Apocalypse, then transforming into a magical girl

In the northern suburbs of Xinmao City, the city's structure gradually loosens.

The high-rise buildings have disappeared, replaced by a more vintage townscape.

The little green bird silently cut through the rain curtain, and flew northwards; that should lead to the crematorium.

She figured there weren't many resources to scavenge in this area, and the survivors who had settled here probably weren't having an easy time.

To assess the situation near the crematorium, Little Green lowered its flight altitude.

Just then, the chaotic scene below caught her eye, and her vigilance instantly rose to its highest level.

It was a battlefield, a truly terrifying battlefield.

This is a crossroads, a low-lying area, heavily flooded. Logically, this should be the party spot where the community would most like to gather.

But by this time, the party had obviously ended prematurely, leaving behind only a mess and puddles of black water that had become even darker and thicker.

The black slime, which had not yet fully dissolved into the water, was still slowly spreading, indicating that the battle had taken place not long ago.

The black slime had not yet fully dissolved into the water and was gradually spreading, indicating that the battlefield had been left not long ago.

What truly chilled her to the bone was the appearance of the battlefield.

Right in the middle of the intersection, two cars that were already totaled were violently collided from the left and right sides in a very unnatural way.

The front of the car was completely crushed and deformed, and at the core of their impact, a large pool of black slime remained on the ground.

Presumably, this is the absolute main force among that group of aggregates.

Xiao Lü's gaze swept across the entire room, and a sense of deliberate, almost morbid, symmetry washed over everyone.

Those two cars were like reflections inside and outside a mirror.

On each side of them, three lampposts were broken off at the base and leaned outward at almost the same angle.

It's not an aggregate; anyone can tell that instantly.

Those things only follow their most primal instincts to cause chaotic destruction; the concept of "symmetry" doesn't exist in their minds, and they certainly won't kill each other.

So, the one who made the move was a magical girl she didn't recognize? Her abilities might be related to telekinesis or metal manipulation.

Little Green quickly constructed a battle scene in her mind:

An unknown magical girl uses two abandoned cars as giant hammers and six lampposts as spears, following an absolutely symmetrical trajectory to completely crush and pierce through the monster horde from the center.

No, it's not entirely symmetrical.

She keenly noticed a minor flaw. On the left, a lamppost was inserted into the ground at a slightly angled deviation of a few degrees compared to the other five.

This slight deviation was insignificant, but Xiao Lü's gaze lingered on it for a moment longer.

She continued forward, her gaze sweeping across the street ahead.

Everything on the street that could be called metal—guardrails, road signs, bicycles—was twisted into pretzel shapes.

However, these distortions are not without reason; they also exhibit a strange mirror symmetry:

All the metal on the right side of the street was straightened and then rolled to the left; while the metal on the left side was straightened and then rolled to the right.

All the metal objects on the right side of the street curled to the left; while those on the left contracted to the right.

The entire street of metal was forcibly shaped into two cages that kept closing inward.

It's not hard to imagine how the monster that was trapped inside was squeezed into a pile of minced meat.

What an amazing ability! Little Green thought to herself that she could never do that.

Moreover, this reveals an almost obsessive-compulsive obsession with "symmetry"...

Or perhaps, this isn't obsession, but rather a limitation of this magical girl's abilities?

"what?"

She stopped in her tracks.

Inside the metal cage on the right, a large bow had been carefully tied onto a steel pipe twisted into a braid shape using discarded electrical wire.

The cage on the left was completely empty.

The second guess instantly outweighed the first.

This unknown magical girl doesn't seem to like the symmetry in her abilities. This bow might be her little protest against the rules of her power.

It's like deliberately writing a punctuation mark wrong on a perfect test paper.

Xiao Lü's guess that she was a magical girl became even stronger, revealing a subtle girlish heart.

She continued walking forward. Not far ahead, on the wall of a building, there were large patches of graffiti.

Upon closer inspection, one can still vaguely discern some faded vulgarities and the lingering image of the document forger.

...Do people still have such a sense of public morality in this apocalyptic world?

Xiao Lü was speechless.

This behavior is like meticulously throwing charred corpses into a dry waste bin after a nuclear bombing—it exudes an inappropriate obsession.

In the center of the cleaned wall, there was a graffiti painting that was only half-finished.

The drawing skills are quite good, much better than Xia Zhaozhao's terrible drawing skills. The design looks quite cute.

She thought, "Maybe I was interrupted by the monster when I was halfway through drawing it."

Little Green continued forward, and the sights it saw along the way became increasingly outrageous.

A stone table by the roadside was straightened and thoughtfully placed under the eaves where it wouldn't get wet in the rain.

On the table were several dirty and broken dolls, which were carefully arranged as if a grand tea party was being held.

Beside the table, there were two small graves made of stones, with rough wooden tombstones, on which seemed to be engraved some words—"Grave of the Little Bird and the Little Dinosaur".

Erecting a monument for a broken toy?

Xiao Lü felt her吐槽 (tu cao, a form of online commentary/criticism) energy was almost depleted. If she had known something like this would happen, she really should have dragged Xia Zhaozhao out of bed today.

As she continued walking forward, the corner of her mouth twitched involuntarily.

At the entrance of a small shop, blocked by a roller shutter door, sat an open plastic bag on the steps. Inside the bag were five neatly stacked cans.

Next to it, there was a note weighed down with a stone.

The contents of the note made Xiao Lü feel that her intelligence had been insulted.

[Transaction List]

We are providing: 5 cans of food

Transaction request: 10 AA batteries

Little Green was speechless.

The bizarre demand for trades—in a post-apocalyptic world, who would engage in such fairytale-like transactions?

Moreover, the deal itself was full of flaws.

However, Xiao Lü understood everything almost instantly.

After figuring it out, the wariness I had felt due to the unknown powerful figure completely vanished, replaced by a sense of... peace of mind.

Yes, a sense of security.

Because this trap was set up so flawed and unprofessionally.

Even ignoring all the other strange things, just look at this note—it wasn't completely wet, with only slight signs of dampness around the edges, indicating that it had only been placed there recently.

More importantly, the handwriting on the note was exactly the same as the handwriting on the tombstone of the "Little Bird and Little Dinosaur" not far away.

Xiao Lü was almost 100% certain that the other person was a magical girl.

She wasn't like Xia Zhaozhao, who was a bit eccentric but was still an adult, nor was she like Bai Shuyuan, an outsider that she couldn't understand at all.

Instead, she is a real, young, innocent, and eccentric magical girl.

She probably wanted to use this childish trap to test her character. Taking the can and leaving the battery was good; taking the can and leaving the battery was evil.

As for how to deal with the "evil", Xiao Lü glanced at the metal twisted into pretzel shapes on both sides of the street... It shouldn't be that serious, right?