and things were unexpectedly peaceful.
They suspected that Luye might know it was a trap and was intentionally staying hidden.
However, Jinluan decided to continue the act. Even if it was a trap, she believed Luye would eventually bite the hook.
As for the Eastern Alliance, they spent these three days still dealing with the portal incident, which had reached a very critical juncture.
According to Huang Yi, the Acting Person-in-Charge of the [Countermeasure Center] was planning something big—something so big it might just get Yiri City killed.
The number of portals discovered had increased from 11 to 17, and some of them had not yet been dismantled.
Why hadn’t they been dismantled? Aside from some being kept in research institutes for investigation, other portals were being used as chess pieces. The Acting Person-in-Charge wanted to publicize the dismantling process and invite the citizens to watch.
It felt a bit like the public executions of criminals in old movies. By setting a specific time, it was essentially forcing the enemy to raid the execution grounds.
This plan had been evaluated by experts who believed it might endanger the citizens and even plunge Yiri City into great peril.
But at the same time, they believed the enemy likely wouldn’t be able to resist. This plan had the highest probability of luring the enemy to the surface. If there truly were high-intelligence enemies involved, this would be a very blunt fishing operation.
The Acting Person-in-Charge’s dangerous proposal was sent to the Eastern Alliance. After a day-long meeting, it passed.
It was then sent to the Human Alliance. After two days of meetings, it passed there as well.
This had happened a few days ago, and implementation had already begun.
Song Wuli thought for a long time but couldn’t completely wrap his head around the complexities of it all.
That day, he received an official mass text message. It stated that they had discovered the Totem of the Strange Demons—something the Strange Demons used to boost morale and served as their object of faith.
The Eastern Alliance prepared to destroy the Strange Demons’ faith in public. The specific time was set for tomorrow at 12:00 PM, and all citizens were welcome to watch.
Huang Yi acted as a narrator, telling the backstory to Yinlin without saying much else.
But everyone knew exactly what was going on. This was to get the magical girls to maintain public order and hold down the fort.
Presumably, these words were also spoken to Jinluan and Wanhong, aiming to lure all three sisters—Gold, Silver, and Red—to come and help.
Huang Yi certainly knew how to put people to work.
By the afternoon, aerial reconnaissance photos also appeared in the group chat for the three sisters.
They had arrived at the ‘execution site’ early and discovered that seven portals had been gathered together. They were placed in Yiri City’s Yiri Square, the largest and most iconic landmark square in the city.
A massive number of soldiers stood guard, and even members of the Special Task Force were permanently stationed there. Many drones were released at the scene, as the Eastern Alliance monitored the entire square from every angle.
Even Jinluan and Wanhong’s aerial reconnaissance was discovered by their drones.
The Eastern Alliance was serious about their security this time; they weren’t playing around.
Jinluan and Wanhong also looked at the deployments in other parts of the city. They found soldiers guarding many main thoroughfares. All of Yiri City’s armed forces had been deployed, and even public security personnel had to work overtime to guard several roads.
It truly felt like a final showdown with the Strange Demons was imminent. Furthermore, it was a home field actively created by humans, forcing the enemy into a decisive battle.
It felt like these humans were becoming somewhat boundlessly arrogant.
After receiving the messages from Jinluan and Wanhong, Song Wuli went to find Huang Yi to further understand the situation.
Silver Lin: [Didn’t you say… the portal incident was basically over? That the enemy wouldn’t show their face? Why has this come up now?]
Huang Yi was also quite helpless regarding this. His opinion was actually to finish the portal incident in a normal way—meaning they would destroy each portal as they investigated it, eventually leaving only a few for research.
But he didn’t have enough authority. The officials did not adopt his plan, choosing instead to follow the Acting Person-in-Charge’s plan.
They believed that the act of collectively and publicly destroying the portals could force the high-intelligence enemy behind the scenes to surface.
Silver Lin: [Uncle, what if the so-called high-intelligence enemy really appears? What if the worst-case scenario happens, and the enemy is pushed to desperation, and all the portals are activated?]
Huang Yi: [At that time, I’ll have to rely on you, Miss Yinlin.]
Huang Yi: [By the way, those were the words of those people.]
I see. So everything was related to Yinlin.
If Yinlin didn’t exist in Yiri City, the Eastern Alliance would have adopted Huang Yi’s advice to quietly handle the portals that threatened human safety, rather than provoking the enemy.
Since Yiri City had a magical girl like Yinlin, whose destructive power was at the absolute peak, they naturally intended to utilize her to the fullest. They didn’t care even if they used aggressive methods to force the enemy out; after all, they had Yinlin to clean up the mess.
It was quite literally a plan that was gambling the National Fortune.
Silver Lin: [Then I can use my magic cannon, right?]
Huang Yi: [Yes. This time, as long as you don’t blow up the Eastern Alliance headquarters, you can blast anywhere you want in Yiri City.]
Silver Lin: [What about the Special Task Force and the Failure Squad?]
Huang Yi: [They have been given absolute orders. They are forbidden from attacking you tomorrow.]
Silver Lin: [What about Luye? Luye poses a very serious threat to us.]
Huang Yi: [The preliminary orders currently issued are to block, interfere with, or capture Luye. Do you have other ideas?]
Song Wuli contemplated for a long time.
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