“Team Leader, sit tight!”

“Wait, no……??!”

Lin Han absolutely never expected that Zhou Ran’s idea of “being able to help” meant doing it this way—

Pedaling a bicycle with Lin Han on the back, speeding wildly down the road!

And it wasn’t an ordinary bicycle……

It was a mountain bike that looked like it had undergone countless crazy modifications. The frame was covered in strange stickers like “Extreme Fat Burn,” “Break Through Yourself,” and “Slack Today, Regret Tomorrow,” while a highly unreliable-looking metal bracket had been temporarily installed as a back seat.

Sitting on the back seat, Lin Han was jolted so hard his soul almost left his body.

“Why would you park something like this under the SAVE Building?!”

“For commuting!”

Zhou Ran shouted back.

His voice was torn to pieces by the wind.

“This is my secret to zero tardiness! Hahahaha! Don’t worry, Team Leader! I have a bicycle driver’s license!”

“There is absolutely no such thing in this world!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Zhou Ran violently yanked the handlebars, squeezing right between two cars blocking the intersection.

Lin Han subconsciously gripped the rear seat, feeling as if his soul had left his body for a few seconds.

Great.

Whether he would die at the hands of a Calamity today was still unclear, but it was highly likely he would die at the hands of his own team member first.

But he had to admit, Zhou Ran was indeed fast.

It was currently the peak of the midday traffic; driving a car would easily get them stuck on the road. Riding that heavily modified bicycle, Zhou Ran relied entirely on his absurd physical stamina to weave between the traffic and the sidewalks.

Of course, this process was accompanied by the terrified gazes of countless pedestrians, as well as Lin Han’s increasingly numb expression.

He had no idea how Zhou Ran managed to pedal a bicycle faster than a motorcycle…

The wind whipped past his ears.

The city streets continuously receded. The passing vehicles, traffic lights, pedestrians, shop signs, and roadside electronic screens all blurred into a chaotic stream of light in his vision.

Lin Han looked down at his phone.

He dialed Jiang Wanfeng’s number once again.

As expected, it still wouldn’t connect.

He stared at Jiang Wanfeng’s name on the screen, his knuckles turning slightly white.

Just then, Tang Xiaoman’s voice came through the earpiece.

“Team Leader, Team 3, where Gu Xinglan is, has arrived at Qingchuan Public.”

Lin Han immediately asked,

“How’s the situation?”

“According to their report, a barrier has indeed been set up over Qingchuan Public. They’ve temporarily opened a passage through the barrier. If you’re going in too, you’d better hurry.”

It was rare for Tang Xiaoman to speak such a long string of words at once without stuttering, but it was obvious she was still extremely nervous.

Also on the channel, Zhou Ran heard what Tang Xiaoman said and took a deep breath.

“Hraaaaaah—”

The bicycle’s speed surged once more. Lin Han even felt that the bumpy, beat-up bike was going to fall apart in the next second.

Enduring the discomfort, Lin Han continued to ask,

“Any other intel?”

“No,” Tang Xiaoman’s voice hesitated. “After entering the barrier, Team 3 lost contact with our side. It’s highly likely that the signal is being blocked.”

Lin Han wanted to say something else, but with a sharp turn of the bicycle, the voice in the earpiece was gradually replaced by a piercing static.

“Team Leader… bzz… I… bzz… things are bad…”

“Team Leader! We’re here!”

Zhou Ran slammed on the brakes. The bicycle tires scraped against the ground, leaving a pitch-black skid mark accompanied by a piercing screech before finally coming to a stop at the entrance of Qingchuan Public High School.

Lin Han gripped Zhou Ran’s shoulders and looked up, his face pale. Tang Xiaoman’s voice in his earpiece completely vanished.

It seemed this was the absolute limit for maintaining communication.

Lin Han got off the bike, his legs weak and trembling, feeling as dizzy as if he had just ridden a roller coaster ten times in a row.

Lin Han looked at Qingchuan Public High School.

From the outside, it indeed looked perfectly normal. The sunlight was bright, the campus was quiet, and he could even see a few students leisurely walking around the sports field.

However, right in the middle of Qingchuan Public’s main entrance, an illusory ring of light was continuously shrinking, this was likely the temporary passage opened by Team 3.

Through this ring of light, Lin Han was shocked to see a completely different scene—

Shattered windows.

Billowing black smoke.

Fleeing students…

“Team Leader.”

Zhou Ran tossed his bicycle aside and rolled his shoulders.

“I’m going in with you.”

“No.”

Lin Han refused almost without hesitation.

“But—”

“You stay outside.”

Lin Han spoke rapidly. “You’ve already helped me enough. This was all my recklessness to begin with, and I can’t drag you into danger too.”

“I—”

“This is an order from your Team Leader. Listen to me this once, please.”

With that, he didn’t give Zhou Ran another chance to stop him, turning around and charging straight into the shrinking ring of light.

The instant he passed through the ring, it felt as though a film had been ripped off the world. The relatively normal sound of the wind in his ears was instantly replaced by screams, explosions, and piercing alarms.

Lin Han looked back and saw that Zhou Ran had indeed followed his instructions and hadn’t chased after him. A wave of relief washed over him.

Next, it would be his battle alone…

The air was thick with the smell of smoke and dust.

Lin Han looked up.

Then, he saw the fierce battle in the sky,beneath the grayish-black Canopy, three figures were clashing.

A woman in a dark gray coat stood in midair, stepping on fine, dense black threads like an elegant yet dangerous spider.

And fighting against her were two figures.

One of them wore a SAVE combat uniform, wielding a short blade wrapped in faint blue lightning, it was Gu Xinglan.

And the other…

“A Magical Girl?”

Looking at the girl enveloped in orange-gold radiance in the sky, Lin Han was stunned.

Why was a Magical Girl here too?

However, the next second, for some unknown reason, Lin Han felt an extremely familiar sensation from that orange-gold figure…

From this far away, Lin Han couldn’t even clearly see the girl’s face within the light.

But what was with this inexplicable feeling?

It was as if that girl was…

A name so absurd he hardly dared to believe it surfaced from the depths of his mind.

Just as he wavered, the battle in the sky suddenly shifted—

Veil Weaver curled her fingertips, and dozens of black lines dropped from The Canopy.

Gu Xinglan attempted to charge forward, but was forced back by the black lines.

The orange-gold Magical Girl, however, was ensnared by several Threads, unable to break free.

Veil Weaver chuckled and raised her hand.

A split second later, the orange-gold figure plummeted from midair like a kite with a snapped string.

Lin Han’s heart skipped a beat.

“Wanfeng…”

He didn’t even realize he had uttered the name out loud.

And in that exact moment, a low growl came from behind him.

Lin Han whipped his head around.

A Mutant had somehow appeared right beside him. It opened its twisted maw and lunged at him.

Too close!

Lin Han only had time to throw up his hands.

Then, a sharp pain tore through his chest.

Bang!

He flew backward, crashing heavily onto the ground as the air was forcibly squeezed from his lungs.

His vision instantly went black.

Lin Han opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound; he could only hear a ringing in his ears.

It hurt…

It hurt so much that it felt like all his internal organs had been torn out and haphazardly stuffed back in.

Dragging its twisted limbs, the Failed Mutant crawled toward him inch by inch.

Its movements were not fast.

But Lin Han found that he couldn’t move at all. His fingers had no strength, and his legs felt like they no longer belonged to him.

Even every breath he took carried the rusty taste of blood…

Time seemed to slow down.

The surrounding screams, explosions, and sounds of battle all sounded as if they were muffled by a thick barrier.

In the end, it still came down to this.

Watching the Mutant draw closer and closer, Lin Han suddenly found it somewhat absurd and couldn’t help but laugh at himself.

He knew full well that he was just an ordinary person, and that coming here might not change anything.

But he came anyway.

And then what?

How long had he even been here… He had just run over here to throw his life away.

And to die so unceremoniously…

He even wanted to laugh a little, but his chest hurt too much; he couldn’t.

He had heard that a person’s life would flash before their eyes right before they died, and he wondered what his would look like…

Where’s the life flashback?

Lin Han waited for a while.

Nothing.

He waited a little longer.

Still nothing.

Lin Han suddenly felt a bit speechless.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Not even a flashback?

Was his life really so barren that a highlight reel couldn’t even be put together before he died?

He clearly had a period where he was called a “genius” and a “rising star,” was even that memory not qualified to make it into the flashback?

Hey, hey, what’s going on…

“You really look pathetic, Lin Han.”

He finally got something, though it wasn’t the memory fragments he had imagined, but rather a voice that was both familiar and somewhat unfamiliar.

The voice was crisp and elegant, carrying a hint of irritating amusement.

Lin Han opened his eyes.

Everything around him had disappeared at some point, replaced by an endless, empty blackness.

And in the center of that blackness stood a girl so incredibly beautiful she seemed like a creation of the gods.

Lin Han knew her.

“Phildeia…”