Hearing Lu Ren’s answer, Xu Wenxing chuckled and patted his shoulder, speaking softly.
“Come on, tell me. I won’t tell anyone. Don’t worry, Ren-ge, I’m not special, just tight-lipped.”
“Cut it out. I really don’t know. If I did, I would’ve told you already,” Lu Ren replied with a helpless expression.
“Huh? Even you don’t know, Ren-ge? Then where do the rumors on the forum come from?” Xu Wenxing asked in confusion.
“You ask me, I ask who? I’m not a mind reader. How would I know about these things?” Lu Ren laughed. “Let’s go, time to head back to the dorm and rest.”
“Ah… what a pity. I was hoping to see Meteor in her idol costume, jumping around on stage, making heart signs just for me from the crowd,” Xu Wenxing sighed deeply, lamenting the shattered image in his mind.
“Stop daydreaming. Can you even get into the Monster Response Department? Become support staff? Get to know Meteor and make her fall for you? If you can’t, then don’t say things like that.” Lu Ren’s triple-barreled question shattered Xu Wenxing’s dreams mercilessly.
“Ahem… Why do you have to say that? My heart hurts…”
After being mercilessly questioned about his capabilities, Xu Wenxing clutched his chest with his right hand, putting on a wounded act.
Lu Ren twitched the corner of his mouth, glanced at him, and elbowed Xu Wenxing’s back, saying.
“Don’t perform human performance art in broad daylight. Save your pranks for the dorm.”
“Alright, I’ll listen to Ren-ge.”
After Lu Ren’s words, Xu Wenxing quickly recovered his usual playful demeanor and followed Lu Ren toward the dormitory building.
About twenty minutes later, the two arrived in front of their dorm and took out their keys to open the door and go inside.
“Huh? You’re back from class already?”
Upon hearing the door open, Pandora, who had been lying on the bed, quickly stood up, jumped down, and greeted them.
“Yes, no classes this afternoon. I plan to lounge in the dorm all day. What about you, Ren-ge?”
Seeing Pandora come up, Xu Wenxing extended his hand for a handshake, then returned to his seat, casually putting his textbooks aside.
“I don’t have anything to do today either, probably staying in the dorm all afternoon as well.”
Lu Ren scooped up Pandora, the little fox-shaped creature, and set her down on his seat.
“What about tonight? Going to the library to study?” Xu Wenxing put his headphones around his neck, twisted a button with his left hand, and turned the volume up to the max.
“Probably not. Planning to rest today, just read some books casually in the dorm,” Lu Ren said smoothly as he opened his browser history and clicked on the A City news program from last night that he hadn’t finished watching.
“Why don’t you still go to the library? If you read in the dorm, I get really nervous,” Xu Wenxing said while playing music and using the headphones as external speakers. “I barely looked at my support staff textbook yet. I’m doomed.”
“Then why do you play games every day?” Lu Ren asked.
“What can I do? High school was so stressful, I have to relax in university. Plus, our major isn’t one that requires rote memorization; it’s actually pretty easy,” Xu Wenxing defended himself.
“Heh, you’re just lying to yourself. When finals come, you’ll see how easy it really is,” Lu Ren teased lightly.
“Don’t pressure me, Ren-ge. I admit I was wrong, okay? Tomorrow, I’ll start studying seriously.”
After finishing a song to relax, Xu Wenxing double-clicked the game icon, put on his headphones, and prepared to focus on today’s ranked matches.
“Who are you fooling? I don’t buy it.”
While absentmindedly petting Pandora’s fur, Lu Ren watched the A City news broadcast with her to kill time.
Even now, Lu Ren still didn’t understand why Pandora liked watching the news so much.
When he asked her, she would only give the same tired answer he’d heard a hundred times.
“Because I like human culture and knowledge. I find your language and behaviors very interesting.”
Lu Ren naturally didn’t believe the answer was so simple, so he asked again.
No matter how much he questioned, Pandora’s reasons were always the same.
Even when Lu Ren tried staring at her to catch her in a lie or make her look away, Pandora just fixed her big, snow-white eyes on him, tilting her head curiously as if wondering why he was staring.
It was really strange.
Could it be that her reason for loving the news was exactly as she said—just because she found it interesting and fun?
If so, the mental wiring of a magic fairy was truly incomprehensible.
Lu Ren shifted his gaze to Pandora, who was intently staring at the computer screen, and fell silent for a moment.
Then he quietly took out his phone and began scrolling through the forum.
He casually clicked into the A City Magic Girl Zone, scrolling a little up and down.
Well, there was nothing he wanted to see.
The forum was the same as always. When there were no monster appearances, they spent the whole day posting pictures of Magic Girls or debating which of the three Magic Girls was stronger, or who was more suitable to be someone’s wife.
Not a bit of substance.
Lu Ren thought this while clicking into a thread titled, “Shocking Scoop! I Dug Up Exclusive Official Info! 100% Authentic! Not True, I’m an Old Eight!” intending to see what kind of nonsense netizens could cook up next.
As soon as he opened it and scrolled down, Lu Ren saw a poorly edited picture of Sapphire wearing an idol costume and instantly lost most of his interest.
No doubt, this so-called shocking scoop was nothing more than the A City Magic Girl Idol Activity Xu Wenxing had already mentioned.
It was really strange. He hadn’t even heard from Sapphire that they were going to become idols. Where did these people get this gossip?
Insider info even more detailed than his own? Impossible.
Lu Ren scrolled down to see if the poster had any insightful commentary.
“Brothers! The previous rumors are true. A City’s Monster Response Department plans to restart the Magic Girl Idol Activity!”
“But the venue hasn’t been chosen yet, and they haven’t even decided who will be the first idol. It’s all still under consideration.”
“This info came from my uncle, absolutely authentic! Not lying to you guys!”
…The uncle party?
Seeing this all-too-familiar source of information, Lu Ren suddenly found it oddly amusing and laughed aloud.
What kind of era is this where people still rely on the ‘uncle party’?
Just see if people believe you, that’s all!
Sure enough, all the replies under those comments were roasting the original poster.
“New account and you come stirring trouble? How many accounts do you have?”
“You traffic accounts really are out of luck. Every day you just spread rumors you don’t even know where came from, without considering authenticity. Might as well say Sapphire’s already married, and I’m her husband. At least that’s true.”
“Magic Girls aren’t part of the military system, but combat personnel doing commercial activities? Are you serious? That was banned over a decade ago. Anyone who dares touch this is just asking for trouble.”
“Little glutton, just admit you want a taste. No need to swear on oath like that to fool yourself. Everyone knows you want it.”
Reading these variously styled comments, Lu Ren’s lips twitched into a small smile.
He scrolled down and tapped to see the second page of comments for more insight.
But as soon as he tried to open the second page, his phone screen froze, failing to load the comments.
“Huh?”
Lu Ren frowned, puzzled.
The campus network of A City Third University was known as one of the best. It shouldn’t be lagging just to read a thread.
Lu Ren wasn’t ready to give up and kept tapping the refresh button on his phone screen.
Finally, after persistent effort, the new page appeared.
“This thread has been deleted. Check out other threads~”
Seeing this familiar system message, Lu Ren froze.
False rumors about Magic Girls on the forum weren’t new; he was used to them.
But as long as they didn’t attack someone’s parents or use excessively vulgar language, fake news generally wasn’t deleted.
There had been posts about Magic Girls becoming idols before, none were deleted.
Even the bizarre posts claiming that A City’s Magic Girls, unable to make money, had to resort to working as bunny girls dealing cards were still up.
Why today? Why would a post about Magic Girls becoming idols get deleted?
“Could it be…?”
A bad suspicion suddenly formed in Lu Ren’s mind.
He exited the banned post and searched for other related threads.
No matter how many times he refreshed, all the previous posts about A City Magic Girls becoming idols had been deleted.
Everyone knew that if an ordinary rumor was deleted repeatedly before confirmation and even comments were disabled, the rumor was very likely true.
In other words…
Sapphire and Meteor really might be going to become idols?!
Just imagining the grand stage where Sapphire might make a cold, indifferent heart sign at the audience, while Meteor responds passionately to the crowd’s cheers, Lu Ren was at a loss for words.
The world had truly gone mad.
After all this, Magic Girls could actually become idols again.