Chapter 198 – Going All In

Half an hour later, Su Tang drove into the square.

Following Lin Xi’s instructions, she got out and waited.

“Good…” Lin Xi told Qin Ling that Su Tang had arrived at the square as instructed and that she would keep her under constant watch.

Everything was proceeding smoothly on Qin Ling’s end as well. The other two Magical Girls were both obediently staying inside the Countermeasures Bureau.

Half the weight lifted from Lin Xi’s heart.

As long as none of the three Magical Girls made a move, the exchange was practically risk-free.

Thor was not safely back yet, however, so Lin Xi did not dare relax completely.

She waited, anxious and worried in equal measure. Down in the square, Su Tang remained exactly where she was, with nothing unusual about her behavior.

Qin Ling had said she would keep changing Point A to ensure their safety, so the process was bound to take quite some time.

Lin Xi waited patiently.

It did not matter if the exchange took longer. Safety came first.

Nearly two and a half hours passed. Just as Lin Xi was reaching the end of her patience, a message from Qin Ling finally arrived.

“We’ve got Thor back safely!”

“Release the hostage and withdraw!”

“Copy!” Lin Xi was so delighted she almost jumped on the spot.

At last, they had safely rescued Thor.

Lin Xi left a note beside Su Xiangxue assuring Su Tang that her sister was fine.

She did not want Su Tang to panic when she found Su Xiangxue unconscious.

Then Lin Xi hurried downstairs. Only after leaving the building did she tell Su Tang to go to the rooftop and collect her sister.

“Done!” Lin Xi breathed a sigh of relief. “Now I just walk out of this area like nothing happened and meet up with Qin Ling and the others.”

Once she reached the street, Lin Xi saw Su Tang react to the message by vanishing from the square and appearing at the foot of the building. In the next blink, she used Spatial Displacement again and arrived on the rooftop.

So this was Su Tang’s spatial ability, Lin Xi marveled.

But Point A was far from here. Even if Su Tang used Spatial Displacement over and over, Qin Ling and the others would be long gone by the time she arrived.

Lin Xi remained perfectly calm.

Strangely, after rescuing her sister, Su Tang did not call in the Countermeasures Bureau or the Guard Corps to surround and seal off the area.

Does she think sealing the place off would be pointless too…?

Lin Xi was relieved. No blockade meant she could leave without a worry.

She watched Su Tang carry Su Xiangxue into the car.

“Lin Xi!”

Qin Ling’s sudden scream over the earpiece made Lin Xi jump.

“What’s wrong? Why are you yelling? You scared me half to death.”

“I’m the one who’s terrified!” Qin Ling shouted. “Su Tang is chasing our vehicle, and she’s about to catch us!”

Lin Xi’s mind went blank.

“What?!”

“You must be seeing things!”

“Su Tang only carried Su Xiangxue into her car half a minute ago. Her car hasn’t even started moving!”

“I’m not seeing things! What the hell is going on?!” Qin Ling was close to breaking down.

Shi Yu cut in. “It really is Su Tang chasing us.”

Now it was Lin Xi’s turn to question reality.

What was happening?

Were there two Su Tangs in Z City?!

Su Xiangxue had never mentioned having twin older sisters!

Then Qin Ling screamed again over the earpiece.

“It’s not just Su Tang!”

“Xia Xun and Misaka Shirai appeared too!”

“They’re about to catch us!”

“We’re finished…”

Those two words nearly stopped Lin Xi’s heart.

Wait, what?

How was that possible?!

All three Magical Girls had teleported to Point A at once?!

Oh. Well…

Heaven wanted her dead…

As if!

There had to be an explanation…

“Lin Xi, listen to me!” Qin Ling said urgently. “I’m cutting our connection and deleting all our communications right now. I’ll make it as difficult as possible for them to trace anything back to you.”

“The rest of us will probably be going to the Undersea Prison with Thor. You need to flee Z City immediately.”

“Good luck…”

Beep.

The connection went dead.

“Qin Ling?!”

“Shi Yu?!”

“Lu Yi?!”

And Thor and Zheng Mo… Were they really all going to be captured in one fell swoop?

“Calm down…” Lin Xi muttered. “I can’t just watch Qin Ling and the others get thrown into the Undersea Prison. No way!”

She whipped around and stared at Su Tang’s car.

It was still parked exactly where it had been.

Lin Xi had clearly seen Su Tang carry Su Xiangxue into that vehicle. There was no possible way she had been mistaken!

Then there could only be one explanation: something was wrong with the car.

“Could Su Tang have used some device inside the vehicle to teleport directly from Point B to Point A?”

“Was it… a Teleportation Array?!”

The news had reported that the Teleportation Array allowed Z City’s three districts to conduct integrated joint operations, combining offense and defense.

That was how Thor had been captured-Misaka Shirai had engaged her, and Su Tang had arrived in time through the Teleportation Array…

“If the vehicle transporting Thor at Point A also has a Teleportation Array, then Points A and B are connected!” Lin Xi suddenly understood.

A Vehicle-Mounted Teleportation Array!!!

Su Tang had outplayed them!!!

Cold sweat poured down Lin Xi’s back.

Su Tang truly deserved to be Z City’s Chief Magical Girl. She had turned a disadvantage around and transformed a losing battle into an overwhelming victory.

Should Lin Xi abandon Qin Ling and the others and flee on her own?

Absolutely not!

“I’m going all in…”

Lin Xi pulled a hood from her bag and slipped it over her head.

“I’m going to rescue them!”

“And if I can’t, then I’ll join Qin Ling and the others in the Undersea Prison.”

When you ran with a crew, loyalty came first!

Lin Xi sprinted toward Su Tang’s car.

She melted the lock straight off.

The vehicle’s alarm began shrieking, baffling everyone nearby.

In broad daylight, a car thief had shown up wearing a black hood like some kind of professional burglar???

Members of the Guard Corps would arrive soon.

Lin Xi was not worried. By the time they got here, she would already be gone.

She climbed inside and found that it was indeed a modified vehicle.

It had only two seats in the front. The space behind them housed a Vehicle-Mounted Teleportation Array.

The array’s main body was embedded in the center of the chassis, formed from a ring of dark silver alloy.

At its center sat a crystal the size of a fist, glowing faintly blue and pulsing like a living breath.

Lin Xi remembered the news report saying that only Magical Girls and certain superpower users within the Countermeasures Bureau possessed enough energy to activate a Teleportation Array.

“I can beat Xia Xun. I definitely have enough power to activate it!”

Lin Xi pressed her hand against the crystal.

It instantly erupted with dazzling blue light.

Inside the car, Lin Xi vanished…

…

“Sir, are you certain you saw a car thief enter this vehicle?”

A Guard Corps officer questioned the witness.

The helpful old man, whose short hair was streaked with gray, pointed at the car.

“I saw it with my own eyes! The thief was even wearing a black hood!”

“What? A black hood in broad daylight? Well, whatever the case, there’s no one inside the vehicle, sir.”

“What?! No one?! Impossible! I’ve been watching the whole time!” The old man pointed accusingly at the officer. “You dirty cop! You’re trying to cover for the thief, aren’t you?!”

The helpful old man took the initiative!

He climbed into the vehicle to look for himself. There really was no one inside. All he found was a scorched “stone” still giving off thin wisps of heat…

“What the hell?” the old man muttered. “I clearly saw the thief break in with his bare hands…”

“Wait!” The Guard Corps officer went deathly pale. “He did this to the door with his bare hands?!”

“That’s right.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?!”

“You didn’t ask.”

The Guard Corps officer immediately called it in.

“Captain, signs of a high-level Dark Realm Disaster have appeared at the square!”

“Requesting backup!”

(I stayed up all night revising and somehow won the comeback battle and got released already… But now that the book’s been locked once, it has even less traffic. In May, I don’t plan to keep forcing myself to update twice a day. I’ll post once a day, intermittently, or weekly, depending on how things go…)