Many Speculations about Magic and Magical Girls

Reina didn’t really mind Bai Hai’s answer.

This person had always been full of nonsense, and only about fifty percent of what he said was reliable.

However, his reaction did seem to indicate that there were no problems.

Turning a modified human into a magical girl was an unprecedented topic.

The unknowns and risks were immeasurable, but for now, it seemed to be a success.

“As long as you’re happy…” Reina replied casually.

After writing “Transformation successfully canceled, no other reactions, first transformation successful” in her notebook, she wrote down the date to mark the end of this observation.

Before the transformation battle, Bai Hai had asked Reina to observe his data.

He was very eager to know his current stats, which would be very important for future battles.

And now that the first observation was over, Reina was organizing the data.

“But speaking of which, in the usual novel tropes, you can only transform into a magical girl after you’re thirty. You’re only in your twenties, isn’t that a bit young?” Reina said casually while organizing the data.

“It’s actually about the same,” Bai Hai smoothly picked up where Reina left off. “I’ve looked like this for ten years. If you do the math, I’m barely in my thirties.”

“That’s true… here, the data is organized. Compared to the Knight form, the magical girl form’s various stats have dropped significantly as expected. Of course, it’s still stronger than the normal state.”

Bai Hai took the notebook, and a few short lines of data came into view:

Name: Knight—Magical Girl Form (Tentative)

Appearance: A girl of about 165cm in height, with a black dress and red eyes. Apparent age is around seventeen. The appearance has many corresponding features with the Knight form, such as red eyes, black dress, belt, etc.

The following data was obtained from the first observation and has not been tested multiple times. It is for reference only.

Punching Power: 2t.

Kicking Power: 6t.

Jumping Power: One jump of about 20m.

Running Speed: 200m/10s.

Maximum Punching Power (when using a punch): 15t.

Maximum Kicking Power (when using a kick): 25t.

No abnormal phenomena such as uncontrollable power or life energy leakage have been found.

No visible magical effects were recorded. Due to the lack of conditions to directly observe magic power, it is impossible to determine whether magic power is involved.

Compared to previous data, the overall data has decreased by about eighty percent.

Bai Hai glanced at it and couldn’t help but click his tongue.

He was quite clear about his previous data.

Although this data looked very exaggerated, it was indeed much, much weaker than before.

“I didn’t feel any different from before when I was fighting. At most, my chest felt a little strange, and punching wasn’t comfortable at all.”

“Nonsense. You’re sporting a B-cup.”

Reina snatched the file back with a huff and stuffed it into the backpack behind her.

She looked the man up and down and said, “Any thoughts after fighting the Anomaly? How does it compare to the organization’s monsters?”

Bai Hai nodded, his previously flippant expression gone.

This meant he was also getting serious. “According to the previous statistics, Anomaly No. 214 is a very aggressive and highly dangerous type of Anomaly. However, compared to the organization’s modified humans, in terms of destructive power alone, it’s probably only at the level of a combatant.”

“Although it has very strange abilities, such as liquefaction, splitting, and even showing signs of absorption, which are already at the level of a monster, its basic stats are too poor, and its intelligence level is extremely low, only instinct… You could say it’s just a beast with some special abilities, but…”

“But the problem is where these things came from, right?” Reina picked up where Bai Hai left off and continued, “Most of the organization’s combatants and monsters were created from humans. No matter how strong they are, they have a source. But these Anomalies seem to appear out of thin air, which is incomprehensible.”

“That’s right. I fought the organization for a full ten years. In those ten years, I’ve seen all sorts of strange and bizarre things, but I’ve never seen magic or Anomalies. Why have they suddenly appeared now?”

Bai Hai pointed out his confusion.

Reina could understand what he meant, because she was also very confused.

“If magic and Anomalies are natural phenomena of this planet, why doesn’t the organization have any records of them? The great leader secretly controlled this world for decades. If these things really existed, he would definitely have tried to control them and make them his own fighting force.”

“Besides that, there’s another point that’s puzzling—what exactly are magical girls?” Bai Hai subconsciously pressed his abdomen.

Under the effect of the Source Blood, he no longer had to rely on Reina’s life energy to move freely. “They and the Anomalies appeared in this world at almost the same time. There should be some reason for that.”

“The so-called modified humans can actually be considered another form of human evolution,” Reina said, crossing her arms and pacing back and forth in thought.

“The organization converts life energy into super energy as the kinetic energy for modified humans and uses various modified organs to force humans to undergo controllable evolution, such as obtaining super strength, speed, and even superpowers like dissolving and invisibility. If we look at it from this perspective alone, modified humans and magical girls are the same. They both obtain superpowers by changing into another form. Is a magical girl also a kind of evolution? Is magic power another application of life energy?”

“Evolution, huh…” Bai Hai looked at the city in the distance, pondering for a long time before shaking his head. “I don’t think so. First, natural evolution isn’t that exaggerated, turning into a superman directly. Second, evolution must involve life energy. Although our research in this area is very shallow, the consensus is that the more evolved a species is, the richer its life energy is.”

“But I don’t feel any excess life energy from this group of magical girls. They’re completely the same as ordinary people. And if magic power were life energy, I would have sensed it, but I can’t. As for the Anomalies… they don’t even have life energy. They’re like just nightmares, entities that don’t exist in this world.”

Reina nodded in agreement with Bai Hai’s statement.

Because although he was also a modified human from the organization, he was completely different from the monsters.

Life energy is the life force shared by all living beings.

Losing life energy means losing the ability to live.

And the so-called super energy is actually an efficient use of life energy.

Super energy is the source of a modified human’s powerful combat ability.

And monsters are extremely thirsty for life energy because they need it to synthesize the super energy they need.

So monsters’ attacks on humans are generally to absorb life energy.

Humans are currently the most evolved species on this planet, so they naturally have the most life energy.

However, Bai Hai was different.

His Typhoon Turbines were not only the core of his power, but their more important function was to absorb natural life energy from the environment to synthesize super energy, making him a modified human who could move naturally without attacking humans.

This was the organization’s latest modification technology at the time, and he was the first test subject.

It was just a pity that Bai Hai escaped from the base before being brainwashed.

The great leader was furious about this and had all the relevant personnel executed and all the research data destroyed.

This modification technology was thus lost.

Therefore, for Bai Hai, the destruction of the Typhoon Turbines was fatal.

Without life energy to synthesize super energy, he would quickly die.

And so, in the research of life energy, Bai Hai had a unique advantage over everyone else.

But thinking of this, Reina discovered a contradiction. “But if that’s the case, your situation can’t be explained. Your current transformation principle is to use the remaining Typhoon Turbines to output super energy to charge the Source Blood, which activates the belt’s transformation function, turning you into a magical girl.”

“Assuming that magic power is generated in this process, then magic power must be related to life energy. However, neither of us can sense it, which is a contradiction. But if we assume that no magic power is generated in this process, then how did you transform into a magical girl?”

“I don’t know either.” Bai Hai shrugged, also looking bewildered. “I don’t know much about the Source Blood either. I’ve only tested that life energy can relight it and re-drive my transformation function. At the same time, I can also gain a perception of Anomalies like a magical girl, although it’s very weak.”

“I see… then it seems that to solve this mystery, we must first solve the problem of magic power.” Reina took out a new folder and briefly recorded the problems they had discussed for future research.

“Regarding magic power, I noticed another strange phenomenon during the battle today.” Bai Hai wiped his fingers, and a few sparks flickered between them.

A modified human could synthesize super energy from life energy, so they could naturally also downgrade super energy into life energy.

“That little blue girl completely lost consciousness due to shock, and her magic power seemed to lose its effect. But when I injected her with life energy to restore her bodily functions, her magic power suddenly recovered, and her injuries healed quickly.”

“I think the secret of magic power might be hidden in this.”

Bai Hai’s words startled Reina.

She quickly pulled out the previous observation records and, after a careful examination, said in agreement, “There are two possibilities. The magic power of a magical girl is affected by her body. The first possibility is bodily functions. Shock is a sharp decline in bodily functions caused by major damage. A near-death state might affect magic power.”

“The second possibility is consciousness. When the human body goes into shock, it completely loses consciousness. Perhaps magic power is affected by the magical girl’s consciousness… but when she recovered from shock, she didn’t wake up immediately, and her magic power still took effect.”

“This might depend on the depth of the coma,” Bai Hai suggested. “The depth of a coma from an ordinary faint and from shock is different. There might be a line in between. When the depth of the coma reaches this line, the magic power will become ineffective. When considering the second possibility, don’t pay too much attention to shock, but rather the degree of the coma.”

“Like the difference between a laggy connection and a disconnected one?”

“Your analogy is very much in my style. I was just about to say that.”

“Get lost, you’re not serious.”

Regarding magical girls, magic power, and Anomalies, there were too many mysteries.

Although this battle and observation experiment had provided Bai Hai and Reina with considerable data, they could still only propose their own hypotheses based on this data and couldn’t make a definite conclusion.

After all, they had just started.

Bai Hai believed that the solution to Xia Cheng’s prophetic crisis must be hidden in these secrets.

They didn’t have much time left, but they absolutely couldn’t rush.

Impatience was a prerequisite for failure.

The two talked for half an hour, proposing many hypotheses and recording them one by one, hoping that subsequent observations and research could provide a solution.

After that, Bai Hai looked at his phone and found that it was already noon.

He waved to Reina.

“Well, it’s about time. I should go back. My mom and sister are waiting for me at home.”

Reina turned her head and ignored him.

This person was clearly showing off that he still had a family.

For a modified human, whose body and mind had become monstrous, finding a family was a very difficult thing.

So once they found one—they would become very smug.

Bai Hai wasn’t the first, so Reina didn’t really want to bother with him.

However, just as Reina was about to leave, she heard a thud.

She turned to see that Bai Hai had somehow fallen flat on his face.

“Hey, what’s wrong!” Reina quickly went over and saw Bai Hai with an embarrassed expression.

After failing to get up, he said, “I’m probably exhausted. It seems my current physical condition is really not suitable for high-intensity combat, but I’ll be fine in a while.”

Reina was not at ease and checked him.

Later, she found that it was indeed as Bai Hai had said.

His body showed signs of overload, which would soon recover.

This was a common occurrence for a modified human, but for Knight, it was almost impossible.

He was Knight, that invincible Knight.

And now…

Reina was silent for a long time before she reached out her hand and said with a mocking smile, “I was just joking with you before, but I didn’t expect that your current situation is really a bit like a quasi-uncle in his thirties, so weak… Want me to carry you?”

Bai Hai was not polite at all and directly spread his arms on the ground. “You don’t have to carry me, just help me up… please, Miss Reina.”

“I feel like you’re being sarcastic.”

“Not at all.”

On the rooftop at the apex, Reina supported Bai Hai and walked step by step into the shadows of the stairwell.

Behind them was the city bathed in the brilliant sunlight.