Teacher! I Want to Be a Magical Boy Too!

The next day.

There was a little over a month until school started.

At six in the morning, Su Bai walked down the stairs of Xingfuli Apartment and headed out.

He had already planned his workout route.

He would run fifty kilometers along the greenway circling Xinghai City's eastern district, turn around, and run another fifty kilometers back to where he started.

Su Bai's breathing stayed remarkably steady along the way.

By the end of the hundred kilometers, sweat had soaked through his gray T-shirt, but his legs still held a steady rhythm. His steps never faltered.

It was two in the afternoon when he got home.

Su Bai went straight into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Cold water pounded against his skin. He tilted his head back and let it wash over him.

After his shower, he pulled a clean hoodie from his wardrobe, slipped it on, and headed for the kitchen.

All that remained in the fridge was some bean sprouts he had bought yesterday and a few tomatoes.

He turned on the stove and heated a pan, preparing to make a simple tomato-and-egg stir-fry.

Kabi floated out of the bedroom shadows, his round body bobbing in the air.

He circled Su Bai several times, his beady black eyes full of worry.

"I spent most of last night studying your condition..."

Kabi sounded utterly serious, without a trace of his earlier playfulness.

"The magic power inside you is extremely unstable and chaotic. Its structure is much worse than I thought."

Su Bai cracked an egg into a bowl and whisked it.

"So?"

"So... if you force a transformation, your magic power will go out of control and cause a massive explosion. You'll be blown to pieces."

Kabi floated in front of his face, his tone deadly earnest.

"But if you leave it alone and don't release the excess magic power through combat, it'll run wild and blow you up anyway."

Su Bai poured oil into the pan, his face expressionless.

"So both roads lead to death. Are you a beginner's guide fairy or my executioner?"

"I don't want this either! You're a magical boy who shouldn't even exist!"

Kabi flipped through the air in despair.

"And there's another problem... I need to eat. Fairies feed by absorbing the magic power released during battle. If you go too long without transforming or fighting, I'll fade away too."

Su Bai poured the beaten egg into the hot oil. The pan sizzled at once.

"So I have to transform and fight Monsters."

"Yes, but every transformation is a gamble with your life."

Kabi slumped against the edge of the stove. "Why is this happening to me..."

Just then.

The phone in Su Bai's pocket let out a piercing alarm.

He pulled it out. A highest-level, blood-red alert flashed across the Monster Hunter Mutual Aid App.

[Emergency alert! An invisible dimensional Rift has appeared at the intersection on Xinghai City's commercial street!]

[E-rank Monster "Black-Armored Rhinoceros" has breached the containment line and is attacking civilians!]

[All nearby Demon Hunters, provide immediate support!]

The moment Su Bai saw the coordinates, his breath caught.

That was the block where the bank holding his savings stood.

It was also the old street where Su Xiaoxiao often bought stationery and comics.

She had said she was going there this afternoon.

His eyes turned cold.

Su Bai turned off the stove and tossed the spatula onto the counter.

Then he headed for the balcony.

At the sight of him, Kabi's entire spirit body bristled.

"Are you insane? Transforming now is suicide!"

Su Bai didn't answer.

He gripped the balcony railing with one hand and vaulted over it.

Kabi shrieked and flew out the window after him.

"Su Bai! Calm down! If you transform this time, the backlash from your magic power will make your body explode!"

Night had already fallen.

Su Bai used the dim light to race between the buildings, vaulting from ledge to ledge.

He landed on an outdoor air-conditioning unit and sprang from it to a window ledge across the gap, then climbed onto the roof and kept running.

Kabi floated behind him, struggling to keep up.

"Do you have a death wish? The Monster Hunting Bureau has people there! They can handle it!"

Su Bai didn't look back.

"Like hell they can. They can't stop an E-rank Monster."

Thirty seconds.

Ten kilometers.

Su Bai landed and charged into the commercial district.

The sight before him made his pupils contract.

The entire street had become a ruin.

More than a dozen overturned cars lay scattered across the middle of the road, and the protective barriers had been smashed to powder.

The Monster Hunting Bureau's security formation had long since been broken. Agents in black uniforms lay on the ground, their chest armor crushed inward, blood seeping through the gaps.

At the far end of the street.

A black rhinoceros-like Monster the size of a heavy truck was charging ahead.

A thick horn jutted from its head, and heavy black armor covered its body. Each step cracked the ground in a spiderweb pattern.

An E-rank Black-Armored Rhinoceros.

It raised one enormous hoof, about to bring it down on an overturned white car.

A mother and daughter huddled behind the car, trembling.

The mother wrapped herself around her daughter and closed her eyes in despair.

Kabi screamed in Su Bai's ear.

"You can't transform now! Your magic power is extremely unstable! If you force it out, you'll blow yourself apart!"

Su Bai stood in the shadows at the edge of the street.

He glanced at the mother and daughter.

Then he looked up at the roof of the twenty-story office building beside him.

"Are you listening to me, Su Bai?"

Su Bai leaped onto the fire escape.

He raced upward, his feet striking the rusted metal stairs with dull clangs.

A dozen seconds later, he reached the roof.

The night wind hit his face.

Standing at the roof's edge, Su Bai looked down at the giant Monster rampaging below.

He closed his eyes, pulled off his hoodie with one hand, and tossed it aside.

"By my name, I command the night! Tear apart illusion and reign over this world!"

His voice was icy, every word as sharp as a blade.

"Magical Girl—Ziwei—transform!"

The next second.

A dazzling pillar of purple-gold light erupted from the roof, shooting straight into the sky and illuminating the entire commercial district.

The blinding light made everyone look up.

Within the pillar.

A tall, slender figure slowly emerged.

Long purple-gold hair streamed in the night wind. She wore ornate yet dangerous black lace Magical Armor, and in her hands she held a Dark Gold Giant Scythe taller than she was.

Magical Girl Ziwei.

Had descended once more.

Su Bai's face darkened.

She couldn't be bothered with any flashy magical effects.

Her figure flashed at the roof's edge.

In the next instant, she became a purple-gold blur, plunging straight toward the charging E-rank Black-Armored Rhinoceros.

She gripped the immensely heavy Dark Gold Giant Scythe with both hands.

And used the simplest, most brutal method—

A horizontal slash.

Whoosh!

The blade swept through.

The E-rank Black-Armored Rhinoceros's thick black shell was said to be indestructible. Even standard-issue spirit-energy blades couldn't cut it. Before the Dark Gold Giant Scythe, it was as fragile as paper.

The Monster and its prized armor were sliced cleanly in half at the waist.

Its heavy corpse crashed to the ground, throwing dust into the air.

The whole street fell silent.

Bystanders hiding in the rubble stared, stunned.

The Monster Hunting Bureau agents who had just regained consciousness gaped at the scene, unable to process it.

One strike.

One kill.

Ziwei ignored the stunned stares around her.

She walked to the Monster's corpse, crouched, and deftly dug a faintly glowing dark-red E-rank Abyssal Core out of its flesh. She slipped it into a hidden compartment in her Magical Armor.

Every movement was smooth and purposeful.

Kill the Monster, collect the spoils, and leave.

But just as she turned to go.

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause.

"A Magical Girl! It's Magical Girl Ziwei!"

"She's back!"

"She's incredible! I didn't even see that strike!"

The mother and daughter she had saved were still kneeling on the ground. The mother clutched her daughter tightly, her eyes red.

And at the edge of the crowd.

A high school girl with twin ponytails and a star-shaped hair clip was desperately pushing forward.

Su Xiaoxiao.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes shone with fervor.

She forced her way to the front, stopping less than five meters from Ziwei.

Just as Ziwei turned into a streak of purple-gold light and prepared to soar into the sky—

A faint breeze drifted from her, carrying a delicate floral scent.

Su Xiaoxiao drew in a sharp breath.

She froze where she stood, her cheeks turning bright red.

Then she jerked her head up and shouted with all her strength at the purple-gold streak about to vanish into the night sky.

"Teacher Ziwei! Someday, I'm going to become a Magical Girl too! Someone just like you!"

The purple-gold meteor traced a perfect arc across the night sky.

And vanished from sight.