Yin Lin waited by the safety gate of the subway for a moment, still fiddling with her headset.
‘I’ll wait here by the safety gate one last time to see if there’s anyone on the other end,’ she thought. ‘If there is, I can talk to them; there’s still time to head back to the forest farm. If they won’t talk, then I’m leaving.’
In this era, the land had been occupied by monsters, leaving little room for human activity. Because they couldn’t set up cellular network base stations outside, the technology tree had branched into satellite communication and other similar technologies. Even the mobile phones used for daily life could utilize satellite communication while on the surface of the Earth.
There was a signal inside the subway as well, as most places had signal relays.
Yin Lin wasn’t worried about the signal; she simply wanted to see if the loser on the other side wanted to try and make her stay. She could feel that someone was on the other end of the headset, but they didn’t speak, only listened quietly.
“If you don’t say anything, I’m leaving,” she said again. “You want my life, but you don’t even dare to speak?”
She began to taunt the person on the other side.
There was still no response, so she continued, “Could the Star Summoning Society be even worse than us teenage magical girls? We dare to show our faces in the light of day, yet the Star Summoning Society doesn’t even dare to show a face? And you still want to oppose us magical girls? Are you even worthy? We have the support of the citizens behind us — what do you have behind you? When we fight others, we get applause and cheers. What do you get?”
“Don’t tell me your childhood dream was to be a villain? Did you think you were following the script of Homelander and One Punch Garou? There aren’t actually people over 18 who still dream of destroying the world, are there? No way, right? No way?”
She was starting to get addicted to the rant.
Yin Lin exchanged a look with Green Field. Green Field couldn’t take it anymore and said, “What is that saying you Easterners use? Something about a hook being straight… even I can see what you’re doing.”
Although Yin Lin’s intention was obvious, the real world was a strange place.
In books, if one person challenges another to a duel, the other person obviously knows it’s a duel and might refuse. But in the real world, if Person A suddenly curses Person B on the street, calling them an idiot, how many people can resist that modern version of a challenge?
Person B would undoubtedly roll up their sleeves and throw a flurry of punches.
Yin Lin hadn’t actually thought that much about it; she was just taunting them because they couldn’t do anything to her anyway. Fishing for them while cursing them was just a side benefit.
What she didn’t expect was that her trash-talking actually caused some problems.
She sensed some unusual mana. “Run!”
Green Field’s reaction was also very fast. She ducked through the safety gate, took flight, and sped down the stairs. They had barely covered 30 meters when a massive surge of magic drew closer and closer.
*Boom…* A loud explosion echoed.
The safety gate took a direct hit — exactly where Yin Lin had been standing. Fortunately, they had moved quickly and weren’t hit.
It was the same move that had attacked the transport plane earlier. The violent explosion caused a large section of the Forest Farm Subway Station’s exit to collapse. The safety gate wasn’t completely destroyed, but the ground had given way first under the pressure, revealing a portion of the stairs.
Yin Lin was hit by the flying sand and stone kicked up by the explosion, but her magic shield held firm. Green Field didn’t have a magic shield, but she had a shield made of whips that blocked the flying debris.
However, the impact on their eardrums was worse. The explosion caused their ears to ring, and their hearing was briefly affected.
Yin Lin could sense that the flying-type monster had changed direction and was heading toward the Forest Farm Subway Station.
This was too easy to understand. Clearly, the person on the other end of the headset had gotten angry and changed the monster’s flight path, forcing it to attack the subway station.
Yin Lin had unwittingly earned another merit. What she didn’t know was that the Countermeasure Center was currently holding a tense meeting to analyze this turn of events. They were certain there was something wrong with this monster; it was likely being commanded by something.
According to the intelligence gathered over the past few days, it was the organization involving those brown-robed men.
What exactly was this mysterious organization? What was its purpose? When did it start its secret activities? These were all still mysteries.
Yin Lin’s phone began to vibrate incessantly. She calmly took it out to check.
**[Huang Yi: Little ancestor, help us out again. It would be great if you could capture that flying-type monster.]**
**[Huang Yi: It would be even better if you could sell a flaw, pretend you’re losing, and lure out the enemy behind the scenes.]**
**[Huang Yi: Please, this is really important to us, Mom.]**
Yin Lin smiled awkwardly and put her phone away.
“Stay here. I’m going out for a bit,” she said, dropping the gear she had looted earlier.
She flew out through the small collapsed hole, leaving the injured Green Field behind at the subway stairs. Yin Lin began charging her Mana Cannon as she approached the flying-type monster.
The Mana Cannon had a high margin for error. Once she mastered the technique of manual detonation, the thing could always hit the enemy. Furthermore, it wouldn’t have the weakness that the Spear of the Opening Skies possessed.
She recalled the memory of fighting that monster on Tomorrow City’s pedestrian street, where the monster had caught the Spear of the Opening Skies with its bare hands and thrown it back. To avoid a repeat of that situation, Yin Lin didn’t use the Spear of the Opening Skies against this monster.
Shortly after flying out of the subway station, she encountered the Special Task Force that had fled here in a panic. The entire team looked at her nervously, raising their weapons and preparing to attack.
She teased them on purpose, darting through the middle of the squad at 100 kilometers per hour. The sudden dash forced them into emergency evasive maneuvers, and their aircraft shook for a long time, nearly crashing.
The captain was so furious that he fired several shots at her, but they were useless. The only shot that hit was easily blocked by her magic shield.
It was a total humiliation. They could only watch her departing back.
Compared to the captain’s gritted teeth, the other team members felt much calmer, even showing a bit of admiration.
At this point, from a distance of several kilometers, the flying-type monster began an offensive that would make Touhou fans ecstatic.
A barrage of small Special Beam Cannons was fired, averaging one every 3 seconds. Their flight speed was incredibly fast, reaching Mach 4.
Yin Lin was startled and constantly performed emergency dodges. Those things flew past her hair, which was terrifying. She could feel the scorching heat as they grazed her.
‘I can feel that the mana contained in this magic isn’t particularly high,’ Yin Lin analyzed. ‘Even if I’m hit, I should be fine.’
Her brain’s analysis was fine, but her body honestly dodged, not daring to take a hit. She didn’t want to get shot, nor did she want to see what it feels like.
Watching the Special Beam Cannons fill the sky, the members of the Special Task Force were both shocked and deeply impressed. Brilliant lights constantly flashed across the sky, looking just like fireworks during a festival. It was truly beautiful.
Yin Lin maintained a distance of several kilometers while continuing to charge her power. She didn’t dare get too close, fearing she wouldn’t have enough time to dodge.
She now knew the basic situation of this monster. It wasn’t just a flying-type monster, but also a high-level magic-oriented monster that specialized in long-range attacks.
‘Should I pretend to be defeated?’ she wondered. ‘Huang Yi even called me Mom. It wouldn’t hurt to help him out.’