After pointing out that the attacker was a magical girl who used a magic cannon, the atmosphere didn’t change, didn’t stir a single ripple.
Professor Meng: “What are you trying to say?”
Huang Yi: “There are plenty of magical girls who can use a magic cannon—it’s just a basic attack spell, after all. But this power and this sound… that’s got to be at least a tenth of Yin Lin’s charged magic cannon, right?”
He pulled out his phone again and displayed a screenshot from a surveillance feed.
In the frame, a girl was flying while seated atop a wand, her silver hair streaming in the wind. She wore something resembling a black gothic dress.
“…Hahaha…”
Professor Meng laughed, shaking his head continuously.
Huang Yi remained composed, waiting for him to continue.
Professor Meng took a sip of coffee, then patted Huang Yi’s hand.
“As expected of a newcomer who’s earned the Witch Faction’s full support—very capable. Unfortunately for you, I’m a psychology expert. None of your tricks are going to work on me.”
Professor Meng was genuinely impressed with him.
Huang Yi: “You still want to protect her? You think putting on airs is going to help you?”
Professor Meng said steadily: “Let me be blunt. You’re trying to fool me with a fake surveillance screenshot to gauge my reaction—I can still see through that. You think I got my title as an expert by bragging?”
He kept talking, exposing Huang Yi’s intentions.
After Huang Yi got the lead that Professor Meng had been attacked by magic, he learned the details from the neighbors and realized the attack spell’s sound closely matched Yin Lin’s magic cannon.
To pry information out of Professor Meng, Huang Yi hypothesized that the person who attacked him was Yin Lin. He secretly cut a surveillance clip from somewhere else and pretended it was footage taken when Yin Lin attacked Professor Meng, hoping to use this fake evidence to confirm whether Professor Meng knew the attacker was Yin Lin.
This approach was like walking a tightrope—if the one who attacked Professor Meng wasn’t Yin Lin, or she wasn’t wearing that outfit, Professor Meng would immediately know Huang Yi’s evidence was fabricated.
“You’re bold. You wanted to gamble on that one percent chance. You figured I wouldn’t use a blurry, unrecognizable screenshot to test you, so you decided to go big and produce a clear one. If the person who attacked me really did look like that, I—a psychology expert—would likely be caught off guard and admit you were right.”
Professor Meng saw through everything, and he admired Huang Yi for it.
To deal with a seasoned veteran like Professor Meng, gentle methods were useless—you had to use extreme ones.
Huang Yi: “This wasn’t a complete waste. At least I know the magical girl who attacked you wasn’t wearing that uniform, or it wasn’t that person.”
Professor Meng: “I have a question too. Since you were fabricating evidence, why didn’t you have her wear casual clothes? The Alliance’s sensors can detect magical girl uniforms, and we haven’t detected any magical girl besides those three recently. Using that logic, a magical girl in casual clothes attacking me would be far more plausible, wouldn’t it? Don’t tell me you didn’t think of that.”
“No, I did think of it.”
Huang Yi continued openly: “Because I told her about the sensors in Yiri City. She knows she can’t land.”
He paused for a moment, then continued: “So even if she wears her magical girl uniform, she won’t be detected, as long as she stays in the air.”
He waited a beat longer. No rebuttal came, so he continued: “Besides, with this massive power outage, the sensors are damaged, and the communication network is down too. That system can’t function properly right now, so wearing the magical girl uniform to attack you wouldn’t be a problem either.”
Professor Meng’s opinion of him shifted again—he really was talented.
“But I can tell there’s something more behind this. What other reason did you have for making her wear the magical girl uniform in your fabricated photo?”
Huang Yi: “Because casual clothes come in countless variations. I’d have to pick one correct outfit out of infinite possibilities—the odds were too low to fabricate convincingly. But the magical girl uniform, as far as I know, she only has the one. Using that made the forgery much less likely to be flawed.”
Unfortunately, his bet didn’t pay off.
Professor Meng wasn’t lying. In fact, he briefly entertained the scenario in his head—if Huang Yi had guessed right and used the fake photo to corner him, and if the attacker really did look like that, would he have fallen for it and confessed?
The answer was yes. Professor Meng felt he would have told Huang Yi everything that had happened these past few days.
This exchange ended in Huang Yi’s defeat, and he likely wouldn’t get another chance this good to corner Professor Meng again.
That’s how it should have been—but unexpectedly, a few days later, something shocking happened.
Psychology expert Professor Meng defected!
Not betraying Earth, not siding with the demonic creatures—he betrayed his neutral stance and joined the Witch Faction.
The Witch Faction isn’t a formal political party; it’s a group, which can also be understood as an alliance.
Professor Meng publicly applied to join a pro-witch party and was accepted.
The condition for joining this party was being inclined toward witches, so the entire party consisted of Witch Faction members.
His application was extremely high-profile, with no attempt to hide it.
Under the leadership of the new director, Qian Anning, Professor Meng immediately faced backlash at the Countermeasure Center. He was pushed out of the main organization and only given a seat in the corner. Even the people he used to be close with began keeping their distance.
Of course, some people grew closer to him too.
In short, his social circle began to shift—some relationships soured, others strengthened.
He also temporarily faced a suspension investigation, on the grounds that his activities were considered suspicious and might threaten the safety of the Countermeasure Center and humanity.
He was different from Huang Yi. Huang Yi had been a Witch Faction supporter before joining the Countermeasure Center and entered with that identity.
Professor Meng, on the other hand, suddenly joined the Witch Faction after being attacked and discharged from the hospital, which made his behavior seem suspicious.
This suspension investigation had elements of hostile suppression, but it also carried a certain rationality.
Professor Meng acted as if nothing had happened, completely unbothered by the suspension.
Huang Yi naturally sought him out. He’d been trying to contact him since Professor Meng’s high-profile application, but couldn’t get through.
On the day of the suspension, just as Professor Meng arrived at the entrance and got out of the car, Huang Yi finally caught him. He patted his side, slipping his hand into Professor Meng’s pocket inconspicuously.
Professor Meng seemed to know he was coming and let out a sigh.
Huang Yi pressed him about joining the Witch Faction.
“Are you insane? You have a great future ahead of you. You’re already one of the most respected people at the Countermeasure Center. If you just keep your neutral stance, you can live out your years in comfort. Why would you do this?”
Huang Yi genuinely cared about him, both personally and professionally.
Professor Meng didn’t say much, gently removing Huang Yi’s hand from him: “After everything that happened the other day, I’ve been thinking a lot. I’ve decided… I want to do something I won’t regret.”
He turned and walked home with an easy grace.
He was carefree, leaving Huang Yi standing there with a question mark on his face.
What the hell is this old man trying to do?
Because he got blasted by a magical girl and nearly died, so now he wants to take revenge on the world? Destroy it?
Huang Yi kept staking out the place, and sure enough, he found something.
At night, the GPS on his phone started showing movement, indicating that Professor Meng had quietly climbed over the wall and left his house on foot.
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