Chapter 151: This will cost EXTRAA!

“The Abyss Gospel Society… are they really that formidable?”
Listening to the seniors’ grave discussion,
Lin Yu couldn’t help but cut in,
saying,
“They sound like a bunch of cultist crackpots to me.”

“They’re not ordinary crackpots.
They’ve always been the sworn enemies of us magical girls—
a cult that chases after subspace power.”

Li Qing, crouched on the ground, lowered her voice.
Those fox-like eyes that always carried a smile were now utterly cold.

“They believe subspace isn’t a collection of chaos and evil,
but a higher-dimensional ‘Sea of Truth’ filled with infinite possibilities.
They claim the essence of the human soul originates from that sea.
What we call ‘pollution entities,’
they don’t see as monsters at all—
but as ‘gospels’ calling out to us from the ‘real world.’”

“A bunch of lunatics.”
Lin Yu frowned hard as she listened.
This kind of anti-human theory was something only crazed idiots with too much time on their hands would believe.

“They are lunatics.”

Yano Hotaru, who had been silent the entire time, picked up the thread.
The one-eyed teddy bear in her arms was squeezed slightly out of shape.

“Do you remember the pollution incident at the Xinhai City Public Security Bureau last time?
When we reviewed the footage afterward,
we discovered that the first vehicle to enter the scene had previously appeared in Chicheng Gang territory,
and there were traces of Abyss Gospel Society members coming and going.”

“In other words, that pollution incident was a setup jointly orchestrated by the Chicheng Gang and the Abyss Gospel Society.”

Yano Hotaru lifted her head, her gaze piercing through the crack in the door,
locking onto the eerie guards in the hall whose mouths had been sewn shut.

“We don’t know their exact objective,
but it’s obvious that these two infamous organizations have already joined forces.”

“Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s wipe them out!”

At that, Lin Yu’s emotions flared instantly, her voice nearly breaking containment.
In her beautiful eyes, two blazing golden flames named “Greed” burst forth.

“Two organizations working together?!
Do you know how huge that case would be?!
If we wipe out both tumors in one go, that’s not just eliminating harm for the people—
the year-end bonus alone…
One million?
No—two million isn’t impossible, right?!
I could put down a house deposit for myself!”

Lin Yu rubbed her hands together eagerly, already itching to charge out and slaughter everything in sight.

“…Don’t be impulsive.”

A hand pressed down on her shoulder.

Li Qing spoke calmly, but there was a strange hollowness beneath her steadiness.

“We’re probably not their match right now.”

“Are you kidding me? Not their match?”
Lin Yu turned back in disbelief.

“Sister Qing snipes them with one shot,
Sister Bing throws up her shield,
and Senior Ying activates a Conceptual Contract Armament—
how is that any different from rolling out fully armed?!”

“I, a C-rank rookie, can just stand there yelling ‘666’ and helping out—
we could steamroll them flat, couldn’t we?!”

“And you’re saying we need to… avoid their edge?”

Faced with Lin Yu’s questioning, the air suddenly fell silent.

The three magical-girl bigshots, who normally radiated overwhelming presence,
now had wandering eyes, looking at one another in awkward silence.

Chen Bing coughed stiffly and turned her head away to “admire the scenery.”
Yano Hotaru lowered her head and fiddled with the teddy bear’s ear, saying nothing.

In the end, it was Li Qing—thick-skinned as ever—who scratched her cheek and forced out an awkward yet polite smile.

“Well… um… Senior, you know today is a rest day, right?”

“So?”

“Well, since it’s a rest day, we’re just out relaxing, right?
So… some things didn’t exactly make it through security…”

The expression on Lin Yu’s face froze.

A profoundly ominous premonition crashed down on her like a bucket of ice water, from head to toe.

“S-so what you’re saying is…?”

“So…”

Li Qing spread her hands, blinking innocently.

“We’re on vacation… and we didn’t bring our weapons.”

“Then the transformation devices…”

“…Didn’t bring those either.”

“Haaah?!”

Lin Yu’s eyes flew wide open, practically popping out of their sockets.

She stared at the three teammates who were supposed to be the most reliable people here.

One in a Lolita dress whose only skill was acting cute.
One in a nun’s outfit who could only pray.
And one in Gothic attire who only hugged a teddy bear.

“Didn’t bring transformation devices?!
So you’re telling me these three normally badass seniors are now no different from the regular cosplayers lying outside?!”

“Y-you’re joking… right?”
Lin Yu’s voice trembled.

“Which means… right now… the only one on-site… is me…”

“That’s right!”

Li Qing slapped Lin Yu’s pink dress–clad shoulder hard,
her eyes filled with solemn resolve called “entrustment.”

“Right now, the only one with combat capability.
The only hope on the entire scene—”

“—is you, Senior Lulu!”

“…C-can I really do this?”

Lin Yu clutched the prop bow, her voice shaking like a leaf in the wind.
She looked down at her overly elaborate skirt, then at the doll-like little white mascot.

“I’m just a C-rank newbie who only recently turned full-time…
You’re sending me to solo a dungeon like this?
Why do I always have to fight above my level?!”

“Life is about constantly challenging yourself!
Besides, Senior, who said you’re a newbie?”

Li Qing’s fox eyes sparkled with that shameless, popcorn-munching encouragement.

“Look at you right now! Pink twin-tails! A gorgeous skirt! And this pay-to-win longbow!”

“You’re not some C-rank magical girl anymore—”

“—you’re the omniscient, omnipotent Law of Cycles!
The strongest magical girl—Madoka-sama!”

“Madoka my ass! This is cosplay, okay?!
This stuff doesn’t even add stats!”

Just as Lin Yu was about to argue further—

“Creeeak—”

A teeth-grating metallic screech brutally cut off her complaints.

The safety door that had been left ajar was slowly pulled open
by a pale, bloated hand with pitch-black fingernails.

A wave of rotting flesh stench instantly flooded the narrow passage.

Heavy footsteps hit the floor.

The monster that had been lurking outside the door finally revealed its true form.

It was a hulking brute wearing an oversized security uniform,
its muscles tearing the fabric apart, exposing bruised, purplish skin beneath.

But the most horrifying part was its face.

On that deathly pale slab of flesh,
where facial features should have been, there was only a blur—
except for one mouth…

That mouth had been bound shut with coarse black hemp rope,
wrapped densely like a stitched burlap sack.

Dark red blood seeped along the seams, dripping onto the floor.

“Uu… uuh—”

With its mouth sewn closed, it could only force out a chilling wheeze from deep in its throat,
like a leaking bellows.

The ghostly green emergency lights cast over its face,
painting it like a demon straight from hell.

Worse still, behind the monster,
shadowy shapes flickered—more twisted figures were gathering and closing in.

“We’ve been discovered…”
Yano Hotaru’s voice was cold as crushed ice.

“Lin Yu, don’t just stand there! Kill it!”
Chen Bing barked the order sharply.
Even unarmed, the authority of a high-ranking senior still clung to her.

“If you don’t, we’ll all die here!”

“G-got it already!”

Lin Yu gritted her teeth, glaring at the Fallen swarming like zombies.
The resentment in her heart burned fiercely.

That hundred thousand…
she was literally trading her life for it!

There was no retreat.

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear and embarrassment in her chest,
and raised the pink longbow.

“Humm—!”

The once-dull prop bow instantly erupted with dazzling cherry-pink light!

Lin Yu’s gaze sharpened as her right hand nocked the string and slowly pulled it back.

At that moment,
even as she cursed a thousand times in her heart,
the magical-girl instinct engraved into her very bones made her assume a perfectly standard shooting stance.

Her pink skirt fluttered without wind.
Her twin-tails danced in the air.

If not for the “I want to go home” misery written all over her face,
the scene would’ve looked like a painting.

【Shiny☆Psy-Energy Light Arrow】—fully charged!

“Seniors! When you go back and report to Manager Qian,
you absolutely must write this part in!”

“This mission was extremely difficult!
Comrade Lin Yu fought alone!
Carried the heavy burden!
Turned the tide single-handedly!”

“So—”

Her fingers released the string.
The light arrow became a meteor,
blasting forward with her furious roar!

“—YOU’VE GOTTA PAY EXTRA!!!!!!!!!”