“There, there, be good, don’t cry, don’t cry—”

Wen Yumian quickly gathered Lulu into her arms, gently stroking it like she was smoothing out a small animal’s fur.

“Wanfeng means no harm.”

“Wuwuwu, Xiao Feng’s eyes were so scary!”

Su Lingyin let out a yawn.

“Lulu, you stepped on a landmine. After all, Xiao Feng is a brocon.”

Jiang Wanfeng’s expression stiffened.

“Why are even you saying that, President…”

“Because it’s the truth. Huhuhu, does a certain someone really think they hid it well? Besides, what do you mean by ‘even’? Oh my, have your classmates finally realized it too—”

Su Lingyin had found her chance for revenge, her smile stretching almost to her ears.

“Ahem, the meeting.” Jiang Wanfeng quickly tapped the edge of the table.

“Didn’t you say we were going to hold a strategy meeting?”

Lulu finally recovered from its fright, rubbed its head against Wen Yumian’s cheek, and carelessly flew back onto the table.

“Oh right, back to the main topic.”

It cleared its throat, trying to put on the majestic air of an envoy.

“The Kingdom has issued an order. The scale of the Mutant Incident in W City this time is abnormal. We must gather the Mutant Cores as soon as possible and hand them over to the Kingdom for analysis.”

Su Lingyin lazily raised her hand.

“I have a question—”

“Go ahead.”

“As soon as a Mutant appears, it gets collected by SAVE. When would it ever be our turn?”

Lulu slapped the table in distress, though its cotton-like stubby little hands only produced a soft “poof” sound.

“That’s exactly why you need to work harder!”

“Besides, the way you are right now, can you really defeat a Mutant?”

Su Lingyin hesitated for a moment.

“We probably… could.”

“What do you mean ‘probably could’?! You definitely can’t!”

Lulu flew to the blackboard at the front of the classroom in exasperation and waved its little paws.

A piece of chalk automatically flew up, writing a few lines on the blackboard—

It tapped them one by one with its paw, making “poof, poof” noises against the blackboard.

“You won’t be able to reach higher levels for now. But also here in W City, the team led by the Envoy next door already has two First Blooms!”

“Now look at you, three Sprouts! At best, only Lingyin has barely touched the edge of First Bloom!”

“What kind of team are they leading, and what kind of team am I, Lulu, leading?”

“If this keeps up, we’re going to lose completely!”

Lulu put its hands on its hips, puffing with anger.

The three Magical Girls looked at each other, all completely speechless.

Lulu pulled a small pair of black-framed glasses from nowhere and put them on. Looking just like a devilish instructor, it spoke with an imposing aura:

“A Magical Girl’s power comes from wishes. Your rank advancement depends on the accumulation of magic power, combat experience, and most importantly, the desire to realize your wish!”

“That is to say, you must chase your dreams! Let your obsessions burn! Let the radiance in your hearts bloom!”

“To shine! That is the life of a Magical Girl!”

Su Lingyin grimaced and muttered,

“Even if you say that… it sounds so exhausting.”

Lulu rolled around in the air out of pure frustration.

“The desire you three have to realize your wishes is among the strongest I have ever seen! So why can’t that be turned into motivation? You guys are waaaay too lazy!”

“At this rate, when will you be able to stand on your own two feet, and when will I be able to complete The Kingdom’s…”

Boom!

Lulu’s words were cut off by a loud explosion. The entirety of the old clubroom shook violently, and dust rustled down from the ceiling.

The windows rattled with a piercing sound, and pieces of chalk rolled off the blackboard tray onto the floor.

Screams from students and teachers echoed from the hallway outside.

Startled, Lulu fell from the air and smacked onto the ground.

The three of them stood up abruptly, exchanging glances filled with disbelief.

The next second, an ear-piercing alarm sounded over the campus broadcast system.

Before the alarm could finish playing, it was replaced by a sharp burst of static and rushing white noise.

Zzzt—

Zzzt—

Then, a hoarse voice came through the speakers.

“Hello— Hello—”

“Mic check—”

“Can you hear me? Ah, great, looks like it still works—”

“Students of Qingchuan Public, congratulations.”

“Rejoice, for you will have the chance to become new humans, just like me…”

The voice from the broadcast was gradually drowned out by screams and explosions, fading into chaotic background noise…

Qingchuan Public High School, administration building rooftop.

The wind blew past from above, carrying the chaotic screams from the distant sports field amid the clamor.

A woman stood at the edge of the guardrail, looking down at the entire campus.

She wore a loose, dark gray coat, its hood gently swaying in the wind. Her exposed profile was pale and delicate, with a few fine black stripes beneath the corners of her eyes, and her lipstick was so vividly bright it was almost piercing.

Her gaze, as she watched the chaos on campus, was so calm it bordered on indifference.

Below, a massive number of twisted “failures” were flooding into the teaching area.

Most of them only possessed the strength of a D-Class Calamity, and because they lacked sentience, the actual combat power they could display was even lower.

However, their advantage lay in their numbers. They were the most perfect hounds for herding and terrorizing a frightened flock of sheep.

Some of these failures still retained a human silhouette, while others had completely mutated into crawling monsters.

They shattered glass and tore through fences, inciting panic and chaos across the corridors and the sports field.

Teachers were still struggling to maintain order, while students cried and screamed as they fled toward the evacuation area.

The internal disaster prevention system of the school had already been activated. Several heavy quarantine doors were slowly descending in an attempt to isolate the teaching buildings, but the failures were faster than expected. A few had already stormed into the main building.

The woman simply watched all of this quietly, as if she were inspecting her own pasture.

“Veil Weaver.”

A man’s low and hoarse voice came through the woman’s earpiece.

“Are things ready on your end?”

The woman raised her hand.

Fine black threads dangled from her fingertips.

These threads were not physical objects, but rather formed from some kind of grayish-black magic. They extended from the edge of the rooftop, spreading along the exterior walls of the teaching building, the sports field, the gymnasium, and the laboratory building.

Looking down from high above, one would find that the entirety of Qingchuan Public High School was already enveloped by a giant web.

At the nodes of the web, fist-sized chunks of grayish-black flesh were faintly pulsing.

These were temporary shielding devices crafted from the core fragments of Failed Mutants. When a sufficient number of devices were woven into the same area, they could form a sealed zone.

The woman gently closed her fingers.

A device at the edge of the rooftop throbbed like a heartbeat.

“Of course. We’ve been preparing for this for a long time, after all.”

Her voice was very light, carrying a hint of a lazy smile.

“The barrier is fully deployed. According to our estimates, this canopy can hold for at least an hour. For the next hour, Qingchuan Public will look perfectly normal to SAVE. No information will leak out.”

“Rust Jaw, what about your side?”

“The Ability Class is already under control,” the voice from the earpiece replied with unconcealed excitement. “There are actually a few decent ones in here, much stronger than those ordinary people outside who shatter at the slightest touch.”

Veil Weaver smiled.

“Don’t go overboard. We aren’t here for a massacre.”

“I know.”

Rust Jaw’s tone was somewhat impatient.

“The Doctor wants samples, and students from the Ability Class are the priority for live capture. I get it. But… there are a few idiots stubbornly resisting.”

“Are they troublesome?”

“Troublesome?”

Rust Jaw sounded as if he had heard a funny joke.

“They’re just a flock of sheep. Once they learn what pain is, they’ll stop resisting.”

Immediately after, a dull thud echoed through the earpiece.

Then came a teenage boy’s cry of pain, the shrieks of the crowd, and muffled sobbing…

Veil Weaver remained silent.

She simply looked down at the chaos below, then shifted her gaze to a specific spot on the main academic building—

There, a classroom window suddenly exploded.

The next moment, three streams of light in different colors burst out from the smoke and dust.

One was a bright orange-gold, one was a soft cyan-white, and the other was a brilliant purple-red.

The three streaks of light flashed across the sky above the chaotic campus, leaving behind dazzling trails.

Wherever the light passed, the failures chasing the students were swiftly repelled.

Amidst the panicked, fleeing crowd, some students raised their heads, hope rekindling in their eyes.

“What is that?”

“…Magical Girls?”

“It’s… it’s the Magical Girls!”

“We’re saved!”

The cries and screams on the playground briefly turned into gasps of astonishment, followed by cheers rising one after another.

Veil Weaver stood at the edge of the rooftop, watching the girls within those three streaks of light as the wind caught her hood.

The smile on her face finally became apparent.

“Finally…”

she said softly.

“The big fish has taken the bait.”