Soon, Mu Xingge took Little Red Riding Hood to the hospital.
Xiaoxi had originally wanted to follow, but Miss L kept her behind.
The rain outside was pouring harder and harder.
The two of them took shelter inside the building.
At this time, the logistics department had already begun wrapping up their work.
“Why did you keep me here?” Xiaoxi asked.
Miss L sighed. “Sorry, Axing, this time it was a failure in my intelligence. This kind of rookie mistake won’t happen again.”
“Don’t worry. Xingge already said it’s nothing serious. She used to be the team’s top medic; you still don’t trust her?”
“That’s right.” Miss L took out a black spherical object. “The logistics department just found this inside the building. I want you to take it back and keep it for a day.”
“Why me? Doesn’t your association have a place to store stuff?”
“Don’t you think this tech looks a little familiar?”
Looking at the black sphere’s metallic shell, full of advanced technology, Xiaoxi was silent for a few seconds before speaking the answer that came to mind.
“The Summoning Church? But they were wiped out three years ago.”
“Just a possibility. You’re more familiar with the Summoning Church, so I want you to check it out before handing it to the research department. Maybe you’ll discover something.”
Since it involved the Summoning Church, Xiaoxi didn’t refuse.
After taking the black sphere, Miss L then shook two bags of takeout in front of her.
“And there’s some late-night snacks—Axing, do you want to take some back too?”
Xiaoxi frowned. “Your team got knocked out by those weirdos, and you’re still thinking about late-night snacks?”
“No—I’m not that kind of person. I was just thinking it’s so late, I’d get some snacks to reward you all after work. Didn’t expect this to happen.”
“There’s so much food now, I can’t eat it all alone. Just help out and take some back.”
Xiaoxi sighed and reluctantly took a box of fried chicken and a small bag of snacks from Miss L.
When Xiaoxi got home, the rain outside had grown even heavier.
After flying through the window into her room, Xiaoxi activated her thoughts and de-transformed.
The soaking wet clothes instantly vanished.
That was the beauty of magical girls—their transformation clothes were made of magic power and disappeared once the transformation was undone.
No need to worry about getting drenched, except for the hair, which was a bit troublesome.
Xiaoxi listened carefully to make sure she hadn’t disturbed Ye Xinglan in the room opposite, then relaxed and threw the black sphere onto her nightstand.
She grabbed a handful of tissues and started drying her hair.
She didn’t notice that, while she dried her hair, the black sphere seemed to be attracted by something and trembled slightly.
A faint wisp of black magic power leaked from the sphere and slipped through the keyhole of the room’s door.
“Hm?”
Xiaoxi frowned, grabbing the sphere in her hand and tapping it a couple of times like an old TV with a bad signal.
It hadn’t made a sound on the way back—why was it suddenly restless now?
After changing into her pajamas, Xiaoxi sat on the bed and studied the sphere.
Strange. This thing didn’t seem to just store magic power.
The magic inside seemed to possess a certain “living” quality.
Suddenly, Xiaoxi understood why the monsters attacked so suddenly before.
The sphere’s ability to shield magic power detection was secondary.
What it stored wasn’t exactly magic power—it was more like a monster in the process of hatching.
Once the magic was released, it would instantly reach a critical mass and assemble into a monster… It sounded like a Poké Ball.
This was indeed the work of the Summoning Church.
That organization had always been dedicated to the research of monsters and weirdos.
About 30% of the monsters Xiaoxi had defeated were created by the Summoning Church.
They even set up a production factory for freaks, which Xiaoxi had later shut down.
Now interested, Xiaoxi continued her research on the black sphere.
***
In Ye Xinglan’s room.
Having just finished an entire series, Ye Xinglan yawned widely.
But as she was about to turn off the light and sleep, she suddenly sniffed the air like a puppy and instantly perked up.
Had she just sensed a trace of a very familiar negative magic power?
As the Blood Moon Witch, Ye Xinglan was extremely familiar with magic born from negative emotions.
It seemed to be coming from… Xiaoxi’s room?
Though it might have been a hallucination, after hesitating for a moment, she decided to check Xiaoxi’s room to make sure she hadn’t been cursed by negative magic and was about to mutate into a freak.
Magic power came from human emotions and naturally had different classifications.
Positive, sunny emotions usually fueled magical girls’ magic power, while corresponding negative, depressed emotions would gather into monsters.
If a person’s emotions were too negative, they would attract magic of the same kind.
When that magic amassed beyond a certain limit, the person would be affected and mutate into a freak—this was how original freaks were formed.
Ye Xinglan thought for a moment and felt Xiaoxi might be caught up in the negative magic of “unemployment, no savings, failed matchmaking, and owing rent.” People with lives like hers were the most prone to becoming freaks.
Quietly, she slipped out of bed and into the living room.
Through the crack in the door, she saw a faint light and felt even more uneasy—hadn’t Xiaoxi said she was going to sleep already?
Why was her room’s light still on?
“Xiaoxi, what are you doing?”
Ye Xinglan suddenly pushed open the door.
Xiaoxi, who was leaning against the bed studying the black sphere, was so startled she shook and reflexively pulled the blanket over herself.
She distinctly remembered locking the door before leaving!
“I-I’m not doing anything. I just can’t sleep, so I’m scrolling on my phone.” Xiaoxi hurriedly grabbed her phone from the bedside and gave a mundane excuse.
But Ye Xinglan still eyed her suspiciously.
She had clearly seen Xiaoxi pull the blanket over something, but she hadn’t gotten a good look.
Seeing Ye Xinglan approach, Xiaoxi’s hidden hand tightened its grip on the black sphere under the blanket.
Now all she could do was pray Ye Xinglan hadn’t noticed the blanket-pulling motion.
“So you’re saying you’ve just been on your phone this whole time?”
Ye Xinglan leaned in close, nearly nose-to-nose, as if trying to catch something in Xiaoxi’s eyes.
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“You’re lying. You went out just now, didn’t you?”
Xiaoxi was taken aback, not sure how Ye Xinglan had figured it out.
Maybe she was just trying to bluff her.
Ye Xinglan sniffed again, then glanced outside at the pouring rain and said calmly,
“Don’t pretend. You clearly have the smell of outside on you. How could you not have gone out?”
Xiaoxi froze, immediately understanding that Ye Xinglan meant the “outside smell.” Before rain, the air always carried a pleasant scent of damp earth and grass, and she had flown back through the rain just now.
So Ye Xinglan hadn’t been trying to read her expression—it was the scent she was after.
“Why did you go out so late at night?”
Ye Xinglan was now even more certain of her suspicion, because upon entering Xiaoxi’s room, she had distinctly caught a trace of rapidly dissipating magic power.
In this world, besides monsters and freaks, only magical girls possessed magic power auras.
“Or… did you go out to do something you’re ashamed of?”
Ye Xinglan narrowed her eyes and scrutinized Xiaoxi from head to toe.
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