Something's off about this magical girl.

Chapter 6 The Crouching Dragon and the Young Phoenix

"No problem," Gu Bai agreed.

"I've been wiped out and can't even afford dinner now. I told you this is the final destination. What are we going to do about the debts?"

Dong Chun put her phone back in her pocket, her cool red eyes sweeping over Tao Zhuo, who was still silently grieving over the margin call, her tone as calm as ever.

"I have my own way of handling this, and Dong-mei, don't you dare lecture me!"

Tao Zhuo sat bolt upright in her chair, her pink hair slightly agitated.

"I've told you so many times—this Five Elements Health Preservation Theory, this Longevity and Prosperity Club, and that Crane Longevity Forum! Each one is more outrageous than the last. They're all scamming people like you who just throw money away on a whim. Getting scammed once or twice isn't enough, but you're being fooled all the time, don't you have any shame?!"

"The first assessment is a normal one, the subsequent ones are for safety reasons." Dong Chun remained calm. "If successful, the overall expected return will be positive."

"But how do you explain that the last post from those accounts was 'I've moved to Cangzhou, wishing everyone all the best'?"

"The post itself does not constitute proof of fraud," Dongchun said seriously. "In fact, there is another possibility: these bloggers possessed the real means of achieving immortality, so they were silenced."

"..."

There was a brief silence in the consultation room for two seconds.

Sitting behind his desk, Gu Bai picked up his teacup and tactically took a sip of hot water.

One person went all in with leverage and ended up penniless; the other chased after fortune tellers, making money everywhere while still finding excuses for them.

They are truly a pair of brilliant and talented individuals.

I don't know what kind of fate brought these two together on the same chair in the classroom—maybe destiny wanted to have some fun and deliberately put them together.

Gu Bai put down his teacup and pulled the conversation away from the bottomless pit of who was "smarter": "Let's talk about the entrance exams."

"The opening exam is to prevent us from slacking off during the holidays."

Tao Zhuo sighed and slumped back in her chair: "Starting next week, the exams will probably last for a week. The situation is different every year, so the specific arrangements will depend on the academic affairs office."

Next Monday? That leaves only this weekend. Gu Bai silently calculated in his mind when he could set off with Dong Chun to that old mountain village, figuring it would have to be postponed again.

"Sigh, teacher, you're new here, so you don't understand." Tao Zhuo scratched her pink hair, looking utterly dejected. "Even though there's still a weekend, I have to do volunteer work tomorrow, and there's a regular mock exam the day after tomorrow morning. In reality, there's hardly any time left for actual review!"

"Volunteer work?" Gu Bai raised an eyebrow. "A magical girl doing this?"

"Really, really, I'm in charge of Liuyun Street." Tao Zhuo slowly uttered a few words, "In other words... I'm sweeping the streets."

"..." Gu Bai was silent for a moment, "A magical girl sweeping the streets?"

"Otherwise what? The cleaning robots don't work on weekends, so it's our turn to step in. Besides, the Qixin Inspection Department is very strict about this job, and they arrest people and deduct credits at the drop of a hat!" Tao Zhuo pouted, then suddenly rolled her eyes and moved closer to the desk.

"Well, teacher, you should be able to apply for supervision too. How about it? Come supervise me tomorrow, and make sure you give me a high score for my work attitude!"

"Sigh, slaves to points."

Gu Bai thought of the Qi Xin APP teacher version that he had just installed on his phone. If he had nothing to do tomorrow, he could go and see the strange sight of these magical girls sweeping the streets.

"Grades are really important." Tao Zhu stroked her chin. "Although they're not the only evaluation criterion, it's clear that the school allocates a lot of resources and awards to high-scoring magical girls."

After saying that, Tao Zhuo glanced at Dong Chun, who was standing ramrod straight beside her:

"I'm just a weak four-star quasi-magical girl in Class 2, but Dong is a top student in Class 1. Let her share her high-score experience with us."

The person named, Dongchun, remained expressionless and said succinctly, "...Anyway, it's very good."

"Trying to pick a fight, huh!" Tao Zhu clenched her fists, gritting her teeth. "Dong-meimei's communication skills really need improvement!"

【drop--】

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp alarm suddenly blared from Dongchun's pocket.

She took out her phone; the screen flashed red, and a mechanical female voice echoed quietly in the consultation room:

[Urgent Mission: A Gray-Bronze-level alien beast has appeared in Disaster Zone 047. The on-duty personnel for today, 'Winter Camellia', is requested to proceed immediately to handle the situation.]

Tao Zhuo paused for a moment, then peeked at the phone screen in Dong Chun's hand:

"Wait a minute, looking at this week's schedule, shouldn't Xia Zhi be leading the team on duty today?"

"She had something to do." Dong Chun put her phone away, her tone calm. "She messaged me last night saying she was switching shifts with me."

"Okay—" Tao Zhuo seemed to suddenly realize something and jumped up abruptly. "Ah, it's District 047?! Oh no, oh no, oh no! That's my assigned district! If the monsters destroy that area, I and the others will have to manually clean up the ruins tomorrow!"

Tao Zhuo immediately turned to Dong Chun, clasping her hands together: "Go quickly! Go quickly!"

"I'm walking." Dongchun slowly got up.

"Hurry up!"

"It will not affect the arrival time."

Gu Bai watched the two of them move towards the door, one hurried and the other steady, then stood up and followed them, casually saying, "It's not too bad, is it? Defeating the beast will drop money, just enough to pay off the debt."

The air went still for a second.

Tao Zhuo, standing at the doorway, slowly turned her head and looked at him with the eyes of someone examining a spy:

"…Teacher, don't you know anything about classifying alien beasts? Did you really get into the school using a hypnosis app?"

"Mm." Gu Bai controlled his tone and followed the two who were leaving.

Are all the monsters in the Calamity Zone the same as those I encountered yesterday? It seems that the more ferocious monsters I saw in the past are probably the majority.

"Tsk, it seems they don't even know the basics of magical girls. We're already at maximum resistance to hypnosis. Any hypnosis apps you can find outside are just scams leaked from Qi's mind."

Tao Zhu rolled her eyes and started her general knowledge explanation as she walked towards the door: "According to the official names, the strange beasts are called 'Three Grays' and 'Three Highs' for short."

"The bottom layer is made of gray lead, gray iron, and gray copper; the top layer is made of silver, gold, and platinum."

"These are further divided into 'resource-type' and 'abnormal-type'. The resource-type, also known as the reward-type, has extremely high defense. Generally, if you damage it, it will pop out some metal blocks of the corresponding level like a piggy bank, and then quickly run away. The other type is the common abnormal-type, which is extremely destructive and very troublesome. Moreover, apart from the abnormal core that can always be obtained by killing the abnormal beast, it doesn't drop anything good at all!"

Tao Zhuo grew angrier as she spoke, as if she could already see the tragic scene of herself sweeping the streets amidst ruins the next day.

"And the level of the alien beast corresponds to the star level of us magical girls."

In the corridor, Tao Zhuo suddenly stopped, clenched her right fist, and raised it in front of Gu Bai.

On the back of her fair hand, at the base of each of her four fingers (excluding the thumb), a gleaming five-pointed star was engraved.

"From one to four stars, they are called quasi-magical girls, but only when they reach five or six stars can the word 'quasi' be dropped from their title, and they become official magical girls recognized by the Qixin Academy."

Then, a rare longing flashed in Tao Zhuo's eyes:

"If you can reach the Seven Stars... then you will have an exclusive title. Some are inherited from the original Qixin brand, and some are newly created by yourself. But in order to maintain the value of the commercial IP and its appeal to the stock market, most people will choose to inherit it. Brands like Sun and Light are the top-tier brands of Qixin. Inheriting them will make them living IPs."

At this point, she proudly raised her chin and spread her fingers: "By the way, I'll be five stars soon."

Gu Bai listened quietly to the whole "magical girl system" and glanced at Tao Zhuo's proud face and Dong Chun, who had been waiting impatiently beside her.

"So, this soon-to-be five-star magical girl," Gu Bai began, his tone calm, "what are your chances of defeating a gray-bronze beast by yourself?"

Tao Zhuo opened her mouth, remained silent for two seconds, and then looked at Dong Chun beside her with a fawning expression: "With Sister Dong leading the team, this is no problem~"

"Oh, so you're skipping dinner?"

"Eat, I'll eat right after I'm done. Teacher, can you wait for me to come back?"

Tao Zhuo turned around, her eyes brightening. She could sense the meaning behind Gu Bai's words.

"Then I'll go with you."

Gu Bai spoke, just as Tao Zhuo had predicted.

Immediately, she grabbed her teacher's arm and ran towards the winter jasmine tree ahead:

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!!!"