Chapter 134: Overeating
A few minutes later, Luo Shuangyue, who had caused trouble, sat obediently in a spacious and bright office, watching Ms. Loran seriously explain the situation to the stern man sitting behind the desk.
After hearing Loran’s explanation, the director, who looked to be around fifty or sixty years old, nodded and cast a relatively kind glance towards Luo Shuangyue.
He cleared his throat lightly and said to her, “Miss Dark Butterfly, there’s no need to feel so guilty. It’s inevitable for experiments to have problems…”
The gist of the conversation was that Luo Shuangyue didn’t need to take the recent incident to heart; she wouldn’t have to compensate for the damaged wall. If she wanted to continue her experiments, he would arrange for her a sturdier lab.
Walls, to the current Magic Department, were inconsequential; they could simply be restored with magic.
However, the experiment that Luo Shuangyue was conducting was of utmost importance. If she could indeed create a teleportation portal that spanned the stars, then damaging a hundred or a thousand labs would be a worthwhile trade-off.
This was a calculation that Director Song Lian was quite clear on.
Moreover, since this Dark Butterfly was one of the ‘Pioneers,’ and recently the ‘Pioneer’ had become a hot new favorite in the Magic Department, many people wanted to find a backdoor through her to secure more transformation slots for their subordinates.
Song Lian was no different.
“The No. 7 testing ground has been empty these days; you can conduct your experiments there from now on,” he said, glancing at his computer and swiftly approving the new experimental site for Luo Shuangyue.
Normally, such matters would require reporting to headquarters and waiting for approval, but there were shortcuts to be taken.
He directly packaged the experiment’s goals and participants and sent them through an emergency approval channel to Cecilia. A minute later, his application was approved.
If transformed individuals were the key to enhancing the frontline combat power of the Magic Department, then the significance of the teleportation portal could even surpass that of the transformed individuals.
If this plan succeeded and a teleportation portal that could be used at will was created, the mobility of the magical girls would experience a leap!
It was just a training ground; it didn’t require any particularly expensive resources, so it was approved!
In these times, research that could yield such returns without expending resources was virtually non-existent; Cecilia must have been out of her mind to refuse Song Lian’s application.
“Then… are we leaving?” Luo Shuangyue still felt a bit embarrassed. After all, she was the one who had damaged public property, and she could hardly pretend that the recent incident had never happened.
She wasn’t thick-skinned enough to think that breaking the wall of the Magic Department was an honor for them.
“Alright, Taozi, you accompany Dark Butterfly and the others. Just consider it your job to protect them,” Song Lian nodded, speaking to another magical girl in the office.
“Understood, I’ll make sure to complete the task,” Miss Taozi replied playfully with a smile at Song Lian, “So about this month’s allowance…”
“Stop being cheeky and go quickly!” The stern-faced director waved his hand helplessly, resembling a father who felt powerless against his mischievous daughter.
As Luo Shuangyue followed Taozi and Loran out of the office, she curiously inquired about the relationship between Taozi and Song Lian.
She didn’t believe for a moment that there was no relationship between the two, especially given the way Taozi had spoken earlier, which made her feel a little tingly.
As expected, Taozi replied, “He’s my dad.”
So they were indeed father and daughter, and their relationship seemed pretty good, a flicker of understanding crossed Luo Shuangyue’s eyes.
However, with Taozi working here, could there be some nepotism involved? That thought flashed through Luo Shuangyue’s mind, and she quickly dismissed the impolite notion.
Whether there was favoritism or not didn’t matter to her; Taozi was an Initial Bloom-level magical girl, and being a bodyguard in this important research facility didn’t seem like a big issue.
If she was willing, and Song Lian was willing, then it seemed headquarters didn’t have any reason to separate this father-daughter duo either.
On the way to the testing ground, Taozi quietly complained to Luo Shuangyue about her dad, mentioning how just a few days ago he had gone a bit crazy wanting to undergo Monise’s transformation and then got knocked out and locked in his bedroom by her.
When her dad woke up, the transformation slots from the research department had already been allocated, and an angry Song Lian shifted the blame onto his good daughter, cutting off her allowance for an entire month.
“Can you believe it? He’s fifty or sixty years old, yet he still has so many bizarre ideas,” the peach-colored girl said with a puzzled expression.
Young people are passionate and want to contribute to humanity, but what does a fifty or sixty-year-old man have to join in the excitement for?
“The director has always been a very passionate person; otherwise, he wouldn’t have stayed in this position for so long, would he?” Loran chimed in from the side.
Holding a high position in the Magic Department isn’t easy; there’s no room for trickery. If performance falters, one would be immediately removed.
Even for a Blooming Level Magical Girl, if they exhibited an unworthy character, they would have to leave quietly under pressure from other Blooming Level individuals, let alone normal people.
And the fact that Song Lian has remained as the director in the research institute as an ordinary person for so many years is a testament to his strength and his passion for magic.
For a person as pure as him, seeing, feeling, and even using magic within his lifetime is the greatest wish of his life.
“I know how my dad is, but you all know the side effects of transformation, right?” Taozi made a strange expression, “If my dad really underwent a transformation, wouldn’t I have to start calling him mom?”
This statement plunged both Luo Shuangyue and Loran into silence.
Well, from Taozi’s perspective, that does indeed sound somewhat absurd.
“Ahem, let’s not talk about such odd things; these days, I’ve been hoping to switch shifts to the moon. Miss Dark Butterfly, since you came down from the moon, can you tell me what the situation up there is like?”
Taozi was a very enthusiastic girl. Luo Shuangyue felt that this peach-colored girl resembled a lower-tier version of Xia Mo, giving off a very magical girl vibe.
“Every day is filled with battles against magical beasts. When patrolling outside, we encounter a wave of attacking magical beasts every hour…” Luo Shuangyue didn’t mind sharing some of her own experiences from the skies, “If our experiment succeeds, switching shifts will become much simpler!”
…
Bang!
A dark purple figure slammed heavily onto the ground.
“I think if we don’t change this characteristic, this magic can be completely used as a killing weapon.”
After being smashed into the ground once again and creating a massive human-shaped pit, Luo Shuangyue flipped over and jumped up, looking at several nearly identical large pits around her, feeling a bit helpless.
This marked the third day since she arrived at the headquarters of the Magic Department. Her daily agenda had been quite simple: each morning she thoroughly consumed the magical power of Yi, and then she would head to the testing ground to research new magic.
After these few days of diligent attempts, she finally… used her own body to pound the training ground into an utter mess.
Although it would return to its original state by the next morning, Luo Shuangyue still felt a bit guilty. After all, the ground wasn’t alive and able to heal itself automatically; it surely required the staff of the Magic Department to work overnight to repair it.
After creating so many troubles and causing so many large pits, however, she came up with a bit of a ‘selfish’ magic.
Regarding Yi’s starlight teleportation portal, Luo Shuangyue was still pondering over it, as she only had a vague idea for now, but the new magic she developed after harnessing Yi’s starlight magical power and combining it with her own was already fully formed.
This magic was considered an advanced version of teleportation magic. While diving into the Ocean of Magical Power, it would leave a mark at the original location that would last for a period of time. During this duration, Luo Shuangyue could directly activate this mark, pulling herself back to it.
It was quite a decent life-saving magic, but the only issue was that the pull-back speed was a bit too fast, and if one wasn’t careful, they might crash into flowers or inadvertently harm innocent bystanders.
Luo Shuangyue’s attempt at developing a teleportation portal magic was based on this magic.
She imagined that as long as she left such marks at two locations and activated them, wouldn’t that create a similar effect to a teleportation portal?
So she went ahead and tried, but the results were, at best, subpar.
Marks were one-time use, and the channels between teleportation portals required prolonged, repeated usage; thus, the magical energy consumed between the two were not even on the same level in terms of magnitude.
If she had not been thoroughly consuming Yi’s magical power over the past few days, raising her magical energy conversion ratio to an impressive level, she wouldn’t even dare to imagine this method.
“I feel like a bricklayer, using starlight magical power to build walls in the Ocean of Magical Power,” Luo Shuangyue conveyed the difficulties she was facing to her two companions in the group, “The consumption is just too great. Look, it took nearly half of my magical power to create this teleportation portal, and yet it’s only this short distance and unstable.”
Luo Shuangyue pointed towards the starlight whirlpool located on both sides of the training ground.
Yes, she had actually created a teleportation portal, but the energy consumption was too large, and the distance was too short, barely comparable to Yi’s portal.
In Taozi’s arms was a tablet computer displaying several screens with higher-ups from headquarters very concerned about this research, all chattering to offer Luo Shuangyue suggestions.
“Perhaps it doesn’t need to be as stable as that?” a girl hidden in the shadows remarked, “What we currently need is just a channel connecting the ground to the moon, one that can facilitate passage for magical girls.”
The implication being that Luo Shuangyue didn’t need to ensure the passage was entirely safe and stable; it just needed to be constructed so that magical girls could traverse between the ground and the moon.
The impacts capable of killing ordinary people would merely feel like a tickle to magical girls; a slightly dangerous passage was not an entirely unacceptable flaw.
“It’s not that simple. Even if the walls of the passage are thinned down to the minimum, there’s no way to create such a long passage,” Luo Shuangyue shook her head.
She had observed Yi using the teleporting portals for several days, but this unique spell was incredibly difficult to learn, much like her Butterfly Transformation spell, which was also challenging for others.
At this moment, Luo Shuangyue sincerely wished for a brain with extraordinary wisdom.
“Sigh, if only I could find another way to construct a teleportation portal,” she sighed. She had already secured the materials needed to create a portal, but she simply couldn’t draft the blueprint.
Yi’s magic was a black box, and no matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t comprehend the principles behind that portal. Not only could she not understand, but even the genius scientists at headquarters were at a loss.
Even Monise had expressed her inability to assist in this matter.
Thus, after some not too arduous contemplation, Luo Shuangyue felt it would be better to abandon this path.
However, other paths didn’t seem to have revealed themselves yet…
“Hey, you guys are quite lively over here.” A sudden voice interrupted what should have been a secret meeting.
A somewhat familiar face appeared in the corner of the screen. After a careful examination, Luo Shuangyue finally recognized the identity of this newcomer.
Qidian!
Recently, this predecessor had been energetically hunting magical beasts across the starry sky, and many of the monsters had been eliminated before they even reached their home planet, thanks to her finding a place to vent her energy.
Now that she could join this conference channel, it indicated that she had returned close to the home planet.
“Predecessor Qidian,” Luo Shuangyue greeted the approachable elder with politeness.
Other Blooming Level Magical Girls present in the meeting were less courteous, nearly all condemning Qidian for rudely joining the meeting mid-way.
However, Qidian seemed unconcerned with her companions’ good-natured complaints, happily showcasing her spoils.
“I found a teleportation portal constructed by the magical beasts and brought back half of it.”
As Qidian’s image zoomed out slowly, everyone finally saw the enormous object behind her.
It was a broken half-ring crafted from the blood and flesh of magical beasts, with countless black threads floating slowly in the starry sky at the broken edge of the ring.
This shocking sight immediately sank the conference room into silence.
Seconds later, the previously silent deputy minister of the Magic Department, the Holy Angel Cecilia, slammed her hand on the table, exclaiming, “You dare to bring something like this back?!”
What would happen if this teleportation portal was still operational? Wouldn’t that directly reveal their homeplanet’s location to the enemy?
“Don’t worry, I can assure you that this thing is already broken; there won’t be any issues,” Qidian replied confidently, showing no signs of regret, “Even though it continues trying to self-repair, I’ve fully suppressed it using gravity.”
So this thing was still alive? It was indeed still operational? Cecilia gasped, wondering if this Qidian had been a tad too bold.
“I discovered this portal in orbit beyond Neptune, and at that time, a sizable army of magical creatures had already gathered outside the portal. I, as Qidian, smashed into them and wiped them all out,” Qidian recounted her achievements in a remarkably casual tone.
After annihilating the magical army, she stared at the portal guarded by the beasts for two seconds, pondering that this thing might have some usefulness, so she took half of it away with her bare hands.
As for the other half, she sent it along with the magic beasts to the river Styx.
“I figured you all might be interested in this, so I brought it back.”
A chorus of complaints erupted among the Blooming Level Magical Girls in the meeting room. Most of them held positions at headquarters, and now that Qidian had dragged back such a massive object, the burden was effectively on them.
Luo Shuangyue didn’t pay much attention to the underlying issues here. Upon seeing this teleportation portal, a wildly bold idea surfaced in her mind.
This thing appeared to be made from magical beasts; if she consumed it, would she be able to learn the method for crafting a teleportation portal?
Thinking this, Luo Shuangyue quickly raised her hand, “I want to study this teleportation portal!”
…
Fifteen minutes later, Luo Shuangyue was captured by Qidian’s gravity and dizzily crawled out of the Ocean of Magical Power.
This wasn’t due to the travel itself taking fifteen minutes, but because the Blooming Level elders quarreled for that long before coming to a consensus and agreeing to her request.
As for traveling, it took Luo Shuangyue less than a second.
In fact, if it weren’t for Qidian having fished her out partway, she would have overshot her destination.
“This thing is so big…” Only upon standing before the magical beast’s teleportation portal did Luo Shuangyue truly grasp its vastness.
Its size, measured in kilometers, made Luo Shuangyue feel like an ant in its presence.
Moreover, this portal had no hint of technological sophistication; it was composed of various terrifying black flesh, sprouting numerous eyes and grotesque limbs.
It looked like countless magical beasts’ bodies had been brutally amalg
