Chapter 61: The Price of Underestimation

Lips met.

A scorching breath swept across her face, forcibly prying Nuonuo’s lips apart, intertwining their breaths.

The forced exchange of breath violently dragged her scattered consciousness back to reality.

Then, in the brief moment before Nuonuo could recover from the sudden suffocation.

Bang, bang––

Two rapid gunshots echoed.

Ling Xing, holding her gun with one hand, fired two shots behind her without even turning her head.

There, through the dissipating gunsmoke, stood…

A ‘combatant’ holding a gun.

” ‘Uh… ah…?’ ”

The rifle clattered to the ground.

A bullet, arriving faster than the sound, pierced her shoulder, stealing her strength to pull the trigger and causing her to lose her grip on the rifle.

‘How did she know of her presence? How could she strike so accurately without even turning around? How did she know she would appear here?’

The ‘combatant’ moved her lips, utterly stunned.

The wound on her thigh, where she had indeed been hit, made her stumble. Only by instinctively bracing herself against the wall did she manage to avoid collapsing to her knees.

A shot to the shoulder, another to the thigh—these had stripped her of any chance to fire back and severed all means of escape.

” ‘Do you take me for a fool? Nuonuo is a key figure, sought after by several factions. Do you truly believe I’d brazenly lead her out like this without knowing I was being tailed and monitored?’ ”

Their lips parted. Ling Xing spread her jacket nearby, gently setting down the frail girl who had been nestled in her arms.

She didn’t lift her gaze, didn’t turn around. It was as if she couldn’t be bothered to even glance at the ‘combatant’.

” ‘You fool…! How dare you underestimate me!’ ”

One arm disabled, one thigh severely injured, her stance unstable—for an ordinary person, resistance would indeed be impossible.

But the ‘combatant’ was no ordinary person.

She was an elite among elites, and Ling Xing’s arrogant posture was riddled with vulnerabilities!

The combatant gritted her teeth. With one hand, she drew a knife, her movement to cover her wound transforming instantly into a hidden throw, launching a flying blade at Ling Xing’s back, where she had just set down the girl.

The blade, completely unseen and flying from a blind spot, was impossible to counter.

This was the price of underestimating her. Even a magical girl, without transforming, couldn’t withstand her honed killing techniques!

The combatant’s lips curved into a smirk.

Then, her smile froze.

” ‘How pitiful. You should have been an honorable samurai, yet with the changing times, you’ve resorted to these underhanded tricks typically used by assassins and ninjas.’ ”

The blade, which had flown from her blind spot, was caught between two of Ling Xing’s fingers, stopping right beside her face.

Only then did Ling Xing finally rise, casually spinning the flying knife with her fingertips as she turned to face her.

‘Impossible. She couldn’t have seen it. She hasn’t even transformed; she should only possess the physical abilities of an ordinary person.’

The ‘combatant’ was utterly astonished, yet she instinctively reached into her embrace again, attempting to hurl another flying blade.

However, if a sneak attack from behind couldn’t succeed, then face-to-face…

She wouldn’t even get the chance to try.

” ‘Ugh… ah————’ ”

The hand she’d reached into her embrace with was impaled by the flying blade.

The very knife she had just thrown, in the instant before she could even register it, pierced the palm she’d intended to strike with again.

Only when searing pain assailed her did she finally realize what had happened.

Only then did she finally grasp the immense disparity between herself, a self-proclaimed elite, and Ling Xing.

” ‘Curious, are you? Curious as to how I found you? It’s certainly troublesome to hunt down someone playing hide-and-seek, but if they’re forced to reveal themselves, forced to appear at a location I’ve predetermined—then there’s naturally no need to hunt them at all.’ ”

The ‘combatant’ monitoring Nuonuo possessed skills far surpassing most soldiers. In a straightforward battle of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, she would undoubtedly be a formidable opponent.

Conversely, no matter how skilled one is, when there’s no choice but to act, the possibility of remaining hidden vanishes.

Nuonuo was a precious individual, someone who absolutely had to be secured. Given that, if Nuonuo’s life were in danger, then no matter who the opponent was, they would be compelled to intervene.

She inevitably *had* to appear here, to prevent Ling Xing’s foolish act of killing Nuonuo.

Therefore, Ling Xing had deliberately and openly carried Nuonuo away, leading her into this straightforward alley, far from the clamor of the crowds.

Here, where no one else was present, it was the perfect place to resolve these trivial matters.

” ‘You… you all… could it be? Impossible… the auxiliary deduction clearly showed…’ ”

Nuonuo’s pulse was faint, her breathing erratic, her heartbeat fluctuating, her aura weak.

In the combatant’s eyes, Nuonuo genuinely appeared to be on the verge of death, which was precisely why she had been forced to intervene.

No matter how superb the acting, it couldn’t be maintained when truly suffocating and nearing death. Moreover, the emotions they displayed showed no hint of pretense.

She had investigated their pasts, observed their words and actions, and judged their personalities.

A girl who had fallen into despair after betrayal, here, burdened by guilt, killing her former comrade…

According to the auxiliary AI’s calculations, this absurd drama was indeed plausible.

That was why she had appeared without any defenses, to stop this farce from reaching its conclusion.

” ‘Oh? Is it so hard to imagine? Is there perhaps a possibility that your initial assumptions were simply wrong?’ ”

Ling Xing smiled.

” ‘You didn’t actually believe that Nuonuo, the one who abandoned us and ran off, would suddenly have a change of heart and insist on producing results to atone for her sins or prove her worth, did you? Those are just empty words.’ ”

” ‘Huh?’ ”

‘No, it’s not?’

The combatant blinked in slight bewilderment.

‘Although the situation was grave, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ling Xing wasn’t saying anything good about Nuonuo.’

She prided herself on being a good judge of character, and Nuonuo, by all appearances, truly hadn’t seemed to be acting.

” ‘Hmph, of course not, absolutely not! Nuonuo is clearly the kind of wicked brat who, after blowing up a lab with an experiment, would shamelessly blame magical girls, incite everyone into a frenzy to go fight them, only for everyone to get sent flying by elbows. She’d use our rations to cultivate a bunch of tentacles, and then, when everyone was starving, she’d block us, crying and fussing, refusing to let us eat the tentacles! That’s how evil she is!’ ”

” ‘Tch, I actually misjudged her…’ ”

‘That detestable brat! She hadn’t seen what a truly wicked individual Nuonuo was, hiding such a malicious heart beneath an adorable facade!’

‘Her acting, it was truly masterful!’

The ‘combatant’ leaned against the wall, gritting her teeth in frustration.

With her legs useless and her hand immobile, she truly had no means of resistance left.

Yet she felt no fear. Just like during the previous convoy attack, she possessed a form of spatial magic that could teleport her back to safety.

This was one reason she wasn’t particularly urgent and even had the leisure to exchange a few words.

” ‘Since she’s such a wicked brat… shouldn’t you be even more inclined to—’ ”

” ‘Hmm? No, not at all. Since she’s a companion, since she’s family, I’ll embrace her no matter what she’s like.’ ”

Ling Xing raised her pistol.

” ‘She doesn’t need atonement, I don’t care about her worth, and there’s no such thing as guilt. If she wants to come home, I’ll take her home, plain and simple.’ ”

‘It’s coming.’

‘If I sustain a fatal injury, the teleportation will trigger.’

‘I must relay this information to that person… Everything Nuonuo showed was fake. Even if none of us, or the lie detector, could tell, if Ling Xing, her former associate, says so, then it must be true!’

The combatant silently steeled her resolve.

Unfortunately, the teleportation didn’t trigger.

She stared at the barrel of Ling Xing’s gun, then watched as Ling Xing chuckled softly and tilted her head slightly.

The view that opened up was Nuonuo’s pale pink pupils.

” ‘……’ ”

Her consciousness plunged into a void.

[Xing… I really feel like you were actually trying to strangle me?]

Only after she lost consciousness did the pale, frail girl, clutching her throat and gasping for breath, murmur faintly through their mental link.