Chapter 343: You’re Not Straight, Are You?

Vivi froze for a moment, suddenly catching the implication behind her words.

- Did she mean... she trained like this too? And had she gone through things even more painful?

Hmph, who knows if you’re just talking big because you’re not the one suffering...

“......”

But the next moment, the white-haired girl suddenly remembered something.

The girl in front of her had only a brain left in the real world.

Just telling people about that would be enough to scare the daylights out of a whole lot of them.

They said that even superhumans with plenty of money would do their best to keep the proportion of magical prosthetics in their bodies below a certain critical threshold. Most of them also chose models that imitated the function and structure of the body parts they replaced.

After all, the physical body and the soul were inseparable wholes. Magic power and spells emerged through the resonance at the point where the two met.

If one side was lost, the other would become unbalanced. Even superhumans with sufficient Magic Adaptability would have their souls altered, making them highly susceptible to madness.

That was why very few people underwent such extreme bodily modifications, and almost no one could survive them.

And yet...

Teresa seemed to be one of those rare few who had endured it.

Maybe she really wasn’t afraid of this little bit of pain. She’d already gone through things far more painful.

“...Magical girls really are high and mighty, huh?”

The white-haired girl muttered, her gaze lingering on the other girl’s pretty face for a moment. She raised a hand in front of her eyes and watched the orange-yellow ripple flicker across her palm. Somehow, she didn’t feel quite so angry anymore.

She had to admit, those few hours of training hadn’t been for nothing.

She really had gotten a preliminary grasp of this technique, whose bizarre name sounded like it was only part of some larger whole.

Its magic power efficiency was astonishing.

If the magic power efficiency and output of her newly awakened Demolition spell, when used by her, were a 1, then using it after simulating the still-unstable Spirit Outfit field would bring that to at least a 5.

A four-hundred-percent increase!

And it was obvious that as long as she kept practicing, her magic power level rose, and her spell continued to evolve, that number would only grow exponentially. It would never become obsolete.

It was practically its own multiplier!

Just what level of power did this spell have?

The structured spells and techniques practiced by the top students at school who aspired to become magical girls were probably no better than this, right?

And just look at this extreme training, which could transform someone in a short time without any safety risks. At those top training camps out there, a single hour of private instruction would probably cost an astronomical amount!

Getting it for free now meant she was getting one hell of a bargain.

But...

“You could’ve at least told me beforehand.”

Vivi finally mustered enough strength to sit up. She glared and protested, “And that magic control for activating the spirit outfit is so hard. Couldn’t you have been a little more reasonable and taught me gradually?”

“Let me practice a little first. Who starts out with a method like this, like they’re trying to kill someone...”

Even when she understood the reasoning, being driven over by a car for several hours still made her furious.

“Because this is the most effective way.”

Lin Guang looked at her with clear, deep orange-yellow eyes.

“You’re an instinctive type, not a calculating type who relies on logical reasoning. You learn fastest when you’re facing a life-or-death crisis.”

“Ugh...”

- This matter was known as theft... machine, and was also recorded in The Dragon and the Snake...

As for the Jeep...

All she could say was that she’d just been possessed by some evil cane-wielding star’s psychic powers. It definitely wasn’t because she was sadistic.

“Besides.”

Lin Guang glanced at the time limit for the mission on her system panel.

【85 days 22 hours 37 minutes 6 seconds】

“There are less than three months left.”

She looked at Vivi calmly, but her gaze seemed distant, as though she were staring at something far away. “To make up for certain gaps, we have to resort to unconventional methods.”

“Your foundation is average. You’re still a long way from being invincible among your peers, let alone challenging opponents above your level.”

Seeing the slightly serious look on the other girl’s face, Vivi was once again left speechless.

- She’d instinctively assumed the other girl was talking about the date of the magical-girl qualification exam.

Well, all right...

The phrasing sounded a little strange... “invincible among your peers,” but she understood what it meant.

If she couldn’t be invincible among her peers, how could she stand out in such fierce competition? The logic was sound.

She was convinced.

“Mm... Wait, no!”

But as Vivi looked at the pink-haired girl’s expressionless, almost absentmindedly cute face, her eyes suddenly darted around, and a sly smile curled at the corners of her mouth.

Vivi looked at the pink-haired girl in front of her. “We signed a contract, after all. The stronger I get, the more you’ll benefit in the future, right? It’s a win-win.”

“Since training is so exhausting and putting me under so much mental strain, you should at least give me a little encouragement, or... some kind of reward to motivate me, right?”

Lin Guang blinked.

“Then I can improve this meditation technique to better suit your constitution and increase the speed at which you absorb magic power.”

“No!”

Vivi shook her head like a rattle. “I’m already absorbing it way faster than I can handle. Making it any faster won’t help. My wallet can’t take it.”

“Then I’ll change the training environment around us to a forest like the Green Room, so you can relax during your breaks.”

“No, no. I’m not interested in staring at trees and grass.”

Vivi kept shaking her head.

“...”

She didn’t want this, and she didn’t want that.

Lin Guang frowned slightly. “Then what do you want?”

“It’s simple. I just want to relax a little.”

Vivi’s eyes suddenly darted around, then dropped, passing over the pink-haired girl’s slender collarbones before fixing on her chest.

Those twin treasures that made the white dress swell into a huge curve!

“I want to touch your boobs.”

As the white-haired girl spoke, she reached out and grabbed at the air twice, grinning mischievously. “You have a physical body here, right?”

“...”

In that instant, Vivi saw a massive upheaval in those jewel-like eyes for the first time.

First shock, then surprise, then contemplation, and finally, deep speechlessness.

W-what did that mean?

Seeing Lin Guang’s haunted expression, Vivi was also stunned for a few seconds. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked Lin Guang up and down as if she were some rare animal.

“You’re not... straight, are you?”

“You only like men?”

“...?”

She didn’t mean it prejudicially, but her tone made it sound as if heterosexuality were some incredibly rare thing.

Lin Guang’s eyes widened slightly once more.

She suddenly realized something.

- The ratio of men to women in Neon City was two to eight.

With such an overwhelming gender imbalance, the structure of society and people’s traditional attitudes naturally couldn’t be the same as what she remembered.