Chapter 29 : Are there too many traitors?

“Was it written by someone who knows you?” Miss L touched her chin. “Your idol manager? Or some other staff member familiar with you?”

“Neither,” Mu Xingge said firmly. “No one else could know so many of my past defeats against monsters. Whoever wrote that must be very close to me and well acquainted with my magical girl career!”

This only made Mu Xingge more annoyed, as she couldn’t figure out who would write something like that. It felt like there was a mole nearby, but she just couldn’t pinpoint who it was.

“So what will you do if you catch that person?”

“Is that even a question?” Mu Xingge cracked her knuckles loudly. “I’ll definitely show them the limits of the human body’s ability to take a beating.”

If outsiders could see the gentle and cheerful Mu Xingge on stage acting like this in private, their idol illusion would probably shatter.

“Forget it, don’t dwell on it, Xingge. Since it wasn’t named outright, you really don’t have to take it personally.”

Miss L pushed up her glasses. “You should prepare in advance. Don’t you have a mission tomorrow? If you think there’s something off about [Sirius], then just observe her during the mission.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll head out now.”

After Mu Xingge waved goodbye and left her office, Miss L immediately picked up her phone and sent a message to Xiaoxi.

“Xingge senses something’s wrong. Be extra careful on your next mission.”

After sending the message, Miss L thought about what Mu Xingge had said earlier. Although she didn’t know who the mole writing those novels was, her own behavior seemed somewhat mole-like as well.

Sorry, Xingge, looks like you’ve got quite a few moles around you.

The next morning, outskirts of the city, inside an abandoned factory.

“[Red Riding Hood], watch your back!”

Red Riding Hood spun around sharply, but before she could react, the monster lunging at her from behind was punched back by Xiaoxi’s fist. Xiaoxi immediately charged forward to finish it off. After several rounds of fighting, she successfully eliminated the creature.

Nearby, Mu Xingge waved her hand casually, sending several musical notes flying as beams of light that wiped out the remaining monsters.

“Okay, it’s over. You two alright?”

Their group was originally here to investigate the Mang Lang Gang incident. In the past couple of days, Grey Wolf had finally come to his senses after being in a monstrous state. The association had interrogated him extensively.

The large-scale monster attacks in the city were indeed not orchestrated by them. The Mang Lang Gang was just a bunch of small-time thugs being used as pawns. According to Grey Wolf, the devices capable of releasing monsters were given to him by a mysterious person.

Grey Wolf hadn’t even met this person face-to-face. Both the payment and the equipment were dropped off at a designated location—the very abandoned factory they were now in.

That was why Miss L dispatched Mu Xingge’s squad to check the situation. With Xiaoxi’s addition, Miss L had already decided to assign this case to them. Officially, it made sense too—Mu Xingge was the only S-rank magical girl in Xianghai City. If not her team, then who else?

Sure enough, the factory was rigged with an ambush. There were at least a dozen D-rank monsters inside. Although numerous, they were all cannon fodder.

Honestly, if Mu Xingge went all out, she could clear these low-level monsters in minutes. But she had deliberately held back, fighting while secretly observing Xiaoxi.

However, the magical girl [Sirius] showed no abnormalities in combat. Her magic fluctuations remained stable around D+, and she still had to put effort into fighting the monsters.

If there was one odd thing, it was that Sirius seemed overly focused on Red Riding Hood during the fight, as if afraid she would get hurt. She stayed close to Red Riding Hood the entire time.

But Red Riding Hood had been injured on the last mission, so Sirius’ behavior was understandable. Mu Xingge could only say she was too much of a team player.

“Gather up the Monster Seeds and let logistics handle the cleanup,” Mu Xingge looked around. “But it seems like there won’t be any new clues.”

The other side had clearly anticipated their arrival and set traps, so they naturally left no evidence behind.

Since monsters were creatures formed by condensed magical energy, their magic wouldn’t just vanish after being defeated.

Most of the magic dissipated upon the monsters’ death, but some would condense into Monster Seeds—items that if left unattended, would soon gather magical energy again to form new monsters. Therefore, after every battle, magical girls had to ensure all Monster Seeds were collected.

While collecting Monster Seeds, Mu Xingge’s eyes landed on the spiked gauntlets on Xiaoxi’s hands. She asked casually, “By the way, are those gauntlets your weapon? Didn’t expect you to awaken your own weapon at D-rank.”

Every magical girl had her own weapon, but those newly awakened as D-rank usually couldn’t yet form their own weapons—like Red Riding Hood.

That was why the association provided standard magic wands as weapons for lower-ranked magical girls to channel their magic.

“Well, maybe I’m just lucky,” Xiaoxi said sheepishly, shrinking her neck. Her tone was a little guilty, but Mu Xingge couldn’t see through anything suspicious. There were magical girls who awakened their weapons early, and Xiaoxi had already toned down her magic fluctuations in battle.

Mu Xingge nodded, but she had a feeling Sirius was a bit afraid of her. Was it because her presence as a senior was too intimidating?

Mu Xingge reflected for a moment. After all, she was an S-rank magical girl—that title alone was enough to pressure others. But since they were teammates, she hoped to get along well with the other two.

A magical girl team was a community bound by fate—something A Xing said once, though that jerk had gone off on his own. Still, Mu Xingge agreed wholeheartedly.

With that in mind, Mu Xingge softened her tone. “You might want to consider learning some close combat skills. Compared to large-scale magic output, your fighting style probably leans more toward physical attacks, right?”

“If you ever have questions, feel free to ask me. Oh, and—let’s add each other as friends first.”

Mu Xingge decided to appear friendly and approachable, pulling out her phone proactively.

“Alright, Xingge… Mu Xingge senpai.”

Xiaoxi didn’t think much of it. She had changed her phone number and social accounts three years ago anyway, so she wasn’t worried about Mu Xingge finding out anything from this.

“I’ll scan your code.”

Mu Xingge leaned in to scan, but just as she was about to pull away, her eyes caught sight of something.

“Huh, this group chat…”

Xiaoxi’s heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively hid her phone.

Crap. She almost forgot she’d just created a reader group!

It actually wouldn’t matter if someone else saw it, since Xiaoxi had deliberately named it “V Me 50 Crazy Thursday Insights Group “, but Mu Xingge had joined this group before and knew exactly what it was for!