Underground Waterways

“Oh dear, I think I stepped in something.”

“Stop complaining. Who told you to come down here dressed so glamorously?”

In the pitch-black sewer, Bai Hai pulled a grumbling Reina forward through this foul and filthy underground world.

Their purpose for being here was the silver trail before them, completely invisible to the naked eye.

Bai Hai knew very well that he hadn’t completely eliminated the silver spider, or rather, Anomaly No. 214, in yesterday’s battle.

Although he had destroyed at least 99.9% of the monster’s body, he discovered that an inconspicuous drop of silver liquid had escaped the explosion and slipped into the sewer.

He wanted to pursue it but was powerless.

At that time, even transforming was an immense risk.

The less-than-two-minute battle had nearly caused his body to disintegrate—if he hadn’t notified Reina in advance, he would have been long dead.

And as soon as his second modification surgery was complete, he immediately asked Reina to investigate the city’s sewers.

The sooner they found that thing, the fewer people would be harmed.

Reina did not disappoint.

In less than a day, she found a clue—this morning, a woman came to the police station with her child to report that her husband, a sewer worker, had gone missing during his night shift.

“Hey, you ungrateful brat. Who do you think I’m crawling through this sewer for?” Reina frowned, picking her way through the cleaner spots in the sewage.

Today, she had deliberately worn a very beautiful red dress, which, paired with her new hairstyle, could have competed for Miss World.

And then Bai Hai came to her and said with a sweet voice, “Let’s go down.”

“Stop pretending. Are you really afraid of this?”

Bai Hai followed the silver trail forward.

The trail was extremely faint, completely invisible to the naked eye.

But as a modified human, Bai Hai’s vision, like his hearing, was superhuman.

Faced with Reina’s complaints, he said without turning his head, “I haven’t seen you in years. Not only have you learned to dress up, but you’ve also become a clean freak?”

“Because this way, I look more like a normal human,” Reina shrugged, and since the cat was out of the bag, she stopped pretending and strode forward.

“Look here.” Suddenly, Bai Hai’s serious voice came.

Reina looked over.

He had stopped and was staring ahead.

This was one of the city’s sewer hubs, a wide open space.

Reina followed his gaze, and her light-red pupils trembled.

What lay before them were bodies!

There were seven or eight human corpses piled up here, all reduced to shriveled skeletons, stacked together like trash, forming a small hill.

And around these bodies, besides the silver trail they were tracking, there were many other trails converging from all directions.

And this place was covered in silver.

Bai Hai looked at all this with a heavy heart.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen corpses before in his past experiences.

The mountains of corpses and seas of blood created by the organization were countless.

Compared to the atrocities committed by those terrifying monster armies, these corpses were child’s play.

However, these were still living lives… that poor woman would not see her husband again.

“The time of death for these bodies is roughly between 3 AM and 7 AM. They’ve all been sucked dry, but not of life energy, just simple blood and bodily fluids. Perhaps this Anomaly uses this method to replenish its state.”

Reina went forward to examine them and quickly made a judgment.

“To be able to capture so many bodies in such a short time…” Bai Hai bowed his head in mourning for these bodies for a few seconds and began to look for clues. “It seems the main body was likely lurking here before.”

“Based on their encounter, it seems to be in a liquid state of life. Even if it’s shattered, it can reassemble, and it can also actively split, and the split bodies seem to have independent consciousness.”

“But its main body isn’t strong. If their firepower were a little stronger, they could have completely eliminated it. A high-intensity energy blast could have evaporated it in one go.”

“But as long as even a single droplet-sized piece remains, it can quickly recover…” Reina took over from Bai Hai and began her analysis. “Based on the existing evidence, it probably relies on liquid to strengthen itself. It seems to be very thirsty for those liquids rich in… nutrients.”

“Like gasoline? Or human bodily fluids?” Bai Hai’s expression was grave.

He remembered that these monsters first caused trouble by attacking cars, their purpose being the gasoline.

But now, it was attacking humans.

“It caught that blue magical girl before. Although it was for a short time, that must have made it realize that humans are more delicious than gasoline.”

“Perhaps it’s worse. It might not be thirsty for ordinary people.” Reina looked at Bai Hai, saying word by word, “It might be searching everywhere right now for that unforgettable delicacy from its memory.”

“This is really bad.”

Suddenly, several hoarse roars came from the depths of the sewer!

Reina and Bai Hai immediately went on alert, looking around.

In this pitch-black sewer, many hungry and ferocious gazes suddenly appeared, all fixed on the two of them.

In a normal person’s vision, this place was just a dim expanse, but in their vision.

From all directions, they were surrounded by silver spiders.

“It seems to have recovered quite a bit. It’s been less than twelve hours, and it can already split into so many.” Bai Hai looked at the approaching threat without any panic, his tone even joking.

“I have a question.” Reina pointed at the swarm of spiders and said, “You beat it down to the size of a small droplet before. How did it capture humans to recover?”

“…Have you noticed that this part of the sewer is actually quite clean?”

“Ugh… you’d better shut up.” Reina made a retching motion, then glanced at Bai Hai with a sneer. “Hey, new magical girl, want to transform and take care of this trouble? It’s a good time to test out what you look like after transforming.”

“…You have a point.” Bai Hai sighed and stepped forward slowly, muttering to himself, “But making my debut as a magical girl in a stinky sewer… that feels so disgusting.”

“Stop talking nonsense and transform already!” Reina shouted from behind in a mischievous tone.

Bai Hai ignored her and closed his eyes, feeling the surge of energy within his body.

This was a completely different experience from before, yet also not so different.

The wind began to blow in this underground world.

“Alright! Trans—”

Bai Hai’s eyes snapped open.

His abdomen began to glow faintly, and the wind whipped around him.

He spread his arms, gathering his power in a powerful pose, preparing to transform into another form!

And then he saw the swarm of spiders scream in unison and quickly scurry away out of sight…

The wind continued to blow.

Bai Hai stood there, frozen in his pose, at a loss.

“Serves you right for trying to look cool! See!” Reina tapped him on the head from behind. “They’re all gone!”

“Why did they all run away?” Bai Hai was frustrated.

He had already struck a pose, but the enemy had run away in the blink of an eye. What was this?

This feeling was like when you’ve already built up your skill meter in a game and are about to unleash your super special move…

And the power goes out.

“Could it be that you scared them so much last time that they ran away as soon as they saw you?” Reina stroked her chin, analyzing.

“Look, they were screaming pretty miserably before they left.”

“Wait, did you notice they all ran in the same direction?”

Bai Hai looked at the intricate network of underground waterways before him and suddenly noticed a blind spot they had overlooked: these spiders had converged from all directions, but they had all fled in one direction.

If they were split bodies sent out by the main body to capture humans everywhere, then the direction they fled… might be where the main body was!

In the previous battle, the split spiders had indeed shown an instinct to converge.

“Map!”

At this thought, Bai Hai quickly snatched the city map from Reina’s bag.

After confirming his location, he traced the spiders’ escape route on the map, and a place name appeared before his eyes:

Xingchuan City No. 1 Middle School.

“Whoa…”

“Whoa!”

In the classroom, Xia Cheng, who had been hit on the head by a piece of chalk thrown by the teacher, shot up.

She saw the mocking smiles of her classmates, saw Nannan face-palming in resignation, and of course, saw the teacher’s angry finger pointing at her. “Sleeping in my class again. Get out!”

Xia Cheng rubbed her head and, without arguing, very skillfully opened the door and walked out of the classroom.

It was clear that this was not the first time she had been kicked out of class.

And after leaving the classroom, she didn’t stop, but walked straight towards the restroom.

It was clear that this was not the first time she had done this either.

To be honest, Xia Cheng wasn’t exactly a delinquent student.

She just got sleepy as soon as class started.

Whenever it was about learning, she would get sleepy.

This was something she herself found difficult to understand.

Both her parents were famous scholars and professors, yet she had no talent for learning.

Could this be the legendary negative times negative equals positive (she was sure she was right)?

It wasn’t that Xia Cheng hadn’t tried.

Whether it was studying late into the night or asking Nannan for tutoring, her grades hadn’t improved at all.

She still couldn’t understand what the teacher was saying in class.

As long as she was sitting in the classroom, she would fall asleep.

‘Mom! I can’t learn it! I really can’t learn it!’

Xia Cheng had cried this to her mother more than once.

But now, she no longer had to worry about it, because she had become a magical girl.

At the sink, Xia Cheng splashed her face with water.

She looked at herself in the mirror and disliked what she saw.

She much preferred her other form—the form of a magical girl.

No need to worry about grades or sports, no need to care about the opinions of classmates and teachers.

These things were meaningless to a magical girl, because they had a higher mission—to save people, protect the city, become a protector, a hero.

This was her true life.

Xia Cheng held the pendant at her chest and grinned at the mirror.

‘I am a magical girl.’

Bang—!

However, the next second, the mirror in front of her shattered into a million pieces.

In her astonishment, Xia Cheng saw a flash of silver, and beneath that silver, something unmistakably clear—

Hunger.