Turning on the computer, Eve Nightburn stared at the sea of trashy games on the screen, her desire to play suddenly vanishing into thin air.
Just then, she noticed a certain live-streaming app.
A rather shameless idea popped into her head.
“What if… I became a Vtuber?”
“No, no!” Eve shook her head repeatedly, dismissing the improper thought.
After hesitating for a long while, she managed to suppress the idea—for a very simple reason: her ID card selfie wouldn’t pass verification, making it impossible to start streaming anyway.
“Wait, no, what am I even thinking?!” Only then did Eve realize her mind was filled with all sorts of bizarre nonsense.
“Whatever,” she muttered, clicking open a card game instead, opting for a relaxing pastime.
As the game interface loaded, a page caught her attention.
[Welcome Back]
……
A sudden pang of nostalgia hit Eve. This was her favorite game, one that had brought her so much joy during her university days.
“It’s been over a year…”
Since starting work, Eve hadn’t had any time to play games.
In the beginning, she kept telling herself: Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…
But at some point, she stopped even saying that—probably because she was just too exhausted.
After claiming her returning player rewards, Eve browsed through the current game content and noticed many new cards had been added. However, the compensation she received was filled with cards that were at least two years old…
Rounding it up, it was basically no compensation at all.
Eve skimmed through the descriptions of the new cards, trying to understand the meta changes over the past year.
Just then, a friend invited her to a duel.
[Magical Girl Ellie-chan] has invited you to a 1v1 match.
“Who’s this?”
Eve wracked her brain but couldn’t recall ever adding someone by that name.
After a moment’s hesitation, she clicked “Accept.” Well, at least someone’s here to play a game with me. That’s not bad.
As soon as she entered the room, Eve prepared herself for the match.
“Mentor, where have you been all this year?”
The sudden, out-of-nowhere question derailed Eve’s train of thought.
“Huh?”
Weren’t we supposed to play? Why this random question?
Wait… Eve suddenly remembered that, four years ago, she had taken on a little apprentice.
To confirm her suspicion, she quickly typed a reply: “Are you… Miri Dreamwell?”
Within seconds, a response came: “Yes, yes! Mentor, you haven’t logged in for over a year! You didn’t reply to my messages on That Goose either—I thought you were ignoring me!”
“Ah… work’s been keeping me busy. By the way, did you change your name?”
“I regretted using my real name back then! But this is the new name I chose after becoming a Magical Girl! ‘Ellie Dreamer’ is my codename now. Cool, right, Mentor?”
……
What’s the difference between your old and new names? Eve didn’t know how to react. The “new” name was still just her personal info.
In other words, her little apprentice had essentially changed her name back—from her real name to a pseudonym that was still her name.
What a waste! Five bucks down the drain for a name change that didn’t even fix anything.
As Eve lamented the wasted five yuan, Ellie sent another message.
“Oh, Mentor! I just found out from the Magical Girl official site that Cloudhaven City has detected a former world-class Calamity—‘Worldburn Flame.’ Even though I’m just a G-Rank Magical Girl, I’ll still give it my all to face it!”
Reading this, Eve felt like her brain had just exploded.
Cloudhaven City?
That’s where I live!
And a world-class Calamity? That was even worse.
Everyone knew “world-class” was the highest disaster rating in history—only one Calamity had ever reached that level.
Now, Eve couldn’t care less about the game. Frantically, she hammered the keyboard and sent her next message.
“Ellie-chan, you’re not joking, right? I live in Cloudhaven City.”
After sending it, she suddenly realized—this game didn’t even support image sharing.
“Ugh, forget it. Stop messaging in this trashy game. Let’s switch to That Goose—we can send pics there.”
Eve closed the game and opened That Goose, where a red notification dot awaited her at the top of the message list.
[Magical Girl Ellie-chan]: [Sticker]
Opening it, Eve saw a sticker of Northern-chan bouncing excitedly, captioned: Popping in suddenly!
She had to admire her little apprentice’s dedication.
After all this time, she still hasn’t deleted me. That’s some cyber-loyalty right there.
Typing quickly, Eve replied: “Enough with the stickers. Send me a screenshot—now!”
“Ok, gimme a sec.”
After that message, Ellie went silent.
A long while later, she finally sent a heavily redacted screenshot.
“Headquarters doesn’t allow leaks from the official site. There’s a lot I can’t tell you, Mentor. Sorry… I’m already crossing a line here.”
“I get it. Let me check the screenshot first—we’ll talk more after.”
Eve opened the image and began reading.
At first, nothing seemed unusual—until she saw the on-site photo of “Worldburn Flame.” Her entire body froze.
Why does this back-view snapshot of a petite, fair-haired loli in a lamb’s wool coat and pleated skirt look so familiar?
“Wait… that’s me?!”
It finally clicked. No wonder the post was timestamped 4 AM—that was right after I ran home!
Now Eve understood why all those Magical Girls had chased her for no reason—they mistook me for the Calamity!
Thinking back, everything that had happened since she got this ring had been bizarre—no, completely illogical.
Turning into a loli, waking up in the afternoon with a mysterious note in hand—none of that was normal.
But if she was the Calamity… then it all made sense.
Trouble just drops from the sky while I’m minding my own business~
At least there was one upside: she didn’t have to worry about the Calamity killing her—because she was the Calamity.
The downside? She’d probably starve to death…
Eh, same difference.
There was no need to read further. Eve already knew exactly what this “Calamity” was—who doesn’t know themselves?
Closing the image, she typed a new message.
“Thanks for sharing. I’ve seen it all. By the way, since you’re a Magical Girl now… G-Rank is pretty low, right? If a fight’s too tough, just run. Don’t force yourself—you’re still a kid. Your life matters most.”
The reply came swiftly.
“Guh…”
“A righteous Magical Girl never.runs!”
“Especially not when others’ lives are at stake!”
“…Though I have never solo’d a battle before…”
Reading each line, Eve realized—she didn’t really understand Magical Girls at all.
Maybe it was this very spirit that drove generations of Magical Girls to face Calamities head-on, protecting humanity without hesitation.
