The first thing upon returning home was looking in the mirror.
Hibiscus grinned at herself showing white teeth, the white-haired girl in black dress on the other side doing the same. She spun around making the scattered silver ornaments on her Regalia chime, and after careful observation found the Regalia details were more than imagined, with a military uniform design sense. Though gothic girl style, it didn't lack solemn dignity.
If entering full transformation, wing-shaped flowing magic power would faintly appear behind her back. Long-distance flight would drag contrails highlighting magnificence.
That's right, she could fly now. In perfect form she could fly freely—flexibility relied on proficiency, speed on magic power.
Too amazing, better experience than time stop.
Hibiscus never felt that sitting in a higher metal shell counted. Wing-suit flying was what matched free soaring, and now she was freer than that. Magical girls' built-in flight was much more convenient, directly upgrading combat to three-dimensional space, raising the threshold for enemies wanting to intervene considerably. After all, in many works "flight" itself was an ability or had few masters, achieved through growing wings, stepping on air, etc. Magical girls belonged to the complete meaning of flight.
She excitedly floated around the house, carefully not daring to infuse too much magic power to avoid overspeeding, so perhaps in the future she could exceed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Being faster than the fastest weapons was true safety.
After playing until somewhat tired, the girl flopped onto the sofa and lifted Regalia. Experiments proved it maintained for quite a long time. The most unscientific part was that even without clothes covering skin, defense was extremely strong—security maxed out.
In other words, in Regalia form her normal defense could withstand Vanguard Disaster Beasts—no more fear of sneak attacks.
Moreover, the combat environment at that time was filled with gas leaks, chemical warehouse damage, etc., so resistance to negative status effects was also good.
Thud!
Magic power was exhausted without warning, making the girl fall from the air onto the sofa. Seemed basic attributes still needed improvement—everything required magic power. But first, inventory system rewards.
The system's so-called "Save Nan Zhiyi" advice should belong to important side quests, not low difficulty, with considerable gains. First was one million cash appearing on the table out of thin air—such a large sum could actually trouble Hibiscus.
The previous 100,000 yuan cash and 500,000 yuan check hadn't been spent yet, and now more?
Truly happy troubles.
With "Hibiscus's" identity she couldn't be involved with too much money, at least not herself. Having another layer of identity would be much more useful.
A white card appeared in the girl's hand—the system reward "Universal Identity Card" could be filled out to establish a background, including but not limited to family background, education, occupation, etc., creating an identity from a modern information society perspective. Used well, it could both solve money destinations and add a protective shell.
What to fill in specifically needed careful consideration. After all, it was a one-time item—she'd think about it later.
Lottery time.
Hibiscus focused her mind and the roulette in the system page spun rapidly with various potions being most common, followed by exchange points, attribute points, etc. Items were rarest, basically no hope. Even with her current eyesight it was hard to catch patterns, so she just called stop randomly.
Ding! Purple light actually appeared: Large Enhancement Potion.
She'd experienced how powerful this thing was early on. Without enhancement potions, Hibiscus would probably have died twice, but precisely because it was precious she dared not use it lightly—keeping it as a trump card for now.
The rest were Small Health Recovery Potion ×3, Small Mana Recovery Potion ×3, Healing Technique for Infection Knowledge, Regalia Advancement Stone Fragment ×1, plus 10,000 yuan.
The healing technique knowledge was undoubtedly surprising. With this reward, her healing technique could be used to erase infection. Though magical girls were already immune, it had extraordinary meaning for ordinary people.
Rich lottery harvest.
After Hibiscus inventoried everything, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. The big battle was more tiring than imagined, yet she still didn't want to close her eyes—her spirits were getting better and better. She vaguely had a feeling: magical girls awakened by contacting Disaster Beast aura, and would also evolve by defeating them, like white blood cells eating invading bacteria. The continuous battles, despite fatigue, made the girl energetic. Completing three awakenings within a month and even being able to transform—the improvement to five-dimensional attributes was not to be underestimated:
[Constitution: 195]
[Magic Power: 245]
[Spirit: 210]
[Speed: 207]
[Strength: 186]
Average attributes developed by leaps and bounds to the 200 threshold. No wonder she felt light—when fighting the Disaster Beast in close combat she was not inferior.
Hibiscus was not surprised by the attribute changes. After all, she felt it quite clearly. The moment three awakenings completed, power gushed out flowing through her limbs and bones. Mere human strength yet enough to contend with 10-meter class monsters—unimaginable how much power her petite body contained.
Five-dimensional attributes were detailed expressions of Origin; Origin represented life level sublimation.
During this time her sleep decreased. From previous binge eating when first awakening, it trended toward stability. Rosy complexion, well-proportioned figure—no need for special exercise to maintain.
Magical girls could completely be viewed as another species. Though currently young and unable to verify, intuition told Hibiscus that even birth, aging, sickness, and death weren't so inviolable. Eternal youth and even immortality weren't distant.
Humanity's ultimate dream about to be realized?
While delighted, Hibiscus also understood that once such news spread, the impact would be tremendous—subversive second only to the initial Disaster Beast invasion. Must pay more attention.
She turned on TV news. Scrolling information was almost all "Ningfeng Harbor attacked by Disaster Beast" related reports.
The screen was full of displaced people, the harbor flooded once over, buildings collapsed with devastation everywhere, many passersby showing infection characteristics...
She'd seen it all during battle. The important thing was official tone. At least current reports said "Vanguard Disaster Beast fell into unknown mysterious event, cause under investigation," "huge sounds at scene," "experts say it must be airflow effects"—either playing dumb or covering up.
Magical girls were still unknown to the world. No matter how rich your imagination, it was useless.
Investigation should continue for a long time.
Before leaving, Hibiscus had thoroughly destroyed the Disaster Beast entity and surrounding damage traces. Plus key rounds occurred during time stop—no way to investigate. Guessing "Disaster Beast infighting" was more reliable than "superhero protecting city."
What reassured her was that unlike the two gang battles, this time there were no clear witness reports of human figures, thanks to the chaos of Disaster Beast attacks where even whether the combatant was human or ghost was unclear.
Perfect, another successful hiding in plain sight.
Hibiscus knew that someday in the future when trying to unite magical girls she'd have to step forward, but not now—the basics weren't even established yet.
Now just broadly recruit talent. With trusted confidants, then they could discuss business, then make money—people would gather where there was money. Successfully saving Nan Zhiyi was a big step forward. Privately, she didn't want to see her childhood friend suffer tragedy; publicly, having one more management-type magical girl was very useful. According to netizens, at least half the credit for Salvation Church development in the original storyline belonged to the chief steward.
"Almost forgot."
Hibiscus just remembered she'd promised netizens that once things were settled, she'd report her safety.