Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Book 2: Chapter 1: A new director has arrived at the Strategy Bureau

Vol 2 Chapter 1: A new director has arrived at the Strategy Bureau

Tian Sheng felt like he had just woken from a dream.

In the dream, he had become a nimble moth, flying freely through the air, resting calmly on walls.
The worries he once had as a human no longer mattered. The ties he once clung to had ceased to bind him. His form had changed—but so had his will, slowly dissolving.

He began to forget he was Tian Sheng. He began to believe he was the moth.
Was it Tian Sheng dreaming of the moth, or the moth dreaming of Tian Sheng?

Amid this dazed train of thought, a deep azure light pulled him back to reality.

Click. Click.
The crisp snip of scissors seemed to echo through his heart.
With each sound, his awareness cleared. His body felt light, as if something had been stripped away from him—something that had been weighing him down.

Then, Tian Sheng woke up.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself amid a pile of rubble. A faintly glowing blue thread extended from his chest, rising high into the sky, vanishing into the distance.

He looked up, following the thread—
And there, in the night sky, he saw a petite figure standing tall under the stars. Countless threads stretched from her back like wings, connecting her to dozens—no, hundreds—of others like him.

He didn’t know why, but a single thought welled up in his chest: We’re saved.

That angelic figure burned itself into his memory—just before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

---

“Xiao Tian, hey—Xiao Tian! I’m talking to you. What’s with you today?”

The voice in his ear pulled Tian Sheng back to the present.

He looked up to see a young man in a Countermeasure Bureau uniform eyeing him with suspicion.
“I asked you what you want for lunch. Why are you zoning out like a ghost? Overused your mana?”

“Ah… sorry.”

Still lost in the haze of that strange dream, Tian Sheng blinked and rubbed his face awkwardly as he stood from his desk. “I spaced out again.”

It was early November—late autumn—two weeks after the massive Ravager attack during the Moon Festival.

As the city’s frontline force for dealing with magical incidents, the Countermeasure Bureau had taken a devastating blow. Not only had their main building been destroyed, but nearly ten staff members were lost, and even the Bureau Chief—Mors—had gone missing during the incident.

What was even more bizarre was that no one in the Bureau seemed to know what had really happened. All the surviving employees felt like they had woken from a dream—one where they had blacked out, only to awaken amidst rubble, the Ravagers already gone, dawn breaking over the ruins.

Tian Sheng was one of those who blacked out.

Even more absurdly, he had passed the recruitment test for the Bureau by a hair—and lost consciousness the day he arrived at HQ to report for duty.
By his own estimate, he had been in a deep coma for over three days.

The official conclusion labeled the event as:
"A coordinated attack orchestrated by Black Cinders Dawn, involving hypnotic and hallucinogenic Ravagers, potentially including a Metamorph-class entity."

The mastermind was said to have been eliminated by Magical Girls, but many Black Cinders Dawn members remained at large and continued to hide and flee.

With both a cleanup and recovery operation in full swing, the newly-revived Countermeasure Bureau had no choice but to get right back to work.

Thanks to the efforts of Magicians and other support teams, the Bureau’s HQ was rebuilt within a week. But replacing lost personnel took much longer—not to mention handling compensation and resettlement for the fallen.

So even rookies like Tian Sheng were sent straight to the front lines, and had already participated in several intense magical skirmishes.

Originally, based on his magic level and spellcasting skill, Tian Sheng wouldn’t have stood a chance in real combat.
But now—he wasn’t just holding his own on the front lines—he had become a standout.

Yes. Tian Sheng’s magic had grown stronger.

Without him even realizing it, his magical capacity had surged past the thresholds of Sensing and Contact, straight to the highest class among Magicians—Control. And it was still climbing.

That was the most inexplicable thing about all of this.

He had a hunch it had something to do with his moth dream.
Maybe it wasn’t just a dream.

Plenty of Bureau staff had blacked out during the incident. But when Tian Sheng asked around, none of them had experienced anything like his dream.

"Becoming a moth"—that part seemed unique to him.

That was why he kept revisiting the dream in his mind, trying to grasp something before the memory faded completely.

He followed the young man out of the office and down the Bureau corridor, still feeling like none of this was quite real.

A month ago, he had been a regular worker at a welfare home—tinkering with half-baked spell theories in his spare time, dreaming about passing the Bureau exam. He had burned through his savings on magical research, lived frugally, and at nearly thirty, didn’t even have a girlfriend.

By society’s standards, he wasn’t exactly a failure—but he certainly wasn’t a success either.

And now?
He’d landed a job at the Countermeasure Bureau, and had somehow acquired a miraculous power-up during a mysterious incident, becoming one of the Bureau’s rising stars.

Was he still the same person?
Maybe it wasn’t him dreaming of the moth.
Maybe the moth was dreaming of him—and everything since had been part of its dream.

“Hey! Zoning out again?”

The young man walking ahead turned around and smacked Tian Sheng’s shoulder. “We’re at the cafeteria! Get your head back on—what are you daydreaming about, girls?”

“Ah, sorry! Sorry!”
Tian Sheng snapped out of it and hurried over to the food line.

The man with him was Li Yingwei, team captain of the Special Operations Third Squad—and Tian Sheng’s direct superior.

Despite being a year younger—just twenty-seven—Li Yingwei had already reached the Control tier, and had made a name for himself fighting against grey-magic groups. He had the looks, the background, and the charm, and was something of a favorite among the Bureau’s younger female employees.

He came from a long line of Magicians—his whole family was deep in spell research, with significant influence in Fangting City.

Still, according to the squad’s gossip, Li Yingwei was single.

He had reportedly been pursuing a female liaison officer from the Archives Department—last name Hong—said to be a beauty, transferred from Tiandu City, with a mysterious background.

Unfortunately, she’d been badly injured during the recent attack and was now on extended leave for rehab in another city.

That seemed to have hit Li Yingwei hard. Since the Bureau’s rebuilding, he had been running nonstop, tracking down Black Cinders Dawn remnants. He’d also taken a liking to Tian Sheng—who’d joined Third Squad and quickly proven himself in battle—so now the two were grabbing lunch together.

*"Sigh. After busting my ss all week, we still haven’t caught any big fish."

Li Yingwei poked at the food in his tray with his chopsticks. “I heard Black Cinders Dawn has ways to harness Ravager power, but I’ve yet to see it for myself.”

“If we had, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here chatting…”
Tian Sheng shook his head. “Captain, maybe you should try being a bit more realistic.”

“What's so unrealistic about it?” Li Yingwei sounded a bit offended.
“Our squad’s got three Controllers now, including you. We’re well-equipped. Even if we do run into a Ravager, we can take a shot. Who knows—we might even win.”

“That’d only work on the weakest Ravagers.” Tian Sheng stuffed a bite of rice into his mouth.

“How strong could someone really get just by borrowing Ravager powers?” Li Yingwei countered, raising his chopsticks.

How strong could they get?
Tian Sheng didn’t know the answer—but he had a gut feeling that Li Yingwei wasn’t entirely right.

He had no evidence to prove otherwise, but every time he thought about that moth dream, some indescribable intuition surfaced.

Could a human… really transform into a Ravager?

And if that angelic figure hadn’t awakened him from the dream…
Would he still be here now?

The thought slowed his hand again as he reached for food.

“Zoning out again? Seriously, what’s up with you today?”

Seeing Tian Sheng drift off again, Li Yingwei couldn’t help rapping his chopsticks on the tray. “Come on, snap out of it!”

“…Sorry.” Tian Sheng gave an embarrassed smile but didn’t dare admit he’d been thinking about Magical Girls. “Just… some stuff going on at home.”

“Home?” Li Yingwei looked puzzled. “I thought you said you didn’t have a girlfriend?”

“Not that kind of home issue…” Tian Sheng hedged.

“Well, hey—your business is your business. If you don’t wanna talk about it, I’m not gonna pry.”
Li Yingwei suddenly grinned. “But if you’re really that sorry, you can help me out with something.”

“What is it?” Tian Sheng looked wary.

“Just a little errand. Drop off our Third Squad’s mission reports at the Bureau Director’s office.”
Li Yingwei picked up a piece of meat from his tray. “Easy, right?”

“The Director’s office? But… didn’t our Director already—” Tian Sheng paused, then realized, “We’ve got a new Director?”

“Yep. Should be an official announcement in the chat group this afternoon. They’re holding a meeting later to introduce themselves.”

Li Yingwei shoved the meat into his mouth. “So, go drop off the report and get yourself on the new boss’s radar—great opportunity, right?”

“…Why aren’t you going?” Something felt off to Tian Sheng.

“Well, I was supposed to, but I’m really not feeling it.”
Li Yingwei grinned. “Caught a glimpse of the new Director earlier. Stern-looking, super intense. Total hardass vibe. Bet they’ll chew me out the second we meet.”

“And you’re sending me instead?” Tian Sheng’s eyes widened.

“C’mon, young people gotta get more experience.”

“You’re only a year younger than me…”

“Then as the new guy, you should get more experience.”

Li Yingwei waved him off and changed the subject. “But hey, no joke—our new Director’s kind of a big deal.”

“How big?” Tian Sheng smirked. “Let me guess—transferred in from Tiandu City, too?”

“Oi! You little punk, that was a low blow.”

Of course Li Yingwei caught the jab. Tian Sheng was clearly poking at his failed crush on the liaison officer from Tiandu. “Why’s it gotta be Tiandu? Ever heard of Yannan City? Not everyone’s from the central capitals.”

“So where’s the new Director from?” Tian Sheng followed up.

“Local. Born and raised here. But directly appointed by the Central Bureau in Tiandu.”

“Still sounds like a big shot.”

“Different though,” Li Yingwei said, cradling his tray. “The Central Bureau says this Director used to be an undercover field liaison. Scored a major achievement during the recent attack—so they promoted him straight up.”

“From field liaison… to Bureau Director? That’s like skipping four levels.”

“Yeah, but that’s not uncommon around here. The Countermeasure Bureau runs on merit, not seniority.”

Li Yingwei put on a fake mentor tone. “So you—Xiao Tian—with your talents, if you keep nailing cases and busting grey-magic rings, you might be my boss in a few years.”

“…So all that just to make me deliver the files?”

“You going or not?”

“I get the feeling you really don’t care about this at all…”
Tian Sheng narrowed his eyes. “You just don’t want to meet the new Director, do you?”

“Told you, I’m afraid of getting yelled at.”

“That’s seriously your reason?”

“The real reason?” Li Yingwei chuckled. “Not a cute girl, just some crusty old dude. Nothing to see. Besides, who knows how long this new Director’s gonna last? I’m telling you—the Bureau promotes on merit.”

“You’ve got it out for anyone who isn’t a pretty woman, don’t you?” Tian Sheng picked up his soup bowl. “So bottom line—you just don’t like the guy.”

“I can’t live in the shadow of a failed romance forever,” Li Yingwei sighed dramatically. “As for whether I like this new Director… well, let’s meet him first and then decide.”

“…Fine. I’ll go.”

Seeing that he wasn’t getting out of this, Tian Sheng sighed. “Don’t blame me if I say something stupid.”

“Relax—you’re new. Even if you say something wrong, no one’s gonna hold it against you.”

Li Yingwei looked downright cheerful, pleased to have dodged the task. “Alright, I’m counting on you!”

So the matter was settled.

After lunch, Tian Sheng was promptly booted out of the office with the report folder in hand. He stepped into the elevator, sighed, and hit the button for the 11th floor.

Watching the floor numbers tick up, Tian Sheng thought back on everything he’d experienced lately and couldn’t help but mutter:

“This is way too surreal.”

Ever since the Black Cinders Dawn attack back at the welfare home, his life had veered off in a direction he never imagined—barreling down a path that felt totally unfamiliar.

What made it worse was that none of it seemed to involve his choices.
Every time something happened, he’d wake up with patchy memories, completely in the dark about what had actually gone down.
Like a castaway who’d survived a shipwreck, washing up on the shore of an unknown continent with treasure in hand—unsure whether to celebrate or mourn.

Still deep in thought, he stepped out of the elevator and rounded a corner—only to stop in his tracks.

There, against the wall, stood a pair of heavy wooden double doors.

He stepped up and reached out to knock—
But suddenly, his gaze sharpened.

He had spotted a thread. A fine, nearly invisible thread of magic.
As he got closer to the office, it trembled ever so slightly… and then disappeared.

It felt strangely familiar—just like the thread that had once been connected to his chest when he woke from that dream…

“Come in.”

A voice came from within.
Even though Tian Sheng hadn’t knocked or said a word, the person inside somehow knew he was there.

He could only mutter, “Excuse me,” and push the door open.

What met his eyes was a full-length window, bookshelves standing tall on either wall, and in the center, a massive desk.

Behind the desk sat a stern-looking middle-aged man, brows furrowed as he flipped through a thick stack of documents.