Who Taught You to Transform Like That as a Magical Girl?

Xingfuli Apartment, Room 703, Su Bai's room.

Sweat slid down the teenager's sharply defined jaw, splashing onto the worn wooden floor and blooming into a small dark patch.

He was bare-chested, his muscle lines firm and smooth, expressionless as he lifted a dumbbell with one hand that was far too heavy for someone his age.

Eighty kilograms.

The veins on his arm bulged slightly, every lift and descent controlled with extreme stability, his breathing even and deep, without a single trace of disorder.

This was his unwavering daily routine after finishing a day of takeout delivery part-time.

In this era where Monster ran rampant and supernatural beings were regarded as hope, strength—and the money that strength could buy—were the only hard truths.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A rude pounding on the door shattered the room's tranquility.

"Bro! Open up! I have earth-shattering news to announce!"

Su Bai ignored it, switching to the other hand and continuing.

The door lock emitted a "click," evidently opened by a spare key.

The door was violently shoved open, and a fiery figure rushed in.

"Su Bai! Did you hear me or not!"

Su Bai stopped what he was doing, picked up a towel draped over the back of his chair to wipe away the sweat, and only then turned his head back with annoyance.

His younger sister, Su Xiaoxiao, stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

The girl wore two unruly pigtails and the uniform of Xinghai City No. 1 High School, over which she had layered a bulky old jacket, her head pinned with a handmade star-shaped hairpin.

She had rushed over in a flurry, her pale, dainty feet bare, ten toenails painted with cheap yet glittering pink nail polish, curling slightly due to her excitement.

At that moment, Su Xiaoxiao's face carried an unprecedented solemnity and sacredness, as if she were about to read out an imperial edict that would change the world's landscape.

"Hajige! No, Comrade Su Bai." She cleared her throat, her expression serious to the point of being comical. "Just last night, I felt the call from the Will of the World. I, Su Xiaoxiao, have been chosen!"

Su Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, loudly announcing in an aria-like tone, "I am about to awaken and become the legendary magical girl, using love and justice to save this Xinghai City shrouded in the shadow of Monster!"

The room plunged into a brief silence.

Su Bai drank a glass of ice water, suppressing the sultry heat that had risen from his high-intensity workout, yet unable to suppress the eye-roll roiling inside his heart.

"Finished?" he retorted calmly.

"Hajige! What kind of reaction is that!" Su Xiaoxiao stomped her foot in dissatisfaction. "This is a major matter concerning the survival of the world!"

Su Bai sneered and finally spoke, his pace steady, yet every word pierced the heart.

"In your first year of high school, you swore up and down that you transmigrated into a book, that you were an outcast shadow princess of some ancient blood clan, and that to maintain your form in the mortal realm, you needed to drink my blood every month, prettily calling it 'paying rent.' And the result? You swindled three hundred yuan of my living expenses to buy a 'Blood Clan Codex' with illustrations."

Su Xiaoxiao's cheeks flushed slightly.

Without pausing, Su Bai continued his recount, "In your second year, you told me again that you were a Savior returned from the apocalypse, and to cope with future crises, you had to stockpile supplies in advance. Then, you hid all the instant noodles in the house under your bed and almost confiscated my gaming console as a 'strategic resource'."

"Th-that time was an accident!" Su Xiaoxiao's voice grew smaller.

"So," Su Bai walked up to her, puncturing it word by word, "what is this 'magical girl' for this time? Tickets to the newly opened comic convention in the West District? Or the new action figure of your idol, the Dark Dragon Pitch-Black Flame Envoy?"

Ruthlessly exposed, Su Xiaoxiao's face turned beet red. She stiffened her neck and retorted, "Bro! This time is different! This time it's real! I have proof!"

Like someone presenting a treasure, she pulled a brightly covered notebook from behind her back, on which a few large characters were crookedly written in colored pen -- "Magical Girl Superb Transformation Guide (Xiaoxiao's Personally Taught Edition)".

"Look!" Su Xiaoxiao slapped the notebook down onto Su Bai's desk with a "smack" and flipped to a page. "This is the transformation secret the Will of the World communicated to me! As long as you harbor the wish of purity and protection, coupled with specific incantations and poses, you can transform into a magical girl!"

Su Bai glanced at it. A few stick figures were drawn on it, striking poses of off-the-charts cringe, with similarly chūnibyō lines annotated beside them.

"Come on, Bro, I'll teach you!" Without taking no for an answer, Su Xiaoxiao grabbed Su Bai's arm, forcibly making him strike the first pose.

"First, the left hand raised high above the head, pointing toward the firmament, feeling the stellar energy of the universe!"

Su Bai was about to laugh out of anger.

"Then, the right hand draws a heart in front of the chest, chanting the incantation in your mouth."

Su Xiaoxiao demonstrated it herself first, her form standard and emotion abundant, "In the name of love and peace, answer my summons, Star Contract! Light Magical Girl--"

Su Bai perfunctorily gestured, his lips moving without making a sound.

"Bro, louder! Your heart must be sincere! Otherwise the Will of the World won't hear you!"

Su Bai took a deep breath.

Fine, what was the point of arguing with a chūnibyō Hajimei.

Numbly following Su Xiaoxiao's instructions, he struck one cringeworthy pose after another, chanting those incantations that could make one's toes curl enough to build a three-bedroom apartment.

"Starlight, bestow upon me the power of transformation!"

"Moon prism power, make up!"

"Balala energy, shaluoshaluo, little fairy, magical girl transform completely!"

As he chanted, Su Bai calculated in his heart.

This month's student loan repayment date, his sister's tuition for the next semester was still unaccounted for, and the landlord had brought up the rent again last month...

"Bro! Why are you zoning out again!"

Su Xiaoxiao's complaint interrupted Su Bai's thoughts.

He looked at the energetic sister in front of him, the vein on his temple throbbing until he finally lost his last shred of patience.

"Su Xiaoxiao!" With a darkened face, he pushed her away. "Have you finished your summer homework? Have you previewed the practical combat drills for the new semester? Messing around with this nonsense all day, can it be eaten as a meal?"

"Hajige! Why are you so boring! This is faith!"

"Your faith is just for borrowing money to buy tickets." Su Bai coldly ended the topic, pushing her out of his room. "Go write your homework right now, or there won't be any dinner for you."

The door was ruthlessly shut.

Unreconciled outside the door, Su Xiaoxiao patted the door and muttered, "Hmph, mortals who don't understand romance. But... something seems wrong... Holy crap, why didn't you say earlier that this states only girls can become magical girls! Why did I look for my stinky man of a brother! I should go find my best friend instead! She'll definitely understand!"

Thinking of this, she seemed to have her meridians unblocked, her footsteps rapidly fading away.

"Bro! I'm going out! Don't make dinner for me!"

Quiet finally returned to the room.

Su Bai wearily sat on the edge of the bed as his phone screen lit up, revealing a text message notification urging him to pay his student loan.

He sighed and clicked open another app -- Demon Hunter Mutual Aid Alliance.

Just then, a low roar faintly drifted from the edge of the city. Immediately after, outside the window in the cloudless clear sky, an eerie purplish-golden lightning bolt abruptly flashed.

That was the precursor to the descent of a high-tier Monster or the expansion of a dimensional rift.

Sure enough, the Demon Hunting app on his phone immediately popped up with a red alert.

[Emergency Bounty: The trace of an F-tier Monster 'Wanderer' has been discovered in the West District Abandoned Factory of Xinghai City. Threat Level: Low. Bounty: One complete Abyssal Core, settlement price 50,000 Federal Coins.]

Fifty thousand.

Su Bai's pupils instantly locked onto this number.

As a student of Tianqiong University affiliated with the Demon Hunting Bureau, although he was merely a rookie who hadn't graduated yet, he still possessed the qualification to register for hunting F-tier Monsters.

A single F-tier Abyssal Core could resolve the bulk of his urgent needs.

He clicked [Accept Task] without the slightest hesitation.

When he stood up to prepare his equipment, his gaze fell upon the corner of his desk. It was the "Transformation Guide" that Su Xiaoxiao had dropped in her fluster.

Su Bai casually flipped through it.

Living in such a cruel world, he yearned for strength more than anyone else.

Day after day of physical training progressed at a despairing crawl.

What if...

What if this idealistic, unreasonable power truly existed?

Even if there was only a one-in-a-billion chance.

"Seed of Miracle..."

He muttered softly.

This transformation guide stated that the Seed of Miracle was the source of power. In addition, it stipulated that the incantation, posture, and magical girl code name were completely unique, which meant he needed a set of transformations that belonged exclusively to him...

Su Bai inhaled deeply, a suspicious flush appearing on his face, before clearing his throat, stiffly raising his hand to point his fingertips at the ceiling.

"If... the ways of the world are unjust..."

His voice was dry.

He cleared his throat, closed his eyes, and unable to care any longer, Su Bai grabbed into the void with his left hand, tilting his head back 45 degrees.

"I am here... Will... answer me! Bestow upon me the power to vanquish evil and slay demons!"

He struck that brain-dead heart gesture.

"In my name, wield the dark night! Tear apart the illusions, and reign over this world!"

"Magical Girl -- Ziwei -- Transform!"

"..."

"..."

When the final word fell, the entire room plunged into a deathly stillness.

Nothing happened.

"Crazy."

Su Bai opened his eyes and laughed self-deprecatingly.

It really was...

Before the thought could finish flashing, a purplish-golden light, a thousand times more dazzling than the lightning bolt outside the window just moments ago, erupted fiercely from within his body!

Radiant light particles completely swallowed him, and he only felt his body grow light as an irresistible, warm energy flowed through his entire being.

The light dissipated.

Su Bai found that his line of sight had abruptly shot upward, and the once-familiar room seemed to have shrunk somewhat in his eyes.

He lowered his head.

Greeting his vision was metal magical armor overlaid with a purplish-golden luster, its lines elegant yet brimming with power, tightly encasing a tall, curvaceous body he had never seen before, with black silk fabric looming and fading in critical areas.

His hands had also changed, becoming fair and slender, gripping a huge scythe taller than his entire body, its dark golden blade flashing with a heart-palpitating cold light.

A cascade of purplish-golden long hair hung down like a waterfall, a few strands playfully resting before his eyes.

He tried to speak, a cold yet slightly lazy and magnetic mature woman's voice slipping from his throat.

"How... how can this randomly made-up magical girl transformation guide actually transform someone?"