After yet another day of carefree (decadent) college life ended, Fang Ran leisurely returned to his rental apartment. On his way upstairs, he was ganked by the old ladies from the two apartments next to his. After suffering through a nagging dish filled with talks about his lack of a girlfriend, job and grades, Fang Ran persevered through with a forced smile and made it to his rental apartment.
After reaching his sanctuary, he immediately flopped down on his bed.
"Ah, ah, no more, I'm dead beat."
"Hmph, you were basically spending the whole day daydreaming and sleeping in class, and you still have the cheek to say that you're dead beat?"
Reluctantly flying out of Fang Ran's pocket, Ling looked over at Fang Ran who was looking like a corpse as he stared up at the starry sky, and could not help but let out a sneer.
"I can't hear you, I can't hear you."
Fang Ran rolled his eyes and turned his body to the side, pretending not to have heard anything.
"Tsk."
Ling scoffed. Then, she landed on the table, and quietly began browsing through the news on the Darknet.
The human and the power bank simply passed the time like this. Fang Ran, with no phone or computer, was bored to death as he laid on the bed to watch TV.
"The perfect idol in the new era, Little Angel Shui Lianxin's first album has been released!"
Boring programmes were airing on the TV as always, it really felt as though anyone with insomnia could be cured just by watching the failing programmes that were on air.
Up until she saw that the sky outside was completely dark.
"It's time,"
Ling suddenly floated up and said to Fang Ran.
Σ(°△°|||)_Fang Ran…
"Uh, what is it time for?"
Fang Ran asked cautiously, and Ling just glanced at him casually.
"What do you think?"
"Uh…"
…
…
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
In the night sky, 100-meter above ground, Fang Ran squealed like a pig being slaughtered.
He clutched onto Ling tightly with both hands, his entire body trembling in fright, not daring to close his eyes or look down!
By right, Fang Ran, who had experienced Ling bringing him along in the air once, should not be in such a poor state.
It was just that…
This time however, Ling wasn't using telekinesis to prop Fang Ran up.
"Let me down! Let me down! Go down! No! No! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop ah ah ah ah!"
Fang Ran was practically crying as he hollered at Ling. Right now, it was as good as him clutching onto a flying power bank without any external force…
To fly in the sky more than a hundred meters above ground!
"Shut up! You coward! If you can't even tolerate this height, what are you going to do in future scenarios?!"
Ling completely ignored Fang Ran's high-pitched screams and flew a little bit higher.
"I was wrong! I was wrong! I shouldn't be so reckless! I was wrong, I was really wrong!"
"Heh, what are you afraid of, don't you have [The Float] card?"
Ling said lightly, going a little higher again.
"F*ck, I'm about to pee my pants from shock! Under such circumstances, even if I can fly, it may not be of any use!"
Fang Ran felt that his fingers were almost running out of strength. In his mind, he furiously apologized to his former physical education teacher again.
'I'm sorry, teacher. I shouldn't have thought that you were stupid for continuously testing the class on chin-ups even though every time there would only be one person who can pass the test. In the future, I will properly train my arm strength.
"Hehe, that's none of my business. Ti auguro Buona fortuna (good luck)!"
Then, Fang Ran felt his hands slip, and his entire body was submerged into the air with no support beneath.
He plummeted straight down.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
His rough heroic roar resounded throughout the night sky.
'I have a question.'
'If your high school physics teacher hasn't been annoyed to death by you, you should be able to answer this question.'
'How long does it take for a person to fall from a height of 100 meters?'
…
'Fine.'
'If you were stumped by this question for a second or only vaguely remember how to, in either case, your high school physics knowledge has probably been returned back to your physics teacher. Hopefully, you have not infuriated him to death.'
A person plummeting down from a hundred meters… Putting the air resistance aside, it would only take a little more than four seconds. Even if air resistance is taken into account, it would not exceed five seconds.
At this moment, after shouting for one whole second out of fright, Fang Ran remembered that he had [The Float] card. However, before he could take out the Silver Split Dragontooth to make contact with [The Float], the ground had already come 'smashing' towards him.
Four seconds and a bit more was completely insufficient for Fang Ran to react.
'Mom, your son is unfilial and may not be able to find a girlfriend anymore.'
Fang Ran felt his brain had stopped functioning, and his mind was just filled with this one thought.
However, when he was just one meter away from the ground, a sticky substance suddenly enveloped him. Fang Ran felt like he had fallen into a ball of plasticine. He quietly laid spread-eagled on the ground.
Ling slowly floated down, and watched as his mouth twitched, legs cramped, and laid paralysed on the ground as if he was having a relapse of his Parkinson's.
Speechless, she sighed to herself.
'Great, the first step in training and he fails in strength.'
'Dead before he can succeed.'
This was a common method in Night Battle for grooming newcomers. From such a simple test, one could gauge a range of that person's quality, such as mental strength, adaptability, endurance, et cetera.
However, when Ling saw how pathetic Fang Ran looked, she thoroughly understood, 'This idiot is hopeless.'
'Forget it, I can only take things one step at a time.'
"Recovered?"
After waiting for a while, Ling said this slowly as she watched Fang Ran trembling as he braced himself on his knees and got to his feet. He looked at Ling with a heartbroken and indignant expression as he said,
"I must owe you a debt in my past life!"
"Enough nonsense! Since you have decided to strengthen your training, these are naturally the basics. Otherwise, for you to reach D-grade, it'll be an eternity away!"
Fang Ran's face was one of misery and bitterness. He regretted acting cool on the spur of the moment and acceding to the demands of this devil with a Loli's voice!
In the data space, Ling rolled her eyes, hauled him up, and began flying again. However, this time, she added her telekinesis to support him.
"In Night Battle, every ability has their own advancement methods. Um, you can understand it as practising asceticism or something,"
Ling began to explain while flying.
"Like the guys in the mysterious division, they basically rely on meditation and whatnot for them to improve their abilities stats. The technology division is a little more complicated. Those with supernatural powers will cultivate their spirit, while technologists will train in technical knowledge."
"This is usually the case for the mystery and technology divisions, the two arch-rival divisions. However, there are all kinds of odd and strange abilities in Night Battle. I once heard of a guy with the ability of a monster like those in your Chinese ghost legends, who relied on devouring souls,"
Ling said lightly, as if she was not bothered. However, Fang Ran shuddered when he heard it.
'What the f*ck, there's even this kind of ability?!'
Glancing at him, Ling sneered. "Even a guy like you with the power of a magical girl exists. Is it that surprising that someone would have the power of a monster?"
'What the f*ck, can you read minds?!'
Hearing Ling suddenly hit the nail on the head about what he was thinking, Fang Ran was dumbfounded.
"So, if you want to upgrade to D-grade, it's absolutely necessary for you to train yourself to increase your ability stats!" Ling added lightly at the end.
"How do you train and grow a magical girl's ability?"
Fang Ran could not help but interrupt.
'In the anime, I remember that those girls were naturally blessed with impressive, extraordinary powers, and when they used their magic powers, each was better than the other. Apart from their mouths being full of love and justice, and their brains not functioning all that well, they were so powerful that they didn't have to train at all, puh-lease.'
'So why is it that when it comes to me, I have no f*cking talent, and still have to suffer every night to train myself?'
Fang Ran thought that Ling would give him an answer. He did not expect that when dealt this question, Ling would scoff and say something super irresponsible like,
"How should I know."
'F*ck! So you don't actually know!'
'Yet, you threw me down from the sky just moments ago. F*ck you!'
Tears streamed down Fang Ran's face in fury, but he dared not voice out.
"However, a person's personal abilities are fixed. As long as your comprehensive abilities in terms of speed, strength, physical stamina, intelligence, can be determined and recognized by the system, you will naturally be able to move to a higher rank. Even if you don't use your Cardcaptor Sakura powers, and instead do a Guandao dance with the vigor and vitality of a tiger, that will also do."
"My dear ma'am, with these tiny arms and legs of mine, even if you drain all my energy, I won't be able to brandish a Guandao,"
Fang Ran said while rolling his vacant eyes.
Also, the fact that I had to use the Cardcaptor Sakura ability made my heart break.
"As such, I have no choice but to prepare a simple and basic training for you."
"This is the route. As long as you are able to use your powers to follow the route and reach the final goal, I'll take it as a pass for you tonight."
Ling said sweetly in her Loli voice, her voice at this moment suddenly became especially gentle, without any sarcasm or scorn.
Fang Ran was instantly on his guard.
"Really?"
Fang Ran was like an alert rabbit in a hole.
In the data space, Ling instantly smiled. Smiling like the big bad wolf dangling a carrot to lure the rabbit at the mouth of the rabbit hole, she said something utterly against her conscience to dupe Fang Ran,
"Of course, when have I ever lied to you or tricked you…"
"…"