Apocalypse, then transforming into a magical girl

The voice coming from the walkie-talkie was slightly panicked, belonging to Lao Qian.

Xiao Lü frowned slightly, brought the walkie-talkie closer to her ear, her voice remained calm, but her speaking speed increased:

"Don't panic, be specific. What kind of monster is it? How many are there? Do you need me to go back immediately?"

Bai Shuyuan had already tied a knot in the woven bag containing the "deformed fetus" and casually tossed it into the corner. Then, she listened with great interest to the contents coming from Xiao Lü's walkie-talkie.

A few minutes earlier, in a VIP reception room on the second floor of the Xinmao Bank headquarters building.

The five survivors were now sitting on the expensive leather sofa, their tense nerves not yet fully relaxed.

Xia Zhaozhao, on the other hand, seemed quite relaxed and at ease. She pulled out a bag of cookies from some corner of the VIP room. The packaging looked quite exquisite, but the brand logo was in a foreign language that she didn't recognize at all.

She tore it open, broke off a small piece, and put it in her mouth. It tasted unexpectedly delicious, with a crispy texture and a rich milky flavor.

"It's so nice to be rich. Even the cookies are better than what ordinary people eat," Xia Zhaozhao thought.

She crunched on a biscuit, mumbling praises of the bank's hospitality as she strolled around the spacious second floor as if surveying her territory.

Occasionally, she would spot a few baby monsters in a corner that looked similar to the ones she had encountered before. Without hesitation, she would stab them straight with her greatsword, turning them into a puddle of harmless black slime.

It's unclear when she developed this level of tolerance; the monster's repulsive appearance didn't affect her voracious appetite.

It seems to be similar to what that uncle with the broken arm said; this entire floor is designed for so-called "high-net-worth clients," she thought.

The areas she walked through, whether corridors, meeting rooms, or offices, all exuded an understated luxury.

"It's so good to be rich." She mumbled, half a cookie in her mouth, and considered whether she should just steal a sofa when Xiao Lü came back—although Xiao Lü's sofa was actually quite comfortable.

After looking around and touching things, and clearing out a few weaklings that posed no threat, she finally wandered to the stairwell leading to the third floor. Remembering Little Green's earlier instructions, she didn't intend to go up, but merely peeked out from the stairwell.

However, just as she was about to turn around and leave to find a new toy elsewhere, a strange sound faintly came from above the stairs.

Upon hearing the sound, she immediately took a step back warily, retreating from the stairwell entrance and pressing her body tightly against the outer wall of the stairwell, gripping the wood-chopping knife tightly.

After all, in this relatively confined space, the machete was more useful than her own greatsword, which required a wide open space to wield.

She held her breath and focused on listening to the sounds coming from above.

Just a few seconds later, a strange figure, still retaining a roughly human shape, slowly appeared from the corner of the stairs.

Although the figure was roughly human-shaped in appearance, its details were nauseating.

Its body is covered with a thin shell, the luster of which is similar to the chitinous skeleton of an insect; its head is a complete haphazard combination of human and bee heads, with compound eyes occupying most of its face, but the mouthparts retain structures similar to human teeth.

Even more disturbing was its back, on which two pairs of underdeveloped wings were stuck. These wings vibrated in vain, making a "buzzing" sound, but clearly unable to make its bloated body fly.

It could only rely on its six twisted and deformed limbs with sharp claws at the ends to crawl clumsily on the marble floor.

On one of the monster's forelimbs was something familiar—the same kind of small, useless monster baby that Xia Zhaozhao had cleaned up before.

This monster seems to want to throw the baby monster to the second floor.

"Ugh." The moment Xia Zhaozhao saw the monster, her appetite vanished completely, and she spat out the cookie she hadn't finished chewing.

Although she was startled by the sudden appearance, her magical girl instincts made her act without hesitation. She let out a low shout, pushed off with her feet, and shot forward like an arrow!

The monster seemed to finally notice her presence the instant Xia Zhaozhao swung her wood-chopping knife at it. Its head, mostly occupied by compound eyes, turned sluggishly, and it seemed to pause for a moment before focusing its gaze on Xia Zhaozhao.

The woodcutter's knife in Xia Zhaozhao's hand flashed through the air with a sharp, cold light, accompanied by the sound of wind being cut, and slashed down at a tricky angle!

"Pfft—!"

A series of powerful cutting sounds rang out.

The monster, which resembled a hybrid of a human and a bee, didn't even have a chance to retaliate before Xia Zhaozhao cleanly and neatly sliced ​​it in two along with the baby monster hanging from its forelimb!

After delivering the slash, Xia Zhaozhao gracefully used the force of the strike to dodge, and the liquid splattered from the monster's body did not touch her at all.

The monster's severed body twitched a few times on the ground before falling still. Like all other monsters, it lost its vitality and form, turning into a puddle of mud.

"Monster! Close the door!" Xia Zhaozhao shouted towards the VIP room immediately after her successful attack.

Inside the VIP room, the group was startled when they heard Xia Zhaozhao's shout. Old Qian reacted the fastest, scrambling to the door and slamming it shut.

He nervously watched Xia Zhaozhao's location through the one-way transparent bulletproof glass on the door.

Xia Zhaozhao took a few steps back and walked to the center of the only narrow passageway connecting the VIP room and the stairwell.

This is a great spot. Any monster coming down the stairs that wants to attack the person behind her will have to pass through her.

In addition, she doesn't need to worry about monsters attacking from other places; she only needs to defend the direction in front of her.

She gripped the machete tightly with both hands, assuming a posture conducive to chopping and parrying.

Everything she had seen earlier flashed through her mind—judging from the feel of the slashing, the insect-like exoskeleton armor on the monster's body made it even more resistant to being slashed.

While it's far from being considered hard, it's much tougher than the monsters made of pure thread that we've seen before.

There was something else that puzzled her—why would this monster use a trash-throwing gesture to bring that monster baby to the second floor?

Before Xia Zhaozhao could finish her thought, the death of this human-bee hybrid monster seemed to have triggered a chain reaction.

A short while after it had completely lost its vitality, a dense buzzing sound suddenly came from above the stairs.

The sound grew clearer and louder as it approached from afar.