Chapter 260: Why Overthink It? Just Do It

There’s a saying about going south by driving north. Now I know what it means.

With demonic creatures attacking both north and south at the same time, one magical girl wasn’t enough; two had to act separately.

Even Old Song, who kept thinking about downplaying magical girls, couldn’t help asking in the group chat.

Yin Lin: [What level?]

Huan Hong quickly replied: [Not sure yet, just got the news.]

Yin Lin: [Where’s your source?]

Huan Hong: [Not telling.]

Still keeping secrets. But after all, she was just a young girl without too many schemes. Soon she boasted about it.

Huan Hong: [I have little fangirls, you know. One of them gave me the info.]

Ah? Not Huang Yi?

‘Could it be that among the Jinyin Hong San Jiemei, Huang Yi didn’t take Huan Hong along, and she was isolated?’

Huan Hong: [@Jin Luan Are you there? I’m heading south first to snipe the demonic creatures. If you see this, go north.]

Old Song waited a bit longer but never saw Huan Hong @ that Earth’s strongest magical girl—the chosen magical girl who combined beauty and power.

He couldn’t help asking: [Why didn’t you call me?]

Huan Hong: [Better you don’t come. I can’t tell if you’re on the humans’ side or the demonic creatures’ side.]

Huan Hong: [The economic damage you’ve caused is almost as bad as the demonic creatures’.]

Song Wuli quickly searched the news but didn’t see any reports about a demonic creature attack yet.

He messaged Huang Yi, who gave a definite answer: some demonic creatures had broken through the defense line; fighting was ongoing, and the Special Task Force had already engaged.

Yin Lin asked about the demonic creatures’ level. A reply came soon: preliminary judgment was Intermediate Evil Demon, both at the north and south ends.

The battle was still going on. They were testing whether the demonic creatures on both ends were hiding anything—like whether they would enter a Berserk State or what their intelligence level was.

Huang Yi coldly told the magical girls not to strike too quickly and let the Special Task Force test the demonic creatures first. Only someone from the Witch Faction like him could be so indifferent to fellow human comrades. Although this approach was reasonable, it still seemed too cold.

Huang Yi put down his phone and walked into the Countermeasure Center.

A few colleagues came over, greeted him, and he responded to each.

“Hey, Xiao Huang, is your injury okay?”

The sociologist spotted him from afar.

“It’s fine, just a small issue.”

Huang Yi walked in and skillfully arrived at his workstation.

The Acting Person-in-Charge came over: “Got results? What’s the autopsy situation?”

Huang Yi had a grim expression. He tossed some paper documents onto the table.

The Acting Person-in-Charge nervously picked them up and read them carefully.

“Unknown cause of death? What does ‘unknown’ mean?”

The Acting Person-in-Charge pressed.

“Unknown means the cause of death isn’t certain. Is your Chinese that bad?”

Huang Yi rarely showed temper and actually talked back to the Acting Person-in-Charge.

“You—you’re injured, and now you can’t even speak properly?”

The Acting Person-in-Charge was somewhat displeased.

Huang Yi stayed silent, lost in thought.

The Acting Person-in-Charge left.

After a while, his phone vibrated and rang again—it was the special notification tone.

Huang Yi picked up his phone and saw it was another message from Yin Lin, so he immediately started replying.

Song Wuli stared at his phone and asked.

Yin Lin: [Do I need to sortie?]

Huang Yi: [Not for now. Our expert team discussed it. It’s possible the enemy is using a trick, aiming to lure you magical girls away.]

Yin Lin: [What if your expert team guessed wrong?]

Huang Yi: [If we’re wrong, it’s a small mistake; there’s still a chance to salvage. But if we fall for their trick and a big mistake happens, the losses would be incalculable.]

Song Wuli understood his meaning. Considering the demonic creatures’ increasingly human-like behavior, they were already using tactics and strategies. From now on, the Eastern Alliance would rather overestimate the demonic creatures than underestimate them.

What if the demonic creatures were using a Feng Xian strategy—luring Yin Lin to the southern or northern suburbs while planning an attack on the city center?

The Portal Incident had indeed been temporarily resolved, but there was no certainty the enemy wouldn’t create new portals. They still had to guard against that move.

Huang Yi had a reasonable judgment in putting Yin Lin on standby.

Old Song put down his phone, left the restroom, and went back to work.

But his mind was no longer on the job. He wrote a few paragraphs of copy, made many typos, and the sentences weren’t flowing.

He had to admit, morality was a bizarre thing.

When he wasn’t a magical girl before, he was just an ordinary middle-aged man. When a demonic creature incident happened far away, he’d just read the news; if it was close, he’d find a place to take shelter.

He’d once thought that if he were a superhero in a comic, he could defeat those demonic creatures and wouldn’t have to hide like this.

But thoughts were just thoughts.

Now that he had actually become a magical girl and gained power, he started running away again, missing the days when he was just an ordinary uncle.

However, something called “morality” kept controlling his thoughts. He couldn’t help wanting to transform into a magical girl and kill the demonic creatures, draining his mental energy.

Back then, he had no ability, so he just thought about it.

Now that he had the ability, he always wanted to act.

He remembered a quote from the friendly neighborhood hero: With great power comes great responsibility.

He was now trapped in such a situation. Even knowing it was moral blackmail, knowing it was an Open Stratagem, he couldn’t help but want to shoulder the responsibility and kill the demonic creatures.

“Old Song, what’s wrong?”

A man’s voice snapped him out of it.

He looked up and saw Qian Dehao. Qian held out a can of Red Bull: “You were spacing out. You looked out of it, so I grabbed one for you too.”

Song Wuli took it, pulled the tab, drank half, and asked, “Old Qian, I have a question for you. If—”

“Don’t ask me. If you want to do something, just do it. If you’re hesitating about doing something, that means you want to do it, right? The reason you want to but haven’t done it is because you’re afraid of the consequences, isn’t it?”

Old Qian rarely offered some big wisdom.

Seeing Old Song regain a bit of spirit, Qian Dehao continued, “Remember last time we went to the hotel to play games? I knew the consequences too. If we got caught sneaking off to a hotel for that, we’d definitely get yelled at. But you know, it’s rare to muster the courage to actually act on those thoughts. That’s pretty precious.”

Song Wuli stood up and chuckled, “Hah, since when did you become a philosopher?”

Qian Dehao replied, “We’re not young anymore. Who hasn’t picked up a few life lessons after living this long? By the way, Old Song, what are you going to do?”

“I need to handle some personal business. Please tell the supervisor I’m taking a few hours off.”

Song Wuli grabbed his bag, walked out of his workstation, and jogged out of the office.

All nine members of Group 2 watched him leave.

“What’s Group Leader Song up to?”

Chang Yong casually asked.

“He’s probably going to do what he wants to do. He seemed pretty happy.”

Qian Dehao had known Old Song for years and could read his mood.

Then, on Old Song’s behalf, he called out to everyone, “Stop staring, folks. Back to work. Fight for the new version of ‘Què Yì’! Let’s go!”