Crisis

"Careful with tonight's Aberrant Beast?"

This sentence left Lin Yun restless throughout his entire afternoon of work.

There was no other reason; the information revealed by this sentence was simply too much, making it impossible for him to dismiss it as a simple prank call or practical joke.

His daughter was a Magical Girl, a fact that, aside from himself and Hong Siyu, no one else should know at present; as for the fact that he himself was once a Magical Girl, probably only a very few people knew about it. What was more, he could confirm that the only ones who knew this information would be his companions, or former companions.

Then, could this call have been made by Hong Siyu?

The possibility existed, but what reason would she have to play ghost and make such an anonymous call anonymously? As an official operative, Hong Siyu had solemnly promised him that she would look out for his daughter more; this kind of topic could completely be brought out into the open.

Holding onto the attitude that it was better to believe it than to doubt it, he sent a message to Hong Siyu:

[Did you call me?]

[?] That was the other person's reply.

It seemed it was not her.

A few candidates flashed through his mind, only to be dismissed one by one, yet Lin Yun still found no clues.

Then, was it just a blindly correct prank call?

This possibility was actually not small, and could even be said to be very large. After all, many scam calls these days followed this routine. Even if they spouted nonsense, as long as they tried it on enough targets, they were bound to run into a few who believed it for various reasons.

Lin Yun tried to convince himself with this, but deep down, he couldn't calm down at all.

Just like that, evening arrived. His preoccupied appearance was noticed by a subordinate he had worked with for years, who even specifically asked him if he had encountered any trouble. Lin Yun shook his head and did not share such a bizarre, delusion-like topic with the other person.

Taking the tram, he didn't return home until it was dark. Lin Yun looked toward the shoe cabinet in the entryway with worry. What made him feel secure was that his daughter's shoes were already placed there. Stepping past the living room, seeing the washed bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen sink, and walking up to his daughter's bedroom door to see the light shining through the crack, all signs indicated that Lin Xiaolu was still at home.

This made Lin Yun breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Even if some dangerous Aberrant Beast were to appear, as long as his daughter was still at home, it meant her safety was guaranteed.

Besides, regarding something like the appearance of an Aberrant Beast, Hong Siyu had no reason not to notify him.

Harboring mixed emotions, Lin Yun finished dinner, walked into the study, and began to handle work he hadn't finished at the company. While working, he also maintained a certain level of attention toward his daughter's room to ensure that a situation where Lin Xiaolu sneaked out without him knowing would not occur.

Until the middle of the night, no abnormalities were ever discovered. When the clock pointed to 12 o'clock, the hardworking Lin Yun felt he truly could no longer stay awake, and after a long wait, he lay down on the bed and fell into a dream.

Dazed, he didn't know how much time had passed.

Then at a certain moment, he seemed to hear some strange sound.

Thus, amidst the pitch-black darkness, Lin Yun started awake from the bed.

His heartbeat inexplicably sped up, and his breathing became hurried. He didn't remember whether he had been dreaming, but after waking up, even his mood seemed to have turned quite bad.

Fumbling to pick up his phone, the screen lit up, and the time displayed was two-ten.

Clearly having just woken up in a start, yet after figuring out the situation, Lin Yun felt a very strong premonition welling up inside his heart.

This premonition was so strong it even made him feel intensely familiar, to the point that he instantly remembered when the last similar experience had happened.

--The day his wife passed away.

...That's impossible, right?

The words escaped his lips, carrying a sense of uncertainty that even he could hear.

Lin Yun stepped down from the bed, hurriedly pulled open the bedroom door, and looked toward his daughter's room. No longer caring about any taboos or hesitations, he strode quickly to her door and knocked.

Nothing happened.

Lin Yun didn't get discouraged; he simply knocked repeatedly, knocking louder and louder. The hollow knocking sounds echoed through the dark hallway, yet still received no response.

"That's impossible, right?" he repeated the sentence.

Glancing at the bedroom door and the note blurred by the dark night, Lin Yun clenched his teeth and directly began twisting the doorknob.

Creak.

The door was locked.

He didn't know whether his daughter usually kept her door locked—after all, he had never attempted to go open it—but right now, this situation forced him to form some negative associations.

Could she have secretly run out all by herself?

Picking up his phone, he began dialing Hong Siyu's number, but what he got in return was an "unanswered" response.

Opening the search engine, he began typing keywords like "Fangting City" and "Aberrant Beast," but it was still like searching for a needle in a haystack; even last week's events had already been covered by various new trending topics, leaving no trace.

It seemed that in a single instant, all the coincidences had collided together, and he had suddenly lost all clues regarding the movements of Fangting City's Aberrant Beasts.

Naturally, he had also lost all control over his daughter's movements.

He tried to calm himself down, telling himself that no one opening the door didn't mean his daughter had run out alone in the middle of the night to deal with an Aberrant Beast. It was just that his daughter was annoyed with him as usual and wasn't willing to pay attention to a neurotic old dad who ran over to knock on her door for no reason in the dead of night. Such an explanation was actually quite logical—much more logical than the groundless guesses in his head right now.

Yet, he inexplicably firmly believed in that premonition deep within his heart.

So he looked at his call history, the second page, third from the bottom. That was the suddenly incoming, completely unfamiliar number from noon.

His finger hovered over that option for a long time, and harboring a shred of hope, he pressed that number.

It went through.

This caused his breath to stall.

Every second of standby tone on the call felt as long as a century. Listening to those long "beep—beep—" tones, Lin Yun gripped his communicator tightly.

Then, the other side connected.

Hiss, hiss.

It was still thick static.

Just like signal interference of the utmost severity, the call's audio was intermittent, pounding against Lin Yun's eardrums. Then, until a certain point in time, all the noise dissipated completely.

"In the suburbs, wetland park."

With just a few short words, the call was hung up.

The surroundings returned to silence once more, as if it were still just that ordinary night.

Lowering his phone, Lin Yun turned his head to look at the living room inside the house, only to see a faint moonlight casting a hazy white glow onto the floor, bright and serene, plain and peaceful. This seemed to be another imagery deep within his heart, another voice, telling him at this juncture, "Do not go."

Once he stepped out of the house at this moment, those things he had paid numerous sacrifices to bitterly maintain would no longer exist.

Yet for Lin Yun, this kind of decision was completely meaningless. When a child's safety was placed on the scale, the chips on the other side of the scale were long since irrelevant.

Moving his steps, he rushed out of the house at practically the fastest speed possible.

Opening the door of his SUV, which he hadn't driven in a long time, he jammed his car keys into the ignition. Then, amidst a roaring engine, he surged onto the highway with horsepower far exceeding the city driving speed limits.

"I must go."

As if instilling a certain concept into himself, he muttered to himself like that.

Right now, he could even feel the flow of his own blood, surging straight to his brain and causing it to hum.

The vehicle's speed was still increasing. Using a speed comparable to a street racer, he pressed the accelerator to the controllable extreme, running through goodness knows how many traffic lights and racing all the way. Traffic violations or car accidents—these risks were not worth mentioning at this moment, because he knew that no matter what, he had to reach his daughter's side first.

He brought along that dormant Flower of the Heart. Although he had tried before and failed to transform into a Magical Girl himself, he still harbored a sort of unrealistic hope.

Or rather, there was a notion in the dark telling him that this time he could do it.

The distracting thoughts in his head had long since turned into a mess, and he couldn't clearly describe his current state either. Confused emotions, memories, and a high degree of physiological tension made his thinking completely devoid of logic.

The only clear thought was simply "I don't want anything to happen to my daughter."