Transformation! Magical Girl

"I knew it!"

Joker Man's wild laughter never stopped, even though Peacemaker had already slaughtered every one of his subordinates with his laser vision.

Unlike other supervillains, Joker Man had never displayed any superpowers since the day he made his debut.

But while his strength was another matter, when it came to notoriety, Joker Man was practically the Sun Xiaochuan of supervillains, because he had pulled so many stunts.

They included, but were not limited to, the Twin Towers incident, the burning of Notre-Dame de Paris, the theft at the Louvre, and the shooting of a presidential candidate.

There was also the time he attacked porn sites worldwide, grounding the world's pilots for an entire week, and so on...

More importantly, Joker Man seemed impossible to kill.

Every time the media and superheroes declared him dead, he would always announce his comeback shortly afterward and commit another earth-shattering crime.

That was why Peacemaker had cut Joker Man off with a laser as soon as he saw him, too impatient to listen.

He wasn't that obsessive maniac who stuck to a no-killing rule, and he had no interest in playing vigilante games with Joker Man.

By now, Joker Man had laughed enough. He raised his arm, which had been severed by the laser, and waved it in front of himself:

"If I remember correctly, Mr. Peacemaker, you don't have a biofield that can lift an airplane, do you? So how are you going to save all the ordinary people on this plane?"

He had planted more than one livestreaming phone on the plane.

So the moment Peacemaker made his move, the comments in the dark web livestream exploded.

"Yeah! Hahaha! Nice shot!"

"Fuck you, Joker Man! Now you know who's got the biggest laser! Hahaha! Next to Peacemaker, you're worse than a stray dog on the street!"

"Wait, the bomb went off. What about everyone on the plane?"

"Obviously, they're all Mamba OUT. Peacemaker doesn't have a biofield, so he can't lift the plane. At best, he can use his super speed to save a few people."

"No, I don't want that cutie from earlier to die just like that! Peacemaker, can't you save him?"

"Amen... What a pity I'm not there, or I'd use the power God gave me to save everyone."

"Who the fuck are you? What a show-off!"

Peacemaker, who had been busy rushing over, had no idea that Joker Man was livestreaming. He simply walked up to him with a cold expression.

He grabbed Joker Man by the collar, lifted him up, and punched him.

Bang!

Blood splattered everywhere, and Peacemaker's punch caved in Joker Man's face.

But Joker Man still stretched his mouth into a grin. "Hee hee, you can't save them, Peacemaker."

"You're the one who killed everyone on this plane!"

"But I can kill you first!" Peacemaker's voice was icy, and his eyes glowed.

The next second, two scorching laser beams instantly pierced Joker Man's head and blew it apart, leaving only a headless corpse to crumple to the floor.

"Aaaaaah!"

Everyone on the plane was scared out of their wits, because the Peacemaker before them was nothing like the one Colossus Company promoted.

In the promotional videos, Peacemaker was the embodiment of justice, a Superman of tomorrow who maintained world peace, with a radiant smile and a kind manner.

But the man standing before them now was an executioner through and through.

Peacemaker wiped the blood from his chin, and the red glow in his eyes slowly faded. Hearing the passengers scream, he looked a little impatient.

"Quiet!"

The crowd kept screaming.

"I said... quiet!"

At his shout, Peacemaker's eyes glowed red again, instantly frightening the passengers into silence.

The comments in the dark web livestream flooded the screen once more:

"All right, Joker Man is OUT, and now the pressure's on Peacemaker. What's he going to do? Save people one by one before the plane crashes?"

"Don't make your Uncle Peacemaker laugh. Everyone on that plane is as good as dead. He cares about his reputation more than anything, so he'll either save them all or save none of them."

"What do you mean? Isn't Peacemaker the most righteous superhero?"

"...?? Oh my god, lady, is this your first time on the dark web? Dig around in here yourself. There's more dirt on Peacemaker than all the ore I've mined this year."

"Manipulating public opinion, standing by while people die, torturing and killing petty criminals, racism, sexism, workplace casting couches, blah blah blah... Only his brain-dead fans who don't go online still think he's a champion of justice."

"I don't believe it!"

Back to the matter at hand.

Watching Peacemaker's glowing eyes, Mo Zhen knew the man definitely wouldn't save them. He had better think of a way to save himself.

"Don't worry, everyone. I'll go outside and assess the situation, then find a way to land the plane safely on the sea!"

As he spoke, Peacemaker had already opened the cabin door.

"Peacemaker! Are you abandoning us?!"

"Peacemaker! We're your fans!"

Some passengers who realized something was wrong cried out, begging him to stay, but Peacemaker merely rolled his eyes as he turned away.

Of all the superheroes who had played Joker Man's choice game, not one had ever won. The only difference was whether they lost their left hand or their right.

That was why Peacemaker had refused to choose from the very beginning.

Because he knew perfectly well that the moment Joker Man appeared on the plane, the passengers were doomed no matter what decision he made.

Rather than waste time, he might as well just shoot him dead with his laser vision.

After closing the cabin door again, Peacemaker stood high above the clouds with one hand behind his back, watching the smoking, out-of-control plane plunge toward the sea.

His gaze was calm and indifferent, as though he were an uninvolved bystander.

But suddenly, he received a phone call.

"Peacemaker! What have you done?! Did you know Joker Man was livestreaming the whole time?!"

"A livestream? Fuck!"

Peacemaker froze, then raised a hand to rub his forehead. He gritted his teeth, his expression visibly changing, and immediately gave an order:

"I hate this fucking internet society!"

"Ashley! Shut that livestream down, now!"

"It's already shut down! But it's too late. The whole world is watching this plane now, waiting to see how you save the people on it!"

Ashley, the PR manager on the other end of the line, sounded anxious:

"Listen, Peacemaker, the best thing you can do now is save one or two people from the plane. Once you're back on land, say there was nothing more you could do, that you did your best to save them but couldn't do more, and that Joker Man is to blame. Then leave the rest to the PR department. Do you understand?"

"Fuck!"

Peacemaker cursed under his breath when he heard that.

He had originally intended to appear afterward and claim he had arrived too late, pinning all the blame for the crash on Joker Man.

That way, he could also use the resulting publicity to increase Colossus Company's influence within the government.

But because of the livestream, he now had to put on a show of "doing his best to save people," or his public approval rating would inevitably plummet.

That was unacceptable to Peacemaker.

Glancing back at the plane, which had already plunged into the clouds, Peacemaker whipped his cape around and rushed after it.

Meanwhile, Mo Zhen, still aboard the plane, had placed all his hopes on the game he had written in his previous life.

[Enter your Domain of the Heart?]

[Note: Every magical girl is born with a Domain of the Heart of her own. Close your eyes to immerse your consciousness in it.]

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Mo Zhen closed his eyes. His consciousness flashed, and the next second he arrived in an unfamiliar but very warm place: the safe house from the simulation game.

The place was quiet. The sea stretched to meet the sky, its surface reflecting the heavens like a mirror.

A young sapling grew at the very center of the domain.

The sapling was only about a meter tall, with a slender trunk and branches.

In the game Mo Zhen had developed in his previous life, the sapling was called the Tree of Calamity. It housed the soul core of the game's protagonist, the Witch of Calamity.

After losing a mission or dying, the Witch of Calamity would be reborn beneath this tree. To put it plainly, it was a respawn point in the game.

But he still wasn't sure whether he could revive an unlimited number of times as he could in the game.

[Dear Miss Witch, you have received a beginner's gift pack: one random villain ability.]

The system notification appeared again.

Mo Zhen immediately opened the gift pack in the panel.

In his previous life, he had only finished the game's underlying framework and hadn't yet perfected the rewards that would come later. It seemed the system had filled them in itself.

[You have obtained: Cursed Technique: Malevolent Shrine.]

[Cursed Technique: Malevolent Shrine: The Innate Technique of Sukuna, the King of Curses from another world. "Dismantle" and "Cleave" are its most basic attacks. It also possesses a second, flame attribute and has great potential for development.]

"Ryomen Sukuna's Cursed Technique? This ability has a pretty good floor and ceiling, but it depends a lot on magic power boosts. Still, having it is better than nothing."

With a plane crash looming, Mo Zhen had no time to think further.

[Transform...]

A thought from within his heart appeared as text.

Mo Zhen raised his left hand. A mass of twisted black magic power churned in his palm.

"Lady Witch, please think of a release phrase for your transformation. Then you can return to reality and complete it."

A small crow, black all over, slowly landed on Mo Zhen's shoulder and tilted its little head at him.

This was the guide that came with the raising system, as well as the Witch of Calamity's companion spirit.

Mo Zhen's consciousness returned to reality.

Boom!!!

Joker Man's bomb had detonated the plane's fuel tank, causing a second explosion that tore the plane apart in midair, breaking it cleanly in two.

Countless passengers were swept into the air.

Mo Zhen, who hadn't fastened his seat belt, was swept out as well.

Black smoke billowed, and the wind howled.

As he fell, he hurriedly raised his left hand and aimed at the wreckage of a wing hurtling straight toward him.

"Dismantle!"

That was her magic power release phrase.

Whoosh!

An invisible slash swept across the world like a brushstroke from beyond the canvas, neatly slicing the enormous piece of wreckage in two in midair.

"Dismantle": Malevolent Shrine's basic slash. It was invisible and formless, and its power rose or fell according to the magic power its user poured into it.

"Hmm?"

Peacemaker, flying in from a distance, suddenly frowned. With his strength, he could naturally detect the unusual flow of magic power.

Was that... a magical girl?

Long, grayish-white hair streamed through the air as a gray-haired, red-eyed girl turned and emerged from the black smoke.

It was Mo Zhen.

Her fall gradually slowed, her skirt fluttering, until she finally freed herself from weightlessness.

She had only just learned to levitate using magic power, so she hadn't fully adjusted to it yet.

I'm finally safe...

Wait, someone's there?

Mo Zhen suddenly turned, and her gaze met that of the man with his back to the sun. She immediately broke out in a sweat.

Why did Peacemaker suddenly come back? Is he here to kill the witnesses?

With the power she had only just awakened, she was definitely no match for him.

What do I do...?

Run?

But I don't know how to fly at all. I'm only staying afloat with magic power for now.

What do I do, what do I do...

Just as she was growing increasingly nervous, Peacemaker suddenly smiled at Mo Zhen.

"I see. So you're a newly born magical girl who awakened under the terror of a plane crash?"

After seeing the magical girl who had appeared out of nowhere, Peacemaker suddenly had a great idea for promoting himself and cleaning up his image.

No matter where they were, magical girls were synonymous with love and miracles.

If he saved a few ordinary people, the news and reporters would mention it at most, and viewers would forget it as soon as they turned away, continuing to curse him as before.

But if he saved a magical girl who had been kidnapped and held captive by Joker Man, the effect would be entirely different.