Magic Students' Martial World Experience
The first welcome magic class for Diamond Class had dawned.
The expressions of the students gathered in the lecture hall mixed curiosity with tension.
Should I ask about the dragon from yesterday?
Maybe it's better to just stay quiet?
That disaster-class freshman who had summoned a massive dragon in the open field yesterday and turned the capital upside down. Rian was sitting in the very back row. Unlike yesterday, he wasn't yawning at all. Far from fatigued, he brimmed with vitality.
"Alright, everyone's attention here!"
Professor Ashe, standing at the podium, had shed her usual languid demeanor. Her disheveled ash-gray hair was the same, but her eyes gleamed with a bizarre, fanatic intensity, as if possessed by something. Her cheeks were flushed red, and even her breathing came in rough gasps.
"Today's first class will give you all a very special experience. The great achievement that Student Rian and I built together overnight! A demo version of the 'city-scale virtual reality system'—I'll let every single Diamond Class student be the first to experience it!"
A murmur rippled through the students.
"Virtual reality?"
"What's that? Some new illusion magic?"
"It won't be like what happened to Asrion yesterday, right?"
Amid the whispers, one person alone had gone pale and was trembling violently. Asrion. The moment he heard "virtual reality," he nearly leaped from his chair.
"Eek!"
At that moment, Asrion looked up—and his gaze landed on the two classmates sitting right in front of him. Hansel and Gretel, ordinary 13-year-olds with blond hair and blue eyes. They were first-circle freshmen in the same Diamond Class as Asrion. In reality, the two weren't even blood siblings. But in Asrion's eyes, those ordinary faces perfectly overlapped with the faces of those 10- and 8-year-old demon siblings who had mercilessly dumped soybean paste soup on him.
"D-don't come near me!"
Asrion shoved his desk back in terror, stumbling away.
"You demon kids! Stay away from me!"
His sudden outburst startled not just Hansel and Gretel, but every student around him, who all turned to stare. But Asrion had lost all reason, flailing at the air and screaming.
"I-I won't eat sweets anymore, granny! I won't even look at donuts, so take away that rotten shit soup! Don't stuff me with rice ball wraps! No, wait! At least give me that! Damn it! What did you do to my taste buds? You demon kids!"
A chill silence descended on the lecture hall.
The heir to the Imperial Magic Tower, a prodigy who had reached 3-circle at just 13. That handsome silver-haired young noble was suddenly waving his arms wildly, babbling about "granny" in a bizarre village farce. The Diamond Class students gaped in shock, jaws dropped.
"Wh-what's wrong with Asrion?"
"Granny? And what the hell is shit soup?"
"Is he... crazy?"
As the whispers grew louder, only Rian in the back row rested his chin on his hand and nodded indifferently.
"Hm. The neural synchronization aftereffects are lasting longer than expected. Remnants of the 70-year-old woman's ego modeling are still stuck in that 13-year-old boy's cerebral cortex like residue."
To Rian, it was just excellent clinical data.
On the other hand, Vesperia and Ardelia de Solarrium—who had experienced virtual reality but saw it as mere adventure—tilted their heads, unable to comprehend Asrion's reaction.
Professor Ashe cleared her throat awkwardly to regain control of the atmosphere.
"Ahem! Student Asrion, calm down. This isn't like yesterday's personalized simulation. It's an open-world spectator mode we can all enjoy safely together."
Even with Professor Ashe's reassurance (?), Asrion remained curled in the corner of his desk, sweating profusely.
"Now, everyone, lean back comfortably in your seats. Your physical bodies will fall into a sleep state during the connection."
Following Professor Ashe's instructions, Vesperia, Ardelia, and all the other students leaned back in their chairs. Professor Ashe spread her arms wide on the platform. Her 7-circle mana fused with the overwhelming parallel processing code of Rian's implanted 5-circle pentaract, expanding into a massive hemispherical dome that enveloped the entire lecture hall.
"Dive."
Rian's activation word rang out.
The heads of the dozens of Diamond Class students filling the room drooped forward in unison. Their vision blacked out like pitch darkness as their consciousnesses were sucked into the virtual world's server. Smiling at the sight, Rian connected to the virtual reality as well.
"Ugh...."
Vesperia was the first to open her eyes, widening them round as she looked around. An exclamation burst from her lips.
"Whoaaa!"
The students came to one by one, rising from their seats. And like Vesperia, they all stared in awe at the scene before them.
The drab marble-floored academy lecture hall they had been in moments ago was gone. They now stood in the heart of a grand, antique city.
Under a blue sky stretched endless tiled roofs. Massive pavilions adorned with vibrant colors and red pillars towered imposingly.
"Wh-where is this?"
"Why do the buildings look so weird?"
These students were accustomed only to the hybrid Western medieval fantasy architecture of romance fantasy novels—timeless, nationless mishmashes. To them, the curving Eastern-style buildings were an utterly alien sight, unlike anything they'd ever seen.
The wide stone-paved streets bustled with lively crowds. But their clothing was just as unfamiliar. No corseted dresses or stiff frilled uniforms in sight. Men in flowing silk robes or odd hats on their heads. Warriors striding the streets with long, curved swords at their waists and wide-brimmed hats adding an exotic flair.
"Rian! Where the heck are we?"
Vesperia grabbed Rian's arm, jumping up and down as she asked. Ardelia, too, scanned her surroundings meticulously, her red eyes flickering with a mix of wariness and curiosity.
All eyes turned to Rian, their creator. He explained obligingly.
"This is a fictional world I imagined and built. It's called the martial world."
The martial world. A realm of rivers and lakes ruled by those who wielded the unknown power of martial arts. It was the result of scraping together and rendering the vast settings from martial arts novels in his past life's memories.
"My 5-circle processing power is still immature, so I couldn't perfectly implement the entire vast Central Plains continent. With Professor Ashe's backup last night, I barely finished rendering just this one city, Luoyang."
Rian answered nonchalantly. But Ardelia's mind churned like a massive tidal wave at his words.
Immature? He created an entire city from scratch and calls it immature?
Her gaze drifted to the majestic inns rising in the distance and the endless throng in the markets. The texture of flags fluttering in the wind. The acrid smoke and sizzling sounds from street vendors grilling meat. Even the varied expressions and casual chatter of passing pedestrians. Everything was perfect reality.
This boy—who had built this vast, intricate ecosystem overnight and was now grumbling about insufficient processing power—was truly an incomprehensible disaster.
Good thing I gave up trying to understand him.
How could one grasp a disaster with shallow human perspective? Having neatly abandoned understanding, Ardelia felt a sense of relief and smiled inwardly.
"Whoa, martial world! Cool name!"
Vesperia, with her black bird perched on her head, excitedly scanned the streets. The other students gradually shed their fear, swept up in the vibrant energy of this strange, mystical Eastern city, chattering noisily as they gawked.
"Look at that curved sword. So weird!"
"That food smell over there is making my mouth water. Can we eat illusions?"
As the students buzzed with curiosity, one person alone sweated like rain in the lively atmosphere, patting himself down frantically. Asrion.
Th-thank goodness. It's my body.
Asrion ran trembling hands over his flat chest and sturdy boyish shoulders, sighing in relief. He'd been terrified of possessing that horrific 70-year-old witch's body again the moment he connected. But fortunately, he'd logged in as his original 13-year-old silver-haired self. His vision was clear, his joints didn't ache.
But the relief was short-lived. Asrion's brow twisted grotesquely.
This is driving me insane.
His face drained of color.
This sensation of my back being straight and unbent... it's uncomfortable! My knees don't ache when I walk, so I can't get used to it!
His brain nerves were still deeply marinated in the sensations of that hunched old woman's body from over ten days in the simulation. Even back in his healthy young form, his brain perceived the youth as something alien.
A-and besides....
Asrion clamped his legs together, sweating bullets.
When the hell does this unpleasant foreign feeling down there get normal?! It's so annoying I could go mad!
His brain had perfectly synced to the flat, empty sensation down there from living as the witch. Now, even his own male anatomy felt like a horrific mismatch.
Thus, the genius mage destined to be a romance novel's sub-male-lead suffered a collapse of sexual identity alone in the heart of this unfamiliar Eastern martial world, drenched in hellish sweat.