Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

After being rejected by Jiang Ran twice, the other shore flower seemed to lose heart.

The two sat back down on the sofa. The hot tea had gone cold. Moonlight came in from outside and refilled the pot before discreetly leaving.

The rest of the conversation was mostly casual chatter.

However, the conversation was mostly one-sided, with Bi'anhua talking about historical events from the time of the Demon Alliance. Jiang Ran would occasionally hum in agreement or take a sip of tea.

Looking at the expression of longing and yearning on the red spider lily, Jiang Ran sometimes didn't know how to respond.

Having experienced such a childhood, the memories and perspectives of the other shore flower regarding those people and events may have been distorted.

After a while, the red spider lily finally realized that she had gotten so engrossed in her speech that she had forgotten to drink her tea, and she smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, I just couldn't stop talking about these things."

"It's alright." Jiang Ran finally spoke, smoothly steer the conversation in the direction she really wanted to talk about, "Speaking of which, you seem to have a pretty big demand for high-purity magic essence, buying tens of millions worth of goods without hesitation."

The conversation turned out very naturally.

The other shore flower also followed along, her tone tinged with self-deprecation: "That's because the goods you make are just too pure, senior. The goods we get from official factories through certain channels are at most 96%, and anything above that is the real national strategic reserve, which we shady characters can't even touch."

Jiang Ran cut straight to the point, "I can continue to supply you, but I need your cooperation on a few things."

"Please speak, senior."

Jiang Ran didn't directly mention Leng Qiaoqiao's name, but instead packaged her needs: "First thing. I want to use some of the money I've saved up over the years to expand through the industries your Demonic Cultivation Association is about to expand into."

"Consider it my support for the Demonic Cult's two-step strategy. After all, it was my idea, so I should do my part."

The red spider lily was slightly taken aback, then realized what was happening.

Although Jiang Ran's words were eloquent, he essentially wanted to use the Demon Cult's businesses to launder his money.

After hearing this, the corners of the other shore flower's mouth slowly curled up.

For her, this request was a double blessing.

This not only means that Jiang Ran is willing to provide a stable supply, but also that Jiang Ran has taken the initiative to tie his own funds to the Demon Cultivation Association's industries.

Once this connection is established, even if Jiang Ran says she won't join the Demon Cultivation Society, she is essentially already on the same boat as them.

The other shore flower was secretly delighted, but she still maintained a polite smile on her face: "It's nothing, senior. Don't worry, I will open a special green channel to ensure that your investment will definitely make a profit."

"Thanks then." Jiang Ran nodded, then held up a second finger. "The second thing is access to the magic network..."

Even if the Demonic Cultivation Society is unwilling to directly grant her the authority, in this kind of mutually beneficial cooperation, the other party should at least show some sincerity.

The Red Spider Lily was also somewhat conflicted, but in order to win over Jiang Ran, she ultimately decided to make a small exception.

"While I can't directly grant you access to the magic network, however..."

"I can tell you another way to gain access; it shouldn't be difficult for you, senior."

Jiang Ran looked at her quietly without interrupting.

The other shore flower took a deep breath and lowered her voice: "The ten councils have been upgrading the magic network over the years. It is now running the latest generation of distributed architecture, which is composed of key nodes scattered in every corner of Tianhai City."

"The location and operational status of these nodes are top-secret information, completely confidential to the outside world. The only information that can be seen by the outside world is the coverage area officially announced. Nobody knows where the specific nodes are."

Jiang Ran raised an eyebrow. Twenty years ago, before she retired, the Magic Network used the first-generation centralized architecture. There were only a few core central towers, built as conspicuous as radio towers, and they even became landmark buildings in many cities.

Therefore, the first-generation Magic Network also had many shortcomings, such as insufficient coverage, inaccurate positioning, and untimely alarms.

Moreover, due to its large size, it is often destroyed during monster invasions, and the cost of reconstruction and maintenance is very high.

"but."

The other shore flower continued, "The daily operation and maintenance of the magic network requires a large amount of magic essence. These nodes don't just start operating on their own after being installed; every now and then, a specialist needs to come and replenish the magic essence and perform equipment maintenance."

"And the team in charge of this work... is the Watchmen squad of the Sheriff's Department."

Watchers are official superhumans who have undergone human augmentation using magic energy.

While their strength is not comparable to that of regular magical girls, their main job is to assist magical girls in carrying out high-risk missions. However, most of their time is spent doing odd jobs, such as cleaning up after the battlefield, protecting and evacuating civilians during monster invasions, and performing tasks like node maintenance.

Moreover, the Watchers' identities are not as conspicuous as those of magical girls, and they are less likely to attract attention when they go out to maintain nodes.

"Senior, as long as you can track the movements of the Watchers," Higanbana stared into Jiang Ran's eyes, "you can follow the clues to find the key node of the Magic Network."

"The rest is simple."

It's extremely difficult to hack into a heavily guarded server over a network cable, but what if you could stand directly in front of the server rack...?

Even a janitor who knows absolutely nothing about computers could come up with at least nine ways to hack into it.

For hackers, the fastest way to infiltrate a computer is to simply plug in a USB drive; the same principle applies to hacking into MagicNet.

Jiang Ran's lips curled up slightly, almost imperceptibly. "Thanks for the reminder."

"Senior, please don't rush." ​​The tone of the other shore flower suddenly became serious. "Each node is guarded and patrolled by dedicated personnel, and the nodes themselves also have an automatic alarm mechanism. Once the alarm sounds, the entire node will immediately enter a state of lockdown, and all the guardians and rank-and-file magical girls in Tianhai City will rush to provide support as soon as possible."

"At that time, even gods won't be able to get access to the Demon Network."

"So you must do this quietly, without triggering even a single alarm."

Jiang Ran nodded, indicating that she understood.

As for why an underground organization like the Demonic Cult would know such confidential information, that's a question that can't be asked.

After the two finished speaking, the tea in their cups had cooled down, but Jiang Ran did not ask Bi'an Hua to serve more tea.

Today's conversation was somewhat successful in terms of both sides achieving their objectives. Overall, the talks were beneficial, and both sides gained a better understanding of each other.

Jiang Ran was also very curious about what the final result would be if he continued to secretly push the Demon Cultivation Association forward.