The Starshine Guardian's Emergency Summons
This is a signal tracker that she had modified by the owner of the Electronics Street, using three hundred yuan of her own savings.
It was specifically designed to capture high-frequency Magic Power fluctuations and, incidentally, keep a close eye on Xia Ning's whereabouts.
Su Xiaoxiao pressed the power button on the side, and the LCD screen lit up with a faint green light.
The small green dot that originally represented Xia Ning's location in the center of the screen was flashing violently.
A ring of gray-black static ripples emerged from the edge of the screen, gradually engulfing the small green dot.
A buzzing sound of electricity came from the walkie-talkie's speaker.
"Even the location signal has been blocked?"
Su Xiaoxiao patted the walkie-talkie's casing, and the static on the screen actually became more concentrated.
She shoved the walkie-talkie back under the table and glanced at the text message interface on her regular cell phone.
The chat window was still showing the notification text message Su Bai had sent half an hour earlier.
"It's common for part-time workers to be five minutes late, but that money-grubbing Hajige never misses the 8:30 pm discount yogurt sale at the supermarket."
Su Xiaoxiao rested her chin on one hand, her fingers tapping lightly on the table.
"It's already 8:40. I could check that tattered ledger at home in ten minutes, and he still hasn't messaged me to turn off the TV."
She placed the cell phone and walkie-talkie side by side.
My best friend, who went to buy brown sugar water, disappeared from my contacts.
My brother, who always makes sure to snag discounted items on time, remained silent.
"The simultaneous disappearance of these two individuals must involve a mysterious causal relationship at the Deep Space level."
Su Xiaoxiao muttered something in a low voice, glancing around at the classmates who were engrossed in doing practice problems.
No one noticed what was happening on her side.
She lowered her head and unzipped the hidden pocket on the inside of her school uniform jacket.
I reached in with my finger and felt a cold, broken piece of metal.
That was Shard Prototype Type military- Artificial Star Ring left at her home by Chen Shu, Retired Special Envoy from the Monster Hunting Bureau.
The Shard was only about half the size of a palm, with jagged edges and charred marks.
Su Xiaoxiao held the broken piece of metal in her hand and placed it next to the window on her desk.
As the tip of the metal fragment pointed toward the west window, a faint, dark red pulse appeared within the previously lifeless Shard.
The red light flashed on and off, transmitting a slight vibration.
"West? That's the direction of the Old City and the Welfare Home!"
Su Xiaoxiao gripped the Shard tightly in her hand, the metal edge digging painfully into her palm.
"The resonance generated by the Military Contraband indicates that someone over there is using the same batch of illegally acquired Star Ring weapons."
"Lady Ziwei just issued a stay-at-home order in the channel. Could it be that Dark Barrier has appeared on the front lines that even seniors are taking seriously?"
The more she thought about it, the more she felt the logic was completely closed.
The teacher on duty at the podium adjusted his glasses and tapped the blackboard.
"Finish the paper and hand it in in the last twenty minutes."
Su Xiaoxiao immediately raised her hand.
"Teacher, my stomach hurts, I need to go to the restroom!"
"Go and come back quickly, don't linger in the hallway."
Su Xiaoxiao stuffed her phone and the Shard into her pocket, bent over, and scurried out of the classroom through the back door.
The sports equipment room at the end of the corridor had its door half locked, and it was filled with deflated basketballs and foam mats.
Su Xiaoxiao pushed open the door and slipped inside, then quickly locked the latch.
She walked quickly to the dusty glass window and reached out to pull back the heavy blue blackout curtains.
Outside the window, the night sky over Xinghai City was hazy, with neon signs in the distance glowing through the mist.
"Dark Dragon Pitch-Black Flame Envoy, requesting access to the Starshine Sequence."
Su Xiaoxiao stood by the window, her right index and middle fingers joined together, drawing an arc in the air in front of her.
The Orthodox Star Core within her body began to rotate, and pure Magic Power in the One-Star Germination Stage flowed out from her fingertips.
"Come out, Absolute Refraction!"
She didn't activate the full Magical Girl transformation; she simply compressed her Wishforce into her palm.
A golden ray of light condensed in the air.
A miniature golden lace umbrella, no bigger than the palm of her hand, materialized in her palm.
The small umbrella surface is covered with fine golden patterns, and as the ribs turn, they refract the city lights coming in from the window into dozens of tiny spots of light.
The light spots projected onto the mottled white wall of the equipment room, weaving together to form a simple optical Magic Power distribution map.
"Let me see which blind spot is hiding the mouse."
Su Xiaoxiao rotated her wrist, adjusting the refraction angle of the miniature lace umbrella.
The light spots on the wall moved accordingly, filtering out the normal light sources in the city and specifically capturing those distorted and unpredictable blind spots of extraordinary Magic Power.
When the tip of the umbrella was pointed at a 30-degree angle to the southwest, the light spot on the wall suddenly stopped.
With her other hand, Su Xiaoxiao took out the broken Shard the Military Star Ring and brought it to the front of the miniature umbrella tip.
Dark red pulses of light pierced through the golden lace canopy.
The originally chaotic light spots rearranged and combined on the wall, refracting a line of extremely small red encrypted warning code.
"High-risk alert: Second-Order Military Star Ring reaction has been detected in the underground drainage main of the Third Welfare Home in Lixing District."
"This is the tracking code that old bastard Chen Shu set up in the Shard beforehand!"
Su Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up when she saw the red words on the wall.
"The Third Welfare Home? When Hajige went out this afternoon, the plastic bag he had was filled with volunteer flyers for the Welfare Home!"
She released the miniature lace umbrella from her hand, and the red words on the wall disappeared.
"No wonder Lady Ziwei wouldn't let me go over; she must have known I'd discover my brother was caught up in the crisis, and she was afraid I'd get flustered by worry!"
"This is an urgent summons from the Will of the World to me, the Starshine Guardian! How could I possibly sit obediently in the classroom writing practice papers!"
Su Xiaoxiao opened the back window of the equipment room, which led directly to the low wall surrounding the school's backyard.
She braced herself against the windowsill, flipped over and jumped onto the lawn outside, and quickly climbed over the school wall using the drainpipe at the base of the wall.
A row of yellow shared bicycles was parked on the side of the street.
It had just rained lightly, and a thin layer of water had accumulated on the black asphalt road. The air was filled with the smell of dirt and exhaust fumes.
Su Xiaoxiao took out her phone, scanned a bicycle, and straddled it with her long legs.
"Hajige, you better hold on! If you get your leg broken before I get there, you'll be washing all the dishes from now on!"
She slammed her feet on the pedals, the bicycle chain clattering as she sped into the damp night.
The wheels rolled over puddles on the road, splashing up two streams of water.
The evening breeze lifted her pigtails, and her oversized old jacket billowed behind her.
"And that Xia Ning, she actually went to the front lines to support Lady Ziwei behind my back! After this is all over, I'm making her treat me to bubble tea for a whole week!"
Panting, Su Xiaoxiao pedaled hard while mentally planning her lines for the upcoming scene.
Fifteen minutes later, the shared bicycle turned into the old streets of Lixing District.
Half of the streetlights around were gone, and the green belts on both sides of the road had been abandoned for many years, with weeds growing up to waist height.
It's about 200 meters from the gate of the Third Children's Welfare Home.
Su Xiaoxiao stood on the foot pedal, ready to accelerate and rush through the last intersection.
Bang!
The bicycle's front wheel, spinning rapidly, came to a sudden stop as it passed through the shadows at the edge of the green belt.
The front wheel struck an invisible, hard rubber air wall.
The enormous reaction force traveled up the handlebars, and the metal frame of the shared bicycle emitted a twisting groan.
The front wheel rim deflated instantly.
Wow!
Su Xiaoxiao gripped the brakes tightly with both hands, and her whole body lurched forward with the inertia. She barely managed to steady herself by bracing herself on one foot, avoiding falling directly into the mud.
What's blocking the way?
She shook her wrist, which had gone numb from the shock, and jumped off the deformed bicycle.