Like an Important Prop

"Drip... drip..."

Water droplets fell sporadically from the wreckage of the damaged cooling pipes, striking a steel plate that had somehow flown onto the ground and producing clear, crisp sounds.

As they entered the factory and crossed a passage paved with steel plates, their footsteps were amplified by the metal, making the atmosphere somewhat tense. Su Tianqing even felt that it would be more fitting if everyone here were holding weapons like submachine guns or pistols.

But this was a Mindscape where card games replaced combat. They absolutely could not leave any opening for Garuda's invasion, so the magical girls suppressed those instinctive thoughts and instead gripped the decks tucked into their pockets.

"This place just feels weird to me," Bai Lili said quietly as she walked along the side.

She was using a basic illumination spell to brighten the darker corners, trying to see whether any hidden clues might be lurking there.

But after walking all this way, not only had she found no clues, her eyes had grown sore from constantly staring wide-eyed at everything. She had no choice but to close them and rest.

Everyone knew this place was strange, but aside from its scenery being utterly out of place with the near-future city outside, the interior actually looked fairly normal. At least, it was nowhere near as eerie as the horrifying photo corridor at the base of Foxkov's spire.

"How about we split up and look around?" Bai Lili suddenly suggested.

The moment she finished speaking, Cheshire Rabbit rejected the idea.

"No. According to the analysis we came up with this afternoon, buildings like this 'abnormal structure' are highly likely to be invasion nodes Garuda established within Phantasm Dream's Mindscape—in other words, its so-called headquarters."

"We have to stay alert and deal with things seriously in