...

Jiang City, inside the Five-Ring Industrial Park.

It was already 9 PM, and the outskirts of the park were tightly surrounded by police vehicles, with red and blue flashing lights forming a long police perimeter. Jiang Siqi sat on the planter by the reception building, constantly refreshing her phone. The winter evening breeze, which would normally make her shiver, seemed unfelt at the moment.

"Siqi, put this on, be careful not to catch a cold." Someone handed her a thick blanket.

It was Little Pigeon.

"Ah, thank you." Jiang Siqi noticed that she was holding several blankets, presumably prepared by the logistics team, and asked, "Um... have you seen the news online?"

"Yes, I have." Little Pigeon nodded. "You looked amazing in battle!"

Jiang Siqi couldn’t help but smile awkwardly, "Hehe... it was alright, honestly, I was scared to death inside!"

Someone had uploaded the footage from the lobby’s surveillance system online, showing everything from the sudden mutation of the reception staff, their assault on the guests, to the Mechanical Officers storming into the lobby, evacuating people while battling the mutants.

It almost immediately hit the top of the trending searches.

Jiang Siqi was also recognized by everyone, and her fan count skyrocketed by nearly 2 million, showing no signs of slowing down. Previously, when the TV station called her an internet celebrity, she felt unsure about it, but now she was a bona fide internet celebrity, with the name Magical Girl Si Tian becoming a focal point of discussion.

The only reason she wasn’t live streaming now was that the head captain requested not to publicly disclose sensitive information. Otherwise, she believed her live stream would break new viewership records.

Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, your daughter has really become a hero!

"No wonder you’re number 1, you really have a cold and ruthless heart, laughing out loud at a time like this." A voice broke the ambiance.

Jiang Siqi turned around in surprise and saw the earring man approaching with a crutch. He was now wearing a hospital white coat, covered in bandages like a mummy and with a neck brace, looking like a seriously injured person.

Why didn’t he take sick leave looking like that?

Even though the head captain had requested all the officers to stay at the scene for further instructions, it clearly didn’t apply to seriously injured personnel. Even if he stayed at the machinery park, he’d be a burden anyways!

Jiang Siqi twitched her mouth, "Why aren’t you at the hospital?"

"It’s not a fatal injury, why bother with the hospital. They dressed me up like this and took lots of pictures, probably to show we risked our lives to save people." Han Yuhao replied coldly, "Hmph, to me, this is far from my limit." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Pretending to be tough again.

Jiang Siqi rolled her eyes, thinking this guy might be happier than she is—obviously, it’s not just internet celebrity Si Tian getting famous; all the execution teams of the Dimensional Limit Mechanism got captured somewhat, and they are all hot topics online, only the footage of the four in the lobby is clearer.

For instance, the earring guy, who even got a nickname now: Earring War God.

It oddly matches his name.

"Bla-blanket..." Little Pigeon timidly handed over the blanket.

"You’re scared of this guy too, I understand." Han Yuhao added a hint of sympathy, "Someone who seeks power without a heart is no different from a monster."

Dammit, she’s scared of you, not me!

"How am I heartless?" Jiang Siqi exclaimed irritably.

"How many people just died outside this lobby? Saying bodies were everywhere is no exaggeration, yet you dare to face the dead’s vengeful souls, sitting on this planter just a foot away, not even caring about what just happened. And our teammate Elorie... still missing with no whereabouts, and you not only don’t worry but are focused on your fame—isn’t this proof of having no heart?"

The opponent spoke righteously.

Jiang Siqi was momentarily dumbfounded, not expecting him to weave such long-winded rhetoric.

She paid attention to the deceased too. The sudden death of a few hundred people, in a city like Jiang City with high security, was enough to explode public opinion. The rising fame of the execution team was based entirely on this severe incident. The Dimensional Limit Mechanism has already promoted it as an "invasion war from another world" and vowed full support to national departments to win this war.

However, the word "war" felt distant to her, and considering these people were already dead before the Dimensional Limit Mechanism’s action, leaving behind an occupied shell, she felt the deceased were unrelated to her.

Whether they came or not wouldn’t have saved the workers at the Five Rings Machinery Factory.

If not for the intervention of the agency, who knows how many people would have ended up as Wanderer puppets.

As for that French girl, of course, Jiang Siqi was concerned.

But the problem is, concern is of no use! She rushed out of the lobby, flew to the rooftop without saying anything to everyone, so no one knew what she wanted to do. Afterwards, she and the entire upper part of the building disappeared, leaving only a mass of twisted space symbolizing erosion.

Does one have to cry and whimper to prove they have a heart?

"Okay, there’s no need to argue, I believe you’re not like that." Wang Baihu came over at this time.

It’s evident his face showed a touch of fatigue.

"Brother Niao!" Little Pigeon breathed a sigh of relief and immediately offered a blanket, "Where’s Sister Honglian?"

"Still coordinating with the logistics team." Wang Baihu looked at the two new members, "You’ve worked hard. This is probably the biggest rookie trial since the agency was established. Your performance was better than mine back in the day."

"Isn’t that expected," Han Yuhao crossed his arms, "Successors should surpass their predecessors."

Deputy leader sure has a good temper, if it were me, I’d have hit him already. Jiang Siqi looked around, "Aren’t we missing someone?"

"Li Xing?" the earring guy scoffed, "He has a ten-centimeter gash on his leg, said he’d be in the hospital for at least half a month, so don’t count on him."

Uh... although a ten-centimeter wound is scary, he’s probably one who’d never miss paid medical leave, Jiang Siqi thought.

"Is Captain Xiao keeping us here for any tasks?" she asked Wang Baihu.

"Why, do you want to face the countless journalists and victims’ families outside?"

Jiang Siqi glanced at the bustling entrance and couldn’t help but shrink her neck, "...I don’t want to."

"So you’ll have to have a brief session with a psychological expert and a lawyer. They’ll tell you what to say publicly and how to manage your emotions." Wang Baihu shrugged, "But those are minor details; I think he kept you here for what’s currently most important."

He looked up at the eroded space hovering in midair.

At this moment, a construction team was busy above the building, and hundreds of floodlights illuminated the construction area as if it were daytime.

Engineers have checked; the building’s structure is completely undamaged, the disappeared part not violently destroyed, but as if it had never existed. So they didn’t need to build climbing ladders from the ground, they started directly from the top layer’s gap, and within five hours, they’d reach the eroded space.

If the "mirage" type erosion over Celestial Ridge Park in Jiang City last time was hard to approach, this erosion is evidently easier to enter.

"Are we going to enter the other world inside the erosion?" Jiang Siqi was stunned, "Isn’t that forbidden by the agency?"

At least the agency taught as much in basic courses.

"Yes, but times change." Wang Baihu said with a complicated tone, "Not to mention we have a lost officer in the erosion zone, Jiang City’s victims’ families need an explanation too. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but maybe the era of unrelated matters is over."