Pink Star found herself blocked for a full seven days.
Surprisingly, the Magical Girl Gallery possessed a feature allowing them to block malicious users, a function they deftly employed to vanquish the monstrous user, who was evidently over a century old.
From my vantage point, it was an utterly deplorable spectacle, primarily because Pink Star had unleashed a torrent of outrageous behavior before her eventual ban.
[Pink Star: What the actual f*ck, you goddamn bitches, why am I blocked?]
[Pink Star: I wasn’t the only one who got into a fight, so why am I the one getting banned? LOL]
Despite her indignant post, the administrator’s response was chillingly detached, almost unbearable to witness.
[Management Account: LingTeaJoa, you’ve consistently uploaded dozens of malicious comments and nothing but strange posts.]
[Management Account: Do you genuinely believe I have any reason to show you leniency?]
–Pink Star: But that bastard caused trouble too, not just me!
–Management Account: You were the one who caused the most.
Observing the Magical Girl Gallery, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the administrator bore the heaviest burden, forced as they were to engage in dialogue with someone as mentally unstable as Pink Star.
[Pink Star: If you’re going to be so strict, why don’t you block that b*tch who constantly posts as a guest user saying she wants to ‘eat’ the mascot (TL Note: A crude expression implying a desire to sexually assault or dominate the mascot.)?]
[Pink Star: LOL. She’s not even a Team 1 Magical Girl, is she? There’s absolutely no consistency in your rules.]
–Management Account: We block them every time, but they simply change their IP address and return.
–WetWipesVillain: Ah, for f*ck’s sake, stop giving them attention and just block them already! Anyone can tell they’re a troll just by looking at their posts, LOL.
I wondered, could these people truly withstand the fury of a Team 1 Magical Girl?
‘Perhaps they’re only surviving because their adversary is Pink Star.’
Had it been a Magical Girl with a fiery temperament, like Blade or Scarlet, these users would have been summoned for a disciplinary assembly countless times. It was only because Pink Star harbored hikikomori tendencies that she refrained from initiating such gatherings.
Regardless, these users were undeniably fortunate. After all, it was Pink Star they were dealing with!
‘But what if I were to deliberately provoke Pink Star’s temper right now?’
A sudden surge of curiosity pulsed through me. I rarely indulged in such antics, yet for reasons unknown, an urge to instigate her began to blossom within my mind.
This was wrong. I was a mascot, a being with the solemn duty to assist the Team 1 Magical Girl!
Yet, despite my better judgment, my hand instinctively moved to the keyboard. What was I doing?
[Sniper Account: Hey, this is a multi-ac—]
Having captured the account Pink Star had been using, I was on the verge of uploading a screenshot, subtly enhanced with a touch of malice, when a sudden, chilling sense of murderous intent washed over me.
A premonition settled in my gut: uploading this would undoubtedly invite tragedy.
Despite having installed various programs to prevent IP tracking, a sense of dread lingered.
No, I decided to stop. I deleted every word I had intended to write. Abruptly, a long-forgotten legend about Pink Star resurfaced in my memory.
‘Considering that woman’s temper, this simply won’t do.’
It was a tale from a bygone era.
It dated back to the time when Pink Star was still active, before she had chosen to disappear from the public eye.
The Association, in those days, had once attempted to exploit Magical Girls as if they were nothing more than cheap courtesans.
What could they possibly have been thinking? To use strategic weapons capable of crumpling rebar like paper merely to sate their own base desires.
It was Pink Star herself who intervened, and her chosen method was, without a doubt, both audacious and remarkably progressive.
She marched directly into the Association headquarters and proceeded to break the spines of the executives audacious enough to attempt such depraved acts, leaving them permanently crippled!
‘It would have been far better if she had simply toppled the entire organization back then.’
In the aftermath, dozens of executives were forced to resign en masse, and several departments were reportedly dissolved, vanishing into thin air.
Yet, the Association proved foolish. They brazenly attempted to place Pink Star, a living legend, on a terrorist watch list, an act that only invited an even greater catastrophe.
The Association president was assassinated, taking three of his lackeys down with him.
‘I must be exceedingly careful not to provoke this woman’s temper.’
After all, even an IP bypass program couldn’t guarantee absolute protection.
‘…But what if Pink Star had utterly purged the Association back then?’
Incompetent old men still clung to high-ranking positions within the Association, perpetuated by the public’s misguided belief in their capabilities.
It was a laughable irony; the Association’s facade of competence stemmed solely from their ruthless exploitation of Magical Girls, treating them as disposable commodities.
For someone who had lost family due to such practices, no organization was more galling than the Association.
‘Wouldn’t it be better if a few Magical Girls banded together and completely dismantled the Association? They could then select more capable and benevolent individuals to lead.’
That would be a far superior outcome, I mused. The individuals currently at the helm were utterly devoid of humanity.
[ThreeSixFourOne: Hey, what exactly is ‘Eyes’?]
[ThreeSixFourOne: They say it’s an Association-related department, right?]
Pondering if I was alone in these thoughts, I delved deeper into the gallery, where an unfamiliar department name caught my eye.
Eyes? It wasn’t a department I recognized. I prided myself on memorizing most names, so where on earth was this place?
I promptly scrolled down to the comment section.
–AnonymousSomeone (13.34): You were promoted to Team 4 this time, weren’t you?
–ThreeSixFourOne: OMG, how did you know that?
–AnonymousSomeone (13.34): Because information about Eyes becomes accessible from Team 4 onwards.
–ThreeSixFourOne: Ah, really? Should I delete this post?
–AnonymousSomeone (13.34): They won’t know who you are anyway, LOL.
Eyes, I mused. For some inexplicable reason, this clandestine department appeared to be the key.
The moment I entered the keyword into the Magical Girl Gallery’s search bar, a plethora of information immediately surfaced.
–AnonymousSomeone (15.11): These Eyes people are so full of themselves.
–RealLifeIsDead (TL Note: A username that translates to ‘Real Life is Dead.’): Ah, damn these Eyes bitches, they’re so annoying.
–BrokenChopsticks (TL Note: A username that translates to ‘Broken Chopsticks.’): Read only if you’re curious about what Eyes is.
These three posts dated back approximately two decades. Until that point, discussions surrounding Eyes had been abundant.
But why had all talk of them ceased in recent times? Fortunately, this query was swiftly resolved.
[Management Account: From now on, any discussion about Eyes will result in post deletion and a ban.]
[Management Account: It seems there’s absolutely no benefit to be gained from talking about them.]
This post, written approximately fifteen years ago, explained the silence. Discussions only ever surfaced sporadically, typically in the dead of night.
For the moment, I clicked on the post by ‘BrokenChopsticks’ that remained undeleted.
[BrokenChopsticks: Read only if you’re curious about what Eyes is.]
[BrokenChopsticks: They are the Association’s armed response team.]
[BrokenChopsticks: To my knowledge, one senior member who was once part of Team 1 is also affiliated with them.]
[BrokenChopsticks: Perhaps they constitute the true power bloc within the Association? Or maybe not, who knows.]
Now, I finally understood. The very reason the Association had managed to persist all this time…
‘I need to subtly alter my plans.’
Realizing the existence of such an enigmatic armed faction, it seemed prudent to lie low for the foreseeable future.
I exhaled a deep sigh before powering down the computer, my mind a tangled mess of thoughts.
‘This is all Pink Star’s fault.’
Because of her, I had stumbled upon information I never wished to uncover. Ah… what was I to do now?
I flung myself onto the lounge bed, rolling restlessly as I contemplated the future. It appeared utterly bleak. What was I to do?
“Hyunseong! Are you in the lounge?”
“Ah, yes!”
“Ah! So you are here! But it seems you’ve been spending an awfully long time in the lounge lately…”
Of course, that was because the lounge contained a computer.
“Might you be watching some peculiar videos?”
“Pardon?”
“Well, Hyunseong, you are a man in your prime, after all… but watching *that* sort of thing in the lounge is a bit inappropriate, wouldn’t you say?”
“Ah, it’s nothing like that…”
In that very instant, the status window once again relayed information I had no desire to learn.
[Scarlet’s Magical Girl Gallery Post]
–AnonymousSomeone (12.34): I’m a Magical Girl working in the Team 1 department, and this mascot bastard seems pretty suspicious…
–AnonymousSomeone (12.34): Hey, what’s the deal with a man staying in one room for so long?
–AnonymousSomeone (12.34): Hmmm, it looks like this mascot bastard is probably watching porn and masturbating, isn’t he???
–AnonymousSomeone (12.34): If I catch him in the act, I’ll pounce on him immediately, LOL. Let’s just see what happens.
–AnonymousSomeone (12.34): I should probably slip an aphrodisiac into his coffee.
What a truly horrifying post.
“Hyunseong! This is coffee; I’ll just leave it here for you. Oh, and remember, watching too much of *that* can make your bones decay…”
“I don’t watch such things. Absolutely not…”
And I would never, ever drink that coffee.
Never!
****
Ever since the Titans first emerged, humanity had been stripped of three entire continents.
China, Africa, and South America.
These three regions had permanently become the Titans’ sanctuary, where countless beings mated, devoured one another, and relentlessly swelled their numbers.
[Janice O. Lantern.]
Within the African continent, specifically in the place once known as Egypt, two monstrous figures resided.
One was a spider-woman, her pure white upper body starkly exposed.
The other was a woman whose head had been replaced by a pumpkin.
[I have a mission to entrust to you.]
The red-eyed spider-woman whispered, her voice barely audible.
[…Yes! Please tell me! I will gladly carry it out!]
[I shall grant you command over a thousand Titans. You may lose every single one, but inflict as much damage upon humanity as possible.]
To unleash a thousand Titans just for a terror attack? It seemed a futile endeavor, yet Janice O. Lantern, a ‘candidate’ for the Witch’s Coven, could only nod in assent.
[But… what is the reason?]
[There is someone who has recently captured my attention. I wish to know them more intimately. Do you require further explanation?]
Janice O. Lantern immediately sensed the underlying fury in the spider-woman’s words.
[No! That is sufficient!]
[Then go at once. Time is of the essence.]
[Yes, yes!]
As always, a candidate had no choice but to obey the orders of a superior.
