This was a chase, not a race to see who could reach the finish line first. The moment the silver-haired girl slipped out of Jiecheng Yuan’s sight, it would be as good as a defeat.

Jiecheng Yuan knew she was in the middle of a chase and couldn’t let embarrassment distract her from what mattered. But those little discomforts kept slowing her down, stopping her from turning all her stamina into speed.

No matter how strong someone was, they couldn’t keep going for long at their limits, with their stamina pouring away. And a poor conversion of stamina into speed made things even more lethal. Those tiny gaps would inevitably add up over time, until they made all the difference between victory and defeat.

To make matters even more desperate, a blue figure silently joined the chase. The situation had become even more unfavorable for Jiecheng Yuan—and that figure wasn’t running along the street or crawling over the walls. She was actually flying through the air.

A blue magical dress, blue hair, and blue eyes that seemed to shimmer like rippling water. Anyone who’d played the game would recognize her: one of its trio of main characters, a Magical Girl.

At this point, she didn’t know Jiecheng Yuan yet. But she’d definitely recognize the clearly unusual magic Jiecheng Yuan was giving off, along with the Black Magic Mark on her body.

As if trying to squeeze every last bit of strength from her body to run faster, Jiecheng Yuan let out a completely useless wail.

“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over! If she catches me, I’m definitely going to lose—aaah!”

The silver-haired girl heard Jiecheng Yuan’s cry. She reached the top of a traffic light at an intersection first, braced herself on one arm, and used her momentum to whip her body nearly halfway around. Her soles scraped against the metal casing with a shrill squeal.

During the brief opening as she turned, the silver-haired girl caught sight of Jiecheng Yuan chasing after her and the blue-haired Magical Girl right behind. She let out a wail of her own and took off running again.

“Why is there another one now—aaah!”

The two black-clad Magical Girls raced down the city streets one after the other, screaming themselves hoarse. Quite a few passersby stopped to stare at them in confusion.

Jiecheng Yuan felt as if every breath emptied all the air from her lungs. The dull ache in her chest was growing sharper, too. If this kept up, she’d be caught in the middle and run out of stamina first unless she came up with something.

She knew she had neither any obvious combat ability nor the knack for taking control of a situation. Catching the silver-haired girl of unknown identity was important, since it would let her confirm Li was safe. But Jiecheng Yuan couldn’t guarantee she’d be able to subdue the girl easily even if she caught up—and she didn’t even know whether she could catch up at all.

What’s more, the blue-haired girl was still hot on her heels. Like Xiwei Li, that girl would play a pivotal role as the story unfolded. If she saw through Jiecheng Yuan’s identity, following the planned route would become nothing but a pipe dream.

After all, the Jiecheng Yuan who’d crossed into this world wasn’t the girl from the original story who had feelings for Li. She had no bond with the game’s characters, either. Her own safety should come first. Forcing herself to catch the silver-haired girl while being chased—and risking a defeat CG—would be getting her priorities completely backward.

“Waaah! I don’t want to lose!” At the thought of defeat, Jiecheng Yuan panicked even more.

“Then stop screaming!” The silver-haired girl unexpectedly shot back, then suddenly sped up and widened the gap she’d worked so hard to close.

Fortunately, Jiecheng Yuan had one weapon no one else possessed: information.

For example, she knew the Magical Girl chasing her was named Shuiye You. She also knew Shuiye You’s magic was probably related to ice and water.

When people talked about Shuiye You, the first things every game player thought of were her icy, aloof exterior and her wildly contrasting defeat CGs.

Each Magical Girl’s transformation reflected the traits that suited her best. Shuiye You’s trait was a pathological love of pain. In fact, she’d become a Magical Girl because she wanted to experience pain—and even defeat.

So her cold, dignified exterior took the form of ice, while her inner longing melted that ice into water. It gave Shuiye You the power to freeze everything, along with an astonishing ability to recover.

Thanks to Shuiye You’s powerful recovery ability, she was more than happy to charge at the front and take hits for her companions. A few extra hits would be even better.

And that was exactly what Jiecheng Yuan, who knew the original story inside out, could take advantage of.

“Stop running!”

Jiecheng Yuan raised her voice as much as she could to make sure the silver-haired girl up ahead would hear. The wind rushed into her mouth as she shouted on the run, making her stomach churn.

The silver-haired girl’s shoulders trembled ever so slightly. She’d clearly heard Jiecheng Yuan, but she didn’t slow down at all.

“Stop running! If we keep this up, none of us will get away!”

Unwilling to give up, Jiecheng Yuan lowered her head to keep from swallowing another mouthful of wind and raised her voice another notch. Her hoarse shout left a faint, coppery taste in her mouth, like blood from a burst vessel in her throat.

“You’re the one who won’t get away!”

Still fleeing in a thoroughly undignified fashion, the silver-haired girl tossed back a threat without even turning around.

The silver-haired girl had answered Jiecheng Yuan’s call. That meant the first step of her plan had worked. If the girl had ignored her completely, Jiecheng Yuan really would’ve been out of options.

Jiecheng Yuan didn’t have time to slowly persuade her to listen. All she could do now was throw out what she knew and let the silver-haired girl decide for herself. “Haah, haah… You have two choices.”

“I’m not listening, I’m not listening, I’m not listening! Don’t tell me anything! You’re definitely going to team up and trick me! I won’t fall for it again!” The silver-haired girl clapped her hands over her ears, but had to let go at her next leap and grab the edge of a protruding balcony to keep moving.

“The first one is… haah… I keep chasing you, and when we’re both out of stamina, they catch us all in one go!” Jiecheng Yuan wasn’t about to give her what she wanted. She kept talking.

“Stop! I don’t want to hear that!” The silver-haired girl’s voice trembled. She could no longer hide how hard she was breathing; the chase had drained her stamina, too.

Noticing the telltale tremor in her voice, Jiecheng Yuan grew a little more confident that she could talk the girl around. “After they beat you, they’ll do all kinds of things to you!”

“D-do all kinds of things?!” The silver-haired girl shuddered, clearly imagining something awful.

“That’s right. Something that thick…” Jiecheng Yuan didn’t want to top anyone or get topped herself, but she was more than happy to run her mouth a little.

Still, saying something that suggestive made her cheeks grow a little warm.

Luckily, the silver-haired girl didn’t give her the chance to finish. At just the right moment, she cut in: “Enough, enough! I don’t want to hear it, and I definitely don’t want to hear the rest! Hurry up and tell me the second choice!”

There it is! Jiecheng Yuan was ecstatic.

“Second! We team up and do all kinds of things to the one chasing us!”