The Whole City Was Waving Their Hands
Ziwei chuckled inwardly; this little devil was bewitching.
She knew this girl's thought process all too well.
If the truth were to come out that her brother had turned back into a man, Su Xiaoxiao's first reaction would definitely be that he had been possessed by some strange parasite.
The next step is to call the Monster Hunting Bureau and beg them to clean her brother's brain.
Let's make a bet.
Ziwei thought to herself, "I won't undo my transformation. I'll tell her now. If she doesn't believe me, then you'll have to halve the amount of Magic Power you're leaking."
"What if she believes it?"
"If she believes me, what do I have to lose to you?"
"Master, this bet is fundamentally unfair."
Ziwei ignored it and looked up at the Starshine.
"Starshine."
"Exist!"
"Your brother is me."
The streetlight crackled and popped.
Starshine gaped, the short staff falling from its left hand to its right, then back to its left.
She stared at Ziwei, her gaze moving from the purple-gold hair to the dark gold scythe, and then back to that unreasonably beautiful face.
"Ha..."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
She laughed so hard she bent over, one hand holding onto the lamppost.
"Teacher Ziwei... I didn't know you could joke around!"
She wiped away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes. "What's the difference between this and some random middle-aged man on the street claiming to be the leader of Magical Girl organization and asking you to transfer 500 yuan as a membership fee?"
"..."
"Then I'll declare myself to be the Will of the World!"
Starshine laughed until she was panting, completely unaware that her mentor's expression was growing increasingly cold.
"Master," Kabi's voice trailed off, "Am I going to go hungry next month?"
"A bet's a bet."
"The joke is over."
Ziwei regained her usual calm tone, "I promise you about the training. From now on, I'll assign you tasks through the Star App's organization channel, and you'll submit reports after completing them."
"Yes!"
The Starshine immediately stood up straight.
"Go home now. Before deactivating your transformation, make sure there's no one within 500 meters."
A pale golden light rose into the night sky, wobbling as it flew towards the city.
It was 11 p. m. at the entrance of the emergency building of Xinghai Third People's Hospital.
Before that, Su Bai returned to the Cloud Summit Palace.
The Storage Magic Device, along with the C-Rank Abyssal Core, the spine, and the bundle of barbs, was all locked in the vault on the third underground level.
He only had his student ID, two textbooks, and a regular pen on him.
The abrasions on my arm are real.
He registered for emergency care and asked the nurse on duty to put two gauze pads on his face.
"Elder brother--!"
Su Xiaoxiao jumped out of the taxi, stopped a meter in front of him, and looked him up and down three times.
"You... you're not dead?"
"... Who curses someone to death?"
"Brother... that's not what I meant..."
Su Bai raised his arm, which was covered in gauze. "It was just a scrape. Later, I got buried for a bit, and the Magical Girl Ziwei you admired dug me out and casually tossed me into the ambulance."
Su Xiaoxiao stared at the two pieces of gauze, pursed her lips, and turned her face away.
"Who's worried about you?"
She put her hands in her hoodie pockets. "Don't run around like that again! With your small frame, you're trying to be a hero and save the damsel in distress. If you bury yourself again next time, I won't dig you up."
On the taxi ride home, Su Xiaoxiao's phone rang.
"Xiaoxiao, I'm fine. I just scraped my leg. The ambulance has already taken me back to my dorm. You should get some rest too. --Qingqing"
Su Xiaoxiao let out a long sigh of relief and sank into her seat.
Seven o'clock the next morning.
Su Xiaoxiao left home early because she needed to prepare for her school exams.
Su Bai had just put on his hoodie when his phone received a message.
"Brother, I'm going to see Teacher Ziwei today, don't delay my cultivation."
He tied his shoelaces with one hand and replied with the other:
"You're even bringing up Magical Girl when you're bragging? Do you think you can just see Ziwei whenever you want?"
After sending it, I went out.
Tianqiong University, First Lesson: Emergency Response to Rift Disasters
The teacher on the podium, Mr. Sun, is a retired logistics officer from the Monster Hunting Bureau who never looks at his notes when lecturing.
The projection screen displayed an aerial view of the commercial street from the previous night. In the center of the ruins, there were remnants of a purple-gold Barrier, with a light gold-pink ripple floating around it.
"This one cannot be found in the archives."
Teacher Sun pointed a laser pointer at the pink area, saying, "The Monster Hunting Bureau has tentatively designated it as 'Second Frequency.' Remember this when you're reviewing; it might be on the final exam."
There was a chorus of notebook flipping through the pages below.
Su Bai sat in the last row, scribbling idly on his notebook, too lazy to listen.
When the break between classes arrived, two vehicles belonging to the Monster Hunting Bureau were parked outside the teaching building.
Liang Bing did not enter the classroom.
She led three technicians: one in the teaching building lobby, one at the entrance of the broadcasting station, and one who lifted the manhole cover by the playground and set up the testing equipment one by one.
Her stated purpose for coming was to assist the school in conducting a disaster recovery review.
Su Bai leaned against the window in the corridor; her normal 300-degree vision was enough to see the tablet in her hand clearly.
The screen displays a newly created file:
"Key targets for observation."
"One, Starshine. Light system, new frequency band, first appeared in the commercial street last night."
"Second, Azure Gale. Wind element, melee, gauntlet-wielding, appeared once in the back mountain of Tianqiong University."
The name "Azure Gale" was given to the mountain by a netizen after a student who was jogging at night took a picture of a green pillar of wind on the back mountain the day before yesterday.
Ye Qingqing was overjoyed after seeing it on the organization's channel and immediately claimed it.
The "real identity" field after both code names was left blank.
"Master, she's collecting the remnants."
Kabi whispered, "Last night, Headquarters gave the Second Frequency a red flag, demanding the frequency band files be submitted within three days. She's disobeyed orders twice already; if she can't produce anything this time, she won't be able to explain it to the higher-ups."
Su Bai nodded.
Liang Bing isn't investigating people; she's investigating traces.
Traces are much harder to fake than people.
"There's one more thing."
Kabi's voice suddenly tightened, "Master, please check the Fan Support Club group."
Su Bai swiped open her phone.
Su Xiaoxiao posted a "Starshine Awakening Memorial Page" around 2 AM last night.
She didn't mention herself, but only, as the president, she praised the pale golden light from last night to the heavens, and at the end, she attached a transformation line from the Guide, Seventh Edition, along with a hand-drawn breakdown of the movements.
It has been reposted more than 3,000 times.
In group chats, forums, and short video platforms, fans are everywhere imitating it.
Some people recited their lines in front of a mirror, some practiced the hand-raising and spinning movements in the back of the classroom, and some even added homemade background music.
"These repetitive actions and lines are layered together."
Kabi's voice was low, "Very weak, but forming an echo of collective desire. The center of the echo... is Xinghai Girls’ School."
Xinghai Girls’ School is the best all-girls school in the city, and Su Xiaoxiao attends it.
That guide can help people awaken, depending on how many people believe in it and how genuinely they believe.
Conversely, so many people make wishes upon the same line of dialogue, and their wishes all point to the same place.
Monster don't even need to find their way to the Star Wish anymore.
Before the second class began, Su Bai knocked on the teacher's office door.
"I'm not feeling well; I was buried in the shopping street last night."
He handed over the hospital's emergency room form and leave slip together.
The teacher glanced at the bandage on his arm and signed the papers.
He walked out of the teaching building with his textbooks in his hand. He didn't transform or speed up; he mingled with the crowd heading to the cafeteria and walked step by step toward the east gate.