A sharp alarm, the blinding white light of the Particle Collider, and the terrifying scene of space being torn apart by force…
These were the last images High-energy Physicist Lin En saw.
Table!!!
The terrifying white light instantly engulfed Lin Si’s entire field of vision, followed by endless darkness.
Ah!
Lin Si abruptly opened his eyes, gasping for breath.
What met his gaze was an unfamiliar environment.
A low, stone ceiling covered in cobwebs and mold.
He shifted his body slightly.
Beneath him was a thin wooden bed as hard as bone, and the air was thick with the rotten stench of cheap straw mats.
Suddenly!
A flood of memories that didn’t belong to him poured into his mind.
“Ah!”
A splitting pain tore through his brain, followed by a series of fragmented memories.
Magi… Elemental Affinity…
Spell…
Elemental Affinity…
A torrent of memories that originally didn’t belong to him surged up.
Lin En, a new student in the Commoner Class of Fran Magic Martial Academy.
Yesterday, during the freshman Elemental Affinity test in the grand Main Auditorium of Fran, when his palm touched the enormous Initiation Water Crystal, the crystal remained as lifeless as a dead object.
In the end, only a few cold, biting words appeared:
“Elemental Affinity: Minimal.”
Amid the thunderous laughter of the Nobles and Elite Class apprentices, and the undisguised contempt in the eyes of the Instructors, the last shred of dignity of his former self was crushed to dust, blood rushing to his head as he fainted on the spot—then tossed back to the Commoner apprentice dormitory like a sack of garbage.
“The trash woke up? You’ve got a tough life—I thought you were done for.”
A voice dripping with superiority came from the doorway.
Lin En propped up his still-weak body and looked over.
Two youths in dark blue robes with silver trim stood outside, looking down at the shabby dormitory as if surveying a pigsty.
The one speaking had golden hair and sharp eyes, his expression full of confidence—Kain.
Beside him was Roger, wearing the same light, mocking smile.
Both were Elite Class students.
The Nobility Badge pinned to their chests gleamed in the dim light, a symbol of status.
“Young Master Kain, Young Master Roger, what brings you to grace us—”
A Commoner apprentice who wanted to step forward tried to speak.
“Shut up, mudlegs.”
Roger waved impatiently, his gaze slicing across Lin Si’s pale face like a knife.
“Just passing by to see if the joke who set a new low for Elemental Affinity yesterday died yet. Looks like the blight lingers on.”
He casually tossed a chunk of Magic Crystal the size of an infant’s head, radiating a gentle, pure blue light.
The glow made the sarcasm on his face even more pronounced.
“Truly a waste of air at the Academy. Commoner Class really is a garbage dump.”
The energy within that Magic Crystal was a resource so valuable that even all the Commoner apprentices’ annual stipends combined couldn’t afford it.
Kain and Roger had come specifically to ridicule Lin En’s abysmal Elemental Affinity.
To be honest, they’d never seen anyone with affinity this trashy before, so they’d come to mock a Commoner student despised by Noble scions.
They let out a cold laugh, eyes full of contempt, and turned to leave.
The dormitory fell silent, only the stifled breathing and humiliation of the Commoner apprentices lingering in the air.
In his inherited memories, Fran Magic Martial Academy had three levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
Students spent six years studying here.
Classes were divided into Elite and Commoner—Elite was almost exclusively for Nobles, learning Magi, and required consuming enormous, costly resources.
This wasn’t something Commoners could afford.
Of course, rarely, a Commoner with outstanding talent could squeeze into the Elite Class.
If not for the kingdom’s great demand for Magi, the Commoner Class probably wouldn’t exist at all.
Regardless, the Magic Commoner Class was the best option for ordinary people—but it also meant the worst Instructors, the most basic Common Meditation Method, a pitiful few low-quality Magic Crystal Fragments each month, and endless oppression from the Elite Class.
In this world, resources meant power, and the path for Commoners was suffocatingly narrow.
Lin Si quietly put on his tattered apprentice robe.
The rational thinking of a physicist, as precise as a circuit, quickly organized his chaotic emotions and began a calm analysis:
He’d transmigrated.
Was it caused by the Particle Collider?
A world of white porcelain law!!
He was now a low-level Commoner apprentice at a magic academy, just declared to have minimal Elemental Affinity—a waste in the path of Magi.
From the look of things, his current survival environment was dire.
Class discrimination was blatant and the class system appeared rigid.
Lin Si had no energy to care about the bullying he’d just suffered.
His mind was filled with thoughts about this world.
So…
What exactly is magic in this world?
What are its fundamental principles?
Do Physical Laws still exist?
Inside the vast Main Auditorium, Commoner Class apprentices squeezed onto the cold, hard stone benches at the back rows.
The front, covered with thick cushions, was the exclusive territory of the Elite Class.
The gulf of birthright split the entire hall.
Today, Vice Principal Mo Shuo was teaching the magic introduction course—a rare chance for Commoner Class students to experience a high-level Instructor’s lecture.
On the main stage stood the Academy’s Vice Principal, Mo Yu.
His white hair was meticulously groomed, his face stern, and his magister’s robe spotless, radiating authority.
Just standing there was enough to make the entire hall fall silent.
“Today, we analyze the foundation of power and demonstrate the true meaning of Fireball.”
Mo Yu’s voice wasn’t loud, but carried clearly through the sound array, engraved into every ear with authority that brooked no dissent.
He did not pick up a staff, but simply raised his withered right hand, five fingers naturally spread, facing the empty air.
In that instant!
Lin En’s pupils shrank!
A physicist’s acute perception of energy and material changes was instantly triggered!
He saw the air in front of Vice Principal Mo Shuo’s hand suddenly compress and twist inward!
Something invisible and overwhelmingly powerful was frantically converging!
Then, without warning, a point of crimson light, smaller than a needle tip and impossibly dense, was born out of nothing!
It wasn’t fire, but more like…
A core of condensed light and heat!
Whoosh—!
The light swelled at high speed, blazing!
In the next moment, a Fireball the size of a human head materialized in the air, its edges warping from intense heat, floating above Mo’s palm!
It burned silently, radiating waves of heat that Lin Si could feel even in the last row.
The orange-red glow of the Fireball illuminated Mo Yu’s stern face like that of a deity.
Magic!
This was magic!
A miraculous creation that completely defied the physical common sense Lin Si knew!
Lin En’s heart felt gripped by an invisible hand, then beat violently!
Not out of fear—but an almost mad thirst for discovery!
The light of the Particle Collider was the end of extinction, but this Fireball was a miracle of creation!
So real, so powerful, so…
Fascinating!
A longing for new knowledge, deep from the soul of a scientist, electrified Lin Si!
No matter what, I must master this power!
Even if this body has been judged worthless!
“Look carefully!”
Mo Yu’s voice thundered like a bell.
“The essence of magic is the spiritual will communicating with the Elemental Realm, guiding the power of Fire Elemental Spirits into this world!”
“Spells are the copper keys that call the true names of spirits.”
“Gestures and Runes are the bridges that construct channels for energy.”
“Magic power is the new fuel that drives contracts!”
“Sincerity and talent—both are indispensable!”
He made a seemingly casual flick of his hand.
Whoosh—!
The Fireball turned into a streak of red light, slicing through the air with a roar and slamming into a Black Obsidian Target in the center of the hall!
With an explosive bang, the surface of the hard stone was instantly melted into a scorched crater, several inches deep, cracks spreading out like a spiderweb and fragments flying in all directions!
“Wow!”
The Elite Class students in the front rows erupted in awe and wild admiration, many faces flushed with excitement.
The Commoner Class apprentices were equally dazzled, though their eyes held more envy and resigned acceptance.
They knew the difference:
The Elite Class received Instructors’ careful guidance on every syllable of Spells.
They had efficient meditation methods to quickly accumulate Elemental Power.
They practiced with mountains of pure Magic Crystals at will.
While the Commoner Class…
Only had rote memorization and the monthly, barely adequate scraps of low-quality fragments.
“Spiritual will communicating with the Elemental Realm? The power of Elemental Spirits? Spirit Contract?”
Mo Yu’s explanation stirred a storm in Lin Si’s physicist mind!
It was full of idealism and mysticism, completely different from any theory based on energy conservation, material interaction, or observable laws!
But!
The birth of the Fireball, the terrifying convergence of energy, its precise trajectory, and that destructive explosion…
All were absolutely real!
They had to follow some objective law!
A law that couldn’t be concealed by vague concepts like Elemental Spirits!
Lin En’s gaze became razor-sharp, like the most precise scanner, locked on Vice Principal Mo Shuo’s hand.
Especially the almost imperceptible micro-movements of his fingers before the Fireball formed, and the faint energy ripple that lingered in his palm afterward like rippling water.
The vague feelings of magic flow and elemental sensing in his inherited memories were now, for the first time, being called upon and analyzed with unprecedented clarity.
“Communication…Guidance…”
Lin En’s mind raced, performing wild logical deductions:
If so-called Elemental Spirits are a metaphor, could they represent some fundamental energy source?
Is spiritual will a signal or control program for initiation and manipulation?
Could Spells and gestures… be a kind of energy coding or physical-layer operational instruction?
A groundbreaking idea struck him, like the first lightning in chaos, shattering the fog in his heart:
If… magic isn’t a supernatural miracle, but a high-level energy application technology based on the special rules of this world…
Then…
Since it’s an energy application, as a High-energy Physicist, Lin Si was all too familiar with it.
The thought spread like wildfire, instantly igniting his fighting spirit!
Perhaps, this body deemed a Magic waste isn’t a dead end!
What he lacked wasn’t unattainable talent, but the scientific understanding to comprehend and master this magical system!
Class ended.
The Instructors left in laughter surrounded by Elite Class students, discussing afternoons in advanced meditation rooms and the daily enjoyment of pure Magic Crystals.
The Commoner apprentices, less enthusiastic, shuffled out of the classroom, looking back repeatedly.
Lin Si didn’t leave immediately.
He was immersed in shock and excitement, driven by a powerful thirst for knowledge.
He needed to verify!
To verify whether the Physical Laws that formed the foundation of his worldview still held in this magic world!
He walked to the edge of the hall near a tall stained-glass window.
Sunlight streamed through.
He picked up a small stone from the floor—and released it from his fingers.
A tiny, insignificant pebble fell freely from his fingertips.
The stone dropped to the ground.
Lin Si watched the entire trajectory with absolute focus.
The descent followed the path of gravitational acceleration.
He bent down, rubbing his fingers hard against the cold, rough surface of the stone bench.
Soon, a clear warmth tingled at his fingertips.
Friction generates heat.
He exhaled; his breath condensed into tiny water droplets on the cold stone wall.
Water vapor condensation.
Simple actions, fundamental physical phenomena—no magical glow, no elemental fluctuations.
Yet in Lin Si’s eyes, a light shone brighter and more determined than when he saw Fireball!
Physical Laws still exist!
Gravity, friction, thermodynamics, phase transitions…
These basic laws, the foundation of the universe, remained solid in this world of magic!
Magic was not above Physical Laws, but rather…
Built atop the same foundation—another magnificent and mysterious edifice!
The door to that edifice was simply labeled with talent and spirits.
“Hey, Lin En! What are you spacing out for? Hurry up, or you’ll be left behind to clean the hall!”
A Commoner apprentice called out.
Lin Si stood up, taking one last deep look at the spot where Vice Principal Mo Yu had demonstrated Fireball, as if to etch the moment of energy convergence into his mind.
He ignored the urging around him, and pretended not to hear Roger’s deliberately loud mockery of “Commoner Class trash” from afar.
Magic?
He had to learn it!
Not with the so-called talent and sincerity of this world, but with his scientific thinking—to analyze, deconstruct, and master the true nature of this power!
“I need a place…”
Lin En muttered softly.
From fragments of inherited memory, the image of an old warehouse piled with discarded alchemy equipment and damaged goods in a remote corner of campus appeared vividly in his mind.
He felt his pocket—only a few rusty copper coins inside.
A bold plan quickly formed in his mind.
He would begin his research immediately.
Using scientific methods, he would operate the miracles of this world!