At this moment, if some avid fisherman happened to be casting bait across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, he might—
Just barely—catch a glimpse of a crimson figure tearing through the waves from afar, kicking up towering sprays of seawater as it hurtled straight toward the land of Uncle Sam.
What was that?
A ship?
A sea monster?
A wet dreamer who mastered fighting spirit turned into a horse, attempting to cross the Pacific on foot and flee to America?
No, that was a little girl!
There she was—a petite child who looked like she hadn’t even finished sixth grade—walking across the ocean surface, propelling herself forward with overwhelming strength and astonishing speed.
She was racing toward the United States at nine hundred kilometers per hour.
If some legendary fisherman could keep pace on his own two legs and ask what she was doing, the little girl would probably blurt out something like “Who the hell are you?”
—Wait, no—she’d more likely flash a face of pure relief and say she’d finally wrapped up her damn business trip and could head back to submit her report and apply for leave.
But either way, those fishermen were definitely going home empty-handed.
“Hahaha! I’m a genius, I tell you! That little Xia didn’t stand a chance—I took her down with minimal effort!”
Annie shouted at the top of her lungs, as thrilled as if she’d discovered an extra chicken nugget in her McDonald’s order.
“Little did she know, the morgue itself was my real target all along, hee hee hee—”
[Lady Annie, forgive my bluntness, but I feel this plan of yours merely crudely exploited an information gap between the two parties… Nurgle has very likely sensed something is off]
Annabelle’s voice was laden with helplessness.
“Hey hey hey, whether it’s a white cat or a black cat, as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat! Just tell me—did we get the thing or not?!”
[…Sigh, may the Goddess protect us. I hope Lady Natasha won’t hold this against us]
“Listen, that little girl better not get too cocky. I watched her grow up, after all—she wouldn’t really come after me, would she?”
[Lady Natasha is the BOSS’s daughter after all. She’s under a lot of pressure too]
“Hmm—”
With a single push from her right leg, Annie’s entire body was launched into the clouds by the sheer kinetic force.
The bright moon shone brilliantly above the cloud layer.
Her spine suddenly arched, and a pair of enormous, bloody wings unfurled beneath the moonlight, carrying her petite frame toward her destination at Mach speed.
…
United States, Rocky Mountains.
Pristine snow sparkled crystalline under the sunlight.
Withered trees hung low, like old men listening to the heartbeat deep within the earth.
In the distance, the faint howl of wolves drifted through the air.
Deep within the mountain range, in a place no satellite could ever find, sat a small research facility.
Judging by its slightly rusted exterior, it had been standing there for quite some years.
A young woman with magnificent violet hair and amber eyes like aged wine stood quietly at the facility’s main entrance, gazing at the distant sky.
Clear blue heavens, boundless white clouds, and a red little girl flying in from above—
CRASH! BOOM!
Annie landed not far from the research facility, the massive impact generating an enormous thunderous noise, as if the very earth were shaking.
Her blood-red bat wings kicked up showers of snow, and against the white of the Rockies, the crimson of her form was blindingly conspicuous—like a blazing fire burning bright.
“Why so slow? Got into another fight?”
The young woman showed not the slightest reaction to Annie’s earth-shattering landing, merely furrowing her brow with displeasure.
“Hey hey hey, this time it wasn’t my fault!” Annie quickly folded her wings and said, “How was I supposed to know I’d run straight into the main body of [Nurgle] over there?!”
“Nurgle’s main body? What was she doing there? Could it be that our intelligence has been leaked?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. She probably didn’t know my specific mission—she just happened to show up there.”
Annie spread her hands.
“Besides, you know how Nurgle has developed her reconnaissance and surveillance abilities to the absolute limit. Since the mission required stealth, I had no choice but to take a little extra time.”
“Then why didn’t you report to headquarters and request backup? If Nurgle had found out about the mission details, things would’ve gotten much harder.”
The young woman’s brow furrowed even deeper.
“Sigh, Natasha, don’t get so worked up. At least I completed the mission, and Nurgle didn’t learn any of the specifics.”
Annie was sweating bullets.
This little one really did carry some of her old man’s imposing presence.
Too bad she still never smiled.
Natasha let out a sigh:
“Fine, I’ll let it slide this time. But speaking of which—why did Nurgle’s main body show up there? Is there something special about that hospital?”
“No idea.”
Annie shook her head.
“But this time, I didn’t just run into Nurgle—I also encountered her Chosen One.”
“Nurgle’s Chosen One?”
“Yeah, along with the magical girl [Slaanesh] .”
“[Slaanesh] too?!”
Natasha’s expression shifted: “Are you saying that magical girl [Slaanesh]—the one we’ve been searching for for years—you actually encountered her?”
“Yes, and it looks like she’s allied with Nurgle’s faction now.”
“Hiss—”
Natasha lowered her head, her mind churning through a storm of thoughts.
“This matter—you’ll write it all up in a report along with this mission, and I’ll hand it directly to Father. You’ve worked hard on this mission, Sister Annie.”
Natasha’s eyes cleared once more.
“Now then, you got the thing, right?”
“Ah, no trouble at all, no trouble at all—just doing my part for the company.”
Annie grinned as she pulled a small tablet from her pocket.
With nimble taps of her fingers, she pulled up a data file, which opened to reveal a jumble of chaotic data measured over the span of one minute.
Natasha quickly took the tablet and began reviewing the data.
Her frost-cold expression gradually grew more and more animated.
“Data accuracy is 98%! So it really is there—that thing really is there!”
“If Father finds out about this, he’s going to be absolutely thrilled.”
Watching Natasha’s excitement, Annie scratched her head and chuckled:
“Well then, since my mission’s done, I’ll just head off and start my vacation—”
“Remember to write the report first.”
Natasha glanced at her watch.
“Once you finish it, you’ll have about twelve hours of leave. If the company’s in a hurry, it might only be six.”
“Ah!? Six to twelve hours—half a day at most!?”
Annie let out a wail: “Natasha, save your big sister! I want a long vacation! I want to sleep in forever!”
“This matter is of utmost importance. I’ll likely have to accompany you on the next mission to Lianshan City as well. Two magical girls, plus a squad of augmented soldiers… let’s pencil that in for now.”
“How can this be—”
Annie howled at the heavens.
This was the life of a workhorse—even after becoming a magical girl, she was just a more useful workhorse.
“Stop yelling. Look at how high your salary and benefits are with all your seniority.”
Natasha sighed.
“If this had been just some run-of-the-mill mission, the company might have actually given you a long break. But unfortunately, what’s buried beneath that Lianshan City First People’s Hospital—”
“It’s the ruins of the magical girl [Destruction] .”