Chapter 309: Without a Mom and With a Mom

Ever since she had made becoming a magical girl her life's goal, debt had followed her like a shadow.

She had mortgaged every part of her body to various companies, then applied for the Hteng Group's low-interest scholarship, barely scraping together enough for tuition.

For over two years now, though she'd come close to ruin many times, she had always managed to find work, teetering right on the line to pay off her debts.

But this time, her cash flow had suddenly collapsed, and Vivi hadn't had the slightest warning.

And the repayment date loomed right before her eyes...

—Money... I need money...

Outside the window, a dazzling magic-powered sports car suddenly streaked past, rapidly overtaking the tram.

【Kepler Group's latest model sports car, official price 70,000 credit points, order now and enjoy a 5% discount.】

"..."

A single car was already more expensive than the student loan she owed.

Though three-quarters of that loan's total was interest.

Damn rich people...

An indescribable jealousy surfaced in Vivi's eyes.

Just you wait. No matter what it takes, I'm going to claw my way up to the same position as you all.

She took a deep breath, barely calming herself, suppressing the raging flames of envy burning in her heart.

No matter how urgent things were, she absolutely had to attend class today, because she had already taken three days off this month. If she took another, she'd have to pay a fine, otherwise her student status would be revoked.

She had spent so much money, mortgaged everything she had, all for this. If she were forced to drop out, she'd rather die.

Today happened to be the second Thursday of the month, and she still had one last chance to earn money.

————————

An hour later, the girl got off the tram along with the crowd.

This was already the Central District, and the sunlight allocated here was noticeably more abundant than in the outskirts. Even though bizarre skyscrapers blocked the vast majority of it, some still managed to reach the ground.

Magic-powered hover cars traced all manner of trajectories across the sky, while the old tram snaked along its tracks into the distance like a long dragon.

The air was mixed with the smell of magic engine exhaust and machine oil.

Before long, she arrived at her destination.

In this Nest located in the Central District, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold and every building desperately sought to reach a hundred stories, a black building only fifty meters tall stood out as quite peculiar.

The girls coming and going to school nearby all wore uniform skirts, and most of them carried an aura completely different from Vivi's.

"Neon Fourth Magical Girl Vocational Middle School."

...

Half an hour later.

In a dim, pitch-dark classroom, about thirty girls with various different beast traits half-reclined on metal seats, both hands clasped in front of their lower abdomens.

On the podium was a glowing holographic projection.

It was the image of a woman in a suit, bald, appearing at first glance to be a real person, but on closer inspection, one would notice her face lacked the micro-expressions of muscle movement, and her gaze seemed hollow.

That was their AI model teacher.

"Good morning, students."

"Everyone is present. Excellent."

"Hm? Student Vivi, you don't seem to be wearing your school uniform."

Most of the other girls in the class looked at her with scorn and disgust.

"Sorry," Vivi answered quietly. "I got my clothes and skirt dirty this morning."

"Do you not have a spare uniform?"

"No, sorry."

"I understand. Please submit a clothing exemption application afterward."

The teacher-like virtual projection droned on about something on the podium, while beside her, a green-haired, pointed-eared girl's eyes suddenly flickered with a golden gleam.

At the same time, a message popped up on Vivi's glasses frame.

【Katsumi: Not even wearing your uniform, what the hell are you doing? Just looking at you makes my eyes feel dirty.】

【Vivi: What's it to me?】

【Katsumi: Heh, you dead-last who doesn't even have a brain-computer interface yet, instead of going to someplace like Eighth Middle School where you belong, you shamelessly cling to our Fourth Middle School without knowing what you're doing.】

【Vivi: What's it to you?】

【Katsumi: Hehe, your magic power is only third-grade, and your adaptability is just so-so. Even if you can directly take the qualification exam thanks to our Fourth Middle School's privileges, so what? If I were you, I'd have dropped out from shame long ago.】

【Vivi: Drop out my ass!】

The other party didn't get angry, but instead gave Vivi a mocking smile.

【Katsumi: I'm already tenth-grade.】

【Katsumi: And I actually have a mom.】

The moment that last sentence came out, Vivi's expression went blank as she clenched her fists, her slender black tail stiffening behind her as she stopped replying.

"..."

As if sensing they were privately messaging, the teacher on the podium raised her voice.

"In today's class, we will continue practicing meditation techniques."

"Those who have been detected as having the potential to awaken an Innate Technique, go to the Green Room and run the meditation technique to stimulate your spell to strengthen or awaken. Those who don't, practice the basic meditation technique distributed by the school to stimulate magic power growth."

"Now then, to relax your minds and meditate more effectively, please log into the Green Room."

All the students skillfully pulled a data cable from beneath their seats, skillfully plugging it into the metal ports on the backs of their necks or their arms, and some even skillfully pulled out a vial of medicine and downed it in one gulp.

Fourth Middle School was already considered a mid-to-upper-tier magical girl academy in Neon City, so the vast majority of students came from families quite well-off compared to ordinary people, able to afford these expenses.

Only Vivi had nothing.

She simply closed her eyes quietly, striving to calm her mind, and faint magic power fluctuations gradually rose around her body.

In this brief meditation time, Vivi sensed the magic factors in the classroom air that were at a higher concentration than elsewhere, and tried to draw them in with her mind, incorporating them into her body to increase her adaptability and magic power reserves.

But the tedious process of circulating without a chip's assistance was like using a dull blade to hack at a hard stone, half the effort for twice the result.

After the whole class, no matter how hard she concentrated on absorbing, the magic power within her body had barely improved at all.

Ding ding ding...

Accompanied by the crisp bell, she opened her eyes and, seeing everyone's slightly contemptuous gazes as they opened theirs, walked out of the classroom with a blank expression, heading to the location of the next class.

She was afraid that if she walked too slowly, everyone would see the flames of jealousy in her eyes that she couldn't hide.

—Because she had no mom.

It was precisely because she had no mom that she had ended up in her current circumstances.

In Neon City, over eighty percent of people underwent magic power interface surgery at birth.

This was the most basic and most widespread modification, and also the foundation for all subsequent magic prosthetic modifications.

This allowed people to connect their physical bodies to the internet via network cables or signal receivers, and to easily acquire knowledge and skills through chips, or even to inject spells into their bodies using the interface as a channel.

The earlier the surgery was performed, the cheaper the cost. Even for the lowest class of poor, gritting their teeth, they could afford it just after their child was born.

However, Vivi had been abandoned at the doorstep of a welfare home in the Lower City right after birth. Surviving to now was purely dumb luck, let alone getting the surgery.

To get the interface surgery now, even going to those unlicensed magic prosthetic doctors who could kill a person on the operating table at any moment, would cost at least a full five thousand credit points!