Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity

"Wait, I was about to win this hand!"

The captain over there tried to stop her, but Chilian had already climbed onto the small blackboard prepared nearby.

Twins also threw down her cards and had somehow changed into a teacher's outfit, complete with a pair of non-prescription glasses. Although she was a bit short and looked like a kid playing dress-up, she still managed to pull off the appearance quite convincingly.

Her equipment was surprisingly complete.

"Let's discuss why, despite having so many resources at your disposal, you almost couldn't last three hours."

Twins tapped the blackboard. "First, the sin of arrogance. Knowing your opponent controlled Disaster Beasts and that you couldn't handle too many of them, you didn't even consider running away to stall for time! Instead, you charged straight in! Arrogant, reckless! If you don't die, who will?"

"I don't think the arrogance lies there." Chilian disagreed from the side. As a gu insect, she crawled around on the blackboard, leaving trails of writing. "I think the most arrogant part is that she actually believed her Disaster Beasts would never go out of control! She took no precautions at all! That's what led to all her Disaster Beasts being compromised and becoming accomplices of the Azure Cloud Sect!"

Twins adjusted her glasses. "Exactly. If I recall correctly, the key turning point in this round was when you, Chilian, leaked the..."

"Disaster Beast control method!!" Chilian shouted loudly, suddenly turning on the captain. "Speaking of which, captain, what did you do?! Why does the Azure Cloud Sect know our Disaster Beast control method? Did you defect long ago to survive these three years? Did you set up this whole situation to drag us down? Talk!"

"Hmph." The captain snorted coldly. "I have lived my life diligently and cautiously, with no regrets, never doing anything to betray the Witch Association. Isn't that right, Twins?"

"Oh no, I should say, you little newborn—"

The captain was suddenly grabbed by Twins. Vines wrapped around the captain's head, making it swell up like a balloon, preventing normal speech. The captain started babbling and drooling.

Twins quickly laughed it off. "Oh, captain, you really know how to joke. It was clearly you who specifically arranged for Twins to infiltrate the Azure Cloud Sect with an incomplete version of the Disaster Beast control method as a token of surrender, right~? Twins' mission was completed long ago! Can't blame Twins, Twins didn't know~"

"However." Twins' tone shifted as she put down the vine-bound captain, whose face was turning green from suffocation and who started panting like a worm. "Don't underestimate Twins' intelligence network. The complete method for controlling Disaster Beasts—you were the one who leaked it, right?"

Chilian immediately denied it. "I didn't tell the Azure Cloud Sect."

"Anyway, the Azure Cloud Sect definitely managed to control all of Red Crane's Disaster Beasts because of the control method you leaked. After all, the Witch Association's technical application records show only you have publicly shared the Disaster Beast control method with others."

The captain was stunned and turned to look at Chilian. "So it really was you who leaked it? Talk!"

"That's not the point!"

Chilian immediately cut off the captain. "Even if I didn't leak it, wouldn't the Azure Cloud Sect have gotten it anyway? The Azure Cloud Sect would definitely have obtained it. The key issue isn't there, right? We need to look at the core problem. What's the core? Why didn't you have insurance!"

Red Crane remained silent for a long while.

"No insurance for the Disaster Beasts. Seeing her own Disaster Beasts get controlled, she got hot-headed, charged straight in, then couldn't bring herself to fight them properly and got beaten to her knees! Didn't use her ultimate early, didn't use it late, used it when about to die and missed completely!"

Chilian's words struck with force. "Isn't this just pure trash! Lasting until three hours and one second was purely due to her good luck! As for me, I relied on solid strength! I endured for three hours and three minutes! The difference is obvious at a glance!"

"Wasn't it just because you have a Magical Girl mother..."

"Hmph, here we go. Can't compete on strength, so start slinging mud! I, Chilian, have never relied on my mother for anything in my life! All my achievements today are due to my own hard work and sweat! Those three hours and three minutes were earned by me, life by life, through sheer struggle!"

As for how each of those lives came about, that wasn't a question to ask.

Anyway, Twins couldn't be bothered to expose her and just looked at Red Crane. "So, in short, that's it. Defeated in three hours and one second. Hulin City now has the Disaster Control Bureau re-established, the Witch Association branch dissolved, your subordinates mostly captured. The Witch Association headquarters is furious. They apparently gave you a very important task. This mission failure has hindered their plans."

Captain: "You really let the Azure Cloud Sect win big."

Chilian: "The important thing is, do you want to take down the Azure Cloud Sect or not? Talk!"

Red Crane Mouse, who hadn't spoken for a long time, rolled over.

"What Azure Cloud Sect? The one who killed us was Jiang the Demon Butcher from the Saint Hall. I don't know what you're talking about."

All three were stunned. Chilian was the first to react. "Damn, it was the Saint Hall? So the Azure Cloud Sect and the Saint Hall are connected?"

Twins: "Huh? You didn't know? We've been talking past each other this whole time. Have to piece together intel ourselves."

Captain: "What Saint Hall?"

Chilian immediately looked at Twins. "You tricked me? The Azure Cloud Sect and the Saint Hall are connected, and you didn't say anything earlier?"

"I thought you all knew. The Azure Cloud Sect and the Saint Hall have deep ties..."

"You!"

The captain waved a hand. "Stop arguing! Whether it's the Saint Hall or the Azure Cloud Sect, it doesn't matter!"

"Having them gone matters to us!"

With that, she looked at Red Crane Mouse, slumped limply on the table.

Now, she had lost interest in everything before her.

The captain poked her from the side. "Hey, hey, hey, Red Crane, what's wrong with you?"

"Hurry up, we're waiting for you for a three-player game."

"Play a couple rounds of mahjong, then go kill the Saint Hall and the Azure Cloud Sect!"

Red Crane didn't move at all. After a long while, she said faintly:

"Mouse me, I really don't care anymore. Anyway, it's all gone."

The three, who were originally ready for a big fight and to properly welcome the new member, were immediately dumbfounded.

The three gathered around the table, huddled together. Twins whispered, "Tough situation. She seems to have given up."

Chilian snorted. "She just hasn't been hit where it hurts yet."

Then she took the lead and said, "Three-hours-and-one-second girl, do you know what kind of joke you've become in the Witch Association? People call you the Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix! The speedrun duo!"

"Let them say whatever. Whatever." Red Crane Mouse's eyes were lifeless. "Anyway, I'm already dead."

Chilian crawled back. "It's over. She seems really done for."

Twins also sighed. "After all, twenty years of accumulation, gone in an instant. She's bound to be depressed. Understandable, just a pity."

"Bullshit!"

The captain's angry shout startled both Chilian and Twins.

The captain strode over to Red Crane Mouse and kicked her. "Look at your pathetic state! Should have let you die in the Witch Association's lab back then!"

Rolling and falling to the ground, the music from the dance floor outside became more piercing. Red Crane Mouse cried out, "Then what am I supposed to do? All my Disaster Beast babies are dead, I lost. What else can I do?"

"I won't even ask if you can face those Disaster Beasts who trusted you. I'll just ask you, can you face the self who worked hard for twenty years?"

"I don't know if I can face myself. I just know it's meaningless now..."

"Look into my eyes!" The captain grabbed Red Crane Mouse's front limbs and said solemnly, "Don't you want revenge? Do you want it to just end like this? Think about it. Back in the Witch Association lab, you had nothing. Weren't you still willing to risk your life fighting others? What have you lost compared to back then? You've just returned to the starting point! Why have you lost your spirit? Tell me, Red Crane, are you a coward?"

"Captain, I really can't beat them..."

"Just because you can't beat them, does that mean no one can?"

Red Crane wailed, "Who else can beat them? Which Witch Association members who can come here can defeat Jiang the Demon Butcher? Headquarters is busy dealing with the Heart Image Remnant and definitely won't support us here."

Twins' eyes lit up. She exchanged a glance with the captain, who immediately nodded. "I've even fought Shion. I understand your despair, Red Crane. The more it's like this, the more we can't give up. Giving up is true failure. The real battle has just begun! Tell me, do you want to avenge your Disaster Beast babies?"

"I do..." Red Crane replied, then added, "But I don't want to die again."

"It's fine. We can have others go."

Red Crane shook her head again. "No. Even if I die, I'm still a Witch Association member. I would never betray my comrades!"

The captain and Twins both looked at Chilian.

Chilian coughed. "They're all like this at the beginning..."

The captain looked furious. "Do I look like a traitor to you?"

"Of course not." Red Crane answered without hesitation. "The captain's loyalty is evident to heaven and earth."

"You know that's right. I, the captain, have lived my life with a clear conscience, only for the victory of the Witch Association! I've given everything, never giving up even after death. My goal is only one: to win! To make the Witch Association win!"

Such heartfelt words naturally made Red Crane believe deeply.

The captain held Red Crane. "Since you're practically half my student, you should be like me and trust the Witch Association. Of course, it's also true that the Witch Association's current strength is insufficient to deal with this. So let's change our approach—send Jiang the Demon Butcher into the Heart Image Remnant! The Heart Image Remnant is full of dangers. He uses Polluted Magic; once he enters, he'll definitely die!"

Twins looked at her with newfound respect.

As expected of the captain, immediately grasping the key point!

Earlier, she was still thinking about how to pry open Red Crane's mouth to get information about the Heart Image Remnant.

Now Red Crane would have to volunteer the information herself!

Sure enough, the previously half-dead Red Crane Mouse immediately perked up.

But then she asked, "Wait, captain, how do we send him into the Heart Image Remnant? What if he doesn't want to go in? How do we find him and send him in?"

"Truly, rotten wood cannot be carved. I ask you, why did he go nowhere else but specifically come to your place?"

Red Crane Mouse looked blank. "Why?"

Because Chilian sold you out.

The captain naturally wouldn't say that, just speaking seriously. "Then let me ask you, where was the first place that guy went?"

"The Witch Association experiment..." Red Crane shuddered in realization. "Jiang the Demon Butcher's target is the Heart Image Remnant!"

The captain clapped her hands. "Right! That's exactly it. He came specifically for the Heart Image Remnant! Otherwise, why would he go to the Witch Association lab first when he came to Hulin City!"

False. Actually, he came to test the new ability obtained from Chilian.

Even this Hulin City training ground was provided by Chilian.

Jiang Si had no idea the Witch Association in Hulin City was conducting experiments related to the Heart Image Remnant.

He simply went there because Scorpio's magic was easier to detect.

Of course, the captain and Twins didn't know at first either. They only found out later when cleaning up the Witch Association's remaining evidence that they were conducting experiments about the Heart Image Remnant there.

Susan was tidying up documents in the main hall. The two Incubators originally guarding the Disaster Control Bureau's main hall had now gone to the monitoring division. Occasionally, Susan would come to help with front desk work.

Thinking about Camellia leaving, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

That ancestor really gave the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau a hard time.

Fortunately, the strength of the two true-transmissions, Four Leaf and Six Leaf, was astonishing.

Who would have thought that at the Seedling rank, they could defeat a Blooming rank and alter the cognition of a Blooming Magical Girl.

Truly terrifying.

Otherwise, something big might really have happened.

She looked back at Peony, who was sitting at her workstation, drowsy.

Every time she came to the main hall to help sort documents, she would drag Peony along.

After all, Peony was the idlest in the Bureau.

Since Iris's paid leave last time, Peony had become increasingly lazy.

Back then, she could still spar with Four Leaf and Six Leaf. Now she had completely become a bystander, not even bothering to go to the basement anymore.

"Anyway, can't out-calculate those two little girls. Whatever."

Saying the Azure Cloud Sect was a department under the Disaster Control Bureau—it's the other way around, right? Now the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau is just a vampire attached to the Azure Cloud Sect.

Although for Susan, it was also a good thing.

Thinking about various messy matters, she wondered when she could visit the Azure Cloud Sect.

Recently, she had been extremely busy, with no time to go to the Azure Cloud Sect, so she still hadn't completed the inner sect test.

She was only a nominal inner sect member. Although her salary had increased, she wouldn't be considered a formal inner sect disciple until the assessment was over...

"Everyone, long time no see. I came to play."

Her thoughts were interrupted. She looked up to see Li Yi bringing Keke in from the main entrance. It had been almost three hours since Camellia left.

Probably Li Yi deliberately waited for Camellia to leave before bringing Keke over to play.

Remembering Keke's identity, even Susan's usually cold face couldn't help but show a smile. "Welcome, Keke. Why did you come to the Disaster Control Bureau today? Has the Bureau lifted the restrictions on you?"

"Mm, Yiyi helped settle it."

"Actually, it's not really a good thing..."

Li Yi pouted. "But we can't keep Keke from entering the Bureau forever, right? After all, Keke is now the strongest in the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau."

Susan thought about it and didn't deny it.

After all, she was the Sect Master's sister. Being the strongest in the Disaster Control Bureau should be simple...

Li Yi cried out again, "And why are you so gentle with Keke but always stern with me? Can't you treat me better too?"

"Captain Li Yi, know your place. We are just colleagues."

"So harsh..."

Keke, seeing the sad Li Yi, couldn't help but say, "Senior Susan, be a little nicer to Yiyi too."

Only then did Susan's cold expression soften. "Alright, since Keke says so..."

"Wow, this favoritism is way too obvious!"

"See? Being a little nice to an idiot leads to this."

"I'm not..."

Keke originally found their bickering amusing too, and it somewhat reminded her of the arguments between Yinluo and Susan back then.

Just as she was about to say something to stop them, the Disaster Control Bureau's main door opened again.

Turning to look, she recognized her—the Magical Girl Camellia that Yiyi had mentioned before.

As soon as she returned, the previously relaxed atmosphere in the Disaster Control Bureau immediately stiffened.

Even the drowsy Peony instantly tensed up. Yiyi and Susan also looked as if facing a great enemy.

However, Camellia just tugged at a girl behind her. The girl had red hair, looked somewhat haggard, but one could tell her features were delicate and very pretty. Although her aura seemed somewhat fragile, her bright, sparkling eyes gave a sense of strength.

"I ran into her just now when I went out. A new Magical Girl. I asked; she said she came to BH City looking for someone." Camellia added, "I'll leave once she's settled."

The three immediately sighed in relief, and the atmosphere relaxed instantly.

Keke found it somewhat funny, just sipping the milk tea she brought and then going to distribute milk tea to the others. Unfortunately, she only brought two cups, for Susan and Peony.

Susan took out a registration form. "What's your name?"

"An Shiyu."

"Age?"

"14."

...

After the usual questions were done and registration completed, Susan finally looked up and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"Jiang Si."

Li Yi was still sharing milk tea with Keke. Peony, who had been drowsy, looked up. Susan, who had just asked the question, was about to go photocopy the documents.

Upon hearing the name, everyone turned their heads in unison, looking at An Shiyu.

"Who?"

"Jiang Si." An Shiyu thought for a moment, then added, "He lived in Beihai three years ago. He should still be here."

Over there, Keke couldn't help but ask, "What do you want with him?"

An Shiyu glanced at her somewhat shyly, but still said softly, "I want... I want to pursue him."

The Disaster Control Bureau fell into dead silence.