Colossus Company's "Protection" (Two-in-One)

Colossus Company · conference room:

"We don't have much time, so let's begin. Ms. Xiaohong, what is the purpose of your visit to our chairwoman, Hell?"

Tang Wenjie clasped his hands together.

Hell was a little distracted beside him.

Chairwoman Hell?

What an imposing title. She liked it.

Lin Xiaohong immediately produced a copy of an investigation document. "Here's the situation, Mr. Tang. The Taiping Prefecture Ministry of Magic headquarters has issued Miss Hell a formal request for an investigation into witchification."

"You can take a look."

Tang Wenjie shrugged. "To be honest, Ms. Xiaohong, this is the first time I've seen your Ministry of Magic follow procedure so closely."

In the past, whenever the Ministry of Magic investigated witchification, it would simply take the magical girl away for questioning. It was even more formidable than the Eastern Depot.

Otherwise, Tang Wenjie wouldn't have prepared the surveillance footage. Others in the industry had suffered for it.

Often, it wasn't a matter of whether you thought you were at risk of witchification, but whether the Ministry of Magic said you were...

Long before Hell appeared, Tang Wenjie had already sensed the hidden discontent that the people and capital of Taiping Prefecture harbored toward the authoritarian Ministry of Magic.

The ministry not only regulated magical girls' morals and standards, but also their debuts and public listings.

Even making a game or shooting a movie-almost every commercial activity one could think of-had to go through the Ministry of Magic first. Anything that failed to meet its standards was sent back for review.

And every step in that process involved large sums of money flowing in and out.

Throughout it all, the Ministry of Magic even held the moral high ground under the banner of "doing what's best for magical girls."

It acted as both judge and lawmaker, handled cases like the police, and collected taxes on top of it all. How did it get to have every advantage?

Hearing the implication behind Tang Wenjie's words, Lin Xiaohong grew a little embarrassed. She gave two awkward chuckles, pushed the investigation document toward him, and added:

"Actually, I also think there are many things the Ministry of Magic doesn't do well."

Golden Feather was immediately displeased. Lin Xiaohong, whose side are you on? He's being sarcastic, and you're just taking it!

How did a spineless person like you become the person in charge?

Tang Wenjie took the document, skimmed through it, and handed it to Hell beside him so she could take a look too.

He already knew what documents like this contained, but it was Hell's first time seeing one.

In short, the Ministry of Magic wanted to thoroughly investigate every battle she had participated in since becoming a magical girl and required her to cooperate.

If any of her actions during that time were found to be illegal, the Ministry of Magic would deem her risk of witchification too high, and she would have to submit to its control and supervision thereafter.

However, Tang Wenjie, like Moro, was not someone who gave in to pressure.

He gave Lin Xiaohong a single response.

"Ms. Xiaohong, the magical girl Hell is not an official magical girl of your Ministry of Magic, nor has she signed any third-party contract with the United Government."

"So you have no authority to investigate us."

Hearing this, Lin Xiaohong wiped away a bead of sweat inwardly.

Golden Feather frowned and suddenly raised her voice:

"What do you mean, we have no authority to investigate you? Our Ministry of Magic answers to the United Government. Do you think a private company like yours can defy us?"

At that, Tang Wenjie finally looked Golden Feather in the eye, but his words sent her blood pressure soaring even higher.

Tang Wenjie said, "Under normal circumstances, a Ministry of Magic employee of your rank isn't qualified to speak to me."

"You!"

Golden Feather flared up. As a magical girl with official status, she was flattered and welcomed wherever she went. How dare Tang Wenjie, a mere ordinary person, speak to her like that?

"Pfft."

Hell suddenly burst out laughing beside them.

She turned her head, unable to hold back her laughter.

"What are you laughing at?!"

Golden Feather looked coldly at Hell. "Do you think we can't do anything to you because you're hiding inside Colossus Company?"

"I'm telling you, there's nothing in Taiping Prefecture that the Ministry of Magic can't uncover!"

However, Hell was not someone who gave in to pressure either.

"Me? I was just thinking how lucky an idiot like you must be to have lived this long."

"Also, could you stop barking at me like a stray dog on the street? It's really disgusting. I hate people like you most of all."

Tang Wenjie pressed his lips together and thought, Of all the people you could have provoked, you had to pick our young lady with the worst temper.

She dared to point her sword at the entire Ministry of Magic and withstand the whole internet's negative attention. Why would she be afraid of you?

"Say that again?!"

Golden Feather was furious. The golden magic in her hand seethed, instantly forming a spear that pointed straight at Hell.

"Golden Feather!"

Seeing this, Lin Xiaohong hurriedly stood and gripped her wrist. Two immense streams of magic clashed in the conference room.

In the end, Lin Xiaohong firmly suppressed her opponent and breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

"Honestly."

Hell suddenly shook her head. Her gaze passed over the spear before her and settled on the resentful Golden Feather. "With magic at that level, you dare fight me?"

She could sense that although Golden Feather's total magic was B-rank, her magic output efficiency was a complete mess.

Golden Feather's anger, which had only just been suppressed, flared up again. "You little bitch...!"

Knock, knock!

Tang Wenjie's face darkened. He suddenly raised a hand and rapped heavily on the table.

She dares attack one of my people at Colossus Company.

Ding-a-ling.

The conference room door was pushed open.

A man in camouflage field fatigues and a baseball cap walked in. Without a word, he stood against the wall with his arms crossed, staring coldly at Golden Feather and Lin Xiaohong.

In an instant, chilling killing intent filled the conference room.

[Codename: Firebird.]

[Affiliation: Colossus Group · Moon Studio.]

[Threat level: A-rank.]

[Abilities: flame powers, high-speed regeneration.]

[Superhero "100" ranking: 11th.]

[Market value: 600 billion US dollars.]

Miss Hell blinked in confusion and looked at Tang Wenjie. He shrugged at her, as if to say:

Impressed by your Brother Geto?

Golden Feather froze. Evidently, she too sensed the very real killing intent coming from him. She looked at Tang Wenjie.

"What's the meaning of this? Openly opposing public officials-are you trying to declare war on the Ministry of Magic?"

Her voice was somewhat quieter, though.

Tang Wenjie crossed his legs and leaned back slightly. "I told you, someone of your status isn't qualified to speak to me."

"I'll give you one warning: if you dare lay a hand on my magical girl, I guarantee you won't live to see tomorrow."

At that moment, the man codenamed Firebird raised a hand, and a ball of intensely hot flame began burning in his palm.

The moment the flame appeared in the air, the temperature in the air-conditioned conference room shot up.

Firebird said impassively, "What Mr. Tang says goes for me too."

"Either get out or sit down and behave yourself."

Lin Xiaohong was sweating profusely by now. Ignoring Golden Feather entirely, she immediately pulled out her chair and sat back down.

It was as if she were saying, I have nothing to do with her.

She couldn't be blamed for being timid. Firebird, standing in the conference room, was a genuine A-rank superhero.

Who knew how many criminals had died at his hands?

He even had the title of "Gatekeeper of the Top Ten Club." His combat prowess was far beyond what Lin Xiaohong, a mere B+, could match.

Seeing this, Golden Feather shot Lin Xiaohong an indignant look.

Miss Hell added fuel to the fire from the side.

"What are you looking at? If I were you, I'd be too embarrassed to stay another second. You're weak but love putting on airs. Your skin is thicker than your shoe heels, so hurry up and get out."

This shameless little bitch...!

Golden Feather was nearly mad with rage. If Firebird hadn't been there, she would have attacked Hell already.

In the end, Golden Feather chose to leave, slamming the door behind her.

Seeing her go, Firebird extinguished the flame in his hand and adjusted his baseball cap. "Would you like me to give you privacy, Mr. Tang?"

Tang Wenjie shook his head. "Sit down with us."

Firebird nodded, then pulled out a chair and sat at the far end. His manner toward Tang Wenjie was very respectful.

Suddenly, Firebird spoke to Hell. "You're the magical girl the studio just signed, right? I like the way you talk. It's satisfying to listen to. I'm Firebird, Moon Studio's superhero number 001."

Wow, so he's a veteran.

Hell nodded. "Thank you. I'm Hell."

Tang Wenjie resumed his conversation with Lin Xiaohong.

With Golden Feather gone, Lin Xiaohong seemed relieved and much more at ease. She picked up where they had left off:

"Honestly, Mr. Tang, I don't think Miss Hell did anything wrong either. The only people she killed were criminals who deserved to die anyway."

"But you understand. I have to do the job that comes with my position. I don't have a choice."

Lin Xiaohong looked bitter.

Tang Wenjie sat up straight again and gave her a polite smile. "You really are different from that magical girl just now."

"I think I understand what you mean now, Ms. Xiaohong."

Lin Xiaohong had come to tell Tang Wenjie that she herself was ten thousand percent unwilling to fight Hell.

As for the bullshit investigation, if the Ministry of Magic really wanted to investigate, it could send its own people.

Lin Xiaohong had also come to warn Tang Wenjie that the Ministry of Magic's higher-ups were very displeased with Hell and even wanted to use underhanded tricks against her.

Tang Wenjie was a shrewd man, and he naturally understood her hints.

After the meeting ended.

Lin Xiaohong looked at Hell again and smiled. "Miss Hell, thank you for agreeing to this meeting."

Hell was in a good mood after driving Golden Feather away. "Mm-hmm. There was a little interruption, but I think our discussion went fairly smoothly."

It was a good thing that Lin Xiaohong had made it clear she would not be her enemy.

Seeing how happy Hell looked, Lin Xiaohong's gaze flickered.

Hmm... this girl is really beautiful. If only she were my little sister. She looks fierce, but she'd probably be very well-behaved if I held her in my arms...

I want to pat her head...

Fortunately, Lin Xiaohong restrained her itching hands. After shaking hands with Hell, she said goodbye and left.

Once she was gone, Hell looked at Tang Wenjie. "How do you think those higher-ups at the Ministry of Magic will deal with me next?"

Tang Wenjie answered concisely, "Arrest you first, question you later, and beat a confession out of you."

"Those people at the Ministry of Magic love doing that."

Hell wasn't surprised by the answer. She was only wondering what her chances of winning would be if she fought Lin Xiaohong and Golden Feather.

She asked, "What level is Miss Lin's strength within the Ministry of Magic?"

Tang Wenjie said, "Excluding those who are only affiliated in name, Lin Xiaohong is already among the top five magical girls who actually belong to the Ministry of Magic."

"She's very talented and has a good chance of reaching A-rank by eighteen."

Being a magical girl was very obviously a profession for the young. Once they reached eighteen, ninety-nine percent of magical girls gradually lost their powers.

After retirement, official magical girls generally moved straight into administrative work. Hu Xueting and the others had been promoted that way.

But there was also the one percent of magical girls who did not lose their powers and instead grew stronger.

Magical girls of this kind were extremely rare.

Whenever one appeared, the Ministry of Magic would classify her as being at "extremely high risk of witchification," order her not to use her powers, and place her under its supervision.

Tang Wenjie said, "The vast majority of magical girl witchifications tend toward the 'disorder type.' The 'chaos type' is extremely rare."

Disorder-type witches had no reason, while chaos types were too few in number. Even combined, they no longer posed much of a threat to modern human society.

At most, they could be considered a natural disaster, not the end of the world.

That was also why the Ministry of Magic had been able to maintain its monopoly on the industry.

Hell asked again, "Then who's the strongest magical girl in the Ministry of Magic now?"

Tang Wenjie thought for a moment before answering. "Do you remember Eclipse, the magical girl you saw in the mobile game last time? There are reports that she recently broke through A+."

"If those reports are true, then from now on she'll be the strongest magical girl of the modern era. Behind her is the second tier, represented by the A-rank Moon God."

The strongest of the modern era?

Hearing that, Hell grew thoughtful.

Firebird spoke up from the side. "Miss Hell, now that I've returned to Taiping Prefecture, I'll be staying here for a while."

He handed her a business card. "If the Ministry of Magic gives you trouble, call or message me anytime."

"This is also Chairman Moro's wish."

"Others might be afraid of offending the Ministry of Magic, but I'm not."

The sanpaku eyes beneath the brim of his cap were cold as ice.

There was one particularly noteworthy point about how Colossus Company had maintained its monopoly in the superhero field to this day, and it was also the one most criticized.

Colossus Company fiercely protected its core interests and never compromised with the government or third-party forces.

For example, say a superhero under the company accidentally caused the death of an ordinary person during a battle.

Another company might blacklist that superhero because of government pressure and public protests.

But Colossus wouldn't.

They would use money and public relations to buy influence wherever they could, get the court to rule the person innocent, and then turn public opinion around.

In all the years Peacemaker had been active since his debut, he had committed who knew how many crimes, and ordinary people were among those who had died at his hands.

The lawsuits against him could have filled a whole villa.

But the Colossus Company had one response: cover for him.

Even when Colossus encountered superheroes with no scruples who committed intentional murder, it would only deal with them internally, never allowing anyone else to interfere.

It had even set up an internal psychological assessment department dedicated to examining and evaluating the mental state of its superhumans.

As a result, the Colossus Company's superheroes blindly defended the company in turn, because their interests were one and the same.

From an ordinary person's perspective, this was undoubtedly terrifying and hopeless.

No one knew just how many more sanctimonious superheroes the Colossus Company was covering for behind the scenes.

They protected one another, their ties tangled and deeply rooted.

And that was capitalism.

With wealth and power behind it, the Colossus Company had long since become a terrifying force capable of going toe-to-toe with the major alliances.

After all, superheroes who "enforced the law worldwide" weren't there just to fight criminals.

These thoughts flashed through Hell's mind in an instant, and she couldn't help reflecting:

"No wonder people online say the Colossus Company and the Ministry of Magic are just dogs biting each other. Neither side is any good."

"Then again, I'm no good person myself."

She happily accepted the business card Firebird offered her. "Thanks, Mr. Firebird."

There hadn't been the slightest hint of pretense in Firebird's tone. He had clearly received Chairman Moro's authorization, and if necessary...

He really did dare to kill people from the Ministry of Magic.

At the same time, the company had certainly prepared for a legal battle. After all, the legal team it spent tens of billions of dollars a year maintaining wasn't being paid to sit around.

If the Ministry of Magic wanted to play dirty, they would take them on all the way.

Make Colossus compromise? Not a chance.

"No problem. See you next time."

Firebird nodded slightly, turned, and left.

After that, Hell left the Colossus Company as well.

But halfway back, as Mo Zhen sat in a taxi, he suddenly received a notification from the system.

[Random event detected nearby. Teleport?]

Seeing this, Mo Zhen immediately paid the taxi driver 100 yuan by mobile payment and got out on the spot. He found a restroom in a shopping mall and set up a Magic Curtain.

"Teleport."

[Witch praying...]

[Random event: "Gun Witch"]

[Description: The Ministry of Magic has received intelligence that the C+ wanted criminal "Gun Witch," a member of the Witches' Association, has fled to Jinghai District, Tianhe City. The nearest magical girl, "Golden Feather," has been dispatched to begin tracking her down.]

[Mission: Kill the witch / kill the magical girl.]

[Reward: Grief Seed (used to unlock the second ability slot).]

"There's a deal this good?"

Hell was immediately interested.

She knew nothing about this Gun Witch, but she suddenly felt like helping her. For no other reason than to make trouble for the Ministry of Magic.

She didn't mind hurting them without benefiting herself. After all, no amount of money could buy the pleasure of doing as she pleased.

Hee hee.

Just as Miss Hell's figure vanished inside the Magic Curtain...

Whale Sea Park.

A thin boy in an international high school uniform hesitantly asked the girl in front of him in a low voice:

"Can I really buy a gun from you?"

"Of course..."

In front of her stood a silver-haired girl in an air force jacket, her hair tied in a bun at the back of her head and a cigarette in her mouth. Hearing the question, she gave a sly grin:

She pulled a compact Glock 43 from inside her jacket. "Here. This Glock 43 is perfect for ordinary people. Nine-millimeter caliber, low recoil, but powerful enough to kill."

"If you buy it today, you'll get ten free rounds when you buy another thirty."

"Okay... I'll take it!"

Remembering the people who had forced him to drink toilet water in the restroom, the boy gritted his teeth and took out all his pocket money.

He bought the Glock 43.

But suddenly, a wave of magical power swept over the entire forest, followed immediately by a white-and-gold Magic Curtain descending from the sky.

A cold voice rang out in the night sky. "You have ten seconds to put down the gun in your hand. Otherwise, I will legally regard you as an accomplice of the witch."

"Huh?!"

The silver-haired girl jumped in fright and looked up at the night sky.

A magical girl with golden twin tails, dressed in a white-and-gold battle dress, was sitting on a spear suspended in midair.

A golden parrot perched on her shoulder.

It was the magical girl Golden Feather.

From her lofty position, she looked down at the Gun Witch and the high school boy beside her.

"A witch? I'm not a witch's accomplice, I... I just don't want to be bullied anymore!"

The boy's voice trembled, but he gripped the pistol tightly, refusing to put it down.

Seeing this, the silver-haired witch gave a helpless smile. "Turn around and run, kid. She's here for me."

The boy panicked and hurriedly turned to flee.

"Very good...!"

In the night sky, Golden Feather narrowed her eyes. Already in a bad mood, her killing intent reached its peak at that moment.

Even an ordinary person dared to disregard her words?

Her figure vanished in an instant, and she appeared in front of the high school boy, ignoring the silver-haired witch from the outset.

The spearhead pierced his abdomen in an instant, embedding itself deep inside.

The Gun Witch froze for a second at the sight. "Aren't you official magical girls... forbidden to kill people?"

Who was the witch here, anyway?

Hearing this, Golden Feather pulled out her spear and flicked the blood from its blade. She lowered her head slightly, pretending to think. "Ah... that."

She suddenly smiled. "He doesn't count. Who knows? He might be an accomplice you witches planted in the school as a spy."

Since he was a witch's accomplice, he deserved to die.

The silver-haired witch laughed in anger.

She instantly yanked off her jacket and tossed it aside, revealing a sharp sleeveless shirt and black hot pants covered in bullets and hand grenades.

A dagger and a revolver also hung from the thigh-high socks that reached the ends of her thighs.

The Gun Witch snatched up the revolver and released the safety. "When you kill an ordinary person like that, all the pollution and resentment go into your Soul Gem. Aren't you afraid of becoming a witch?"

Golden Feather gently twirled her spear, her gaze full of contempt and a hint of pride.

"That's why... stray dogs like you will never understand how powerful the Ministry of Magic is. We have plenty of ways to purify Soul Gems."

The Gun Witch's pupils contracted.

Golden Feather was very pleased with her reaction.