Inside the restroom, Chang Hansui’s eyes sharpened, her thumb pressing the skill icon in the bottom-right corner of her phone screen.
“Light of Shameless Hype.”
On the battlefield, Chang Hansui raised the pen in her hand.
The next second, a barrage of blue data beams made of “101001” came down like dense Gatling gun bullets, striking Steelback Man and Left Hand Monster square in the face.
The moment the two monsters were hit by the data stream, their brains felt as if a hundred thousand nonsensical rambling essays had been forcibly shoved inside.
Both of them instantly became drooling idiots, their facial features twisted together, wearing pained expressions as if they had just swallowed raw sewage.
Pay them back in their own coin!
“Ugh… my brain… so disgusting…”
Mizuki Hana had no idea what kind of underhanded skill this fellow magical girl had unleashed, but as a battle-hardened A-rank magical girl.
She immediately seized the fleeting opening, her silver sword turning into a streak of light as she thrust straight at Left Hand Monster’s vital point.
Meanwhile, Chang Hansui’s fingers slid across the screen at lightning speed.
A magic beam descended from the sky, slamming into the iron back that Steelback Man took so much pride in.
That kind of move works wonders on monsters who max out their defense, you know.
Since the shield was broken, Mizuki Hana pressed her advantage and started hacking away wildly.
Both monsters screamed in agony at the same time, getting beaten flat into the rubble.
Just then, a Chain Attack highlight icon suddenly popped up in the center of Chang Hansui’s phone screen.
The ice perched on her shoulder shouted excitedly: “Tap it, tap it! Pop your ultimate, pop your ultimate! Pop your ultimate! Why aren’t you popping your ultimate! Have you even played a game before! Mizuki Hana can link her skill now!”
“I know, stop nagging me. Poking a screen on a mobile game is child’s play. Next time, let me play a PC game, and then you’ll see my real skills!”
Chang Hansui’s thumb slammed onto that glowing icon.
Mizuki Hana suddenly felt an unprecedented strange power surge through her body.
That power resonated with her own magical abilities.
She instinctively turned her head, looking at the mysterious magical girl with the beige hair.
“Double Aria—Moon Prism Dance!”
It was truly amazing—Mizuki Hana had blurted out the skill’s name without even thinking.
The two magical lights intertwined, converging into a cross-shaped sword aura that blasted both monsters, completely knocking them flat, even carving a crater into the ground.
The dust cleared.
The Left Hand Monster had already rolled his eyes back and passed out cold.
As for Steelback Man, who was tougher to take down, he’d been playing dead on the ground, but sensing things going south, he suddenly flipped up with a carp’s leap.
He slung his colleague over his shoulder and tore open a teleportation gate.
“I’m outta here!”
Steelback Man had one leg halfway through the gate.
“Magical girls! You got lucky today! I will return—!”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the gate snapped shut and vanished without a trace.
Mizuki Hana gripped her silver sword tightly, instinctively wanting to charge forward in pursuit.
But the moment she took a step, a searing pain from her side made her gasp, and she could only use her sword to prop herself up as she watched the two monsters escape.
“This ability… it’s actually pretty convincing.”
Watching the two monsters scramble through the portal on the screen, Chang Hansui let out a long, relieved sigh.
The ice crouching on her shoulder leaned closer to the screen.
It never expected that combining its network-based abilities with a shut-in gamer like Chang Hansui would turn out like this.
It was pretty novel.
The ice flicked its tail with satisfaction.
“But since you’ve become a magical girl, have you thought of a name for yourself?”
Chang Hansui held the phone, her gaze landing on the exquisite version of herself on the screen.
Her beige-white hair shimmered with a warm, crystal-like luster, and the tips refracted a gradient of rainbow colors like sunlight passing through a prism.
“Then I’ll call myself Magical Girl Liuli.”
“That’s a good name, tee hee.”
With the crisis resolved, the tension in Chang Hansui’s nerves finally relaxed.
And with that relaxation, she could feel the magical girl power brimming inside her rapidly receding like the tide.
The screen even pretended to pop up “Would you like to exit the game?”—and of course, Chang Hansui tapped “Yes.”
“Well, I’ll head back to the Association to prepare for the long-term onboarding work here. Cheers!”
The ice hopped joyfully in midair, then spun like a diver and leapt into a blue starry portal that appeared out of nowhere, just like when they’d first met at the computer desk.
“Since you’re my only contractor now, I’ll definitely do my best to help you from the shadows, baah baah baah! Oh right, I already added you as a friend on the chat app. Contact me anytime!”
“Screw off. Never see you again.”
Chang Hansui watched the starry portal close, then began replaying the battle just now in her mind.
Even though she herself hadn’t actually appeared.
That really was a satisfying battle.
She leaned against the toilet’s water tank, looking down at her own hands.
She never expected that just poking a screen would make her heart pound wildly in her chest, her ten fingers ice-cold and trembling uncontrollably.
This feeling was almost like that time back in the day playing 101, when she’d fought tooth and nail against the enemy for a full sixty minutes, where one wrong move meant getting steamrolled—a true ultimate bladder-crushing match.
Who knew that tapping glass on a phone could be so tense?
This was an insult to Chang Hansui’s reputation as a PC gaming expert.
Do you even understand the value of PC gaming?
Poking a phone screen should be a cakewalk.
Yet today, her whole body was trembling while tapping glass…
It definitely wasn’t the glass-tapping’s fault…
It was because this wasn’t pure gameplay.
What if she’d made a mistake and accidentally pressed the wrong skill?
And that proud flower, Mizuki Hana, kicked the bucket on the spot—she would’ve felt guilty for life!
That’s why she was so nervous.
Yeah, that’s definitely it.
But then again, since she’d descended like a divine soldier this time, saving Mizuki Hana from certain doom…
Didn’t that mean she could, with a clear conscience, keep writing those shameless hype fanfics about Mizuki Hana on the forum from now on? (˙𐃷˙)
As for how that doom came about, don’t ask.
Anyway, since the transformation was over, she shouldn’t linger here.
This was, after all, the women’s restroom.
This blind date should truly be a case of everyone going their separate ways.
Chang Hansui took a deep breath, stood up, and carefully unlocked the stall door.
First, she poked half her head through the gap, furtively scanning left and right like a guilty thief.
After confirming no one was by the sinks, she tiptoed out.
When she reached the entrance of the women’s restroom, she sneakily grabbed the doorframe and peeked her head out to scout the mall corridor.
‘Good. The monster alert from earlier had been lifted. Only a few shop employees were sluggishly returning to their posts to prepare for reopening. The corridor was empty.’
Chang Hansui straightened her clothes and strolled out of the mall, planning to just walk home from here.
This area was downtown.
During college, she and her roommates used to come hang out here all the time.
She could find the subway station blindfolded.