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

Ding.

The elevator stopped ascending and the doors opened.

Just as Zhan Ye was about to set off, she realized that this was not the floor she was going to.

An employee walked in from outside, silently entered the elevator, and pressed the button for another floor.

Zhan Ye glanced at the employee's name tag.

N7, barely qualifying as a formal employee of headquarters.

She was five levels below N12.

Looking at the elevator buttons, Zhan Ye snorted in dissatisfaction.

The employee's desired floor is lower than the floor she needs to go to, meaning the elevator will stop at least once more.

It's annoying.

She had had enough of the torment and didn't want to stay in this terrifying hell for even a second longer.

In yesterday's battle, I was struck by the evil magic of that red-eyed magical girl, which caused the three little mice to escape.

Naturally, the company was furious.

Zhan Ye thought he would be thrown into the laboratory soon, but after being scolded by his boss, everything just fizzled out.

After completing her physical repairs amidst fear and anxiety, she received an order—

Head to the 36th floor of the Tower of Babel; someone wants to see you.

The Tower of Babel is the headquarters of the Tianyi Group.

It is the tallest building in the entire city of Hezhi, with a height of over 1,000 meters. It is known within the Tianyi Group as the "Tower Connected to the Sky" and is a symbol of the Tianyi Group's dominant position in Hezhi.

The higher the rank of a leader, the higher the floor of their office. The height of the 36th floor means that the person who wants to see Zhanye is a big shot above N20.

What is the reason why the other party wants to see me?

Will she be lucky enough to survive by cutting off her karma, or will she fall into a deeper hell?

The elevator finally arrived at its destination.

Upon entering the thirty-sixth floor, several streams of magical energy assailed from all directions, scanning Zhanye from all angles.

Half a minute later, the scan ended, and Zhan Ye dared to continue forward.

Following her boss's instructions, she found the corresponding office and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened automatically, and Zhan Ye stepped inside with trepidation.

"Have a seat," the office owner said casually.

"As fellow magical girls, we don't need to worry about so many formalities."

Nevertheless, Zhan Ye responded respectfully.

When your boss tells you to do whatever you want, he's just showing his magnanimity; if you actually do it, you're just showing your own stupidity.

"Let me introduce myself. I am the newly arrived special task force leader of the Emergency Response Team of Hezhi City, codename Polar Day, and my magical girl level is two-color ring... that is, the Ring Bond level."

"I already know about your failure yesterday, and my assessment is—"

"You didn't lose unjustly."

The Polar Day was a girl with pure white hair, eyebrows, and pupils. She smiled, rested her chin on her hand, and continued:

"It has been determined that the organizer of yesterday's incident in the Lower City District was the middleman in the Lower City District named 'Miyan,' whose real name is Zhou Xuan. She is the granddaughter of Zhou Bowang, a member of the 300-member council of Hezhi City."

"She has a cooperative relationship with a perpetrator of the 'Zero Airport Incident' a month and a half ago. The latter is a member of the Magical Girl Rebels, also a member of the Two-Color Ring, and the instigator of the 'Epitaph Incident'."

"The wooden sticks you mentioned in your report should be her masterpiece."

Jizhou picked up the documents on the table, flipping through them as he spoke:

"From my personal perspective, your failure is understandable, but Tianyi Group does not want to adopt my proposal."

"They want someone to take the blame for the mission's failure, and you are the best choice."

"The biochemistry department has sent an application, wanting you to transfer to their department."

Sweating profusely as he cut off his karma.

Switching to a biochemistry department? The job would probably involve being researched!

That being said, Zhan Ye gleaned a positive signal from Ji Zhou's words.

"Lord Polar Day, it is my shame that I failed to protect the drone swarm."

"I want to atone for my crimes by doing good deeds."

The polar day is a newly appointed leader who must be short-staffed.

If she really wanted Zhan Ye to be a test subject in the biochemistry department, she wouldn't have needed to call him over at all.

Sure enough, the polar day slowly spoke:

"Because of the Zero Airport incident, more than 90% of the magical girls in the Tianyi Group have been placed under investigation and held accountable by their superiors, making them unable to be mobilized."

"You are one of the lucky few whose promotion path was legitimate and whose rank was so low that it was not worth investigating."

"Be thankful, I still need you to work for me for the time being, and your punishment will be postponed until I leave office."

"If you can perform a good deed during this time that is enough to offset your guilt, then there is still hope for you."

Upon hearing this, Zhan Ye immediately pledged his loyalty to Ji Zhou, bowing and saying:

"I am willing to give my life for the Lord of the Polar Day."

Jizhou waved his hand, signaling Zhanye to stand up, and then said:

"The drone and its onboard metal module were destroyed. Even if production starts immediately, it's impossible to complete it within a month."

"And in less than a month, it will be the 'foggy season'."

Fog season is a unique weather phenomenon in Hezhi City during autumn.

The entire city of He will be shrouded in thick fog for some time, ranging from half a month to as long as winter.

Because the dense fog will affect shooting, the lower city will enter a rare period of peace.

But for Tianyi Group, the foggy season is a big problem.

The thick fog that enveloped the entire city of Hezhi could not possibly be a normal meteorological phenomenon.

It can obstruct not only vision, but also magic.

Although close-range spellcasting will not be affected, the range of magic will be significantly reduced, which will directly weaken the Ring-type magical girl in the hands of the Tianyi Group, making it difficult for her to exert her full strength.

In this situation, scanning the entire downtown area would no longer be possible.

"The order has been given from above," said Polar Day.

"The problem of the leaked magical girl contract documents must be resolved before the fog season."

"At the very least, we must eliminate the ringleader."

In other words, it means killing the traitorous Ring-level magical girl and the cultist who colluded with her.

"Your previous strategy was too aggressive, which gave Miyan the opportunity to temporarily unite the various forces in the lower city."

"Although we dealt a heavy blow to the various forces in the lower city yesterday, we also suffered considerable losses."

That's unwise.

The polar day smiled and shook its head, then said:

"I will investigate the defection, and you will be responsible for dealing with the superstitions."

"The intelligence department will fully cooperate with our work."

Are you confident in your ability to complete the task?

--"have!"

Zhan Ye answered without hesitation.

"I have learned from my defeat, and I have a strategy to deal with it even if I encounter a wooden stick again."

The polar day nodded, maintaining its bright smile:

"There's one more thing: your prosthetic body's performance is no longer keeping up with your magical girl level."

"They have become a burden to you now."

"Are you prepared to remove your prosthetic body, or accept this prosthetic body upgrade plan?"

Zhan Ye naturally chose to upgrade his prosthetic body.

She needs to prove her loyalty, so she must choose the path of greater sacrifice.

A barely perceptible flicker of disgust crossed Polar Day's eyes. Then, she put away the documents and summarized:

"Alright, that's all I wanted to say to you."

"Once you receive the notification, go upgrade your prosthetic body."

After Zhan Ye left the office, Ji Zhou immediately slumped into his office chair.

She irritably rubbed her long hair, puffed out her cheeks, and muttered to herself:

"This is so annoying! Why did this kind of trouble have to happen to me?"

"Not only did they make me work, but they also captured a whole bunch of magical girls, leaving me with no one to work under me but this lowly commoner."

"I feel like I'm dirty just talking to her."

She fanned the air in front of her with disgust and answered her phone.

"Hello, this is the midnight sun."

Upon hearing the other person's voice, the polar day instantly adopted a gentle tone:

"Oh, it's Hyacinth! How have you been lately? Is work going well?"

"Hmm? You want me to help you find someone? Who?"

"...Oh, I see. I'm sorry, I'm very busy right now and can't get away. You know about all the troubles in Hezhi City lately, right? They've all fallen on my shoulders..."

After complaining for a while, Jizhou hung up the phone.

"Qi Li... Hmph, such a bastard doesn't deserve to be a magical girl at all."

"Missing? I'd rather she were dead."