Chapter 2: The Sudden Chase

Huangya was not deceived by Number Zero’s expression; in the very next instant, she stomped the ground and leaped forward.

The first strike was a sweeping blow infused with Magical Power.

Number Zero hastily jumped back to evade. The hammerhead swept past just below her chin, and she immediately felt as if the Magical Power clinging to it was about to jump onto her face.

She managed to dodge, but immediately had to deal with the next downward smash.

Huangya’s swing of the warhammer was noticeably more powerful, though the speed had decreased to some extent. It seemed easier to dodge, but her experience from watching the Original Work made Number Zero instantly raise her guard to the highest level.

This move is…! No, I can’t dodge this in the usual way!

Sure enough, just as she expected, Huangya didn’t even bother to strike with precision. She slammed the hammerhead fiercely into the ground, and the cement floor instantly erupted with a fierce flash of lightning. Like ripples, it spread layer by layer, shattering everything it touched from within— even the Roll-Up Door behind Number Zero was blasted off by this terrifying force.

Suspended in midair, Number Zero could only sigh in her heart at her narrow escape.

Right before the lightning burst, she split her palm in two, extending a bamboo-jointed steel tentacle from the exposed gap.

The tentacle hooked onto a beam above, pulling her up, and in the next second, the lightning surged beneath her feet.

Thankfully, Iron Thorn could be used.

Number Zero felt relieved—this was the most basic magic she could use in the Original Work.

With enough Magical Power, she could even form multiple tentacles into a cage, imprisoning an entire building within.

But from the beginning, she’d sensed it—this body was constantly warning her of “insufficient Magical Power,” so even extending this one tentacle was her limit, let alone using any other magic.

Was it because she got beaten so badly that her Magical Power leaked away?

In any case, she realized it was impossible to win against Huangya here.

Fortunately, she didn’t need to win; the door destroyed by Huangya had already opened another path of escape for her.

Number Zero thought to herself: I ought to thank her for this.

As soon as the lightning faded, she let go of the tentacle and took off running.

Huangya clicked her tongue, then soared into the air in pursuit.

Once out of the Factory Building, Number Zero quickly found herself at a riverside pier. Not far away, she could see the iconic white Steel Truss Bridge and rows of towering buildings.

This meant she was in the city center of Jiangchuan City—one of the most important stages in the Original Work.

At the same time, most of the stories related to Huangya happened in this area. Running into her here wasn’t anything unusual.

But… the current “scene” she was in had never appeared in the Original Work, and “Number Zero” was not a character active in the city center. What was going on?

Such confusion blossomed in her mind.

Before she could find an answer, lightning exploded behind her again, burning a corner of her Inpatient Gown.

Looking back, she saw Huangya soaring at low altitude, like a legendary deity. She raised her warhammer high, and punitive bolts of lightning continuously struck around Number Zero from the hammerhead.

As expected of Huangya, she was exactly like in the Original Work.

Number Zero couldn’t help but marvel, even if it was ill-timed.

Some might be deceived by her heavy weapon, but in fact, she was an extremely agile, long-range combat Magical Girl.

Even her flying ability was unrivaled.

Aside from that, Number Zero soon realized she faced another problem: her Magical Power was running dangerously low the more she moved.

If I run out of Magical Power, as a magical construct, I’ll be nothing but scrap metal. Looks like I have to shake off Huangya before that happens.

She was well aware of the crisis and her win condition. While calculating her remaining time, she rushed toward the city area, where it would be easier to hide.

Lightning repeatedly flashed past her as she fled. Although her arms, neck, and legs suffered varying degrees of damage from the aftershocks, she dodged most attacks with agile movements. Though she had only just been reborn as Number Zero, her mastery over this body far surpassed any time in her past.

A three-meter-high iron fence blocked her path. She simply hooked the top with her steel tentacle and was pulled over, landing from midair with only a slight knee bend before seamlessly breaking into a run.

Amazing… This body feels more like mine than my previous one ever did.

This even made Number Zero feel a little elated, even though at that moment, a Magical Girl was seriously trying to kill her.

After clearing the fence, she sprinted down the porch of a narrow street, hoping the buildings would shield her from Huangya’s lightning. However, to Huangya, such obstacles were little more than bubble wrap in every sense of the word.

Soon, an explosion burst overhead, followed by chunks of cement raining down. Lightning blasted through the corner of a building and shot to Number Zero’s feet.

“Ah!”

Startled by the unexpected attack, she leapt aside, barely dodging it. She hadn’t expected that the building would end up blocking her own view instead.

This is bad… It’s even harder to predict the path of the next lightning strike!

Number Zero regretted the escape route she had chosen.

Next came signboards, awnings, parasols—everything that had ever been above Number Zero’s head was shattered by lightning.

Dodging frantically, she shouted at Huangya, “You Magical Girl! What exactly are you protecting!”

But of course, Huangya ignored her and continued the attack, because behind them, the destroyed street was already beginning to restore itself, as if rewinding in reverse.

Number Zero nearly forgot—this was one of the underlying logics of the Original Work’s world: Repair Magic.

Anything accidentally destroyed by a Magical Girl would soon repair itself automatically. And since this was a wide-area magic cast by a certain High-Ranking Entity, it didn’t consume the Magical Power of the Magical Girls to activate. That’s why the audience jokingly called it an underlying logic.

In reality, writers often added these “convenient” settings to patch up plot holes. Number Zero had thought this setting was the same.

But now she realized it had a real purpose in the story: allowing Magical Girls to fight without any burden.

As expected of the Original Work—even this detail was so well crafted!

Just as she was thinking this, a bolt of thunder crashing down beside her snapped Number Zero back to reality.

“But with things like this, what am I supposed to do!”

She spun her mind at full speed to think of a countermeasure, and soon came up with a slightly nasty idea.

“Right, if objects won’t work, then…”

The moment she reached her conclusion, she immediately turned and ran toward the bustling Commercial Street.

Here, compared to just before, there was only one new variable—“people.”