The villainous magical girl's daily mission is to find fault.

Chapter 572 Rabbit Hammer 40, Cat Hammer 80

Even Su Tianqing had to admit that there are always differences between people.

It's like yesterday you were reading a guide and working through the beginner's tutorial, or today you just opened the book to learn the next unit, only to turn around and see that your classmate has already done two sets of exercises from the whole book, or even started speedrunning on their third playthrough.

This inexplicable disparity can evoke very strange feelings.

"The headquarters? They've already found it?"

Bai Lili, who was driving, even pulled over to the side of the road and turned around in surprise to confirm.

The three of them gathered around the magical light screen of the divine stone, looking at the pink-haired bunny girl's big-faced selfie and Akayuki's back, as well as the dilapidated building in front of them that was completely out of place with the near-future city. Huge question marks appeared on each of their heads.

In this mental world themed around playing cards and racing, the dilapidated building in front of them was so conspicuous that it reminded people of the towering black spire in Foxy.

But the building in front of me was much gentler than the spire. It looked like a long-abandoned factory: the damaged holographic screen and dilapidated exterior walls gave it a run-down appearance. You could even see the exposed pipes. The rusty beams and tin louvers made it look particularly suspicious.

"They actually found it. Are these two some kind of famous detectives?"

Bai Lili was quite surprised by this, but fortunately she accepted the situation in time.

After all, nothing is surprising in this chaotic world of mental images. Akayuki's combat prowess is not to be underestimated, and with Cheshire Rabbit's excellent intelligence and a bit of luck, finding the headquarters in a short time is not an extraordinary feat.

Cat and Fox quickly drove to the location sent by Cheshire Rabbit from the Divine Stone.

Along the way, the Divine Stone screen continuously displayed Cheshire Rabbit and Red Snow's peripheral investigation, taking detailed photos and videos from various angles. Su Tianqing carefully analyzed and summarized them one by one, but her brows were furrowed.

Contrary to its appearance, the factory clearly had some kind of "method" to prevent outside observation. Even though Akagi and her companion had gotten close to the edge of the broken blinds, they could not see anything inside. The camera lens could only capture a thick, curtain-like darkness.

After hearing the fox spirit recount this matter, Bai Lili offered her response and explanation:

"It's simple. You can do it by using astral magic, which has a similar effect to cognitive masking. People used to do this when they didn't have any masking magic available. But releasing magic like that continuously would put a lot of strain on you, so it was replaced by more advanced magic."

"Does this mean that the factory is filled with a large amount of invisible magic, enough to create a cognitive obscuring effect?" Su Tianqing immediately asked.

Bai Lili nodded gently.

"Theoretically, that's true, but that factory in the photo... how should I put it, it covers such a large area. To 'fill' such a large area with enough magic to create cognitive obscuration, the strength of this magic source would be roughly equivalent to..."

At this point, Bai Lili kept muttering "Hmm... let me think..." for over a minute before finally offering a similar analogy:

"Miss Heart Moon Fox, if you release and maintain your magic power to the fullest extent in the center of that factory, you can probably achieve this effect."

"That would indeed require a lot of magic." Su Tianqing imagined it for a moment, her tail trembling slightly.

Unleashing all your magic and maintaining it? This is practically trying to squeeze this fox into fox jerky.

Chi Xue also realized this and proposed the idea that "there may be a huge source of magic inside the factory" in the communication. She wanted to rush into the factory to investigate in advance, but was held back by the cautious Rabbit and did not dare to let this senior rush to the front alone.

The car continued along the road.

After turning a few corners and driving from the city center to a slightly more remote area, the dilapidated factory suddenly came into view.

The actual object looked even more dilapidated than in the photos, with miscellaneous parts and fragments scattered all over the ground, and even the wreckage of two black race cars could be seen.

The car was parked on the side of the street, and next to the bright red motorcycle in front of it, a magical light screen was unfolded. Chi Xue and Cheshire Rabbit were staring at the Divine Stone light screen and talking about something.

Seeing Xin Yuehu and her two companions approaching, Chi Xue put away the Divine Scripture Stone in her hand and gave a simple greeting to the golden-haired fox girl who was leading them.

"How's the situation on your end?"

"We encountered a shadowy figure on the road, and the cat easily took it down, but we didn't find any clues."

Su Tianqing shrugged and spread her hands, answering honestly. Her gaze slowly shifted to the dilapidated factory, carefully observing the tall, tightly closed double doors.

"...I just looked at the photos you guys sent me, Rabbit. You can't see anything inside from the outside." The fox girl said as she walked to the front door, trying to peek through the crack in the door to see what was inside, but she could only see pitch black.

However, judging from the magical perception, such darkness in broad daylight is clearly abnormal.

"Yes, I can feel that it is filled with a lot of magic, but I don't know what exactly is providing it with magic."

Chi Xue stepped forward, knocked on a sturdy metal door, and spoke to the fox girl beside her.

Su Tianqing glanced at her, then looked up to observe the area around the door—besides the door itself, there were some rusty ventilation windows, with faint traces of paint still visible, but they had long since peeled off and become so dilapidated that their original appearance was no longer discernible.

"It reminds me of that spire I saw at noon," Akashi said in a low voice, her tone not very pleasant.

She probably remembered the dark corridor at the bottom of the spire, filled with photos. Even Su Tianqing herself was reluctant to recall that scene.

What if this factory is also filled with all sorts of bizarre scenes like it was back then? Wouldn't that be...?

"Now that we're here, we need to figure out a way to get in and take a look," Cheshire Rabbit said, eager to try.

"But this door looks pretty sturdy. Shall we look for other entrances? Like broken windows or vents?" Bai Lili suggested, stepping back slightly to take in a closer look at the entire factory.

Before Bai Lili could finish speaking, the dark blue catgirl suddenly appeared in front of the door, clutching a pink bunny hammer high in her hands, and said to the people around her:

"I'll turn it on. You guys cover your ears, it might be a bit loud later."

"Oh! That's the one, right!"

Without any hesitation, the golden fox instantly darted behind the catgirl, its fox ears pressed tightly against its head.

Bai Lili shuddered and ran behind the car, cursing as she went, covering her ears as she ran.

Only Chi Xue didn't react, staring in confusion at the rabbit-shaped hammer in Hellcat's hand. By the time she came to her senses, the hammer had already swung down with all its might—

"Bang!!!"

"?!?!?!"

Chi Xue experienced severe tinnitus.

With one blow, the factory gate showed no sign of opening, remaining completely unmoved and as solid as a mountain, its hardness leaving even Hellcat speechless.

The next second, the second hammer blow came right away.

"Bang!!!"

"Clang! Clang! Clang!!!"

"Wait...wait a minute! Just wait a minute! Waaah!"

Chi Xue hurriedly shouted, covered her already ringing ears, and rushed to hide behind the car, where she met the gazes of Bai Lili and Cheshire Rabbit, who were already hiding behind the car with their heads tucked in.

"Oh, you've come too." Bai Lili said to Chi Xue with her hands covering her ears quite calmly.

"You should have come sooner," Cheshire Rabbit remarked calmly.

"How was I supposed to know the Hellcat would just start smashing things?! Shouldn't the logical thing to do is for us to look for the key or some other convenient entrance together?"

"Then you just don't understand her."

Bai Lili chuckled, a hint of schadenfreude in her expression.

"Oh, I remember you missed the time in Port City. Hellcat and Hyacinth were the stars of the show back then. She could even tear open Jormungandr's scales. This door is nothing to her."

A series of deafening crashes came from the other side of the gate. The three of them exchanged glances and silently peered out from behind the hood of the car.

The golden fox huddled behind the hellcat, wagging its tail vigorously. It pulled out a pair of earplugs from somewhere and put them on the catgirl, while tightly covering its own fox ears, looking extremely pleased.

One minute of continuous, intense hammering.

Finally, the door bearings could no longer withstand the pressure and shattered after the last hammer blow. The door lock and latch were also completely destroyed by the continuous violent breaching. When the door was kicked open, it was even dented inwards from the hammer blows, making it impossible to tell what it originally looked like.

"Done."

Hellcat kicked open the completely deformed factory door, chuckled, and looked at the three people in the car. She confidently gave them a thumbs up, while a golden fox girl beside her held a towel and wiped the sweat from her temples.

Chi Xue silently stared at the violently dented and deformed gate, then glanced at the Super Blue Cat who was receiving sweat-wiping service from Xin Yuehu, and quietly swallowed.

The last blue-haired gorilla to open a blast door with his bare hands was Hyacinth, and now there's a Hellcat carrying a sledgehammer that smashed the door to pieces. They're all getting heavier than the last.

"Couldn't you have given me a heads-up before doing this?" Akashi walked up to the completely deformed door, admiring the magnificent and wonderful吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or witty remarks) before her.

"Huh? Didn't we already say so in advance? A full ten seconds in advance."

Upon hearing Akayuki's voice, Hellcat blinked, its tail standing upright behind it, and said in confusion.

Chi Xue remained silent, only staring at Hellcat's heterochromatic cat eyes, her gaze seemingly saying, "Think about it again."

"...Then I'll tell you a minute earlier next time?"

"No, it's best if there's no next time."

Not having the energy to continue complaining, Chi Xue suppressed the subtle emotions in her heart and peered into the factory.

Once the gate was smashed open, the magic that filled the interior instantly dissipated completely, no longer strong enough to create a cognitive shield, thus fully revealing the factory's interior to the five-person group:

The enormous reactor, the sturdy feeding crane arm, the ceiling riddled with various pipes, and the damaged floor all resemble a chemical plant—but in this world dominated by card games and racing, the existence of a "chemical plant" is already quite absurd.

"...Let's go."

Chi Xue led from the front, without hesitation.

"Let's go in and see what's going on inside."