Chapter 1 : Where is this place?

The role-playing game that swept 2024.

‘Magic School Arcane.’

The way to clear it is simple.

Enroll as a freshman and graduate after completing the 3-year course.

However, for over a year, no player has ever graduated from the magic school, boasting a difficulty level that made everyone shake their heads.

The basic system required you to start over from the beginning if your character died, NPCs were randomly selected, and if you messed with the nobles, you’d immediately face a death ending, and so on.

But, that was only until yesterday.

Today, there was a player holding the first-ever 3rd-year graduation ceremony in the world.

A country where no other nation could match their gaming skills.

‘South Korea.’

Ordinary bosses are cleared in 3 hours, and Korean players are the only ones who complain that there’s nothing to do.

Is that why a Korea difficulty was created separately?

The moment they were about to see the ending of Magic School Arcane for the first time in the world.

An anomaly occurred.

【You have graduated from Magic School Arcane for the first time. Would you like to retry on Hard difficulty?】

Accept / Decline

The difficulty I’ve been playing on was Normal?

Should I challenge it, or not?

In the midst of worry, a thought flashed through my mind.

Wouldn’t I be able to see magic that I couldn’t see in Normal difficulty?

At the same time as that thought, I pressed the Accept button, and my head spun.

Ah, I’ve felt this before.

That feeling when I almost died after performing for 10 consecutive days without sleep.

Memories of my past life flashed by like a panorama.

My parents, who passed away in a traffic accident when I was young, and the relatives who stole their inheritance.

Abandoned in the world with no adults to rely on.

The existence that gave me hope to live.

Magic.

Living in an orphanage at a young age, I was smaller than my peers and bullied. When I ran away from the orphanage, I saw a street performance.

Magic, a magical act.

Coins disappearing and doves coming out of hats were shocking events that I couldn’t comprehend.

After the performance, I grabbed the magician who was packing up to leave.

“What’s wrong, little one?”

“I want to learn magic too.”

The magician, who had been laughing loudly enough to shake the street for a long time after hearing my words, covered his mouth with his hand, hiccuped, and then looked at me awkwardly, as if he had calmed down.

“Ahem, little one. This isn’t magic, it’s illusion.”

“Illusion?”

Considering it fate, the magician handed me a card pack.

“If you can use 10 illusions with that, come find me. Then I’ll teach you magic properly.”

With those impressive words, he packed his things and left, looking like a hero from a cartoon.

After that day, I practically lived in bookstores, studying magic books, and when I mastered 10 illusions, I realized.

I have no way to contact him.

How can I contact him when I don’t even know who he is or where he lives?

No. This is also testing me.

With that thought, I gave up studying until the age I had to leave the orphanage and devoted myself solely to magic.

Refusing the words of the director and teachers who told me to study, asking why I was doing something that was hard to make a living from.

Time passed, and the day I left the orphanage arrived.

I only had 10 million won in my possession, received as support money.

From now on, I will travel around the country with this money and perform magic shows.

If I succeed, I’ll make a name for myself, and if I fail, I won’t regret it.

Thanks to the magic I started with that determination, I became a world-renowned magician.

As a magician who showcases magical techniques.

But one regret remains.

If my skills were better, could I have used magic that was even better than magic, instead of being a magician who showcases magical techniques?

Had the panorama ended? I’ve been trapped in darkness for a long time, why isn’t it over?

More than that, I’m suffocating.

Like having my face shoved into a bucket.

“Puhak!”

Something on my face fell to the floor with a thud.

I didn’t understand the situation, so I looked around and saw that I was in a dilapidated building with a hole in the roof, with my face shoved into a bucket.

I tried to understand, but failed.

A body that wouldn’t be strange to die in right now.

A body with only bones left, with my stomach stuck to my back, wondering how many days I had been starving.

A blue window appeared in front of me.

【A special reward will be given to the player who is challenging Hard mode for the first time.】

【As a special reward, great magic dwells in your body.】

【As a special reward, the Illusion Magic skill tree is unlocked.】

【A small amount of travel expenses will be provided.】

【Quest: Enroll in magic school in 3 months.】

Success: ???

Failure: Game Over.

The system window I had only heard about appeared.

More than that, is it real magic?

…I don’t need that.

I have no intention of accepting anything other than magic in my life.

Should I just give up enrolling and end the game?

As soon as I finished thinking, a new window appeared.

【Would you like to use Illusion Magic to perform real magic?】

Magic has various tricks, but what if there was a way to replace them?

I can challenge magic that humans have never been able to do.

If I can do that, magic that has never appeared in history will be born.

At the same time as that thought, my heart started to beat faster.

Just like when I first saw magic.

“This is going to be fun.”

Then, my stomach rumbled.

‘Korreureureureureuk!’

In this situation, I’m in a state where I could die at any moment, let alone create new magic.

I have to eat something.

They definitely said they would provide a small amount of travel expenses, right?

I rummaged through my pockets, but there was nothing.

Where are they providing it?

At the same time, something fell from the sky with a thud.

When I checked what had fallen, it was a money pouch…?

I’ve never seen such an unkind case in my life.

I put the money pouch in my pocket and went out of the house, and an unfamiliar landscape unfolded.

Buildings that looked like they were from the Middle Ages.

Huge buildings were located far away, and as far as I knew, there was a gate in front of them, so commoners couldn’t enter.

The game clearly divided the commoner area and the noble area, right?

Then, anyone can see that this is the commoner area.

Commoners cannot enter the noble area.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Only one day a year.

The Magic School arcane entrance exam is open to anyone, commoner or noble.

But no commoner passes the exam.

Starting with the first stage of measuring magic power, followed by the second stage of magic manifestation, and the third stage of interviews.

It is divided into a total of 3 stages, but most fail in the first stage.

A harsh future awaits commoners who fail the entrance exam.

They are summarily executed on the spot for deceiving the nobles.

As a result, it has become a rare occurrence for commoners to apply for the entrance exam, happening only once every few decades.

I moved my steps to the plaza where many people gather, but how do I know the location?

Is it the memory of this body?

I can’t remember, but I arrived at the plaza following a somewhat familiar path, and I was drawn to the bakery by the fragrant smell.

As I was about to enter, the owner blocked me.

Not only did he ignore me out of the blue, but he even pushed me, and my body, which had only bones left, was helplessly pushed over.

When the owner shouted at me to get lost, I got up from the ground and pretended to take out a coin from the air, and the owner looked terrified.

“W-were you a magician? B-but why do you look like that…”

I glared at the owner, who was avoiding my eyes, and handed him the coin, and the bakery owner hurriedly packed the bread while looking servile.

You could call him a textbook example of Strong and weak.

He even packed more bread as a service, so I guess I can let it slide this once.

I thought while chewing on the bread I bought.

If I want to return to my original world, I have to graduate from magic school and clear this game.

To do that, I have to pass the entrance exam first.

Originally, it was a problem that could be easily skipped with special admission, but I didn’t know there would be such an unexpected variable.

But, even if I fail, I won’t give up.

I used the money I had to buy food and a neat set of clothes, and prepared for the entrance exam.

As a result of practicing magic power for 3 months.

I was able to perform new magic.

Magic without tricks using Illusion Magic.

I didn’t spend the 3 months meaninglessly, I also did phantom thie… no, chivalrous thief activities.