The First Transformation
The First Transformation
[Transform.]
When I merely blinked without answering, the metal sphere helpfully repeated itself.
I assumed it was a rescuer since it saved me without a word, but it seemed it was actually the destroyer of my dignity.
Transformation. The kind magical girls do?
‘It... wants me to do that?’
All of a sudden?
“That sounds like a bad idea.”
Where exactly is the demand for that?
Of course, it’s not my body, so nitpicking like this is pretty rude.
Even so, my opinion stands. At the end of the day, isn’t this the body of a grown man? What good is stuffing it into a frilly dress?
The metal sphere stubbornly shouted.
[Transform.]
The urging in that inorganic voice carried a certain chill.
[Transform and neutralize the monster ahead.]
While I was distracted by the voice, the monster—the one this transformation fanatic had knocked flat—was starting to rise again.
“Grrugh....”
Its massive frame was decidedly menacing. A shadow too deep even for the night to swallow gradually fell across my face.
Just like when my neck was bound by the rope, my body thirsted fiercely for life. It began fighting through the cramping muscles, blurred vision, and the sharp, spreading pain in my gut to find any path to survival.
[The penalty for noncompliance.]
My heart pounded noisily. The metal sphere’s inorganic voice, the monster’s footfalls louder than my own heartbeat—it all blended into an indescribable tension.
[Is death.]
“Ha....”
I smirked like someone who’d lost it. I’d really lived long enough to see it all—now I was getting death threats from an inanimate object.
The first thing that welcomed me when I arrived was a rope. The first thing I made contact with was a monster. The first being I had a conversation with was a metal sphere.
Not a single one was trying to keep me alive.
It hit me viscerally: this isn’t the ‘reality’ I lived in.
It’s a mad world crawling with monsters, heroes, and constant mortal peril.
What difference did it make whether the monster beat me to death or the metal sphere did? Right now, there was only one visible way out.
Right. To survive, I can occasionally toss my human dignity aside.
The monster was closing in without a moment’s delay, ready to pulverize me. The metal sphere went silent, as if waiting for my answer.
In that strange silence, I breathed in, then spat it out along with the refusal festering in my chest.
“Fine. Screw it, I’ll do it. Transform.”
[Approved.]
The instant the words left my mouth, tiny cracks began to spiderweb across the metal sphere. Red light bled through the fissures, and the sphere blanched white.
The monster raised its fist. Plenty big enough to pound a human into mincemeat on the spot.
The sphere unfolded along the cracks. It no longer looked like anything you could call a sphere. It was more like....
A belt buckle.
Not a fashion belt, but the kind of design you’d see on a toy or in some sci-fi movie. Exactly that look.
The buckle moved toward my waist.
Shhk-shhk. With the sound of metal coiling around my hips, the metal sphere had fully become a belt.
‘Ah, this seems...’
Slightly different from the transformation I’d envisioned.
The moment the belt fastened, a blueprint lit up in my brain. It felt like having a manual plugged straight into my memory’s socket.
A map formed in my head: exactly what actions I had to take to use this belt.
I moved my arms along that drawn map and placed my hands on the belt.
Whoosh—!
I heard the air being torn apart. The signal that the monster had swung its fist.
The fist was already right in front of my nose.
I didn’t feel even a trace of danger. Instead, I felt a faint, strange elation.
Using the sound of my near-bursting heart as my transformation music, I muttered.
“Transform.”
[ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.]
Right as the fist filled my entire field of view, what I saw wasn’t shadow—it was light.
Astronomical observation.
Just as the words that spilled from the belt meant, celestial bodies flickered before my eyes.
Flowing into my vision were seven distant stars. A constellation worthy of scooping up the northern sea.
[THE BIG DIPPER.]
The starlight didn’t glitter in the sky, but within my hands, and soon erupted outward.
An explosion.
A small-scale, high-density burst of light shot out like a flashbang, and a shockwave to match swept the area.
The monster was inside the radius, too, and went tumbling down the road just as I had moments ago. I, on the other hand, rose to my feet and walked toward it.
The situation had completely reversed.
In the aftermath of the explosion, a dust cloud bloomed over the road like fog.
A light kindled inside that fog. The seven round stars I’d seen before. The source of my power that I’d observed.
They shot up like fireworks, then boomeranged back to me and wrapped around my body.
A runner’s high. The sweetness of endorphins and surging elation flooding my head. Power and stamina so intense I felt them without even moving.
That weak, staggering body running on empty was nowhere to be found.
‘So this is the kind of transformation it was.’
I’d even braced myself for the horrific possibility of turning into a woman, but luckily that particular fear didn’t seem to be in the spotlight tonight.
I checked my reflection in a building’s window.
A giant in green armor stood in the glass. Not a patch of human skin was visible. A leather-like material—maybe spandex—filled the gaps the armor didn’t quite cover.
The protagonist of the transforming-hero shows I used to watch on TV as a kid. Or a transforming robot.
That’s exactly what I looked like.
Though by this world’s aesthetic standards, I was unmistakably a monster.
‘Tacky....’
Way too many pointless decorative bits just for show, and the mobility didn’t look efficient. The heavy-looking armor was an anachronism in this modern era of lightweight everything.
‘And that’s why it’s cool.’
That’s what made it cool. That’s what makes a fantasy a fantasy.
It transcends practical concerns. That’s the whole point.
I grinned inside the helmet.
The outer appearance was far more satisfying than I’d feared. I felt confident enough to stroll down the night street right now and score some phone numbers.
[Transformation successful.]
The metal sphere, now a belt, still urged me on with that same inorganic voice.
[Guardian, defeat the monster. I will provide all assistance.]
Now there really was no turning back.
‘Sorry about this, Han Jae-jung.’
I’m going to have to put your body, which I only moved into today, through the wringer. Can’t be helped, though. You gotta stay alive no matter whose body it is. Why’d you go and commit suicide, anyway.
The real fight was starting. A batshit insane situation I’d never even dealt with in the military.
I swallowed hard. The moment I arrived, I got swept up in a suicide drama, and now I’d even transformed and was about to go mano a mano with that monster for real.
“Haha....”
I laughed at the absurdity. Come to think of it, I’d been laughing a lot today. Cheerfulness is a good thing.
Elation, tension, childhood wonder—I wrapped it all around my fist and clenched tight. I locked my gaze on the monster and didn’t let go.
“Grrugh....”
Its legs swelled, as if the humiliation it had just suffered was unbearable.
Boom!
The monster charged, leaving huge footprints on the pavement. Its speed wasn’t even comparable to before. I could barely track it with my eyes.
It wasn’t threatening, though.
“Krrk!”
Two steps to the side, and I dodged it easily. The monster kept hurtling forward from momentum.
Its back was completely exposed. This time, I ran forward and drove my clenched fist straight into that slick, glistening hide.
Crunch!
A crisp impact rang out, and the monster went rolling across the road.
Would’ve been nice if it’d died right there. But the thing stubbornly got back up and charged at me again. A petty specimen with no real special abilities.
This time, I dodged just by bending my waist slightly back, then used the recoil to kick it square in the jaw.
Smack!
Sticky blood splattered everywhere—maybe the inside of its mouth was completely pulverized.
This was my chance. Without pausing, I slammed a turning kick into its ribs. Even through the hide, it caved in like I’d kicked a sack of cotton. It vomited more blood and went flying.
‘Weird.’
Whatever I had to do next, I saw it perfectly clearly.
I’m no legendary martial arts champion. There’s no way I’d have this kind of composure and judgment in a life-or-death fight.
[That is my assistance. I am analyzing enemy movements in real time and transmitting optimal responses to your brain.]
And this power is something else, too.
‘Is it really seven-star class?’
In Magical Girl Golden Age, a person’s power is determined by the brightness and number of stars granted to them.
Every magical girl can wield the power of a single star. They decide their transformed alias by taking the star’s name and the color of its light.
Most are derived from real stars, but there’s no real correlation between a magical girl’s power and the star’s actual brightness.
Regardless of first magnitude, they can build their power by honing their own star.
Anyway.
I’d seen seven stars total.
Judging just from the words the belt had spoken, my governing power was unmistakably seven-star class.
Even by simple math, that was the power of seven magical girls. Power that might even grow stronger later.
‘Lavish.’
For power gained with no will to obtain it, it was absurdly vast.
Smack!!!
By the time the monster was spending more time airborne than on the ground,
I kicked it hard in the gut, launching it higher.
Under a night splendidly decorated by the moon and stars with all the streetlamps dark, one more monster became the new decoration.
It was strength I couldn’t have dreamed of normally. And I still had plenty of reserves—far more than plenty.
I bent my body, twisted my waist, and set my timing. Ready to drive my fist into that monster whenever it fell.
I seized one of the paths the belt had drawn in my brain, and I followed it.
One of several ways to kill the monster.
A finishing technique.
[SET. Rising Star.]
A green radiance, similar in color to the stars I’d seen before, coiled around my fist.
I drove it into the monster as it flailed and plummeted.
Rising Star.
A star that rises backward.
Just like the name, the starlight flowed from the ground toward the sky, not the other way around.
Boom!
The meteor didn’t fall—it surged upward.
My straight-rising punch shattered the monster’s body to pieces and set off a small explosion.
[Rising Star manifestation successful. Replication Rate 50%. Monster defeated.]
It bothered me that it only produced half its power. But in the end, the monster was successfully neutralized.
“Whuff....”
The tension drained out of me, and I let out a long breath. This should mean no more death threats forcing me to transform.
Belt, go out into nature and live free now.
No matter how strong the power is, I refuse to do crazy shit like fighting without compensation.
Just as I moved my hand to the belt to power down.
[Powering down is not recommended.]
What do you mean.
[A magical girl is rapidly approaching this location. Do not power down. Repeat. Do not power down.]
A magical girl? Then I should definitely power down. My outward appearance is practically begging for a misunderstanding.
[New Quest updated.]
“Who’s there?”
The belt’s voice and a woman’s voice from the night overlapped.
I turned my eyes and saw a woman flying over, draped in a cluster of lights that looked like Tinker Bell’s own glow.
A magical girl.
[Defeat the magical girl ahead.]
“A-are you a survivor over there?”
How long had it been since the fight ended? My heart was already pounding again. Was it the joy of meeting someone I’d fangirled over, now here in the flesh? Or...
[The penalty for noncompliance is death.]
“...?! M-monster?”
Was it just, because I feel so damn suffocated.
At this rate, the possessor’s going to—.