A Girl Who Doesn’t Believe in Humans

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Hell

Cherry, Azure, Apricot, Jade—

The four-color magical girls surrounded the gigantic monster in a tight formation. Beams of colorful light corresponding to their weapons shot out, striking the octopus-like monster with countless tentacles!

“Roarrrr—!!”

The monster emitted a deafening scream, wildly waving its tentacles in a desperate counterattack. Caught off guard due to overconfidence in their advantage, Cherry was momentarily careless and got sent flying by the massive tentacles.

“Ah—!”

“Cherry!”

Azure shouted in concern as Cherry was sent sprawling, only to be struck by the flailing tentacles herself, the falling figure kicking up a cloud of dust.

“Ohhhh!!!”

The magical girls, now in disarray, struggled to contain the monster’s counterattack. Apricot and Jade could only hold on desperately, seemingly on the verge of collapsing.

Just then—

“Lavender Eternal Slumber!”

From the battlefield’s hidden corner, a purple energy attack struck the top of the octopus monster’s head, seemingly passing through its brain without a physical form. The enormous creature, struggling moments ago, suddenly halted all movement, and its massive body collapsed with a thunderous crash.

This single strike decisively dealt with the troublesome monster.

The four fallen magical girls looked towards the source of the attack; a magical girl in purple attire stood under the setting sun.

“Snow Qing…”

Cherry murmured the person’s name while lying on the ground.

However, there was no response from the mysterious figure. No joy in victory, no concern for comrades—just silently acting, and then silently leaving, disappearing beneath the fading sun.

No one knew Snow Qing’s identity, and no one understood her thoughts. She always stood alone. Never fighting alongside other magical girls, always staying in the shadows, silently observing. If others were winning, she stayed out of it; if others were about to lose, she intervened at the critical moment.

She was such a mysterious magical girl.

“What are you…”

Cherry could never comprehend Snow Qing. She didn’t know what past had made Snow Qing unwilling to fight alongside them, but Cherry was still grateful for her multiple timely interventions.

However, not everyone shared the same sentiment—

“Damn it! She always watches like that and then comes out at the end to steal the spotlight! If she had acted from the beginning, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

Azure gritted her teeth angrily.

“Well, maybe Snow Qing also saved us, and she might have her reasons,” Jade said, trying to ease the tension.

“Can we roast this octopus to eat?”

Apricot’s eyes gleamed with excitement, completely changing the mood.

In the sky, a conspicuous drone openly recorded the entire battle.

…

…

In a deserted alley, the purple magical girl staggered, leaning against the wall.

“This body might not hold up much longer… cough, cough…”

Her steps were already strained, and a burst of purple light dissipated. Her magical girl attire was dispelled, revealing a delicate girl with a charming appearance. With smooth black straight hair and a cold yet charming face, her well-proportioned body conveyed youthful vitality, but at this moment, the girl seemed frail and delicate.

“Continuing like this, even the soul inside my body may…,” the girl’s cold expression inevitably took on a hint of sadness.

Her words sounded strange, as if the body and soul were separate entities in her semantics. And there was a reason for this—

She was a traveler.

Originally, well, let’s say the original him was an ordinary young man on Blue Star, whose usual hobby was playing video games. Then, one day, a large truck took him away—yes, the background story is as hastily put together as that. But all that is not important now; in any case, he later traveled to this world and entered the body of this magical girl.

So, the question is—where did the original magical girl, Snow Qing, go?

The answer is, she died, by suicide.

When he entered this body, Snow Qing’s soul had already dissipated, and from the fragments of memories remaining in the body, he learned a cruel truth—this was the world of his past life, where he was a magical girl named Yellow Butter.

And this also explained the reason for Snow Qing’s suicide—to prevent further corruption.

This world had magical girls and demons. The demons suddenly awakened from the underground world and attacked humans, and no one knew the origin of the demons. But having played games, he naturally knew that demons were resurrected from within human bodies; everyone had the factor of demons inside them. As for why this was the case, that comes later.

The magical girls fighting against the demons believed that their transformation relied on an ancient crystal. They always thought the crystal was the source of their power, but in reality, the crystal was only used to activate their own demon factor.

This “enemy and ourselves share the same origin” had a taste of being in a B-movie.

Tragically, before he entered this body, the original magical girl Snow Qing was already “graduating from Butter”—that is to say, her corruption progress bar was almost full, and she was just one step away from complete corruption.

This was understandable; Snow Qing’s inherent strength wasn’t very high, and the more intensively she used her powers, the faster the process of corruption. Secondly, each magical girl had her own attribute, and unfortunately, Snow Qing’s attribute happened to be darkness, so her corruption would be faster than usual.

To maintain the last bit of dignity as a human, Snow Qing chose to end her own life.

The girl’s will was certainly commendable, but it cruelly set a trap for him when he arrived.

It can be said that he—now the newly born Snow Qing—inherits the strange stats of the previous Snow Qing, making it a hellish start.

So, Snow Qing’s fighting style later well explained it. With a body that had long creaked and groaned, she could only adopt this kind of sneaky, fringe-style tactic.

Of course, her decision to act as a lone wolf had other reasons, and the most crucial one was—she didn’t trust other magical girls!

Being familiar with this Butter, she naturally knew the main gameplay—Magical Corruption!

This game has multiple branches and multiple endings; every magical girl has the potential to become a pawn of the demons, then ruthlessly backstab her close companions!

So, she had decided long ago! She would trust no one!

As long as she trusted no one, she couldn’t be betrayed by trusted companions and fall into the curse of a chain of corruptions.

She didn’t want to become a slave to others!

But as the cost of fighting alone, Snow Qing couldn’t get effective supplies, let alone support from human organizations. She had to collect information on her own and lick her wounds alone.

But none of these were the most fatal; the most fatal was the recovery of magical girl energy.

“Cough, cough…”

Finally, she staggered out of the alley, stumbling into the adjacent residential building.

The building here was dilapidated and cramped, presenting a look of long neglect. Snow Qing laboriously climbed to the second floor, turned and stepped onto the creaking corridor, then opened her own door.

This was the room she rented, very small, just a single room, and the only ventilation was blocked by curtains, making the interior very dim.

“Cough, cough…”

She closed the door, swaying toward the small bed. Even though it was only a few steps away, it took her quite some time. In the end, she weakly collapsed onto the bed.

Her body emitted a dim purple light, and finally—she could release her disguise.

Yes, in fact, her human form was just her own disguise, even the appearance of the magical girl was.

If you wonder why, it’s because—

She was no longer human a long time ago.

It’s very tragic; even though the original Snow Qing avoided the corruption of her soul by self-sacrifice, her body had inevitably entered the realm of demons.

The purple light dissipated, and a demon appeared on the snowy white bed.

Curling horns extending backward, glossy dark wings, and a long, sinuous, agile tail.

Purple wavy hair, dark purple eyeshadow accentuating her enchanting eyes. Beneath the curly and dense eyelashes, there were eyes with a pair of crimson vertical pupils. Hanging on her more prominent figure were a few indistinct dark purple fabric pieces, and on the abdomen displaying vestiges of a vest line, there was a strange heart-shaped pattern.

All these features were telling the undeniable fact that this magical girl had fallen.

This was also the third reason for her isolation.

“Ah…”

She could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Disguise was a burden for her now; it would intensify the process of demonization—not only physically but also mentally.

The fragile appearance she had before was due to the disguise. In reality, Snow Qing’s true physical qualities far surpassed those of humans. To suppress her demon power, she appeared so fragile in human form; otherwise, her disguise would be shattered by her own strength.

Revealing her “true self” made Snow Qing feel relieved.

Demonization did have some impact on her soul; many of her habits and ways of thinking inevitably leaned towards demons. For example, sometimes, she would feel that survival of the fittest wasn’t a bad thing, consider herself foolish for maintaining a weak human form, and indulge in the pleasure of harming demons.

So, after each battle, she had to adjust her thought patterns—make them more human.

She took a deep breath, trying to drive all the cruel thoughts out of her mind.

Lying on the bed, Snow Qing indulged in various thoughts, unaware of the passing time.

As night approached, it was time for her to replenish her energy—magic power.

As mentioned earlier, magical girls were essentially the same as demons, so the way to replenish magic power was essentially the same.

So, how do demons replenish magic power? They seize the essence of humans by attacking them. Essence is something similar to human life force. Depending on the extent of the stolen essence, the victim might be weak and lethargic for several days, or in severe cases, they might even die.

But magical girls were different from demons; they didn’t understand their nature and wouldn’t actively harm humans. In theory, they shouldn’t be able to replenish magic power. However, there was another passive way for magic power to be replenished—having humans willingly offer it.

Although it sounds a bit sinister, in practice, it’s not exactly like that. For magical girls, they only needed to gain people’s support.

Essence was not a tangible thing; its transfer didn’t require a spatial or temporal connection, and it was very arbitrary. It was like the ki in Dragon Ball; just saying it could be given.

In other words, the more fans a magical girl had, the stronger her power would be.

This may sound like “the power of love and bonds” or “everyone’s wishes supporting me in battle,” but in reality, the magical girl community had turned into something resembling an idol group, snatching fans from each other, who knows since when. This might also be one of the reasons why Azure disliked Snow Qing stealing the spotlight.

By the way, demons also have essence in them, and killing demons can also replenish magic power. So, in a sense, Azure’s accusation of her “kill-stealing” is valid.

But there’s no other way; killing demons is one of the few viable ways for Snow Qing to replenish magic power.

As a lone wolf, Snow Qing’s popularity is very limited. If other magical girls can enter the surface and be adored by people, she is like struggling to survive in an underground live house.

Lacking popularity, Snow Qing urgently needs to rely on the souls of demons to replenish her strength. However, demons are not available every day, and relying solely on this to replenish magic power is not practical.

Therefore, she has learned another unique way to replenish magic power.

She was about to set off. The window was opened, and the evening breeze gently lifted the curtains inside the room. At this moment, the rented house was empty.