Three days later, at noon, in Lin Yun's office.

After finishing his morning work and with no other tasks at hand, Lin Yun finally had a rare, quiet lunch break. He sat at his desk, using the limited time to scan the information on his computer screen.

It had been five days since the night Lin Xiaolu was in danger. During this period, besides working and teaching a few rookie Magical Girls, Lin Yun had also started searching for various news online, focusing on information related to Brutal Beasts and Magical Girls in Fangting City.

Initially, he tried to search for clues from the past couple of years but found little to no useful information, only noticing an increase in missing persons. Reluctantly, he extended the search range to five years, ten years, and even found old news photos that included An Ya. However, apart from worsening his mood, he still found nothing.

After hitting a wall, Lin Yun decided to use a method he originally didn't want to: the Urban Legend Search Method.

This method wasn't his own creation but came from another Magical Girl companion from his younger days in Fangting City—Su Shengzi.

Su Shengzi was passionate about collecting urban legends and ghost stories. After some research, she integrated them and proposed a theory that sounded extremely nonsensical but had some logic to it: over seventy percent of urban legends reportedly "seen with one's own eyes" originated from Brutal Beasts.

The reason this theory sounded like nonsense was that it lacked any rigorous statistical backing; it was just something Su Shengzi came up with one afternoon while having tea at home.

However, it made some sense because the theory aligned with the evolutionary logic of Brutal Beasts: after evolving to the "Pupa" stage, Brutal Beasts needed to "nest" to gather enough magic power and nutrients for the next stage of evolution.

After nesting, Pupa-stage Brutal Beasts would use a specific area as their base, causing spatial and temporal distortions to form their nest, which was also their "pupa." From there, they would hunt with their nest as the center.

At the Pupa stage, Brutal Beasts were no longer as brainless as in the Egg stage, acting purely on instinct. They gained a level of intelligence similar to wild animals. They started to act more covertly, hiding from Magical Girls and the Bureau of Special Tactics while fulfilling their feeding needs.

The strength of Pupa-stage Brutal Beasts and the abundant food in their nests would also attract many lower-level Brutal Beasts to parasitize there. However, these lower-level Brutal Beasts were not subordinates; if seen by a Pupa-stage Brutal Beast, they would be swallowed as snacks.

The diet of Brutal Beasts was diverse, naturally including other Brutal Beasts.

Because of this, the behavior of Pupa-stage Brutal Beasts often led to urban legends in the areas they inhabited.

In a city with a normal Magical Girl presence, with regular information exchange with the outside world and extensive patrolling by Magical Girls, it was nearly impossible for a Pupa-stage Brutal Beast to hide.

Their pupa was both a protective shell and a prison. Once their nest was discovered, they had nowhere to escape and could only wait for a group of Magical Girls to come and beat them up or fight to the death with elite Magical Girls.

However, Fangting City was different.

Lin Yun now suspected that there might be a Pupa-stage Brutal Beast hiding in Fangting City, possibly related to the series of strange occurrences.

The long-term absence of Magical Girls provided enough time for a Pupa-stage Brutal Beast to emerge. The vastness of Fangting City offered hiding spaces, and the decrease in Brutal Beast attacks could also be explained by the presence of a Pupa-stage Brutal Beast. This suspicion was not unfounded.

He shared this guess with Hong Siyu, who also took it seriously and promised to assist in the search. However, dealing with Brutal Beasts, he didn't want to just wait for news, so he started his own investigation.

Now, with no information from the news, it seemed he really had to start with urban legends.

Using keywords like "Fangting City," "urban legend," and "ghost story," he extracted information from various forums and media, finding many strange rumors that seemed somewhat plausible.

For instance, "the singing in the sewers," "the mirrored abandoned construction site," "the flickering streetlights," and so on. These half-true, half-false supernatural stories made Lin Yun feel a chill even at noon.

But these messages lacked solid evidence. To really find clues, he would probably have to verify them one by one to see which were credible.

Thinking of this, he was about to move the mouse to switch pages when he suddenly felt a vibration from his pocket.

It was his phone, and it was "Cui Que's phone." He judged this by the position in his pocket.

Looks like it's time to use the Magical Girl form again, he thought.

Three days ago, he and Lin Xiaolu found Xia Liang on Electronics Street. After successfully making her a Magical Girl, they briefly confirmed Xia Liang's status and exchanged contact information before parting ways.

Since then, every other night, Lin Yun would gather the two at the old place to teach them about being Magical Girls.

This included how to train and enhance their magic power, common knowledge a Magical Girl should know, but most importantly, combat awareness when fighting Brutal Beasts.

What were the instinctive behaviors of common Brutal Beasts, where their usual weaknesses were, and which moves to be cautious of.

Many of these were wisdom passed down by predecessors, and quite a few were experiences summarized by Cui Que herself. The rationality should be unquestionable. However, according to her, after a few days of theoretical teaching, they might need a real combat opportunity to practice.

Taking out his phone and glancing at the screen, he saw it was indeed a call from Lin Xiaolu. Lin Yun thought for a moment, then sighed slightly, transformed into Cui Que, and answered the call:

"Hello? What's up?"

"Ah, Senior Cui Que?"

Unlike last time when Mo Ke grabbed the phone, this time Cui Que heard Lin Xiaolu's voice: "Sorry to bother you, but Mo Ke just discovered a Brutal Beast!"

As expected.

Cui Que wasn't surprised; it was almost as she had anticipated. It had been several days since the last Brutal Beast attack, so it was about time for another one to appear.

So she didn't say much, briefly understanding the location and situation of the Brutal Beast from Lin Xiaolu, and prepared to set off.

However, just as she was about to hang up, she heard a voice outside the door that made her breath catch.

"Minister, are you there?"

Someone was here.

She could tell who the voice belonged to; it was undoubtedly a subordinate from her department.

What to do? Is there still time to undo the transformation? It seems not!

A series of thoughts flashed through Cui Que's mind, and in that split second, she saw the office door handle being pressed down.

A young man pushed the door open, counting the files in his hand, then looked up into the room—

Only to see an empty room.

"Huh? When did the Minister leave?"

He felt a bit strange because he remembered seeing his department's minister walk into the office earlier.

Peeking his head out, he looked left and right, confirming that the office was indeed empty, then scratched his head in confusion and left.

What he didn't realize was that under the empty desk, in the space below, a petite girl was curled up with a displeased expression, staring at her phone screen, her thumb on the spot where she had just hung up the call.

Only when the footsteps outside the office door faded into the distance did she let out a long sigh of relief. Thankfully, her reaction was quick enough to not only hang up the call in time but also hide under the desk.

Otherwise, whether it was the conversation heard by Lin Xiaolu or someone entering the office seeing Cui Que sitting there, both would be quite troublesome.

Looks like next time, she should lock the door before answering the phone.

Thinking this, she peeked through the gap under the desk to confirm that no one was outside the office door before undoing the transformation. She then awkwardly crawled out from under the desk.

After tidying up her clothes, she walked out of the office nonchalantly. Once out of sight, she quickly picked up her pace, heading towards the location where the Brutal Beast had appeared.