Chapter 322: The Universal Federation

What could that be?

Yet for some reason, looking into those orange-yellow eyes so similar to her own, Vivi suddenly felt a sense of reassurance.

At least for now, their goals were the same.

As for dreams and plans for the future, ever since she could remember, she had only ever been able to rely on herself.

But now, it seemed there was someone who could make better choices for her.

What a... strange feeling.

Lin Guang continued, “By the way... take me with you to school later.”

“School...?”

“Ah!! I’m going to be late!”

The next moment, the white-haired girl rushed into the washroom and began washing up.

Splash, splash—

As she brushed her teeth and washed her face, she turned to look at the narrow, rust-covered window.

The view outside was still the same as ever: airships drifting slowly by, skyscrapers blocking most of the sky, and signs glowing with neon lights.

But for some reason, Vivi felt that today the scenery had a different charm. Even the advertisements she usually found glaring seemed much easier on the eyes.

Without thinking, she opened her private account named “Dream” once more.

【Balance: 2,017 credit points.】

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly.

So this was what it felt like to have money and hope?

She casually smacked the radio beside her and turned it on.

“Good morning, Neon City!”

“Yesterday’s Meteor District death lottery, the final result was actually...”

Accompanied by Big Bob’s unmistakable broadcast voice, the white-haired girl changed into the school uniform she had just dried, then slung on the one-shoulder bag containing the metal orb. With the tube of nutrient paste, worth a fortune to her, clamped between her teeth, she walked out the door.

Honestly.

This stuff was surprisingly delicious. It felt like the magic power throughout her body was coming alive.

…………

Rumble—

The monorail began weaving through the steel jungle.

Perhaps because she’d slept well the night before, the white-haired girl was in excellent shape today. She deftly maneuvered through the exhausted crowd and neatly snatched herself a seat. Then, under the strange looks of those around her, she enthusiastically sucked on the premium nutrient paste in her mouth.

Sss.

Smack, smack, smack.

The sounds were loud, as if she couldn’t wait to shove that glittering label into everyone’s eyes and introduce them one by one to the product’s effects and price... Of course, she still had enough sense to understand that it was unwise to flaunt her wealth, so she didn’t actually do that.

She simply wore a smile she couldn’t suppress. The fierce way she’d breathed in Lin Guang’s face that morning was long gone.

After all...

The only drawback of expensive things was that they were expensive. That was never the product’s problem, but the buyer’s.

And when the price dropped to a fifth, that sole drawback clearly disappeared too.

Even though 100 credit points for ten tubes of nutrient paste, which she didn’t know how many days they’d last, was still an astronomical price to her, she glanced at the two thousand points remaining in her account, felt the faint warmth coursing from within her body to every part of it, and recalled what that girl had told her...

Forget it. She’d eat it. She could just think of it as a magic potion that tasted better, filled her stomach, and could even make her body healthier.

If she wanted to become a magical girl, increasing her magic power and aptitude really did have to come first.

The white-haired girl casually opened a webpage on her glasses while riding the train. Then, as if something had occurred to her, she couldn’t help silently addressing the other end of the contract.

“Hey, Teresa. You were online for so long yesterday. Did you remember anything?”

At her thought, that angelic figure suddenly appeared before Vivi, gripping a hand strap and overlapping with the figure of another woman.

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From Vivi’s angle, that pair of enormous, full breasts completely blocked the other woman’s pretty face. She had to straighten up to see her eyes.

“No.”

Lin Guang spoke softly.

Vivi didn’t know what to say. She felt that the other girl seemed to have a thousand thoughts on her mind too, so all she could do was nod. “Oh.”

Her feeling wasn’t wrong.

Lin Guang really had been thinking the whole time.

Although there had been Mengmengxiang as a precedent in the previous trial, this bout of amnesia still caught Lin Guang somewhat off guard.

She was no longer the clueless newbie player she had once been, so naturally, she had some guesses about her current situation.

The amnesia in the beginner trial could probably be explained by Utopia being a world that existed somewhere between reality and unreality. The people inside had been disconnected from their bodies outside, and only sufficiently powerful souls could store memories. But Mengmengxiang’s soul had burned almost completely away when she triggered Full Bloom, so there was no way it could have retained its memories.

With both ends of the connection blocked, it was only natural that Lin Guang hadn’t received any memories when taking over that identity.

But this time was different.

It was a hellish joke, but...

Teresa had actually left behind more than Mengmengxiang.

Although Lin Guang still couldn’t sense the other girl’s soul inside the Soul Gem, the magical girl named Teresa had at least left her a brain.

Everyone knew the brain was where memories were stored. Having a brain but no memories was undoubtedly abnormal.

The only thing Lin Guang could confirm for now was that the brain belonging to 【Magical Girl Teresa】 had also undergone some kind of self-modification. It had discarded every other function to specialize in a single area, constructing a vast number of unusual magic circuits. Otherwise, it couldn’t possibly have kept functioning normally in such a sealed container using nothing but magic power.

But since the function of storing memories had been discarded, the brain naturally no longer had any memories, leaving Lin Guang without the slightest common knowledge about this world.

However...

After spending more than twenty credit points on data over the course of one night, Lin Guang had finally gained a preliminary understanding of this world.

Simply put, it seemed that this world had once had nations, but after the Abyss began to corrupt the physical world, only a single federation remained.

【The Universal Federation】.

The federation was made up of fewer than twenty Universal Megacorps, each identified by a letter, and several hundred large corporations. It had a federal council responsible for making decisions.

In structure, it bore some resemblance to the UN from Lin Guang’s previous life.

Cities, each with populations exceeding ten million, were the most basic units of this civilization. Their residents differed somewhat in their features, but were generally all classified as human.

Apart from a few exceptions, there was basically no civilian intercity transportation between cities. Instead, there were various resource-exchange routes reserved exclusively for corporations. Thus, only those with sufficient wealth and power could travel between cities.

The city she was currently in was called 【Neon City】. The surrounding environment was extremely harsh. Outside the city, not only did many demon beasts roam and prowl, but even the sunlight was poisonous. The city was located at the edge of the territory administered by a Universal Megacorp known as 【H Company】.

H Company’s technology for transmitting information between brains and magic power was extremely advanced, practically at the level of a singularity. Naturally, related magical technologies, such as magical prosthetics, had also developed rapidly.

That was why brain-computer interfaces were extremely common within the territory of this Universal Megacorp.

And the key was...

She had heard other people talk about all this before.

In the materials Phoenix had given her, and in Amber’s scattered remarks, none of this seemed unfamiliar.