Chapter 421: Magical Girl Madoka

The next day.

Donghong Federation, Sea City.

Yixin Garden, Building 10, Room 1309.

At this moment, it was early morning. In the main bedroom, which had the best light, it was dim and dark. The gray cotton and linen curtains perfectly covered the windows, and the only light came from the water-cooled screen on the desk, which played a video of Little Sakura, along with shimmering neon lines that flowed like a white galaxy, casting a soft glow.

The air conditioner gently blew cool air in noise reduction mode.

On the nightstand, there was a phone with a small shark soft case, next to it was a figure of Magical Girl Madoka.

The girl, with pink hair flying, had wings on her back. She wore a holy white dress, with a lining that looked like a deep universe, flowing with a dazzling and dim sea of stars. She held her magic wand like a bow, seemingly aiming at the source of all the world’s tragedies, with a sad yet determined look in her eyes.

Xu Ling was sleeping on her side, her peaceful face looking towards the figure, and in her arms was a small dinosaur toy being squished by her chest. Her round, white thighs were covered by a thin, furry blanket, and her sleeping position did not look very proper.

Looking closely, her lower eyelids hid dark circles and fine lines with concealer, which faded away without her noticing. The faint pimples, dullness, and blemishes on her skin disappeared, as if she had returned to high school, but even more radiant than before. Her face looked much prettier, as if brightness had suddenly increased, showing a filter called youth.

Half an hour later, the girl who loved to sleep in woke up drowsily. She fumbled for her phone, glanced at the time, turned off the alarm, and got out of bed as usual. She picked up a little dinosaur toy that had fallen on the floor and tugged at her shoulder strap, feeling a bit dazed for a moment.

Then she pulled open the curtains, letting bright sunlight fill the whole room.

“Today I didn’t sleep until the afternoon, a big victory.”

Xu Ling felt surprisingly light today, as if her toes were stepping on cotton. Her blood was flowing with energy, which made her, after turning off the alarm, surprisingly not go back to sleep. It was incredibly diligent of her.

The girl praised her good virtues, shuffling into the bathroom to wash up.

Just then, one minute later, in the living room, Pei Xiaotong, with a sad face, was being supervised by her mom through a video call as she wrote her summer homework, when suddenly she heard a scream that pierced her ears.

The little girl immediately stood up, grabbed her slippers, and rushed to the scene. Without even looking at Xu Ling, she nervously scanned the bathroom and asked:

“What’s wrong? Is there a cockroach? Don’t be scared, Honey Ling! I’ll lend you my slippers!”

After Pei Xiaotong finished speaking, she looked at Xu Ling with confusion for a moment, then reached out to pinch her smooth face and joked:

“How come you look so fresh right after waking up? Hmm, have you secretly been practicing your makeup skills? You look so natural.”

The girl felt more and more strange as she touched her cousin sister’s face. Her fingers brushed against the corners of Xu Ling’s lips, still sticky with toothpaste, and she murmured:

“That’s weird, you were brushing your teeth and didn’t put on lipstick, so how come your lips feel so soft and look so much healthier?”

Xu Ling swatted away her cousin’s hand, picked up a cup of water, swished it around her mouth, spat out the toothpaste, and washed her face with clean water. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she thought in shock:

“Honey Tong, I might… have discovered a superpower!”

Pei Xiaotong was greatly shocked; she quickly closed the door and tried to pull at Xu Ling’s clothes, wanting to take a closer look at all the changes in her cousin sister. Unfortunately, before she could pull her halfway, a shy and annoyed Xu Ling pushed her outside and docked her 50 dollars from her allowance.

Half an hour later, after her shower, Xu Ling walked out of the bathroom looking radiant, returned to the living room, and with her hands on her hips, looked at her little cousin who was being held on the sofa by her mom, struggling to finish her homework, and proudly said:

“I can wear JK with you now!”

Pei Xiaotong, “?”

Oh, I see! The reason you didn’t want to go with me before was because you thought you were ‘old’?

The little girl glanced at her mother in the WeChat video, then at the math problems that made her feel frustrated, and at her cousin sister who seemed to have awakened superpowers. She couldn’t help but feel curious, took a deep breath, and quickly put her phone in airplane mode while her mother wasn’t looking.

In the next moment, the signal turned red, and the video call ended on its own.

“Yay! I’m free!”

Pei Xiaotong cheered loudly and immediately rushed to her cousin sister, who had just finished a shower and smelled wonderful. She rubbed her soft face and excitedly asked,

“What’s the superpower? Is it becoming three years younger every day? Living forever? Or freely controlling hormones?”

Xu Ling tried to stop her from poking at her while complaining,

“If I became three years younger every day, you wouldn’t see me in a week!”

“And…”

Xu Ling hesitated for a moment and thought,

“This superpower, I can’t really use it. I only know it’s called ‘Wish Spell.'”

Pei Xiaotong instantly felt uneasy and took a step back, looking at Xu Ling with caution, and said,

“Your superpower can’t be the result of ‘Disaster Relief’ after the network update, can it?”

The little girl confidently analyzed,

“First, it makes you a bit more beautiful, gives you some small benefits, then tricks you into thinking you really awakened a superpower, and finally, you unwittingly make a wish! You’re played with by the disaster beast!”

Xu Ling felt her scalp tingle.

Oh no, she hadn’t thought of all that! She had already made dozens of wishes while taking a shower! If what Honey Tong said was true, then hadn’t she already owed Pei Xiaotong dozens of lives?

But when she thought about it differently, she quickly sighed in relief and happily said,

“That’s great! I made dozens of wishes, and none of them came true, which means this superpower definitely didn’t have anything to do with the disaster beast!”

Pei Xiaotong, “?”

But doesn’t that just prove that Xu Ling’s superpower is completely useless? What is she even happy about?

Xu Ling also realized the problem, cleared her throat, and said seriously,

“Having a superpower doesn’t matter; being safe is what matters most, safety first!”

Xu Ling had already made up her mind, decided to put the useless “Wish Spell” aside, and continued,

“Also, superhero movies always say with great power comes great responsibility. If your sister really had some amazing superpower, could she still sleep in every day, slack off, and play happily?”

Pei Xiaotong seemed to think about this.

Indeed, while everyone envies the shining magic girls, just like the contestants who gave up their chance to debut in the second performance, not everyone can accept the costs behind that brilliance.

Superpowers are the same; if someone awakens a truly useful ability, can they really refuse when their country calls for them during wartime?

The little girl sighed,

“Honey Ling, you are truly wise yet seem foolish.”

Xu Ling, “?”

The girl sneered and happily called her aunt, immediately reporting that Pei Xiaotong, who had cheered “Hooray” not long ago, was now going home with a sad face to do her homework.

But not long after, the situation took a turn, and Mama Pei on the other end of the phone said,

“Xiaotong, the news is asking everyone to watch the live broadcast of the match in the Donghong division of ‘Dazzling Stage,’ so let’s cheer for the Daxia team’s magical girls together.”

Mama Pei seemed to have a strong sense of national pride and continued,

“First, put down your homework and go watch with your sister. By the way, introduce us to those magical girls. We are busy with work and haven’t seen many episodes of ‘Dazzling Stage.'”

Pei Xiaotong felt that today was her lucky day. She immediately cheered and said her mom was the best. Then she tossed aside her water pen, pushed her homework aside, grabbed some sparkling water and snacks, and skillfully turned on the TV to change the channel.

The girl completely forgot her anger at being betrayed by her cousin sister. She pulled her cousin down to sit and excitedly watched the livestream that hadn’t started yet.

At the same time, similar events were happening across the country and even around the world. After the ongoing stir in the restricted areas, the higher-ups had already made the competition to determine the champion of the Donghong Federation and Sacred United Country into the ultimate promotional video.

Currently, ‘Dazzling Stage’ and governments from various countries announced that in seven days, a global stage celebration would be held to use Shining Magic to cleanse the hidden disaster beasts and disaster auras, restoring a clean and safe home for humanity.

At the same time, many past tragedies caused by disaster beasts and the previously forbidden broadcasts of the scenes were now allowed to be shared, seemingly in an effort to raise public awareness.

To emphasize the importance of this event, all countries took mandatory measures. Anyone who isn’t seriously ill, elderly, or has unavoidable problems must go to the specified location on that day to watch.

Now, sports stadiums, stage facilities, squares, parks, cinemas, theaters, sky venues, school playgrounds and classrooms, and even the stages set up for circuses in amusement parks have all been reserved and cleared, with seats arranged and Light Stone Pedestals set up for citizens to view the dazzling event.

All this area data is gathered on the official website of ‘Dazzling Stage’. You can enter your ID number on the website, and based on your location, reserve a spot for a week later.

Yesterday, after Xu Ling received a text on her phone, she tried to make a reservation and was lucky enough to get a seat at a nearby sports hall.

Pei Xiaotong went to bed early yesterday and made her reservation only after getting up, so she was assigned to a park near her neighborhood, sitting with the elderly.

If she had been less fortunate, she might have been assigned to Sea City, with the government covering her flight and train tickets, sending her to another place a day early to wait and watch.

With such a grand mobilization, the entire Daxia Country’s population of a hundred billion people could see one-tenth of them sitting in the audience on that day, making it a truly spectacular event.

It is worth mentioning that those who reserved seats but were not assigned one had to sit in front of their televisions at home and record themselves watching the event in real-time, needing to upload it afterward.

This strict approach naturally drew some criticism, but it was dismissed as being “the same as during wartime.”

In fact, if it weren’t for the desire to avoid panic and riots, the fact that civilization was at a critical point wouldn’t have been announced, and any opposing comments would have been seen as crimes against humanity.

However, there are benefits to both public and non-public matters.

While the current atmosphere is certainly strict, in Daxia, it also brings back a sense of nostalgia for the old days of communal living, where people farmed during the day and sat together watching movies at night. Though it feels tense, it’s not too overwhelming, and there’s a subtle pride in contributing to the country and the world just by sitting still.

Xu Ling placed a plate of sunflower seeds on the table and said excitedly:

“The live stream has begun.”

Pei Xiaotong sighed with satisfaction:

“There are so many beautiful girls! Just a quick glance feels like collecting all the cute points of an otaku. It’s so wonderful.”

Xu Ling loyally searched for Little Sakura’s figure, and as a devoted fan, she seemed to have a special eye. Soon, she spotted Kirimi Miyuki with pink hair in the “group photo” and began to admire her new performance outfit, showing a happy, proud smile.

Miyuki! So cute! Let’s get close!

At that moment, the WeChat call on her phone had turned into a family group voice chat, where she and Pei Xiaotong could hear relatives asking which teams belonged to Daxia, including various aunts and uncles.

So, the two girls handled the lively conversation of their relatives like patient and devoted missionaries, taking photos, zooming in, taking screenshots to send in the group, and using Baidu Baike for explanations.

After all the fuss, Dream Weaver Rabbit had explained the general rules and entered the drawing stage, quickly welcoming the first idol team to the stage.

Pei Xiaotong looked at the audience filled with Calamity Seeds and puppets under the camera, shivering as she touched her goosebumps on her big white legs, and quietly complained:

“Wow, so Calamity Seeds look so strange? As soon as they leave the metal and liquid nitrogen, they start to squirm and twist in their seats. That’s so scary.”

Xu Ling also thought it was creepy. She suddenly wished that Wish Spell could really do something, because if she encountered a Calamity Seed in real life, she would definitely scream and run away like a cat that got its tail stepped on.

No joke, I can’t imagine what would happen if a monster like that caught me.

Meanwhile, there were a thousand disaster beast eggs ready to hatch just beneath the stage.

“This competition system is terrifying. If I were one of the little idols on the stage, I would have already been scared stiff.”

Pei Xiaotong complained:

“It’s true, but compared to the last attack in Sea City, the Dazzling Stage competition is much gentler.”

“Thinking about it, the neighboring Sacred United Country doesn’t have anything to compare, right? Charlotte could easily just declare victory.”

Xu Ling said seriously:

“We can’t say that. The results of this competition will determine many things.”

“Although the first place winner can perform on the biggest and most watched stages of the Donghong Federation and the Sacred United Country, which are broadcast live worldwide, everyone else will also travel to various stages around the world based on their rankings for synchronized performances.”

“In other words, the higher your rank, the better the stage you can perform on and the more audience there will be. This is the most valuable reward for idols.”

The girl paused as she spoke, her brow slightly furrowed, a sharp pain in her head, as the blessing mark in her sea of divine sense slowly shattered, and the intense white light washed over her body before disappearing.

Xu Ling felt an unexpected sadness. Following her inner guidance, she looked up at her bedroom.

Her gaze then passed through the wall and fixed on the figurine on her nightstand.

It was the magical girl Madoka Kaname.

In the next moment, the bowstring in her hand loosened, and the arrow transformed into a shining arc, instantly piercing her eye!