Chapter 65: Safe House

The so-called safe house was a massive underground facility located two thousand meters beneath the surface.

Military personnel came and went constantly; this was the command center of the Central Military District.

Ying.

Line.

She had heard that Luo Xi was here as well, but Ci Yue hadn’t seen her.

Ci Yue stayed in the safe house all afternoon but quickly found she couldn’t bear to stay any longer. Her communicator received a message: the newly reorganized Magic Bureau was recalling her.

There was a very urgent mission—apparently, they had finally found traces of the Sirius operation.

“I have to leave this place. I still have a mission to complete,” she told the officer guarding her.

“No, you must stay here. If you go out, your life will be in danger,” the young officer said.

Ci Yue understood it wasn’t right to force others to disobey orders, so she didn’t pressure him too much.

But she couldn’t stay here forever. There were many things outside that required her attention, including checking on her sister’s safety and paying a visit to Yu.

She set her micro-message to invisible mode to prevent her sister from seeing her online—otherwise, it would be awkward.

Now, even Yu Ying wasn’t replying to her messages. She had no idea what was going on but hoped Yu Ying was safe.

Ci Yue had to find a way to escape this heavily guarded command center.

“I need to use the restroom. Can you tell me where it is?”

What a classic excuse—no matter when, it never failed.

The officer personally led her to the restroom.

When Ci Yue first arrived, she hadn’t paid special attention to the underground command center’s layout, but now she focused, observing her surroundings and searching for possible escape routes.

At the end of a long underground corridor hung a surveillance camera, watching everyone who passed by.

Fortunately, there weren’t many people here—after all, it wasn’t wartime yet. This gave Ci Yue a slight advantage to slip past the guards, though the cameras positioned at every corner were troublesome.

She glanced back. No one was following her. That made things easier.

“Sir, are you the only one guarding me? I’m an S-Class Magical Girl, you know. Is it really necessary to assign ordinary soldiers to protect me?”

“Although you’re a nationally protected individual, we’re short-staffed right now, so there’s no other choice. Besides, you’re in the safest place in the country; there’s no need to send a whole unit.”

“I’m enough to watch over you. Magical Girl Ci Yue, if you have any needs, you can tell me—I’ll help as much as I can. This is the mission my superiors gave me.”

A dependable young man, younger than herself, and Ci Yue was quite impressed. The only downside was he was too handsome—it made her a little jealous.

“Only one person? That means you’re pretty skilled, right? How are your unarmed combat skills?”

“I’ve earned the ‘Special Forces Vanguard’ title in the Central Military District, ranked top in the Grand Competition of Three Armies, and participated in multiple large-scale battles.”

“Miss Ci Yue, you don’t need to worry about my close-quarters combat abilities.”

A war hero? You wouldn’t guess by his appearance.

But Ci Yue wasn’t a pushover either. Though her technique might not match his, she had plenty of combat experience.

With her undeniable strength advantage, she was confident she could quickly defeat him.

“This is an underground command center, right? It’s quite large. I’ve never heard of this place before. Do you know when it was built?” Ci Yue asked.

“It was newly built in 2016. When it was completed, the Empire-class aberration in the area was already eliminated. Many parts are still unfinished, but it’s officially back in operation now,” the young officer replied.

“What parts are unfinished? From my combat experience, to withstand a magical cannon from a Kingdom-level aberration, you’d need reinforced multi-layer defenses.”

“Even ordinary reinforced concrete would need to be thousands of meters thick to resist for more than ten seconds.”

“I’m new here too, so I don’t know.”

It seemed she couldn’t extract more intelligence from him.

After wandering around a bit, the officer almost couldn’t find the restroom himself. This place truly was newly activated.

Ci Yue entered the women’s restroom; several stalls were empty. Perfect.

She stayed in one stall a while, pretending to use the toilet, then called out loudly, “Hey, officer! There’s no toilet paper here. Can you get some from the men’s restroom?”

Such a sly trick—Ci Yue almost felt guilty. After all, what happened next might get this young man into serious trouble.

He did as told without hesitation, entering the women’s restroom since there were barely any women in the command center.

“I’ll pass it up to you from down here.”

He bent down…

That turned out to be a move he would regret for the rest of his life—the restroom door suddenly burst open, hitting him squarely…

He reacted quickly, getting into a defensive stance, but Ci Yue’s strength was several times his. He couldn’t stop her relentless attacks.

***

After a few moves, Ci Yue had subdued the officer under her skirt.

She carried the unconscious soldier into a stall and locked the door.

“Sorry, officer, I went a bit too hard.”

She sneaked out of the restroom and slipped into a blind spot of the surveillance cameras, thinking about how to escape.

Fortunately, she found a simple map on the officer’s body showing the underground structure’s levels and entrances.

The command center extended two kilometers underground. To reach the surface, one needed to take a long elevator. Ci Yue located the nearest elevator.

Glancing at the camera, no one had noticed her plan to escape.

She pressed the elevator button. The elevator slowly descended from above.

Riding the elevator, Ci Yue arrived at a level closer to the surface, still needing to pass through several checkpoints before reaching the exit.

The soldiers around looked at her in surprise as she stepped out.

She quickly slipped out of the guards’ line of sight until a sergeant stopped her.

“Miss Magical Girl, please show your ID. There’s been strict checks recently on magical girls suspected of colluding with the enemy.”

ID? She seemed to have left it back at the Magic Bureau… After all, as an S-Class Magical Girl, she usually didn’t need special identification…

“I… I don’t have it,” she answered honestly.

“Wait a moment, don’t make any moves!” The sergeant raised his radio, one hand reaching for his gun. She hurriedly stopped him.

“I’m S-Class Magical Girl Ci Yue, one of the original twelve still alive S-Class Magical Girls. You must have heard of me, right? I don’t need ID… So, can you please listen?”

“I’ll ask my superiors first.”

“No, no! You can just trust me. I have a mission to complete. I don’t have time to waste.”

He eyed her suspiciously and said, “You can leave, but only after reporting, fingerprint collection, and coming with me.”

Ci Yue had no choice but to follow him to the security office. Along the way, other fully armed soldiers watched her carefully to prevent any sudden moves.

“You were brought here because of the assassination incident, right? Did your superiors allow you to leave to carry out this mission?”

“There’s an urgent matter requiring my support as an important combat force. So, officer, can we speed this up?”

After taking her fingerprints, the system immediately confirmed her identity. She was indeed the registered Magical Girl Ci Yue, so they let her go.

“Sigh… that was close. Hopefully, the officer in the restroom will wake up a little later.”

Back on the surface, Ci Yue took to the air, flying toward her destination.

“Hey! Why hasn’t the report come in after fifteen minutes?”

Two thousand meters underground, in the women’s restroom, the radio transmitted a lonely voice.

In reality, Ci Yue’s escape was discovered very quickly.