Superman Termination Manual

"I've never heard of you before," Magical Girl Ash said.

Given the current shortage of magic girls in China, if there was another magic girl in the same city, there's no way she wouldn't know her.

"The comet fragment inside me awakened just three days ago, so it's normal for you not to recognize me as a newcomer magic girl," Magical Girl Xiaohongmao said.

Ke Mingye had checked on his phone, and the reason why magic girls become magic girls goes back thousands of years to a comet named Qiyamate as it passed by Earth—it left millions of fragments each time which some young girls absorbed into their bodies.

These girls who came into contact with the comet fragments thus became magic girls.

Moreover, the return period of the Qiyamate Comet is every 20 years. At these times, it gathers all the comet fragments from around the world and then disperses new fragments.

Every twenty years, as the comet returns, the old magic girls lose their powers while new magic girls are born under its favor.

Like plants and trees changing with the seasons, one withers while another thrives.

Sometimes, the fragments of the Qiyamate Comet attach to animals, transforming them into 'Contracted Beasts.'

These Contracted Beasts choose a suitable human girl to make a contract with and share their power with her.

The girls who sign these contracts become so-called 'Contracted Species Magic Girls,' fundamentally different from 'Comet Fragment Species Magic Girls': their power comes from the comet fragments inside the contracted beasts, and not from within themselves.

In Ke Mingye's version, Magic Girl Xiaohongmao, ahem, was a Comet Fragment Species Magic Girl; otherwise, he couldn't explain to Bai Zini why she didn't have a Contracted Beast.

"Then why are you following me?" she asked, her tone even colder, "and how do you know who I am?"

"It's a long story, I met someone called 'strange thing' two days ago," Xiaohongmao said.

"…Strange thing?"

Ash frowned slightly, muttering the name as if it sounded familiar.

Suddenly, she remembered that day on the elevated tracks, seeing that eerie gray figure whose head had been cut off yet could still speak.

"Strange Thing, what an appropriate name."

"We'll meet again, Miss Ash, I've died, but there are countless others like me who will return…"

Her mind echoed with those words and that uncanny, soul-shivering laughter, making her right hand tremble slightly on the umbrella handle, her expression colder.

That ugly thing is still alive? she thought and now it's spreading my identity everywhere, endlessly.

"Why do you know it?"

Magical Girl Ash fell silent for a moment, then turned her face and asked. The breeze lifted the gray ribbons on her head, causing her jet-black hair to flutter elegantly in the wind.

"That day I was watching television. There was news about you on the TV, and I quietly wished, 'I really want to meet Miss Ash.' When I turned my head, it was waving at me," Xiaohongmao said, pressing her finger against the brim of her hat and speaking softly.

Upon hearing this, Ash got goosebumps, thinking to herself, does that strange thing enjoy eavesdropping that much?

"And then what?" she asked, frowning.

"I was scared at first, but then I thought, since I'm a magic girl, I opened the window. It immediately started talking, 'I know Ash, she's Bai Zini, your classmate at school,'"

Magical Girl Xiaohongmao paused: "Then, to confirm what it said was true, I started following you."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Magical Girl Ash was silent for a moment, her eyes downcast and hidden by her falling bangs.

After a while, she slowly began to speak.

"If you meet it again, pass on a message for me," she said.

"What message?"

"Next time I see it, I will kill it," she declared.

Ke Mingye, caught off guard, thought to himself that's too violent, isn't it, little sister? Isn't this what a magic girl should say? You're already showing signs of becoming a witch.

"Okay, I understand," Xiaohongmao said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to follow you."

"Undo your transformation," Magical Girl Ash said coldly, looking into Xiaohongmao's eyes, "Let me see what you really look like, then I'll believe you."

Ke Mingye paused for a split second, thinking but I didn't put any clothes on the Deception Puppet, what should I do now?

"But senior, I'm not wearing any clothes," Xiaohongmao said.

"Why aren't you wearing clothes?"

"Aren't you supposed to take off your clothes before you transform?"

"Who on Earth taught you that?"

"It was mentioned in the comments of the Magic Girl Support Association," she explained.

Ash took a cold breath and scolded, holding her forehead, "Please, that's just a bunch of perverts who don't understand magic girls at all. How could you believe them? Stop browsing those sites, okay? There's no one normal there."

"Because I'm a fan of yours, I often browse your fan site," Xiaohongmao said hesitantly, "I know, there are even men commenting there wanting to wear your…"

"Stop! Enough!"

Magical Girl Ash's ears turned red all at once, and she quickly interrupted what Xiaohongmao was saying. Even though she tried to appear calm, the anger in her eyes was very apparent.

She hugged her shoulders, her gloved fingers gently tapping her arms as she spoke.

"As a magical girl, the first thing you should learn is to spend less time online reading comments about yourself; otherwise, your blood pressure might rise. Understand?"

"I understand."

"So what do you want to do now?" Ash asked again.

Please, after talking for so long, we finally got to this point. Ke Mingye sighed and commanded the Deception Puppet.

"I want to join the Magical Girl Alliance," said Magical Girl Xiaohongmao.

"You can."

"Ah?" Xiaohongmao was stunned by such a decisive reply, "Is it that casual?"

"It's fine. You'll soon find out that the president of the Alliance is an even more casual person," Ash said. "And this thing isn't as great as you think; the China branch is almost closing down, all held together by Senior Xizi Yue alone."

"Okay, then how do I meet them?"

"Right here." Ash pointed to the ground beneath her feet.

"Here?"

"I'll send her a WeChat message, and she will come over right away."

Ash spoke softly, reaching inside Cinderella's umbrella and pulling out a Magic Book.

"No, not this," she muttered, putting the Magic Book back and continuing to fumble inside the umbrella, finally managing to find her phone and pulling it out.

So, your Cinderella can also serve as a Hundred Treasures Bag, huh? How do you manage to hide both the phone and Magic Book in there?

Ke Mingye tilted his head, completely astonished, thinking how multifunctional Bai Zini's Magic Wand was.

Ash looked down, opened WeChat, clamped the umbrella handle under her arm, and began to type. She typed a message in the chat box and sent it.

"Master, a magic girl wants to join the Alliance; hurry over," she said.

Two seconds later, a huge hole the size of a soccer field net suddenly broke open near the rooftop, filled with chaotic grey-blue flowing lights, resembling the chaotic code that makes up space and time.

Immediately afterward, a dark green tram thundered out from it, the wheels pressing down on the ground. The sounds of the engine and the horn overlapped and echoed in the mid-air.

A massive beam of light from the headlight shone on Xiaohongmao's face, making her cover her eyes unwillingly. Looking through the glass, one could see a figure sitting in the driver's seat.

Ke Mingye's brain had crashed, thinking, so you magic girls have your exclusive means of transport, huh?

"This is a Space Department Magic Card created by Senior Xizi Yue, serial number 03, Space-Time Train."

Ash, expressionless as she was used to it, held one arm across her shoulders while pulling the frightened Xiaohongmao to her side, introducing the situation to her.

After a while, the tram calmed down, all lights turned off, only leaving two pumpkin lanterns still lit on the roof. Dressed in a light blue cheongsam, Magical Girl Xizi Yue opened the tram door and slowly stepped down the steps.

"Is it her?" Xizi Yue asked.

"Yes, Grandmaster, she is the one who wants to join the Alliance," Ash said.

Xizi Yue looked at Xiaohongmao for a moment, "Your magic power nature is quite special, Snow. This is the first time I've encountered this type of magic power; maybe you can, like Lilai, create a new Magic Card."

As she spoke, she summoned the Magic Book, and a book engraved with strange patterns fell from mid-air into her hands. She opened a page and pulled out a blank file.

"This is your resume, fill it out, and then contact us using the details above."

After speaking, she handed the file to Magical Girl Xiaohongmao.

Xiaohongmao caught the file, looked down at it, and then Magical Girl Ash let go of her shoulder and followed Xizi Yue, stepping onto the Space-Time Train.

"I and Master are heading to New York for a meeting; we're leaving first."

Magical Girl Ash sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with her phone without lifting her head, and casually waved twice through the window to Xiaohongmao.

Xizi Yue sat down in the driver's seat and picked up a pack of chips from it.

"The file's details can be filled out casually; I'm reviewing the China division, and my demands are not that strict," she said to Xiaohongmao while pulling the lever on the vehicle.

The next moment, the tram clattered again, sounding like thousands of wind chimes swaying. A rift in space-time quickly formed in front of the tram, sucking the whole vehicle into it.

The booming engine noise settled, and only Xiaohongmao was left on the rooftop, holding the file in a daze.

"Congratulations, you have completed the second node target of the main quest 'Destroy the Magical Girl Alliance'—approaching the Magical Girl Alliance through 'Magical Girl Ash'."

"The next target node of the main quest is: infiltrate the Magical Girl Alliance under the guise of Xiaohongmao, bide your time, and assassinate the three heads of the Alliance (Lilai, Udina, Xizi Yue)."

"Node reward obtained: Near A-level item—'Permanent Magical Girl Transformation Card,' 2000 Experience Points, 5 attribute points, 1500 Mall Coins."

"Your level has been raised to Lv.7 (0/4000 points), and you have gained 1 attribute point as a leveling reward."

"You have a total of 6 spare attribute points; please allocate them timely."