This is the worst experience I’ve ever had.
“Please turn me into a real girl.”
As soon as I said those words, I felt like my consciousness was being forcibly pulled out of my body by something.
My breath, my emotions, my soul… all condensed into a tiny ball in that moment, stuffed into a narrow cage.
A beautiful black-purple crystal floated out from my chest, suspending in midair like a petal waiting to be picked.
At the same time, my body began to undergo visible changes in a black-purple glow—my wheat-colored skin became fair and delicate, my face became small and cute, my frame shrank, my figure became slender and soft, and a faint curve appeared on my chest.
Even my unremarkable short male hair grew to waist length in just two seconds.
Just as the wish I had made, I became a real girl.
When I came to, I was already wearing the standard uniform of Heijiang Middle School girls, kneeling before the railroad tracks in a pose holding the black-purple crystal.
The sensations from my body were noticeably different from when I was a boy.
My previously blurry vision was now incredibly clear.
The long hair of a girl naturally fell behind me with an unfamiliar weight.
Before I could examine what my body had become, several strange trains came crashing down toward Tang Xiaolu—
“Boom, boom, boom!”
“Bang!”
The fiery explosion from the train dyed even the twisted clock in the sky red.
“Nichts!”
“Nichts!”
“Nichts!”
The surrounding Faceless Ones let out a series of strange cries again.
They charged toward Tang Xiaolu like starving wolves spotting a sheep.
“Your wish has overridden your own causality.”
The voice of the strange rabbit beside me pulled my consciousness back to reality.
“Come on, release it—the magic that belongs to you.”
Causality?
Though I didn’t understand what this word meant, I still held the black-purple crystal in my hands and slowly stood up, a fierce desire to fight surging within me.
The crystal in my hand emitted a dazzling light.
The light quickly wrapped around my body, stripping away my clothes in an unbelievable way.
“Big sister.”
From within the light, a strange voice seemed to come from afar.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying naked in a quiet hospital room.
The hospital bed before me was empty, as if no one had occupied it for a long time.
The world of the hospital was a pale white everywhere.
Strange wires extended from a bizarre instrument by the head of the bed, connecting to a floor mirror behind me.
On the top of that mirror, a line of text was engraved in a strange language: [Big sister, please live on.]
Two black butterflies fluttered out from under the bed, flew into the mirror, and stirred up ripples.
I turned around and saw my current appearance in the mirror—a girl about 13 years old, petite, with obvious childishness on her face, very cute.
When the ripples disappeared, the familiar black-purple crystal appeared in the center of the mirror.
Instinctively, I reached out toward the crystal.
The gravity of the world flipped, making me dive into the mirror like I was jumping into water.
“Plop—”
In the flipped world, the energy of the black-purple crystal began to spread over my body, rapidly transforming into a black bodysuit that tightly wrapped around my skin, covering most of my body below the neck.
Then, the energy transformed again into a black hooded coat and a soft short skirt, and condensed a pair of round-toe boots with small thick heels and cute bows, slipping onto my feet.
After that, a purple star cape appeared with a “whoosh,” as if it had a mind of its own, draping over my back.
With the help of the cape, I adjusted my posture and landed on a lake covered in red spider lilies, stirring up ripples.
“Ding-a-ling—”
The water splashed.
The black butterflies that had been waiting by the lake transformed into two beautiful twin crossbow guns, fixed onto the backs of my hands.
The spider lilies fell, and the lake shattered.
I was back in the strange barrier from before, standing on the cold railroad tracks.
Was that… the magical girl transformation sequence?
I didn’t have time to complain about these strange settings.
Realizing that my classmate Tang Xiaolu was still in danger, I instinctively ran toward the ruins not far away.
After transforming into a magical girl, I felt my body was very light, like a newborn butterfly.
As I ran, the long hair and bangs of the girl inside my hood kept swaying, which was also a new experience for me.
“Xiaolu!”
In less than five seconds, I arrived at the spot where Tang Xiaolu had been knocked down by the train.
In the dust, I immediately found this girl, covered in wounds.
“How are you?”
It was obvious that Tang Xiaolu was seriously injured.
Not only were there wounds all over her body, but even her magical girl dress had been torn, revealing terrifying bloody marks beneath.
“You… you’re the one from before…”
Feeling my approach, Tang Xiaolu barely opened her eyes.
“How can you become a magical girl… weren’t you a boy?”
“I don’t know either.”
I was a bit embarrassed.
“That rabbit that came with you told me to make a wish, saying something about this being my power and destiny… I blurted out the wish without thinking.”
“Your wish was…”
Tang Xiaolu seemed about to say something, then suddenly sensed something and grabbed my hand.
With a super leap, she yanked me dozens of meters away.
“Boom!”
I was startled by her sudden display of monstrous strength.
I couldn’t believe that her slender legs, wrapped in stockings, could jump so far.
“Cough, cough… I let my guard down. The one in this barrier is a ‘Witch,’ not a ‘Familiar.’”
After pulling me out of the ruins, Tang Xiaolu tightly held my hand and looked around.
“And this witch is very good at hiding. She hasn’t revealed her true body yet…”
“Huh?”
As a new magical girl, I was flustered.
“Then what do we do?”
“We can only retreat.”
Tang Xiaolu raised her magic staff, summoning countless white chess pieces in front of her, laying them on the white railroad tracks, as if treating this barrier as her own chessboard.
“Do you know the rules of Go?”
After laying down the pieces, Tang Xiaolu turned to look at me.
“Each piece’s four directions—east, south, west, north—represent ‘qi.’ The area with ‘qi’ is ‘life,’ and without ‘qi’ means ‘death.’ In a moment, we just need to step on the areas with ‘qi’ to get out of here.”
“Eh? Go… Go?”
I was instantly at a loss.
“I… I’ve never played Go, I…”
“Then hold my hand tight and don’t let go!”
“Okay!”