Chapter 45: Dare to frame me? Then the whole city will be put on trial!

At the Gan City Police Station, Wei Re and the other magical girls immediately pulled out their phones.
When the familiar black background and the white humanoid silhouette made of data noise filled the screen again, their hearts clenched instinctively.
Seeing the three scumbags slumped on the ground, even Ling Lan and Jin Ling, who had braced themselves, felt their pupils contract sharply.
Like the rest of the city’s viewers, they held their breath, eager to see how this mysterious “vigilante” would fulfill their promise.

Inside the police command center, chaos reigned.
“Trace it! Lock onto the signal source!”
“No good! There’s no signal source! It doesn’t follow any known network protocol—it’s like a ghost, imprinting data directly onto our screens!”
“What about background analysis? Can we determine their location from the background? Hurry and analyze it!”
“Report! The background is pure black, with no reference points for analysis! We can’t pinpoint anything!”
“It’s… it’s like they’re broadcasting from a space that doesn’t exist!”
Desperate reports filled the air, leaving every officer with a bone-deep sense of powerlessness.
Their vaunted technology, their impenetrable defenses, were as fragile as paper against this opponent.

Meanwhile, in a desolate outskirts of Gan City, Lin Qingya, in her Magical Girl Snow White form, calmly adjusted the phone stand for the livestream, ensuring the camera angle was perfect.
Her phone still glowed with that eerie, white void-like sheen.
She walked slowly toward the three scumbags.

Slap—!
Slap—!
Slap—!
She delivered a crisp, resounding slap to each, using the simplest, most brutal method to jolt them awake from their unconsciousness.

Zhang Biao’s left cheek swelled grotesquely, forming a bizarre symmetry with the right side already swollen from Jin Ling’s earlier strike, adding a touch of absurdity to his already vile face.
On the livestream, viewers saw only the white silhouette flicker slightly.
Then, the three unconscious boys behind her jolted upright, letting out piercing screams.

“Argh!!!”
Zhang Biao, dazed by the blow, saw stars, his head buzzing.
He stared blankly at the blurred white figure before him, its features indiscernible, fear strangling his throat.
He tried to speak, to curse, to demand who they were, but his mouth opened and closed, producing only incoherent stammers.

Lin Qingya gave him no time to react.
She raised her leg, slamming a knee into Zhang Biao’s abdomen with ruthless force.
“What’s that gibberish…” she snorted coldly.
The blow nearly rearranged his organs.
His eyes bulged, a spray of blood mixed with bile erupting from his mouth, unable to even scream, nearly passing out from the pain.

The other two, Li Qiang and Ma Hua, saw Zhang Biao’s plight and were scared witless, scrambling to flee.
But to their horror, they found their limbs numb, powerless, like jelly.
They could only writhe uselessly on the ground like maggots, watching Zhang Biao’s torment.
Despair engulfed them.

Lin Qingya stepped on Zhang Biao’s head, grinding his face into the rough concrete, her gaze shifting to the other two.
“Next, I ask, you answer.”
She locked eyes with Li Qiang and Ma Hua, her voice devoid of emotion.
“Got it?”

“Got it! Got it!”
The two nodded frantically like bobbleheads, tears and snot streaming down their faces, their earlier arrogance from the safe room nowhere to be found.

Lin Qingya asked her first question.
“Who killed Wang Guang?”

The two froze.
Li Qiang’s eyes darted, hesitating for a moment before deciding to take a gamble, trying to deflect blame.
“I-I guess… it was… those two figures caught on camera this afternoon…”
Before he could finish, Lin Qingya’s figure flashed like a phantom, appearing before him.
She grabbed his hair, slamming his head into the ground with a sickening thud.

Bang!
The dull impact made every livestream viewer’s heart skip a beat.
Lin Qingya didn’t stop. She raised her white-booted foot, stomping on Li Qiang’s face and grinding it into the ground, the faint sound of bones shifting echoing.
“Guess your ass…”
She didn’t glance at the whimpering Li Qiang under her foot, her eyes turning to the utterly broken Ma Hua.

“Same question.”
“Your turn.”

Ma Hua had completely collapsed, a foul stench spreading as he wet himself in terror.
He didn’t care, kowtowing desperately to Lin Qingya, his forehead slamming into the ground with loud thuds.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll tell you everything!”
“It… it was us who killed him!”

Zhang Biao, slumped on the ground, and Li Qiang, bloodied under her foot, glared at Ma Hua with venomous hatred.
But Ma Hua, desperate to save himself, ignored them, sobbing incoherently as he spilled everything.
“Sir! I was forced! I swear I was forced!”
“I only found out halfway that they planned to kill him! I didn’t directly participate! They threatened me!”

Lin Qingya eased her foot off the half-dead Li Qiang, stepping slowly toward Ma Hua, looking down at him.
“Second question.”
“What was the process of Wang Guang’s murder?”

Ma Hua didn’t dare hold back, sobbing as he laid bare that day’s atrocities for all to hear.
“It was Zhang Biao! Zhang Biao struck first! He took a shovel and hit Wang Guang over and over!”
“Li Qiang held Wang Guang down so he couldn’t escape!”
“I got scared and ran out of the greenhouse! What happened after… after…”
“They tortured him for a long time inside, and then… then they buried him alive!”
“Oh, and Zhang Biao transferred all the living expenses from Wang Guang’s phone to his own WeChat, then split it with Li Qiang!”

Hearing Ma Hua’s “detailed confession” to save himself, Zhang Biao and Li Qiang were livid, their lungs nearly exploding with rage.
Zhang Biao, clutching his stomach, his swollen face like a pig’s, roared sloppily.
“Ma Hua! You lying piece of shit! Acting all innocent, huh?”
“You didn’t help bury him? You didn’t smash his SIM card and throw it in the river?!”

In the livestream, hearing this horrific, inhumane account, the audience’s fury ignited.
The scrolling bullet comments exploded.

[Holy shit!!! These are teenagers? These are demons in human skin!!!]
[Beating… burying alive… I can’t imagine how desperate that boy was before he died!]
[I’m begging you, vigilante! Make these three die! Now! Immediately!]
[They must die! Bullies must die! Hero, if you kill them, you’ll be the god of all Gan City!]

Countless calls for justice flooded the screen in a sea of red.
In the livestream, the three boys continued tearing into each other, shirking responsibility, hurling blame, exposing the ugliest side of humanity to the entire city.

Just then, a few discordant bullet comments floated by.
[No matter what, they’re just kids! Isn’t death too harsh?]
[Vigilante justice is illegal! Even if they’re guilty, the law should judge them, not you!]

Soon, similar “neutral” comments began to spread, clashing fiercely with those supporting the vigilante’s justice.
Lin Qingya saw these comments, her expression unchanged, as if she’d anticipated them.
She spoke calmly, her voice carried by the synthesized tone, ringing clearly across the city.

“Who says this case has nothing to do with me?”

Her words silenced the crowd.
The white data silhouette slowly raised its head, as if gazing through the screen at every viewer watching the livestream.

“Didn’t the police say that this afternoon, near the crime scene at the abandoned greenhouse, they found two oddly dressed individuals?”
“That’s right.”
“That was me.”
“Since I’ve already been framed as a murder suspect, do you think this case has anything to do with me now?”

The statement sent shockwaves through the city!
At the police station’s entrance, Wei Re, watching the livestream on her phone, trembled, her tablet clattering to the ground.
Her eyes widened, pupils contracting sharply as she stared at the blurred white figure on the screen.
This afternoon… abandoned greenhouse… oddly dressed… two people…
The keywords linked together in her mind, forming a suffocating chain of clues.
No… it couldn’t be…
The white silhouette delivering this trial…
Could it be… Qingya?!