Chapter 75: Part of the Plan

“The Ever-Changing Demon Lord!”

When Su Xiaoli forced out that legendary codename — one that existed only in the highest-level classified archives — in a hoarse, deliberate whisper, the air of the entire Gamma Sector seemed to freeze solid.

Lin Yu’s expression shifted ever so subtly.

It wasn’t mockery.
Nor arrogance.
But something… disturbingly close to pleased approval.

“Pa. Pa. Pa.“

Clear, slow clapping echoed.

In this massive hollow chamber of steel and suspended cables, the sound felt jarringly alien.

“Impressive.”

The Myriad Transformations Demon Lord smiled, pure appreciation glimmering in those eyes.

“Among the assembly-line magical girls manufactured by Dawn Corporation, one who can still develop independent thought like you… is truly a delightful surprise.”

Every word dripped with condescending praise.
Like benevolence bestowed from above.

“Even so, what can you possibly do?”

“Yeah…”

Su Xiaoli’s gaze wavered faintly.

“What can I do?”

Ten minutes earlier.

In the tearoom, warm golden light filled the space, illuminating Su Xiaoli like a divinity descending to earth.

Behind her, nine enormous golden fox tails swayed slowly, radiating divine authority.

She had already completed the full liberation of her Concept-Bound Armament, and now stepped toward the sliding shoji door painted with a “dry landscape garden” motif.

But just as her hand was about to touch the wooden frame…
she stopped.

“What can I do?”

Behind her, Lin Xue asked cautiously.

Su Xiaoli did not turn around.

She thought for a moment before answering:

“Dr. Reed. Miss Lin Xue.”

Her voice had shed its usual lazy tone completely.

“What I’m about to say represents Dawn Corporation’s official requirement. I need both of you to obey it strictly.”

The atmosphere in the tearoom instantly grew weighty.

Dr. Reed — still frozen in lingering shock — stiffened slightly, elegance cracking around the edges.

“Based on my experience, it’s highly likely that something beyond our expectations has occurred in Gamma Sector. Something extremely dangerous. Dangerous enough to escape our control.”

Her words came rapidly.

“I am not a combat-oriented magical girl. So to prevent catastrophic consequences — after I enter, the limit is ten minutes.”

“If I do not send a safety confirmation through the internal encrypted channel after ten minutes, I need you to immediately use your facility’s highest administrative privileges to assist me.”

Although she still didn’t turn her head, the invisible pressure emanating from her made Dr. Reed feel as if an unseen giant hand was crushing her throat.

“Doctor, I know that Rekon has been privately ‘collecting’ a considerable number of live pollutant samples for research.”

“…”

Dr. Reed didn’t answer — which already counted as an answer.

“I don’t care about anything else, but if something goes wrong, you will dump your entire inventory of pollutants into the ‘Genesis’ Dissolution Pool of Gamma Sector, then crank the ‘World Tree’ reactor output… to maximum.”

“Are you insane?!”

For the first time, Dr. Reed lost her composure.

“That will trigger uncontrollable psionic chaos! The entire Gamma Sector will turn into a miniature Warp Zone! If anyone uses psionic power inside, it could—”

“I’m well aware.”

Su Xiaoli’s reply was icy calm.

“But if something truly beyond control appears… that may be the only way to buy time.”

She finally turned her head slightly.
Her fox-gold eyes — blazing with divine light — locked directly onto Lin Xue, whose face had already gone completely pale.

“Miss Lin Xue.”

Her voice softened by an almost invisible degree.

“I know this is insane. And cruel. But it’s the only method.”

“If you want Gray Crystal to live…”

“…then follow my instructions.”

Without giving them any chance to respond, Su Xiaoli slid open the shoji door and stepped decisively into the icy corridor leading straight into hell.

The door closed behind her, severing two worlds.

On the room’s holo-screen, crimson numbers appeared.

【00:09:59】
【00:09:58】
【00:09:57】

…

【00:05:41】
【00:05:40】

As time passed, the tearoom’s serene tranquility had long evaporated.

What replaced it was a suffocating silence.

The only sound came from the corner of the floating display — the steadily ticking red countdown.

There was still plenty of time, but Lin Xue’s heart was already tightening under a noose named “fear.”

She stared at the pitch-black screen, gripping her phone so hard her knuckles had turned white.

She was calling someone.

Again.
And again.
And again.

On the screen, the familiar contact name — “Stupid Big Brother” — appeared on the dial list over and over.

Each time, the same emotionless robotic female voice answered:

“[Beep… The number you have dialed cannot be reached. The user may be out of service…]”

“[Beep… The number you have dialed cannot be reached…]”

“Beep…”

From the moment Su Xiaoli ran into Gamma Sector, Lin Xue had been doing nothing else.

That ridiculous, terrifying suspicion had taken root in her heart like a poisonous vine, growing wildly.

‘Pick up the phone…’

‘Pick up the phone, you idiot!’

‘As long as you answer… as long as I hear your lazy voice complaining that your takeout is late again… then everything will just be my paranoia…’

She clung to that thread of “normalcy” like a drowning person grabbing a straw.

But reality crushed every last fragment of hope.

The call log beside “Stupid Big Brother” had already filled with over a hundred glaring “Unreachable” marks.

There may be coincidences in this world.

But Lin Xue could no longer believe this was one of them.

Her mind went blank.
All she could feel was trembling.

The figure on the screen overlapped with the one in her memories.

‘So… that’s how it is?’

‘So he wasn’t lying.’

‘So he was really trading his life for this.’

‘…Idiot…’

Now, she had no room left for denial.

When the final loop of logic closed under the cold weight of reality, Lin Xue felt ice swallow her whole.

It was him.

That magical girl in the humiliating skirt fighting sludge monsters…

Was her useless, pathetic, but also her one and only… stupid big brother.

‘So… that’s how it is?’

‘So he wasn’t lying.’

‘So he was really trading his life away.’

‘…You idiot.’

‘You hopeless… absolute fool!’

Lin Xue’s vision blurred.
Her heart felt like an invisible hand was crushing it mercilessly.

It wasn’t sentiment.
It was pain — raw, tangled from rage, fear, and bottomless regret.

Rage at his recklessness.
Heartache at his sacrifice.

But the worst was regret.

Regret for all the disdain she had shown him.
Regret for never understanding his clumsy desire to prove himself.
Regret that while he struggled through hell…
she had been sitting in an ivory tower, mocking his “irresponsibility.”

Drip.

A single hot droplet finally slid down her cheek, falling heavily onto the cold phone screen and blooming into a tiny watery stain.

“Xiaoxue, what are you…”

Dr. Evelyn Reed — seated at the head — noticed her prized student’s emotional break.

She frowned, about to speak a few soothing words.

But the next second, Lin Xue’s sudden movement made every prepared sentence choke in Dr. Reed’s throat.

Right as the timer was about to hit zero, Lin Xue shot to her feet and lunged toward the control panel!

Dr. Reed’s pupils constricted sharply.

She didn’t care about Lu Ze.
She didn’t care about Gray Crystal.
She didn’t even care about Su Xiaoli.

What she cared about were the priceless samples she had spent unimaginable resources to “collect.”

“Stop, Lin Xue!”

The elegant, intellectual mask Dr. Reed wore shattered instantly in the face of potential irreversible loss.

Her shout turned sharp with fury, golden hair seeming to bristle with static.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?! Those samples are Rekon Bio’s most precious assets! They are the key to humanity’s future! You would destroy all of that for a possibility? For a few ordinary lives?!”

The cold electronic countdown echoed in the dead-silent tearoom like the footsteps of death.

Lin Xue’s body trembled violently.

Of course she understood.

As a core member of Project Prometheus, no one knew better than she what those samples stored at -196°C represented.

On the genetic sequence lay an endless lattice of answers — a stairway to the next era of life science.

They were her academic ideals.
Her pride.
Her life’s work.

Dr. Reed was right — they might be…

The key to humanity’s future.

“Is it worth it?!”

Her mentor’s roar struck her soul like a hammer.

Was it worth it?

Images rose in her mind of that familiar — yet suddenly unfamiliar — figure.

That brother who only ever made parents angry.
Who let their public housing room fall into chaos.
Who hid in his room playing incomprehensible dating sims.
Who stayed unemployed for years, making her ashamed in front of classmates and teachers.

That brother who bragged about joining the Sky Dome Group’s core research team…
only to end up selling himself to a soul-grinding sweatshop.

That brother who, only a short while ago, appeared before her in a humiliating magical girl outfit — flustered like a child caught misbehaving, stammering through excuses full of holes.

Was it worth it?

In that instant, countless memories—ones she had deliberately ignored and sealed away behind rationality—burst through her defenses like a collapsing dam.

On the other end of the phone, amid the noise of wind and metro announcements, her idiot brother’s proud, boastful voice seemed to echo right beside her ear:

“—Hey, hey! This counts as… uh… ‘special asset maintenance,’ okay? High-level stuff! I even signed a confidentiality agreement! Just know your brother is an elite now!”

In a video call, he had propped his foot up with great flourish, showing off a brand-new pair of sneakers. The room’s lights illuminated his face brightly as he grinned:

“—How is it? Pretty cool, right? Bought these with last month’s bonus! I can walk in Zone F without losing face now! Finally, I won’t embarrass you when we go out together, huh?”

On moving day, he’d excitedly carried his phone around the narrow but tidy riverside apartment in Zone C. The shaking camera made her dizzy, but she could hear the genuine relief in his voice—relief that came from finally being able to breathe again:

“—Xiaoxue! Look! I moved just like you told me to! Security’s amazing here! No more worrying about landlords banging on the door asking for rent!”

There was also the bank transfer notification. And the WeChat message he sent almost simultaneously, filled with silly laughing emojis:

“—Sent some of this month’s salary to our parents. You just focus on your research, okay? I’ve got the family covered now. And don’t be so frugal anymore. If you want something, tell me! Your brother can reimburse you now! Hehehe! Good deal, right?”

All those flawed lies…
All those clumsy attempts at showing off…
All those fragile scraps of dignity he desperately held together…

—They were his stupid, humble, wholehearted attempt to become someone his little sister could rely on.
A real “brother.”

“Sorry, Professor.”

Lin Xue’s finger pressed down on the execution key without a moment of hesitation.

“This is a question… I cannot answer.”

“—Authorization confirmed.”

The console’s cold synthetic voice pronounced the final judgment within the quiet tearoom:

“【Emergency Waste Disposal Protocol No. 0】… Initiating.”

Another cold electronic tone echoed.

“WHOOOOM—RRRRRMM—!!”

The entire tearoom—and the entire underground facility beneath it—began to violently tremble.

Dr. Reed’s face drained of all color. The porcelain teacup slipped from her hands and shattered, hot tea splashing everywhere, but she didn’t even flinch.

On the hovering screen, the pitch-black display was forcefully switched to a new feed:

Internal surveillance of the Genesis Dissolution Pool beneath Sector γ.

Enormous mechanical arms activated above the abyss-like pool, each one smoothly and mercilessly lifting a gigantic low-temperature containment pod, as casually as picking up crushed cans.

“Initiating disposal sequence.”

The locking clamps loosened.

The first containment pod opened.

Inside was a massive toad-like abomination, its entire body swollen and covered in oozing boils.

A rare Nurgle-class pollutant captured at enormous cost by Ruikang Biotech—the Plague Toad.

Before it was thrown into the churning pool of high-concentration bio-enzymes, its huge maw opened silently, as if unleashing a soul-corroding scream.

Then came the second.
The third.
And the next…

As though dumping an entire truckload of garbage for recycling.

Bone-armored Khorne Hounds, radiating slaughter.
A grotesque Slaanesh Pleasure Chimera composed of fused limbs.
Even several brutalist mutant organisms secretly salvaged from a Huaxia Heavy Industries disaster site.

Nightmares treasured as “research materials” and hidden away by the giants of New Sea City—now all thrown wholesale into the furnace named Genesis, by Lin Xue’s own hands.

“No… no… my specimens…”

Dr. Reed collapsed to the ground in utter despair, muttering as her life’s work was wiped out before her eyes.

Meanwhile, Lin Xue clung to the console, trembling uncontrollably.

The screen showed a vision like Hell breaking open. Her stomach twisted violently.

She didn’t know whether she had unleashed the hope of saving her brother—or a disaster that would consume everything.

She only knew she had no path left to turn back to.

“You have no path left.”

When Su Xiaoli’s consciousness snapped back to the present, the Myriad Transformations Demon Lord was still standing close, smiling faintly.

It was as if He had seen through her momentary distraction.
As if He already knew everything.

“Thinking about your little backup plan?”

The Demon Lord tilted His head, expression childlike and cruel.

“Clever child. Using chaos to fight chaos. But—”

His words were abruptly drowned out by a thunderous roar.

BOOOOM—RRRROOOOM—!!!

This was no simple vibration.

The alloy floor beneath Su Xiaoli’s feet—and the entire sector—shook violently as though about to collapse.

She even heard the cables of the World Tree Reactor groaning under the immense pressure.

The source of the anomaly was the Genesis Dissolution Pool.

Like a dormant volcano forced awake, the bio-enzyme liquid began violently boiling and bubbling.

Then—

“FWOOOSH—!!!”

A massive plume of dark-green steam erupted upward like a volcanic explosion, slamming into the sector’s ceiling.

In an instant, the entire world was dyed in a nauseating, rotten shade.

A suffocating stench—like sulfur, corpses, mold—spread like a physical wall, invading every corner, forcing its way into Su Xiaoli’s lungs until she doubled over coughing.

And this… was only the beginning.

Chaos had descended.

The dissolved pollutants released violent, incompatible energies—
Locked together in a sealed space, they clashed, tore, devoured, and fused in a primal frenzy.

“ZzzzKRAK—!!!”

Purple lightning arcs and blood-red energy currents crackled out of thin air, whipping the walls and equipment like venomous serpents, leaving charred trails.

The walls began to sweat viscous green mucus, streaming with a living will, corroding solid alloy until it sizzled.

Ceiling lights flickered wildly, then burst one after another, plunging the space into flickering darkness.

This was no longer a pinnacle laboratory of human science.

This was a chaotic inferno, home only to rampaging spirits.

“Kh… cough…!”

Su Xiaoli half-kneeling, sleeve pressed to her mouth, gasped desperately.

Nurgle’s foulness felt like it was corroding her lungs with every breath.

Yet on her pale face, a cold, resolute smile formed.

“Sorry, Demon Lord…”

She raised her head.
Her golden fox eyes burned like twin ghostly flames in the dim light.

“Seems I’ve… completely ruined your ‘stage,’ haven’t I?”

“In the face of Nurgle’s rot and Khorne’s fury…”

“…can your little Tzeentchian ‘script’ still hold together?”

“Use your powers here, and you know what happens.”

“Either this all explodes and we die together…
—or something else might notice the Void you rely on.”

This was Su Xiaoli’s gambit.
A jade-and-stone-burning trap laid with her own life and the entire sector as fuel.

Yet before the apocalyptic chaos, the Demon Lord showed no fear, no anger, no surprise.

“Heh…”

He opened His eyes.
Deep within them glimmered a pitying amusement—as though He knew the ending already.

“You’re smart. When you cannot defeat me, you overturn the board. That is correct.”

“But how do you know that all of this…”

His lips curved upward.

“…was not part of the plan?”

“Hahahahahaha—!!”

Amid His manic laughter, a warped violet phantom was torn from Lin Yu’s body by an invisible force.

It writhed, forming the shape of a hideous, many-eyed bird-headed creature.

It stared at Su Xiaoli—to brand her despair into its memory.

And then, before the raging energies could shred it, it simply dissipated into a wisp of smoke—
erased from the world.

The Demon Lord’s laughter echoed faintly.

But the presence itself was gone.

Thunk.

Lin Yu’s body fell onto the cold alloy floor, curled up, unconscious.

“Ghh—!”

Only then did Su Xiaoli spit out another mouthful of blood.

Behind her, the nine golden fox tails flickered unsteadily. Two were already beginning to disintegrate into particles.

The alert for Spirit Core Anchoring Degradation shrieked in her mind.

“…Damn…”

She wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand. Her body trembled violently as she sank to one knee, panting.

Every breath felt like inhaling poisonous glass shards.

But she did not look away from Lin Yu’s motionless body—
not even for a second.

“Zzz… crackle…”

A faint static came from her wrist.

Her Contract Bracelet’s communications had recovered.

Running on pure instinct, Su Xiaoli pressed the button.

“…Miss Lin Xue…”

Her voice was barely more than a dying ember.

“…reduce… reactor output…”

She collapsed onto both hands, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

A pained groan broke through the ringing in her ears.

“…ugh…”

The gray-haired girl on the floor stirred.

Lin Yu slowly lifted her head, her dust-and-blood-stained face filled with confusion and pain.

She clutched her splitting head, her green eyes dazed.

“…Sen…pai?”

Her voice was cracked and weak, like someone waking from a nightmare.

“I… what happened? What is this place…?”

She glanced around the hellish landscape, trembling.

“My head… it hurts… I feel like I had a really, really long dream…”

Su Xiaoli did not answer immediately.

She remained kneeling, muscles taut, watching every micro-expression—every unconscious twitch—searching for any trace of the Demon Lord’s disguise.

“…You were just knocked out by a pollutant’s psychic attack.”

Her voice remained calm—but exhaustion seeped through every syllable.

She forced herself to stand, staggered toward Lin Yu, and helped her up without letting her guard fully drop.

“Where’s that monster…?”

Lin Yu leaned weakly against her, trembling.

“…Later. We need to leave. The company’s reinforcements should be—”

BOOOOOOM—!!!

A metal-mangling roar tore through the air.

The circular alloy gate was ripped open from the outside—
as though struck by a giant’s fist.

Molten fragments and thick smoke poured in.

Su Xiaoli’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.

(Not company reinforcements. Not Akagi State. Not cultists…)
(This level of equipment… this synchronization…)
(Government… a direct-response force!?)

Dozens of pitch-black humanoid machines marched in through the torn breach, steps perfectly synchronized.

Tap… tap… tap… tap…

Those were not human footsteps.

They were machines—
emotionless, built for killing.

Lin Yu peered past Su Xiaoli’s shoulder and froze.

Tall, black humanoid robots—more terrifying than any security unit she’d ever seen.

Their faces had no features.
Only a single crimson eye glowing at the center.

Dozens of red single-eyes lit up simultaneously, all locking onto the two girls.

Lin Yu felt her blood run cold.

Dozens of gun barrels silently aimed their way.

She stiffened in terror.

Su Xiaoli, despite her failing body, forced her mind into hyper-focus.

(Not the company.)
(Not Akagi.)
(Not a cult…)
(Then…!)

A flat synthetic voice echoed from behind the robot formation:

“—By order of the New Sea City Urban Management and Public Safety Committee, and in accordance with Article 7, Clause 3 of the Special Disaster Emergency Handling Act, the ‘Purification Procedure’ is now activated.”

A soft electronic hum sounded as a database switched.

“Identity confirmed:
【Dawn Labor Services Co.】B-Rank Field Operator, Codename: 【Nine-Tails】.”

“Identity confirmed:
【Dawn Labor Services Co.】D-Rank Field Operator, Codename: 【Gray Crystal】.”

“Threat assessment in progress…
Spiritual leakage levels excessive.
Mental condition unstable.
High-intensity subspace contamination detected…
Assessment complete.”

“Conclusion: High-Risk Runaway Pollutant Source.”

A pause.

A mechanical final verdict.

“Final directive issued:
Disarm immediately.
Cease all resistance.
Prepare for termination.
Repeating—”

CH-CHAK—!!

Dozens of weapons chambered rounds simultaneously.

Red eyes blazed brighter.

“—Disarm immediately.
Cease all resistance.
Prepare for termination.
Countdown begins:
Ten.
Nine.
Eight…”