Another morning.
Lin Yun sat in his office, staring blankly at the computer screen.
It had already been a week since he stayed overnight at Xia Liang's house. Since then, Xia Liang had clearly beco more motivated in both her training and studies. With the arrival of sumr break, the two rookie Magical Girls were now enjoying their vacation, while Lin Yun continued to toil away in his demanding work life.
Of course, calling it "demanding" was mostly a result of his own self-imposed pressure.
Juggling work was one thing, but he also had to occasionally review middle school subjects to help tutor Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang. On top of that, there was another pressing duty—hunting Ravagers.
Perhaps it was the arrival of sumr, but Ravagers had started appearing as frequently as mosquitoes. Where he used to encounter one every ten days or so, now one seed to surface every few days.
Just a few days ago, there were even two separate attacks occurring at the sa ti in different locations.
Fortunately, Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang had at least reached the threshold of combat capability. Even handling slightly stronger Egg-stage Ravagers was no longer an issue for them. In the end, they and Veronica split up, each handling a different site, successfully eliminating both threats.
But despite knowing his own abilities well, Lin Yun had to admit—Fangting City’s Magical Girl team was severely understaffed.
There weren’t enough fighters, not enough trainers, and even on the intelligence-gathering front, they were short on people.
Reviewing Fangting City's records on Ravagers over the past few years, he and Hong Siyu had found multiple clues. They were almost certain that so hidden Ravagers were still lurking. But due to the lack of detailed information, they couldn't determine whether any had reached the Cocoon-tier.
Given this situation—combined with the fact that recent hunts had yielded significant rewards, earning him a considerable amount of Echo—an idea began forming in Lin Yun's mind.
Maybe he should give up on his plan to live in seclusion and just quit his job altogether.
Hunting Ravagers as a Magical Girl granted Echo, which could, in turn, be converted into wealth.
While Echo couldn’t be directly exchanged for money in the Material World, it could be used to obtain currency from The Kingdom, or traded for gold, silver, and jewelry. There were countless ways to turn contributions into money.
If one didn't mind exposing themselves and getting arrested by the Investigation Bureau, a Magical Girl could even exchange contributions for supplies or weapons and sell them to civilians in The Kingdom or lower-tier magic users in the Material World. That was an easy, guaranteed-profit trade.
Of course, very few people were willing to tarnish their identity and power as a Magical Girl for such shady dealings. As a result, weapons and supplies from the Magic Kingdom remained expensive among Material World magic users.
As a Lifeti Magical Girl, Lin Yun could easily abandon his current job and make hunting Ravagers his primary source of inco.
In fact, Aya used to call herself a "freelancer"—and that "freelance job" was being a Magical Girl. She had even joked about supporting the entire household.
Now, that sa lifestyle was laid out before him: earning rewards by hunting Ravagers. With just a fraction of the Echo, he could easily cover household expenses, while the rest could be reinvested into strengthening the team.
It was a very practical path.
But Lin Yun hesitated.
For one simple reason—he didn’t want to.
At seventeen, he had chosen to give up being a Magical Girl, to return to an ordinary life, to focus on college entrance exams and a normal career. That choice had never been about money.
He didn't want to be a Magical Girl anymore.
He didn't even want to be associated with the Magic Kingdom. To this day, he refused to communicate with The Kingdom directly. His reasons were far more complicated.
At that thought, a mory suddenly surfaced—
A small hospital room.
A man on the bed, smiling as he spoke to him.
“…Dad, was my choice back then really the right one?”
Leaning back in his chair, Lin Yun murmured to himself.
But that question would never be answered.
The one who could answer was long gone, buried in the past, faded into forgotten mories.
Still lost in thought, he was suddenly pulled back to reality when his phone rang.
Picking it up, he saw the caller ID: Hong Siyu.
He looked at the screen, paused for a mont, then pressed the answer button.
“Hello?”
“Senior, are you there?” Hong Siyu’s voice ca from the other end.
“Yeah,” he responded in a low voice.
“Did you recruit any new mbers recently?” Her tone was casual, almost teasing.
Lin Yun stared at the computer screen and replied indifferently, “If you don’t have anything important to say, I’m hanging up.”
“Oh, co on, it’s not like telling would cost you anything. The Counterasure Bureau still doesn’t have a record of ‘Little Viola’ as a registered alias. Doesn’t that prove how trustworthy I am?” Hong Siyu sounded slightly annoyed.
“No, I haven’t. I was just thinking about how badly we need more people.”
That was only half true.
While it was undeniable that Fangting City’s Magical Girl team was shorthanded, he didn’t think it was the right ti to recruit anyone new.
In the long run, new recruits were necessary—Fangting City needed to rebuild its young Magical Girl force. He couldn’t carry everything alone forever. But for now, bringing in another rookie would only weaken his ability to protect them.
The most reasonable plan was to help Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang reach Bud-tier first—only then should they consider expanding the team.
“Ehh—”
Hong Siyu dragged out the sound, clearly skeptical, but she didn’t press further.
“Well, I’ve got so news for you. Want to hear it?”
“Go on,” Lin Yun said tersely.
“Alright. It's about that request for reinforcents we discussed earlier. The Investigation Bureau won’t send anyone, so I contacted a few Counterasure Bureau branches in central cities. They asked their local Seeders, and the response was the sa everywhere—no available personnel.”
Her voice carried an unclear emotion. “But the Counterasure Bureaus in York City and Jinglan City… their responses were a bit more interesting.”
“What did they say?” Lin Yun frowned slightly.
Hong Siyu suddenly asked, “Senior, rember when you asked if I was keeping sothing from you?”
“I rember.”
“Well, now it’s my turn to ask—is there sothing you haven’t told us?”
Lin Yun’s expression stiffened slightly, but his voice remained calm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Because the answers I got from them… weren’t what we expected.”
After a brief pause, she continued, “Want to read them out loud?”
“…Go ahead.” Lin Yun sighed, already guessing what she was about to say.
Faint tapping sounds ca through the phone—she was scrolling on her screen. Soon, she spoke again.
“York City’s Seeder, ‘Pikari,’ said: ‘The next 20-year mark is almost here. I’m not getting involved in that ss.’”
“Jinglan City’s Seeder, ‘Little Youyou,’ said: ‘Fangting City? The Fangting City where that one is? Yeah, no thanks. Not going near that place.’”
“And when others tried to press them for details, they just dodged the questions.”
Silence.
For a long mont, Lin Yun said nothing, and Hong Siyu fell quiet as well.
After a while, she hesitantly asked, “Senior… ‘next 20 years’ ans next year, right? So… their reasons must be different from the Investigation Bureau’s, right?”
Lin Yun closed his eyes.
Just like how he always insisted to Moko that his alias was ‘Veronica,’—it was true, but only because…
This was Fangting City.
And he didn’t want Moko reacting to his old codena.
Seeders—Fairies—were different from Magical Girls.
At least in certain matters, they always knew more than Magical Girls did.
“…Hah. Not that I couldn’t guess already.”
Lin Yun still remained silent, so Hong Siyu continued as if talking to herself.
“Back then, I wasn’t a Magical Girl yet, but Sister Shengzi told —after the ‘Garden’ defense battle nearly twenty years ago, you were summoned to the Rose Palace…”
“Enough, Hong Siyu.”
Lin Yun’s voice cut her off.
He opened his eyes.
His expression was blank—almost cold.
“No need to continue. You’re right.”
“…So it’s true?”
“Yes. At least part of it.”
“That’s… quite the achievent.”
Hong Siyu let out a small sigh. “I see. No other Magical Girl has ever done sothing like that, right?”
“Who knows.” Clearly not wanting to continue this topic, Lin Yun’s response was vague.
“So, that ans… we really aren’t getting reinforcents?”
“No. We’re not.”
“In that case…”
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Hong Siyu changed the subject.
“Senior, you said you were training the newbies for next year’s certification exam, right?”
“That’s right.” Lin Yun finally focused again.
“Well, if you don’t have ti, why don’t we try another option?”
She sounded a bit hesitant.
“…Like, maybe I could help?”
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