What Did This Magical Boy Have to Fear?

Su Bai's brain froze for a full three seconds.

Then he looked down in shock.

His gaze traveled down his tall, shapely body. The Purple-Gold Lace Magic Outfit felt terrifyingly real as it traced his curves, and sheer black stockings hugged his long legs. His gaze finally reached... a flatness that filled him with despair.

With a trembling hand, he touched the cool, smooth metal armor, then cautiously reached lower.

The one part most essential to being a boy had been optimized away.

Completely optimized away.

"I..."

Su Bai opened his mouth. That cool, mature woman's voice came out again, giving even him goose bumps.

One second, he had been a rough-around-the-edges college student worrying about his student loans. The next, he had become this... this stunning, aloof beauty who had even changed sexes.

The sheer wrongness of it left him dizzy with shock.

Instinctively, he tried to drop the heavy Dark Gold Giant Scythe in his hand. The thing was taller than his entire body now; just looking at it made his wrist ache.

But when he let go, the weapon, which looked as though it weighed at least a hundred pounds, floated lightly above his palm. It never fell, and it felt as light as a plastic rod.

That defied every law of physics he knew.

Su Bai tried to step forward. He had expected to stumble in high heels, but he did not.

Instead, his body slipped free of gravity and floated upward beyond his control. With a soft thunk, the back of his head bumped the ceiling.

Purple-gold motes of magic fell around him like starlight, illuminating the rented bedroom, which was less than ten square meters, as though it were a divine realm.

Suspended in midair, he clenched his fist without thinking. A vast power that made a mockery of the law of conservation of energy flowed through him.

It was fierce and utterly unreasonable, yet it obeyed his every thought.

As a student at Tianqiong University, which was affiliated with the Monster Hunting Bureau, he knew exactly what the textbooks said Demon Hunters at the Germination Stage could do.

They could not hover, and they could not release glowing particles like these.

So this was a Magical Girl?

Before he could investigate further, he lost his balance in midair, and the heel of his shoe tapped the wardrobe beside him.

Click.

A faint, crisp sound.

"Who..."

From the next room came the sound of Su Xiaoxiao rolling over, followed by a muddled mumble.

"Magical Girl... hehe... come have some skewers..."

Su Bai's heart jumped!

Hadn't she said she was going to see her best friend? Why was she still at home, sleeping?

That lying little Hajimei!

Still in midair, Su Bai frantically tried to suppress the magical effects that kept glowing around him beyond his control.

Like an assassin caught in the act, he held his breath, afraid to let even one more mote of light escape.

Thankfully, steady breathing soon came from the next room. She had apparently only been talking in her sleep.

Only then did Su Bai slowly descend to the floor.

His feet touched the old floorboards. As soon as he felt secure again, the suffocating embarrassment he had barely noticed until now swallowed him whole.

He looked at the black-stocking Magical Armor he wore, with its scandalously scant fabric. The purple-gold lace trim was exquisite and eye-catching, while the cutouts across his chest and waist seemed designed to test the limits of human decency.

If I went out dressed like this...

Su Bai shuddered. He could not bear to imagine it.

No. I have to change back, now!

But that damned Transformation Guide only explained how to transform. It said nothing about how to undo it!

As he paced in a panic, the phone on his desk suddenly lit up and began vibrating rapidly in silent mode.

Su Bai awkwardly bent over to take a look.

A full-screen red emergency alert from the Monster Hunter Mutual Aid App filled the screen.

[Emergency notice! F-rank mutation at the West District Abandoned Factory! Official investigation confirms that the F-rank Blood Curse Species Monster has risen to Tier 2!]

Every rank was divided into nine tiers, with Tier 9 being the strongest. Though it was still F-rank, a Tier 2 Blood Curse Species far surpassed a Tier 1 in both vitality and destructive power. It was already beyond what an inexperienced student like him could handle alone.

Then a bounty update appeared at the bottom of the screen.

[The Monster Hunting Bureau's frontline squad is trapped. An urgent request for assistance is now open to all verified hunters! The bounty for killing or helping kill the target has doubled to—100,000 Federal Coins!]

100,000.

Su Bai stared hard at the glaring number on the screen and the string of zeroes after it.

The urge to back out from sheer embarrassment stopped dead.

He turned toward the full-length mirror on the wardrobe.

The woman in the mirror had purple-gold hair down to her waist, a graceful figure, an impossibly beautiful face, and a presence as cold as a frosty moon. But in that revealing outfit, she would be mobbed for photos at a convention.

Walking down the street would be social suicide.

"No. If I go out hunting Monsters looking like this, some shameless influencer might film me and put it online. My dignity as a man would be buried for good..."

His brow furrowed as pride and money waged a brutal war inside him.

One hundred thousand...

That would cover two months of student-loan payments. I could buy Xiaoxiao the new game console she's been talking about forever, and the rest would last until next month's living allowance came in...

But my dignity...

Just then, a new text notification appeared at the top of his phone at the worst possible moment.

"Dear Mr. Su, your remaining student-loan payment for this month is 5,888.00 yuan. Please complete payment by the 25th to avoid affecting your credit record..."

He did not even finish reading it.

The fury of a broke working man kicked the lid right off the coffin marked "dignity."

"I'm doing it!"

Su Bai gripped the enormous Dark Gold Giant Scythe. His cool, distant gaze instantly turned into that of a miser who had spotted a fat sheep—cold and resolute.

He stared at the woman in the mirror, gorgeous to an absurd degree and just as mortifying. A money-hungry smirk spread across that icy beauty's face, looking completely out of place.

"What did this Magical Girl... boy have to fear from a mere hundred thousand in extra cash?"

The night was black as ink.

At the abandoned factory in Xinghai City's West District, flames roared skyward and explosions rang out without end. Among the shattered walls, several Monster Hunting Bureau agents in standard black combat uniforms fell amid the rubble.

All of them were wounded. They gasped for breath, despair written across their faces.

Ahead of them, a Monster as massive as a heavy truck advanced with ponderous steps. Wriggling crimson tentacles covered its body.

F-rank Blood Curse Species, Tier 2.

Every breath it took spewed a foul, dark miasma so corrosive that it melted hissing pits into the concrete.

"Captain... we can't hold out... My Abyssal Energy Gun is out of power..." a young agent said, trembling. A tentacle had slashed his arm open to the bone.

The middle-aged captain gritted his teeth and propped himself up on the broken half of his spirit-energy blade. "Retreat!" he roared. "Call headquarters for backup! This thing is beyond us!"

"Too late..."

The Blood Curse Species' vast shadow had engulfed them. Dozens of crimson tentacles shot toward them from every direction like arrows loosed from a bow, shrieking through the air.

This is it.

Every agent closed their eyes, ready to die.

Just as their defenses collapsed, the clouds high above were torn apart by a force that refused to be denied.

A blinding purple-gold meteor hurtled toward the center of the battlefield, carrying a terrifying pressure beyond words!