009 - Problem Occurs (Magical Girl Transformation State)
In her magical girl transformation, ignoring the embarrassingly skimpy outfit as best she could, Lee Jiyeon stood before the sandbag just like before.
She tossed the magic wand carelessly to the side and picked up the axe she'd swung earlier.
Closing her eyes, she focused inward.
She sensed the blazing mana core.
Unlike before, the mana core wasn't forcibly controlling the mana.
Instead, it seemed eager to yield everything it had to its master's will, moving naturally in response to her thoughts.
'Good.'
Lee Jiyeon slowly circulated the mana through her circuits.
She felt the reinforcement circuits activate under the mana's influence.
It was far smoother than last time.
In the stance of a lumberjack felling a tree, she swung the axe, colliding with the sandbag.
— KAANG!!
The axe didn't slip from her grip and bounce away like before.
But the girl's expression stiffened rigidly.
This sandbag was Lv.1—the lowest level.
Even so, the axe hadn't left a scratch like last time, but it fell far short of what Lee Jiyeon had expected.
Her benchmark was solid C-rank hunter destructive power.
She wasn't yet used to this body, and above all, her base physical strength was abysmal.
Factoring that in, and assuming the vastly superior mana volume could cover those flaws, that was her minimum expectation.
And a C-rank hunter's power should cleave a Lv.1 sandbag clean in two.
Yet the axe had barely dug in the width of a finger joint.
As if mirroring her dismay, the measurement results appeared on the hologram display beside the sandbag.
F
F-rank. Barely better than a regular person.
How could this be? The mana output was enormous.
Lee Jiyeon stared blankly at the hologram when someone approached.
It was Chief Researcher Jo Jeong-ah.
"…It's not working out, is it?"
"…."
Lee Jiyeon didn't know how to explain.
Should she just say she'd try again?
As she pondered, Jo Jeong-ah continued.
"Lee Chang… no, Miss Lee Jiyeon. How much do you know about true awakener hunter traits?"
"Honestly, not much."
This wasn't the time to nitpick the "Miss Lee Jiyeon" title.
Jo Jeong-ah was the Korea Hunter Technology Institute's chief researcher.
If anyone could explain this phenomenon, it was the expert before her.
"All true awakeners gain correction effects based on their traits. You must know that's the absolute divide between semi-awakeners and true awakeners."
"Right."
That's why she'd wanted to become one.
A close-combat correction trait would make her insanely strong.
But she'd become a magical girl, and she'd half-expected it wouldn't suit melee…
Still, worse than before? It didn't make sense.
"The key is how these traits produce their correction effects."
Jo Jeong-ah's explanation continued.
"Have you ever played games, Miss Lee Jiyeon?"
"A few times, back in the day…."
After the Reconstruction Era stabilized and time hung heavy, she'd tried a few. Quit quickly, though.
"Take RPGs, for example. When a character job-changes, they get stat boosts tied to the class. Warriors get strength, endurance, HP; mages get intelligence, MP, and so on."
Jo Jeong-ah pulled out a tablet, showing diagrams and text as she explained eagerly.
She had a real knack for teaching.
"People often say true awakener traits work like game classes. But is that the core truth? Do awakeners have hidden stats that shift with traits to create these effects?"
There was a system window, but it was just magical tech laid across the world by an S-rank hunter.
No skills, stats, or shops.
Just a network.
"I can't say 100%, but as chief researcher, I can tell you no. Trait corrections come from 'changes in mana properties.'"
Then came something Lee Jiyeon had never heard.
"Changes in mana properties…."
"Take a 'Warrior' trait as an example. The mana of a true awakener with it becomes rough and violent—highly destructive. Perfect for reinforcement circuits. High efficiency in both attack and defense."
Right.
Back when she was Lee Chang, she'd fought a criminal true awakener with a warrior trait.
She'd barely won, and inspecting his body afterward, his reinforcement circuits were inferior to hers.
Yet in combat, his physical enhancement outstripped hers.
Without her superior battle sense, she'd have lost.
She'd chalked it up to the trait's impressive corrections… but the truth was more nuanced.
The difference between raw mana and mana altered by the warrior trait.
"Now, the main point: What about the 'Magical Girl' trait?"
Jo Jeong-ah searched for magical girl on her tablet and showed the wiki entry.
"It's no ordinary trait. Only about ten cases worldwide. Rare traits like this have extreme corrections. Based on what I've explained, that means the mana properties are extremely specialized."
Then, glancing at Lee Jiyeon's fingers, she said,
"Miss Lee Jiyeon, can you fire a mana bolt?"
"Yeah, that much…."
Mana bolts were basic mana use—no need for dedicated spell circuits.
Lee Chang had tried them; BB-gun power at best. Useless outside pranks.
Jo Jeong-ah pointed to a distant sandbag.
Lv.2, 100 meters away.
"Perfect. Give it a shot. Way over there."
Lee Jiyeon complied without protest.
She shaped her hand like a gun, gathered mana at her fingertip, and fired. Simple as throwing a rock.
And—
— Boom!
A fist-sized hole punched through the Lv.2 sandbag. Lee Jiyeon's eyes widened.
By her 20-year hunter instincts, that was full-power from an E-rank mage.
"Wh-what…."
"See? I've never researched magical girl traits myself, but the name gives it away."
Jo Jeong-ah kept explaining while jotting notes on her tablet.
"Mana hyper-specialized for spells. Several times a mage's efficiency…. But reinforcement? Abysmal."
"…."
In short:
Magical girl mana couldn't use reinforcement circuits.
Not even with massive mana input, like now—efficiency tanked.
"B-but I already have reinforcement circuits built."
"That's the problem."
Jo Jeong-ah sighed.
"Most who reawaken from semi to true get traits matching their existing circuits. But your awakening was artificial, so your circuits and trait clash."
A grim premonition flashed through Lee Jiyeon's mind.
"Miss Lee Jiyeon, in the worst case—"
And Jo Jeong-ah's final words sealed it.
"You might not be able to fight. Keep that in mind."
That night,
Lee Jiyeon lay on her dorm bed like a corpse, staring at the ceiling.
Her clothes were the new pajamas—loose and soft, comfortable.
Her mind, though, was a storm. Worse than right after becoming this girl's body.
'You might not be able to fight.'
"…Fuck."
Those words wouldn't leave her head.
Why'd she end up like this, just to not even fight like before?
She yanked the blanket over herself, rolled left, right, face-down, thrashed her limbs in a fit, then went still.
"Aaaah—."
Her brain felt stuffed with shit…. This fucking sucked.
All that was left was this pretty, cute girl's body?
What the hell could she do with it—go to school? Giggle and play with kids her apparent age?
No fucking way.
She couldn't replace her circuits now. Once formed, they were near-permanent.
Nor could she start from scratch with spell circuits.
Her body was fully laced with Lee Chang's honed reinforcement circuits—no room left.
And even if she solved that….
'Sniping from afar isn't my style.'
A girl now, but Lee Jiyeon's soul still craved Lee Chang's combat.
Up close with monsters, lives on the line, weapons clashing, feeling the enemy's life end in her hands.
That's how Lee Chang had lived 20 years.
Lee Jiyeon lacked the courage to abandon that life.
After much tossing, something she'd forgotten all afternoon hit her.
'The gallery….'
Where all this world's magical girls gathered.
Might there be answers?
With vague hope, Lee Jiyeon opened the system window and entered the Magical Girl Gallery.
"Hmm. Too stiff…."
Skimming the gallery, Lee Jiyeon saw it was way chiller than communities she'd known.
She tweaked the title and reposted.
"Younger vibe now…."
The 34-year-old soul in a kid's body was getting the hang of "newbie."
Feeling oddly confident, she finished and uploaded.
Then she waited.
After five minutes, thinking screw it, bed, a notification pinged.
She tapped it instantly.
Thank god, a breakthrough.
Lee Jiyeon bolted upright and hammered the system keyboard.
Her heart raced.
Should've asked the gallery sooner—no point agonizing all afternoon.
A reply came quick.
"What."
The oddly formal helper even fretted over her sleep.
Grateful or annoyed? Pondering, Lee Jiyeon decided to play along.
Regret hit instantly. Too cutesy?
Deleting and rewriting felt lame. Just blending into the community, she told herself.
She closed the system, prepped for bed.
One perk of a kid's body: sleep came easy at night.
Unlike before, staying up till dawn for no reason….
….