The White Dragon Blue-Eyes King

It was the weekend.

Battle footage of "Star Magical Girl Mint" had taken over every major platform online.

Countless bystanders had filmed the pink pillar of light piercing the roof of the light-rail tunnel, along with the stirring sight of the girl swinging her staff to bring down a spiraling Windburst, and uploaded the footage from every angle.

In just two days, the videos had racked up tens of millions of views.

The Monster Hunting Bureau went on high alert.

Within forty-eight hours, its official account issued three top-level red alerts.

"Official notice: the recently emerged, unregistered group known as the 'Star Magical Girls' is extremely dangerous!"

"Citizens, especially young women, are warned: do not fall for this group's brainwashing recruitment slogans!"

"Participation in any private training program operating under this group's name is strictly forbidden! All funds connected to such activities will be confiscated, and those involved will face legal consequences!"

The harder the authorities tried to suppress it, the more enthusiasm grew.

A rebellious spirit spread like wildfire through a city that had spent far too long under the shadow of Monsters.

Su Bai sat at his bedroom desk, watching the news updates flash across his screen. A hint of wariness entered his eyes.

This much attention couldn't be good.

If the Monster Hunting Bureau decided to declare the Star Organization illegal and wipe it out, he'd be in serious trouble.

He needed to cool things down.

Su Bai opened the Demon Hunter Forum.

He switched IP addresses, wiped his tracks, and registered a fresh account at lightning speed.

Username: "White Dragon Blue-Eyes King."

He had just finished filling out the account details and was about to steer the conversation on the forum when—

The old backup phone he kept in his desk drawer for handling shady transactions gave a short buzz.

The screen lit up.

An automatic notification had arrived from an overseas encrypted chat app.

"The Starcoin crypto wallet linked to your name has just received a deposit."

Su Bai didn't get particularly excited.

Probably another anime-obsessed kid who'd watched the video and scraped a few hundred out of his allowance for a "support donation."

He casually unlocked the phone and opened the transaction details.

His eyes landed on the latest figure.

Su Bai stopped breathing.

His pupils widened.

Seven digits?!

A full million Starcoins.

At the current exchange rate, that was seven million Federal Coins!!!

Holy shit!

That was enough to buy a luxury penthouse duplex in the most prosperous part of Xinghai City!

The transfer came with a single-line message.

"Thank you, Lady Ziwei, for saving my life. Please accept this modest contribution to the organization's development. I look forward to the day I can fight alongside you. —C."

Su Bai stared at the message.

C?

He ran through everyone he'd saved recently.

The mother and daughter on the plane? The tourists at the resort he hadn't gotten the chance to help?

There were too many... I can't remember...

Su Bai looked at the string of digits in his account, enough to make him financially independent overnight.

He swallowed hard.

He had never felt so torn.

Reason told him that if he didn't cool the hype now, the Star Organization would become too conspicuous for its own good.

But the money told him something else.

That's a real million Starcoins! And there might be another million after that!

Su Bai made his decision.

He would still steer the conversation, but with a "gentle smear campaign."

He had to ease the heat enough to placate the authorities while preserving the Star Magical Girls' mystique, so wealthy believers would still see them as an "elite faith understood by only a select few."

"..."

Su Bai took control of his freshly registered account, "White Dragon Blue-Eyes King."

He went straight to the hottest thread on the forum: the "Ziwei Fan Club" thread created by Su Xiaoxiao under her account, "Dark Dragon Pitch-Black Flame Envoy."

Su Bai flexed his fingers.

He pulled up the keyboard and let loose.

"Don't let those flashy effects fool you! The Star Organization? What a joke! Are you people for real?"

"Magical Girls? In this brutal age crawling with Monsters? They're just desperate criminals with mutated supernatural powers, using 'salvation' as a cover for their scams!"

"Wake up! Their fighting is crude as hell. They're obviously an untrained, rogue Demon Hunting squad! Follow a group like that, and you'll end up in the abyss!"

He hit Enter.

Sent.

Su Bai leaned back in his chair.

Surely a measured, skeptical comment like that would spark some rational discussion.

As it turned out, he had badly underestimated the fighting power of people with terminal cases of anime-brain.

In less than thirty seconds—

The notification counter above his comment exploded to "99+."

Replies piled up faster than he could follow.

Leading the charge was Su Xiaoxiao's main account, "Dark Dragon Pitch-Black Flame Envoy."

"What sewer rat crawled in here to whine? Do you even know what faith is? Have you ever seen Lady Ziwei's magnificent arrival to purge evil?"

Right behind her came another familiar username: "Whispers of the Wind."

That was Xia Ning's alt account.

"The ignorant know no fear. How could a coward hiding behind a screen like you understand the light of the stars? You don't even have the courage to look a Monster in the eye, and you think you can judge the Star Magical Girls' battles?"

Those two accounts sounded the charge.

Thousands of fervent fans flooded Su Bai's comment section.

"Typical bitter hater! Can't stand seeing anyone with the power of conviction!"

"So what if they're a rogue Demon Hunting squad? Lady Mint took down a Monster the authorities couldn't beat in one move! That's power on a whole different level, get it?"

"Report this rabid dog! Mods, hurry up and investigate his IP address!"

At first—

Su Bai found it funny. He was ready to trade a few blows with these brats on the keyboard.

But he soon realized his mistake.

Su Bai had once considered himself unbeatable in the flame-war sections of every major gaming forum.

Yet faced with a tightly organized guard of Magical Girl fans led by two terminally anime-obsessed girls—

He was bombarded with denunciations and dramatic anime catchphrases.

He couldn't get a word in.

He had barely typed, "You have to be logical..." when dozens of replies came flying back: "Faith needs no logic! Only a pure heart can see the light!"

Su Bai's fingers hovered over the keyboard as he watched the fanatical insults race across the screen.

His chest tightened with anger.

"These people... They're beyond saving!"

Fuming, Su Bai threw his phone and mouse onto the bed.

What a miserable way to make money! Getting torn apart by my own Magical Girls and their rabid fans!

He was about to head to the kitchen for a glass of cold water to calm down when—

Kabi, who had been dozing on the bedside table, suddenly shuddered.

"Master!"

Kabi's voice was sharper and more panicked than Su Bai had ever heard.

"I'm detecting an extremely concentrated dimensional Rift tearing open above Xinghai City!"

"The energy fluctuations have exceeded the maximum threshold!"

Kabi flew up in front of Su Bai.

"I'm afraid... the first great cataclysm since the start of the Deep Space Era is upon us!"

Su Bai turned toward the window. Rolling blood-red clouds were swallowing the once-clear sky before his eyes.

His pupils contracted slightly.

"Huh?"