She was being hunted down, so she became a magical girl.

"so......"

"Was the whole thing a misunderstanding?"

Inside the coffee shop, Yan Yuling crossed her arms and looked at Xu Ting and Luo Ruowei with suspicion.

"Because of yesterday's conflict, your mother suffered a sudden bout of anger and accidentally bumped into the corner of the table when she got up in the middle of the night and died."

"Did you get the news from your brother, which is why you rushed out?"

She looked Luo Ruowei up and down, seizing on the biggest point of suspicion to ask:

"Didn't you cut off contact with your family?"

"How could you possibly get information from your brother?"

Luo Ruowei was taken aback, and Xu Ting immediately interjected:

"I also find it very strange."

"Did they publish the maids' contact information online?"

Xu Ting looked worried: "What if my family also...?"

"The store will strengthen information security from now on," Yan Yuling said, trying to reassure Xu Ting.

Then, she turned to Luo Ruowei and said sternly:

"Ruowei, check if you've browsed any strange websites. Be more careful about online security in the future."

Xu Ting successfully disrupted the conversation, leading Yan Yuling to conclude that "Luo Ruowei's brother found Luo Ruowei through the internet."

The truth is quite the opposite; it was Xu Ting who found Luo Ruoshan through the internet.

"And you, Xu Ting, how did you find Luo Ruowei?"

Yan Yuling's questioning came as expected.

Luo Ruowei has been with the coffee shop for several years, and her suspicion level is far lower than that of the newly joined Xu Ting. This issue needs to be properly explained.

Therefore, Xu Ting gave the following answer—

"I went to Luo Ruowei's house."

It seems like the truth, but the process and the truth are completely different.

"After meeting Ruowei's mother yesterday, Ruowei was worried that her mother might harm me, so she told me the approximate location of her house and told me to avoid that area."

"I went there and bumped into Ruowei."

"This is too dangerous!"

Yan Yuling lowered her eyebrows, tightened her lips, and reprimanded him with unprecedented sternness:

"Xu Ting, and Luo Ruowei, do you two simply not take my words seriously at all?"

She first pointed at Xu Ting, then angrily put her hands on her hips.

"Didn't I tell you not to take risks?"

Didn't you promise me?

Actually, I just nodded at the time, without making any verbal promises...

Although Xu Ting thought this, he wisely refrained from saying it aloud.

"And you, Luo Ruowei, it's one thing for Xu Ting to be a newcomer, but how can you, as a senior, not take the store's rules and regulations seriously!"

"I understand how you feel about the family emergency, but could you at least leave a message about what happened?"

"The girls in the shop are all frantic. I almost wanted to ask the boss to bring you back so we could help find you."

The two of them were scolded for a full half hour.

Xu Ting was almost unable to figure out whether Yan Yuling was studying "the way of a maid" or "the way of a teacher".

Finally, Yan Yuling arranged a punishment, letting the two off the hook:

"Luo Ruowei, you will copy the employee handbook fifty times. You are not allowed to rest until you finish copying it."

"If you're going to attend a funeral, remember to tell me in advance, otherwise you'll have to copy it five hundred times next time."

"Xu Ting, you'll copy this thirty times."

Xu Ting raised his right hand:

"Acting store manager, are we being forced to copy texts in your office as punishment?"

Yan Yuling glared at her:

"You really think of me as a teacher? Go find a table and write your lessons."

Yan Yuling acted more like a teacher punishing disobedient students.

Moreover, he was the kind of old-fashioned teacher depicted in TV dramas.

The teachers in Hezhi City no longer use primitive punishments like copying; they usually punish students by making them type out the school rules by hand instead of using keyboard shortcuts.

Xu Ting and Luo Ruowei exchanged a glance, then obediently picked up their pens and paper and left the office.

After finding a table to sit at inside the shop, Xu Ting asked the crow:

"So, half an hour has passed, what have you scanned?"

"A very fruitful harvest."

"Yan Yuling is indeed a magical girl. Not only does she possess excellent magical girl aptitude, but she can also be sensed to have extremely subtle magical energy fluctuations."

Xu Ting waited for a long time, but received no further response.

After copying the employee handbook the first time, she couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

"What then?" the crow asked, completely bewildered.

"Her level, her innate magic, her fighting style, her weaknesses, clues strongly connected to the Tianyi Group... you didn't find anything about it, did you?"

Feeling guilty, Crow typed "..." in the team voice chat.

"You dare to say you've had a fruitful harvest?"

Xu Ting was so angry she laughed.

"As a contracted beast, you're utterly useless, aren't you? Trash crow."

"If you're going to criticize someone, criticize the useless Black Phoenix..." the crow said weakly.

It is indeed quite guilty about this.

But given the crow's nature, its guilty conscience doesn't stop it from being stubborn:

"Xu Ting, why don't you think about it from the other side?"

"Even my powerful contracted beast couldn't easily find out Yan Yuling's background, so it's impossible for Tianyi Group to find out yours either."

"The fact that magical girls are good at hiding is also a good thing for you."

"And I also have my own considerations."

The crow switched to serious mode and spoke:

"The latest age for a magical girl to form a contract is eighteen, and Yan Yuling is already twenty-two."

"In the best-case scenario, she is a mature magical girl with more than four years of experience."

"She might notice if we investigate too deeply."

"If she fights you, you will most likely be killed within three moves."

Xu Ting stopped writing and asked in surprise:

"Is the difference that big?"

"I think my innate magic is pretty strong."

The crow shook its head, correcting Xu Ting's misconception:

"The Eye of Fear does have a good mechanism, but magic consumes mana."

"You're better off trying to control Yan Yuling with your meager magic than wrapping a main battle mech in a napkin."

"The reason you can manipulate the cult leader is because he is also a newcomer who has just become an evil beast."

"He lashed out at your back with one of his tentacles, without even making a cut."

"But Yan Yuling has most likely already [ascended to immortality]."

The crow began to explain the ranking system for magical girls.

The brief period between a girl signing the contract and her first transformation is called the "incubation period."

Once incubation is complete, the [Coloring Period] begins, during which magic power is condensed and the magic core is formed.

We must wait for the magic core to be born before we can begin to attempt [Ascension].

"The will is sublimated, and the remains are transformed."

"Only when a magical girl enters the [Ascension Stage] can she truly become a completely new existence, entirely different from ordinary people."

"They can soar freely through the sky and regenerate their bodies without limit as long as their magic core remains undamaged."

"Even if you planted high explosives under Yan Yuling's feet, she can quickly recover from her injuries, fly over your head, and blast you to death with a magic cannon."

Xu Ting picked up his pen and continued copying the employee handbook, silently saying to himself:

"Even though you say that..."

"But there must be quite a few magical girls in the Tianyi Group who have undergone metamorphosis, right?"

"Unless I find a way to deal with them, I will find it impossible to move an inch in Hezhi City."

"Will the method you mentioned before, 'helping you contract a new magical girl,' be able to be used? How is your condition recovering?"

After Xu Ting entered the coloring period, the crow did recover some of its condition and was able to form a contract with a new girl.

However, there is also a problem.

"The first problem is that we don't have any extra contracts or documents."

"My power has not fully recovered yet; forcibly creating a contract will put me into a deep sleep."

"Second problem: We haven't found a suitable target."

Xu Ting nodded with a wry smile.

She still had some ideas about the contract, and perhaps going through the Blackwater Gang's network would yield some results.

However, finding a girl of suitable age with the potential to become a magical girl is difficult.

"You can't expect a girl who can be contracted to fall from the sky, can you?"

Xu Ting thought helplessly.