Why Are You Focusing on Such Strange Things?

Click.

The newly replaced doorknob worked great.

The instant he pressed it down, Chen De felt the dull pain in his back lessen by about thirty percent.

He grabbed Qubi and tossed it onto the sofa.

"So rough. I could call the police, you know."

"Call my ass."

Only then did he rub his back and half-lie down.

"Qubi."

The white cat tilted its head.

"I'm here."

"Did the money arrive?"

"It did."

Chen De pulled out that new seven-hundred-yuan phone. A bank text notification was displayed on the lock screen.

120,000.00 yuan had been deposited.

He stared at that string of zeroes for a full five seconds.

Then his waist stopped aching, his back stopped hurting, and the memory of getting swatted away by a tail and slammed into an iron pillar began blurring at a visible rate.

He shot upright.

"I'm going out to buy stuff."

Qubi looked up at the window. Outside, it was pitch-black.

"Now?"

"Now."

"It's nine o'clock."

Chen De lowered his head and checked his phone.

21:09.

He lay back down.

"Forget it. I'll buy it tomorrow."

"Reasonable."

"Not reasonable. I just can't buy everything at this hour."

Qubi curled its tail and found a comfortable position on the sofa armrest.

"What are you planning to buy?"

"A lot."

Chen De stared at the ceiling and started counting on his fingers.

"First, I'm getting a proper phone. This seven-hundred-yuan one can be my backup."

"That one was just bought."

"It became a backup the moment I bought it."

"And then?"

"A new mattress."

Qubi's ears twitched.

"A mattress?"

"I've slept on mine for four years. The springs are already digging into my back."

"You just earned one hundred twenty thousand, and your first thought is to replace your mattress?"

"A mattress affects sleep quality. Sleep quality affects magical power recovery. Magical power recovery affects my combat performance on the next job."

Chen De looked utterly serious.

"This logic is completely sound."

Qubi stared at him for three seconds.

"...That's true."

"Anything else?"

"Some good food."

"Such as?"

"Anything other than instant noodles."

"...After fighting Fierce Calamity tonight, you ate instant noodles for your celebratory late-night snack?"

"With an egg."

Qubi buried its face in its paws and stayed silent for a full three seconds.

"Your spending habits are absolutely an anomaly among magical girls."

"How do the others spend their money?"

"Weapon upgrades, special items, magical power equipment..."

"Sounds expensive."

"It is expensive, but—"

"I'm replacing my mattress first."

"...Whatever."

Qubi gave up.

Chen De added another item.

"I need a new electric blanket too. When it gets cold, I can only tough it out with the radiator every day."

"Isn't the radiator warm enough?"

"I can feel the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures from inside my own room."

"...This house has pretty poor insulation."

"Tomorrow, I also need to buy more vegetables. Cooking for myself saves money."

"You can cook?"

"Yes."

"What can you make?"

"...Instant noodles."

"..."

"The kind with two eggs."

"You need to learn how to make a proper dish."

"I can fry eggs."

"...That really isn't instant noodles."

"So I can cook."

Qubi decided to completely abandon this line of conversation. It was too mentally exhausting.

"Did you know that among all the magical girls I've worked with, you're the first one whose first major expense was a mattress?"

"What did the others buy first?"

"Someone bought a custom weapon, someone paid the down payment on an apartment, and someone bought a dress."

"How much was the dress?"

"Twenty thousand."

Chen De's fingers paused.

"A twenty-thousand-yuan dress."

"She wasn't satisfied with her transformation outfit, so she wanted to make up for that aesthetic gap in real life."

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing. I just suddenly feel like buying a mattress is an incredibly rational decision."

"You were rational to begin with."

Chen De pulled out his phone again and glanced at the deposit notification. He couldn't suppress the smile at the corner of his mouth.

With one hundred twenty thousand sitting there, even getting beaten up that badly had been worth it.

After admiring it for quite a while, Chen De remembered something else.

"Qubi, you said there were other magical girls nearby watching me fight?"

Qubi nodded.

"Yes."

"Her magical power was stronger than yours, and her figure was better too."

"I understand the first half. What does the second half mean?!"

Qubi tilted its head.

"Literally. Her chest is bigger than yours, her legs are longer, and she's taller."

"..."

"Just like how you can tell whether a cat is good-looking."

"You're not a cat."

"When necessary, I am."

Chen De felt that continuing this topic would only make him feel worse.

After transforming, he was flat-chested and short-legged. That was a fact. He could just accept it.

He decided to change the subject.

"Why was she staring at me?"

"Maybe she was curious about a newcomer's abilities. Maybe she was a local checking out an outsider. Or maybe she was just passing by and watching the show."

"Two of those possibilities sound troublesome."

"So let's hope it was the last one."

"But Fierce Calamity's magical power fluctuations would attract nearby magical girls to confirm the situation."

"So she probably wasn't just passing by."

"You knew that from the start!"

"I said probably."

Chen De rubbed his temples.

"Don't worry. She had no intention of making a move. If she had been hostile, she would've acted when you were fighting at your ugliest."

"When was I fighting at my ugliest?"

"When you got swatted away by the tail."

"..."

"When you crashed into the iron pillar."

"..."

"When you pushed yourself up from the ground with your sword."

"Could you stop listing them?"

"Anyway, the other party is at least neutral."

Chen De lowered his head and looked at his hands. When he had chopped at Fierce Calamity's joints, the web between his thumb and forefinger had gone numb from the shock.

"How much stronger is her magical power than mine?"

"About two to three times."

"...So the gap is huge."

"For now. Take jobs seriously, fight more, earn more, and catch up slowly."

"I'll just treat it like working my way up until I become a big shot."

"That way of understanding things also makes you an anomaly among magical girls."

"I can't get behind all that lofty talk about protecting the city. It feels too detached."

"Don't you think protecting this city is noble?"

"It is noble, but that doesn't stop me from replacing my mattress."

Qubi stared at him with a complicated expression for a full three seconds.

"Fine."

The night wind slipped in through the crack in the window that had not been fully closed.

Chen De locked and unlocked his phone screen, repeatedly glancing at the deposit notification. He couldn't suppress the smile at the corner of his mouth.

Then the screen lit up again.

An unfamiliar number.

Just six words.

"You fought well tonight."

Chen De stared at the message for a long time, then turned to Qubi.

"She has my phone number."

Qubi's ears twitched.

"And she knows you use a seven-hundred-yuan piece-of-junk phone."

"...Is that the important part?!"

"Isn't it?"

"My ass it is!"

"How did she know my number?"

"Magical girls have their own information channels."

"So... does that mean my number's already been saved in someone's contacts?"

"Probably."

"You didn't tell me that, either."

"You didn't ask."

Chen De clutched his phone and thought for a long while before opening the keyboard and sending three words.

"I'm sleeping."

Then he placed the phone facedown on the sofa and lay back down.

Qubi waited for a while.

"She replied."

Chen De turned the phone over and glanced at it.

A smiley face.

Just that one emoji, nothing else.

He stared at that smiley face, unsure whether he should be happy or speechless. In the end, he turned off his phone.

"I'm changing phones tomorrow."

"You said just today that a seven-hundred-yuan phone was fine as long as it worked."

"That was today."

Qubi's tail swished twice.

"Because she knows you use a crappy phone, you want to replace it?"

Chen De didn't answer.

A magical girl who fought Fierce Calamities using a seven-hundred-yuan phone had been recognized at a glance.

It felt a little embarrassing.

"Fine."

Qubi accepted that reason.