Mmmph… Ugh… Where did that take me?
Upon opening her eyes, Shirley saw a pink-haired female hero, clad in flashy bikini armor, wielding an exaggeratedly large two-handed sword, and accompanied by a rabbit-shaped magical mascot, waving at her—though, of course, this was merely the content of a poster that had been taped to her ceiling, an extra included with a light novel.
At this very moment, she lay on the large bed in her dormitory, still dressed in the St. Lian Girls’ Academy uniform. Aside from a slightly muddled head, she seemed to be perfectly fine.
‘Could it be… that it was all just… a dream?’
At this thought, Shirley let out a relieved laugh. Exactly! A little loli with wings suddenly appearing, calling her ‘Mama’ with a yandere expression—how could such a thing possibly be real?
‘While adult games are good, excessive consumption can harm one’s mental health. From now on, I should try to limit my exposure to things like “Dead X” and the Twelve Demonic Artifacts…’ Shirley gently tapped her temples with a small fist, beginning to reflect deeply on her actions. ‘Right, what time is it now?’
As a boarding-style aristocratic girls’ academy, St. Lian Academy’s dormitories were naturally quite excellent. Single rooms with full en-suite bathrooms, air conditioning, and heating were, of course, standard, along with a desk adorned with potted plants and walls and ceilings allowed for personal decoration. Though Shirley was an extremely devoted otaku, her room was filled with all sorts of stickers, standees, figurines, and even quite risqué body pillows. Yet, she also held a keen interest in classical aesthetics. Thus, on the three-tiered bookshelf attached to her desk, sat The Divine Comedy, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Complete Works of Homer, and over a dozen other antique literary tomes published before the eighteenth century. Above them hung a mechanical, retro-style clock.
At this moment, the clock’s hour hand pointed to the Roman numeral ‘VI’ at the bottom, while the minute hand had already crossed the ‘IX’ on the left.
‘Huh? Is it almost six in the evening?’
Shirley shivered involuntarily. It was one thing to have such a strange dream, but to have slept through the entire afternoon! If so, hadn’t she missed the chance to confront the members of ‘Pink FM Frequency’ on the rooftop of the academic building?! Ugh, this wouldn’t do! What if everyone mistakenly thought she intentionally skipped it?
Clatter!
Just as Shirley pushed aside a body pillow depicting a yellow alien reptile with an exaggerated potbelly and a vacant expression, preparing to sit up from her soft bed, she suddenly heard something fall from beneath the pillow. Lying on the floor was a small, peculiar trinket that resembled both a surgical scalpel and a magical girl’s wand.
A cold bead of sweat suddenly trickled down Shirley’s forehead, followed by another.
‘No way…’ she muttered to herself as she picked up the eerie little object. Though it had been only a fleeting glimpse, the Salome who appeared in her ‘dream’ had been holding precisely this kind of thing! No… given that this object had now appeared in reality, it meant that her previous experiences were probably not…
The doorbell suddenly chimed.
Although the academy dorm’s doorbell played a rather cheerful tune, Shirley shivered. It took her a full ten seconds to calm her furiously pounding heart, and then an equally long time to consider whether she should open the door. Only when the doorbell chimed a second time did she reluctantly shuffle, step by step, to the door, her hand finally pressing the handle.
Standing outside the door were… Ji Bingyao and Eileen.