He was extremely sleepy, thus he fell asleep very quickly.
A sliver of blood-red light shone through the mountain cracks from the setting sun, dying the forest behind the mountains and the small.
It was like a colossal door in the dark that was slowly closing. The radiating light in the darkness was slowly being sucked inside the door. As the sunset completely disappeared beneath the mountains and as dusk came to rule the world, the back of the mountain seemed as though it was covered with a misty layer of a bizarre color.
From far away, this area seemed like it continued into nothingness. Beneath the blood sun was an indistinct scene around the water, like a mirage!
The youth sleeping inside the thatched cottage was still snoring, little did he know that the ring on his finger was emitting an ear-piercing humming sound. It was as if it was reacting to the reflection of the mirage that revealed the world's true calling.
"booom,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
As it trembled, so did the entire space!
Tian Lan Middle School was located in Tian Lan in the city. Tian Lan was much taller than the rest of Xia City.
The city was already brightly lit up; the streets, shops, buildings, the Grand City of Xia was radiating a magnificent brilliance. Old people who were taking walks after dinner, older ladies who were dancing in the public squares, the children who chased each other in the small valleys, and lovers who were having dates in the park….
The evening didn't leave people with any insecurity or fear. On the contrary, they were actually enjoying getting off classes for the day, getting off work, and relaxing after dinner. However, if one were to look closely toward the location of Shui Nan Middle School—the south side of the mountain—they would have discovered that the campus that should have been shining bright had been shrouded in a muddled layer.
This space was originally peaceful like the water's surface, but at this moment, a Spatial Tunnel appeared—spiralling like it was being devoured—causing it to be increasingly fierce, although silent!
On one side was a peaceful city with glorious lights!
On the other was half a mountain swallowed by the black spiral!
The northern city that had just entered its summer eve became an incomparably astonishing scene!
The entire space-time had changed, and the cause of it was this tunnel that was unexplainable in scientific terms.
The center of the Spatial Tunnel was the thatched cottage behind the mountains.
The colossal whirlpool suddenly diffused followed by it vanishing into nothingness. It was as if nothing had happened at all.
A certain person who was still sleeping soundly had no idea about the colossal changes to the world, that he had fallen into a parallel world.
....
Beijing.
The morning of the second day.
At home, Zhang Ye, who had just woken up, was still wondering about the dream from last night. As he yawned, he switched on the television, so that he could watch the news. Suddenly, he realized that there was an additional silver ring on his left pinky. It was clearly not something that belonged to him. He tried as hard as he could to take it off, but it was to no avail. Not only that, but when he rubbed the surface of the ring, a touchable virtual screen suddenly appeared. It was written in the same font as the messages in his dream. It said, "Game Ring initialized. New player incentive package, 'Randomly changing existing world background' is in preparation for augmentation."
Counting down…
Three seconds…
Two seconds…
One second…
Incentive package augmentation initialization!
Following that, Zhang Ye saw an alarming scene.
The HTC phone that he had thrown on the bed began twisting and strangely changed shape. Even the brand changed and 'TCC' was engraved on it instead. One of the two pirated Xu Zhimo's poem collection placed by the window sill suddenly disappeared, while the other became Chen Tianmo's poem collection.
He could not notice all the changes, as many things within his house were undergoing changes!
The air in the morning was particularly good, and the warm meat-buns by the school gates released an alluring smell. The dazzling golden youtiao gave a mouth-watering scent.
"Seventh Uncle, I'd like some soymilk and youtiao." A youth with a messy appearance sat down on the stool as he said this to the old man who sold youtiao.
"Coming." The old youtiao man swiftly served the soymilk, purposely filling up the cup as a smiled radiated across his face, "Zhang Ye, you are about to take the magic exams, you should put some effort and strive to get into the University of Magicians so you can bring our Clan some face."
Zhang Ye blankly stared at the Seventh Uncle who was selling breakfast by the school gates. He carefully thought to himself and reckoned that he probably misheard, thus he nodded as he ate.
Yesterday, he slept so much that his head felt dizzy; he felt as though he had dreamt about a journey that took several centuries. When he woke up, he felt like a lifetime had passed; he didn't know where east, south, west, and north were, nor whether it was morning or noon.
Zhang Ye wolfed down his food, his hand holding half of the youtiao. As he was about to bite into the youtiao, he suddenly felt something heavy at his side. A half-bald man in his thirtys sat down next to him, his body reeking of cigarettes.
"Zhang Ye, eating breakfast, eh?" The bald man smiled as he greeted Zhang Ye.
"Good morning, Superintendent Hu." Zhang Ye hastily smiled as he greeted him back.
This man was the prominent Superintendent Hu, he wore a suit that didn't suit him every day and his forehead shone brightly.
"I'm not wearing my watch, what time is it?" Superintendent Hu asked, exposing his yellow teeth.
Zhang Ye took out his broken Nokia to look, "Still another fifteen minutes before the bell rings."
"Crap, I'm late. I still haven't finished my Magic Theory PPT—I don't have time to finish my breakfast…" As Superintendent Hu stood up all of a sudden, Zhang Ye suddenly tilted over.
Zhang Ye was very puzzled, he felt like Superintendent Hu was speaking in an alien language.
Just as he thought he heard wrong, the soymilk shop's canopy turned over in a incomparably strange way. It was as though compressed air had bubbled forth from within the soymilk shop...
As the evil wind came by, it messed up Zhang Ye's hair and rustled his clothes.
"Wind Trail, Fast Stride!"
As Superintendent Hu suddenly muttered to himself, his misfitted suit began to move on his body in an indescribable way—it was as if there was a gale inside his clothes.
"Sssssh~~~~"
An azure light flashed. Zhang Ye could see an indistinct thread of a beautiful starlight moving to surround Superintendent Hu's whole body. The starlight flashed as it moved.
"Student Zhang Ye, teacher will leave first. Do your best in studying!" Superintendent Hu turned around and exposed his yellow-toothed smile to Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye seemed a bit taken back. Before he could come back to his senses, he heard a "swoosh" sound!
The slightly plump, bald Superintendent Hu—with the suit that seemed out of place—followed the dust trajectory from the swirling wind and hastily made his way toward the school!
His stride was exceptionally quick. The students wearing their student uniforms seemed immobile, which let Superintendent Hu travel in high speed through them, leaving behind a shocking dust trail...
During this short period of time, Zhang Ye felt like the Superintendent's face was still in front of him. However—at this moment—Superintendent Hu had already disappeared into the depths of the school, and he was no longer able to see his shadow.
The words "Do your best in studying!" still resonated in his ears; however, the person was already gone without a trace. He was chewing on half the youtiao. As the chewing came to a stop, the other youtiao slid from Zhang Ye's hands!
Superintendent Hu, are you the successor of Duan Yu, using his ultimate technique of Ripple Tiny Steps???
....
"This is just an illusion, this is definitely just an illusion." Zhang Ye rubbed his eyes after a long while.
It must be because I didn't sleep well last night. It must've pressured my cranial nerves or something, how else am I imagining this kind of scene?
Let's finish this breakfast quickly and go back to the classroom to get some more sleep. Heavens, what is this? A bald and prominent Superintendent who can use Ripple Tiny Step?
After arriving at the classroom, he lay down onto the desk immediately without saying anything, so he could mitigate the illusion he had seen before.
From the front of his desk came the two small voices of the student representatives, one said, "There's only one month left, what do I do if I don't get into a good high school?""
"You're really smart though, I'm sure you can enter the Tian Lan Magic High School."
"What, you're the smart one. Your grades for theory classes are so high, I could practically pull out any Magical Beast and you would recognize them and their weaknesses."
Zhang Ye creased his eyebrows, this wasn't his first time hearing this whole concept of magic.
What happened? Is it possible that I'm having another illusion?
I don't take drugs nor do I smoke!
Forget it, it must be because I haven't had a proper sleep.
Zhang Ye ignored the crazy talk of the two lads in front of him and quickly entered a deep state of sleep.
Zhang Ye's many years of experience in studying gave him a superior ability to fall asleep on his desk in just a single second.
"Students, open your textbooks. Today, we will continue to learn about Magic Release's preliminary requirements. Do you still remember what I told you before? To complete Primary rank magic, you have to first make the stars in your Magic Stardust link to each other. By doing this, you will be able to form a Star Path and then utilize the power of Magic. I have already explained this theory to you many times before, while at same time, this is also the most important part of the exam," the Math teacher—Su Qingzhi—said as he maintained his intonation.
In the past, Zhang Ye could enter a state of deep sleep as he followed the voice of the teacher. However, as he once again heard 'Magic Release" and "Star", he was immediately woken up.
"Zhang Ye, you better listen in class. There's less than a month's time, yet you're still neglecting yourself!" Su Qingzhi saw Zhang Ye and immediately reprimanded him.
The classmates also turned their heads around and quietly laughed to themselves. Laughing at the trash had already become their favorite thing to do in class.
"Open your textbook." Su Qingzhi said in continuation.
Zhang Ye felt helpless as he opened up his textbook….
"Shit, what is this??" Zhang Ye couldn't help himself from swearing.
The pictures, functions, and formulas that were contained in the math book were all gone. Instead, there was a "Star Path" which he didn't understand at all, the picture of the Star had something that looked like a connecting line with streaking meteors. It looked like…. like… just like a f**king Magic Formation!
Zhang Ye forcefully suppressed the astonishment in his heart, and then came to another realization.
When the math teacher stopped observing him, Zhang Ye kicked his seatmate, Guan Gu, below the table and said, "Are you messing with me? What the heck did you switch out my book for, hurry up and give me back my math book."
"Big brother, what math book are you talking about?" The tanned faced Guan Gu felt wronged— he didn't try to provoke anyone.
"Come take a look at this crap. Hurry up and give me my book back." Zhang Ye opened up his book and pointed at the strange Star Path, Magic symbols, and the odd incantations.
"Big Brother Zhang Ye, this is the Magic book for this class. What's Math? Did you stay up all night again reading Science novels? You're even saying I'm reading so much that it's like I am possessed—you're the same as me." Guan Gu said.
As Zhang Ye heard Guan Gu's retort, his chin almost couldn't help but drop down to the floor.
What is this, and what now?
"Stop bullshitting me." Zhang Ye said in anger. This brat sure is good at acting, the real question is whether I'm gonna believe you like a madman.
"Boss, the novels have actually caused you to go mad. We are in the magic world alright, how could we possibly have something as incredible and mysterious as Math. If there really was, then I wouldn't be spending everyday studying something as boring as Magic Theory, Elemental Systems, or Magical Beasts. I would have studied Mathematics, Literature, and all these interesting things a long time ago." Guan Gu said—with a sincere expression and a heartfelt tone—to Zhang Ye.
As Zhang Ye looked at Guan Gu's expression, he thought to himself, This bastard actually did not even reveal a little bit of a mistake as he said this crazy stuff. It really seemed like it was real.
My seatmate has gone mad, not only has he gone mad, but he's even trying to turn me into a madman!
Learning something as boring as Magic Theory, Elemental Systems and Magical Beasts….
Hehe! It's impressive you can even say that out loud!
"If you don't believe me, then just listen to what the teacher is saying." Guan Gu said indifferently as he saw Zhang Ye's peculiar expression.
As Zhang Ye heard this, he finally carefully listened to what the math teacher, Su Qingzhi, was saying. However, one part was like an alien language—there were terms which Zhang Ye had no idea about— which caused him to feel unwell.
Su Qingzhi didn't mention the familiar 'Functions' nor 'Formulas' at all. On the contrary, he had said the words 'Star Path' and 'Star Diagram' numerous times, he even mentioned things like 'Fire- Ice- Water Elements'.
"Crazy—they've all gone crazy."
Zhang Ye's belief was solemn, he would not believe these words.
The next class was with his favorite Literature teacher: Mrs Qin. Beautiful, sexy, mature, gentle, big and perky boobs, her very round buttocks won't use this kind of nonsense to deceive me.
....
Is it possible that i transfer in a magic plane? And I have actually been dropped right into the magic plane?
.....
The time that Zhang Ye had at hand was very short.
If he were to look at things from the perspective of his former world, nine years worth of mandatory graduation testing was happening in twenty days.
In the remaining twenty days, all Zhang Ye did was confirm some crucial points:
The courses were divided into:
Magic Foundation Theory – based on the setup of the subject, it seems to be Literature
Magic Star Path – should be geometry
Magical Beast Knowledge – should be biology
Magical Tools and Devices Knowledge – should be physics
Materials Knowledge – should be chemistry
Magic History and Magic Geography should be self explanatory.
Naturally, Zhang Ye also understood one very important piece of information.
Basically, there were no students who could release magic yet. This was because what the students had studied during the nine years compulsory education were general theories, concepts, and abilities.
This was actually the same as Junior High School graduates in the former world—no survival skills whatsoever.
To Zhang Ye, this is definitely good news. After all, this world of magic was completely alien to him—he practically had to relearn everything.
The most crucial point to become a Mage as a Magic student was the "Magic Awakening".
......