“Whoosh”
A strange whistling sound rang in his ears. Ye Chui, standing on the mountain path admiring the surrounding scenery, looked up in confusion. “What’s that noise?”
Then, with a “splat,” something heavily struck his face.
Three hundred years ago, Newton was hit by an apple and discovered gravity. Now, Ye Chui received similar treatment, struck in the face by an iPad falling from the sky.
Unfortunately, apart from learning “don’t walk under cable cars while sightseeing in the mountains,” he gained no other insights.
That evening’s city news reported:
“A tourist surnamed Ye was suddenly hit on the forehead by an iPad while sightseeing, causing him to faint on the spot. Investigations revealed a cable car was passing overhead at the time. A tourist was playing with their iPad by the cable car window and accidentally dropped it, striking him. This is likely an unprecedented high-probability event. The unfortunate tourist has been taken to hospital, and we will continue to follow his condition.”
After a dizzying sensation, as if riding on clouds, Ye Chui’s back crashed heavily onto the ground. Pain jolted his foggy consciousness awake. He groaned, opened his eyes, and muttered, “Where am I?”
This was not a hospital, nor any place he recognised. Before him was a dark alley, its mottled walls and unusual building shapes giving a sense of being out of sync with the times.
“Wasn’t I knocked out? How did I end up here? Where is this place?” A trace of unease rose in Ye Chui’s heart. He was lying on the ground, his chest burning with pain. Recalling the dizzying sensation, he realised he must have been attacked and thrown to the ground.
Touching his chest, Ye Chui slowly got up and looked at the person standing nearby. His pupils widened in shock. It was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, with grey hair, wearing a tattered burlap robe. He had a high nose bridge, reddish-brown hair, and deep blue eyes, glaring at Ye Chui with a sneer.
What shocked Ye Chui most was the strange book with a blue cover floating in front of the boy.
Ye Chui was certain the blue-covered book was hovering without any external support.
The boy’s hand rested on the book, flipping through its pages.
“Your physical condition seems pretty good, huh? You can still stand after being hit by my [Flame]. But you won’t be so lucky next time, Wade!” the boy said, letting out a series of mocking laughs.
Wade? Ye Chui froze. Was that name meant for him?
How could that be?
A sudden, intense headache assaulted Ye Chui’s mind, nearly causing him to faint again. The name Wade acted like a key, unlocking a floodgate of memories. Memories of Wade’s life, which did not belong to Ye Chui, surged into his mind, clarifying many things.
This was not the Earth Ye Chui knew but a vast, magical world called the Gustro Continent.
The body Ye Chui now inhabited belonged to a boy named Wade, a teenager from Stan Town. At eight, Wade was discovered to have strong magical power. Many predicted he would become a great mage, and some magic guilds had already marked him for recruitment, waiting for his Awakening Day to officially become a mage.
Awakening was a special ritual.
On this vast continent, almost every town had a “Magic Book Tower.” When someone with magical power reached sixteen, they gained the right to enter the tower on their birthday.
Inside the Magic Book Tower were thousands of magical books, known as grimoires. These books had their own consciousness and could choose their owners. If someone was qualified to become a mage, a grimoire would automatically fly to them upon entering the tower. This was Awakening.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Ye Chui, or rather Wade, had exceptionally strong magical energy and was considered certain to awaken successfully. Some even predicted Wade might receive a legendary orange-covered grimoire. White, green, blue, purple, and orange covers represented different levels of grimoires, with orange being the most powerful.
It was said that the spells in orange grimoires were terrifyingly strong.
But a shocking turn of events occurred. On his sixteenth birthday, Wade entered the Magic Book Tower and stayed from morning until evening. When the elderly mage guarding the tower led him out, not a single grimoire had chosen him. The highly anticipated Wade was deemed to have no mage potential.
What a disappointment!
Especially for the magic guilds that had been ready to fight over him.
On his dejected walk home, Wade was suddenly attacked by a boy and killed. Through Wade’s memories, Ye Chui recognised the attacker. His name was Riken.
Riken and Wade were both orphans, raised together in Stan Town’s church, once close friends. But after Wade was adopted by an old man, their contact dwindled. Whenever they met afterward, Riken expressed resentment, accusing Wade of betrayal, his words laced with envy and jealousy over Wade’s adoption.
Riken also had magical power, though much weaker than Wade’s. A month earlier, Riken had his Awakening Day and unexpectedly received a green-covered grimoire with the highly aggressive “Flame” attribute, one of the better grimoires in Stan Town’s history.
His attack had allowed a soul from another world to inhabit this body.
“You won’t be so lucky next time,” Riken said with a vicious grin, flipping his grimoire to a specific page. “This is my newly mastered spell, [Flame Serpent]. It drains all my magical power to cast, but its power is immense. Wade, you’re lucky to be the first to experience it. Once I kill you, I’ll officially join the Bull Magic Guild. Die!”
With a roar, red flames surged wildly from Riken’s grimoire, forming a massive fiery serpent. Its terrifying flaming jaws opened in a silent roar, charging at the unprepared Ye Chui with overwhelming force.
“Bloody hell!” Ye Chui shouted, furious. He had just transmigrated and was about to be burned to ashes?
Wasn’t he supposed to get some kind of cheat ability in this situation? Where was his cheat?
He had to do something!
Facing the ferocious flaming serpent, Ye Chui felt despair, but he refused to give up. In that moment of extreme urgency, he sensed a spark of understanding. The heat of the flames enveloped him, and guided by an instinct, he raised a hand.
Bang!
A transparent shield made of condensed light appeared before him, blocking the deadly flame attack.
The light shield came from an object floating above Ye Chui’s palm, just like Riken’s grimoire. Or rather, it was Ye Chui’s grimoire! The light shield was a spell conjured by his grimoire.
But then, “Bloody hell, isn’t this the iPad that knocked me out?”
