Hidden Movements

"That little girl's talent is unique—she can use beast magic without relying on the Beast Viscera. So, we need to find a way to bring her back."

Under the blazing midday sun, Bing Bee Seven a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and took a deep drag.

"We can no longer stay in Fangting City. We must act quickly and break through while our forces are still intact."

On the twenty-fifth day of being trapped in Fangting City, Bing Bee Seven had never felt as anxious as he did at this moment.

The remaining forces of the Black Ash Dawn in this city are gradually shrinking, Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau is relentlessly hunting them down like hyenas. Today, only a few core teams remain.

If "Moth" were still alive, Black Ash Dawn would never have fallen into its current predicament. However, since Moth was defeated by the magical girl and the management of the Fangting City Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau changed hands, the entire situation has instantly reversed.

Black Ash Dawn, who could have been carrying out her actions with complete ease and without caring about leaving a trace, now had to carefully conceal her whereabouts to avoid being discovered by the magical girl.

The reason is simple: a magical girl capable of killing "moths" would have no difficulty killing them as well.

The Moths are the Royal Ash Attendants of the Black Ash Dawn, arguably the group closest to the core power and wielding the greatest strength. Even though the Moths are not known for their combat prowess among the Ash Attendant, defeating them, the Ash Soldier, is still relatively easy.

Now, Moth is dead. Her Ash Soldier Army of Beast Shifter was also wiped out on that strange night by threads that fell from the sky, leaving only a few remnants hiding in Fangting City.

These remnants didn't have many Beast Shifter to begin with, and even if they did, they weren't very strong. Furthermore, lacking a leader, they were unable to reach an agreement and were ultimately wiped out one by one by the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau.

Of course, Bing Bee Seven and his team are an exception.

Because they were not part of the moths from the beginning, they did not participate in the operation that night.

Relying on the moths' concealment and protection, at the peak of the Black Ash Dawn's power, Fangting City could simultaneously have up to three different Ash Soldier: the "Soldier Moth" and "Worker Moth" belonging to the "Moths"; the "Soldier Contact" and "Worker Contact" belonging to the "Longhorn Beetle Bees"; and the "Soldier Bees" and "Worker Bees" belonging to the "Bee" group.

Among them, the "Moth" Ash Soldier needs no introduction; they are all her direct subordinates, entrenched in Fangting City, at her command. The "Longhorn Beetle" Ash Soldier has a slightly different origin; these people roam throughout Donghua Prefecture, searching for high-quality supplies and potential "Sacrificial Child." As for the "Bee" Ash Soldier, it originated from a transaction between bees and moths.

The bee paid the moth to allow its people to enter her territory and take away some things it wanted. Among these "things" was a girl named Bai Jingxuan, who was specifically named.

Bing Bee Seven became the executor of this mission.

As one of the few members of the Bee's Ash Soldier to reach the Pupa Stage, Jinjun arrived in Fangting City a month ago. However, upon arriving in the city, they discovered that the plan had been ruined by the "Longhorn Beetle" Ash Soldier had appeared out of nowhere. Helpless, they halted their operation. While they were still considering their next move, Moth was killed by the magical girl.

This made Bing Bee Seven reconsider whether he should have his fortune told before going out.

Unfortunately, it was too late to realize this now. The situation had changed so suddenly that they had no time to react and were trapped here.

"It's easy for you to say, and you even want to take her away, but that little girl is a magical girl now. That mad dog Bingchu Bing Chu Three and made things this way, making it difficult for us to continue our operations."

Beside Bing Bee Seven, Bing Bee Twenty-Five was squatting in the corner, staring into the void. "If we can really get out of this hellhole, I'm going to give 'Longhorn Beetle' a piece of my mind and ask him how he managed his subordinates."

"Stop thinking about these useless things now, and focus on how to break through."

Exhaling a puff of white smoke from his nostrils, Bing Bee Seven glanced at him and said, "The Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau has recently acquired some new equipment, and some Beast Shifter have already been captured by them. If this continues, once the entire Moth's forces are brought to justice, we won't be able to hide for long either."

In recent days, under the repeated encirclement and pursuit by the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, they fought and retreated, constantly shrinking the scope of their operations. In the end, they could only hide in a small residential house.

Although they managed to control the original owner of the house and get them to provide them with the supplies to survive, this was not a long-term solution. Such a large group of people could not possibly remain completely still without leaving a trace.

"Let's try another location. Fangting City is so big; we could try guerrilla warfare against them."

Bing Bee Twenty-Five, was clearly quite pessimistic about the "breakout": "Putting all our manpower into the breakout, even thinking of taking a magical girl with us, might end up attracting a Flower Rank monster... Are you sure you're not dreaming?"

"I'm sure."

Bing Bee Seven remained calm. "Simply breaking through is pointless; we'll die anyway if we can't bring that little girl back. This might be our last chance; if we drag this out any longer, it'll become increasingly difficult to escape."

"Why?" Bing Bee Twenty-Five asked, looking surprised.

"Because the moth is gone, this is the territory of magical girls."

Bing Bee Seven pointed out the window. "Like flowers blooming in the wild, once one appears, another will follow; the interactions between magical girls will lead to an increasing number of magical girls here."

"... Tsk, what a hassle."

"Yes, it's really troublesome."

Bing Bee Seven seemed to be muttering to himself, "So the only time to leave is now."

"Do you have a solution?"

"Just thought of it."

"What method?"

"Hostage."

Bing Bee Seven lowered her head again. "According to the investigation by the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, their new director seems to have a close relationship with the magical girl—the information left by Moth shows that he has some kind of connection with that blue Flower Rank being, and our mission target also seems to have a very close relationship with her."

"... So you're planning to kidnap the head of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau?"

Bing Bee Twenty-Five looked at him as if he were a madman. "At this critical juncture? Aren't you afraid that blue monster will tear you apart alive?"

"So I plan to 'kidnap' our mission target."

Bing Bee Seven looked at Bing Bee Twenty-Five as if she were an idiot. "Use her life to threaten the director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, to pretend to ask for something, and through him make that blue-ranked Flower Rank official hesitant to act. But in reality, we're just pretending to blackmail; what we really need is a 'hostage.' After misleading their actions, we can find a chance to escape."

"Don't I think kidnapping a magical girl is a better idea? Isn't there a safer way?"

"She's just a Bud Rank magical girl. If you don't want to kidnap her, your only remaining option is to kill that blue Flower Rank one first."

Bing Bee Seven threw the remaining half of his cigarette on the ground and stomped the butt out. "Which one do you think is more feasible?"

"... Then let's kidnap that little girl instead."

Bing Bee Twenty-Five watched him stub out his cigarette. "And then? How do you kidnap someone? And how do you escape after you've actually kidnapped them?"

"There are still two spies in the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, but because they haven't taken any action before, they haven't been caught yet."

Bing Bee Seven paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. "All the other hidden agents have been eliminated, so these two will inevitably be eliminated after they are used. We only have one chance left."

"First, we need a feint attack. As you said, we need to split our forces into two groups. The main force will be stationed to guard our target, that little girl; the remaining force will feign an attack on the director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. Ideally, one of them should be Beast Shifter of the Looper Tier' or higher, forcing the other magical girls to go and support the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau first."

"After that, we captured that little girl and went to negotiate with the director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau: if she wanted to save her life, she had to return the Beast Source that the moth had left behind, and at the same time, stop tracking and besieging us until the terms were agreed upon."

"Finally, have our informant manipulate the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau's schedule, leaving us a gap of about five minutes so we can easily scale the city's protective perimeter and escape through the Wasteland."

"Huh? Walking through the Wasteland?"

Bing Bee Twenty-Five's voice suddenly rose several octaves. "Are you kidding me? What's the difference between this and going straight to your death?"

"If I'm still alive by then, we'll have the means to barely survive in the Wasteland."

The voice of Bing Bee Seven was calm, but its hoarseness carried a chilling madness. "They won't let us board the Landship. Our only way to survive is to cross the Wasteland by ourselves."

What if we die in the Wasteland?

Bing Bee Twenty-Five swallowed hard. "We're carrying out our mission. If we die, she'll die in the Wasteland too. The boss will probably have to retrieve our souls and turn them into fodder."

"So I notified the boss before we fled into the Wasteland, so he could send someone to meet us Wasteland."

Bing Bee Seven stood by the window of the house. "If we die, as long as we leave that little girl some space to live before we die, the boss's men will take her away."

His words silenced Bing Bee Twenty-Five.

The two men were both under Bee's command and could be considered comrades-in-arms with a long history of cooperation. He knew Bing Bee Seven's personality and abilities very well, and this seemed to be their last choice at the moment.

Whether to cower in Fangting City like a frog in slowly boiling water and wait to die, or to fight with all one's might to fight for the only way out, it seems there is no need to choose.

Everyone who joins Black Ash Dawn harbors a certain desire and pursuit, and for this pursuit, life is often just a bargaining chip.

Gambling is something they've been doing ever since they embarked on this path.

"I don't know whether to call you a clever madman or a crazyly clever person."

He leaned back against the wall. "You always manage to convince me with your twisted logic, and this time is no exception. You win."

"I just want to survive."

The Bing Bee Seven said indifferently, "When any living thing is trying to survive, it will show its intelligence. Even wild beasts do this, let alone us humans."

"So when should we make our move?"

Bing Bee Twenty-Five shook his head, clearly not intending to pay attention to his mutterings. "Since you've launched this plan, you must have already set a timeframe."

"In two more days."

Bing Bee Seven turned back from the window. "We need to guide them a bit, lure the moth army out to feed the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, and create an opportunity to capture our target."

"That means we're going to our deaths in two days. We'd better have a good last meal before we start."

Bing Bee Twenty-Five rubbed his stomach. "Speaking of which, our people have been cutting back on food for several days now. All the edible stuff in this house has been eaten up long ago. Why hasn't the owner sent us any new supplies yet?"

"There won't be any new supplies." Bing Bee Seven walked back into the house.

"Why?"

"Because there is no owner left."

Pointing to the living room not far away, with his fingertip pointing to several black plastic bags placed in the corner, Bing Bee Seven said indifferently, "Yesterday I heard their phones ring, suspected someone was trying to call the police, so I ended their mission early."

Ah, no wonder.

Bing Bee Twenty-Five nodded. "No wonder there's always a fragrance in the living room that makes my lustful Beast Viscera stir."

"Perfect timing, even after the pigs die, they can still fulfill their purpose."

Bing Bee Seven pulled another cigarette from his pocket, put it between his lips, and lit it with a lighter. The flame from the lighter shone through his palm, reflecting the flickering light in his dark, empty eyes.

"That way, we won't need to search for any other supplies for the next two days."

Lin Yun returned to the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau alone.

He ultimately refused Emerald's offer of a "product trial," even after she lowered the conditions again and again, eventually changing it from taking off his clothes to taking off his socks.

Emerald claimed that her previous actions were only to collect data on Larkspur's abilities, and that taking off her socks now was simply to make it easier to examine her skin. However, Larkspur felt that there was something fishy going on, so she declined and left the research institute.

Of course, given that it concerned her own injury, Larkspur didn't say anything too definitive, simply replying, "I'll continue to consider it."

Upon returning to the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, Tian Sheng, who had been waiting outside, followed Lin Yun into the director's office and expertly handed over the documents in his hand.

"Chief, this is our operational briefing for the past few days."

Lin Yun took the document, sat down at his desk, and quickly grasped the key point after a brief glance. "Two Beast Shifter captured? So fast?"

"We have to thank the Magic Armament."

Tian Sheng scratched the back of his head. "Our captain has been singing your praises these past few days. I've also tried it myself and think the effectiveness of this equipment is truly ahead of its time."

"An inanimate object is just an inanimate object. Ultimately, a weapon's success depends on the user. If you use the weapon to defeat the enemy, that's your achievement. You don't need to flatter me."

Lin Yun waved his hand dismissively, ignoring the unspoken flattery. "So it seems your team has already made the biggest contribution in the Special Operations Department. What are your needs and plans for the future?"

"Oh, well, actually our captain asked me to submit an application for you."

Tian Sheng scratched his head and handed over another document:

"According to the investigation feedback from other teams, there seem to be signs of Black Ash Dawn members hiding in a residential area in the Dawnstar District. He wants to apply for search permissions there."

"Residential area? Are you sure?"

Lin Yun, unsuspecting, took the document from Tian Sheng, glanced at the paper, and then slowly read the contents printed on it:

"The name of the residential complex is... 'Lakeside Spring'?"