Oh no, oh no!
I’ve made a complete fool of myself!
Feizuan and the angel lady talked for quite a while before she finally realized…
So, I’m not dead?
Geez, why didn’t you say so earlier!
“Thank you, Miss Angel.”
Feizuan’s little face was as red as a ripe apple.
“You’re welcome.”
Miss Angel’s voice was cold, but it was sweet and soft.
I like it.
“And… my name is Hui Jin.”
“Huh?” Feizuan tilted her head.
Her name gives off a really different first impression, doesn’t it?
But now that you mention it…
The girl sized up the little loli in front of her.
This “Iraq war-damage” style outfit is indeed quite “ash-like.”
From her voice, she should be a very pretty girl, right?
Why dress like this?
Feizuan’s curiosity was immediately piqued.
She was just about to speak when Hui Jin spoke first:
“Don’t ask anything. Focus on the fight.”
With that, she tapped her toes and charged towards the monster.
“Huh? Oh! Okay! Coming!”
Feizuan stumbled after her.
Clang!
The monster threw a heavy punch at Hui Jin, colliding with the broken sword.
Sparks flew everywhere.
Although she blocked it, the terrifying force actually made Hui Jin stagger, taking two steps back before barely stopping.
What incredible strength!
Before Hui Jin could fully steady herself, the second punch was already on its way.
She immediately dodged to the side, hearing a tremendous boom!
The spot where she had been standing was now a smoking crater.
“Th-th-that, Senior Hui Jin! What should I do?!”
Feizuan held her trembling wand with both hands.
Even though she wasn’t doing anything, just watching from the side made her feel flustered and panicked.
Really now…
Hui Jin assessed Feizuan from the corner of her eye, rolling again to dodge another attack.
So, her daughter has finally become a magical girl after all?
Becoming a magical girl is one thing…
But to be this useless!
Hui Jin recalled the embarrassing scene Feizuan had just made.
After seeing Ye Xiao Chi transform into a magical girl, Hui Jin was shocked, but she still wanted to see what she was capable of.
She never expected this silly girl to just freeze up the first moment she faced the monster.
If she hadn’t intervened in time, Ye Xiao Chi would probably be in the afterlife by now.
Sigh, she’s my and her daughter after all…
For a moment, Hui Jin felt a surge of frustration.
Forget it.
Improving her strength can come later.
Let’s deal with the trouble at hand first.
—Just like always.
Hui Jin had been living her double life for almost three years now.
But to avoid having her identity discovered, she hadn’t registered with the Special Dispatch Bureau and never appeared in any public setting.
Even in battle, she always wore a cloak and a mask.
Her battles with monsters were few and far between.
She only acted when absolutely necessary.
Thanks to this caution, her existence as the magical girl Hui Jin had remained very low-profile to this day, and she hadn’t earned a single penny.
Logically, being a hero is a lucrative job, but that’s predicated on being a registered hero.
The completely unlicensed magical girl Hui Jin was more like an unpaid, violent vigilante.
Normally, she would never participate in a battle being live-streamed like this.
But the one fighting the monster happened to be her daughter.
Still, it shouldn’t be a problem.
As a newly-minted magical girl, almost no one knows Feizuan.
The authorities wouldn’t push traffic to a stream like this.
And this D-class monster isn’t much of a threat.
The bounty is low, so it’s unlikely to attract the attention of other heroes.
Therefore, at most, only a few hundred people would see this fight.
If she finishes it quickly, she can still continue to hide her identity.
After the battle ends, she’ll leave Feizuan immediately, then try to pull some strings with the Special Dispatch Bureau to have the veteran heroes look after her a bit…
Hui Jin quickly formulated a plan, even considering her daughter’s future.
“I’ll draw its attention. You attack it with magic.”
She said to Feizuan, nimbly leaping backward.
Boom!
The purple-skinned monster stomped the air, letting out an angry roar:
“You want me to work overtime too?!”
“O-okay!”
Feizuan inappropriately shouted back, even standing at attention and saluting.
“Sigh…” Hui Jin felt utterly exhausted.
“I’m going to kill you!!!”
The monster’s hysterical roar echoed through the city and across the live streams on various platforms.
Outside the cordoned-off area, Xia Che was sitting in a convenience store, sipping milk tea, holding his phone to watch the stream, occasionally glancing up at the distant flashes of crimson magical light.
Just as Hui Jin predicted, for the first five minutes of the stream, the concurrent viewership hovered around fifty people.
Not a single comment appeared.
It was extremely quiet.
But after five minutes, the viewer count suddenly jumped:
50 → 75
“Huh?”
Xia Che slowly stopped chewing his tapioca pearls as he noticed the viewer count was increasing at a terrifying, exponential rate!
200!
500!
800!
Soon, the stream’s viewer count broke one thousand!
After hitting one thousand, although the growth rate slowed, the number kept climbing, eventually stabilizing around two thousand!
“What’s going on?!”
Xia Che had never seen a stream suddenly blow up like this without buying promotion.
Before he could even process what was happening, the previously empty chat section was already piling up with messages:
Did you guys also come from the homepage?」
Yeah, yeah!」
Let me see what’s going on here [Tangyuan][Tangyuan][Tangyuan].」
…
Colorful comments scrolled across the stream.
Soon, a little animation appeared on the screen: “Commentator rushing to the scene.”
This meant the stream’s basic popularity had already exceeded two hundred thousand!
Xia Che gripped his phone tightly, his brow furrowed.
He knew Ye Xiao Chi loved being the center of attention.
Logically, he should be happy the stream was blowing up.
So why did he feel this strange sense of unease?
“Hello, hello, good afternoon, everyone. Have you eaten?”
Amidst a screen full of gifts, the commentator appeared.
He greeted the audience warmly, marveling that a stream for a new magical girl had reached five thousand… no, ten thousand concurrent viewers!
“Haa…” Xia Che took a deep breath.
It might just be overthinking, but it’s better to be cautious.
This sudden popularity is just too bizarre.
What if someone is deliberately causing trouble, trying to hurt Ye Xiao Chi?
If Ye Xiao Chi got hurt, he wouldn’t be able to face Uncle Ye, nor could he face himself.
—He absolutely had to protect Ye Xiao Chi.
While watching the stream, Xia Che pulled out his vocabulary notebook, intending to jot down all the suspicious points for later investigation.
“Okay, first suspicious point…”
He wrote a line on a blank page.
“Who is this white-clad, war-damage loli in the cloak?”
As Xia Che was writing, the stream showed the battle had entered a white-hot phase.
Commentator Colonel Guan had gotten into the groove and began analyzing both sides:
“This monster clearly carries the aura of a [Demon]”.
Let’s call it the [Overtime Demon].
“Although its danger rating is D-class, the heroes facing it are somewhat unfamiliar faces. What do you think, Xiao Mi?”
Xiao Mi took over:
“According to the Special Dispatch Bureau’s official data, the one currently hammering the Overtime Demon’s kidneys with her wand is the magical girl Feizuan, who became a hero not long ago.
“The official rating given is E-class.”
“A complete newcomer, haha!”
Then, both of them turned their gaze to the monitor screen, focusing on Hui Jin, who was nimbly dodging and finding openings to attack the Overtime Demon.
“Oh? This petite girl looks very mysterious! Dressed both conservatively and… revealingly. It’s impossible to guess her identity!”
Colonel Guan commented while exchanging a look with his partner Xiao Mi:
[Is there any info on her in the official database?]
Xiao Mi shook her head but said:
“It seems she’s not a registered hero! However, AI helped us find a few recordings of her battles and provided an analysis”.
“So? Are you curious, friends in the stream? Do you want to see it?”
「Want to see!」
「GKDGKD」
「￥10,000: kkkkkkkk」
“Thank you, Turkey-Flavored Wafer, for the red SC! Then let’s not waste any time—
[According to AI analysis, this mysterious girl’s fighting style is very simple and unadorned, mostly involving close-quarters combat with monsters…]
At the battle site, the Overtime Demon swung its thick arm, smashing down viciously at Hui Jin.
“I want my social security and housing fund!”
The arm, thick as a tree trunk, cracked the air as it moved, as if it wasn’t an arm but a steamroller.
“Senior Hui Jin, watch out!” Feizuan screamed a warning.
But Hui Jin didn’t dodge or evade.
Instead, she planted her feet apart, stood firm, and raised the broken sword in front of her.
In her crimson eyes, the boulder-like massive fist rapidly enlarged, approaching with overwhelming force!
“Haa…”
She exhaled deeply, her wrist moving fluidly as the blade rose to meet the oncoming fist-wind.
But at the moment just before contact, deep red magic power suddenly converged!
A sharp sound was heard in the air:
—Ding!
The next second, the Overtime Demon’s hand seemed to gain a will of its own, flying backward!
Its forward momentum was brutally halted by the immense force.
The two opposing forces collided inside its body, making it stagger.
It swayed unsteadily, looking like it was about to fall.
Hui Jin shouted:
“It’s off-balance, now!”
[…During battle, she precisely parries to throw enemies off balance and seizes the opportunity to counterattack.]
“Got it!”
Feizuan gathered almost all her magic power at the tip of her wand.
The gem instantly erupted with dazzling crimson light.
Such dense magic power!
Feizuan was secretly shocked.
I have a feeling this shot is going to be incredibly powerful!
Huh? Could this be my ultimate move?!
It’s my first time using an ultimate move on stream.
I have to give it a cool, memorable name!
What should I call it? How about… how about… Eek!
I-I can’t control it anymore!
It’s going to fire!
“A-anyway… Red Cool Beam!”
Boom!
A surge of vibrant crimson magic power shot forth, instantly engulfing the monster.
“Di-did we succeed?”
Having expelled almost all the magic power in her body at once, Feizuan nearly lost her balance, asking anxiously and weakly.
Hui Jin didn’t answer.
She simply let go.
The broken sword fell to the ground, but instead of a metallic clang, it turned into a pile of dust.
She pulled down her hood and, taking advantage of the lingering smoke and dust, slipped into an alleyway, quickly leaving.
On the live stream, the commentator and viewers, with their aerial view, saw the massive figure topple over first.
“…I want to clock out at five sharp every day…”
The Overtime Demon uttered its final words, a lifelong wish it could never fulfill.
“Success! The Overtime Demon has been defeated!” Colonel Guan announced excitedly.
Xiao Mi also nodded in affirmation.
“Magical Girl Feizuan’s final performance was excellent. Although ‘Red Cool Beam’ is a bit of a corny name, its power is strong. She has great potential!”
“Truly, the younger generation is formidable!”
Feizuan looked at the fallen monster and slapped her own cheeks in disbelief.
Slap! Slap!
Two crisp slapping sounds rang out.
“Ow, that hurts! So I’m not dreaming? I really defeated a monster?”
“I… I succeeded? Wow! I succeeded, everyone!”
The girl waved cheerfully at the camera, then looked around, trying to find that petite yet reliable figure:
“I succeeded—Senior Hui Jin! Senior Hui Jin…?”
“…Huh? Where’d she go?”
Watching the screen showing the girl’s delighted face, Xia Che couldn’t help but smile.
He subconsciously glanced at the chat:
「Feizuan! Cool! Feizuan!」
「Wuwuwu Lady Feizuan, from now on I’m a Feizuan fan!」
「Isn’t the ultimate move name a bit too slapdash…」
Almost all the comments were discussing Feizuan.
Feizuan’s ultimate move just now was truly spectacular, like setting off a massive firework in a quiet night sky.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to her.
Thus, few noticed Hui Jin, who had vanished without a trace at some point, her presence extremely low.
But Xia Che noticed.
While watching the stream, he had focused nearly half his attention on this mysterious girl named Hui Jin.
So he noticed the moment she disappeared.
It was about two seconds… no, three seconds after Feizuan fired her ultimate move?
Calculating the time, Xia Che put away his notebook, rushed out of the convenience store, and ran along the sidewalk.
The area near the cordon was very open.
If you wanted to slip away quietly, there was practically only one best route.
—He was going to meet Hui Jin, confirm her identity and stance.
Only then would he feel at ease.
If possible, it would be best to ask if she knew anything about this sudden stream popularity.
Xia Che quickly glanced at his phone.
On it was the screenshot he’d saved of the AI analysis summary of Hui Jin’s battle footage:
[Although the girl hardly uses magic power in combat, based on the concentration and nature of the magic power released during her movements and parries, the following conclusions can be drawn:]
[1. The probability that this girl is a magical girl is 70%.]
[2. If conclusion 1 is correct, then she is very likely… among the magical girls registered with the Special Dispatch Bureau…]
[—the magical girl with the weakest stat panel.]