Apocalypse, then transforming into a magical girl

The idea of ​​magical girls only flashed through Zhao Jia's mind briefly; he shook his head, banishing the unrealistic fantasy from his head.

He tried to get more information from his phone, but all that appeared on the screen was a message: Network connection failed.

The internet is down.

The source of information was completely cut off.

His fear was forcibly suppressed by his will to survive, and he began searching his home for things that might be useful as weapons.

Two pots, two kitchen knives, several screwdrivers, a fire extinguisher, and insecticide.

With these things, how could they fight off the monsters outside? A sense of powerlessness crept into his heart.

At least... at least he lived on the seventeenth floor, the top floor. That's so high, those monsters shouldn't be able to get up there, right? But this thought was shattered by a strange noise coming from the stairwell.

"Dry."

Even if we take a step back and assume the worst, at least this security door is trustworthy.

He held his breath and tiptoed to the door, pressing his ear against the cold metal door, but he couldn't hear clearly; it sounded like some sticky thing crawling.

He swallowed hard, mustered his courage, pressed his body against the door, and peered through the peephole.

Under the stark white light of the hallway lamp, not far from his doorway, a repulsive silhouette was slowly moving.

Its body was twisted and irregular, seemingly composed of many irregular limbs and unidentifiable organs, its surface covered with mucus, leaving sticky drag marks on the ground it had moved through.

Zhao Jia deduced from the traces of slime that the monster came from the rooftop. The rooftop door was unlocked.

At that very moment, the lights in the living room and the hallway went out simultaneously.

power cut.

The living room instantly went dark, with the only light source being the sickly sky outside the window.

The darkness amplified all his senses and amplified the fear within him.

He pinched his thigh hard, using the pain to keep himself awake.

The monster in the stairwell seemed to become even more frantic and started running around wildly.

"Pfft."

"Snapped!"

Unable to find an exit, and seemingly lacking intelligence? This gave Zhao Jia a sliver of illusory hope.

The monster groped and rammed in the darkness, approaching the side of the corridor where he was, getting closer and closer.

"Thump!"

A series of impact sounds rang out, clearly reaching Zhao Jia's ears, and he took a few steps back.

After its own door was slammed a few times, the monster seemed to lose interest and rammed into another door next to it.

He knew the person behind that door—Xia Zhaozhao.

She was a girl with short, neat hair, often sporting dark circles under her eyes, yet somehow exuding a vibrant energy. Zhao Jia had given her a bunch of dusty game cartridges at a rock-bottom price, and that's how they met.

Every time they bumped into each other in the elevator, she would wave at Zhao Jia with dark circles under her eyes, looking silly.

She's a college student who commutes to school, and she always finds all sorts of bizarre reasons to ask for leave, or she simply skips classes altogether, spending eight out of ten days at home playing video games.

On one occasion, when Zhao Jia was dragged into a game by her, he casually asked about her studies. She responded with a look of disdain, and retorted defiantly:

"Hey, who do you think you are? Let me tell you, I only failed two courses last semester! That's considered very few in my class!"

"And...and I'm really smart! I even skipped two grades in elementary school!"

"...You can only use things from elementary school to prove you're smart?"

"Huh? Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up and start the next round!"

The thought of that sleepy-eyed guy, clutching the controller and grinning foolishly, now facing the indescribable horror outside the door filled Zhao Jia with a sense of shared sorrow.

He hoped that Xia Zhaozhao hadn't skipped class as usual today, but had stayed at school obediently. At least there were more people there, and perhaps it would be safer.

However, reality was quite different from his imagination.

A few minutes ago, in Xia Zhaozhao's room.

She was sitting cross-legged on the gaming chair, her smooth legs casually crossed, her oversized black T-shirt half-dampened by the sticky air, clinging tightly to her body.

Xia Zhaozhao is very unhappy right now, extremely unhappy.

She had been stuck on the same boss for who knows how long, and when she tried to go online to look up information, she found that her internet connection was down.

"Huh? Why is the internet down again? What's going on?" She jumped off the chair, walked barefoot to the router in the corner, and reached out to press the switch to restart it.

Just then, the room went completely dark. The monitor and the small fan on the table both stopped working instantly.

"...Gurgle."

"Why don't you just kill me?"

Xia Zhaozhao was so angry that she jumped around on the ground.

The absurd humidity, the internet outage, and the power outage were like the end of the world for her (though it really was).

She took off her headphones and tossed them onto her gaming chair. Just as she was thinking about how to complain about the property management company to the point of explosion, a very heavy knocking, or rather, a banging, sound suddenly came from the door. It was extremely impolite.

Xia Zhaozhao's anger level completely exploded.

She made the judgment instinctively. Absolutely, absolutely that annoying old man surnamed Sun at the other end of the corridor.

Only that stinky old man would be so rude as to knock on her door.

Although she always wore headphones while playing games, that guy had previously picked fights with her, falsely accusing her of playing games too loudly, kicking her door early in the morning several times, throwing dirty water at her door, and even kicking over her takeout.

"Will this ever end?!"

Enraged, she walked to the door and, without thinking, shoved the security door open, even shaking the thing outside the door backward a little because of the force!

"You're asking for death, you old beast—" Before the word "death" could be uttered, the voice changed tone, turning into a heart-wrenching scream: "Ahhhhhh—a ghost—"

The figure standing at the doorway wasn't that old beast at all, but a grotesque, twisted monster she couldn't even describe! Its limbs and organs were haphazardly arranged and writhing, emitting an indescribable stench in the darkness.

Xia Zhaozhao's first reaction was to close the door, but she had opened it with too much force, and the door was flung open at a large angle. In her panic, she was unable to grab the doorknob immediately!

Zhao Jia, who had been observing through the peephole, reacted almost reflexively.

He yanked the door open a crack with his left hand and swung the kitchen knife in his right hand at the monster that Xia Zhaozhao had repelled.

"Splat!" The cleaver struck the monster precisely, splattering a few drops of slime, which were clearly insignificant.

But that wasn't his main purpose. After throwing the kitchen knife, he reached forward with his right hand, preparing to drag Xia Zhaozhao into his room.

However, his hand grasped at empty air; his fingers only brushed against the hem of Xia Zhaozhao's oversized T-shirt, just a hair's breadth away!

"Oh no!" he thought to himself, realizing the situation was dire.

Just as he was about to lean out and pull again, Xia Zhaozhao seemed to finally understand the situation.

Suddenly, a white light burst forth from her body.

The sudden light blinded Zhao Jia, causing him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, his brain had completely shut down.

Xia Zhaozhao's originally shoulder-length black hair grew rapidly and drastically at a visible speed, eventually transforming into a dazzling head of white hair that reached her waist.

Her wet black T-shirt also disintegrated in the light, and a knight-like outfit with black and silver as the main colors quickly took shape on her body.

Over a well-fitting black bodysuit, she wore a breastplate with intricate patterns and a skirt armor that flared out like flower petals. Her legs were encased in stockings, and on her feet were thick, sturdy boots that extended all the way to her knees.

The light dissipated.

Xia Zhaozhao slowly stood up, and a magnificent greatsword, gleaming with silver light, appeared out of thin air in her hand.