Magical Girl Idol Rising Star Competition: Warm-Up Begins

After the day ended, Molis and Xia Ya bid each other farewell and went their separate ways.

At night, the silver-haired girl sat atop the rooftop railing. The evening breeze blew past, yet she did not feel cold.

"Sigh, this city really is plagued by disasters."

With one leg casually propped on the railing, the girl gazed at the city's nightscape and sighed.

Although she had enjoyed herself quite a bit overall today, the appearance of the convention Monster still left her somewhat annoyed.

Ever since coming to Cloud City, she had encountered several Monsters already. In her opinion, the number of Monsters in this city was unusually high.

"If everyone gets attacked by Monsters in their daily lives, how does this city even function?"

She could not figure out the answer no matter how hard she thought.

Before she could dwell on it further, Rabi padded along the railing with catlike steps and slowly came to her side.

"That is precisely why Magical Girls like you need to work hard."

"Alright, alright. Stop trying to pump me up."

Zhou Mo waved a hand and replied indifferently.

Rabi sat beside her, its tail swishing once before it slowly said,

"That part where you shared a straw was really good material."

Smack!

Zhou Mo slapped herself across the face, an utterly awkward expression appearing on her face.

"Stop talking, stop talking."

Who knew what had gone through her mind back then? She had somehow ended up doing something like that.

Even though she had been in a girl's body at the time, she inexplicably felt guilty.

"Back to business."

Ignoring Zhou Mo's frustration, Rabi calmly changed the subject.

"The Magical Girl Idol Rising Star Competition begins in one month."

"Don't worry, I already signed you up automatically," Rabi added.

"You little—!"

Hearing that, Zhou Mo clenched her fist slightly, then loosened it again.

"The Rising Star Competition..."

She raised her head and looked into the distance.

The Idol Rising Star Tournament had been a hot topic online lately, so she naturally knew a little about it.

It was a competition held by Zohar for newly debuted Magical Girls, once every year.

Anyone who became a Magical Girl after last year's competition and before this year's competition could participate.

First came the warm-up phase. During the month before the competition, every idol had to attract popularity online or offline. Popularity voting pages would be available on several well-known website platforms, mainly Bilibili and Douzhan, where anyone online could vote for their favorite idol.

Those near the top of the rankings would receive cash rewards and corresponding points, while the Magical Girl with the most votes would earn this year's title of Popularity Star.

However, those in the bottom 10% of the vote rankings would be eliminated early and lose the chance to participate in the later Nova Tournament.

"After the warm-up tournament comes the official competition, divided into stage and magic categories. In the stage competition, contestants compete through stage performances, and the one with the highest combined audience and expert scores receives the title of Performance Star.

"As for the magic category, contestants battle Monsters, and rankings are determined by the strength and number of Monsters defeated. First place receives the title of Magic Star."

Rabi gave a detailed explanation from the side.

"The one with the highest combined score in popularity, performance, and magic becomes this year's Magical Idol Star."

"In a few days, the Popularity Warm-Up Tournament will begin. Kid, in this Idol Rising Star Tournament, I want you to win the title of Magical Idol Star."

"..."

The next day.

"Magical Girl, I used to be an ordinary office worker. I merely talked back to my boss once, and the next day I was fired because I stepped into the company through the door with my left foot first. After losing my job, I looked upon this city, and in the end, I understood just how unreasonable this city's existence was. No, the whole world was utterly insane.

"At the moment of that realization, I became a Monster. The power inside me told me that only by purging everything could the world return to the right path."

"Mm-hm, I get it. Your boss is a total bastard."

After listening to yet another Monster's deranged last words, Zhou Mo—Molis—shook her head and put away the Moonlight Spear in her hand.

"Haah, that makes three today already. Has Rabi gone crazy...?"

She rolled her barely tired shoulders, inwardly grumbling nonstop about the White Keycap that had called her out to work.

"If you want more fans, you have to fight."

That was what Rabi had said earlier.

Zhou Mo hid atop an empty building and took out her phone, searching Bilibili for the uploader named "Molis's Cat." Several videos had just been uploaded to the homepage. She had finished fighting only minutes ago, yet the latest video clip was already out. Rabi was as fast as ever.

Putting away her phone, she sighed softly and prepared to return to school for class.

Zhou Mo returned to the classroom as though nothing had happened. None of the students found it strange that she had suddenly come back in the middle of class.

The three Magical Girls in the classroom did not become overly suspicious upon seeing her return either.

The reason, naturally, was that Rabi had stepped in.

Even low-level Magical Girls would fall for a gold-medal manager's Fairy Magic.

She returned to her seat and began taking notes from her deskmate's textbook. Even while running around outside at such high intensity, she had not fallen behind in her studies.

"Deng deng deng, deng deng deng deng."

After a day of classes, Zhou Mo dragged her exhausted body through several twists and turns until she arrived outside the classroom of the Omniscient Wish Society.

"Good afternoon... Hm?"

With her head lowered, Zhou Mo casually spoke as she opened the clubroom door.

However, when she looked up, she saw an unfamiliar girl standing inside the classroom.

The girl was bent over, her hands on the skirt she had pulled halfway off. She wore only a thin white shirt on top, and the two buttons at her chest had yet to be fastened, exposing a sudden glimpse of skin.

Since she happened to be facing the door, Zhou Mo saw everything clearly.

"Hm?"

The girl noticed the movement from the doorway and looked up in confusion.

Click!

Zhou Mo slammed the door shut and stood outside without speaking for a long while.

"I must be too tired. I should just go home today."

She muttered to herself and prepared to make a run for it.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened from within. The girl from before stood in the doorway, looking at Zhou Mo, who was poised to flee.

Noticing the girl's gaze, Zhou Mo's body stiffened, and she ultimately did not leave.

She turned back to look. Before her stood a girl with a high ponytail, slightly shorter than herself, dressed in a standard school uniform.

"Ahem, hello."

Zhou Mo cleared her throat and greeted her without blushing or missing a beat.

The high-ponytailed girl stared at her for quite a while before finally speaking slowly.

"Hey, you were watching when I was changing clothes just now, weren't you?"

"N-No, I wasn't. Was there any reason to look?"

Zhou Mo shifted her gaze elsewhere, her voice dropping several octaves.

"Stare—"

"Hiss... I'm sorry."

Faced with Zhou Mo's sincere apology, the girl said nothing more and waved a hand to show that she did not mind.

Seeing that the girl did not seem angry about it, Zhou Mo quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

What an understanding girl.

Not long after, before the long table in the clubroom.

Bai Yi, Mo Li, An Xia, Zhou Mo, and the unfamiliar girl sat together.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment before Bai Yi suddenly spoke, expressionlessly uttering two words:

"Pervert."

"..."