After the Eastern Minor Alliance of the Human Alliance finished their meeting, they dispatched many people to begin searching for the so-called Mysterious Magical Girl.
From the discussion during the meeting, it was understood that Yin Lin wanted to apprentice and learn from that Mysterious Magical Girl.
This indicated that there was no contact information between them, and they were not very familiar with each other.
It also showed that the Mysterious Magical Girl currently had no affiliation—she was likely a newcomer.
The Human Alliance had vehicles capable of searching places ordinary people could hardly reach, intending to make the first move to contact her.
That night, many small drones flew over the city’s sky, searching every inch, even above the cloud layers.
During this time, they even discovered the Golden Luan soaring at the horizon; that girl also seemed to be looking for someone.
However, her efficiency in searching was much lower than that of the Human Alliance.
The Magical Girls had other advantages—longer flight endurance.
Plus, they could use Sorcery Sensing; if a Magical Girl was nearby and hadn’t used any special methods to hide her magical aura, she could be detected.
Although Golden Luan’s sensing ability was only average, it was still enough to outmatch those drones easily.
They searched through the entire night.
When the Golden Luan, flying at high altitude, saw the sun rise, she knew things were about to get bad.
She deliberately approached the drones and said to them, “According to information we have, you need to cooperate with evacuating the hospital staff. Lightning may attack all the city’s hospitals today.”
Golden Luan wasn’t acting on her own; she had obtained Yin Lin and Huan Hong’s approval.
They agreed that if by sunrise they still hadn’t found the Mysterious Magical Girl, the intelligence would be reported to the Human Alliance.
This meant raising the alarm, which might cause Lightning Man to change targets—not necessarily attacking hospitals anymore, but somewhere else instead.
At this point, there was no better option; they couldn’t just leave the hospitals most likely to be attacked unprotected.
After sharing the intelligence, Golden Luan had to land and rest; flying so long was exhausting.
Her injuries weren’t healed yet; it was time to return and prepare—to find ways to resist Lightning Man.
Meanwhile, the Human Alliance received the report; the drone operators relayed the intelligence to their superiors.
The Eastern Minor Alliance immediately sprang into action, beginning to discuss whether to evacuate personnel.
Could the information from the Magical Girls be trusted?
Even if not entirely reliable, evacuation was necessary.
The usual cliché of stubbornly refusing to evacuate despite clear danger was rare in this world.
In this world frequently assaulted by strange demons, people had conducted evacuation drills and knew how to evacuate properly.
Once the order was given, the hospital quickly went into emergency mode.
Those capable of moving were sent to the underground facilities first, and then the critically ill who couldn’t move easily were settled underground last.
Yes, in this era, underground facilities were highly developed; beneath the surface was an entire underground city.
People could abandon surface life at any time and transition to long-term residence underground.
Passersby who had just finished breakfast saw the hospital was already deserted, in a state of emergency evacuation.
Of course, the news of the hospital’s evacuation also spread, so those seeking treatment had to go underground, which was a bit inconvenient but still manageable.
The Human Alliance had other plans, too—not just focusing on the hospital.
Inside the alliance, a middle-aged man with graying hair carefully studied the data.
A few days ago, when it was discovered that Lightning Man had headphones in his ears, he immediately classified the matter as highly sensitive intelligence.
After expert analysis, they reached this conclusion: something was controlling Lightning Man.
It wasn’t Lightning Man controlling others, nor was he just listening to music.
Experts painstakingly analyzed Lightning Man’s videos frame by frame and concluded this.
Lightning Man had displayed numerous unnatural movements, like when running along a path and suddenly veering off to trample the lawn—a clear deviation from natural behavior.
Normally, this might be accidental.
But knowing he wore headphones, they deduced a motive behind those unnatural actions.
“Someone is commanding Lightning Man,” causing him to break his natural patterns with stiff, forced actions.
The middle-aged man of the Eastern Minor Alliance trusted the experts’ judgment.
If something was directing Lightning Man, it meant the opponent was also an intelligent being.
They couldn’t treat it as a beast with low intelligence; they had to regard it as intelligent as humans.
Evacuating the hospital underground might not solve the problem; the opponent could find the underground location and attack there.
Or the warning might have spooked them, and they might no longer attack hospitals but other facilities instead.
A large number of personnel were dispatched today; besides guarding the hospital, they also guarded other public places with high population density.
Of course, they had to be wary of this being a ruse by the Magical Girls to lure them away.
Once so many forces moved out, the most vulnerable points would be the Human Alliance’s official institutions, such as the place where he was now.
Magical Girls might come here to eliminate him; he couldn’t rule out that possibility.
He considered all these possibilities, making various defenses.
To hold this position, he had to be capable.
Far away, Yin Lin also faced a difficult decision—she had to eat the World Tree Fruit.
Currently, the only fighter left was the injured Golden Luan, who could only perform at about 80% capacity.
Even at 100%, she wasn’t a match for Lightning Man; the gap was too great.
Yin Lin’s indiscriminate attacks could have some effect; if fully charged and unleashed, the chances of hitting Lightning Man were quite high.
These were the words of Diamond: “So, Yin, you need to eat the fruit, recover, and then, at your strongest, take down Lightning Man. This is something only you can do.”
Diamond spoke as if it was an inevitability, not just words of comfort.
This was another “prophecy” that Yin Lin hated, but she couldn’t resist it and knew it was the best solution.
She took the World Tree Fruit and swallowed it.
Warmth spread through her body, feeling very pleasant.
Her body began to heal, visibly growing flesh at a rapid rate.
The pain quickly subsided.
The sensation was so good it was almost addictive.
Suddenly, a disturbing thought flashed in her mind—could this be Sister Juice?
The World Tree was absorbing it, but could it also be that thing?
She shook her head vigorously, tossing out that disgusting and terrifying thought.
A few minutes later, footsteps sounded down the hallway, and a familiar magical aura was sensed.
Golden Luan returned, opening the hospital room door and looking at Yin Lin, who had just changed into her Magical Girl Uniform.
“You really have recovered, huh?” Golden Luan still found it hard to believe.
Yin Lin bounced a few times and swung her fists to prove she was indeed healed.
She had also been released; only Huan Hong remained locked up.
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