Forum

After eating and drinking his fill, the idle Ye Qing symbolically went on patrol and checked in on the Hypnosis Department staff.

He then returned to his office and began searching the Bailan City local news section for videos of Feiyan, Yuyan, and Yalin's battle.

Although he had watched the entire fight on-site, he now wanted to see it again from a different perspective.

Later, he would switch to the magical girl forum and see what everyone else thought.

Their battle video was the only news item in the most prominent top spot, so there was no need to search deliberately.

Ye Qing clicked into it, lowered the volume, and started the video.

"The enemy that attacked the city this time was the Giant Cockroach Evil Beast, a monster that had never been formally recorded. The ones protecting the city were three rising magical girl stars: Feiyan, Yuyan, and Yalin.

"Since a Crystal Spell had been set up in the park to prevent the Evil Beast from escaping, drones were unable to enter and record the battle. However, I'll provide commentary accordingly."

No audio had been recorded? That was unexpectedly pretty friendly to them. Ye Qing thought.

Though he had been floating high in the air at the time and could not hear their conversation either, when facing an Evil Beast like that, they might have cursed, forgotten to call out their skill names, or shown all kinds of less-than-perfect behavior.

He paid particular attention to their obvious mistakes, wondering how the video would portray them.

At the start: "Who would have thought such a novel Evil Beast could gnaw through barriers? To prevent it from escaping and harming residents, Yuyan was the first to rush into the barrier.

"Judging by her lips, she was probably introducing herself. Magical girls truly are dedicated professionals—she did not forget her duty even without an audience."

Midway through: "To protect everyone! Even when faced with such a disgusting Evil Beast, Yuyan was willing to strike it with her fists and keep the danger at bay! Such admirable courage and boldness. If it were me, I'd definitely run away because it was too gross."

At the end: "It seems the Cockroach Evil Beast possesses an astonishing reproductive power we had yet to discover. If even one Evil Beast remained, this swarm could return again. Feiyan noticed this and decisively engulfed the entire area in flames. What outstanding battle instincts!"

After watching the video, Ye Qing could not help admiring these people's scriptwriting.

Every mistake had a reasonable excuse, while each magical girl's shining points were emphasized.

Feiyan, Yuyan, and Yalin each received their own highlight moment. The commentator only chimed in when information was missing, making it easier for viewers to understand what the magical girls' actions meant.

Half the video consisted of commentary, while the other half was clean combat footage paired with an intense BGM.

The task of commentating on magical girl battles was generally outsourced by the companies recording the live footage to various content creators.

Since each creator had a different style, their scripts naturally varied as well.

Collaborating with the Magical Girl Association and publishing under the Association's official name would be too serious. Doing too good a job would not work, and doing too poor a job would not work either.

If magical girls felt the Association was playing favorites by promoting one magical girl over another, unnecessary conflicts could easily arise.

Since the Association officials did not agree to make the videos, the recording companies were happy to be left alone.

After all, every published video would include their profile picture as a joint submission. It increased their own visibility while letting them ride the popularity of video creators.

Therefore, each magical girl's battle would be explained by a different creator. Whether they could get paired with a capable video producer depended on the magical girl's own luck.

The original footage creators would definitely gain plenty of traffic as well. If they put even a little care into production, they could gain quite a few followers.

If viewers were dissatisfied with a certain person's commentary, they could wait for the recording company to release the battle footage, then look for creators they liked to explain it instead.

From Ye Qing's perspective, the video was absolutely passable. With excellent editing and fitting BGM, it made the entire thing far more exciting.

"All right, now let's see the forum replies." Ye Qing muttered with slight anticipation.

"Can anyone spot their mistakes? No matter how I look at it, it was full of holes."

Magical Girl Forum.

He switched to the local city section and selected the Bailan City tag.

The world was large, and magical girl battle videos appeared almost every day. New-generation magical girls from different districts also needed publicity.

To accurately find the new-generation magical girls one wanted to watch, all one had to do was click the relevant tag.

Not every magical girl had popularity that swept the entire internet.

As it happened, Ye Qing knew a popular magical girl.

If he made a forum post about it, he could definitely attract the envy, jealousy, and resentment of plenty of magical girl fans.

Once he finished the initial work of joining the Magical Girl Association and reduced how often he entered the Otherworld—

Once people gradually forgot about someone like Qingyin, Ye Qing would have time to show off his social circle like crazy.

[New: Bailan City's new-generation magical girl team's first real battle!]

[Moderator: Insider news: Feiyan, our District 28 rising star, has formed the first magical girl team! Its members are Feiyan, Yalin, and Yuyan.]

[Netizen A: Impressive, you even have this kind of information.]

[Netizen B: +3.]

[Netizen C: Feiyan finally has her own team. She had no team in her first year and regretfully lost the academy competition. Such a pity. She has hope this year! Just wonder whether she'll still participate.]

[Netizen D: Good people, good team, but don't you think the video creator they hired for their debut battle was awful? The script was ridiculously low-level.]

[Netizen E replying to D: What was awful about it? They're a semi-comedy creator to begin with. Didn't that clean fight sequence feel awesome?]

[Netizen F replying to E: The flaws do not overshadow the strengths. The commentary script was not great, but it was appropriate enough, and the editing was indeed good.]

70 messages are hidden here. Click here to expand.

"So many replies, yet they're talking about the video? It's an argument thread. Not reading it." Ye Qing chose to skip it.

[Netizen G: Feiyan's battle instincts, oh my god. Yuyan's courage, Yalin's boldness, OMG!]

[Netizen H: They looked so cool I cried. Good thing the cockroach Evil Beasts were exterminated. It would have been terrifying if they'd been allowed to reproduce.]

"Hmm..." Ye Qing thought for a moment, closed the thread, and switched to other posts discussing the same debut battle.

Pointless chatter, +3s, arguments.

Without exception, none of them mentioned Feiyan and the others' mistakes.

He had to admit that the creator chosen by the recording company suited this situation perfectly.

The creator's script had successfully guided public opinion and kept ordinary viewers from becoming suspicious.

An Evil Beast that could chew through barriers and reproduce without limit—how could a monster of that level possibly be obscure? How could it possibly come from an ordinary evil organization?

If there had been information about such a monster, Abyss Return would definitely have learned the relevant intelligence immediately.

Experts watched for technique; outsiders watched for excitement.

At least it had been lively, had it not?

Ye Qing returned to the original thread and, with nothing better to do, read every comment in order.

Sure enough, he found a post from someone who knew what they were talking about.

[I'm the Strongest, IP: Tianzhu City, District 29: How is that possible? The video only fooled people like you. Analyze it carefully.

"Feiyan clearly looked flustered. She was purely so disgusted that she used skills without regard for the cost. An unqualified magical girl. Go back to the academy and repeat your studies."]

[Netizen N replying: You're just making things up?]

Some questioned Feiyan, and some challenged the commenter to argue, but that was all.

Because it was posted too far down, the comment ultimately sank without a trace, and the other person showed no intention of responding to the challenge.

Ye Qing silently remembered that username.

No one else questioned his students, yet you just had to question them? And you just had to let him see it.