Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Although they didn’t know what the Red Ponytail did, since Madam Yakumo indicated it wasn’t anything bad, everyone simply accepted it as such. Soon, after a brief rest, they immediately set off to the school mentioned in the rumors.

The Red Ponytail remained in the adjusting room as before, but this time to be safe, everyone let Kohin give the Red Ponytail a command, promising to come back for her once it was all over. Although it was unclear whether the Red Ponytail understood Kohin, she just quietly sat there without saying a word — and so they had to leave it at that.

”No reaction from the Witch.”

Standing on that seemingly dark and narrow staircase, Yachiyo stared at the Soul Gem in her hand, while Taozi picked up a pen and wrote her and Yachiyo’s names on the steps.

”Write our names on the break-up steps, then reconcile, lure the Witch out, and finally take her down!”

Saying this, Taozi clenched her fist tightly.

”If Yachiyo and I were attacked, we wouldn’t be easily defeated.”

”I have no objections.”

Yachiyo nodded slightly at Taozi’s plan, then looked again towards Mizunami Rena and Tamaki Iroha behind her.

”That child didn’t follow us, right?”

”Ah, no.”

Kohin quickly glanced behind her and nodded to confirm no one was following. Truth be told, she was aware of Red Ponytail’s mysterious tendencies, but this time... It seemed she really didn’t follow.

”Alright, let’s move out!”

”.........”

Meanwhile, inside the adjusting room, Red Ponytail still quietly sat on the sofa, motionless. Her vacant eyes showed no change. After a period of time passed—uncertain how long—her previously dull gaze suddenly brightened.

Darn, finally connected!

Feeling the familiar touch, Red Ponytail—no, Fang Zheng—sighed in relief. He had been releasing psychic power to find Red Ponytail, and just now he finally sensed a trace of her, thus reconnecting with his avatar.

But what on earth is going on in this world?

Red Ponytail lifted her head, slowly looked around with a solemn expression. She could feel this world appeared to be enveloped and disrupted by a powerful force, which was why the connection with herself was severed. In fact, even now Fang Zheng’s signal to connect with Red Ponytail was weak and intermittent, like trying to access 4G in a remote mountainous area—without heading to a higher peak, there’s no connection, and once connected, a gust of wind might break it.

Anyway, first, let’s see what happened.

Thinking this, Red Ponytail closed her eyes to start organizing her memories. Fortunately, the memory contents relieved Fang Zheng; even without being connected, Red Ponytail still acted on instinct, though...

”Uh......

After probing the memories from last night, Fang Zheng was embarrassed. He understood why Red Ponytail acted this way; without the connection, Red Ponytail couldn’t draw magic power from him and needed to replenish it. As for why she chose this method—well, Little Hei’s influence on him was too deep......

But the counterpart was a cute girl, so it’s not a loss, right?

Not only is it not a loss, but it’s actually a great win.

If it were a guy, it would be a loss all the way to granny’s house.

However, Kamihama City......

With one eye on Red Ponytail’s memories, Fang Zheng furrowed his brows. Why are there still Witches in Kamihama City? Moreover, the Magical Girls in this city seem entirely different from ones in his memory, retaining their original forms. But according to those Magical Girls, this city supposedly has no QB anymore, so what’s going on?

One thing’s for sure, there’s definitely something unusual in this world causing the current situation...... Hmm?

Just then, Red Ponytail suddenly felt something, quickly raising her head to look out the window. She sensed a mysterious force forming and exploding!

What is that?! That’s not the power of a Witch!

Moreover, Fang Zheng could feel that with the explosion of this force, the connection he painstakingly established started to fluctuate again, becoming unstable.

Things cannot continue like this! Have no choice, but to do this!

Thinking so, Fang Zheng had to decide to retreat, but this time, he didn’t disconnect—instead, he modified the way he controlled Red Ponytail.

After all, controlling Red Ponytail is like playing an online game for Fang Zheng; different game modes require different network speeds. For instance, now controlling Red Ponytail equates to panoramic VR remote full data exchange mode. In stable network conditions, playing like this is fine, but when excessive interference causes network speed issues, it wouldn’t work. Not only is immense data lost in transmission, but large data would also lead to delay—this is why even after reconnecting with Red Ponytail, Fang Zheng didn’t move, only checked her memories; memory stored in the brain is fixed data, however if Fang Zheng were to have Red Ponytail dance Elysium he’d disconnect immediately.

With the current ”network speed,” playing SAO is impossible, even playing Call of Duty is a dream, Demon Castle is out of the question, and even playing Sims isn’t feasible. Now the only ”game mode” Fang Zheng could ”play” is... Command & Conquer’s single hero mode.

Simply put, aside from using a mouse to point Red Ponytail to a destination, there’s nothing else he could do, not even skills can be used except by NPCs independently, Fang Zheng can only control where Red Ponytail goes!

As for speaking... It’s certainly impossible, because that would also consume extra bandwidth!

Fang Zheng has experienced typing halfway and disconnecting before.

Understood!

Once switching modes, sensing the connection stabilizing, Fang Zheng breathed a sigh of relief. Then, raising his hand, he immediately maneuvered Red Ponytail to stand up.

Mantis shrimp, let’s go!

”Oh dear oh dear......”

Watching Red Ponytail stand up again, leaving the adjusting room, Madam Yakumo only smiled wryly, shook her head without speaking.

After all, anything she says has no effect, right?

Controlling Red Ponytail, Fang Zheng quickly headed towards the site of the energy burst. Fortunately, Red Ponytail retained some instinct and self-awareness, at least when Fang Zheng set a destination she knew how to fly and leap. Thus, Red Ponytail dashed back and forth among skyscrapers, swiftly reaching the top of a nearby tower. Lifting her head, she gazed towards the center of the energy burst; soon, she saw a massive object floating in the air, appearing to be composed of a spiraling staircase and chains, and at the top was a giant bell like those used at weddings.

Every time that bell swung, countless creatures resembling Witch’s Familiars fell from it, rushing downwards. On the steps below, several Magical Girls could be seen fighting them.

That’s...... a Witch?

No, not a Witch.

Upon first seeing the giant creature, Red Ponytail instinctively thought it was a Witch. But soon, she realized it wasn’t; though it looked akin to a Witch, it wasn’t one.

As widely known, Witches are negative emotional aggregates formed by Magical Girl transformation, possessing a singular consciousness. Only Witch’s Night is an exception; it’s an aggregate of countless Magical Girls’ resentments.

But this creature is somewhat different; it doesn’t resemble a typical Witch, appearing more like a—counterfeit version of Witch’s Night.

Indeed, a counterfeit version.

Witch’s Night is a powerful aggregate formed from Magical Girls’ darkened resentments, boasting extraordinary strength. Thus, once this power is collectively assembled, Witch’s Night becomes overwhelmingly powerful to the point of being unstoppable.

However, while this creature’s essence is seemingly similar to Witch’s Night, the emotions forming it are not as pure, its quality is low, and strength feeble. Thus, it’s stronger than ordinary Witches, yet weaker than Witch’s Night.

If Witch’s Night has power ranked at 100 (quality) X 100 (quantity) = 10000 (combat power), this creature’s strength would at most be 10 (quality) X 10 (quantity) = 100 (combat power).

Of course, it’s difficult to improve quality, but quantity can accumulate. Allowing this creature to persist might eventually lead it to 10X100=1000, and even raising this quantity to 1000, granting it the same strength as Witch’s Night wouldn’t be impossible.

In other words, insufficient quality can be compensated with quantity, and alarmingly, it seems possible for the creature to achieve this compensation. What kind of weird thing is this anyway? It couldn’t possibly be Witch’s Night’s offspring.

From a certain angle, this entity might be more troublesome than Witch’s Night.

Was this thing man-made? Or naturally created?

Red Ponytail had no answers, but she was certain this entity was a pivotal reason for the current state of this world.

It appears necessary to figure out what’s happening here, otherwise the entire Magical Girl World might face problems.

At the same time, under Red Ponytail’s watchful gaze, the Magical Girls moved forward again, swiftly overthrowing the creature. Accompanied by the sound of shattering, the peculiarly gigantic Witch disappeared instantly, without leaving any trace.

Witnessing this, Red Ponytail narrowed her eyes abruptly.

Because just then, she discovered something.

This Witch...... didn’t drop a Seed of Sorrow!?