The joy, the laughter that filled the room moments ago came to an abrupt halt. Everyone was left shocked, their eyes wide in disbelief as they watched the old mage's shocking stunt. Even his own apprentices from Leia Academy who had come for their internships stood frozen in bamboozlement.
Onlookers stared at the now-vacant spot in front of the arcade machine, which continued to play frienghtnegly well despite noone sitting there to control it. Like a possessed ghost or an invisible man.
They had just witnessed Harley, the old beardy mage, shrink down into a tiny pixelated figure.
"Did I see that right? Did that mage actually fly into the machine?"
"What just happened? Who is he? Who am I? What is this arcade machine?"
"Hey, is that old man with you guys? Is he your teacher? Being a mage is just... unbelievable."
This wasn't just what the passersby were thinking—it was exactly what the apprentices were thinking too.
The Transmutation School of Magic was truly mysterious and profound.
At that moment, Harley had fully entered the game world inside the arcade machine. It was filled with the divine energy of illusion, woven together like countless threads forming the foundation of this virtual realm. He could see 1s and 0s raining in a streamline from the colorful sky above and disappearing into the meadows below.
Harley marveled at the surreal wonder of this virtual world. He looked down at himself—his art style had completely changed into that of the game, into a colorful block of pixel outlining his mouth, nose, lips and other features.
The stunt he performed, was one of the most advanced spells from the Transmutation School—Reality Integration.
This spell is generally used to adapt to the natural environments of various worlds, and Harley hadn't expected it to work so well here.
After all, smashing an arcade cabinet out of frustration seemed a bit ridiculous. But transforming into a game character and piloting the in-game plane himself? Now that was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?
"But wait a minute... is this box really holding an entire world?" Harley questioned, as he observed his pixelated body, bouncing around, checking in his pants and his scraggly beard.
Just then, a wave of enemy plane started to gradually appear from the horizon.
Without any warning, the red plane, thunderbolt zoomed forward to engage. Harley figured that his previous failures were due to his inability to fully immerse himself in the game. There was definitely something wrong with the joystick or the machine itself, but he couldn't lose that pathetically for sure.
But now, everything was different. He was one with the aircraft, connected to boot—man and machine as one. There was no way he could fail now.
As he appeared directly at the face of enemy aircraft, failing to stop earlier, he saw a barrage of beams coming from all sides, as if they had already predicted where he was going to appear.
"Boom!"
The Thunderbolt exploded into a dazzling display of fireworks.
Harley was ejected from the wreckage, his face growing dark with frustration. As he watched the enemy planes cease their movement, though he knew the game over screen had appeared, Harley had no intention of leaving this virtual world just yet.
He could develop new strategies.
Like...
...destroying enemy planes physically.
Outside the arcade machine, the crowd was stiff in awe. Even though the game had clearly ended, the pixelated mage inside was still hopping around the screen. Under everyone's puzzled face, Harley raised his pixelated steel-tipped staff and cast Iron Body and Gravity Alteration, launching himself with a whirlwind leap to destroy an enemy aircraft.
But that's where he made the mistake—mistake of waking up THE ADMINISTRATOR.
[Warning: Critical Error.]
Since the arcade machine was a divine artifact, intrusion from the Transmutation Mage triggered its built-in alarm system. Meanwhile, in his divine domain, Ashur—the God of Fiction—immediately received the warning.
"What the... Is the God of Death here to mess with me again?"
A bewildered Ashur turned his attention to the mortal realm. What he saw left him thoroughly stunned:
"Holy cow... A stoned mage?"
"How did he even get in there?"
Another bug exploiting cheater? Ashur watched as the pixelated figure rampaged through the game's two-dimensional planes, destroying aircrafts left and right. It was a sight he wouldn't forget in the near future.
Transmutation Mages were rare in the Gray World, but Ashur knew of their abilities thanks to his inherited memories from the God of Confusion.
Unlike traditional mages who played with fireballs, Transmutation Mages were more like the whimsical wizards from old tales, waving their wands to conjure strange and fictious things out of thin air.
But this particular Transmutation Mage—how was he using physical magic and pulling off combo moves like that?
Where was the transmutation aspect in all of this? He was being all physical.
He hasn't even released the full-dive mode yet, and this mage had taken it upon himself to experience the next-gen version by jumping into the game world.
Still, the sight of him turning into a pixelated figure was amusing. Ashur considered reaching out to this Transmutation Mage. Perhaps they could exchange some game design ideas. It was clear the old mage's mind was far sharper than his appearance suggested.
"If I ever develop a new game, I'll invite him to beta-test. He seems pretty fun to experiment."
However, there was no way Ashur would let him have free rein over his arcade machine right now.
As he watched this maxed intelligence Mage performing a string of absurd actions—destroying enemy aircrafts physically and continuing the game beyond the normal rules—even Ashur, a god without facial features, felt as if a sweatdrop had formed on his invisible brow. He decided it was time for divine intervention.
Enough was enough.
This Tetris had now been turned into a Tekken.
And Harley's shouts could be heard loud and clear, "If I can't beat the game from outside, I'll clear it from inside. There's nothing Transmutation magic can't do baby!"
Ashur waves his finger with a sly smile,"Oh yes there is."
With a flick of Ashur's pinky in the void, the arcade's internal data changed. Information flows rearranged themselves, forming a new structure—a temporary patch sent from the divine realm directly into the game.
Harley was still basking in the thrill of blowing up enemy planes when a string of text appeared in the pixelated sky.
[Bug detected.]
[Difficulty level increased from Normal to Hard.]
The shift stunned the onlookers, who found it almost impossible.
Even the enemy planes seemed to come to life, no longer sticking to their predictable attack patterns like before.
But the anti-cheating measures didn't stop there. Just as Harley was brushing off the difficulty spike, thinking it was no big deal, another line of text flashed across the sky:
[Cheater detected.]
[Difficulty level increased from Hard to Extreme.]
Harley's eyes widened as unfamiliar flying objects began spawning from the enemy's side. And then, from behind, he heard a deafening roar of jets. Turning around, he gasped.
'Fuck... What are those missiles?'
For the spectators, it was like watching a live action war.
"Guys, aren't those the bosses from stages one through five? How are they all showing up at once? How is the screen even holding them?"
The final bosses of five levels appeared all at once, accompanied by an overwhelming flood of enemy planes, tanks, and turrets. Harley's face paled as a solid wall of firepower closed in.
With a scream, he dodged a few attacks through sheer luck, only for an even denser barrage to follow. In a colourful explosion, the entire game world began to fade away.
"Game Over!"
The Transmutation Grand Mage, Professor Harley, was forcibly kicked out of the game world.