“You’ve got a great eye, sir, and this little girl is just adorable. With this outfit, she looks just like an angel!”
Inside a clothing store in the commercial district, a receptionist in a short skirt stood beside a large floor mirror, half flattering and half genuinely admiring.
At this moment, a certain white-haired loli was wearing a lake-blue dress with a small, cute white bow at the neckline.
The sleeves were puffy and extended just past her elbows, while the hem of the skirt was layered with light-blue ruffles, like a dreamy blue butterfly.
The skirt wasn’t long, showing off a bit of her fair, milky-white calves.
She wore breathable, strappy sandals that revealed ten delicate toes, like they were inlaid with thin pink shells.
With her hands gently resting on Luo Xue’s shoulders, Luo Shiyin looked at the newly dressed girl, her face showing clear satisfaction at how adorable and charming she now looked.
Seeing this, the receptionist immediately seized the moment to upsell:
“Your little sister is so cute, she’s like a snow mountain elf. We also have a parasol from the same line as that dress — it blocks most UV rays and prevents tanning.”
“Wrap it up.”
Without taking her eyes off the little girl, Luo Shiyin only glanced at the parasol from the corner of her eye.
After confirming it looked good and wasn’t too expensive, she gave a slight nod.
“Great! We’ll include two free pairs of cooling silk tights. Thank you for shopping with us!”
Her smile was practically glowing.
However, instead of continuing to push more products, the receptionist offered some complimentary gifts, understanding perfectly the principle of quitting while ahead to build a good rapport.
If that girl had even half this saleswoman’s wit, maybe she wouldn’t have ended up getting thrown out by herself.
Turning her head slightly to look at the receptionist packing up the items, Luo Shiyin recalled last night’s house-hunting trip with a certain someone and shook her head, then returned her gaze to admire her adorable loli.
Honestly, she was starting to understand those diehard otakus who spent their entire paychecks to buy skins for their in-game waifus.
There’s just something deeply satisfying about dressing up a girl you like and making her look beautiful.
More importantly, in mobile games, your waifu’s skin options are limited — and some of them are just palette swaps.
You can’t even touch them; all you can do is look.
But in her case, not only could she freely mix and match outfits, she could also interact in real life.
The addictive potential here far surpassed any game.
That’s why she ended up picking out no fewer than three outfits after the try-on session at this store — totaling more than 500 in local currency.
Don’t be fooled by that number.
In this bizarre era — where cars are rarely seen and even big bosses ride public transport — 500 bucks could buy as much as over 5,000 in modern-day money.
If she hadn’t just been gifted a cash card with 50,000 on it by Wansui, she couldn’t have handled this level of spending.
After shopping, they found a nearby cold drink stand with a shaded area and sat down.
They also spent 1.2 on a sweet dessert.
“Wow… such a rare denomination.”
Luo Shiyin played with the small silver coins the shopkeeper had given her in change before putting them in her pocket.
By now, it was late afternoon.
The blazing sun in the sky was beginning to set, and it wouldn’t be long before the clouds turned fiery red.
Of course, she hadn’t spent the entire day just buying clothes.
Luo Shiyin had also been gathering intel.
For example, she heard that a lunatic with superhuman strength had escaped from a mental hospital the night before, crashed through someone’s wall with his head, and passed out from a concussion.
When he woke up, he kept shouting
“That girl is a monster!” and was eventually dragged to a hospital…Sounds totally legit.
There were also some urban-legend-style rumors.
They reminded her of spooky stories people used to make up on forums in her past life, but given that magical girls exist in this world, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to investigate.
However, as for the most important clue — the transformation device — she found nothing.
That little brooch-shaped item seemed to have changed its movement path and stopped glowing after entering the city.
No one had reported seeing any mysterious object in the sky.
Guess I’ll have to wait for the curse to activate — maybe then I’ll find someone who suddenly gets unlucky or shuts themselves indoors for no reason.
She scooped up a piece of orange jelly with a spoon and fed it to the little girl, watching as her face lit up with joy.
Luo Shiyin leaned her cheek on one hand, thoughts drifting.
Although she hadn’t learned much about the hidden world, she had gotten a decent grasp of the city’s condition.
The era, as she suspected, was a chaotic mishmash — like someone had thrown together cultural and technological elements from the 1960s through the modern day into a single, nonsensical stew.
Yet despite this messy backdrop, the standard of living seemed miraculously unaffected.
Except for computers being luxury goods and a lack of information online, things were arguably better than before she transmigrated.
For example, money still held real value here.
Hmm…one more round of investigation.
If there’s still nothing, I’ll return to the company.
She popped the last grape into her mouth and turned to the bored shopkeeper watching TV.
“Are there any schools around here?”
“Hm, Third High and Fourth High are both on this street. You heading over?”
Though his eyes didn’t leave the screen, the shopkeeper quickly replied.
“Which one’s closer?”
“Third High, just two blocks away. But it’s kind of rough — lots of delinquents hang around there. You girls shouldn’t go alone.”
At that, the shopkeeper finally turned to look at them, his tone a bit disapproving.
“Honestly, I don’t know what the teachers at that school are doing. What if their students get bullied?”
Luo Shiyin didn’t respond to his complaints.
She pulled a tissue from her pocket and gently wiped the little girl’s mouth, then took her hand and headed in the direction the shopkeeper had mentioned.
As soon as they stepped into the street, they saw exactly what he meant by “delinquents”— a group of young men and women with brightly dyed hair, dressed in outfits covered in metal studs and accessories.
In front of them knelt a short-haired boy.
His school uniform was torn to shreds, his backpack hung off one shoulder in tatters, and he was covering his face, sobbing uncontrollably.
The scene was so stereotypical that Luo Shiyin began to wonder if she was actually in a magical girl world…or had somehow wandered into an old gangster film.
Just as she was about to lend a hand and show those punks the true meaning of“ body-to-the-moon” combat skills, the situation abruptly changed — the boy who had clearly just been beaten badly suddenly began emitting thick black smoke from his body.
But apparently, only she — and the little girl beside her — could see it.
It’s not quite on the same level, but it’s definitely close…
Sensing the familiar energy fluctuations within the dark mist, Luo Shiyin couldn’t help but think of the stitched-up vegetable monster they’d run into yesterday during the tour Wansui gave her.
Watching as more and more black mist coiled around the boy, the long-haired loli hesitated for a moment, then retracted her extended leg — deciding to observe a bit longer before taking action.
Ever since learning yesterday that monsters in this world are born from unstable surges of negative emotion, she’d been curious why normal people seemed completely unaware of the existence of magical girls and monsters.
After all, with that kind of setup, cities should experience at least one or two monster attacks per month.
Even if the internet was underdeveloped and the government tried its hardest to suppress information, the public shouldn’t be this oblivious.
Originally, she planned to ask Wansui or Mitsuba Ren about it after returning to base, but now…it looked like she was about to find out for herself.
Was she worried about getting caught in the chaos?
Let’s just say: after this morning’s health check, she’d confirmed her current power level was at 10.
While still short of Luo Xue’s pre-transformation 13, it was already strong enough to punch through bulletproof steel with her bare hands.
Forget this newbie monster barely forming — even if that stitched-up freak from yesterday showed up again, she was confident she could escape unscathed.
Glancing at the punks who were still taunting and laughing without a clue what was about to happen, Luo Shiyin pulled two masks from her shopping bag and slipped them onto herself and Luo Xue.
She also took off the straw hat from Luo Xue’s head, letting her furry beast ears stretch and get some air.
ROAR!
Almost the moment she finished, the sobbing boy suddenly raised his head and let out a hysterical shriek.
In an instant, the black smoke completely engulfed him, and an unknown force radiated from him as the center — devouring the surrounding space for nearly a hundred meters in every direction.
Buildings began to melt, the ground cracked open, and within mere seconds, the surrounding houses were transformed into giant textbooks thick as bricks.
The pavement turned into exam papers filled edge to edge with math problems.
Massive stationery items — towering over ten meters high — like pencils, rulers, and compasses, ripped through the exam sheets and rose from the ground at odd angles into the sky.
At the same time, the once-blue sky darkened into a lifeless gray.
Jagged, crude lightning bolts — as if drawn with red pen — crackled across the heavens.
But instead of thunder, what rang out were voices filled with malice: insults and ridicule that echoed from every direction.
Although their identities were unclear, judging by the tones and phrases, it sounded like a mix of teachers, classmates…even the boy’s own parents.
“This kind of power scaling… doesn’t seem right.”
Staring at the surreal, twisted scene before her, Luo Shiyin muttered aloud, her deep purple eyes showing a rare hint of caution.
Still, compared to her, the group of punks who had just been bullying the boy were even more stunned.
Faces filled with terror, the rainbow-haired delinquents froze in place as they took in the bizarre transformation around them.
But it turned out their fear was premature — the boy, now completely enshrouded in black mist, stepped forward from within it.