Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Chapter 131: On the Ceiling

When Veronica stepped through the doors of the Countermeasure Bureau, as she had anticipated, there was not a single light to be seen, and everything in the darkness was eerily silent.

Unlike the usual darkness caused by a lack of light, the deep space of the Countermeasure Bureau was so dark that even a Magical Girl’s vision couldn’t make anything clear. She could only vaguely make out the outlines of objects.

This only confirmed that something was off about the Bureau.

Veronica stood still and cast a probing spell that glowed with magical light into the large hall ahead. After confirming that there were no hidden ambushes in the dark, she put up several layers of protective barriers and officially entered.

As she stepped forward, the sound of her footsteps echoed through the empty hall.

Creak... creak, creak... creak...

As she walked ahead, a strange noise emerged from the darkness.

Rustle... rustle, rustle...

The faint, chaotic sounds never ceased.

This caused Veronica to stop, puzzled, and glance around.

Why did all of this feel so familiar?

She continued forward, the sharp sound of her heels striking the floor scattering the surrounding noise. After a brief silence, the whispers began again.

There were both male and female voices, old and young, and the one thing they all shared was that they were laughing.

The laughter triggered Veronica’s memories and finally made her realize the source of this familiar feeling—it was the same as the dream she had experienced before.

The dark hall, the unknown source of the laughter, the scene—everything matched her dream exactly.

But as soon as she realized this, Veronica’s frown deepened.

She didn’t understand what connection there could be.

There was no doubt that what she was experiencing now was reality. So what did the dream mean? Was it a premonition? A warning? Or some kind of trap?

No one could answer these questions, but that didn’t stop her steps. She quickened her pace and moved forward.

She wasn’t afraid of danger, nor was she afraid of the enemy. What worried her was the inability to find a clue and solve the problem.

As she walked on, the laughter and her footsteps began to overlap and mix. The sounds grew sharper and, just like in her dream, began to evolve into noise.

Veronica’s expression remained unchanged. She wasn’t fazed. Instead, she raised her hand and reinforced the barriers around her, blocking the sound waves that came with the noise.

"Boring tricks," she muttered, not allowing herself to be assaulted by the noise as she had been in her dream. She extended her hand, grabbing her azure wand and whispering, "Magic Construct, manifest."

Countless blue magic threads appeared around her, layering and vibrating. When Veronica flicked her fingers, they began to spread out.

These magic threads shot out rapidly, each one as sharp as a blade, creating a synchronized sound as they sliced through the space, reaching every corner.

As long as the enemy had a physical form, there was no way they could evade this attack.

And once the enemy reacted to her attack, whether by countering or blocking, Veronica would be able to pinpoint their exact location.

She didn’t believe that dream, but she wouldn’t ignore its warning either. She was inclined to believe there were indeed enemies in this space.

But now, Veronica didn’t have time to play hide-and-seek with those enemies. She needed to act quickly—time was not on her side.

So, she was going to use magical armor to force the enemy out of the darkness.

The magic threads spread further, and as they reached every corner of the space, the echoes, the voices, and the laughter vanished into silence—as if they had never existed.

However, the sensation that came back from the threads made Veronica widen her eyes slightly.

"...What a joke."

She hadn’t said that in a long time.

The threads had indeed struck something. They had hit something that was not a building, something different from an inanimate object. Based on the feedback, it was clear it was a living thing.

But each thread had struck the enemy.

Every single one.

To confirm the feedback she was receiving, Veronica increased the output of her magic, making all the magic threads explode with greater force. The immense destructive power caused even more damage to the target, and the light from her magic finally illuminated parts of the darkness.

She looked up at the ceiling of the hall, and her breath caught in her throat.

She could hardly believe her eyes.

If she had to describe what she saw, it would be reminiscent of a time when Lin Yun had searched his home for the source of the moths that had infested his house.

Back then, he had opened many dark, sealed corners in search of the tiny pests. What he found was a mattress in an overlooked storage room, and beneath it, a swarm of insects that would make anyone afraid of bugs scream in terror.

Now, what Veronica saw in the ceiling was similar—except instead of insects, it was Ravagers. The ceiling of the Countermeasure Bureau was swarming with countless Ravagers, wriggling and screeching.

These Ravagers were mostly the size of ordinary people. Compared to regular Ravagers, they resembled children, but the sheer number of them was enough to make anyone shudder.

The noise in the darkness was not random—it was the collective hissing of these Ravagers, grouped together in the shadows.

Now, these Ravagers that had been struck by the magic threads were becoming agitated. The pain from the attack was making them restless. They were unwilling to remain in place, and many of them began to move, trying to break free from the crowded ceiling.

As they squirmed, something else fell from the ceiling, crashing onto the floor.

Veronica silently walked forward and, using the magic light, looked down at the object on the floor—it was a small, square object, like a card.

Using the magic threads, she carefully lifted it, revealing its true form: an identity badge from the Countermeasure Bureau.

The badge was remarkably intact, its plastic cover showing no damage, allowing Veronica to clearly see the photo and personal details on it.

However, the owner of this badge was likely in grave danger.

Veronica stared at the badge for a moment, then looked up again. Her face, once cold, now showed no emotion.

She raised her hand, and the threads in the air hummed in response to her motion. The next moment, they could be used to launch a massacre against the creatures on the ceiling.

To kill these creatures, to make them pay for the humans they had killed.

It was as if a voice spoke in her heart, saying this.

Yes, kill these creatures. They deserve it—

Suddenly, Veronica let go of her hand.

No, that wasn’t her voice.

She clutched her chest, realizing the thought didn’t belong to her.

That was a voice that had suddenly appeared in her mind, and its first command was to kill the Ravagers on the ceiling.

Something wasn’t right, Veronica told herself.

It was natural for a Magical Girl to kill Ravagers. Why was this voice urging her to do it?

The dream she had earlier seemed to have some kind of inducement—it was causing her mindset to become unbalanced. Why?

It was only after this thought that Veronica suddenly looked up again, finally realizing that these Ravagers were also wrong.

Ordinary Ravagers acted on instinct, with no rationality. Their instinct was to destroy and consume, and if a magic-filled target like a Magical Girl entered their line of sight, they would immediately attack.

But these Ravagers hadn’t.

Even after being injured by Veronica’s magical armor, they still showed no intention of attacking. Instead, they moved their bodies, trying to escape from the place where they were hit.

These Ravagers were simply huddled together on the ceiling, hissing, screaming, and terrifying. They seemed to have no urge to destroy or consume. Instead, they were... afraid?

Why were they afraid? What were they afraid of?

At that moment, Veronica felt she was closer than ever to the truth.

She looked back down at the identity badge, still covered in mucus, and stared at the clearly visible photo of the employee. After a moment of contemplation, something from recent events suddenly came to mind.

Something that had happened not too long ago.

Back then, she had gone to Bo’an City, found herself trapped in a Ravager’s nest, and entered an office that resembled the one in the Bo’an City Countermeasure Bureau. Inside that office, she had found the bodies of Bureau employees—and a Ravager.

It wasn’t an unusual case; it was normal for Ravagers to kill Bureau employees who mistakenly entered their nests.

But there were some strange details.

First, the door to the office had been slightly ajar.

Only a mindless Ravager would leave the door intact, and there was no reason for it to close it after entering the office. Likewise, if it were Bureau employees who discovered the Ravager inside, they wouldn’t have entered the office and closed the door behind them.

Under such circumstances, neither the Ravagers nor the humans would have closed the door.

Secondly, inside the nest in Bo’an City, the light had told her that it had protected those Bureau employees, directing them to find a room to hide in.

This meant that the employees had voluntarily entered the office and hidden inside.

Then, the Ravager must have appeared afterward, finding them already hidden and attacking them all at once.

These two facts contradicted each other.

If the Bureau employees had found the empty office and hidden inside, how had the Ravager managed to enter without destroying the door?

Could she guess that the door wasn’t originally ajar, but that the innocent victims had tried to escape before their deaths, opening the door from the inside?

If so, what did that mean?

—The Ravager had suddenly appeared in the office because of some trigger?

Suddenly appeared?

The thought of this made Veronica’s spine chill.

Even a pupating Ravager couldn’t randomly perform spatial jumps, so it was impossible for a Ravager to have "suddenly appeared." If it truly had "suddenly appeared," then what kind of appearance was that?

Looking up at the ceiling again, at the mass of creatures wriggling in place, Veronica slowly raised her hand once more.

But this time, she didn’t intend to use her magic armor to kill them. Instead, she made the magic threads swirl around the creatures, brushing through them, as if searching for something.

Her movements, as expected, returned feedback. As the threads disturbed the mass of Ravagers, more and more unidentified objects fell from the air and hit the ground with a crisp sound.

Veronica walked over and confirmed one by one: these were various personal items of humans—identity badges, glasses, watches, phones, pens, and so on.

What was more surprising was that, aside from damage caused by falling from a height, all of these items were perfectly intact.

Veronica stared at these objects on the ground, speechless for a long time.

—"Why aren’t you taking action?"

A voice came from behind her.

"I can’t kill them," Veronica answered.

"But they’re Ravagers," the voice continued.

The question was full of naive confusion, as though it was really questioning Veronica. Along with the question, Veronica noticed a shadow under her feet.

A shadow much longer than her own, completely covering her.

"They’re Ravagers, but they’re also not Ravagers."

Veronica didn’t turn around but continued looking at the personal items on the ground, her voice low:

"They were... human."

Her answer silenced the person behind her.

This was the conclusion Veronica had reached: the Ravagers on the ceiling were once human. In fact, a significant portion of them had once been employees of the Fangting City Countermeasure Bureau.

The same thing had happened in Bo’an City’s Bureau. The tragedy in the office had not been caused by an external enemy, but because... someone within had turned into a Ravager.

She should’ve realized this earlier.

Black Cinders Dawn had mastered a technique called "Beast Core," which allowed humans to gain the power of Ravagers and even control them. So, this technique must have other applications.

For example... turning ordinary people into Ravagers.

However, this technique was not as perfect as their "Beast Core" and couldn’t retain the user’s consciousness or turn them back into humans after use.

Veronica could feel that the monsters on the ceiling were just a simple patchwork.

Human bodies had been sewn together with Ravagers, like zombies—without consciousness, without combat ability.

They didn’t even deserve to be called Ravagers, because their weak bodies and lack of magic couldn’t support them to fight like Ravagers. They were even weaker than the lowest tier, the Egg-tier.

The creatures on the ceiling were just a pathetic bunch of "monsters" now.

"But they’re Ravagers now."

The voice behind her said, "If you don’t kill them, they’ll eventually step into their predatory first step. As they begin devouring living things, they’ll gain more magic, become stronger, and turn into real threats."

"But they’re human," Veronica murmured, "Innocent humans."

"They’re monsters, and they must be eradicated," the voice behind her stated firmly. "We have no way to turn them back. Their humanity has been completely fused with the Ravager. Those human parts will now be nourishment for the Ravager, making them real Ravagers."

"I know."

Veronica’s voice was calm, but her hands tightened slowly: "I... know."

"You promised me. ‘No matter what kind of Ravager, you can eliminate them.’"

The voice continued as it got closer to Veronica: "Now, it’s time to fulfill that promise. These things are no longer human. They’re just monsters."

—"Senior."