You Will Become a Very Distinctive Handsome Guy

Chen De took a deep breath.

"Qubi."

"Yeah."

"Do you think I have a pretty good temper?"

"Not bad."

"Then let me tell you, my temper is getting worse at three to five times the usual rate."

Qubi's tail curled in slightly.

"You've hit menopause. Calm down."

"I am calm."

"Your temple is twitching."

"That's my pulse. It means I'm still alive."

Qubi wisely shut up.

Chen De kept walking forward, his strides much bigger than usual. The miniature white cat on his shoulder bounced up and down with every step.

After walking about two hundred meters, he suddenly stopped.

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"You said the changes happen quickly in the early stages and gradually stabilize later on."

"Right."

"So if my rate is three to five times faster than everyone else's—"

"Does that mean I'll reach the stable stage faster too?"

Qubi froze for a moment.

Its emerald-green eyes blinked twice.

"...Theoretically, that is indeed the case."

"So once I stabilize, I won't change anymore?"

"Basically not."

"About how long until the stable stage?"

"At your rate... maybe one or two months."

Chen De calculated rapidly in his head.

One or two months.

That meant he only needed to endure the next month or two.

After that, his appearance would be set and wouldn't keep heading in strange directions.

That was good news.

It could even be called the only good news he had received today.

"So what will I look like after I stabilize?"

"Fundamentally, you'll still be yourself."

"But?"

"But you'll be better-looking than you are now."

"How good-looking?"

Qubi thought for a moment, choosing its words with considerable caution.

"Roughly... the kind of good-looking that gets a one-hundred-percent head-turn rate."

Chen De stopped again.

"Men turning around, or women?"

"Both."

"That won't do."

"Why not?"

"If men turn around, that means they think I'm a woman."

"Or maybe they just think you're good-looking."

"A person who's five foot nine gets people turning around to look at him. Do you think that kind of 'good-looking' is a compliment for a man or a woman?"

Qubi tilted its head.

"That depends on what you're wearing."

"I'm wearing a school uniform."

"Then they might not be able to tell."

Chen De felt as though his future had been shrouded in an inescapable shadow.

The kind that was even more terrifying than a Calamity.

"Can't you give me an answer that puts me at ease?"

"Do you want me to lie?"

"You don't need to lie. Just polish the truth a little."

"The polished version is: you will become a very distinctive handsome guy."

"I like that version."

"But forty percent of people will think you're a woman disguised as a man."

"You call that polishing?"

"I already lowered the percentage from sixty to forty."

Chen De felt like talking to this cat was a constant process of breaking new blood-pressure records.

He took a deep breath and forcibly changed the subject.

"Forget it. I'm not thinking about that for now."

Chen De shook his head.

"Any work tonight?"

"No new intelligence has come in for the moment."

"So I can get a good night's sleep tonight?"

"Most likely."

Chen De immediately became alert.

"You said 'most likely.'"

"Eighty percent."

"What about the other twenty percent?"

"Unexpected situations."

"What kind of unexpected situations?"

"A Calamity suddenly crawling out of some godforsaken corner, and then you have to go fight before you've even gotten your pants on."

"That isn't twenty percent. That's one hundred percent psychological trauma."

Chen De quickened his pace toward home.

His mind had already automatically pictured it—climbing out of bed in the middle of the night, transforming, then hacking away at a mass of black fog in a short skirt in the freezing wind.

Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine.

"But you don't need to be too nervous." There was a rare hint of comfort in Qubi's voice.

"Tasks aren't mandatory."

It patted Chen De on the shoulder.

"You can also choose to let other magical girls handle them."

Chen De's steps slowed by half a beat.

"Let someone else handle them?"

"Right."

"Then wouldn't I get no money at all?"

Qubi fell silent.

"That's how you interpreted it?"

"What else? How did you think I'd interpret it?"

"A normal person's reaction should be, 'Great, someone can help share the burden.'"

"A normal person also doesn't only have one hundred and fifty thousand in their bank account."

"Your focus is always on money."

"Money is a basic resource for sustaining life. Paying attention to money means paying attention to life."

"That's twisted logic."

"You said before that signing the contract was about saving the world."

"That was promotional rhetoric. Don't take it seriously."

Chen De rolled his eyes.

Back when he had no money, he had been afraid of everything.

Now that he had money, he was only afraid of becoming poor again.

The shift in mindset had happened so quickly that even he found it a little abnormal.

But on second thought, wasn't it perfectly reasonable for a seventeen-year-old high school student living alone to be a little obsessed with money?

"Are there many other magical girls?" Chen De suddenly asked.

"In this city, there are currently around seven or eight active ones."

"Seven or eight?"

"Yeah."

"Then why haven't I seen any of them before?"

"You've only been contracted for two days. Where were you supposed to see them?"

"Fair enough."

Chen De thought about it.

"They're all girls, right?"

"What do you think?"

"So I'm the only guy."

"For now, yes."

"In the entire city, I'm the only guy wearing a skirt and fighting monsters."

"That's not wrong."

"Don't you think there's anything wrong with that picture?"

"I think it's quite good. Differentiated competition."

"Competition my ass!"

Chen De quickened his pace.

Then he suddenly thought of another crucial question.

"Wait, you said there are seven or eight active ones."

"Yeah."

"What about the inactive ones?"

Qubi did not answer immediately.

Its ears twitched.

"You mean?"

"Retired ones, injured ones, or..."

Chen De did not say the final word.

"There is an exit mechanism." Qubi's tone returned to its businesslike manner.

"You can apply to terminate the contract after one full year."

"One year?"

"Right."

"Then I still have three hundred and sixty-three days left."

"You calculated that pretty fast."

"Of course I need to calculate something like this clearly."

Chen De shoved his hands into his pockets.

"So I can't quit within that year?"

"No."

"What about breach of contract?"

"There is no option for breach of contract."

"Why?"

"Because the contract is bound to your life force. It can be terminated, but forcibly terminating it is equivalent to—"

"Fine, don't say it."

Chen De's expression became somewhat complicated.

"So for this year, I have to do it."

"You have to do it."

"Even if I don't want to, I still have to do it."

"Yes."

"You still have to do it even if you're wearing a skirt."

"Yes."

"You still have to do it even if men turn around to look at you."

"Why are you circling back to this topic again?"

Chen De let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a roar.

They were home.

He took out his key and opened the door, and the scent of new bedsheets rushed over him.

They were only ordinary bedding, but compared to the room's previous bare-shell state, this was practically a heavenly upgrade.

Chen De tossed his backpack onto the table and plopped down on the new mattress.

The instant his butt sank into it, half the exhaustion in his body seemed to be sucked away.

"Comfortable."

He let out a satisfied sigh.

Qubi jumped down from his shoulder and landed on the bedside table.

"You look like you just won the lottery."

"This mattress is my lottery."

Chen De leaned back and sprawled flat on the bed.

He stared at the ceiling blankly for a while.

"Qubi."

"Mm."

"I thought about it all the way home and realized something."

"What?"

"You said other magical girls can come deal with disasters."

"Mm."

"So if they deal with them, does that mean the money goes to them?"

"Yes."

"In other words, every time I slack off, someone else takes money that should've been mine."

"That interpretation is selfish, but not wrong."

"So I absolutely can't slack off."

"Your conclusion gives me a small measure of comfort."

"Don't be comforted. Your twenty-percent cut goes down too."

Qubi's tail swayed.

"You've finally learned to consider things from your partner's perspective."

"Get lost."

Chen De closed his eyes.

The new pillow cradled the back of his head, so soft it made him want to cry.

He decided to get a good night's sleep tonight.

To hell with disasters.

To hell with any twenty-percent emergencies.

To hell with a one-hundred-percent head-turn rate.

He'd get some proper sleep first, then worry about the rest.

"Good night," Qubi's voice came from the bedside table.

"It's only five."

"Then what about dinner?"

"Not eating. I'm sleepy."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No."

Chen De turned over, putting his back to Qubi.

About ten seconds of silence passed.

"Chen De."

"What?"

"I'm hungry."

Chen De slowly opened his eyes.

He stared at the wall.

"What does a cat like you even eat?"

"I eat anything."

"Aren't you a higher-dimensional life-form? Higher-dimensional life-forms need to eat too?"

"When necessary, I'm a cat."

"So when you're hungry, you're a cat. When you're not, you're a higher-dimensional life-form."

"You understand very thoroughly."

Chen De sat up and looked at Qubi, crouched on the bedside table.

Qubi looked back at him with huge emerald-green eyes.

Innocent.

Pure.

Just like one of those stray cats that conned people out of food and drink.