Discussion Threads and Protocols

The ED of the previous episodes was just like this. Some people guessed that there might be an important character on the swing, possibly a magical girl, or perhaps someone else.

And now, that guess had come true.

The silver-haired magical girl who appeared at the very end of this episode was sitting on the swing right now, drinking milk tea.

When Yu Muqiu's footsteps stopped and the ED music ended, she raised her head and locked eyes with Yu Muqiu.

Finally came a close-up of Yu Muqiu's smiling face.

The ED ended.

Wait... looking at this positioning, how did I somehow end up like someone in the main cast?

Looking at the ED close-up above, Fang Ming fell into deep contemplation.

He was in the OP, and he was in the ED too.

Based on Fang Ming's years of experience watching shows, his character positioning should be that of a supporting external-aid type who was hostile to the main cast in the early stages, but would become an important asset to the main cast in the mid-to-late stages?

Or could he be considered a member of the main cast?

Yet he clearly just wanted to make those kids go back to school obediently... Eliminating Demons was far too dangerous; it was better to leave that to an adult who could grow infinitely.

How on earth did he inexplicably end up in the main cast?

"All right, Mr. Fang, the video is finished. We can leave now, right?"

An officer nearby spoke to Fang Ming after the video ended.

Fang Ming nodded. "We can."

"All right, Team One and Team Two, pay attention to the surrounding situation. We are now escorting Mr. Fang downstairs."

"...?"

Hearing the officer's orders on the walkie-talkie, a whole bunch of question marks popped up over Fang Ming's head. "Officer, I... as an ordinary person, surely I shouldn't... need to be protected to this extent?"

Hearing this, the officer smiled helplessly and said:

"You don't know. After Magical Girls appeared, people and things related to Magical Girls all have to undergo screening and protection. Because in this world, not everyone wants Magical Girls to appear, and there are some people who—

"In short, for your own safety, these protective measures are necessary."

"I see..."

Fang Ming understood the officer's meaning.

Not everyone liked Magical Girls, nor did everyone cheer and leap for joy at the appearance of Magical Girls the way the bullet comments did, acting just like celebrity chasers.

Where there was light, there was darkness; for those who liked them, there were those who hated them.

The bullet comments in the sky were only filtered ones, and there were even more people who felt jealousy and disgust toward Magical Girls.

Some people would even try to harm Magical Girls and their families.

Before Fang Ming was exposed by the sky screen, law enforcement officers from the Federal Government were actually already secretly protecting his surroundings.

These people were not there to protect Fang Ming, but rather to protect Yu Muqiu, who was connected to Fang Ming.

After all, everyone knew by now that the reason Yu Muqiu became a Magical Girl was because her heart held 'hope' and 'love'.

Then if Yu Muqiu's family members and companions in her life were to face a crisis, would Yu Muqiu herself still have 'hope' and 'love'?

Demons could only be dealt with by Magical Girls. Even if the Federation lined up missiles and used nuclear bombs to blast them, they would have no way to strike Demons who hid inside Nightmare Barriers.

This was a conclusion the Federation had drawn from the descriptions given by the Magical Girls.

So in order to protect this world, they naturally had to protect the Magical Girls.

To protect the Magical Girls, they naturally also had to protect the families of the Magical Girls well.

Fang Ming was also taking advantage of his cousin's light here.

Because his identity as a Magical Girl was not exposed for now, the police were only implementing symbolic protection toward Fang Ming and were not subjecting Fang Ming to strict surveillance.

While in the car, Fang Ming had nothing to do out of boredom, so he opened the Magical Girl Website and looked at the information updated on it.

The Magical Girl Website was different from Duda Encyclopedia or Wikipedia, which gave detailed introductions to a person's life and resume.

This website was a product born due to the existence of the sky screen, and it only recorded the information broadcasted on the sky screen.

For instance, the homepage of the website featured a stunning CG close-up of Yu Muqiu, alongside a detailed introduction of her.

[Name: Yu Muqiu

Aliases: Muqiu, Xiao Qiu, Cute Qiu (Netizen nickname)

Representative Color: Pink

Magic Used: Light Magic

Character Introduction:

A appearing character from Magical Girl Xiao Qiu, a second-year student at Spring City No. 3 High School. She signed a contract with Nino, a visitor from another world, and became a Magical Girl.

When she first became a Magical Girl, she was quite raw and took a long time to entangle with and defeat even an ordinary Demon familiar.

However, after a period of tempering, she has grown into a mature Magical Girl.

In the 'Café Demon Incident', she defeated the 'Coffee Demon' together with Chen Xiaoxia.

In the 'Outing Incident', she rescued Murong Xiaochun, who had been swept into the barrier and was nearly killed by the 'Book Demon', subsequently gaining Murong Xiaochun as a new companion.

Because of investigating a Nightmare Seed during summer vacation, she set off with her companions to neighboring Rock City. During the investigation, she encountered the 'Wisdom Demon' and was once plunged into crisis.

At the critical moment, she was saved by the fourth Magical Girl who appeared...

(Subsequent information will be supplemented as the plot progresses)]

This was a website dedicated to introducing Magical Girls, and beneath each Magical Girl were their respective support threads.

Fang Ming first looked over the introductions of the preceding few Magical Girls out of routine.

Only lastly did he click on the link featuring the sky screen screenshot of his own Magical Girl Form, and looked at his own introduction.

[Name: Unknown

Aliases: Silver-haired Queen (Netizen nickname) (Tentative)

Representative Color: White, Black (?)

Magic Used: Scythe Magic (?), Unknown

Character Introduction:

A appearing character from Magical Girl Xiao Qiu, currently everything about her is unknown. Her identity is mysterious. She is the fourth Magical Girl, and is also suspected to be currently the only Magical Girl who does not need to sign a contract with Nino.

She first appeared at the end of episode four, showing up when Yu Muqiu and her party were attacked by the Wisdom Demon and seemed unable to match it. As soon as she appeared, she effortlessly slew the Demon that even Yu Muqiu and the other three found difficult to handle.

She is suspected to possess extremely powerful strength. According to netizens' speculations, she is very likely a Magical Girl from another world.]

Heh, a Magical Girl from another world at that. Netizens really had wild imaginations...

Looking at his own introduction, Fang Ming chuckled a few times in his heart.

Still, an introduction like this was fine. At least judging from the present, no one should suspect that this Magical Girl was transformed from a boy.

That made it even less likely for anyone to suspect him.

Thinking about these things, Fang Ming cast his gaze downward to his own support threads and discussion threads, wanting to see what kind of evaluations these netizens had for him.

Chapter 7 Discussion Threads and Protocols

The discussion thread was the first thing Fang Ming clicked on.

First to catch his eye was a prompt.

(This is the discussion thread for Magical Girl Scythe-chan. Please discuss rationally, do not instigate conflicts, do not hurl abuses at characters, and do not discuss topics unrelated to Scythe-chan!)

This was a pinned comment by the administrator, acting as an announcement and disclaimer.

Skipping the prompt at the front, the actual discussion content lay below.

(1L: First row, first row!)

(2L: Pfft... Scythe-chan?)

(6L: Because her name isn't known, and she's holding a scythe in her hand, they call her Scythe-chan? This is way too perfunctory...)

(7L: It's fine too. When Xiao Chun's name wasn't known, she was called 'Mama' back then...)

(8L: ...There are still way too many Wa schoolboys on the net.)

(15L: Anyway, we should know her name by the next episode. Let's talk about this new Magical Girl instead.)

(16L: Handsome! Powerful! Queen Majesty!! We love you, dammit!!)

(17L: Wake up upstairs, she's only appeared for less than a minute, and you're already calling her Queen? That's a bit unreasonable, right?)

(18L: Well, after all, this girl's aura seems really strong. Compared to other Magical Girls, she looks more like a battle-hardened warrior...?)

(19L: No, it's mainly because she instantly killed the Speed Demon that made Xiao Qiu and the others fall into a bitter fight, right?)

(20L: Eh? Wasn't it the 'Wisdom Demon'?)

(21L: The official just released an announcement, posted by Mama Xiaochun. It says that compared to the 'Wisdom Demon', the 'Speed Demon' is a more suitable fit for this newly appeared Demon, and that a new Wisdom Demon or something will appear later...)

(22L: So this Demon really isn't an isolated case...)

(23L: Wait, has the title 'Mama Xiaochun' been settled just like that?)

(24L: After all, Xiao Chun's maternal vibe usually overflows...)

(25L: Did you guys go off-topic?)

(39L: Looking at the positioning in the ED, Scythe-chan should be a member of the main cast? But looking at the positioning in the OP... I can't really say.)

(40L: What's hard to say? She's an enemy in the early stage and gets whitewashed into a companion in the later stage—that's a routine trope in Magical Girl shows!)

(41L: Exactly. Anyone who shows up right off the bat to save Xiao Qiu and the others can't possibly be a bad guy no matter how you look at it!)

(42L: ...Hard to say. She could also be a Demon in disguise.)

(43L: Upstairs, I'm gonna beat you to death!)

The discussion thread concerning the new Magical Girl quickly piled up over a hundred layers.

And this was with it having been established for less than an hour.

Still, this was normal. After all, the Magical Girls in the sky right now were 'world-class' idols. Local residents aside, even in other regions, there were corresponding support squads of their own.

Even though Fang Ming had only appeared for less than a minute, since he had appeared in both the OP and ED and was so powerful, it was very normal for the discussion heat to be this high.

He just didn't know what kind of expressions they would have when they found out that Fang Ming had only just become a Magical Girl at that time.

No, no, no... It was best for them to never know about this kind of thing for the rest of their lives!

Fang Ming quickly checked the thoughts in his head and looked at another support thread.

Compared to the discussion thread which required rational discussion, the contents inside the support thread were much simpler.

Most of them were various comments expressing affection for 'Scythe-chan', as well as various fan art drawn within a mere hour.

In this less than an hour, the entire support thread had piled up several hundred layers, and that was even with malicious spam and meaningless posts deleted.

Going to check out the support threads of the other few Magical Girls, every single thread had already piled up to tens of thousands of layers!

If not for the administrator rigorously filtering the content inside every week and periodically featuring highlights, these threads would probably have piled up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of layers!

From this, one could see everyone's affection for Magical Girls.

However, compared to these Magical Girls, the discussion degree for Fang Ming's actual self was much lesser.

Clicking on the link to his male photograph, Fang Ming looked at the compiled introduction written for him inside.

[Name: Fang Ming

Aliases: Brother Fang Ming, Brother Ming, Cousin

Representative Color: Black (because of black hair color)]