Su Xiaocheng was jolted awake by the alarm clock.
Still half-asleep, she pried the sleeping Xiaotuan off her chest, tossed the kitten aside, buttoned up the pajama top that Xiaotuan had pulled open in its sleep, and drew back the curtains to greet the bright morning sun of a brand-new day… except it was still raining.
“The weather forecast clearly said it would be cloudy today.”
Su Xiaocheng pouted in dissatisfaction.
It was only her second day as a beautiful girl, yet these little feminine gestures already came naturally to her.
There was no doubt about it—she was a talent-flow magical girl.
Since she had to go out today, Su Xiaocheng finished breakfast and once again stood in front of her younger sister Su Xiaowei’s closet.
She silently apologized to her sister in her heart, then opened the doors.
Because Su Xiaowei had already left for school, only a few old outfits remained.
A few minutes later, Su Xiaocheng had put together a workable look. She kicked Xiaotuan—who had somehow wandered back into the bedroom—out the door, slipped off her pajamas, and started changing.
Standing in front of the mirror, Su Xiaocheng looked at the pink-haired girl wearing a white puff-sleeve blouse and a blue-and-white striped short skirt.
She nodded in satisfaction. “This young master is so cute!”
After admiring herself for a while, Su Xiaocheng headed out to the Magical Girl Alliance.
“Magical Girl Alliance Anning City Branch—arrived.”
After riding the bus for over an hour, Su Xiaocheng finally stood at the entrance of the Anning City branch of the Magical Girl Alliance.
The Magical Girl Alliance was the official organization responsible for managing magical girls.
It handled unified oversight, responded to witch disasters, monitored witch appearances (not always successfully), dispatched suitable nearby magical girls (when any were actually available), issued timely warnings to evacuate civilians (signal not guaranteed inside a witch’s domain), and organized post-disaster reconstruction and condolences for victims’ families (budget not guaranteed).
It was full of flaws, yet it remained the only magical girl management institution in existence.
Su Xiaocheng walked into the branch office. Guided by staff, she completed registration in no time.
Because magical girls were so rare, every branch was severely understaffed.
As long as an applicant truly was a magical girl, the process was all green lights.
Su Xiaocheng was simply led to a small room, where she demonstrated her transformation form, confirmed her identity, filled out an extremely perfunctory registration form, and received her D-rank magical girl ID card along with a magical girl-exclusive action terminal.
There was no need to worry about impostors pretending to be magical girls.
Transforming was not something ordinary people could do, and anyone who could complete the contract and become a magical girl was universally recognized as a good child.
“Alright, I’ll head back now.”
Su Xiaocheng picked up Xiaotuan and left the Anning City branch.
The first month’s subsidy of three thousand yuan had already been deposited into her account.
The base subsidy for magical girls was quite low; the real income came from handling witch disasters and completing missions for bonuses.
After leaving the Magical Girl Alliance, Su Xiaocheng first transferred two thousand yuan to her still-studying sister Su Xiaowei as living expenses.
She also left a message telling her she had found a job, to take care of her health at school, and not to worry about her.
Having raised her sister for ten years and now sending her off to university far away, Su Xiaocheng couldn’t help but worry.
She ate lunch outside, bought some daily necessities, then returned home and began diligently browsing the magical girl forum.
She studied basic magic theory, standard ways to deal with witches, and other beginner courses for magical girls.
“So witches are born from people’s negative emotions? No wonder social welfare has improved a lot in recent years… though those evil capitalists still haven’t changed their ways at all… And fallen magical girls turn into witches? Magical girls really are a high-risk profession.”
“Xiaocheng, time to eat, meow.” Xiaotuan looked aggrieved.
Only then did Su Xiaocheng realize it was already seven in the evening.
She had been so focused on the forum that she hadn’t noticed.
While preparing dinner, she took out the spicy dried fish she had just bought and fed it to Xiaotuan.
Back at the supermarket, the moment Xiaotuan had spotted the spicy dried fish on the shelf, it had pounced on it—despite claiming yesterday that a contractor only needed a Witch’s Heart or magic power from its magical girl.
“It’s just being greedy, isn’t it?” Su Xiaocheng teased.
“The subsidy just came in and there’s barely any left already. We’re still so short on money.”
Su Xiaocheng sighed. The biggest expense was her new clothes.
She couldn’t keep raiding her sister’s closet forever, and the thought left her full of resentment.
“Why are girls’ clothes so expensive? They clearly use even less fabric.”
After dinner, Su Xiaocheng was worrying about how many packets of instant noodles the remaining balance would last her for the month… Wait, the dried fish she had bought today had already been half-finished by the little ball.
At this rate, by next week both she and the cat would be drinking the northwest wind.
Couldn’t her convenient magic make a little pocket money?
It should be possible, right? Would that count as counterfeiting?
Just as Su Xiaocheng was lost in wild thoughts, the terminal in her hand suddenly let out a series of beeps.
She looked at the alert: Detected C-rank witch disaster in Anning City’s East District.
Nearby magical girls, please handle it promptly. A detailed map with coordinates was attached.
“So coincidental? East District—that’s right nearby.”
Su Xiaocheng found it a little strange.
Normally, witch disasters didn’t occur frequently in the same area, since the negative emotions that birthed them were limited.
Since it had come up, Su Xiaocheng was definitely going to handle it.
A C-rank witch was about the same strength as the one she had encountered last night—basically newbie magical girl starter-pack material.
She could rush over, take it out with a single splat, pocket thirty thousand yuan, and even raise her rank.
Nice~
“Transform!” To save time, Su Xiaocheng flew straight out the window.
Two minutes later, Su Xiaocheng arrived at the marked location and turned on the terminal’s recording function.
After transforming, she could now sense the approximate position of a witch within a certain range. Right now, she clearly felt that the witch was inside the park below.
Ninghe Park—the largest park in Anning City’s East District—normally attracted all kinds of people in the evening.
But after the witch disaster warning had been issued, only a handful remained, and even those had retreated to the park’s edge.
Su Xiaocheng gripped her staff tightly and entered the witch’s domain with Xiaotuan.
The C-rank witch’s domain wasn’t large.
The moment she stepped inside, Su Xiaocheng pinpointed the witch’s exact location.
What felt strange, though, was that according to the forum, different witches had noticeably distinct auras—yet this one’s aura gave her a familiar feeling.
“An illusion?” Su Xiaocheng muttered.
“Xiaocheng, careful, meow!” Xiaotuan warned in time.
Su Xiaocheng snapped back to attention.
Several jet-black tentacles had already burst from the ground around her, trying to bind her.
“Why tentacles again?”
Unpleasant memories flooded Su Xiaocheng’s mind, but attacks of this level were completely useless against her now!
She tapped her staff on the ground.
A pink ring of magic power spread outward in all directions, and the black tentacles crumbled on contact.
After a full day of study, she still hadn’t figured out the most suitable way to use her magic power, but at least she wouldn’t waste it like yesterday by over-outputting.
When the first attack failed, the hidden witch realized she was outmatched.
She sent another wave of tentacles to stall for time while her main body tried to slip away.
“Want to run?”
Su Xiaocheng wasn’t about to let thirty thousand yuan escape.
If she didn’t seize the chance, her household would run out of food!
After smashing the incoming tentacles once more, Su Xiaocheng finally locked onto the witch’s position.
She converted her magic power into two pink ropes that directly bound the witch and hung her upside down from a streetlamp.
“I really am a little curious.”
Su Xiaocheng walked toward the witch.
The similar aura and attack style made it impossible not to care.
Even hanging upside down, the witch still struggled, trying to slice the ropes with her sharp nails.
Unfortunately for her, Su Xiaocheng had no intention of giving her the chance.
She swung her staff, sending two more ropes flying to bind the witch even more tightly.
“It really is identical to yesterday’s witch.”
Su Xiaocheng felt that things weren’t so simple.
People’s joys and sorrows weren’t shared.
Normally, witches born from negative emotions inherited the traits of those specific emotions, resulting in very different appearances and abilities.
The degree of similarity between this witch and yesterday’s was too great to be mere coincidence.
A beam of magic power shot from her staff, easily piercing the witch’s body.
In the end, it was only a C-rank witch.
There was no such thing as a magical girl getting overwhelmed by a newbie-village mob.
A defeat CG wasn’t something handed out so casually.
The witch died, and her domain vanished along with her.
Having resolved this witch disaster, Su Xiaocheng prepared to head home and lie down flat.
After pulling off this job, she could at least eat well for a whole year~