Alex Morgan walked to the window.
Even though this old residential complex was mostly inhabited by hard-of-hearing elderly people, and it was unlikely anyone would notice her at this late, quiet hour, Alex Morgan still closed the window and drew the curtains.
After doing all this, she stood in the center of the living room, took a deep breath to soothe the headache, and savored the sensation of power that had surged from deep within her spirit and body earlier.
After experiencing that extraordinary power, the identity of a Magical Girl didn’t seem so unacceptable anymore.
Since the rules stated that intangible things could be brought back if the conditions were met, had she brought anything back this time?
The mission had failed right after entering, so it was highly likely that it hadn’t worked, but even if the probability was low, she still had to test and verify it.
Alex Morgan stood there dazed like a statue for a full five seconds, a flash of determination crossing her expressionless face.
Then, her face revealed a smile and a look that were extremely jarring for this youthful body, and she began to strike a pose.
As she posed, her lips moved slightly, reciting the lines in a male voice.
“Smile at full marks~”
“Courage at one hundred percent—”
(＜ゝω·) ~ ☆
A few seconds passed.
The set of movements was finished, and the lines were recited.
However, the air was very quiet; the tungsten bulb overhead remained dim and yellow, and there were no miraculous light effects, nor that feeling of surging heat.
There was absolutely nothing.
Alex Morgan’s tense shoulders relaxed, and she let out a long breath.
As expected, the power from the game could not be brought into reality so easily.
She sat back down on the sofa, refocusing her attention on that mission.
Momoka was clearly already a Magical Girl, so what did the main mission [Become a True Magical Girl] mean?
Did it refer to strength?
For instance, did she have to train her C-rank ability to B-rank, or even A-rank or S-rank, to be called a true Magical Girl?
Or did it refer to duty?
For instance, did she have to guard the city, protect friends, and defeat the so-called [Witches] and [Monsters]?
Or perhaps it was spiritual?
Did it mean she had to genuinely harbor love and hope?
Or perhaps something was wrong with Momoka’s body, which she was piloting—like a retired veteran—and it required some means to return to the ranks of Magical Girls?
It all seemed possible.
Therefore, the mission objective was quite unclear.
Alex Morgan guessed it was related to her choosing the S-rank Purgatory difficulty; this information gap was part of the difficulty itself.
In other words, it could be considered a puzzle-solving part of the game.
And judging from the inexplicably explosive start just now, the puzzle-solving aspect of this game seemed to have unfolded from the very beginning.
But she had died too quickly in that last round, so there wasn’t much information.
Alex Morgan closed her eyes, held her breath, and submerged her consciousness into her body.
First, she had to confirm whether that phantom pain of death had truly completely dissipated, and whether dying in the game really had no side effects.
After all, too many mental deaths naturally equated to physical death; this had been recorded in various works, so she couldn’t afford to be careless.
Starting from her fingertips, she perceived and controlled her muscles inch by inch until she confirmed that the cold, stinging sensation was no longer present in her nerve endings.
Only then did Alex Morgan slowly exhale a breath of stale air, her eyes flashing with brilliance.
Her control over this body had not been affected.
Not only that, Alex Morgan even felt that she had broken through a past Bottleneck, able to perceive many extremely subtle details: the sound of blood flowing, the sound of internal organs churning, and even many muscle groups that originally could not be moved independently, and even internal organ activity, as if they could transcend physiological limitations to respond to her will…
Without a doubt, she had become stronger.
This was also recorded in the Guoshu genre.
Perhaps this was also a kind of transcendence.
Was it the effect of the [Precision Control Engine]?
And there were no strange feelings mentally either.
State confirmed as correct.
Then, she would start another round and continue collecting information!
Alex Morgan opened the panel and decisively selected “YES”.
LINK START!
The next instant, her consciousness submerged into darkness once again.
…
A familiar smell of blood and damp, cold air emerged at the tip of her nose, and the familiar stinging of nerves struck again.
But…
she could clearly feel that it had lessened significantly compared to last time.
The girl lying on the grass rested for only a few seconds before extending her hands to push her upper body up.
Then, she curled her body and pulled in her legs, her slender, fair, and long beautiful legs kneeling on the wet grass without hesitation, steadily supporting her body as she stood up.
With the movement, the unfamiliar cherry-red tips of her hair on both sides of her ears swayed slightly in her field of vision.
Alex Morgan showed a thoughtful look.
Were her two talents constantly adapting to this body?
It seemed that after experiencing it a few more times, the body would be able to fully adapt…
For now, it was a good thing.
She made a preliminary judgment in her heart.
And at this moment, the sound of soft footsteps came from the front.
Alex Morgan frowned and looked in that direction—only to see two extremely blurry humanoid figures stumbling toward her in the darkness.
Still those two?
Blindly running away or engaging in battle were not the best strategies.
Her gaze instantly locked onto the large tree behind her, and she looked up at the horizontal branch that was strong enough to support the girl’s weight.
The physical fitness of this girl’s body was twice that of her original one; ordinary people would feel uncoordinated due to the sudden expansion in physical fitness.
But Alex Morgan did not feel anything unusual.
If it was only to this extent…
it was not difficult to control.
Her slender feet suddenly erupted with indescribable power, leaping lightly to a height of a full three meters.
Her hands grasped the branch, and then she performed an extremely standard pull-up, her movements as smooth as flowing mercury.
She flipped up and crouched on top, silently using the thick trunk and branches to hide her figure.
The footsteps of those two puppets were closer, but still some distance away.
This time was enough to observe herself a little.
Alex Morgan lowered her head and used her slender hand to grasp the pendant in front of her chest.
Honestly, this thing was very conspicuous; after all, this body’s chest was too flat, and this pendant was unusually large.
With the slightest movement, it would swing back and forth inside her shirt, rubbing against her collarbone and making it a bit itchy.
Moreover, there was nothing in her hot pants pockets; the only thing on her body worth observing was this pendant.
Alex Morgan held it above her head, carefully observing it with the help of the faint starlight and this body’s excellent eyesight.
At the end of the pendant hung a round gemstone.
It was a dull red overall, with spot-like Impurities inside.
It looked unremarkable, with many cracks even, and the silver trim securing the gemstone was crafted more exquisitely.
“…”
To be honest, this thing was very intriguing.
Was this proof of this body’s identity as a Magical Girl?
But even holding it in her hand, even when she tried to transform earlier, it had no reaction at all.
Could it be…
Click.
The familiar sound of footsteps came again, and the puppets in the darkness were getting closer.
Alex Morgan collected her thoughts and held her breath.
It wouldn’t be strange if those eerie monsters could perceive the gaze of others.
But their detection range was also a point worth exploring.
And if she didn’t provoke them, could they discover her hiding in the tree, given that they didn’t seem to have very high intelligence?
If they couldn’t discover her, she could drag out more time this round to see what would happen next.
Two inexplicable murmurs from nowhere, and the footsteps that suddenly changed from floating to powerful and rapidly approached, provided the answer.