A New Maid at the Café / Playing with Fire

"Was that really necessary? You were in charge of finding him, and I was in charge of taking him out. It was that simple. I'm not as gentle as Xiao Rou. If I caught him, I'd burn him to ashes in ten seconds." Wu Yan spoke arrogantly.

"My sensory barrier can't cover the entire city. If he was determined to hide, finding him would be like searching for a needle in a haystack." Qi Mo shook her head.

"As long as he's a monster, he won't be able to resist the urge to kill. He'll act again, right? We can just drag him out and finish him then."

"I'm afraid that may not be the case. Based on Xiao Rou's description just now, this is a highly intelligent monster. He spent several hours alone in a room with a hostage, yet he didn't harm her in the slightest. So I believe he may have a way to control his urge to kill." Qi Mo stared at the notes in her notebook and continued:

"That means he could remain hidden in the city indefinitely, waiting until the day he needed to act."

"The worst thing isn't a thief stealing from you—it's a thief keeping their eyes on you." Even Wu Yan understood how troublesome the situation was by this point. She crushed the cola can in her hand and viciously tossed it into the trash. "You know I'm not good with complicated stuff, so just tell me your plan. As long as it helps Xiao Rou get revenge, I'll do whatever you need."

"My plan is to set up wide-area barriers throughout the city. These barriers have a very broad detection range, but very low precision. I'll use them to search one district at a time until we determine the enemy's general range of activity. Then I'll gradually narrow the barriers and increase their precision. The process may take around a month. I hope none of you act on your own during that time, so we don't alert him." Qi Mo looked at Wu Yan.

"Why are you looking at me? I'll behave." Wu Yan replied reluctantly.

"Also, once we successfully pinpoint the monster's location, I suggest we handle it with a two-plus-one arrangement. Of the three of us, only two will appear before the monster, while one stays hidden in case it tries any tricks. At the same time, we should evacuate civilians as much as possible before we attack, to prevent it from taking hostages again. If we can do all that, I believe its frontal combat strength is far inferior to ours." As Qi Mo spoke, she drew a simple diagram on the paper.

"That's the general idea. Do either of you have anything to add?" Qi Mo asked.

"I don't have any objections, but if possible, please let me personally deliver the killing blow when we slay the monster." Xu Rou took a sip of fruit tea. Qi Mo's plan had given her hope for revenge, and she had already decided in her heart that only vengeance could wash away the humiliation she had suffered.

"Fine. As long as it doesn't affect the outcome, I'll do my best to arrange for you to give the monster the final blow. That's all for today. I need to prepare the barriers soon, so I'll probably be very busy—Wu Yan, please spend more time with Xiao Rou during this period." Qi Mo stood as she spoke.

"Don't worry, leave Xiao Rou to me. I love icy-cool beautiful girls the most!" Wu Yan joked as she pulled Xu Rou into her arms. Seeing them pressed together, Qi Mo unconsciously frowned, though her expression quickly relaxed.

"I've already paid the bill. The private room is booked until two in the afternoon, so if you want to..." Qi Mo was about to add something when she suddenly looked up at the ceiling warily.

"What? Is there a mosquito?" Wu Yan asked.

"No. I just have this feeling that someone's watching me... It's not the first time since yesterday." As Qi Mo spoke, she instinctively tugged her skirt hem downward.

"Didn't you set up a concealment barrier in this room? Even if we set off a string of firecrackers in here, no one outside would notice." Wu Yan said.

"You're right. Hopefully I'm just overthinking it." With that, Qi Mo turned and left the private room.

Qi Mo's intuition had not been wrong. Li Xuan had watched the entire live broadcast of the strategy meeting between the three magical girls from a private room in his own café.

"This girl isn't just some pervert." Li Xuan took a sip of the coffee he had brewed himself and praised her from the bottom of his heart.

In his view, Qi Mo's plan was both clever and reliable. If he really had been watching a livestream, Li Xuan would have wanted to send her a few gifts.

What Qi Mo did not know was that Li Xuan was not a real monster. His Evil Energy had been entirely granted by the system. As long as he did not use it, even the most sophisticated barrier could not distinguish him from an ordinary person. Furthermore, because of the Hunting Radar, the magical girls had no chance of hiding from him.

Because of this crucial information gap, Qi Mo's plan was doomed to fail. All Li Xuan had to consider was how to use that fact in reverse to collect defeat CGs.

Just as Li Xuan sank into thought, someone knocked on the private room door. The manager's voice came from outside. "Boss... someone's applying for a summer job. Would you like to meet her?"

"Didn't I say not to disturb me? Handle trivial matters like that yourself."

Being interrupted while thinking made Li Xuan sound distinctly displeased.

"She's a very pretty college girl!" the manager added.

"Then hurry up and bring her in!"

A New Maid at the Café

When the door opened, a young woman stood before Li Xuan. Her brows arched sharply, and her eyes carried a smile. Her long hair was gathered into a bun, with every stray lock aside from her bangs and the hair at her temples carefully secured with clips.

Perhaps wary of the harsh sunlight, she wore a lightweight sun-protection jacket over an off-white blouse. Judging from its smooth texture, it was likely made of silk or something similar. Between the second and third buttons of the blouse rose two proud peaks. Their astonishing size, something usually only seen in anime, made one wonder whether the buttons were sturdy enough.

The blouse was neatly tucked into a high-waisted pencil skirt. Beneath it, a pair of full thighs wrapped in black stockings was revealed, apparently around 15D to 20D in thickness. Though she was only a few years older than Xu Rou and the others, her outfit and bearing gave her an elegant, intellectual air. Unfortunately, the table blocked her calves, making it impossible to see what kind of shoes she wore.

"President Li, may we begin?" the young woman reminded him with a smile.

"Have a seat." Li Xuan smiled and pointed to the chair across from him. "Start by briefly introducing yourself."

The young woman sat down, interlaced her fingers before her chest, and looked at Li Xuan. "My name is Li Sijie. I'm a second-year photography student at Qinghe Art Academy. I usually enjoy anime and novels. I don't know much about coffee, but I do know the basic varieties. Summer vacation is coming up, so I'd like to apply to be a maid at your café and earn some spending money."

"Ah, what a shame. It'd be perfect if such a beautiful person were a magical girl too. I want to see the defeat CG of a refined older sister." Li Xuan said regretfully.

"What did you just say?"

"Ah, nothing. I meant that I like anime too, especially magical girl stories. But never mind that for now. Did the manager tell you about the pay here?" Li Xuan realized he had accidentally spoken his thoughts aloud, so he hurriedly changed the subject.

"The manager explained the basic salary, benefits, and job duties. It seems to be a little lower than at ordinary maid cafés."

"That's right. Although our servers dress as maids, coffee remains our main attraction. We absolutely won't charge meat prices for vegetarian dishes. The café also won't demand that maids treat customers like masters. You only need to serve them normally. So while your appearance and temperament are both exceptional, we can't offer a higher salary." Li Xuan admitted frankly.

"To be honest, the first reason I applied here was because I like the uniforms, and the second was because I heard this café wouldn't make excessive demands of its maids. For someone with my personality, it wouldn't be easy to act cute and coquettish around customers like a younger girl." Li Sijie smiled.

"What? You like our uniforms?" Li Xuan asked, unable to conceal his excitement.

"That's right. I think the café's uniforms are very tasteful. They look quite conservative at first glance, but they use cutout designs in certain subtle areas, which actually makes them seem more alluring than those uniforms with hardly any fabric. The color scheme and tailoring also have a real sense of layering. You can tell the designer put a great deal of thought into them. It's a pity that I searched online for a long time and couldn't find the same outfit anywhere." Li Sijie nodded.

"Of course you couldn't find them. I designed them myself!" If he had not needed to maintain his composure because of his status, Li Xuan would have practically pounced on her and embraced her. He had poured an unknown amount of effort into those uniforms. Most people thought they looked nice, but their praise usually missed the point. Li Sijie's words, however, perfectly articulated his design philosophy, making him feel as though he had found a kindred spirit.

"You're the designer? How fortunate." At those words, Li Sijie's eyes brightened.

"How about this? Since you like the café's uniforms, I promise that if you work here for more than a month, I'll give you a set! Of course, that's a personal gift from me, so you can't tell the other employees." Li Xuan instructed.

"No problem. I'll be working here all summer anyway. I need the money too." Li Sijie nodded.

"Go see the manager and get a uniform. Have her show you around the café, and you can start working once summer vacation begins." Li Xuan had wanted to chat with her more about their personal interests, but considering this was their first meeting and he did not yet know her personality, he held himself back.

After Li Sijie left, Li Xuan felt greatly cheered and resumed planning his grand undertaking of collecting magical girls.

Although Li Xuan's Evil Energy level had risen to Grade D+, he still had little confidence in a direct confrontation. So naturally, he focused his attention on the newly acquired skill, "Fallen Blood."

[Fallen Blood: The holder can consume Evil Energy to generate Fallen Blood. Fallen Blood can be used to create monsters; creatures that directly drink Fallen Blood have a chance of transforming into monsters. Monsters created or transformed in this way will regard the skill holder as their master. (Transformation difficulty depends on system level and the target's willpower.)]

Having learned from last time's lesson, Li Xuan went alone into the wilderness to conduct his test.

The instant the skill activated, a bright red sphere of blood slowly condensed before him. Li Xuan felt more than half the Evil Energy in his body get drained away at once, nearly leaving him unable even to summon his tentacles.

This skill consumed that much? Could it be a useless skill?

Li Xuan mulled over it uneasily. The blood sphere before him was only the size of a fist. Could it really create a powerful monster?

[Fallen Blood activated successfully]

[Current remaining amount: 200 ml]

[Monsters created: 0/10]

[No available template. Please create a new template.]

Following the system prompt, an interface resembling a character creator in a game appeared before Li Xuan. He could freely adjust various values, including species, build, and additional abilities, and could even give it a name.

Naturally, the more powerful the monster's attributes were set, the more Fallen Blood it would consume.

"This has quite a lot of freedom. I'll make something simple first." Li Xuan casually entered some data, then pressed confirm.

[Monster name: Slime]

[Remaining amount consumed: 10 ml]

[Additional attribute: Tenacity]

A blue Slime more than half a person tall soon appeared before Li Xuan, bouncing around on the ground like an oversized rubber ball.

"Jump, roll, spin, sing, play basketball, shoulder slam..."

Li Xuan kept issuing commands to the Slime in his mind. It carried out every command without hesitation, but whenever it received an impossible or overly complicated order, its pig brain overloaded and it simply froze in place.

"Now attack me with all your strength." After feeling that the test was about complete, Li Xuan gave the final command.

The Slime lunged at Li Xuan without hesitation. Li Xuan extended a tentacle and whipped it away, but after rolling across the ground a few times, the Slime had barely been hurt.

"Pretty tough, huh?" This time, Li Xuan coated his tentacle in Evil Energy and smashed half the Slime apart with a single strike. Yet the remaining half continued carrying out Li Xuan's order, crawling up the tentacle and extending several pseudopods toward him.

Li Xuan was startled. He hurriedly raised a hand and fired an Evil Energy Cannon, blasting the Slime to pieces.

"Just 10 milliliters gave it this much strength?" Li Xuan smiled in satisfaction. This Slime had remarkably tenacious vitality; at the very least, it qualified as cannon fodder. As for its actual combat performance, he would test it tomorrow on those adorable magical girls.

Playing with Fire

Inside a classroom at Qinghe High School, Xu Rou sat despondently by the window in the back row. Although it was already lunch break, she had neither the appetite to eat nor the mood to sleep. She merely stared blankly out the window, lost in thought. The psychological trauma from being violated by tentacles was clearly not something that could heal so easily.

Wu Yan carried a cute lunchbox into the classroom in a rush, then straddled a chair in front of Xu Rou.

"Xiao Rou, stop looking so gloomy. Come eat with me. I made this myself~"

"Huh? Wu Yan made it herself? But I'm not very hungry..."

"Don't say that yet. Look what I made!" Wu Yan said as she dramatically lifted the lid and revealed the food inside.

"Ta-da! Your favorite shrimp with silky scrambled eggs!"

Xu Rou asked in surprise, "How did you know I like this?"

"I happened to hear Qi Mo mention it. Since you're always looking so gloomy, I learned this dish from my mom just so I could cheer you up at times like this. After all the effort I went through, can you smile for me?" Wu Yan made funny faces while using both index fingers to pull up the corners of Xu Rou's mouth, forcing her into a smile.

"Pfft." Xu Rou was genuinely amused by her silly expression. When she had first met Wu Yan, Xu Rou had only thought she was always too noisy. But after spending more time together, she felt that without Wu Yan nearby, everything around her became too quiet.

"I finally got you to smile! Daily quest complete! Come on, eat. Ah—" Wu Yan said, picking up a piece of shrimp and feeding it to Xu Rou.

And Qi Mo, sitting silently in the corner of the classroom, watched all of it.

"Damn it. I was the one who knew her first, so why did it turn out like this? I want to feed Xiao Rou with my own chopsticks too, then indirectly kiss her!"

Qi Mo buried her face in a pile of books, hiding her tearful eyes. Yet when she imagined the indirect kiss, she could not help having a physical reaction, her legs rubbing together beneath the desk.

Qi Mo and Xu Rou had been childhood friends. They had attended the same schools from elementary through high school, while Wu Yan had only met them in high school. From then on, they became the inseparable trio everyone else saw as three close sisters.

However, no one had noticed that Qi Mo's feelings for Xu Rou had quietly surpassed the boundaries of friendship. Because of that, every intimate interaction between Wu Yan and Xu Rou, though merely an unintentional result of their personalities, made Qi Mo feel as though she were being cuckolded by a Minotaur.

"Just wait. One day, I'll make Xiao Rou mine."

At that moment, terrified screams suddenly erupted from the students on the playground.

Qi Mo hurriedly pushed open the window and looked down. A humanoid monster was swinging its tentacles as it approached the school building. From the aura around it, she could tell that it was the very monster that had abducted Xu Rou that day!

"Wu Yan, calm down—" Qi Mo had barely begun to warn her when Wu Yan impatiently leaped from the building.

"Transform!" Wu Yan shouted in midair, taking out a hexagram-shaped badge. Blazing flames immediately ignited within it and enveloped her entire body. By the time Wu Yan landed, the flames around her had gradually transformed into a long golden-red dress, while the badge in her hand became two ribbons wrapped around her wrists.

"Great! I was worried I wouldn't be able to find you, but you came right to me!" The sight of Li Xuan filled Wu Yan with rage. She swung the ribbons around her wrists, firing an Explosive Flame toward him.

"Heh heh, I hope you'll still have that much spirit when you're being played with later." Li Xuan dodged the Explosive Flame with a sidestep, but more than a dozen followed close behind. With nowhere to evade, Li Xuan could only block with his tentacles. More than a dozen tentacles were immediately blasted apart, and his body was sent flying as well.

"Didn't expect that, did you? This is my escape route!" Sensing that things were going badly, Li Xuan used the momentum from the blast to turn and run. Wu Yan froze for a moment before angrily chasing after him.

"Flame Dance! Don't chase him! It could be a trap!" Qi Mo shouted from the classroom, but it was already too late. She could only transform alongside Xu Rou and jump down to support Wu Yan. Yet the instant they landed, more than a dozen half-human-height Slimes surrounded them.

"Why are there so many monsters at school?" Xu Rou gasped. She hurriedly swung her Moonblade Axe at the Slimes, but they were incredibly tenacious. Even when cut in half, they split into two separate individuals and continued attacking. Qi Mo's magic was not suited for destruction either, and the two of them were temporarily pinned down.

While the two struggled against the Slimes, Wu Yan had chased farther and farther away, gradually leaving the city and reaching the outskirts.

"Stop! You think you can get away after offending me? Not a chance!" Wu Yan chased desperately, her chest burning with pent-up fury.

At last, Li Xuan stopped in front of a row of abandoned factory buildings.

"Hmph, finally out of breath? Kneel down and lick my **toes now, and maybe I'll let you die quickly." Wu Yan stood with her hands on her hips, brimming with confidence as though victory were already hers.

"You're still so arrogant when death is at hand? Look around. Doesn't this place seem familiar?" Li Xuan asked, spreading his arms.

"This is... the place where you kidnapped Xiao Rou last time? So what? You think changing locations means you can beat me?" Wu Yan said disdainfully.

"You really are stupid. Just as I guessed, the first person to chase after me would definitely be you." Li Xuan smiled, clapping his hands lightly. Several pale golden tentacles suddenly burst from the ground and bound Wu Yan's limbs in an instant. The tentacles dug deeply into her flesh, yet Wu Yan did not show the slightest panic.

"Hehe, do you really think I'm that stupid? Anyone could tell this was a trap after being lured to a place like this. I only played along so I could use this chance to kill you!" Wu Yan sneered.

"You can still say that while you're tied up by tentacles? You really are hopelessly stupid." Li Xuan shook his head.

"If this were Qi Mo or Xu Rou, maybe they'd be helpless in this situation. But I'm different! A trap like this is meaningless against me! They're only a few tentacles. Watch me burn them all away in one go!" Wu Yan scoffed. With a flick of both wrists, a mass of flames gathered at the ruby necklace on her chest.

"I'd advise you not to—"

"Judgment!" Wu Yan roared, and a pillar of fire surged upward from around her. The blazing heat distorted the surrounding air.

"Aaaahhhhhh!!!!"

The next second, Wu Yan's heart-rending scream rang out from within the flames.

When the pillar of fire faded, the tentacles around Wu Yan's body had not been burned away. Instead, they had turned a vivid scarlet red. If not for the protection of her magic, Wu Yan's skin would likely have been scorched black by now. Even so, the intense heat had already driven pain deep into her bones.

[Monster name: Fireproof Tentacles]

[Remaining amount consumed: 15 ml]

[Additional attributes: Hardening, Fire Resistance]

Li Xuan looked at his monster template in satisfaction and slowly walked toward Wu Yan. "The outer skin of these tentacles contains metal, and they have extremely high resistance to fire elements. Trying to burn them only turns them into scorching-hot branding irons."