Wednesday afternoon, Shui Hua pushed open the door to the Magical Girl Division, only to find that Xing Li and Fei Xing were already there.
“Eh? You two don’t have class today?”
Shui Hua asked in confusion.
“There’s a special event today, so I had to take the day off,” Xing Li replied, shaking a stack of materials in her hand.
“What special event? Why didn’t I get the notice?”
“The notice was sent to the group chat yesterday. I rushed to finish the PPT and the speech draft last night, but someone here never checks group messages,” Xing Li shot her a look.
“I was resting yesterday. Isn’t it normal that I didn’t check?”
Shui Hua retorted with confidence.
“Fine, fine,” Xing Li didn’t bother to argue, and explained, “This afternoon, we’re going to a university to hold an info session, spread knowledge about powers, and then do Ability Adaptation testing to see if there are any promising talents. We’ll also ask if they’re interested in joining the Ability Bureau.”
“Asking if they’re interested?”
Shui Hua caught the key phrase, her tone turning sour.
“How come back then I was tricked into signing a slave contract, but now they’re all being ‘asked for their interest’?”
“Times have changed. After the worst years of the ‘Anomalous Surge’ passed, things stabilized, and recruitment became standardized… We have to be mindful of the public impact,” Xing Li, as the division head, understood well enough about such gray areas.
“Sigh…”
Shui Hua let out a long sigh, deeply feeling the gap between her own circumstances and the progress of the times.
She shook her head, deciding not to dwell on the sad matter.
“So, where are we going? When do we leave?”
“We head out in half an hour. The place is Shuicheng University of Technology—your university.”
“Huh?”
***
The presentation was scheduled in a large lecture hall at Shuicheng University of Technology.
By the time the three Magical Girls entered, the room was already packed, with curious students even standing in the aisles and at the back.
Their arrival instantly sparked a wave of cheers and excited whispers, with many students already taking out their phones.
Fei Xing, though she had attended quite a few such events by now, still hadn’t gotten used to it and instinctively shrank behind Shui Hua.
Xing Li, on the other hand, simply yawned and nonchalantly passed the responsibility on, becoming a hands-off supervisor.
“Shui Hua, the speech is all yours. I believe in you.”
As expected, the heavy responsibility fell to Shui Hua.
Although she’d only had half an hour to familiarize herself with the speech and the PPT, as a veteran Magical Girl, she’d attended plenty of these public events and was already quite skilled.
She took a deep breath, walked to the center of the podium, put on her standard professional smile, and her voice rang out clearly through the microphone:
“Hello, everyone. We are Magical Girls from the Magical Girl Division Dongjiang Branch of the Ability Bureau in Shui Cheng. I’m Shui Hua, and these are my companions, Xing Li and Fei Xing. We’re very happy to be here today to share and discuss some basic knowledge about powers with all of you.”
However, knowledge of powers was already a required general course in university, so such basic science seemed a bit redundant here.
Everyone understood that the real highlight was the upcoming Ability Adaptation testing.
Shui Hua skillfully switched the PPT and began explaining the concepts:
“According to mainstream research, the essence of powers is the result of cross-contamination between various concepts—or, in more technical terms, between memes.”
She had given this kind of presentation too many times, and now recited it almost by rote:
“When we assess the strength of powers, we focus mainly on two core aspects: ‘Powers Strength’ and ‘Powers Morphism’. And within ‘Powers Morphism’, there are two smaller aspects: ‘Morph Difference’ and ‘Morph Similarity’.”
“Powers Strength, as the name implies, refers to the destructive power or energy level of the ability. Anyone who’s checked the Hero Ranking knows about this, so I won’t dwell on it.”
“As for Powers Morphism, it determines what forms you can take. ‘Morph Difference’ refers to how different you are from what you want to become. For example, the difference from an ordinary person to a Magical Girl isn’t very big; but turning into a small animal would be a much bigger leap. That’s why you rarely see Heroes who can transform into animals.”
“‘Morph Similarity’ is about how much you resemble the target meme. Generally, the closer you resemble it, the stronger you become, but sometimes retaining a bit of your own uniqueness is better. For example, some Awakened Entities, half-human and half-beast, are actually harder to deal with than ones that fully become a beast.”
As the PPT advanced, a photo appeared of the vending machine that had been sealed a few days ago—this was used as an example.
“For those of you who follow the Magical Girl Division, you probably know that last week, we dealt with an Awakened Vending Machine. According to our investigation, it was contaminated by the ‘Rocket Launcher’ meme, which gave it the ability to fire drinks like projectiles, making it a real threat.”
“However, because the ‘Vending Machine’ and ‘Rocket Launcher’ have an extremely large Morph Difference, its Morph Similarity wasn’t high, so its base form didn’t change. If its Morph Similarity had been high as well, what it shot might not have just been drinks, but liquid fuel or even more dangerous substances, in which case stronger Heroes would have been needed.”
“Apart from these concepts used to measure powers, there’s another point that’s very important—Ability Adaptation.”
“‘Ability Adaptation’ refers to our ability to control our own Powers Morphism. Transformation-types like us Magical Girls can freely turn the transformation on and off, which is considered the highest level of adaptation. Those Heroes who manipulate elements like fire or lightning usually morph into mythological figures, inheriting only the power, not the personality, so their adaptation is medium. As for those who can’t control their Morphism at all and are entirely led by meme pollution, they become the Anomalous Entities we all know.”
“Generally speaking, to become a Hero, both Powers Strength and Ability Adaptation are considered, but Ability Adaptation is what the Ability Bureau values most.”
“Because high adaptation means an individual can control their own direction of morphing, even choosing which meme they want to morph toward. Even if their initial choice isn’t very strong, they may have the chance to adjust later and improve in real combat. On the other hand, if someone has only strength but poor adaptation, they are much more likely to lose control, which makes them unsuitable for being a Hero.”
“Powers are both a test and an opportunity for humanity, whether for the species or for the individual… Next, we’ll move on to our Ability Adaptation testing session. Interested students can come over to the testing device.”
“Everyone who participates will receive a Magical Girl plushie as a souvenir, and those with high Ability Adaptation will get the chance for an interview with the Ability Bureau.”
As they reached the most exciting part, the atmosphere in the hall grew lively.
Shui Hua swept her gaze across the students, estimating how long this would take—only to suddenly spot a familiar face.
“Lin? What’s she doing here?”