Apocalypse, then transforming into a magical girl

Chapter 194 Only today do I realize who I am!

Becoming stronger? At this juncture, that's something we'd much rather have.

However, magical girls don't seem to have a clear upgrade path?

Xiao Lü pondered that the only case she had ever witnessed was Xia Zhaozhao's sudden power surge. As for herself, since signing the contract, apart from her increasingly proficient control over magic, she hadn't felt any qualitative leap.

However, since both Wolf and Xia Zhaozhao said that this woman in front of them was once incredibly strong, then perhaps she really does know something.

"Freedom? What does that mean?" Xia Zhaozhao was a little confused.

"What else could freedom mean? It's just freedom."

Lion lazily stuffed a few fries into his mouth, making a sound as if it were perfectly natural.

"Becoming stronger is a freedom, and so is the freedom to change one's abilities."

"You're basically saying nothing at all—" Xia Zhaozhao pouted and muttered unhappily in a low voice.

However, the lion just smiled and looked at her: "Speaking of which, you should have some sense of it yourself, right?"

"Hmm—that's true." Xia Zhaozhao nodded, recalling how she felt at the time.

"It was like—a sudden 'buzz' in my head, like I suddenly understood something, and then I became stronger. It felt like I just needed a trigger."

"Yes, that's normal. Getting stronger after a power surge is perfectly normal and the norm."

"What was that saying again—'Suddenly the golden rope is broken, the jade lock is ripped apart!'—The tide rises on the Qiantang River, and only today do I realize who I truly am!"

"————That's completely different, okay? The guy who said that died right after he finished saying it."

Little Green couldn't help but complain.

"Oh, don't worry about the details, just get the gist of it."

The lion waved his hand dismissively, then changed the subject.

"However, before talking about getting stronger, before I came to Longshan to retire, I saw quite a few magical girls. More than a normal person would have seen in eight lifetimes~"

Although it's supposed to be for retirement, the person in front of me who calls herself "older sister" actually looks to be only in her early twenties, probably even younger than me.

An emotion called envy suddenly welled up in Xiao Lü's heart without any warning.

Financial freedom is wonderful.

The lion clearly didn't notice the turmoil in Little Green's heart; he simply began to make plans in a carefree manner.

"Speaking of which, I've seen quite a lot of magical girls. If I had to categorize them, it would be quite a hassle."

"Roughly, how many kinds can it be divided into?" she said, but then she herself became confused.

Looking at her like this, Xiao Lü felt a little suspicious.

—Is this guy really reliable?

"Oh, right, Mayfly-chan, your ability is to manipulate ice, right?"

Little Green nodded.

"Yes, this is the most traditional first type."

"The magical girls I've seen all have a wide variety of abilities, and very few are exactly the same."

"However, most of the abilities are actually just so-so, and can basically all be categorized into this box."

"And then, the most representative type is the guy who strikes an incredibly embarrassing pose, shouts something like 'Magical Splash Flare,' and then suddenly shoots out some kind of light cannon."

"Apart from those that are just using light cannons, I include those that play with fire, electricity, or ice in this category."

"As for my sister-chan—psychic abilities can actually be considered part of the first category, albeit with some difficulty. Moreover, this type of ability is generally not weak."

That's true. Little Green nodded in agreement. After all, this kind of energy manipulation ability, no matter what work it's in, never has a low skill ceiling.

"The second type is the one that strengthens one's physical fitness." Lion held up his second finger.

"Speaking of which, there are quite a few of these, and the fighting styles are also quite varied."

"Some like to use weapons to launch projectiles, which are similar in performance to the first type; most, however, simply use their own weapons and fight in a conventional manner."

"I've also seen those that can Dynamax, and after Dynamaxing, several huge phantom arms grow from their backs, which they use to beat up enemies."

"However, what they have in common is that their strength and speed are generally ridiculously high." She pointed her finger at Xia Zhaozhao next to her.

"Look, this is a typical example."

She paused, then slowly added a sentence.

"—If I were to retract my assessment that 'their strength and speed are generally ridiculously high,'..."

"Hey, I've already become stronger, so I don't need to take it back now!" Xia Zhaozhao retorted through gritted teeth.

"The third type is basically space-based and time-based systems."

"The most representative of this type of magical girl is probably someone with abilities like teleportation—"

"Oh right, I remember there was a character in an anime who could slice away everything, even space itself. That should be one of those types, right?"

"—That thing is called Bombardment Space. Also, that idiot isn't a magical girl, he's a Stand user," Little Green couldn't help but correct.

"Furthermore, do you think it's reasonable to directly use elements from comics as a classification criterion?"

"Well, just get the gist of it."

The lion simply shrugged, his face showing complete indifference.

"However, if you're asking for real-world examples, I can give you some. I actually know one of these spatial magical girls. Her ability is probably something like—changing the position of things she can touch."

Her tone was somewhat ambiguous, suggesting that she wasn't particularly familiar with her colleague's abilities.

"As for time-related things—I'm even less familiar with them, but they're usually not very powerful. At most, they can create a small field and make time flow backwards within it for a little while, or something like that."

"The scope of the impact is usually pitifully small, and there will never be a bug-level ability like time stop—at least that's how it is in the cases I know or have heard of."

"I know someone who's a time-manipulator, but he's an idiot. He hasn't developed any decent uses for it at all, and all he does is fight people with his bare hands every day."

At this point, a look of disappointment and frustration appeared on the lion's face.

"The greatest use of her magic is that after eating a pineapple bun, she can put the packaging bag into her anti-entropy field, so that the pineapple bun inside the packaging bag can grow back in time and be eaten again."

"Or you could eat it down to the last edge, then activate your ability to restore it to its original, whole state."

"What is all this nonsense?" Xiao Lü was utterly speechless.

"Hey, hey, ask a question!"

Xia Zhaozhao raised her hand high, like a primary school student.

"Does this time-reversal process mean that the part she's already eaten comes back out of her mouth and becomes a whole pineapple bun? That seems perfect for weight loss!"

"Of course not! What you eat won't change; it will just regenerate within the magic field! Speaking of which, what exactly do you take magical girls for?!"

"————Then, the fourth type is the summoning type." The lion held up its fourth finger.

Xiao Lü felt that his tone sounded somewhat perfunctory, as if he didn't have much interest in this kind of ability.

"For example, making dolls, or summoning cute little creatures to fight for you, that kind of thing—there's not much to introduce."

"Basically, it's about not lifting a finger yourself, but calling up a bunch of henchmen to fight in a brawl. There's a slightly special case, someone who can replicate mortar shells from memory, so I've included her here too; it's pretty much the same thing."

"Of course, there are also types that are completely unbeatable." The lion seemed to recall something interesting.

"For example, there was a little girl who tried her best, but could only summon a kind of elf that could make boots."

"However, the boots that the elf made were of particularly high quality, so she later opened an online store and made a lot of money."

"————"

"Alright, there's no need to categorize anymore."

The lion clapped its hands, seemingly preparing to end this long science lesson.

"Huh? Aren't there many different kinds?" Xia Zhaozhao immediately interjected.

"For example, illusion magic, rule-based magic, supernatural abilities, and so on—"

"Just put them all in the fifth category. If you're interested later, I can explain it to you in more detail."

Lion's answer was rather hasty, simply grouping all the remaining types into a single "Other" category.

"After all, we're discussing becoming stronger now." I've seen cases in the first four categories where I could roughly summarize the patterns of becoming stronger.

"However, although the fifth category of magical girls is the most numerous, their abilities are all over the place. They are basically just scattered superpowers, and the ways they become stronger are also chaotic, with no discernible pattern."

Her gaze shifted towards Xiao Lü and the others.

"Like the wren over there. I remember her ability was—"

"They can see things we can't," the wolf added quietly from the side.

"Oh, right, right, that's it."

The lion nodded.

"For someone like her, the way to become stronger basically has to be figured out entirely on her own."

Then she pointed at Xia Zhaozhao.

"Although I just categorized you into the second group, your... well, you have that 'knight doesn't die unarmed' characteristic..."

"If that's what you want to strengthen, then your ability can roughly be categorized into this fifth category."

Then, Lion opened another bottle of beer and yawned.

"Alright, now that we've covered the categories, let's get down to business."

"From what I've seen of 'becoming stronger,' there are roughly two types."

"One more controllable approach is 'enhancing' one's abilities. This can be achieved through effort."

"The second type is a change in ability." This is more related to the mind and requires a catalyst; it can't be achieved in a short time.

Her gaze shifted to Xia Zhaozhao.

"Speaking of which, your sudden surge in power should actually be classified as the second category."

"Let's talk about the second one first!"

"Let me give you an example, I can't summarize it in a short time," Lion said.

"The magical girl I just mentioned, the one whose ability is to change the position of objects, to be more specific—she can instantly move any object she touches and grant it speed."

"As for its strength, it's so-so. I usually just carry a bunch of small knives with me and use this move as a low-level version of Izayoi Sakuya."

"Once, she encountered a powerful nightmare that she couldn't defeat at all, and was beaten half to death. But she didn't want to die, she really, really didn't want to die."

"So, after she escaped with serious injuries, she suddenly had a power surge, her abilities were enhanced, and she could transfer more than just the things on her body. She temporarily transferred her memories and consciousness into a passing cat."

"I arrived just in time. After I dealt with the nightmare, she took the opportunity to teleport back—"

"Wow, that's amazing—wait, where's the cat?" Xia Zhaozhao's focus was always so peculiar.

"Also alive."

"----etc."

Xiao Lü felt she had found a logical flaw.

"Even if the memories and consciousness could be transferred out, you said yourself that she was seriously injured at the time. The physical injuries should still be on her body, so it doesn't make sense that her body was still alive later on."

"Oh, this."

Lion's answer was casual, but it made Little Green feel that her common sense had been challenged.

"She also transferred some of her injuries. The severe internal injuries were transferred to her thigh and the cat's head—"

—This ability has been enhanced far more than just a little bit. Little Green was somewhat speechless.

"Oh, right, Zhao Zhao." She turned her head to Xia Zhao Zhao.

"When you suddenly became stronger, what was it that you realized?"

"Ah—it's actually quite embarrassing to say this—"

"I remember—at that time I seemed to realize that the so-called protection" is probably—it's about preventing things that you don't want to happen from happening, and wanting to protect what you don't want to lose.

"That's right. The virtue that guy anchored himself to, I think it was 'hope' or something like that."

"Although it sounds a bit childish, she said that at the time she just felt that she would definitely not die, firmly believed that tomorrow would be better, and firmly believed that there was always a way out, so that miracle happened."

"Sigh, what a perfect magical girl answer—" Lion said.

"Also, besides this, I know a little girl whose abilities have also changed."

"Her ability is to control and create sound, so she doesn't need a silencer in her assassin career."

—Assassin, magical girl? Xiao Lü felt that the magical girls this guy knew were either idiots or villains; it seemed like there weren't many normal people among them.

Or rather, that's exactly why it leaves a deeper impression.

"However, her ability later changed, from simply controlling her voice to being able to 'implant suggestions.'"

"Although using it to influence people would consume a lot of magic power, assassinations wouldn't even require carrying a gun, so we could take on bigger jobs and live off a single deal for three years."

"Hey, wait a minute—"

Xia Zhaozhao finally couldn't hold back and interrupted her.

"What kind of villains are these? Does she even have any virtues?"

"Her virtue is temperance," the lion replied confidently.