The original laughter stopped abruptly, and everyone stared wide-eyed at the old mage's shocking operation, including the magic apprentices from Reya Academy who were here for an internship.
As for the crowd, they looked dumbfounded at the now-empty spot, but the arcade machine was still eerily working.
Everyone saw that the old mage Halley had just collapsed into a pixel character.
"I'm not seeing things, am I? How did the mage fly in there himself?"
"What just happened? Who is he, who am I, and what is this arcade machine?"
"Hey, what's your relationship with this old guy... is he your teacher? Being a mage really is a magical career!"
It wasn't just the bystanders who thought this, all the magic apprentices shared the same thought!
Transmutation magic really is mysterious and profound!
By now, old mage Halley had entered into the world of the arcade game, filled with illusory divine power information, like densely packed threads forming the bedrock of this world.
The old mage marveled at the strangeness of this illusory world, looking at himself, having his "art style" completely changed by this virtual environment.
This was one of the high-difficulty magics within the Transmutation Category, "True Integration".
This spell was originally designed to adapt to the natural environments of various worlds, and the old mage never thought that he'd actually succeed in getting in.
After all, violently attacking an iron box seemed rather foolish, but transforming oneself into a game character and flying a plane from within seemed much more reasonable!
"But, come to think of it, does this box really contain a whole world?"
The old mage felt his pixelated body, jumping and hopping around, when suddenly the enemy planes appeared.
Immediately, the little red fighter plane named Raiden met with the enemy. The old mage believed that his repeated defeats outside were due to the inability to operate in situ... there must be something wrong with the controller!
But now it was different, as he and the aircraft had become one in thought and body, failure was impossible...
"Bang!"
The little Raiden plane exploded into a splendid firework.
The old mage ejected from the plane, his face now looking quite displeased. Looking at those stationary enemy planes, although he had anticipated it was "game over time", he did not leave the world.
He could still develop more ways to play!
For example—
Hijacking enemy planes!
In the eyes of everyone outside, though the game was already lost, the pixel character that the grand magician had transformed into was still hopping all around. In full view of the crowd, he said and did as he pleased, suddenly raising his pixel staff studded like steel spikes, giving himself Transmutation spells "Body of Steel" and "Gravity Change", then with a great leaping charge he executed a "Cyclone Slash", directly hijacking an enemy fighter plane on the spot!
Gently awaken the sleeping soul!
[Warning, severe error!]
The arcade machine itself was a divine artifact, and with such an incursion by a Transmutation Mage, it was natural for an alarm system to kick in. Thus, Shang Lin, who was in the Divine Nation creating new games, immediately received this warning.
"What's this, has the God of Death come to exploit loopholes again?"
Shang Lin was bewildered and immediately turned his gaze to the mortal realm, and while checking on the operation of the arcade machine, he was truly shocked at the sight:
"Holy moly, a Stone-Flinging Mage."
"How did he get in there!"
Another master of exploiting bugs, Shang Lin could hardly believe his eyes at the sight of this pixelated character dashing left and right within several two-dimensional planes of the game world, hijacking planes left and right, shocking enough for a whole year!
Transmutation Mages... are rare in the Grey World, Shang Lin knew of such mages from his recollections of the God of Deception.
All things considered, Transmutation Mages are quite different from traditional mages that cast fireball spells. They're closer to those fairy-tale types of magicians found in classic literature, who wave a tiny wand and seem able to conjure any strange gadget with a mere flick of the wrist.
But why does this Grand Transmutation Mage excel at physical magic, with a special move like Chilling Giant Sword Lion Slash?
How does this even qualify as flinging stones?
Holographic mode hasn't even launched yet, and here's this Grand Mage, already running around in the game world, previewing the new version ahead of time?
However, turning into a pixel character could be quite interesting, Shang Lin considered, perhaps he could exchange thoughts on game design with this Grand Transmutation Mage. Clearly, his mind was much more agile than his appearance would suggest.
"If I develop a new game in the future, I'll invite him to beta test it. He's bound to bring me more creativity and endless surprises."
Although he knew Transmutation Mages had some quirky abilities, the notion of them entering his constructed game world as lab rats was quite novel.
But now, he couldn't let him do whatever he wanted on his arcade machine!
Watching the 9-intelligence Mage perform acts of folly while forcefully hijacking the enemy craft to keep the game going, even a deity without facial features like Shang Lin seemed to have slapped a sweat-bead emoji on his face, before deciding to smite him with divine retribution.
That's about enough.
He's turned the Raiden little plane into a fighting game.
Shang Lin could even hear the old mage's cries.
("If I can't beat it from the outside, I'll beat it from the inside. There's nothing Transmutation Magic can't do!") the old mage shouted excitedly.
Shang Lin: "Can't do (wagging finger)."
With a flick of his little finger in the void, the internal data of the corresponding arcade machine changed. A flow of data recombined to construct a pixel world as real as any, completely under Shang Lin's control.
A temporary patch, imported directly from Divine Nation, was added to the arcade machine's data world.
So, while the old mage was enjoying the thrill of blasting enemy planes, he suddenly noticed a series of texts popping up in the pixel sky.
[Cheat detected.]
[Game difficulty has been increased from Normal to Hard.]
This change left the spectating crowd in disbelief.
The enemy planes seemed to have "come to life," refusing to follow the fixed patterns of gameplay from before!
And the anti-cheat counterattack didn't stop there. Just when the old mage thought there was nothing to fear about an increase in difficulty level, a second line of text immediately sprang up in the sky.
[Cheat detected.]
[Game difficulty has been increased from Hard to Extreme.]
As the old mage watched, entities he had never seen before started to form within the enemy ranks, and then behind him came a huge jet sound. He looked back...
What in the world were those massive aircrafts?!
For the audience outside the screen, at this moment, they were truly watching quite a spectacle!
"Isn't that the final boss from stages one through five? They can appear together? The screen can even fit them all!"
The bosses of five stages, along with swarms of enemy planes, tanks, and turrets, began to spawn continually. The old mage's face turned pale as he saw a vast net of firepower unfolding and bearing down on him!
Amidst his screams, the old mage narrowly dodged a few attacks by squeezing through the gaps in the barrage, but then an even denser wave of firepower approached. Following a brilliant explosion, everything in the game world began to fade away.
"Game Over!"
The Grand Transmutation Mage, Professor Halley, was forcibly kicked out of the game world.