Are Cats Nutritious?

It rained all night.

The next morning, when Su Tianqing woke to her alarm's music, rain was still pattering outside the window.

Yet even the unending drizzle couldn't wash away Su Tianqing's exhilaration.

"Phewah! Time to get up!"

The little fox sprang out of bed, her fluffy tail raised behind her. One hand rested on her hip while the other stretched high overhead.

"Villainous Fox Fox! Gloriously revived!"

Fortunately, she only had one class on Monday morning, and it wasn't an eight o'clock class.

The Golden Fox, who had bought two bags of discounted after-eight bread on her way home last night, was enjoying a delicious breakfast.

A little cheap jam spread over discounted bread, paired with a cup of fresh, fragrant milk—just that much was enough to make her happy.

Fox Fox sat contentedly at the dining table.

With jam bread in her right hand and her Rice Phone in her left, the first thing Su Tianqing did was check her livestream and video earnings from the past few days.

—Twenty-three thousand yuan.

"Cough, cough, cough! Cough cough cough!"

Milk went down the wrong pipe, sending the fox into a violent coughing fit.

"H-how much?"

One, two, three, four, five—five digits! Twenty-three thousand yuan!

Su Tianqing sat there blankly for a long while before tremblingly tapping the withdrawal button.

It wasn't until the bank sent her a text confirming the transfer that Fox Fox finally returned to reality.

This fox was rich!

Su Tianqing immediately opened her Taobao cart and paid for the Rice Phone that the original Su Tianqing had always been reluctant to buy.

Then came two autumn dresses, several pairs of warm tights, and winter clothes prepared in advance for the coming season.

The autumn and winter clothes in her closet were so worn that they were nearly full of holes. Su Tianqing couldn't allow her petite, adorable loli body to suffer such indignity.

A Golden Fox loli should wear cute, pretty clothes!

One sweep through her cart cost her three thousand yuan, two thousand of which went toward the Rice Phone.

"Hehehe~ hehehe~"

Humming a tune, the Golden Fox walked into the kitchen to wash the dishes. Still humming when she came out, she shook off her nightgown, changed into her school uniform skirt, and got ready to leave.

There was still over half an hour before class, and she had one important thing to do first:

"Codex! Reveal yourself!"

The chuuni fox raised a tiny hand, and her magic space appeared at will. The heavy ancient book fell onto her lap and opened to the mission page.

Three hundred Divine Codex Stones had arrived!

Added to the seven hundred left over from the day before yesterday, the number of Divine Codex Stones in her Codex had returned to four digits.

And one particularly difficult mission had gained some new progress:

[Mission: Villain's Self-Cultivation]

[Use 10 different methods to pick fights with legitimate magical girls, 4/10]

Hm? How had the progress advanced so much?

Thinking carefully, she really had used four methods to cause trouble since receiving this mission—

One had been deliberately going to Hyacinth's school to wreak havoc. Another had been throwing a Monster Capsule after putting herself into the situation at the amusement park. Then there had been last night.

She had used the daily free Monster Enhancement from the Heartmoon Wand to bring a wild monster under her command, made Hyacinth fight a horde of tentacled monsters for three hundred rounds, then personally went to tease the rookie magical girl, Magical Girl Iris.

So each magical girl counted separately toward mission progress. That made things much easier.

She had used Monster Summoning yesterday. Next up were the Immobilization Trap and showing up at a school to rub it in their faces.

The latter didn't seem very usable, though. Nan Xiaofeng and Hua Ling were classmates, even desk mates. Going to their school carried quite a significant risk.

Fox Fox didn't want to fight two magical girls at once!

"Mm... forget it. I'll just do this mission whenever I feel like it." Fox Fox gave up and looked down to inspect the new missions.

[Daily Mission 1: Rest]

[Iris seems to have suffered quite a severe sensory shock. Let that child rest for a day.]

[Reward: 100 Divine Codex Stones]

Oh? This Codex of yours was pretty considerate. But how did it know that Iris had suffered such a huge blow yesterday?

Thinking of that made Su Tianqing angry.

It was all Hyacinth's fault!

If she hadn't suddenly broken out of the encirclement, Iris might have been singing onstage already!

And Iris really did have more of that magical girl feel—

Pure and adorable, with beautiful clothes and elegant movements. She was far better than that greatsword cultist Hyacinth by more than a little!

More importantly, Hyacinth actually wore no-show socks! For a magical girl, that was simply an unforgivable disgrace!

By comparison, Iris's thigh-high white socks were practically a dreamlike pairing.

And after taking off the crystal high heels on her feet, those slightly developed young girl feet were absolutely exquisite—second only to this fox's own.

Once she had adjusted her mood, she should take better care of Iris in future daily missions.

As for Hyacinth? She wished her luck.

After claiming the hundred Divine Codex Stones from the lazy mission, the Golden Fox was about to clear out the Codex shopping cart when words slowly surfaced in the mission tab:

[Mission: Are Cats Nutritious?]

[Investigate the newly appeared Villain Magical Girl. She harbors a secret you would never expect.]

[Reward: 200 Divine Codex Stones]

[Hint: Hell Shrike will appear at Rongcheng No. 7 High School at nine tonight.]

A new mission?

After carefully reading the mission description and hint, Su Tianqing fell into thought.

[Hell Shrike]—that was the codename the catgirl magical girl from yesterday had told her, yet she had asked Su Tianqing to call her [Hellcat].

Su Tianqing only knew a little about her—

She flew quickly, she was a catgirl, and she was cute.

Nothing else.

"Mm... mmm..."

The Golden Fox gently rubbed the base of her ears. Her fox brain was overloaded.

Forget it. She couldn't possibly reach any conclusions by thinking alone. She might as well borrow some outside help.

For example...

Holding onto a thread of hope, Su Tianqing opened the Codex's intelligence page.

[Hellcat (Hell Shrike)]

[Magical Girl (Villain)]

[A mysterious Villain Magical Girl. Investigate further to obtain more information.]

Great. Even the Codex's boxed weapon was useless. It looked like this fox would have to handle it herself.

But before investigating Hellcat tonight, she should finish today's class first.

Her morning class began at ten.

Su Tianqing arrived at the classroom. Since hardly anyone had taken their seats when she entered, the Golden Fox headed straight for her usual spot.

She sat down, pulled a thick anatomy textbook from her shoulder bag and placed it on the desk, then took out her Rice Phone and watched videos to pass the time.

Soon, rustling footsteps sounded around her as students gradually filed into the classroom. Familiar figures then entered Su Tianqing's peripheral vision.

"Ah, Little Fish~ Good morning."

Su Tianqing turned her head and greeted her happily.

"Good morning, Tianqing. You came pretty early."

"Because I wanted to see Little Fish sooner, I came early."

The little fox said it openly, smiling happily.

Nan Jiayu had thought she was almost used to this little fox's straightforward attacks, but she still got hit hard.

While waiting for the professor to arrive, Su Tianqing remembered something. She snuggled up beside MaoMao as she asked Nan Jiayu, who was seriously reading a book:

"Come to think of it, your little sister likes magical girls so much. What about you, Little Fish?"

"As for me..."

Nan Jiayu hesitated for a moment.

"I'm not really interested... but I don't dislike them, at least."

"I see..." Su Tianqing nodded lightly, secretly delighted.

She said she wasn't interested, yet she dumped Rice at Heartmoon Fox's livestream and sent Super Chats. What an unstraightforward little kitty.

—Anyway.

She would investigate Hell Shrike's background during this class.

The bell rang. The students stood and greeted the professor, then began listening attentively as Su Tianqing quietly searched Hell Shrike's codename on the video site.

A number of videos soon appeared, along with a harsh assessment of one of her statistics:

[Shencheng Hero Association]

[Hell Shrike, Villain Magical Girl]

[Number of incidents caused: 172]

[Hero Association estimated threat level: Maximum]

Oh?

Su Tianqing raised an eyebrow.

It seemed this Hellcat... was quite a dangerous person.