Apocalypse, then transforming into a magical girl

"Let's put the elevated road project on hold for now." Bai Shuyuan's voice was filled with seriousness and focus.

"This one is even more interesting."

She leaned closer, her body tilting forward, and her amber eyes silently turned golden.

Oh wow, the color of its eyes has turned like there's a lion inside. It seems Bai Shuyuan's CPU has started overclocking.

This strange find at the crematorium seemed to be more complicated than I had imagined.

She waited patiently for a while, but Bai Shuyuan remained motionless, observing it carefully.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this thing?"

Bai Shuyuan did not answer immediately. After a moment, she said, "I think it goes against the economic principles of living organisms."

"...Say something I can understand."

"To explain, I might need more information."

"Could you tell me in detail how you encountered it?"

Xiao Lü nodded, quickly organizing the day's events in her mind. Then, she reported the events as objectively as possible.

She first presented a very basic premise: the biggest worm was pulled out of the eyeball of the big boss in the crematorium, a forensic doctor named Lao Zhang.

Then, the first point. After entering the trap set by Old Zhang, she and another magical girl were besieged by a large number of parasitic aggregates.

"Hmm. With the help of this parasite, it is possible to completely manipulate aggregates with simple consciousness structures. Continue." Bai Shuyuan gave a conclusion.

Next, the second point. Forensic pathologist Lao Zhang can also influence those humans who are also parasitized, but he is far from being able to completely control them; it's more like mild emotional guidance and incitement.

"Well, it's normal that you can only exert limited control over beings with complex intelligence. Where does it parasitize?"

Behind the eyeball.

"I see." Bai Shuyuan quickly offered an explanation.

"The optic nerve bundle is one of the most efficient information pathways connecting the brain to the outside world. It seems that this parasite uses this location to integrate itself into the host's neural pathways and can manipulate the host's thoughts to a certain extent."

"However, human self-awareness is too complex and robust to be directly overridden as it is to manipulate aggregates; it can only resort to relatively mild guidance."

Little Green completely understood.

For an aggregate whose thinking is extremely simple, consisting only of devouring and killing, this worm can completely overtake its operating system and gain control of its body.

However, for complex systems like humans with powerful minds, it can currently only act like malware, occasionally popping up ads or hijacking browsers to disgust people.

"Now, back to the original question. I understand why it's 'uneconomical'."

"Normal parasites follow absolute egoism."

"In order to survive and reproduce at the lowest possible cost, they will desperately subtract, discarding all unnecessary organs and functions, and simplifying their bodies to an extreme degree."

Xiao Lü nodded: "Yes, in my impression, many parasites have indeed degenerated to the point that only their reproductive and feeding systems remain."

"It partially follows this principle, but only partially," Bai Shuyuan said.

"It has also given up most of its capabilities as an independent entity. I observed its structure, and the nodes that control functions such as regeneration and movement have become extremely degraded."

"However, it devoted all the energy it saved to the 'information transmission' function almost obsessively, strengthening it to an unbelievable degree."

Bai Shuyuan paused, seemingly searching for a more precise word.

"As a parasite, it dedicates almost everything to its host."

"In other words, it transformed itself into a pure, powerful signal amplifier, but handed over control of this amplifier to the host without reservation."

"It made the host the sole 'god' who could manipulate all his offspring."

"This... doesn't seem like parasitism anymore, it's more like... a sacrifice?"

A parasite's sacrifice to its host.

"..."

Bai Shuyuan seemed to notice the bewildered yet impressive expression on Xiao Lü's face, and decided to use a more appropriate metaphor.

"Those monsters parasitized by offspring can be understood as 'zombie' machines completely controlled by hackers."

"Yes, I understand." Little Green nodded. A "zombie" is a computer that has been infected with malware and can be remotely controlled by hackers.

"This mother worm... it is not the hacker itself, but the hacker's operating system, or even a foolproof operating system."

"The forensic doctor you mentioned, Old Zhang, is the one who was lucky enough to find this operating system, which allows him to control countless botnets."

"This is what I mean by sacrifice."

Little Green understood.

However, she couldn't fully understand it.

She simply felt an unprecedented surge of energy to vent.

"...No, I don't understand at all."

She posed a question from the depths of her soul.

"These aggregate monsters, haven't they already occupied almost 100% of the ecological niches on Earth through sheer numbers and violence?"

"In that case, shouldn't their survival strategy be the simplest: 'Eliminate all the weaklings and become the sole species on this planet'?"

"What's the point of evolving like this?"

"After all that evolution, you've turned yourself into a working system?"

"And then...search the whole world for a sugar daddy to do things for me?"

Bai Shuyuan remained calm and showed no intention of answering the question. She ignored Xiao Lü's complaints: "That's not important."

"The important thing is that we might be able to use this 'operating system'."

"Can it be used?"

"Yes, and its potential value could be enormous. Don't you think the ability to remotely control aggregates is quite tempting?"

"!"

Xiao Lü subconsciously took a half step back, staring intently at Bai Shuyuan, feeling incredulous.

Is Bai Shuyuan... really a mad scientist?

"...Wait a minute." Little Green's voice carried a hint of wariness.

"You're not thinking of taking it personally, are you? I strongly, absolutely, 100% oppose this suggestion."

"I think it's better for us to be normal magical girls!" Although Bai Shuyuan isn't very magical, she's not a girl at all and has never been normal.

As soon as she finished speaking, Bai Shuyuan's golden eyes seemed to have been instantly switched off, quickly returning to their amber color.

Overclocking mode, forced exit.

Then, Bai Shuyuan looked at Xiao Lü silently, without saying a word, with an extremely complicated expression.

It was an expression that Xiao Lü had never seen on her face before.

Although Bai Shuyuan's face remained calm, Xiao Lü felt that her brain had received all sorts of complaints such as "What kind of image do you have of me?" and "How could you have such an outrageous idea?"

That look made Xiao Lü feel as if she had suffered psychological harm.

She had never looked at Xia Zhaozhao like this before.