What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
Is the one who’s supposed to die on Christmas actually me?
But didn’t I already set up a reverse flag?
Most of the surrounding crowd had already fled.
Feeling the stench of that magic grow increasingly thick, Fang Wei took a moment to peek out from behind the bench.
He immediately saw three entries.
[Mirror Magical Beast]
[Magical Beast Level: Level 5]
[Blood Dragon Magical Beast]
[Magical Beast Level: Level 5]
[Corruption Value: No Permission]
The first two red entries were Level 5 Magical Beasts, while the pink entry behind them belonged to Si Chen.
Although he couldn’t see what Si Chen was doing from the ground, hearing those dragon roars made him curse.
‘Dammit, is that guy really slaying a dragon?’
Si Chen had said long ago that he was going to take action against the Second Kashu Empire, but Fang Wei hadn’t expected him to be this efficient.
Even more unexpected was how underhanded the Second Kashu Empire could be.
It was one thing to release two Level 5 Magical Beasts at once, but the Blood Dragon Magical Beast seemed capable of shedding its own body tissue to create familiars.
Fortunately, these Wolf-type Familiars were highly goal-oriented.
They weren’t attacking the general public; instead, they were aiming for specific unlucky bastards.
Like Black Owl.
“Hahaha, Earth OL, screw you.”
“Can’t you put up a billboard ad before spawning a World Boss? You even spawned two at once.”
“Are you even human?”
“Is your Magical Girl supposed to fight Walpurgisnacht and Eve at the same time?”
While he desperately wished he could quit Earth OL right then and there, Fang Wei didn’t forget to glance at his phone.
[Old Wei, the Blood Kin’s new familiars will draw aggro from members of the Kashu Organization. Remember to stay far away.]
Oh, so Old Chen had sent him a message.
He had just been so immersed in his blissful date that he forgot to check it.
This one was on him; he shouldn’t blame Old Chen.
[Lord Black Owl, there are so many big dogs chasing me and our magical beasts. Little Fox can’t hold them off anymore. I’m retreating first, waaaaah!]
“Fox Freak, you prick…”
Fang Wei’s frequency of swearing reached a record high today.
He really shouldn’t have trusted this group of unreliable freaks.
Accompanying the dragon roars in the sky, more and more Wolf-type Familiars descended from above.
The ordinary citizens had already scattered in panic.
Fortunately, the familiars were focused on their targets, so there hadn’t been any major casualties yet.
In this specific area, the familiars were all converging on the mall.
“Hahaha, so I’m the World Boss after all.”
Once these familiars rushed into the mall, he would likely be chewed to pieces by those big dogs.
Fang Wei prayed to the senior villainous predecessors who had been sacrificed on Christmas: Tiger, the Cane Alien, General Schwarz, Kibagami Manyu, Jin, Azuma Michinaga…
Wait, how did a scumbag get mixed in here?
In any case—
‘Hehe, I definitely have to survive.’
While Fang Wei was checking his phone, Xia Yuanhua quickly reacted.
After all, as a veteran Magical Girl who had protected Nantong City for seven years, Xia Yuanhua wasn’t a “pure strength” type like Qi Qiancao or a reckless brute like Zhuge Yu.
She was a true combat-specialized Magical Girl.
She tackled Fang Wei to the ground, found cover, and reached for the side of her thigh.
Silver shotguns suddenly snapped into her hands.
Bang!
The gunshot exploded by his ear, but there was no stinging pain of a burst eardrum.
Several brass bullets engraved with exquisite patterns struck a Wolf-type Familiar, the impact sending it flying.
After the monster rolled to bleed off the momentum, the bullets embedded in its body instantly detonated, leaving behind nothing but burning golden flames.
Fang Wei was held protectively in Xia Yuanhua’s arms.
Looking sideways, he saw that although she hadn’t transformed into a Magical Girl, she held a silver shotgun in each hand.
The stocks were burning with golden flames, resembling gilded wings.
“It’s okay. Since Sister is a Magical Girl, I’ll protect little Fang Wei.”
Her voice was still gentle.
She didn’t explain where she had pulled the guns from, nor did she explain the background setting of being a Magical Girl.
It was just that a mature twenty-four-year-old woman felt a bit embarrassed mentioning the term “Magical Girl.”
The ferret, which had luckily avoided being thrown away, hung onto Xia Yuanhua’s arm and shouted breathlessly:
“Little Yuanhua, look—look outside! There’s a Level 5 Magical Beast! You need to go meet up with the other two Magical Girls right now!”
The little rodent’s panic was justified.
He didn’t know what was wrong with Earth OL tonight; it was like a monster spawner had gone haywire.
It was so desperate that after sending out Qi Qiancao and Zhuge Yu, it even had to call upon Xia Yuanhua, who had been retired for three years.
Under normal circumstances, a Level 5 Magical Beast required at least a proper Magical Girl squad to subjugate.
At the very least, that squad should include both physical and magical damage dealers, right?
It felt bad to say, but the active Magical Girls in Nantong City could only use super strength.
They were basically small fry who couldn’t form a proper team composition.
Who uses a pure physical team against a magical boss?
Encountering a Level 5 Magical Beast like that was just throwing their lives away.
If it were Fang Wei, he would be worried too.
If he woke up tomorrow morning to find his other two Magical Girls dead somewhere, his life would be over.
So, at a time like this, it was time for a veteran Magical Girl to lead the team.
It was clear that Xia Yuanhua’s previous attack wasn’t just pure magic.
Her mastery over magic had reached a level of perfection; it was a show-stopping display of combining physical and magical attacks.
It was like a former FPS champion picking up a mouse again.
She might be rusty, but once she adapted, she wouldn’t lose to anyone!
At this moment, Fang Wei and the ferret’s brain waves were perfectly synchronized.
“For the sake of this world…”
“Since Sister is a Magical Girl…”
“Then fight like a hero!”
The human and the ferret looked at each other with a sense of mutual understanding, as if they were long-lost friends.
“You… can you actually see me despite the cognition-shielding magic?”
However, in this moment of crisis, the mascot representing kindness and innocence in a children’s show couldn’t think too much about it.
It could only scream for Xia Yuanhua to transform immediately.
Xia Yuanhua ignored it and took a step forward.
She didn’t need anyone to remind her; she would protect little Fang Wei.
On this matter, at least, she absolutely could not run away.
—
After arranging a hiding spot for Fang Wei and giving him a shotgun for self-defense, Xia Yuanhua’s figure reappeared on the roof of the shopping mall.
The cold wind made her cheeks ache.
Looking down from above, the Wolf-type Familiars from the entire Nantong City New District were converging on this location.
The scene looked exactly like an outbreak of the zombie virus in Raccoon City.
Looking up, a prism shimmering with strange light almost completely obscured the sky with its massive body.
Stars and sunlight appeared simultaneously.
Stars were rare in Nantong City, so this was naturally the result of the mirror’s reflection.
The sunlight wasn’t because the earth was slowly waking up or because a ray of morning light had broken the silence of the night; it was because the Level 5 Mirror Magical Beast itself was glowing.
On the other side of the “sunlight,” one pink and one blue ray of light could be seen flashing.
The other two Magical Girls were locked in a bitter struggle.
The ferret flew in mid-air, pointing toward the other side.
“Little Yuanhua, don’t waste any time! Transform! Hahaha, it’s been so many years since I fought alongside you.”
Its eyes became exceptionally serious and determined.
“Let us protect this city once again! Let us protect love and peace!”
Its spirits were high.
With Xia Yuanhua’s help, they could definitely survive tonight.
But in the next second, Xia Yuanhua glanced at the ferret and said with utter indifference, “Protecting the world and childish things like love and peace… who cares?”
“Eh?”
The ferret’s large, anime-style eyes widened in shock and confusion.
“Then… then… what else is a Magical Girl supposed to do if not protect love and peace?”
“What else?”
Xia Yuanhua’s cheeks flushed slightly with the shyness of a young girl.
She cupped her burning face, her voice turning gentle again.
“To protect my little Fang Wei, of course~”
‘Wait, sister???’
The ferret felt as if its world had suddenly collapsed.
‘Where is my great Magical Girl of Love and Justice?’
‘The Magical Girls in the neighboring city aren’t like this! Shouldn’t you Magical Girls spend your days farming monsters, bickering with your teammates to strengthen your bonds, and having afternoon tea while fighting? Shouldn’t you be stripping down to give fanservice with the enemy female cadres in your spare time?’
‘Even being into tentacles would be better than this!’
It and Xia Yuanhua were both experts in magic.
As long as they weren’t idiots, they could see that the familiars were locked onto Fang Wei.
Add to that the fact that Fang Wei could ignore the cognition-shielding magic and see the ferret…
Unless Fang Wei claimed to be a Magical Girl with a “stick,” his true identity was practically shouting itself out.
Male, magic, a secret identity… this was the classic setup for a cadre of a villainous organization!
‘Little Yuanhua, how could you possibly not see it?’
The ferret was so anxious it wanted to cup its paws like a megaphone and scream into Xia Yuanhua’s ear: “Say something! Say something! Say something!”
But Xia Yuanhua was completely intoxicated by the satisfaction of being able to protect little Fang Wei.
The ferret, having its Magical Girl “stolen” away, cried tears like ramen noodles.
‘There’s a cuckold plot…’
‘Why is there a cuckold plot in our Magical Girl theater?!’
[Pathetic Victim Kneeling on the Ground.jpg]
Xia Yuanhua stretched and grabbed the ferret by the scruff of its neck.
She didn’t offer any further explanation.
Because now was the moment to protect the person most important to her, even at the cost of her life.