“Finally, it’s over.” Lu Chenyi breathed a sigh of relief. The twists and turns tonight had really been too much for his heart to handle.
Looking at the underground base in complete disarray, Lu Chenyi sighed. “Why did something like this happen just a few days after I got here?”
He helplessly directed the others to clean up the scene and temporarily repair the ceiling and elevator platform so that at least the rainwater would stop pouring in.
The rain during Rain Curtain Night could truly make people lose themselves if they stayed exposed to it for too long.
A group of people worked miserably in the pouring rain in the middle of the night, but this kind of manual labor naturally had nothing to do with the magical girls.
The follow-up matters could be left to the Security Council. Su Xiaocheng prepared to return to her room to rest.
To her surprise, An Li actively stopped her. The little researcher’s large eyes blinked repeatedly, filled with curiosity.
“Um, is there something you need?” Su Xiaocheng asked, puzzled.
“Miss… uh, Magical Girl,” An Li began, only to realize she did not even know Su Xiaocheng’s name.
“You can just call me Su Xiaocheng.”
“Alright, Miss Su Xiaocheng. Could I trouble you with something?” An Li asked earnestly.
“No need to be so polite. If I can help, it’s no trouble at all.” Su Xiaocheng was completely thrown off by An Li’s sudden change in attitude.
“Great. Miss Su Xiaocheng, have you advanced to A-rank yet?” An Li asked her first question.
“Not yet. I can just display A-rank strength for now.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“Well…” Su Xiaocheng hesitated. This involved a [Miracle], and it was a very special case. Some secrecy was still necessary.
“Is it inconvenient to share?” An Li looked a little disappointed, but she did not press too hard. After all, replicating a method that let a magical girl fight above her rank would be extremely difficult.
From her observations, however, the key to Su Xiaocheng’s ability to counter the Flower Witch was not only some unknown method that greatly increased her magic power limit, but also her purification property. The purification property was even more important to An Li. She had never seen such pure purification power before.
Compared to the unknown method for raising the magic limit, the purification property was something visible and tangible. An Li was confident she could replicate it onto equipment.
“Then… could I research your purification property?”
“About that…” Su Xiaocheng fell into thought. If it was only the purification property, it seemed acceptable.
“You may. But in exchange, after you finish researching the bronze statue and produce magic-nullifying equipment, you must provide one set to each of them,” Li Yanyan said as she returned underground and made the decision for Su Xiaocheng.
“Eh? One set for each of them?” This time it was An Li who hesitated.
Given everyone’s A-rank strength, she obviously could not fob them off with mass-produced items. A single high-quality A-rank piece of equipment was not cheap to make.
However, a purification property of such high rank was extremely tempting. An Li did not want to miss this opportunity.
“I’ll think about it and get back to you,” An Li said hurriedly before leaving to go request funding.
A new set of A-rank equipment would cost only a few million at production price. An Li believed the council would not miss such a small sum. The only question was how much would remain after it passed through the finance minister’s hands.
“Is this really okay?” Su Xiaocheng asked after An Li left.
“What’s the problem? It was yours to begin with,” Li Yanyan replied casually. The Magical Girl Alliance was itself a rather loose organization and placed very few restrictions on magical girls.
Because magical girls were generally not skilled at administrative work, the administrative departments actually managing the alliance’s territory were, strictly speaking, part of the united government.
The two sides handled witch-fighting and governance separately, cooperating in division of labor. In reality, however, each side had some complaints about the other.
The alliance felt the united government was too strict, causing people’s negative emotions to run too high and creating far too much work for the magical girls.
Meanwhile, the upper echelons of the united government felt the Magical Girl Alliance was slipping out of control—especially when government directives clashed with the orders of the two magical girls who surpassed S-rank. In those cases, the magical girls would unconditionally follow the latter’s instructions.
“That group of little girls who only know how to daydream!” the united government’s top brass had more than once commented in private meetings.
None of these matters concerned Su Xiaocheng and the others for the time being. In fact, the vast majority of magical girls never needed to think about them.
……
Back in her room, An Li dialed a familiar number.
“I’m calling again. This time I need an additional thirty million in funding. It’s urgent,” An Li said in a strictly businesslike tone, going straight to the budget request.
“You mean you want to add thirty million in research funding?” A shrewd female voice came from the terminal, laced with pleasant surprise.
“That’s correct.”
“Of course there’s no problem. With Chief An’s status, this small amount is just a matter of filing a report. Why bother coming to me specifically?”
“I’m calling to ask how much I should put on the report for the funding,” An Li said coldly.
In the past, she had naively filed reports exactly as needed. The result had been layer after layer of approvals, with the final amount drastically reduced. The shortfall had forced her to take on private jobs just to fill the gap.
She used to be a law-abiding good girl. Unfortunately, chronic funding shortages had eventually forced her to face reality.
“Let me think… I’ll approve fifty million. You can fill that in.”
“Fifty million?” This time it was An Li who was stunned. She had not expected the woman to plan on skimming less than half this time. In the past, she would have taken at least seventy percent.
“Fine, that works. I still have things to do. Remember to submit the report soon~” The other party hung up in a hurry.
An Li set down the terminal and began drafting the report. Fabricating a twenty-million shortfall was child’s play for her now.
……
Far away in the Security Council’s capital, the finance minister put down her terminal and pulled her blanket tighter around herself.
“It’s already April, and it’s still this cold.”
Knock knock knock.
“Come in.”
The secretary placed a document on the desk.
“Proposal on the Restructuring of the Security Council Border Defense Forces.”
The finance minister flipped through it casually and signed her name.
“Funding? That’s pocket change.”
Under continuous pressure from a certain person, Greed—who also served as the Security Council’s finance minister—had no choice but to make some concessions.
“This way, moving all the interior troops to the border for large-scale development will increase the Security Council’s revenue, lower internal defensive capabilities, let me skim a nice profit, and give Lust a proper explanation.” Greed thought contentedly.
“Ah, how am I so clever?”
“Besides, magic nullification? This is perfect. An Li, oh An Li, you really are my good little helper~” Greed murmured meaningfully.