Open Fire!

Su Bai quickly opened the [Star App] on his backup phone.

Incidentally, it was an organizational app made by a tech-savvy Magical Girl.

He tagged Mint in the group chat.

"Mint, hack the surveillance cameras around Tianhai Savings Bank and send me a live feed of the third basement level."

Xia Ning replied almost instantly.

"Big Sister, give me ten seconds!"

"I'm already in the bank's security system. The feed is syncing to your phone now!"

The screen flickered, and a high-definition video appeared.

Kabi floated beside Su Bai's shoulder, pressing a stubby hand to his forehead.

"Master, these guys have serious equipment!"

Su Bai studied the footage.

More than a dozen fully armed men in black had taken complete control of the vault hall on the third basement level.

They wore matching masks with bony fangs, and twisted black-snake emblems were stitched on their chests.

"The Abyssal Calamity Brotherhood."

Su Bai recognized the emblem.

They were a gang of outlaws active on the fringes of the black market, specializing in murder and robbery.

Kabi pointed at the screen with his little hand.

"The leader in the gold-trimmed mask has a Magic Power Scale reading of fifteen hundred!"

"That's on par with a three-star Star Mark monster hunter!"

"The rest of the lackeys range from six hundred to a thousand. Every one of them is an outlaw at the Germination Stage or Star Mark level!"

On the video, the outlaws paid no attention to the cash scattered across the floor.

Ordinary banknotes were worthless paper in the supernatural world.

They wheeled two heavy Abyssal Energy laser cutters straight up to the door of the innermost Class One high-security vault.

The door was cast from thirty centimeters of superconducting alloy, with three layers of blast-resistant runes etched inside.

But under the sustained burn of the high-frequency lasers, the alloy door was visibly melting.

Its runic structure was being stripped away bit by bit.

That vault held premium Spirit-Breath Primeval Stones deposited by Tianhai City's major merchant guilds.

The vast sum Su Bai had just deposited, along with the Abyssal Core, was stored there too.

"They dare touch the money I worked so hard to earn..."

"They're all dead!"

A murderous gleam flashed in Su Bai's eyes.

In the corner of the screen, more than a dozen civilians and bank employees crouched against a reinforced wall with their hands over their heads.

Lin Guoguo wore her oversized, faded sweatshirt and had huddled deep within the group.

Her face was pale, her arms wrapped around her knees, and she could not stop trembling.

To conceal her identity as the Magical Girl Cherry, she had not brought her personal short wand.

Without transforming, she was only an ordinary girl with slightly better stamina.

Two thugs carrying black Abyssal Energy Submachine Guns aimed at the group and advanced on them.

Blue runes glowed faintly along the barrels, showing the guns were overloaded and ready to fire.

"Boss, some of them secretly hit the alarm button earlier."

The thug on the left turned to report to the leader in the center.

"They'll only be a burden if we leave them back here. Want us to get rid of them all?"

The leader in the gold-trimmed mask did not even turn around. He kept watching the melting vault door.

"Clean them up. No survivors."

"And give those useless fools at the Monster Hunting Bureau a warning. Show them what happens when they stick their noses where they don't belong."

His voice was harsh and grating.

Several middle-aged merchants and employees burst into tears.

"Please, don't shoot! Take all the money!"

"I have a wife and kids at home!"

"Shut up! Keep whining and I'll start with you!"

The thug swung his gunstock into a merchant's head. Blood immediately ran down the man's forehead.

Lin Guoguo had nowhere left to retreat. Her back pressed tightly against the cold alloy wall.

She slipped a hand toward the star-shaped communicator in her pocket, tears welling in her eyes.

Big Sister... Cherry can't hold on much longer...

The faint plea rose in her heart.

Room 703, Xingfuli Apartment.

Su Bai turned off his phone and slipped it into his pocket.

Kabi was so anxious that he did three somersaults in midair.

"Master, your magic power hasn't fully recovered!"

"You just used Golden Cemetery in the West District. It drained too much of your magic power!"

Su Bai ignored the sprite's warning.

He strode to the balcony and pushed the window open.

The night wind rushed into the room, lifting the hair from his forehead.

"They're after my money, and now they're after someone I care about."

"I don't care what Brotherhood they belong to. Whoever comes today dies."

Su Bai stopped suppressing the magic power within him.

Purple-gold light erupted around him.

An incantation spilled rapidly from his lips.

Light enveloped his body.

In the blink of an eye, a giant dark-gold scythe appeared in Ziwei's hand, leaving a brilliant trail as it moved.

Her lace dress and long purple-gold hair whipped wildly in the night wind.

Ziwei crushed the balcony railing beneath her feet and broke free of gravity.

She became a dazzling streak of purple-gold light, tearing through the night toward Tianhai Savings Bank.

Tianhai Savings Bank, third-basement vault.

The air reeked of scorched, melting metal.

The two laser cutters whined sharply. Most of the high-security vault door had already been cut through.

The leader in the gold-trimmed mask glanced at his watch.

"Two minutes left."

"Move it. Pack all the Origin Stones and high-grade cores inside into the storage cases!"

"The Monster Hunting Bureau agents outside are a bunch of useless drunks. They haven't even breached the first defensive door."

The leader gave a mocking snort.

"By the time they get in, we'll be gone with the goods through the underground sewage pipes."

The two thugs by the wall raised their Abyssal Energy Submachine Guns. The dark muzzles pointed straight at Lin Guoguo and the merchants on the floor.

"Little girl, blame your bad luck for bringing you here today."

The thug grinned viciously and pulled the trigger.

"Hope you're born into a better life next time!"

A searing blue energy round burst from the barrel and screamed toward Lin Guoguo's face!

Lin Guoguo shut her eyes in despair and covered her head.

At the very instant the round was about to hit—

BOOM!

The reinforced alloy vault ceiling split with a deafening blast.

A brutal force punched straight through the three-meter-thick defensive layer as though it were paper.

Shattered stone and broken steel bars crashed down in a violent rush of air.

A dazzling beam of purple-gold light plunged through the opening!

CLANG!

The blue energy round struck the blade of a dark-gold scythe.

It ricocheted off the hard metal and buried itself in the concrete floor nearby, blasting out a small, charred crater the size of a bowl.

Dust and fragments flew everywhere.

The force of the landing drove every thug several steps back.

For a moment, the vault fell deathly silent.

Lin Guoguo opened her eyes, trembling.

A tall figure clad in purple-gold magical armor stood firmly before her.

Long purple-gold hair fell to her waist. Her giant dark-gold scythe pointed toward the floor, radiating a pressure that made hearts pound.

The moment Lin Guoguo recognized her, the fear in her eyes vanished, replaced by boundless fervor.

"B-Big Sister!"

Her voice broke as she called out.

Ziwei turned her head slightly. Her cool, languid voice echoed through the hall.

"Stay back. Don't get your clothes dirty."

The gunman's hands were numb from the shock. He stared uncertainly at the woman who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Who are you?!"

"You think that entrance scares us, woman? You're dead!"

The leader in the gold-trimmed mask glared at Ziwei and took in her unusual outfit.

He recalled the rumors that had been spreading all over the internet lately.

"So it's you, you freakish little Magical Girl!"

The leader spat in contempt, his voice vicious.

"I don't give a damn what kind of Magical Girl you are!"

He thrust up a hand and roared at his dozen-odd fully armed men.

"Right now, my guns are faster! Switch to armor-piercing explosive rounds and blast her into mincemeat!"

"Open fire!"

More than a dozen heavy Abyssal Energy Guns chambered rounds at once. A dense storm of gunfire swept toward the tall figure at the center!