Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

At this moment, Emerald Sparrow finally understood the dissonance she had been feeling all along.

That lingering sense of mild crisis since entering the Abnormal Strategy Bureau; the alienation brought on by the surrounding scenery; and a faint yet familiar sense of nausea. All these sensory elements mixed together, forming a dissonance within her heart, warning her of the abnormality here.

After seeing this scene, Emerald Sparrow vaguely had an answer in her heart as to what this space truly was.

However, to fully confirm this answer, there was still one thing she needed to do—return to the office where the Remnant Beast had been discovered earlier.

With this thought in mind, Emerald Sparrow did not wish to delay any longer. She immediately activated her magic power, levitating her body, and flew in the direction she remembered.

She sped along the hallway, with the scenery of the corridor flashing past the corner of her eye at high speed, just as unchanging as what she had seen before. But now that she had an answer in mind, she was no longer perplexed by it.

Ignoring any potential distractions en route, Emerald Sparrow flew straight to the office where the Remnant Beast was previously found and pushed the door open with a forceful gesture.

Upon opening the office door, all she saw was an exceedingly ordinary office.

No corpses, no blood stains, no ashen remains of the Remnant Beast, only the bright white light as in the other rooms, and various office items placed haphazardly around.

All traces had vanished, the previously found clues were nowhere to be seen, as if they had never existed in the first place.

However, upon seeing this scene, a flicker of understanding swiftly crossed Emerald Sparrow's eyes.

The reason was simple, this was the answer she was looking for.

"So that's what it is."

Speaking softly and looking at the situation in front of her, Emerald Sparrow did not step further inside but with an utterly certain tone, she judged, "This is indeed a 'Nest'."

The "Nest" she referred to was a characteristic ability of the chrysalis-stage Remnant Beasts.

As a symbol of the chrysalis-stage Remnant Beasts, the common form of a "Nest" is a twisted reality of the original space, a layered and nested spatial maze.

Inside a "Nest," the scenery is not born out of nothingness but is a product of capturing and imitating the surrounding space based on its location, then replicating, multiplying, and distorting everything on this foundation.

If the nest of a Remnant Beast is located outside the city in a desolate space, then its nest displays the form of a boundless wasteland; if the nest is within a lake, then it shows as an endless expanse, directionless, never reaching the surface of the water.

Emerald Sparrow has seen such instances more than once, the most recent just a few months prior.

Back then, Emerald encountered a chrysalis-stage Remnant Beast under Fangting City. The beast had built its nest in the city's sewers, resulting in the nest appearing as an ant colony-like staggered maze of sewer pipes.

At that time, just like now, Emerald had stepped into the beast's nest while following the trail of the Remnant Beast, and was absorbed into the maze.

Starting from this premise, everything Emerald Sparrow had discovered after entering the Abnormal Strategy Bureau fell into place with a reasonable explanation—because this was not the real Abnormal Strategy Bureau but a beast's Nest that simulated it.

The spatial composition of this nest consisted of replicating and extending the space of the first floor of the Bai An City Abnormal Strategy Bureau, joining countless spaces similar to the "first floor" to form a complete nest.

Emerald Sparrow was not trapped in an inescapable Strategy Bureau but was surrounded by countless "first floors of the Strategy Bureau," which, although structurally identical and replicating all non-living objects, could not replicate living creatures.

Therefore, it was natural that there would be no corpses or bloodstains in the office before her, because the "first floor" where the victims were killed was not the same space where Emerald Sparrow was currently standing.

Emerald Sparrow had come here to confirm this point.

However, with the unraveling of this puzzle, another question now presented itself before her.

That is, this chrysalis-stage Remnant Beast was absolutely not ordinary. A typical beast of this stage could not achieve such a feat.

The usual Remnant Beast "Nest" merely imitates the essential elements of the surrounding space. Similar to the camouflage of a chameleon, the goal is to hide the nest, making it less obvious, so the beast's nest is often but a rough imitation of the original space.

To replicate the entire layout of an Abnormal Strategy Bureau floor so completely without any mistakes, as seen here, is beyond the intelligence of a Remnant Beast.

Given the intelligence of a chrysalis-stage Remnant Beast, they simply couldn't grasp what the decor within human structures was or what purpose it served. How could every detail be so precisely replicated?

This also explained why the beast could have its nest right next to the Abnormal Strategy Bureau, yet no information had reached the Magical Girl—because this was certainly not a simple case of a Remnant Beast building its nest.

With an answer in mind, Emerald Sparrow naturally knew what she needed to do now, which was, undoubtedly, to find the owner of this nest and kill the Remnant Beast.

As for how to search, Emerald Sparrow's method was simple—release her Magical Power Perception and proceed in the direction with the strongest response.

Within the nest, the concepts of space and time were blurred, so from the moment she began her search, even she did not know how long it had taken.

With a clear mind and without distracting thoughts, Emerald Sparrow maintained the sharpest state of awareness, ensuring she could detect any abnormal magic power fluctuations promptly.

However, just as she was prepared to expand her sensing range once again, a very faint fluctuation of magic power appeared within her perception area.

This weak fluctuation was like a candle flickering on the brink of being extinguished—though still burning, it blinked uncertainly. Had it not been for the consistent high concentration of Emerald Sparrow, she might have subconsciously overlooked it.

And when she stopped to carefully confirm, she discovered that this fluctuation was not far from the area where she was located.

So, without hesitation, Emerald Sparrow immediately moved toward the direction of the perceived magic power fluctuation.

After passing through several stairways and crossing many "first floors," she finally found her target: in the deserted office, there was a girl sitting against the wall.

To be exact, she was a Magical Girl, because Emerald Sparrow could see that the girl was holding a gem in her hand, shaped like a budding flower.

That was an unopened Heart's Flower, so she must be a Magical Girl at the bud level.

The girl looked to be about 18 years old, at an age where she was gradually shedding her youthful naivete and starting to appear somewhat mature. From this, it could be inferred that she must have been a skilled Magical Girl for many years.

However, her current state was far from well; she had completely reverted to her human form with blood continuously seeping down her forehead. Even her transformed state could not be maintained, clearly indicating that her magic power had been exhausted.

Emerald Sparrow squatted down, reached a hand in front of the girl's breath to check for breathing, and upon detecting it, she immediately pressed down on the Heart's Gem in the girl's hand and began to pour her own magic power into it.

As the azure magic power steadily flowed into the girl's hand, the Heart's Gem began to glimmer with a deep brown light and, at last, returned to its radiant state.

The revival of the Heart's Gem and the replenishment of abundant magic power allowed the girl against the wall to slowly regain consciousness. She opened her eyes from the depths of oblivion and then met the gaze of the half-squatting Emerald Sparrow.

The girl was momentarily dazed and then sharply startled, her instinct to draw back, but evidently forgot she was in a corner, so with a "thunk," the back of her head struck the wall.

The intense pain snapped the girl back to full alertness. She grimaced as she clutched the back of her head and after a moment looked up at Emerald Sparrow with a somewhat embarrassed smile, "Uh, sorry... May I ask who you are?"

"Considering I just saved you, the question ought to be posed by me first."

Releasing the girl's hand from the Heart's Gem, Emerald Sparrow stood back up, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Me?"

The girl glanced at Emerald Sparrow, her expression stiffening slightly, then, with a forced elevation of her voice, she digressed, "I don't know what you're talking about."

But just as she finished speaking, she noticed Emerald Sparrow's gaze fixed on her left hand. She looked slightly to the side and saw the Heart's Bud in her hand still twinkling, and she immediately realized she had told a very poor lie.

After a subtly awkward silence, the girl smiled again sheepishly, and then answered frankly, "My code name is Lantern. I'm a local Magical Girl from Bai'an City."

She did not persist in hiding her identity because she could tell that the girl in the dark cyan dress before her was also a Magical Girl, and since the other had chosen to save her, she probably wasn't a bad person.

Having stated her own identity, she then looked back at Emerald Sparrow, hoping for a corresponding answer.

What she did not know was that Emerald Sparrow had already anticipated her response.

"I am a Patrol Envoy sent by the Investigation Institute to Bai'an City."

Emerald Sparrow spoke concisely, "I am here looking for a missing investigation team in Bai'an City and have already made contact with the local Magical Girl team. They told me there's a missing member called 'Lantern.' Is that you?"

Lantern was momentarily taken aback, "The local Magical Girl team, you mean...?"

"Among them, there's a Magical Girl named Bai Ji and a Seeder called Polly. Before I came here, they had asked me to look for you."

In order to quickly gain the trust of the Magical Girl before her, Emerald Sparrow shared everything without reservation, "It's just that I also came here by accident, and to my surprise, you're here too."

"Aha! So that's what happened!"

Hearing news of her comrades invigorated the girl considerably, "Have you met Bai Ji and the others? How are they now... cough, cough!" Find exclusive stories on empire

Perhaps because of her overexcitement, the excessive motion aggravated the girl's still-healing wounds, causing her to suddenly cough violently.

Emerald Sparrow immediately pressed down on her shoulder somewhat helplessly and pushed her back against the wall.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"They are still safe for the time being. In fact, the only concern everyone had was for your safety."

She shook her head, finished updating on the Bai'an City team's status, and steered the conversation back on track, asking Lantern, "So, can you tell me, what exactly happened to you before you ended up here? Why did you faint? Have you seen any sign of the Cat's Tail team?"