Chapter 11: The Battle Begins

“I mean, is it possible that ordinary people might also produce detectable magic power fluctuations?” Kexin voiced her speculation.

Regarding Beta-level monsters, such faint and vague magic fluctuations don’t fit their characteristics, so it’s very likely that something else triggered Kexin’s spell.

“I don’t really know about that. Whatever it is, I’ll go check it out first.”

Qisi didn’t want to think too much and used her legs to propel herself forward, arriving in an instant at the building Kexin had pointed out.

She directly smashed a hole through the outer wall — after all, they were inside the barrier, so it didn’t matter.

Kexin, holding her big sniper rifle, moved forward a short distance to the highest floor in this space, which allowed her a good vantage point to observe the problematic building.

“The three faint and blurry magic sources seem to be climbing the stairs. If you take the emergency exit downstairs, you’ll meet them.”

“I wish you could share your vision. Having a box in your eyes looks really cool.”

“No way.”

Even Kexin’s detection beacon bullets were built little by little using textbooks and manuals. She didn’t understand many things either.

“Then remind me when I’m about to engage.”

“If it’s that close, you should be able to hear their footsteps yourself.”

Kexin looked at the emergency exit position inside the opposite building, but there wasn’t a single window, so she couldn’t observe what was inside.

Although smashing into the building was a bit loud, Qisi chose to be cautious while going downstairs.

The speed of the three magic fluctuation sources climbing the stairs had slowed considerably compared to before. They had probably gotten tired after climbing seven or eight floors.

This community called Dongzhuanghua was built in the first 20 years of the century. Unlike newly built residential buildings, the floors here were very tall.

Each building had more than thirty floors.

The chasing magic fluctuation source behind also seemed to be struggling, unlikely to catch up to the three ahead anytime soon.

“Agent Guan, can you hear me?” Taking advantage of this moment, Kexin switched the communicator channel, and soon the voice of Guan Mengyao came through the earphones.

“Very clear. How about your side?”

“Sound is very clear, no interference noise, communication is normal.”

“That’s good. How’s the situation now?” Guan Mengyao asked while inside an unmarked van at the scene.

This van was the Special Investigation Bureau’s mobile command platform. Inside the cargo area were numerous devices, and one screen displayed several detected magic power fluctuations.

Blue indicated magical girls, red indicated monsters. From the map, two blue dots were very close to the red dots.

“I’ve pinpointed the monster’s exact location, but there’s a special situation,” Kexin continued reporting. “Agent Guan, have you found any trace of those four people?”

“You mean the special situation? That’s unlikely.” Guan Mengyao wasn’t confident either; she had personally inputted data on the four most notable students in her class into the AI recognition system.

The Special Investigation Bureau had taken over all nearby accessible surveillance cameras. Anyone appearing on screen would be discovered immediately.

They had caught many criminals with this system and it also helped during monster investigations.

“If I’m right, you still haven’t found their whereabouts, right?”

Though reluctant to hope she was correct, there was hardly any other possibility under current circumstances.

“There is some record of them taking a taxi near here, but after they got off, there’s no footage of them.”

Normally, there were quite a few cameras covering these streets, with good density, but still no trace of those people.

If they were suspects in a major case, the agents would have quite a headache.

“Then it’s probably like that. Agent Guan, prepare to handle trouble.”

“Could it be what I think it is?”

Guan Mengyao understood Kexin’s meaning. It would be normal if several people were accidentally pulled into the barrier during its formation.

Besides, those who can produce detectable magic fluctuations are more likely than ordinary people to pass through the special point. If the barrier was thin enough, they could slip through.

“Most likely.”

“Always causing me trouble, these kids,” Guan Mengyao clenched her fist. If it weren’t for all the important equipment around, she might have punched something.

But this was the Special Investigation Bureau’s job. To keep the monster existence hidden from ordinary citizens, there were inevitably many troubles.

After all, they couldn’t keep blaming all incidents on gas company pipeline explosions.

“The mission objective has changed: protect civilians accidentally trapped inside the special barrier, while eliminating monsters. Also, issue an assistance request for any nearby magical girls willing to take the mission.”

Probably none would respond.

Kexin had been a magical girl for a while and had some understanding of the situation.

The entire Muzhou City, while not the biggest in the East Asia Federation, was still large. Yet the total number of registered magical girls was under fifty.

Those who chose to become special agents were even fewer; most magical girls were on their own.

The Special Investigation Bureau couldn’t even force them to take missions.

Besides, the monster this time wasn’t particularly strong. Even if someone wanted to help, the monster might be eliminated on the way, making the trip pointless.

“Then I don’t need to hold back.”

“Mm, but you should still be careful.”

Kexin aligned the sniper scope crosshair with the box around the target and slowly moved the muzzle following the target’s movement.

When Kexin judged the monster’s position closer to the outer wall, she decisively pulled the trigger.

The bullet she fired traced a path in the air the same color as her hair, then struck the wall and exploded.

A large hole appeared on the otherwise intact building surface, and the monster inside was blasted off the stairs, tumbling down.

It probably hadn’t expected such an attack. However, the damage to the monster wasn’t significant.

Kexin saw the box immediately resume movement and a portion of the monster protruded from the hole in the wall.

This was—

Kexin instantly felt something was wrong and immediately jumped back at least ten meters. Almost simultaneously, a high-speed projectile passed through the spot where she had just stood.

Before she could figure out what the attack was, the building she was in came under continuous assault. The steel needle-like projectiles easily pierced through multiple floors.

The monster leapt out of the gap she hadn’t noticed, firmly clinging to the building she was in.

It quickly ascended the vertical wall.

“Kexin, what just happened?”

“The monster started attacking. It seems to be able to fire extremely fast projectiles. I’m going.”

Before Kexin finished speaking, a huge black shadow sprang from the rooftop edge.

It was a giant scorpion. For the first time, Kexin clearly saw what the monster looked like.