Artificial Magical Girl

(Bai Ziye)

Really.

Hearing that familiar "woof," I knew who she was.

"Are you from the Golden?"

"Woof--"

Sirius didn't seem surprised; it was as if he had already guessed it.

Ceruno had to manually lift her jaw, which had dropped in shock.

"Is this the Golden? Or is it our Doggy?"

"Woof~"

"Oh! It really is Goldie!"

With a confident bark, Ceruno, finally certain, pounced on the Golden, cuddling it affectionately, just as she often did with her Doggy.

"Woof~"

"Hehehe, Goldie, you're being too polite! Just tell us if you become a magical girl~ Everyone will be so happy for you!"

However, since the golden retriever has been transformed into a pretty girl, the visual appeal of their stickers has improved as a result.

"... Um, I don't think I can really be considered a magical girl, woof."

Wow?! It's speaking!

Ceruno showed surprise again, but I wasn't particularly surprised, because she had let it slip when she was still Doggy. I hadn't noticed at the time, but now that I think about it, she definitely spoke.

I pressed further, "So what exactly happened? What is your position now?"

He is neither Monster;

It's not a magical girl;

But it turned from Doggy into a person?

"Miluno, I know, you are actually..."

Before Golden could utter a single dangerous word, I grabbed her sweet little mouth and rushed into the bedroom, locking the door behind me.

With my hands on her shoulders, I warned in a stern voice, "Goldie, that secret can't be told to anyone, you should understand, right?"

The Doggy stared at me and blinked, a sly glint in its eyes.

"I understand! But you have to buy me pork chops, I don't want to eat dog food anymore!"

She even asked me for hush money?

"Goldie, I'm short on money; I can't afford to feed you steak every day."

"Hey, didn't I already give you gold?"

It turns out she was the one paying for the meal that time.

"That kind of gold is hard to sell, and it all went into paying for house renovations."

Metal made extensive changes to the apartment's structure; the cost of materials and furniture alone far exceeded the value of the two pieces of gold.

"I can conjure up more for you, as much gold as you want."

Does owning the Golden guarantee economic freedom?

"So, you were the one who turned that lady's phone into a gold brick?"

"I was just helping you out of a tight spot~ If you want to thank me, just pat my head!"

Pat her head.

It also squinted its eyes, showing an expression of enjoyment, and even stuck out its tongue to lick my hand.

"Goldie, can you tell me? What exactly are you...?"

Woof! Woof!

"Artificial Crystal?!"

I compiled the major news revealed by the Golden and then told Ceruno and Sirius.

"Hmm, using the technology from the Other Side to create Star Crystal seems to be a research topic for Aldebaran. She is also the Second-Generation Infiltration Weapon... The first generation was Flow, the masterpiece of the previous head of the Monster Development Department, but it was costly, ineffective, and even resulted in defections... So, the previous head was fired."

Liu, a defector, even dragged his own inventor out of work.

It's easy to see that the competition for positions on the "The Other Side" is also fierce.

Sirius, sitting on the sofa, let Golden lie on his lap and then kept stroking the latter's soft belly.

"Sirius Master, please don't do that, it itches so much~"

"Tell me, you little rascal, when did you become like this?"

With her arms curled up, Golden sprawled on Sirius's lap like Doggy in the body of a human girl, not even noticing that her skirt was flipped up...

Or perhaps she simply lacked awareness of this.

She replied, "When Ceruno and Miluno were on the island, I ate a stone on the beach. It was Artificial Crystal that came with the Octopus Monster."

Sirius nodded knowingly.

"From this, we can infer that the Black Crystal that turns people into Monster is also Aldebaran's masterpiece. It's cheap to produce, and although these Monsters are weaker in combat, they are better at hiding. They pose a much greater threat to ordinary people than the previous Monster. If Ceruno hadn't discovered and stopped them in time, it would have been another serious casualty incident... With such a successful intrusion, she's probably a favorite of 'that will' now."

Ceruno asked, "Then, is there a way for us to find that Dark Energy in advance?"

"Based on the data previously extracted from your body, a sample of the sensor has been produced, but its effective range is very small. It's almost impossible to install it as public infrastructure throughout the entire city, let alone the whole world."

"Does that mean it's still useless?"

"No, the 'Empty Wormhole' phenomenon hasn't appeared elsewhere yet. Currently, as long as sensors are deployed in densely populated areas within Skyreach City and other magical girls carry them while patrolling, the chances of detecting this Special Monster can be greatly increased. The first batch of sensors has already entered production and will be deployed in the next few days. More powerful iterative versions are also under development, but it will still take time."

The arrangements were quite well-organized; SpiCa excels at handling things within her own plans.

With everyone working overtime like this, one can only imagine what a scene of "zombie gathering" must have been in the Association's R&D department.

"Then, the next question."

I sat down next to Sirius and rubbed Golden's chubby face.

"Since she is Aldebaran's 'daughter,' why would you choose to betray her?"

"Huh?"

The Golden squinted and hesitated for a moment.

"I only learned about 'the Other Side' in my head a few days ago; I didn't know I was Artificial Magical Girl before that."

"Oh, is it the time we sent drones Past conduct reconnaissance?"

Ceruno slapped her forehead and said, "Her mental state was abnormal those two days because she realized what she was?"

"Hmm, Aldebaran's Golden Storm triggered the Artificial Crystal, which reminded me that I am an infiltration weapon from 'the Other Side'... But even knowing this, I still want to protect Miluno and Ceruno! That's why I decided to step forward today!"

"Oh! Goldie is so good~"

"Mmm~"

Upon hearing this, Ceruno squeezed onto the other side of Sirius and began pinching the long, white legs beneath the Golden's skirt.

Wait a minute, isn't she taking advantage of me?

Flow, Prototype Infiltration Weapon from the previous generation.

He was originally Monster who relied on his ability to mimic human form to operate, but this was costly and lacked stealth...

They betrayed me as soon as they arrived.

The Golden is a new type of infiltration weapon developed by Aldebaran.

Using Artificial Crystal as its core, it modifies the host's mind through fusion, making it extremely difficult to detect as Dark Energy...

As a result, he also betrayed them.

So, is it common for infiltrators to act as traitors?

However, compared to the purely powerful Sword Witch, researchers like Aldebaran are the real trouble, as they can directly boost the enemy's basic combat strength.

Imagine if the regular deployments were all Three-Core Monster like today, would the Association's existing magical girl defense system be able to handle them?

The answer is probably no.