Chapter 4: Won’t Take Up Much of Your Time

In the middle of the suburban road, the white knight, holding a gunblade in one hand, silently observed the humanoid Nightmare.

And behind the row of police cars on the roadside, the agents of the Nightmare Countermeasures Division were also nervously observing this (self-proclaimed) new magical girl.

“Sir, can a magical girl really look like that?”

The young agent who had just been rapped on the head voiced the question on many people’s minds. “A teenage girl, and her dream is to be an armored soldier?”

Officer Si stared intently at the scene, his tone also a bit uncertain. “There’s no evidence to suggest that an adolescent girl’s dream of her ideal self can’t be… an armored soldier. The fantastical title ‘magical girl’ was conveyed to us by The Flower Arranger, and she was a stubborn secretive who refused to cooperate. We have to take what she said with a grain of salt.”

The magical girl Mangzhong’s transformation outfit was adorned with pieces of plate armor on her shoulders and waist, a style common in anime known as “hime-kishi” or “princess knight.” So, having a few more pieces of plate armor, even to the point of becoming a medieval tin can, seemed… not impossible?

‘Perhaps she’s shy and doesn’t want to show her face, or maybe she’s just afraid of pain and so she’s covered her whole body in armor?’

Thinking of his own rebellious daughter, who would be starting high school in a few months, Officer Si sighed deeply. “Little girls’ minds are always so hard to guess…”

At the same time, the white knight—Ren Huazhi, clad in the doctor’s latest masterpiece—began to move.

A normal human couldn’t operate the Magical Hunting Gear; he was only able to activate it thanks to the residual magical energy in the cylinder. He’d let Meng Qiuxu worry about the sustainability issue later. He raised the blade and tentatively squeezed the trigger.

Along the magic-conducting rail, Mangzhong’s scorching magical energy was channeled from the guard to the tip of the blade, causing the thin blade to glow a faint red. Ren Huazhi was slightly startled by this sudden special effect. After a few practice swings to confirm it wouldn’t explode, he dragged the gunblade behind him and strode quickly toward the Nightmare.

“A very peculiar fighting style…”

Officer Si frowned unconsciously.

“What’s wrong, sir?” the young agent asked.

“Xiao Huang, I remember you were top of your class in police weaponry and defense at the academy, right? If it were you, how would you use that weapon?”

The young agent, thinking Officer Si was giving him a hard time again, said with a pained expression, “A criminal is completely different from a Nightmare, right? But if it were me, I’d at least hold the weapon in front of my body.”

“Exactly. Not only is he hiding the blade, but he’s also holding his left hand to his chest. Is he planning to protect the weapon with his body? That’s putting the cart before the horse! Is he just a little girl who doesn’t know how to fight after all…?”

The subject of their discussion, Ren Huazhi, didn’t hear these criticisms. He had already entered the three-meter radius around the Nightmare.

The gunblade scraped a fiery arc on the ground. With his final step, his body drove a powerful, heavy upward slash!

Clang!

The magic-infused blade struck the humanoid Nightmare’s side, producing a crisp sound of metal on metal. The Nightmare’s body shifted a short distance in the direction of the slash, as if it had been staggered by the force.

But Ren Huazhi clicked his tongue behind the mask.

‘The impact feels light… The slash didn’t move the Nightmare; it actively took a step to the side to dissipate some of the force.’

The first strike was ineffective. Ren Huazhi decisively tried to withdraw the blade and retreat…

It wouldn’t come out?

The Nightmare’s arm dropped to its side, clamping the gunblade tightly against its torso. The featureless humanoid silhouette twisted, turned its body, and slammed its shoulder into Ren Huazhi.

“Ugh?!”

—The ground disappeared.

No, he had been sent flying!

‘No one ever said Nightmares knew kung fu, let alone how to do an iron mountain charge!’ Lying in a flowerbed by the roadside, Ren Huazhi came to his senses and immediately touched his chest. He felt a cracked and shattered texture. Looking down, he saw that his entire chestplate had been shattered by the blow, tearing the clothes he was wearing underneath and exposing his pale skin.

“Cough, cough… Meng Qiuxu, you bastard, you shoddy inventor, you’re trying to kill me! You—”

Ren Huazhi immediately realized that this so-called nano-armor was only designed to allow an ordinary person to wield the Magical Hunting Gear. Its protective capabilities were entirely the grand inventor’s fantasy… it wasn’t like she could find a Nightmare to cooperate in testing, could she?

Unfortunately, there was only static hissing in his earpiece. Meng Qiuxu, dozens of kilometers away, couldn’t hear him, nor could she have imagined that the Ren Huazhi who had seemed so listless and troubled just a moment ago could be so full of emotion.

“I was just thinking, has this woman finally gotten a clue? All she thinks about day in and day out is how to increase firepower, and she can whip up armor? She should wear this thing onto the battlefield herself, then she’d know what ‘safety first’ means, what…”

His emotional rant came to an abrupt halt.

Peeking over the bushes, Ren Huazhi saw the Nightmare walking towards the police cars.

Nightmares are monsters that spill out from the dream plane, possessing a natural, instinctive hostility towards rationality and order, which manifests as a hatred for “high-tech creations.”

It was as if it had been enraged by his attack, but couldn’t find its primary target who had been sent flying, so it was now approaching the nearest high-tech objects to vent its frustration by wrecking a few cars.

Once it destroyed the police cars, it would be pleasantly surprised to find many ordinary humans hiding behind them—

And because Meng Qiuxu had snatched the second comment on the post that discovered this Nightmare, no other magical girls would be coming.

“Ha… Convenient plot devices, here they come after all…”

Ren Huazhi laughed, both amused and angry.

Angry at the clever-for-her-own-good Meng Qiuxu, and at himself for going along with it: thinking this was a chance for research, he had easily accepted a belt that he didn’t even know if it had passed stress testing…

This time, was there still a chance to get out of this?

[Witness the virtues of the wilderness!]

A call echoed from the unseen, as if urging Ren Huazhi to act, yet holding back an all-too-obvious chuckle.

“I know, I know…”

Ren Huazhi staggered to his feet, stepping over branches and leaves back onto the road, his chest still aching faintly.

“In the name of the gods of the wilderness—the hunt begins!”

In the next moment, the stumbling figure vanished.

The agents, separated from the Nightmare by just one police car, were already gripping their spears tightly, ready for action. Officer Si and Xiao Huang were crouched in the very front row.

The two were ready. As soon as the Nightmare smashed the vehicle, they would burst out from the wreckage in a coordinated attack, thrusting their spears straight into its torso to test the Nightmare’s resistance to piercing attacks. The others would then flank it from both sides, surround it, and beat it with clubs!

Though they didn’t know if it would be effective, it was all they could do: this was the countermeasure plan developed through the trial and error of hundreds of police officers who had given their lives before the birth of the first magical girl, The Flower Arranger.

“My body feels so light, there’s nothing left to fear…”

Xiao Huang muttered something unintelligible.

“Light? You didn’t forget to wear your protective plates, did you?” Officer Si asked.

“I didn’t bring the plates, but I did bring an autograph board… I thought Miss Mangzhong would be in special need of a Nightmare to vent on after the memorial service. Who knew a rookie would show up… huh?”

A few transparent drops fell onto his half-covered helmet visor.

The weather forecast didn’t say it would rain today, did it?

Then, the raindrops grew denser—

In the sudden, pouring rain, everyone saw a white figure crouching on the roof of a police car.

Everyone heard a sigh.

“It’s raining.”

On the other side of the car, the Nightmare crashed to the ground.