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

Stepping inside, the rain stopped.

Yan Yuling folded her black umbrella, pressing the tip against the floor tiles. The rainwater that had accumulated on the umbrella dripped down with an excessively loud sound.

She took a few more steps, walked to the television, and asked:

Where are they?

The television turned on in a flash, and a human figure with an indistinct face appeared on the screen.

"Madam," the voice came from the television, "you can see the target if you walk to the window."

Yan Yuling let out a long sigh.

The sigh was filled with exhaustion and helplessness.

Why do this?

"What good will it do you to lure me into this ambush?"

"Snipers outside the window, bombs under the floorboards, no fewer than ten cyborgs and twenty-seven drones... Do I deserve such a large-scale operation?"

The figure on the television screen rested his chin on his hands and said politely:

"You're joking."

"A magical girl commands a very high price from the Tianyi Group."

"What? Tianyi Group?" Yan Yuling's lips twitched upwards as if she had heard something utterly absurd.

She suppressed her expression and continued:

"So what are you planning to do to me?"

"Send me to the Tower of Babel?"

The figure shook its head:

"Unfortunately, Tianyi Group only wants dead magical girls."

"I understand that you possess great power, which makes you fearless."

"But after you see this, you might change your mind—"

The floor was instantly ripped off by the explosion.

But the pale white mist appeared before the firelight.

The mist enveloped Yan Yuling's ankles, instantly covering them with a layer of frost. The chill spread throughout her body, even hindering the flow of her magic.

If an ordinary magical girl were hit by this, she would lose her chance to escape and defend herself due to the mist.

But Yan Yuling—

It didn't move.

The explosion engulfed the girl's figure, and fragments of furniture and floorboards collided with each other in the flames, adding a shrapnel effect to the explosion.

But when the firelight died down, Yan Yuling was still standing in the same spot, completely unharmed.

She stared at the frost on her ankle, remaining silent.

With a slight exertion, the fog and frost were dispersed.

Yan Yuling took a step into the air, and an almost silvery-gray light surged from her heart.

The next moment, she fell to the ground, still wearing the same clothes.

She transformed in a tenth of a second.

The souls of the ambushers were already in her hands.

Yan Yuling raised her left hand, holding up a ball of light woven from a dozen gray shadows, while her right hand picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"The midnight sun, that's me, the hyacinth."

"Why is your magic working on a group of gangsters?"

"Oh dear, it seems someone has offended our Lady Hyacinth." A playful voice came from the other end of the phone.

"This inspiration came from that traitor. She infused her power into the wooden sticks and gave them to a group of illegal magical girls, which led to the defeat of one of my cheap subordinates."

"Betrayal is a two-color ring, and so am I."

"If she can spare the resources to fight a proxy war, why can't I?"

"Hyacinth, if you have the time, you can lend me your power too. You can kill people much faster than I can."

"I'm busy," Yan Yuling immediately rejected Polar Day's suggestion, then asked,

"You had the Tianyi Group put a bounty on the magical girl?"

"It's [Bounty for an Illegal Magical Girl]," Polar Day corrected.

"While you were cosplaying as a maid at the maid café, the Tianyi Group's base in the lower city was attacked by a large group of people."

"They each have at least one illegal magical girl in their possession; together they're a formidable opponent."

"So, I put up a bounty and let them fight it out themselves."

"Those forces already had their own grudges, and their previous alliance was just a desperate alliance formed due to oppressive policies. I showed them the extra benefits they could gain from fighting each other, and they started fighting amongst themselves."

"It's like cricket fighting, isn't it fun?"

Yan Yuling closed her eyes and shook her head.

With a gentle wave of her left hand, all the souls she had extracted with her natal magic returned to their places.

"This is your task, so I can't say much more."

"But your strategy will cause many innocent girls who are not magical girls to suffer."

The polar day chuckled lightly and said flippantly:

"They're just unlucky, aren't they? Who told them to be so beautiful?"

"If you feel sorry for your friends in the coffee shop, give me a list, and I'll grant them a magic immunity."

"As for the gangsters, I can't do anything about it. Only the apostles of evil gods have mind control spells. If I could control them, there would be no need for this whole thing."

Yan Yuling nodded and said:

"Okay, I'll give you the list in a bit."

Yan Yuling hung up the phone, guessing that the gangsters lying in ambush on her would be waking up soon, so she left the place and headed towards the coffee shop.

It was exactly nine o'clock in the evening when I got back to the coffee shop.

The door that Qi Li had damaged had been repaired. Yan Yuling took out her key, only to find that the lock cylinder had been changed and she couldn't open it.

She had no choice but to use magic to pick the lock, enter the room, and arrive at the office.

Wu Wanqiu sat among them.

"You're back?"

"Um."

The two did not exchange any further words, but they were both fully aware that "Qi Li had been completely lost".

After a long silence, Wu Wanqiu finally broke it.

"Yu Ling, let's not look for her anymore."

"Should we let Qi Li die?" Yan Yuling raised her eyes and looked at the other person, her tone filled with anger.

"At least keep her in the coffee shop—"

"And then what? Let her suffer from cyberpsychosis and leave this world in a manner similar to that of a 'witch'?"

Wu Wanqiu interrupted Yan Yuling's words with great emotion.

"If Qi Li doesn't become a magical girl, no one can cure her illness."

"If we let her become a magical girl, she'll turn into the ugliest witch!"

"I wanted to save her too, but no one can overcome reality, no one can overcome fate!"

After saying that, she seemed to have all her strength drained away, and slumped weakly in her chair, saying in a tiny voice:

"Rather than turning her into a witch, let her choose her own destiny."

Upon hearing this, Yan Yuling realized that she no longer had any chance of persuading the other party.

"Witchification" is an absolute taboo for Wu Wanqiu.

Wu Wanqiu founded this coffee shop to commemorate her daughter who died after becoming a witch.

Even so, Yan Yuling's anger was hard to quell.

She stared at the woman before her, the woman she had followed for six years, the woman she had viewed with extremely complex emotions for those six years.

For the first time, Wu Wanqiu's demeanor became extremely unfamiliar in her eyes.

I misjudged you.

Leaving out such a statement was the limit of what Yan Yuling could do.

She turned and left the office, her voice trailing behind her as Wu Wanqiu spoke:

"Perhaps you've misjudged me all along."

"Yu Ling, get some rest."