Chapter 16: Masked Mayhem: Fame, Monsters, and Magical Mishaps

From that day on, peace returned to the apartment.

The loud stomping noises from upstairs were remedied with the help of the subwoofer speaker.

The cat problem was resolved thanks to the stern words of a local hero in shorts.

On a quiet afternoon, with no sign of any monsters, I lay on my bed, swimming through the vast ocean of the internet.

Mobile games were no longer an option.

Even trying to enter an app market would result in prompts: “Log in first,” or “If you’re under 14, please enter your parent’s information.”

And that was where I got stuck.

So, the only thing left to do was browse the internet.

[Popular chicken franchise declares another price hike, upsetting citizens…]

[Mr. Seo caught in a DUI checkpoint claims, ‘I had pear-flavored ice cream’…]

[Magical Girls, let’s analyze their powers! – YouTube, Magical Girl Research Lab.]

[0% success until 149 attempts? Not a ceiling but a ‘floor system’ existed.]

[Frozen pizzas causing delivery delays? Related companies ‘in turmoil.’]

Still, it wasn’t too boring.

Every day, without fail, there’s always some bizarre news.

Sprinkled in between were consistent updates about magical girls.

Ignoring that, the world wasn’t too different from before I died.

“Mari, look at this!”

“Huh?”

Siyeon spins around in her chair, showing me her computer screen.

While I’m absorbed in my smartphone, she’s all about the computer.

She particularly enjoys rewatching magical girl animations and calls me over whenever there’s something funny.

“Magical Explosion!”

A voice filled with enthusiasm blares from the video—clearly the voice actor giving it their all.

If you translate it directly, it means “Magical Explosion.”

A pretty lame name, but when you say it in English, it somehow sounds more impressive.

But still, why is she showing me this?

“How about this as a new move?”

“Huh? My move?”

“Yeah!”

I glance at Siyeon, her eyes sparkling as she asks, and then turn my eyes to the video.

A scene of explosions, mixing red, black, orange, and yellow in all directions.

For starters, Siyeon can’t reproduce that kind of power with her magic, and she’s talking about my moves…

But what does that explosion even have to do with magic?

In reality, explosions don’t go *pow-bang* with cute sounds like that.

Even though it’s just an anime, I’d appreciate a bit more realism.

A real magical girl could see it and try to imitate it.

‘Explosions, huh…?’

Forget the name for now—anyway, the city’s already getting wrecked, so one or two more explosions wouldn’t hurt, right?

If a bunch of monsters showed up at once, wouldn’t it actually be pretty effective?

Not that it’s ever happened, but preparing in advance wouldn’t be a bad idea.

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

“Okay!”

When I say I’ll think about it, Siyeon finally turns her attention back to the screen.

For the move’s name…maybe something like “Blow Up and Die!”?

With the news stories starting to feel repetitive, I scrolled through the various internet tabs I had open.

Magical Girl Gallery.

I wonder what kind of nonsense is posted today.

…?

[Starting today, I’m changing my favorite. Don’t try to stop me. (1)]

[I’m not a lolicon, but… (4)]

[Wow, these bastards. One photo and the public opinion flips completely. Crazy. (3)]

[Are you even human? You damn bastards… (12)]

[Heuuu, please rob my heart too… (2)]

[Magical Girl appearance ranking skyrocketing, lol. (6)]

The gallery’s atmosphere seemed chaotic.

Even if this was the overall posts section, if it was this bad, something must’ve happened…

[With that face, why was she wearing a mask? Idk.]

That post at the very top caught my attention.

There’s only one reason why a mask would be mentioned in the Magical Girl Gallery.

Feeling a little uneasy, I clicked on the “popular posts” section.

The recent posts were all about this topic.

Among them, there was one post that seemed to be the origin of this situation.

[Did Sun’s real face get revealed?!?!(268)]

The number of comments and likes were overwhelmingly higher than any other post.

For some reason, I felt a bit scared to click.

Her real face? Where was it taken? Hopefully, not near this apartment?

A magical girl got her identity revealed in this messed-up world? And that’s me?

Stop spouting nonsense, seriously.

[It got revealed, so just upload it already, damn it!!! lololol]

[Remember that werewolf monster that showed up around here a few days ago? It’s near that neighborhood.]

[Even when the evacuation alarm was going off, I was just playing games, like screw it.]

[I was in the middle of a ranked match, and the monster was going crazy, but it looked like there was some magical girl gathering? Seriously, they all showed up. That day was legendary.]

[Screw the game. I immediately grabbed my smartphone and turned on the camera.]

Just from the tone of the post, the writer sounded overly excited, like they were high on something.

It seemed like a photo from the recent magical girl meetup, including me and Siyeon, had been taken.

Anyway, the picture seemed to have captured a lot of magical girls, including me next to Siyeon, without my mask on.

‘Oh, at least it wasn’t taken before I transformed…’

I let out a short sigh of relief and stared back at the gallery like I was a zoo animal.

The comments were…

[The picture quality is trash, damn it.]

[Orange hair, orange eyes, so hot.]

[Wait, she was wearing a mask with a face like that?????]

[Is your camera a flip phone or something, damn it?]

[Bro, you were there but took a picture like this? Damn it.]

[Ooooooooh…]

[There are times when a man must fight, even if he knows he’ll lose.]

[Isn’t there a Power Rangers meme like this?]

[So how did the ranked match go?]

[I didn’t play, so I won. (OP)]

[You should evacuate, you crazy bastard, lololol.]

[The magical girl even saved the team.]

[Hey, why the hell are they winning lol]

[??? What happened?]

[From today, if anyone calls Sun a bank robber, I’ll consider it an insult to me.]

[Just take a proper picture, you idiot.]

[Wow, but standing like that looks kinda scary.]

[From a monster’s perspective, isn’t this a real disaster lolol]

[But seriously, is there really such a thing as a fan meeting? Over ten magical girls gathered around this loser, what’s going on?]

[Even a beast attracts this many girls, lol.]

[Why does this feel like clickbait?]

[But seriously, the quality is terrible, do you have shaky hands?]

Harsh swearing about blurry image quality, sympathizing with the werewolf monster, and some appearance commentary.

Well, regardless, the gallery users seem to be in shock.

All this fuss just because my masked face got caught on camera.

Honestly, I don’t care whether my face behind the mask is revealed or not.

‘As long as they don’t see my real face, it’s fine.’

If I just leave it alone, this will blow over in about three days.

Soon enough, there’ll be another story about a different magical girl to stir things up.

…At least, that’s what I thought.

[Sun’s unmasked face on the news lololol =(87)]

I realized that wasn’t the case when I saw my blurry face on the 9 o’clock news while browsing trending posts at school.

‘Why the hell?’

The headline of the 9 o’clock news article:

“The face behind the mysterious magical girl’s mask, revealed!”

As I watched the adults seriously discussing it like they’d uncovered some eternal secret, I felt strange.

There are plenty of magical girls who walk around with their faces showing, aren’t there?

‘Why is this even newsworthy?’

Curious about what they said, I followed a link in the comments to watch the video.

It started with a bald man, who looked like a professor, being interviewed by a reporter.

“Sun is a relatively new magical girl. Given her age, she can’t be that old, yet she exhibits such violent tendencies. This may be due to the violent video games popular among today’s youth…”

“Shut up, you idiot.”

A curse slipped out, causing the guy sitting next to me to glance my way. What’s your problem?

Some old guy criticizing games I don’t even play.

I should just claim his hobbies are violent golf and fishing.

And when those don’t go well, he vents his frustrations like this? How about stirring up some generational conflict?

“Whatever.”

I calmed my pointless anger, placed my smartphone face down on the desk, and began scratching off the cover of my textbook with a cutter knife.

Today’s customization: turning the Korean textbook cover into a famine-themed design.

As the sound of scratching filled the air, a thought suddenly came to me.

‘By the way, aren’t there fewer monsters lately?’

While she was busy scraping off the textbook, somewhere, people she couldn’t even imagine were grappling with deep concerns…

People who had the bizarre forms of humans mixed with sea creatures or forest beings.

Monsters, creatures, beasts—the names for them were varied, and their appearances weren’t set in stone. However, the one thing they all had in common was their shared concern: they knew that nothing would happen if they stayed idle.

A muscle-bound monster in the form of a man, with eight arms and no eyes, who appeared to be a high-ranking member, spoke up.

“…What are we going to do? We need to decide.”

“Hmph, can’t we just send one of those mute creatures?” replied a lion-headed beast with arms like shields, responding to the impatient question from the eight-armed monster.

Indeed, they were in the process of selecting a monster or creature to send to fight a magical girl. The monster they were about to decide on would be sent to the district under the jurisdiction of Sun and Moon. Even though they were considering sending one of the mute beasts, it was clear that this was nothing more than offering a sacrificial lamb.

As the lion-headed monster nonchalantly answered, the eight-armed creature pointed to a corner of the room with the second arm from the right.

“…Don’t you see that?”

“Haaaak—! Haaaak—!”

In that corner was the cat-like monster whose head had been split in half by Sun’s attack not long ago. It glared with deep hostility at the arm pointing toward it.

A sharp *thud!* echoed as the cat’s front paw slammed the solid ground, a characteristic feline threat. Though it couldn’t speak, it clearly understood what that pointing arm meant.

Even the lion-headed monster, with its shield-like arms, couldn’t come up with a retort to the sight before them. Even a mute beast had an instinct as a living creature—a natural aversion to being sent back into the fray.

The vicious hissing filled the room, and silence fell between the two.

“We’ll end up sending another rookie, won’t we?”

“Let’s not mention anything about that crazy woman.”

“Yes, let’s not.”

There was an unspoken rule among the monster commanders: never say anything about Sun.