Tickets Now on Sale

"Have you heard? Tickets for Magical Girl Molis's show have gone on sale."

Her deskmate leaned closer to Zhou Mo and spoke in a low voice.

"I know."

"Huh? You know?"

Zhou Mo gave him a speechless look. Had this guy fallen into a time loop? She felt like she had been through this exact conversation before.

But ticket sales...

She had not expected it to really come to this. Other than training, she had not been involved in anything else; Rabi had handled it all behind the scenes.

Still, she was looking forward to seeing how many tickets the show could sell.

Could they sell several thousand, maybe even ten thousand tickets?

If one ticket cost a hundred, then a thousand would be a hundred thousand. Ten thousand would be a million.

"Hehe, one show and I'll be a millionaire. Idols really do make money."

"Several thousand or ten thousand? Are you kidding?"

Rabi mercilessly shattered Zhou Mo's fantasy and gave her a disdainful look.

"Huh? It can't even sell that many?"

Zhou Mo was stunned. Her beautiful dream had been crushed the moment it formed.

Rabi spread her hands expressionlessly. "A normal rookie idol's first show is usually held in a small or medium live house, a small theater, or somewhere similar. Even the larger ones only hold a few hundred people. The venue I found for you can accommodate eight hundred at most."

The moment Zhou Mo heard that, she felt rather disappointed. She had thought there would at least be thousands of seats filled to capacity.

"Fine. Eight hundred it is."

"Then how much are tickets? A hundred? Two hundred?"

She continued asking.

"Eighty-eight."

"Gasp... One eight is eight, two eights are sixteen, three eights are Women's Day..."

Zhou Mo calculated it in her head and ultimately concluded that even with a full house, they would only make a little over seventy thousand.

"Only seventy thousand? It feels like that's not even as profitable as livestreaming Monster hunts."

She instantly lost interest in performing onstage. At least livestreaming Monster hunts brought in streaming revenue, and defeating Monsters brought in rewards too. Taking down even a Shallow Monster could earn a seventy- or eighty-thousand bounty.

"You're thinking too much. That seventy thousand still has to be split seventy-thirty."

Rabi poured another bucket of cold water over the already unenthusiastic Zhou Mo.

"Why do I only get seventy percent?"

"Seventy percent belongs to them. As for the remaining thirty percent, that depends on whether they're in a good mood."

"Who?"

"The company."

Rabi took out her phone and pointed at the Zohar logo on it.

"The company?"

Zhou Mo pointed at the phone as well, frowning.

"I work my ass off to put on a show, and I still have to suck up to them?"

"Yes."

"Then aren't I basically begging on my knees?"

"Yes."

Rabi did not continue Zhou Mo's bit and merely kept agreeing.

Zhou Mo drooped her head, feeling that it would be better to just muddle through it.

But the next moment, Rabi changed the subject and continued.

"Actually, compared to ticket sales, the bonus event afterward will be your main source of income."

"Bonus event?"

Zhou Mo's eyes lit up slightly.

So ticket sales were not the entirety of the income?

"You can think of it as extra services idols provide for fans after a show. By purchasing bonus tickets, fans can chat with the idol, take photos together, or have some intimate contact."

Rabi explained slowly.

Zhou Mo had originally thought the extra income sounded quite nice, but the instant she heard "intimate contact," her expression changed.

"Intimate contact? What kind of contact?"

"Handshakes and hugs, probably."

Handshakes?

Zhou Mo relaxed slightly. If it was only handshakes, she could barely accept it with gloves on. But hugs were out of the question.

"Oh, there might also be kabedon."

"Kabedon?!"

In an instant, Zhou Mo stared in horror at the unconcerned Rabi.

Then she frantically shook her head, repeatedly shouting, "No, no, no!"

╱/(◕‿‿◕)\╲

Seeing Zhou Mo shake her head like a rattle drum, unable to stop no matter what, Rabi finally reassured her.

"Don't worry. Besides being an idol, you're also a Magical Girl. Unlike ordinary idols who serve their fans completely, Magical Girls are respected as protectors of the city. You can refuse any excessive requests."

Only then did Zhou Mo stop shaking her head and look at Rabi speechlessly.

Could this girl not just say everything at once?

During this period, aside from attending the necessary daytime classes, she practiced the several songs the studio had sent her as Molis. Rabi kept saying she could reasonably skip school using magic; after all, the three Magical Girls in her class had not shown up for half a month.

But Zhou Mo insisted on going to and from school normally. She was the village's only hope and could not betray the kindness of the villagers who had raised her.

Rabi did not press the matter any further.

While Zhou Mo was training diligently, several other Magical Girls had already held solo performances.

But that was not the important part.

"Performance accident! The rookie Magical Girl group RGB Trio encountered a witch at their live show."

"The trio was defeated, resulting in dozens of audience casualties."

Zhou Mo stared at the news on the phone Rabi handed her and read the headlines word by word.

"A witch causing trouble?"

When she saw the back of a black-haired girl with twin tails in the news photo, her brows furrowed slightly.

"It's not just them. Recently, several Magical Girl performances have been ruined by the same witch."

Rabi put away her phone and spoke calmly.

Zhou Mo did not understand. "Several times in a row? Is the company just going to stand by and watch?"

In response to Zhou Mo's question, Rabi continued.

"Witches are different from Monsters. Before transforming, they're no different from ordinary girls. Unless they're caught on the spot, there's no way to track them afterward. Their online information exists outside the company's control, and they're even protected by the Abyss Nest."

"Wait, that's not right. Weren't witches all the company's Magical Girls before they fell? Doesn't the company have their real identity information?"

Zhou Mo suddenly objected.

"They can just live under another identity. They're a bunch of illegal criminals hiding in the shadows to begin with. Do you expect them to obey the law?"

Rabi glanced at her as if she were an idiot.

Zhou Mo was at a loss for words. There were clearly plenty of witches openly causing trouble online. Couldn't the platforms just ban their accounts?

As though she understood Zhou Mo's confusion, Rabi shook her head.

"Once, Douyin banned the account of a witch with over a million followers. That very day, she crossed provincial lines, went to Douyin headquarters, and threw the person in charge of the platform off a hundred-story building.

Other than Magical Girls with matching strength, ordinary people simply have no ability to confront them head-on. But Magical Girls cannot stay outside tracking those witches all the time either. Monsters only appear in Cloud City."

"I see..."

Zhou Mo scratched her head. In a situation where the enemy was in the shadows while she was exposed, she could not think of any way to stop them completely.

But the next moment, she suddenly realized she had heard something extraordinary in Rabi's words.

"Wait, Monsters only appear in Cloud City? Why?"

She stared directly at Rabi as she asked.

Unfortunately, Rabi merely blinked and did not answer at all.

After a moment, Rabi stiffly changed the subject. "The question now is, your show is starting in a few days. Are you still going to hold it?"

"You, answer me properly!"

No matter how Zhou Mo threatened her, Rabi merely glanced to one side as though she had not heard a thing.

Seeing how impervious Rabi was, Zhou Mo kept cursing cryptic bullshitters, get out in her heart.

But should she continue with it?

Zhou Mo's declaration was:

"I'll hold it."