Chapter 1: Absurdity and the Helplessness of Fate

Guiyun City.

3 a.m.

Stumbling out of the company building, Ye Jinyi dragged his exhausted body along the path leading home, dazed and barely conscious.

“Working every single day, pulling overtime every single day—who the hell can take this kind of life?!”

Today was the first day of the lunar calendar, the beginning of a new year, but none of that had anything to do with him.

As a member of the “Heavenly Court,” mortal holidays were far beneath his status.

Well, technically, he was Ye Jinyi, a low-level employee at a subsidiary of the massive Heavenly Court Group.

When others were eating, he was working.

When others were lighting fireworks, he was working.

When others were sleeping, he was still working.

Snowflakes drifted down around him.

Ye Jinyi looked up and seemed to catch sight of a few magical girls flying off into the distance—probably to clear out some disaster or another?

Sure enough, mortal holidays had nothing to do with immortals like them.

But the sad part was—Ye Jinyi’s body was still that of a mortal.

He reached out his hand to touch the falling snowflakes.

For some reason, they felt strangely warm.

“You guys are the best… at least you’re willing to keep me company on the way home.”

Only at times like this could Ye Jinyi truly feel like he existed in this world.

Compared to his coworkers who completely ignored him, at least the snow was willing to touch him, even if just for a moment.

Crunch, crunch.

His footsteps echoed in the snow as he walked with his head down—until a faint red glow in the snow caught his eye and made him stop in his tracks.

What’s that?

Before he could react, that glimmer of red shot up from the snow and landed squarely on the ring finger of his left hand.

“Huh?”

Ye Jinyi stared at the ring that had flown onto his finger, stunned and frozen on the spot.

Coming to his senses, he quickly tried to pull it off—but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn’t budge.

In the next instant, the ruby at the center of the ring shattered, and the fragments quickly dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind an exquisitely detailed red rose.

Ye Jinyi was still struggling to break free, but in a flash, a blazing fire rose—identical to the rose on the ring—suddenly bloomed.

Before he could react, it engulfed his entire body.

Then it collapsed inward, shrinking down until nothing was left but a speck of light.

The searing heat from the blaze melted away all the snow and ice in the city—and instantly caught the attention of every magical girl nearby.

“What is that?”

Xing Wei’s eyes locked on the spectrum that flashed across the night sky.

She quickly flipped through everything she knew in her mind—until she remembered something she had only seen once, in an old classified file.

“The Flame That Burns the World!”

Xing Wei immediately pulled out her phone, opened the official magical girl website, and issued an emergency alert—then flew at full speed toward the epicenter of the light.

The Flame that Burns the World—history’s one and only world-level catastrophe.

Twenty-five years ago, this catastrophe claimed the lives of five hundred million people, and took with it three-quarters of the world’s magical girls at the time.

Humanity had once recorded the temperature of this inferno with their very lives—141.6 decillion degrees Celsius.

A temperature that had existed only on mathematical drafts two centuries ago, a theoretical absolute high.

No one wanted it to return.

They only hoped it would remain buried in history forever.

“We can’t let it wreak havoc on the world again!”

That was Xing Wei’s thought—and any person with a conscience would feel the same.

The speck of light began to reshape.

Flames sketched out the outline of its owner.

Atop the fire, extreme frost condensed into pale flesh, while the raging fire within formed blood and life.

At the very end, a massive rose bloomed beneath her feet, wrapping around the half-formed body, then contracting.

What remained was a girl in winter clothing, standing at the spot.

On the ring finger of her left hand was the red rose ring that had flown onto Ye Jinyi’s finger.

“Hmm…”

The girl slowly opened her eyes, not yet able to grasp what was happening.

She vaguely remembered getting off work and heading home…

So why was she standing here?

“What… was I just doing?”

Well?

The girl heard her own voice and immediately began to inspect her body.

“Huh? I… turned into… a loli?!”

The memory of the ring suddenly returned.

She hurriedly looked down at her left hand.

The ring was still there on her finger.

“Shit!”

The girl was certain—she was Ye Jinyi.

And clearly, whatever the hell was going on now had everything to do with this cursed ring!

BOOM!!

Before Ye Jinyi could even process the fact that she had turned into a little girl, a beam of light shot past her.

With a loud bang, the asphalt road nearby exploded into chunks, scattering debris right past her eyes.

Before she could react, another beam of light struck, blasting up even more debris from the street near her.

Ye Jinyi forced herself to stay calm, stiffly turning her head toward the source of the light.

A magical girl?!

But before she could figure out why she was being attacked, a third beam shot down from the airborne girl.

“Waaah!!”

Who cared what was going on anymore!

That chick was clearly trying to kill her! Without thinking, Ye Jinyi turned and bolted, trying desperately to dodge the next wave of attacks.

Boom!

Another explosion echoed as Ye Jinyi narrowly avoided yet another blast.

Watching her escape into the distance, Xing Wei landed back on the ground.

She had already realized—this wasn’t a threat she could take out by brute force.

“My attacks… the moment they got close to her, they all automatically veered off course.”

She bent down and picked up a strand of hair that Ye Jinyi had dropped, trying to analyze its spectrum with her own eyes.

No doubt about it—it was identical to the spectrum of the Flame that Burns the World.

So the Flame that Burns the World… was a little girl?

Xing Wei stared at the photo she’d just taken on her phone—of a petite, pale-yellow-haired loli.

Though it was only a shot from behind, it was still valuable intel.

At the very least, it was far more accurate than those old speculative sketches.

She uploaded the picture online without hesitation.

No need to worry about violating privacy—privacy was a human right, and calamities didn’t have those.

As far as the world was concerned, Ye Jinyi was no longer a person.

After fleeing for what felt like half the day, Ye Jinyi finally ducked into a corner to catch her breath.

“So… tired… I’m gonna die…”

But before she could recover, thick vines suddenly burst forth around her, rapidly crawling in her direction.

Again?!

Ye Jinyi didn’t even try to figure out where the enemy was—she bolted on instinct.

She was no match for any of these superpowered freaks.

Running was her only option.

As time passed, more and more magical girls began targeting her.

After receiving intel from magical girl Weiguang, everyone was now certain—the little loli was the Flame that Burns the World.

And just like that, the hunt began.

“Waaah! Stop—stop chasing me!”

Ye Jinyi sprinted down the empty streets in the dead of night, completely ignoring the strange feeling in her own body.

The magical girls behind her pursued relentlessly, aiming to take down the calamity while it was still in its weakest state.

Magical attacks lit up the space behind her in rapid succession.

But just before any of them could hit, Ye Jinyi would always manage to dodge at the last second.

She took a few scrapes here and there, but nothing that slowed her down.

After running who-knows-how-long, Ye Jinyi finally managed to shake off the cheat-code-wielding maniacs and made it back home.

She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to dodge them all—but at least, somehow, she did.

Her apartment was small—a ten-square-meter rental with a bed and a bathroom.

The fact that so much stuff fit in here was a miracle in itself.

After locking the door behind her, Ye Jinyi stripped off her fleece-lined coat and tossed it in the corner of the bed, then collapsed spread-eagle on top of it.

Right now, Ye Jinyi felt like her life was pretty much completely screwed.