Lady Ziwei Fan Support Club

Su Bai was about to swallow a mouthful of water when his throat froze for exactly 0.0005 seconds.

He slowly lowered the glass.

His expression gave nothing away. Even his breathing stayed steady.

"So you're saying..."

Su Bai looked at her, his voice utterly flat. "You scribbled a bunch of stick figures in a notebook and summoned someone powerful enough to kill a Tier 2 F-rank monster single-handedly?"

"Bingo~! It's that ridiculous and makes that little sense!"

Su Xiaoxiao sprang to her feet, planted her hands on her hips, and lifted her chin with immense pride.

"But the facts speak for themselves! That's the power of belief! The Will of the World answered my prayers!"

Su Bai stared at her hopelessly over-the-top expression and fell silent for a full three seconds.

"Go do your homework."

"You—!!"

Those four words left Su Xiaoxiao so flustered she nearly forgot to breathe.

But Su Xiaoxiao clearly wasn't that easy to dismiss.

Her eyes narrowed as if she'd remembered something important, and she leaned in again.

"Hajige, tell me the truth. Where did you go last night?"

She studied his face.

"I woke up at ten to use the bathroom. Your room was empty. You weren't home."

Under his T-shirt, Su Bai's back stiffened for an instant.

But his voice still carried the weary flatness of someone who worked for a living.

"I was delivering takeout overtime. There are more bonus orders in the West District late at night."

"The West District?!"

Su Xiaoxiao's voice shot up an octave.

"That's where the big incident happened last night! The West District Abandoned Factory was the center of the monster's arrival!"

Panic seized her. Forgetting her slippers, she jumped up barefoot and circled Su Bai.

Her hands patted him all over as she checked for injuries.

"You didn't run into a high-level monster, did you?! Did you get hurt anywhere?"

Exasperated, Su Bai placed a hand on her head and pushed her back a little.

"No. By the time I rode over, the authorities had already sealed off the intersection. I took a detour home."

Su Xiaoxiao stared into his eyes for several seconds.

Once she was sure he wasn't lying to hide an injury, she let out a long breath.

She collapsed onto the fabric sofa.

"You scared me to death. A weak little bookworm like you, who can't do anything but cook, wouldn't even get away if you met a monster. You'd be the first one eaten."

Su Bai: "..."

Weak little bookworm, my ass.

She really didn't spare anyone's feelings when she put them down.

"Good thing Lady Ziwei was there to protect everyone!"

Su Xiaoxiao patted her chest, that fanatical look returning to her face.

"With someone that powerful watching over the West District, it'll be much safer when you deliver takeout there at night! You should be thanking her from the bottom of your heart!"

Su Bai picked up his glass again and swallowed the last mouthful of now-cool water.

The rim conveniently hid the strange twist of his lips. He couldn't tell whether it was a bitter smile or laughter he was barely holding back.

Eleven o'clock that night.

After showering, Su Bai returned to his room and locked the door behind him.

He sat on the edge of his single bed, unlocked his phone with one hand, and opened the Monster Hunter Mutual Aid Forum's members-only section out of habit.

A bright-red pinned post dominated the homepage.

[Urgent announcement from the Monster Hunting Bureau: Preliminary report on last night's unidentified extraordinary individual at the West District Abandoned Factory.]

Su Bai tapped it and skimmed the contents.

[...The Monster Hunting Bureau is conducting a comprehensive search to determine the true identity of the unidentified extraordinary individual, provisionally designated "Ziwei" by the authorities.]

[Special reward notice: Anyone who passed through the West District during the relevant period and witnessed the incident is asked to contact their local Monster Hunting Bureau branch. A reward of 10,000 Federal Coins will be paid for any verified lead on "Ziwei."]

Su Bai's gaze locked on the words "reward of 10,000" for a full second.

Ten thousand for a lead on Ziwei.

What if Ziwei herself provided the lead?

He even seriously considered whether he could report himself to the Monster Hunting Bureau as the Magical Girl and collect the reward.

He thought about it for a full three seconds.

Only then did reason crush the absurd idea, which would expose his identity and humiliate him beyond recovery.

The authorities were serious this time.

He leaned back against his pillow and kept scrolling through the day's popular posts.

The second was an in-depth analysis.

[A ten-thousand-word deep dive! What species is "Ziwei"? A new stage of human evolution? Or... has a legendary Magical Girl appeared?]

He opened it.

The poster had dug up a pile of formulas from somewhere and written over three thousand words.

The analysis went from the spectral refraction of the violet-gold energy in the surveillance footage all the way to the apparent defiance of gravity in her landing.

Finally, a conclusion appeared in bold red text: "This is absolutely unlike any energy signature in the existing Demon Hunting system. I strongly urge the authorities to seriously consider the seemingly absurd hypothesis that a 'Magical Girl has appeared'!"

The replies had descended into a vicious argument, split into two camps.

Supporters cheered wildly: "Fuck, if Magical Girls are real, does that mean the Land of Light cartoons I watched as a kid were real too?"

Opponents fired back with scorn: "Can you terminally delusional nerds get a grip? A Magical Girl? Why not say she's Ultraman come down from the heavens? She's obviously some kind of highly intelligent monster that changed its appearance!"

Amid the furious exchanges was a reply from a female fan whose writing looked painfully familiar to Su Bai.

Username: "Dark Dragon Pitch-Black Flame Envoy."

"You shortsighted mortals! I've been telling you everywhere that Magical Girls are real! Lady Ziwei's appearance is exactly what I predicted! Anyone who still doesn't believe me can shut up! When the world ends, you won't even get a chance to pray!!"

Su Bai stared at the reply without expression.

He silently turned off his phone and placed it facedown on the bedside table.

His little sister's high-school forum handle.

No matter how well he hid in this world, it seemed he could never escape his sister's all-pervasive fandom.

He would have to keep Su Xiaoxiao away from anywhere connected to Ziwei's activities.

As Su Bai was about to fall asleep, faint, intermittent sounds came from Su Xiaoxiao's room next door.

He hadn't been sleeping well lately, and the noise was more than he could take.

Hajimei's wooden door stood slightly ajar.

Through the gap came her voice on the phone, deliberately hushed but still bursting with excitement.

"Xia Ning! You have to hear me out! Lady Ziwei is absolutely real! She's not some online hoax!"

Su Xiaoxiao sat on her bed wrapped in a blanket, gesturing wildly.

"I'll put together every blurry photo I found online and bring them for you to see! Yes, yes! The one I swore to you was real on the rooftop before summer break—the real Magical Girl!"

"I am not daydreaming! What do you mean my delusions are acting up again?!"

"If you dare question Lady Ziwei's divinity again, I swear I'll show you the dark power sealed in my right hand right now!!"

Su Bai stood in the shadows of the hallway outside her door.

He listened quietly for two seconds, and the corner of his mouth twitched again.

Then he returned to his room without a sound.

The night grew quiet.

Outside the apartment building, only the occasional hiss of tires from a passing car remained.

In the darkness, Su Bai lay in bed when a faint, startling gasp suddenly came from Su Xiaoxiao's room next door.

A sharp crash followed, as though a glass vessel had fallen onto the wooden floor and shattered.

Su Bai's eyes snapped open, his gaze turning razor-sharp.

He slipped out of bed without a sound. Before he reached his door,

an intensely familiar presence that set his heart pounding began to rise slowly... from behind him.