The Exhausted Magical Girl

The night sky was vast and dark.

A brilliant purple-and-gold meteor streaked across the sky above Xinghai City at a terrifying speed.

A fierce rush of air slammed into her face, making it hard to keep her eyes open.

Magical Girl Ziwei flew hundreds of meters above the ground at high speed.

She glanced down at her Magical Armor, which was alarmingly short on fabric, and her mouth twitched.

"Flying this fast in so little clothing? What was wrong with whoever designed this outfit?"

She shouted her complaints into the night wind in a cool, languid voice.

The gale whipped up her skirt, letting the cold night air rush straight in.

No matter how strong her magic was, the black stockings on her legs could not keep out the chill at that altitude. Goosebumps even rose across her skin.

She could only lower herself as much as possible, hoping to stay out of sight of anyone below.

But the attempt was pointless.

Purple-and-gold particles of light drifted wildly from her body, completely beyond her control.

She was glowing like a thousand-watt searchlight.

Fighting the wind, she shouted another irritated complaint.

"Why the hell am I putting on a light show in the middle of the night? I'm a walking target!"

With no other option, she gritted her teeth and kept flying.

Then the phone tucked into a hidden pocket of her Magical Armor suddenly began vibrating like mad.

She finally managed to pull it out. The screen was lit.

On the Monster Hunter Mutual Aid App, the blood-red bounty notification had changed completely.

A line of large text now displayed the mission status.

[An unidentified Demon Hunter has intervened with overwhelming force. The "West District Abandoned Factory" mission has been locked. Settlement suspended!]

"Settlement suspended?"

Ziwei's beautiful eyes widened, and her voice shot up an octave in alarm.

"No! My hundred thousand yuan!"

Before she could tap for details, a trending news alert popped up at the top of her phone.

#Unidentified Purple-and-Gold Flying Object Spotted Above Xinghai City#

It came with a blurry photo taken on a phone at night.

In the center of the picture, a purple-and-gold streak cut across the night sky over the West District.

She opened the comments and took a look. The posts were already flooding in.

"Look over by the West District Abandoned Factory!"

"Those effects have to mean a super-powerful Demon Hunter has arrived!"

"Bullshit. What Demon Hunter has effects that flashy? And what Demon Hunter is that cute? It's a Magical Girl!"

After reading the comments, she could feel her blood pressure soaring. Her temple even throbbed twice.

"Don't these people have anything better to do than stay up posting at night? Why does everything have to start trending?"

Her sense of danger shot through the roof.

If she kept floating around like this, sooner or later someone would point a telephoto lens at her and take a whole set of ultra-high-definition photos.

She had to undo the transformation immediately.

She stopped in midair, forced her eyes shut, and focused with all her might.

"Turn back into Su Bai... Turn back into a man..."

She repeated the words frantically.

More than ten seconds passed. The night wind still chilled her thighs, and her body did not change at all.

She opened her eyes in frustration and hurled the dark-gold scythe toward the ground.

The moment it left her hand, the scythe spun in the air and obediently returned to her palm.

"Don't you know you're supposed to go back where you came from, you piece of junk?"

She grabbed the lace of her Magical Armor and tugged hard.

The fabric did not even wrinkle.

"What kind of ridiculous design is this? At least give me a logout button!"

In the night wind, Ziwei gritted her teeth and decided she had nothing left to lose.

She drew a deep breath and declaimed to the empty sky.

"Magical Girl Ziwei—release transformation!"

Her voice carried all the way down to an old alley below.

A stray calico cat beside a trash can looked up at her, then went back to searching for fish bones.

Apart from utterly humiliating herself high above the ground, she achieved nothing.

Ziwei's cool expression collapsed. Her beautiful eyes became two flat lines of despair.

"They didn't even give me an instruction manual. What a scam."

Just as despair filled her, a strange emptiness welled up inside her body.

It was an overwhelming, unmistakable hunger.

"Grrr..."

An incredibly loud growl came from the stomach of her curvaceous body.

Paired with her current outfit, the sound seemed absurdly out of place.

"I'm so hungry..."

She clutched her stomach. The muscles in her arms and legs began to ache and weaken, with no way to stop it.

Her vision doubled and blurred for several seconds.

The magic inside her, once powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth, was now draining away at an accelerating pace.

Her mind raced, and she quickly realized why.

When she had gone out Demon Hunting a few hours earlier, all she had eaten was a bowl of instant noodles made with boiling water in her kitchen.

The transformation was not sustained by some mysterious energy from another dimension.

It was furiously consuming the host's own fat and calories.

The dazzling purple-and-gold glow finally became unstable.

Particles of light turned into solid fragments and peeled away from her flawless skin in sheets.

The ornate lace Magical Armor, the heavy dark-gold scythe, and the waist-length purple-and-gold hair—

All the armaments that embodied that power vanished as the light fell apart.

The instant the magic stopped holding her up, gravity took control again.

Her body plunged, and her feet slammed into the rough concrete.

Su Bai returned to his original appearance.

A charcoal-gray hoodie, sweatpants faded from washing, and a pair of sneakers with worn-down soles.

Before he could even catch his breath, he looked down and stared at his body.

His chest was flat.

Still not reassured, he reached down and checked the most important place.

"Still there. Everything's still there."

He let out a long breath. His heart finally settled back into place.

Beneath the night sky, he raised his head and looked around.

This was not his home at all, but the rooftop of an unfamiliar, aging apartment building.

He took out his phone and checked his location. The map showed that he was at least three kilometers from home.

Then his legs began trembling uncontrollably, all strength draining from them.

"Three kilometers... I have to drag myself home when I'm starving and can barely stand? Just kill me now."