4: Chapter 4 This substance has extremely serious side effects!

Su Bai took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

The classroom was still a chaotic mix of wailing and discussion.

Wang Shaotian was still over there showing off his Tier 3 Iron-Armored Bull essence blood and mithril powder, while a few students from well-off families surrounded him, discussing the possibility of aiming for B-grade or even A-grade.

Meanwhile, more people were flipping through the material price list with faces ashen, their fingers pressing the calculators with increasing feebleness.

Su Bai sat where he was, staring blankly at the tabletop.

In his mind, only two sets of numbers kept scrolling repeatedly. Forty-seven thousand. Fifty. Forty-seven thousand. Fifty. Forty-seven thousand. Fifty.

The distance between these two numbers was roughly equivalent to the distance from here to the Abyss Front.

Just as Su Bai was seriously considering whether to put the matter of "going to the vegetable market to buy cotton and pig blood to create a conceptual substitute himself" on the agenda—

"Su Bai!"

A voice came from behind him.

Su Bai turned his head. Zhao Dahai was running toward him, the lingering traces of despair still on his fat face, but there was a bit more... excitement in his eyes?

"Don't worry!"

Zhao Dahai patted his chest. "I just thought of a way. Isn't our class supposed to form groups? Three-person mutual aid groups. I've already talked to Lin Xiao; the three of us are in a group!"

Su Bai was stunned for a moment.

Memories surfaced. The Monthly Exam was not just an individual battle, but also a group battle.

The school divided the whole class into several three-person mutual aid groups, where members could discuss plans and borrow each other's materials and equipment.

Of course, they couldn't do the work for each other directly.

But having a reliable group member could at least provide mutual support in terms of resources.

The problem was, who would want to team up with the second-to-last and the last in the class?

"Lin Xiao?"

Su Bai frowned. "That Lin Xiao who is rich enough to drink Iron-Armored Bull essence blood like mineral water? She's willing to team up with us?"

"Uh, she said she just happens to need two group members who don't need to use up her materials."

Zhao Dahai's expression was somewhat subtle. "It's the kind of group members who won't fight over resources with her."

Understood.

She wasn't willing to team up with them. She needed two tool-like group members who were poor enough not to disturb her while she made cards.

"Fine." Su Bai stood up. "Where is the group discussion?"

Lin Xiao was an anomaly in the class.

Not because she was rich.

There were plenty of rich people at the Jinghai Card Creator Academy. Wang Shaotian's family ran a material supply chain, and Li Haoran had a Card Creator family behind him—none of them were any worse than Lin Xiao.

But the difference between Lin Xiao and them was that she never showed off.

She just used her money very naturally.

For example, right now.

While Wang Shaotian was still over there rambling about how Tier 3 materials could raise the quality ceiling of Tier 1 cards, Lin Xiao was sitting in the group discussion room, toying with an exquisite crystal potion bottle in her hand.

The liquid inside the bottle appeared as a deep-sea dark blue, refracting phosphorescent-like spots of light under the lamp.

When Su Bai and Zhao Dahai walked into the discussion room, Lin Xiao didn't even look up.

"Sit."

The two sat down.

Lin Xiao finally moved her gaze away from the potion bottle and sized Su Bai up.

That look wasn't contemptuous, but it wasn't particularly warm either; it was more like someone evaluating the condition of a piece of used furniture.

"Su Bai. Zhao Dahai told me about your situation. Fifty yuan. Can't afford materials. Three-dimensional circuits are a complete mess. All in all, you are probably the person in the class least likely to pass this Monthly Exam."

"Thanks for the summary." Su Bai said expressionlessly.

"You're welcome." Lin Xiao shook the crystal bottle in her hand. "This is Abyss Siren Lipid Extract. One hundred thousand per bottle. For skincare. I was originally going to lend you some scraps; after all, I have a batch of expired Iron-Armored Bull blood in my studio. Although you can't make anything good, you could barely pass with a D-grade. However—"

Her gaze lingered on Su Bai's face for two seconds.

"You don't look like someone who is begging for help."

Su Bai didn't speak.

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Lin Xiao put the crystal bottle back on the table, crossed her legs, and folded her hands on her knees. "The three of us have been assigned to a group. I know about Zhao Dahai's situation—a hardworking underachiever; his card creation theory is okay, but his Mental Power is too weak, and his practical operation is a total mess."

Zhao Dahai smiled sheepishly.

"As for me—"

Lin Xiao paused. "I won't hide it from you. My theoretical grades are in the top twenty of the grade, but practical operation—I'm hand-disabled. My hands shake every time I draw a circuit. Last year's Element Card Monthly Exam almost burned down the laboratory."

Her tone was very flat when she said this, as if she were stating a fact unrelated to herself.

"So, the three of us getting together is, frankly, an underachiever mutual aid society." Lin Xiao summarized. "But at least it's better than being in a group with that guy Wang Shaotian, whose nostrils are pointed at the sky."

"That's for sure!" Zhao Dahai expressed deep agreement. "With Wang Shaotian's face, I'd rather be in a group with Su Bai—at least Su Bai isn't disgusting. By the way, Su Bai, what card are you preparing to make?"

Zhao Dahai turned his head, his fat face full of curiosity.

The air in the discussion room changed subtly.

Su Bai hesitated for a few seconds. He wasn't hesitating because he was unsure—but because he suddenly realized that explaining Kyubey's setting to two normal people might have some uncontrollable consequences.

But he spoke up anyway.

"I plan to make a Summoning Card. To summon a, um, doll-like creature similar to a cat."

Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"A cat? A doll? The Armament Card assessment requires a physical weapon. Are you planning to summon a ragdoll to kill the examiners with cuteness?"

"Not an ordinary cat." Su Bai explained. "You can make a wish to it. It can grant your wish."

As soon as these words were out—

"What?!" Zhao Dahai stood up abruptly, a glow of ecstasy erupting on his fat face. "A wish?! It can grant wishes?! Holy crap! This is a god-tier Rule Card! This is way more awesome than any Armament Card! Su Bai, you—"

"Calm down." Su Bai raised his hand to interrupt him. "Listen to me finish. The effect of the wish depends on the law of causality. Usually, the path is twisted. For example, if you wish for world peace, it might give you a bombardment that can destroy the world."

Zhao Dahai opened his mouth.

"A bombardment? Isn't that also—"

"Just an example. And it's best not to make too outrageous wishes. For instance, if you wish to eat a strawberry cake—"

"Can it manifest a strawberry cake?" Lin Xiao asked.

"…Probably."

"Then that's useless!"

"But that's not the point."

Su Bai decided to approach it from a different angle. "The point is, the core function of this cat is not wishing. It's transformation. It allows you to obtain a set of exclusive armament."

"Oh? What kind of set?" The two looked interested.

"Magical Girl set."

Zhao Dahai was stunned.

Lin Xiao's expression froze.

However, the way she froze was not quite the same as Wang Shaotian's "Are you kidding me" reaction.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, tilted her head, and looked at Su Bai with an expression of examining a new species.

"Magical Girl, is it some kind of gorgeous armor with high defense?"

Su Bai was silent for a few seconds.

"Not armor. It's a pink lace tutu. The matching equipment is a heart-shaped fairy wand. A bow hair accessory. Magic high heels. It comes with its own exclusive BGM when transforming."

Silence, stillness, quiet… not a sound.

Zhao Dahai's expression looked like he had just swallowed a live frog. Lin Xiao's expression was even more subtle; she furrowed her brows with an expression like she had eaten shit.

"…A skirt." Lin Xiao took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "A pink lace tutu. In the examination hall. In front of Deputy Commander Zhou Mu. Wearing this to perform the Armament Card practical test."

"Yes."

"How much defense does this skirt provide?"

"Not sure, the skirt doesn't seem to provide any defense."

"S-seem?" Lin Xiao was bewildered.

You're a designer, and you're telling me "seem"?

"Then it—it must have some practical value, right? What can the fairy wand do?" Zhao Dahai quickly interjected.

"It can cast magic."

"What level?" Lin Xiao asked again.

"Not sure."

"Not sure!?"

Lin Xiao fell silent again.

This silence was longer than the previous ones. Long enough that Zhao Dahai couldn't help but speak up: "It sounds like it might be quite—"

"Are you stupid!" Lin Xiao turned abruptly to Zhao Dahai, her dignified rich girl expression shattered. "Wearing a pink lace skirt in front of everyone and having to dance with a fairy wand! This is called an Armament Card?! This is called public execution! Who would do such a shameless thing just to use an ultimate move!"

Zhao Dahai shrank his neck from the shouting. But he quickly thought of another problem—a more fatal problem.

He swallowed his saliva and asked in a trembling voice: "Su Bai... um... I have a question... this card... can only females use it?"

Su Bai looked at him seriously.

"Unisex."

Zhao Dahai's fat face twitched.

"…Then if a male uses it—"

"It will also turn into a Magical Girl. Wearing a pink lace skirt. Wearing twin tails. With a bow. The whole set."

"???"

Zhao Dahai's brain seemed to have crashed. He could accept many things—he could accept that he was poor, stupid, at the bottom of the card creation grades, and might have to go to the front lines as cannon fodder. But he could not accept himself—a pure man weighing 180 jin—wearing a pink lace tutu, wearing twin tails, holding a heart-shaped fairy wand, and playing a girl idol BGM in the exam hall.

No.

Absolutely not.

This was even more terrifying than going to the front lines as cannon fodder. At least cannon fodder dies with dignity.

"Su Bai." There was a glimmer of hope in Zhao Dahai's voice. "You're joking, right?"

Su Bai did not answer.

Because he was thinking, since it had already come to this, he might as well finish saying the more explosive parts all at once. It was a goner either way.

"Oh right. There is one more thing."

Both of them looked at him in unison.

"This card has a side effect. After using the transformation, the user will lose their physical body. The soul is extracted and condensed into a glowing stone. It's irreversible."

Zhao Dahai turned to stone.

Lin Xiao's expression also underwent some subtle changes—her beautiful eyes widened slightly, and her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something but didn't say it out loud.

"You—you—you—"

Zhao Dahai scrambled up from his chair, his feet slipping on the floor. His fat face simultaneously displayed horror, confusion, anger, and a kind of bewilderment of "what is wrong with this world." He pointed a finger at Su Bai, his fingertip visibly trembling.

"You want me to cross-dress! A pink lace skirt! Twin tails! And physical castration! And you want to extract my soul! Su Bai, are you a fucking devil!!"

"Fatty, calm down—"

"Don't tell me to calm down! How can I calm down! If you want to die, don't drag us into it! I'd rather go to the front lines to carry shells than wear some bullshit Magical Girl set! At least dying as cannon fodder is being a martyr! Is dying while wearing women's clothing being a martyr? That's a psychiatric patient casualty report! If my dad sees my portrait wearing something like a Magical Girl, he'll have a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot?!"

"Fatty—"

"D! O! N! O! T! S! A! Y! A! N! Y! M! O! R! E!"

Zhao Dahai rushed to the door at a speed completely inconsistent with his body size, stumbling halfway and almost hitting the door frame. Before leaving, he turned his head and looked at Su Bai with an expression of looking at a dangerous object.

"Su Bai! You are definitely fucking crazy from the big exam! Let me introduce you to a psychologist! No—you should just go see a psychiatrist directly! I suspect you have deep-seated persecution complex and gender identity disorder!"

Then he fled without looking back.

Bang.

The door was slammed shut.