“Witch, you’ve got to be a witch, haven’t you?” Su Mu muttered to himself, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Her pair of azure eyes had completely lost their luster, as if she were a fish out of water.
“Why, that’s quite rude. After all, I’m the highest-ranking official in this city, and I’ve been diligently maintaining the peace here every day,” came the retort.
“If I remember correctly, you were playing a video game when I came in,” Su Mu continued.”
“Whoa? In such leisurely moments, if I’m not gaming, do you think I’d channel my excess energy into something else?”
Su Mu pursed her lips and fell silent.
Arguing with her was never a wise idea.
Then, she suddenly realized that she was already dressed in new clothes.
The cartoonish rabbit design made it easy to guess who had chosen them.
Clearly, it was Tang Nai who had changed her clothes.
But at this point, worrying about such things seemed pointless.
“Speaking of which, you must have many questions about the magical girls and your situation,” Tang Nai abruptly changed the subject.
Hearing this, Su Mu blinked.
She was indeed curious, but she didn’t know where to start.
There were just too many doubts, all piling up and overwhelming her mind.
“Actually, when I said earlier that you might not have a skin sparrow, I was lying. You’re in perfect health,” Tang Nai revealed.
Su Mu couldn’t help but twitch the corners of her mouth.
After being zapped by who knows how many volts of electricity, she was still fine.
Of course she was in great health.
“But health isn’t the reason I sought you out, nor is pretending to be a magical girl. Don’t you want to know the real reason behind all this?” Tang Nai pressed.
“Would you tell me even if I asked?” Su Mu glared at Tang Nai with her dead fish eyes.
Whether she asked or not seemed irrelevant.
It all depended on her mood.
“Have a little more trust, will you? I’ve always been honest and straightforward,” Tang Nai smiled, her face still looking as innocent as ever.
Su Mu thought to herself, Stop using that angelic face to do things that would make even Satan shake his head in disapproval.
“It’s because you have excellent magical aptitude. If I left you alone, you might gradually gain influence through the internet and unknowingly become a troublesome witch,” Tang Nai explained.
“Witch? Shouldn’t it be a monster?” Su Mu raised an eyebrow.
The image of a witch was usually seen as the villain in short stories, tormenting magical girls.
She had never heard of such a thing in reality.
“A magical girl who falls into darkness becomes a witch. The more dark magic you absorb, the more addicted you’ll become, and you’ll fall quickly,” Tang Nai elaborated.
Dark magic, she supposed, referred to the energy of negative emotions.
“But I’m supposed to be a normal adult male. Even if I fall, I shouldn’t become a witch. How did you turn me into this?” Su Mu gently pinched the soft mound on his chest, his hands enveloped in its warmth, making him blush and feel somewhat ashamed to face his own body.
“It’s your own fault for pretending to be a magical girl. You were able to maintain your form before because everyone treated you like a digital pet. But as your fame grew, someone was bound to take it seriously,” Tang Nai warned.
She made a scissor-snipping gesture with her fingers and said menacingly, “Then you’d go through a tormenting period, stuck between genders, watching your little bud shrink day by day, being teased by your buddies, and even if you fully became a girl, your chest would be as flat as a board.”
Listening to Tang Nai’s description, Su Mu shuddered.
It did sound quite terrifying.
He regretted not joining a more authoritative deity collective from the start.
Wait, that wasn’t right either.
That would have turned him into a stereotypical monster.
“But it’s precisely because of this that you accidentally unlocked the talent of a magical girl,” Tang Nai continued.
If it were the talent to become a magical girl like her, Su Mu would rather be a mere monster.
“So, magical girls gain the magic to sustain themselves by absorbing positive emotions, right? But I’ve been absorbing negative ones,” Su Mu questioned.
Tang Nai shook her head.
“Of course not. The magic of magical girls mainly comes from attention. It can be a positive image or something less proper, as long as it doesn’t fall into the category of a witch.”
“You mean, the more fans you have, the stronger you become?” Su Mu asked.
“It’s more accurate to say believers. The abilities people believe you have are the ones you’ll gain accordingly.”
It sounded like the setup for a deity.
And with that, Su Mu suddenly realized why he had caused such deep resentment in Lando.
The things he wrote were pushing her towards becoming a succubus.
“So, Irina, you probably have a good idea of what abilities you have now, don’t you?” Tang Nai said.
Of course, Su Mu knew.
He had never won a fight but had never lost a verbal battle, except with this person in front of him.
“What if I get hungry in the future?” Su Mu wondered.
Without absorbing magic, it would be like a vampire without blood.
Even if he ate a lot of normal food, he would eventually starve to death.
“Magic can be stored and shared. The storage device you got today was filled with magic I prepared specifically for you. It stimulated you to skip the transition phase and become a magical girl directly.”
“So, I can get more from you then,” Su Mu realized.
Tang Nai gave a meaningful look, and Su Mu immediately knew what she was about to say.
“You know, Irina, everything comes with a price.”
“I don’t want it. I’d rather just keep cross-dressing,” Su Mu replied.
Tang Nai, of course, wouldn’t let him continue cross-dressing.
Otherwise, what was the point of capturing him in the first place?
“Absolutely not. I’ll provide the magic you need to absorb. Give me your phone.”
Tang Nai took Su Mu’s phone, searched on a mysterious shopping website, and soon placed a picture of an identical star-shaped emblem in front of Su Mu.
The price displayed made Su Mu’s eyes spin.
There were just too many zeros.
“This is the price of the storage device I gave you today. But since it’s a community outreach, I won’t charge you the full amount. Let’s make it a 2.5 discount. You just need to owe me this much.”
Tang Nai tapped a few buttons on the calculator, and the crisp electronic voice read out the staggering number.
“150,000.”
Su Mu’s eyes rolled back, and he lay down limply, once again feeling listless.
Just arrested, young but not protected by minor status, now in debt of 150,000, with his home door forcibly dismantled by law enforcement, and possibly facing a life of homelessness.
What a promising future indeed.
Poor guy, having to pay Debt he(/she) never ask for.