Chapter 229: Luckily Yin Lin Wasn’t There—Otherwise I Wouldn’t Know How to Refuse to Join the Battle

A familiar sound of footsteps suddenly echoed through the carriage.

Yao Ruoning put down her phone and turned her head.

She saw Officer Liu—why was he still on the train?

The officer made a shushing gesture, signaling for her to be quiet.

He then stepped off the train and began quietly tailing Mr. Zhang.

‘What does this mean? What’s happening?’

Even Yao Ruoning realized something was wrong; there was something suspicious about that Mr. Zhang.

She hurriedly followed them out.

Was this the danger the Contract Goddess had mentioned?

Just as she stepped out of the carriage, her phone vibrated again with a message.

She opened it to find a text from Liang Tai: [When does the battle start? Can I start a live broadcast? Will the room get banned?]

Yao Ruoning didn’t answer him yet.

She needed to see who would participate in the battle first before telling Liang Tai if he could stream.

She kept an eye on her phone while following behind Officer Liu.

Opening the news, she found that some bystanders were already broadcasting live.

Some were filming from rooftops, while others were positioned in trees or on hills.

All of them were capturing the same thing.

It was a massive, octopus-like creature, at least 20 meters tall with a bloated body.

The thing had an extraordinary number of tentacles, ranging from thick to thin.

It looked very similar to the Mana-constructed Octopus Tentacle Monster from the False Space—roughly 80% similar—only much larger in scale.

The Octopus Tentacle Monster in the live broadcast lacked the typical colors of a living creature, appearing instead in various dull shades of blue.

It wasn’t a biological entity; it was highly likely a magical construct similar to the Contract Goddess’s toy tentacle monsters rather than a Summoner’s creature from a video game.

The thing had no intelligence or autonomy.

It was likely being controlled by a caster.

Liang Tai sent another message: [Are you there? It’s urgent. I’m going to start the stream. Is this octopus monster really okay to film? This is a blockbuster-level event; I can’t miss out.]

Yao Ruoning continued to follow Officer Liu, leaving the Metro carriage and walking off the platform.

It wasn’t convenient to tail them too closely, so she had to wait for them to gain some distance.

She continued checking her phone, chatting in the Three Sisters Group.

Huan Hong: [Holy crap, this thing is freaking disgusting.]

Jin Luan: [Nothing like this has ever appeared in Yiri City before. What on earth is it?]

They were discussing the strange creature.

The Octopus Tentacle Monster had already begun its path of destruction.

Thick tentacles swept across buildings, snapping them in half.

Smaller tentacles coiled around humans fleeing through the streets.

The men were crushed instantly.

The monster would inspect the women; some were crushed, while others were consumed.

According to a large number of samples, this thing wasn’t some Rated-G octopus beast—it was a Rated-R tentacle monster.

Yin Lin: [Aren’t you guys heading out yet? People are already dying.]

The group went silent for a long time.

The chat, which had been lively a moment ago, suddenly fell dead.

Yin Lin: [Aren’t Magical Girls supposed to defend humanity, protect world peace, and fight against the evil things destroying Earth?]

Yin Lin: [Why are you just watching? Can you look the people standing behind you in the eye?]

Huan Hong: [Cut the crap. Since when did you become so righteous?]

Huan Hong: [Usually Jin Luan is the first one in. What is Jin Luan doing?]

Jin Luan: [I’m tied up with something. Huan Hong, you go first.]

Huan Hong: [I’ve got stuff to do too. I’ll be there a bit later; I’m still investigating intelligence on this organism.]

The group fell silent again.

Yin Lin: [If you won’t go and she won’t go, do you expect me to go?]

The reverse psychology seemed to work a bit.

At least they were getting closer to the scene, even sending photos of the surrounding area.

Before they could act, members of the Defeated Team arrived first.

“It’s the Defeated Team! We’re saved!”

A regular citizen cried out excitedly while live-streaming.

Ground and air forces moved out together.

A helicopter’s machine gun fire hammered relentlessly into the body of the Octopus Tentacle Monster.

The first wave consisted of metal warheads.

Upon impact, the monster’s skin underwent minor deformation.

It was like throwing a stone into water, creating ripples that took over ten seconds to settle.

After the bullets pierced the skin and lodged inside the body, the wounds slowly restored themselves after a dozen or so seconds.

It looked as though it hadn’t been injured at all.

Was this an effective attack or a useless one?

They continued to attack with metal bullets.

Yin Lin sent a reply to Liang Tai, telling him he could stream.

As long as it wasn’t a fight between Yin Lin and the tentacle monster, he could broadcast whatever he wanted.

‘If you’re going to stream, don’t be afraid. If you’re afraid, don’t stream. If the room gets banned for showing something you shouldn’t, that’s on you.’

Liang Tai actually started the broadcast.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t streamed scenes of severed limbs before; he wasn’t afraid of a damn thing.

Yin Lin put down her phone.

Things were reaching a critical point on her end as Officer Liu moved further away.

She quickly followed, using the freight train carriages as cover, moving from one piece of shelter to another.

She deliberately muffled her footsteps, not daring to walk too boldly.

This trek lasted for ten minutes.

‘Damn, is the commute for these people really this long?’

No wonder the workers here generally stayed for an entire week once they started a shift, eating and sleeping on-site and only leaving when their break started a week later.

As she moved deeper in, Yao Ruoning sensed something unpleasant—a faint aura of Mana.

It wasn’t that the Mana aura was far away, but rather that it was extremely weak.

She had almost missed it.

The aura was coming from the direction she was heading.

A theory had already formed in her mind: ‘Could it really be at that rubber factory?’

Continuing her tailing, she saw Officer Liu emerge from cover.

He moved quickly, darting past the freight tracks and the walkway to enter a certain facility.

He was heading straight for the Mana aura; they were very close now.

The surrounding area was likely the Rubber Factory.

All the nearby industries were rubber-related; the road signs said as much.

‘Was that Mr. Zhang really a problem?’

‘And how did Officer Liu figure it out?’

Yao Ruoning quietly opened a small, accessible pocket on her long backpack and touched the Wand inside.

She cast a Magic Shield on herself and then stepped out, following them into the Rubber Factory.

The identity of Yao Ruoning might be exposed because of this, but since it wasn’t her true body, she didn’t cherish it as much right now.

The space around her was filled with conveyor belts and pipes.

She saw no one, nor did she hear any sounds of human activity.

It felt as if she were the only living person in this massive factory.

Fortunately, she had her Perception.

She could clearly sense where the Mana aura was.

Moving toward it was the right path.

Along the way, she took out her phone again.

Keeping it on silent, she saw that Liang Tai’s Live Broadcast Room was quite clear.

He had already arrived at the scene and was filming the battle between the Defeated Team and the Octopus Tentacle Monster.

They had abandoned metal bullets and were now using Photon Rifles.

When those beams hit the monster, they tore its physical tissues apart much more severely, requiring a significantly longer time to regenerate.

The tentacle monster wasn’t about to just take a beating.

It used its tentacles to scoop up boulders from the ground and hurl them upward, smashing a hole in a helicopter.

The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing, crashing into the ground, though it didn’t cause an explosion.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out.

It didn’t come from the phone—that was muted.

It came from inside the Rubber Factory.

The sound was very close to the location of the Mana aura.

Something had happened.

Yao Ruoning immediately accelerated, rushing toward the source.