“How could something like that be possible?”
Despite her words, Lu Shan’s situation didn’t seem faked at all.
Thinking this over, Su Mu decided to scan her condition.
Anyway, with her own abilities, these problems should be easy to resolve.
[Target: Lu Shan, age nineteen, freshman in Clinical Medicine at Medical University, height 152, weight 45kg, bust measurement……]
‘No, no, what am I doing—what is this nonsense? How could a gentleman like me be curious about such things? So, what about the Magic Power content?’
Su Mu hurriedly cut off this wayward scan and focused again, executing a specialized scan for Magic Power.
However, the result shocked her.
[……Scan complete. Target does not possess Magic Power aptitude. Magic Index is only between 90% and 110% of an ordinary person.]
Su Mu couldn’t make sense of this result.
Lu Shan was clearly a C-rank Monster Cadre—how could she be at an ordinary human’s level?
No matter how many times Su Mu tried, she kept getting the same result, which left her feeling stifled.
“How is it? Can you sense the problem?”
Lu Shan blinked her eyes, expectation flickering in her dark pupils, but soon she noticed Su Mu’s troubled expression.
“I can’t feel anything, but that’s exactly where the problem lies.”
Su Mu pursed her lips and silently called out to Irina.
Although the scan couldn’t give her an answer, Irina probably would know.
But the moment she thought of the trouble Irina had caused before, Su Mu couldn’t help feeling irritated.
Since then, the other party had been playing dead, and she had no idea what Irina was thinking now.
‘So, are you still going to play dead now?’
“Oh.”
‘You’re still responding, huh?’
“Then don’t keep blaming me.”
‘Fine, it’s not really a big deal anyway.’
Su Mu found Irina’s soft, coaxable attitude a little bizarre.
The feeling was like stumbling out of a steamy bath in a haze, standing before the mirror, and gazing at her own body.
Even without makeup, it was praiseworthy, though she was long used to it.
But just as she was about to look away, her reflection actually started posing and preening by itself.
‘Wait, this is too weird. Why are you copying the way I talk?’
“Please, do I even need to learn?”
Irina seemed amused, her words laced with a laugh, but she quickly became serious again.
“Let’s not talk about this. Aren’t you wondering why Lu Shan lost her Magic Power after touching your mom? The best answer I can give you—and the only one—is… I don’t know.”
‘Damn it, are you messing with me?!’
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t get mad. You could let me take over your body, and I can use a higher-level scan to gather information.”
‘Would that really work? You’re not tricking me? I couldn’t find anything at all.’
“You’re just a D-rank rookie Magical Girl. Isn’t it normal you can’t scan it? That only means whatever caused this is way beyond your level.”
‘There you go, belittling me again. Forget it, I’ll do it myself. Don’t butt in—always calling me a rookie Magical Girl, I’ll handle these hassles myself!’
“Really? Oh my, Little Su Mu’s all grown up and even cares about my feelings. I’m so touched.”
‘Now you sound like Tang Nai again, you’d be better off copying me!’
“Uh… you have a point…”
Su Mu opened her eyes, ignoring Irina, and looked at Lu Shan, feeling a bit lost.
To be honest, compared to Luo Jialan or Tang Nai, Lu Shan was the one who most fit the “loli” type: a dull, childish mind, a weak personality, especially those harmless but adorably frustrated “gentle” retorts.
Honestly, if she were a pet cat, she’d absolutely qualify.
She patted Lu Shan’s shoulder, trying to replicate how Lu Shan had patted Su Ya’s shoulder and transfer the change to herself, but naturally, nothing happened.
Unwilling to give up, Su Mu, like a security check, ran her hands from head to toe along Lu Shan’s body, then pinched her soft, springy cheeks, but still, nothing changed.
“Can you let go now, senpai…?”
Reminded softly by Lu Shan, Su Mu finally snapped out of it and slowly withdrew her hand, but she didn’t look embarrassed at all.
Thanks to Luo Jialan and a certain red-haired brat at home, she’d become desensitized to physical contact between girls.
It’s not like anything unspeakably intimate is going to happen.
‘I—mouse-mouse—have at least that much self-control… Do I really? Eh, not important.’
“Hm, I couldn’t find anything wrong at all. Tell me again what happened at the time.”
Hearing this, Lu Shan lifted her gaze, falling into reminiscence.
She vaguely remembered it happened like this.
That night, right after Luo Jialan defeated her own inner lecher with Su Mu’s help.
It was already past the golden hours of the night market.
Even in a bustling place like B City, the area beside the Pedestrian Street had gone dim.
Only the bars remained lively, their neon lights flickering.
Before long, it would be the time when runaway girls could be picked up off the street.
Lu Shan hadn’t taken over the Hotpot Restaurant from Ning Xi yet, but that day, because of Luo Jialan, Luo Linglan had been delayed, and Lu Shan, left alone to mind the shop, was getting anxious.
As she sat nervously at the shop entrance, glancing left and right, she noticed a familiar figure.
Though dressed out of character in a gray herringbone coat, making her look mature and refined rather than lively, Lu Shan’s intuition told her exactly who it was, and she stepped up to pat her on the shoulder.
She could have left it alone, but the moment she patted her, the other girl halted.
Because of her weak constitution, Lu Shan could only keep going thanks to a body modified by Dark Magic Power.
Though her Magic Index was a pitiful 20% compared to a C-rank, it was still better than Su Mu.
Yet at this moment, she suddenly felt darkness overwhelm her vision.
The feeling of her Magic Power being sealed was terrible—like having a mature mind shoved into a newborn’s body.
She tried desperately to move, but couldn’t even control her bladder.
Her knees buckled and she nearly fell, but a firm hand grabbed her wrist and steadied her.
Looking up, she saw a face that was eight or nine-tenths similar to Su Mu.
Su Ya’s features were softer and narrower than Su Mu’s; the latter’s sky-blue apricot eyes always had a bit of a dazed, clear stupidity.
This obvious difference let Lu Shan tell them apart, but just as she was about to apologize, the other girl spoke first.
“Did you mistake me for someone else, little miss?”
Lu Shan scratched her head awkwardly and mumbled an apology, all the while worrying about her vanished Magic Power and desperate to leave.
But Su Ya suddenly called out to her.
“If I’m not wrong, you probably know a girl a lot like me, named Su Mu.”
Hearing this, Lu Shan’s eyes widened and she nodded again and again.
Su Ya’s eyebrows arched in a gentle smile as she reached out her fair hand to Lu Shan.
“In that case, why don’t I buy you a drink? There’s something I’d like to chat with you about.”