It was Monday afternoon, and the brief Sunday had passed in the blink of an eye.
It was time for Shui Hua to head to work.
Shui Hua pushed open the door to the Magical Girl Department, and a familiar golden head looked up.
When Liu Jin saw Shui Hua enter, his eyes lit up slightly.
He raised a hand to wave at Shui Hua, his lips pulling into a small smile.
“Hello, Liu Jin,” Shui Hua replied with a professional smile, quickly sitting down at his workstation.
He turned on the computer screen.
With the weekend over, there was an influx of official business that needed to be handled online.
Shui Hua resigned himself to his fate and created five or six Word documents in one go, beginning to process the endless reports, citizen inquiry responses, and merchandise feedback summaries.
‘A suggestion for improving the flavors at the Magical Girl-themed cake shop? They’re asking me this, too? How would I know if I’ve never even been there?’
Just as Shui Hua was about to write some vague, superficial nonsense to get it over with, the internal office software icon in the bottom right corner of the screen began to flash.
He clicked it to find an emergency mission dispatched from the Ability Bureau’s front end.
It contained a hazard level of Grade C- assigned by the Ability Bureau staff, as well as an audio recording of the report.
Shui Hua clicked the audio file.
The microphone was peaking, and the tearful voice of a middle-aged man came through.
“Is this the Ability Bureau? Help, please! My car has gone crazy. It suddenly lost control and started driving itself. I can’t control it! Now the car is stopped in the middle of nowhere, and all the doors and windows are locked. I can’t get out. Can you see my GPS coordinates? Please, come quickly. It feels like it’s about to start driving again…”
“How can there be such a wicked Awakened Entity…”
Shui Hua couldn’t help but complain.
“Luring someone all the way to the middle of nowhere just to play a kidnapping game…”
He turned his head, his gaze falling on Liu Jin at the next workstation.
Xing Li and Fei Xing were still in class at this hour.
Out of the only two combatants in the department… actually, saying he was the only one wouldn’t be wrong, as only Liu Jin was left.
“Liu Jin, there’s an emergency report. You’re coming with me on field duty in a bit.”
Shui Hua stood up, walked over to Liu Jin’s station, and patted him on the back.
Liu Jin put down the document he was writing almost immediately and looked up.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Following the coordinates provided by the caller, the two flew directly out of the office window, heading toward a remote forest area north of the Dongjiang District in Shui Cheng.
The further they flew, the blurrier the city’s silhouette became.
Skyscrapers were replaced by low-slung residential areas, followed by scattered factories and warehouses.
Eventually, even the roads vanished, replaced by vast stretches of undeveloped wasteland and thinning woods.
“It should be just ahead.”
Shui Hua compared the GPS information on his mobile phone and lowered his altitude, quickly spotting a black car amidst the sparse trees.
“Sir, are you alright? Can you hear us? We are Magical Girls from the Ability Bureau,” Shui Hua called out as he landed a few paces away from the car, raising his voice.
However, the interior of the vehicle was deathly silent.
There was no response.
Shui Hua tried to look through the glass to see the person inside, but the windows — including the windshield — were covered in a black, one-way film.
It was impossible to see anything from the outside.
Realizing the caller might be in danger, Shui Hua approached the driver’s side and instinctively reached for the door handle…
Surprisingly, the door opened.
Shui Hua hadn’t expected it to be so easy.
Confused and a bit wary, he poked his head inside to look.
Suddenly, a black seatbelt lashed out like a tentacle.
Before Shui Hua could react, the belt wrapped around his waist.
He was yanked into the car with a *whoosh*, landing heavily on the leather driver’s seat.
Shui Hua tried to force his way out, but the door beside him automatically slammed shut and locked the moment he was inside.
Worse still, the tentacle-like seatbelt tightened around his waist and clicked precisely into the buckle, pinning him firmly to the seat.
He couldn’t move at all.
Almost at the same time, the old center console screen inside the car flickered a few times, and a staged, forced cough echoed from the car’s speakers.
“Cough, cough, cough… Is this voice familiar to you?”
It was identical to the caller’s voice…
Only then did Shui Hua realize he had been set up.
“Heh heh heh… I’ve finally caught a Hero.”
“Who are you?”
Shui Hua tried to communicate with it, surprised that this Awakened Entity possessed intelligence.
“Are you blind? I’m the car, of course.”
A male voice filled with static came from the speakers.
“Um… how about I feed you some gasoline if you let me go?”
Shui Hua tried to bribe it.
“Gasoline? I don’t need that kind of stuff. What I need is my reason for existing!”
“I was once a car loved by my master. But after he underwent Awakening and became a Hero, he didn’t need me anymore. He said, ‘Flying is much faster than driving now, and I don’t have to worry about traffic jams.’ So, I was thrown into the garage for one day, two days, one month… a year.”
“He forgot the excitement of holding the steering wheel for the first time to take the whole family on a trip. He forgot the times I shielded him from the wind and rain. Just because he learned an Awakened Ability and learned how to fly, he looks down on his old partners? Fine! Now I’ve learned an Awakened Ability too, haha!”
It seemed this car had been transformed by a human Meme.
Not only had it developed emotions, but it had even learned human cunning, using a fake report to set a trap for a Hero.
“So… what do you want to do?”
The binding skill was truly the ultimate counter to a Magical Girl.
Shui Hua tried to tug at the seatbelt, but it wouldn’t budge.
An ominous feeling began to rise in his heart.
“What do I want to do?”
The voice from the speakers rose an octave, and the engine gradually began to warm up.
“Take you for a joyride, of course!”
“Liu Jin, save me!”
Shui Hua immediately turned his head to shout to the outside, hoping that Liu Jin could dismantle this junk car.
But as soon as he turned his head, the words caught in his throat.
At some point, another person had appeared in the passenger seat.
Liu Jin had also been locked into the passenger seat by a seatbelt, looking completely bewildered.
“Liu Jin, when did you get locked in here too?”
Shui Hua’s eyes widened.
Liu Jin blinked, his expression innocent and embarrassed.
“I saw you suddenly get in and close the door. I thought you were planning to drive the car straight back to the Bureau to handle it. So… I just followed you in.”
“I’ve told you so many times, two people shouldn’t get caught at once.”
“My mistake,” Liu Jin quickly apologized, lowering his head.
Shui Hua tried to use his elbow to smash the glass and escape.
However, the car had been reinforced.
With his Grade C physical abilities, he couldn’t break it at all.
He had no choice but to place his hopes on Liu Jin.
“Liu Jin, hurry up and use your invincible magic to figure something out.”
Liu Jin nodded, his expression turning focused.
He raised both hands, pressing his index fingers together.
Golden Magic Power surged into them.
As he pulled his fingers apart, a thread of magic was drawn out, glowing brightly in the dim cabin.
“Good! That’s our Liu Jin. Now, hurry up and slice this car in half.”
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