Chapter 10: Suspicious Points

"Understood. We will contact branches in other cities to see if we can relay the situation to the Magic Realm via the Seeders there."

Hearing the words from the phone, Lin Yun stared blankly out the window, took a deep breath, and sighed helplessly: "Mm, thank you. Sorry to trouble you."

It was the morning of the second day, in Lin Yun's own office.

He was on a call with Hong Siyu.

The sudden incident from the previous night had ultimately affected his sleep, so he looked sleepy and was not in good shape.

However, he still had many things to handle and could not rest. Leaving aside the massive workload piled up at the company since early morning, he had many questions to discuss with the Anomaly Bureau regarding his encounter in the Wetland Park the night before.

To ensure his daughter's safety, he had privately participated in the battle under the name of the magical girl "Senior Cuique," repelling the enemy, but the incident was far from over. After all, from any perspective, it seemed a black hand in the shadows was manipulating everything.

Ultimately, he summarized four suspicious points.

First was the fact that he could not reach Hong Siyu at the time the residual beasts appeared last night.

Officially, he currently had no contact with the Anomaly Bureau; information exchange was basically relying on his personal relationship with Hong Siyu, but last night, this connection was severed.

According to the feedback from Hong Siyu, she not only did not receive his call, but there were absolutely no traces left in the missed call records. It was as if Lin Yun had never made the call.

But in fact, this was impossible. Lin Yun clearly remembered choosing to contact Hong Siyu after discovering his daughter was missing, but the result was that the call was not answered.

Second was the mysterious call that informed him in advance on the noon of the day the incident occurred. That number could no longer be dialed after daytime, yielding only a voice prompt saying "out of service area."

The other party appeared very suddenly, their purpose unclear, and they abruptly disappeared after merely providing him with information. Why?

Third point: the abnormal mana barrier at the scene.

This was not technology a residual beast should possess; at least, a residual beast at the level of Hu did not have such ability. Yet Lin Yun and Lin Xiaolu only encountered one residual beast at the scene, meaning at least one enemy was hiding in the shadows at that time.

But that enemy never appeared, even watching the residual beast be destroyed by him without intervening. What was the other party's true purpose?

Finally, what the Seeder named Moke said—that before its arrival, there were no Seeders or magical girls in Fang Ting City—was also a huge suspicious point and hidden danger.

Regarding this matter, not only were there no clues, but there was not even a starting point for investigation; it was completely a black box.

These four points of confusion might concern a conspiracy involving Lin Xiaolu, forcing him to take it seriously.

But the information was so incomplete that he could not piece together the truth with what he had, making his already sleep-deprived brain throb even more.

"So, how does it feel to make a comeback?"

The question from Hong Siyu on the other end of the still-connected call pulled Lin Yun back to reality.

Putting down and then raising the hand holding the phone, he briefly considered the question and gave his answer:

"It's pretty terrible."

It was terrible; mana was declining, skills were rusty, and the current situation in Fang Ting City worried him.

More importantly, the result of this sortie completely failed to meet his expectations.

Although the initial goal was merely to save his daughter, once he successfully rescued her, he began to consider whether he could put on a show, bluff the Seeder, and see if he could trick out some information. Once he obtained enough information, he would reveal his identity to his daughter, and everyone would be happy.

But in the end, there was little useful information, his identity remained unrevealed, and he had rashly agreed to Moke and Lin Xiaolu's requests. Now he had to hide his identity while guiding Lin Xiaolu in magical girl training.

Although this could achieve the goal of "communicating with his daughter," it was not the way he wanted.

But thinking of his daughter's confession to Senior Cuique last night, he felt that if he revealed his true self now, both of them would be trapped in an incredibly awkward situation. So in the end, he could not bring himself to tell the truth.

Thinking that he might have to continue playing this awkward identity game, he couldn't help but rub his temples.

"Terrible, huh... truly a response full of personal character."

Hong Siyu on the call seemed to chuckle: "Senior, don't always push yourself too hard. When a man reaches middle age, he has to admit it when the time comes."

"Can I hang up now?" Lin Yun responded to her sudden crude joke with a cold attitude.

Hong Siyu laughed especially loudly this time: "Haha! Just making a couple of jokes. Are you getting shy already?"

Just then, the office door was pushed open, and a bearded man walked in from outside. Seeing Lin Yun on the phone, he exaggeratedly pointed to his mouth and then to the door, using body language to express his meaning: Should I go out?

Lin Yun immediately shook his head and said to the phone: "That's it for now. We'll talk about the rest next time."

Then, completely disregarding the protests coming from Hong Siyu's end, he pressed the hang-up button.

After the call ended, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Not bad, not bad at all."

A stack of documents was thrown onto the table in front of him. The bearded man walked forward with a strange grin: "I heard a woman's voice. Have you finally decided to take a new wife?"

Lin Yun twitched the corner of his mouth and looked at him helplessly: "Which ear heard me flirting with someone?"

"The left one."

The man opposite shrugged indifferently: "Come on, sign here anyway."

This man's name was Liu Guanshan, the director of the External Dispatch Department, and a peer who frequently dealt with Lin Yun in the company.

The two had known each other since they were junior clerks. Having worked together for so many years, their relationship was quite good, the kind where they could occasionally have a drink together.

So their conversation was relatively unreserved; topics like being widowed could be brought up, and Lin Yun wouldn't hold it against him.

Picking up a gel pen from a pen holder nearby, Lin Yun took the documents while explaining: "Let's not talk about whether I'm in the mood; I don't dare have such thoughts now. My kid and I are already estranged enough. If I really told her I was looking for a stepmother, she'd make a scene that would reach the sky."

Of course, these were just polite words. The real reason was that he simply didn't want to look, but saying that would sound too tragic, and he didn't want to leave such an impression on others in a work setting.

"Still fighting? Just stuff some extra pocket money in there to coax her."

Liu Guanshan didn't care, plopping down on the corner of the desk: "My kid is like that too. Whatever the fuss is about, give some benefits and it's fine."

"I've told you before, it's not about pocket money at all."

Signing the documents, Lin Yun continued: "If I had known what she was thinking back then, it wouldn't have come to this."

"Want one?" Liu Guanshan, sitting on the desk, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket.

"After I finish signing."

"Heng Yun said over there that work is done for the night and is treating us to dinner. Are you coming?"

"No, I'm going home to accompany my kid."

"Heh, so family-oriented?"

"Just pretend I am."

Lin Yun said this, feeling a sigh rise involuntarily in his heart.

He was indeed going to accompany his daughter tonight, but unfortunately not in the capacity of a father.

That his daughter had become a Magical Girl was an established fact beyond alteration; with matters having reached this point, no matter how unwillingly he accepted it, he could only proceed with this as the foundation for his actions.

And at present, the task ranking first in the sequence of planned activities was, without doubt, instruction.

—He had to serve as a senior Magical Girl and go tonight to guide his daughter on how to train.