: The Long Corridor

Tap, tap, tap!

As far as the eye could see, there were only clean white corridors, like walking through a maze in an experimental facility.

The overhead lights were chilling, and the black reflections on the white walls were distorted.

She glanced at her phone and realized that she had been walking for almost half an hour since she came in.

The corridor seemed endless.

It was obvious that she had been infected the moment she walked in.

Suddenly, she raised her foot and kicked the wall, preparing to violently break through the barrier.

But she kicked at nothing, causing her to stumble and bump into the wall.

She took a few steps back, frowning as she looked at the wall.

She's not someone who's unsure about distances; if she's going to kick the wall, she shouldn't have missed.

Wu An braced himself against the wall with one hand and clenched his fist with the other, then punched the wall directly.

He missed again, and his body slammed against the wall due to exhaustion.

There's something wrong with the wall; whenever she tries to break it, the distance between her and the wall seems to increase.

This extension is strange; it gets infinitely close but can never truly get there.

Wu An tried pressing one hand against the wall and gradually increasing the force. At first, it was fine, but when the force exceeded a certain value, the support on his hand suddenly loosened for a moment, and his body was pushed against the wall because he lost his support.

"The situation is somewhat similar to that of the General Staff Department."

At the Qishan City General Affairs Bureau, she couldn't even step three steps off the red carpet; here, she couldn't even touch the wall.

Once she reaches a certain position, the space beneath her feet will continue to extend, pointing towards infinity.

Trying to forcefully break through the wall will result in the same situation as before, where you simply cannot touch the wall.

Even covering the entire body with filthy magic cannot eliminate this effect.

"Does this mean I have to undo the transformation...?"

Wu An glanced sideways at the gap between the wall tiles in the corridor, where a small red dot was pointing directly at him, its gaze shifting as he moved.

I was monitored the moment I entered.

Undoing the transformation might not break the deadlock, and could even hand over your life to the enemy.

"I didn't expect to run into this kind of trouble so soon after I came in..."

"If Yinxi were here, that would be great."

For the first time since Wu An left, she missed Yin Xi.

She has spatial abilities; perhaps she can find a way to resolve the current situation.

Although Wu An used the teleportation ability for a long time, it was not her true skill; she was only familiar with spatial abilities.

They were completely ignorant of the principles behind the changes in front of them.

hum-

As she pondered, a corner of the wall crumbled, revealing a black screen.

The screen lit up, revealing the face of a middle-aged woman, her half-closed eyes carrying a sense of scrutiny from someone in a superior position.

They didn't even bother to hide their identities; the Huanzi Society has her cornered.

"Are you Wu'an from Changming City?" the woman asked.

It seems I have some fame.

"Who are you?"

"I am Minase, the president of the Genko Association of Chomei City, appointed by the second seat of the parliament."

"Parliament? Or is it a government?"

The title "Second Seat" also appears in Lin Yuhuan's diary.

Wu An remembered that the magical eye he had just obtained was the Seat of Nine.

If these seats represent enemies at the fully unlocked rank... then that's a truly unsettling number.

Wu An has seen Man Kai in the news no more than three times since he was born.

I hope there will be more full blooms in the magical girl section.

"The chairman of Changming City, so he doesn't have a base in Changming City?" Wu An asked sarcastically.

"Tch, I don't have time to waste with this nonsense. Don't you know your own situation? Or are you just a fool like the other magical girls?"

The other party was quite defiant in words, but still resorted to personal attacks, indicating that they were quite bothered by the fact that the outpost did not live up to its name.

"What do you plan to do?" Wu An didn't waste any words.

"That was a quick and easy thing to do." Minase snorted. "Afterwards, I'll neutralize you. Just don't resist."

"On what grounds?" Wu An retorted.

"You ask why?" Minase paused, looking at him like he was an idiot. "Because you can't get out of this corridor. The only consequences awaiting you are exhaustion and starvation until you have to deactivate your transformation.

"All right."

"You agreed?" Minase was surprised. Normally, a magical girl would rather die than surrender at this point, right?

She'd never met a magical girl who wasn't stubborn...

"I really can't get out."

Wu An simply sat down on the ground. "If you're going to deal with me, then hurry up."

"Hmph, fine then." The otters disappeared from the camera's view.

After a while, another section of the white wall was removed, and a small bottle was brought out. Inside, there was a filthy magical power, so concentrated that it was in liquid form!

Wu An couldn't help but take a second look at the small bottle. This thing was also quite unusual. The filthy magic was so concentrated, yet the aura didn't dissipate at all.

The otter's face reappeared, and it said, "Drink it."

Wu An opened the bottle, and a sense of malice rose from the bottom of his heart. The bottle contained not only filthy magic, but also the magic of a witch.

The witch's magic seemed less murky than that of filthy magic; it was as if the filthy magic had been diluted with water.

But what the differences are, Wu An doesn't understand for the time being.

"So much... I'll die if I drink it, won't I?" she asked timidly, her voice strained.

"Do you have any other choice?" the otters replied coldly.

Although Minase did not answer Mu'an's question, considering that Genko would capture girls with magical girl potential, and Minase's previous statement that she would be harmlessly disposed of, it was clear that...

Magical girls won't die from drinking this stuff, but what will happen next is anyone's guess.

"Of course there is." Wu An grinned at the screen, making a gun gesture with his hand and pressing it against his temple.

The otter's expression remained unchanged: "If you want to commit suicide, then go ahead and die."

"Really?" Wu An tilted her head and asked, "Aren't living magical girls much more useful than dead ones?"

Although a long time has passed, Wu'an has a very clear impression of his first encounter with Huanzi because of Zhu Huan.

To them, living magical girls are more valuable.

"That's true, but so what?" Minase laughed dismissively. "In the end, it's just a matter of how much money you make."

"Is that so?"

Wu An lowered his eyelids, looking quite disappointed.

Whether you drink it or not is up to you. Anyway, you're already here, you can't run away.

After saying that, Minase hung up the call. Wu An called out to her several times, but she didn't respond.

However, the pinhole camera was indeed moving.

......

On the upper level of the Phantom Society's base, in a conference room of about 100 square meters, several people were sitting, looking at the screen with solemn expressions.

The screen showed Wu'an, who was leaning against the wall, staring blankly at the magic bottle they had just delivered, neither drinking it nor destroying it.

He stood there, seemingly contemplating life.

"President, should we give them a heads-up?" someone suggested.

"Why rush us? Rushing us will only make us look weak," Minase retorted directly. "She can't get out of that eerie corridor. The initiative is in our hands. Even if she's a little clever and knows how to play the game, she's still just a young girl. She doesn't have the guts to commit suicide."

Someone immediately chimed in, "That's right, magical girls are high-class people, their lives must be wonderful, and those kinds of people are the most terrifying!"

"If we could convert her too, wouldn't our branch become the number one branch in Jiangdong?"

"Of course! Maybe after we take Changming City in a few days, we can directly take over there!"

Although the otters did not participate in their subordinates' discussion, they listened to every word.

He couldn't help but start imagining the good days to come—following the witch was still the best option.

What kind of lousy magical girl is this? You have to be chosen by the Seed of Hearts to become one, and all that's chosen are a bunch of chickens and dogs.

They have no idea about the dark side of society.

That's why they, ordinary people with no power, were able to seize the opportunity to kill him.

"By the way, does anyone know how she got in?" Minase asked the group.

Although Wu An was trapped in the corridor the moment she entered, Minase still didn't understand how she got in.

After all, the two gatekeepers were handpicked; they were good actors and didn't have much contact with the internal staff.

Logically speaking, it shouldn't be possible for a magical girl to see through it.

"I guess someone's being followed?"

"Who was the last person to come in?"

"It's you, isn't it—"

"How come I remember it being you?"

Boom!

Seeing that the good situation had turned into a blame game, Minase slammed her hand on the table a few times, stopping the argument.

"It doesn't matter who came in last. What really matters is how that magical girl got in." She pointed at Wu'an and said.

Without corrupted magic, the entrance cannot be opened.

"Maybe those two gatekeepers betrayed us."

"There shouldn't be more than just Wu An who was teleported in."

"Speaking of which, that magical girl has purple eyes. Could she be someone from above, in disguise, coming down to inspect the work...?"

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere in the meeting room immediately froze.

Many people gasped in shock; if that were true, it would be disastrous.

It's not that they're afraid of being discovered for "working diligently," but rather that the witches are too bloodthirsty; every single one of them treats killing as if it were nothing.

Although the Genko-kai is an organization supported by the second seat of the council, ordinary people are nothing more than consumables within it.

There are countless ordinary people who crave power, authority, and money; we don't need a few of them.

Even if you work diligently, you can still be deadly if the other party gets the urge to kill you.

"No, no, a witch wouldn't be trapped in that corridor; it just happens to have purple eyes."

The otter's words brought a sigh of relief to everyone.

"But I still don't understand how she got in."

"President, don't worry about that. We're not magical girls, who knows what tricks they have up their sleeves?"

"Yeah, if we knew everything about magical girls' powers, we might as well go straight to Changming City—no, let's go straight to Rainbow City! Why are we still stuck in this lousy little place!"

After all, none of them are magical girls.

Although there are ways to suppress the magical girl's power, they can only rely on external objects, and their application of these objects is only superficially understood.

Thinking of this, Minase snorted coldly, "That's true."

"Any results from Zhu Huan's side?" she asked again.

"That idiot is still resisting; I don't know what's wrong with his head."

"Yes, even though her nails were already quite long when I took over, and there were already faint marks on her face, she's still resisting the transformation."

The otters temporarily reversed the scene of Mu'an, and in a clean room, a brown-haired magical girl with upturned eyes and a beauty mark under her eye was rolling around in the room.

After rolling around for a while, it curled up even tighter, its fingertips covering its head were black, and its nails were very long, almost as long as its fingers.

"Has anyone gone to urge them?" Minase coldly swept her gaze over the crowd, but this time there was no response, and everyone lowered their heads.

Just kidding, that Zhu Huan is one of the incarnations of the Second Seat, and he is already at the fourth level. If he successfully transforms, he will be at the fifth level.

If Zhu Huangang gets carried away with the conversion and gets killed, there's no one to complain to.

Seeing his subordinates' state, Minase could only think to himself that they were a bunch of cowards who feared death.

However, it is indeed quite dangerous.

Let's just leave Zhu Huan alone and let her slowly break down; there's no pressure from above.

Anyway, that girl's condition is already terrible, it definitely won't be long.