I Refuse To Be A Mage - Chapter 4

“Xiao Chi, Mom and Dad are going abroad first, you… stay home and rest obediently…”

“Okay.”

“Aunt Wang has watched you grow up since you were little. With her taking care of you, we can feel much more at ease…”

“Okay.”

“…Then take good care of yourself. When New Year comes, Mom and Dad will bring your little brother back, and we’ll have a reunion dinner together.”

“Okay.”

“Goodbye.”

Ji Chi wore his holographic helmet and didn’t even glance in the direction they left.

His ears were filled with the chattering guidance of the game AI, but he couldn’t make out a single word. Instead, the sound of the door closing downstairs in the villa was so loud it was deafening.

After a long while, he gently closed his eyes, forcing himself not to think too much, and focused his attention on this newly released holographic game.

Ji Chi: “…”

Ji Chi: “Does your game absolutely have to use real people for character models?”

AI: [Not necessarily! The default is real-person scanning, but players can still freely customize their appearance~]

Ji Chi’s eyes were sharp. “This character is at most 175cm tall, right? I’m actually five centimeters taller than it.”

AI: [Sorry, thank you for your feedback. The average height for the mage profession is 170cm. We’ve adjusted it to the average value for you~]

Ji Chi: “???”

Ji Chi: “Wait, what do you mean? Then I want to change professions.”

AI: [Sorry, once a profession is confirmed, it cannot be changed~]

Ji Chi: “When did I already confirm a profession?”

The AI didn’t speak, but directly showed him a fast-forwarded video.

–

[Please select your character profession. Currently available: warrior, mage…]

“Okay.”

[Please create your character appearance. Currently set to default…]

“Okay.”

[Initial setup successful. Wishing you a pleasant gaming experience~]

“Okay.”

–

After watching the video, Ji Chi felt like his heart rate was about to become problematic. He took a deep breath and asked as kindly as possible, “This was my mistake. May I ask why I can’t choose my profession again?”

The AI’s round, cute voice suddenly disappeared and was replaced by the weathered voice of what sounded like a balding lead developer. [Big brother, what do you think re-selecting profession and appearance means? Freedom? No! That’s all burning budget! You think I don’t know you young people? Today you’re howling for a tank to absorb damage, tomorrow you’ll be whining for a healer to carry you. Where would a newly developed holographic game get such huge capacity to satisfy you all!]

Ji Chi’s head ached from the uncle’s rough voice, so he reluctantly compromised. “What about paying? I won’t change professions. I’ll pay to change my appearance, that should be fine, right?”

The round AI became wary: [What appearance do you want to change to?]

Ji Chi: “Nothing excessive. 210cm tall, 200 pounds, eight-pack abs, everything else is flexible.”

Round AI: [Get lost. You’ll be 170cm from now on.]

!!!

Ji Chi suddenly woke up from his half-real, half-fake nightmare, hurriedly taking several deep breaths to steady his heart rate. When he saw the familiar brick and stone ceiling, he remembered he had already crossed into the game.

Ji Chi closed his eyes, then immediately jumped up from the bed the next second, standing barefoot on the smooth ground.

No dizziness, no panic, no difficulty breathing—this was a healthy, 175cm tall body that was still growing.

After Ji Chi repeatedly confirmed with the round AI that he would still grow taller, he smiled slightly and looked up.

Evan was standing right in front of him, very close, looking at him with a complicated expression. “I… was thinking of coming to wake you up, but you got up quite fast today, haha…”

More than fast! I didn’t even see how he got to his feet! Evan roared in his heart—

Yesterday he was lying motionless for half the day! Is this what they call mysterious Eastern people? Really can’t understand what they’re thinking!

Ji Chi nodded and thanked him, naturally finding his clothes and shoes to put on.

Evan breathed a sigh of relief, throwing the earlier surprise to the back of his mind. He pulled out a thick magic grimoire from the shared bookshelf and handed it to Ji Chi. “There’s only a morning class today—Madam Emma’s Principles of Magic. The afternoon is free time.”

Ji Chi took the magic grimoire, sensing he had something to say, and turned his head to look at him.

“Um… do you have a wand prepared?” Evan hesitated for a moment, asking him somewhat embarrassedly, “Magic training starts tomorrow, and students need to prepare their own wands. I haven’t had time to buy one yet. Could you accompany me to Central Street this afternoon?”

Logically, wands should have been prepared before enrollment, but those few days happened to coincide with the church’s missionary work, and Evan had to stay with the priest the whole time, with no time to go shopping.

Hearing about preparing a wand, Ji Chi calmly glanced at his backpack.

Good grief, what Judgment of the Twilight of the Gods Wand, Doomsday Catastrophe Destruction Wand… all orange legendary artifacts with extremely long prefixes.

He closed the panel and decisively shook his head. “I haven’t prepared one either.”

Evan happily turned up the corners of his mouth, his transparent blue eyes sparkling. “Then bring your coins, and we’ll go to Central Street as soon as class ends. We can have lunch there too!”

Because of this plan, Evan was very excited all morning.

Even when Madam Emma was already walking into the classroom with her magic grimoire, he was still twisting around, grabbing Ji Chi and chattering non-stop. “My childhood dream was to own my own wand! But it’s too expensive—even an ordinary quality wand costs several gold coins… But I’ve saved quite a bit of money helping at the church over the years, so I can directly buy an excellent quality wand now!”

Ji Chi quietly agreed with a few words, also beginning to feel excited by his enthusiasm.

He discovered that the real world was indeed much more complete than holographic online games. Many details were very novel experiences for Ji Chi.

Just like how Central Street in the online game was just a template-assembled avenue that looked grand but only had a trading hall as the accessible shop.

I wonder what the real Central Street is like… Ji Chi thought absentmindedly, stroking the parchment cover of the magic grimoire.

“Tch.” Brandon, sitting behind them, heard the entire conversation word for word, wrinkling his nose in disdain. “What effect could an excellent quality wand have? Would it hurt more when you use it to hit people directly? If you’re going to buy one, just buy a superior quality one.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a forearm-length wand from his robe to show them. It was a blue-grade wand with an exquisite fire-red shaft engraved with magic patterns that surged with abundant magic power—top-tier among blue-grade equipment.

Evan didn’t get angry at this classic “let them eat cake” comment. Looking at that superior wand, his eyes were full of envy. “That’s really nice. I hope I can own one someday too.”

It was Ji Chi who felt uncomfortable and gave Brandon a cold look.

You believe it or not, directly hitting people with a wand really hurts! With your HP, I could probably knock down seventeen or eighteen of you with one strike. Who are you looking down on, you little glass cannon?

Brandon smiled rather proudly and secretly glanced at Ji Chi, saying in a small voice, “If you don’t have enough money, I can lend it to you. You can pay me back whenever, I don’t lack those gold coins…”

It was clearly a kind gesture, but he said it so sheepishly and breathlessly, as if he were about to illegally issue high-interest loans.

Evan finally understood that this tsundere young master wasn’t here to show off. He burst out laughing. “Thank you, Young Master Brandon, but I believe that even relying on myself, I’ll be able to use superior, or even epic-level wands someday!”

Ji Chi nodded along, silently indicating he had the same thought.

Young Master Brandon failed to show goodwill once again. He became angry from embarrassment, heavily pounding the table (Table HP -0), and moved to a seat farther away. “Suit yourselves!”

“Alright, alright, students. I’ll be responsible for everyone’s Principles of Magic for the next year. If there’s anything you don’t understand, please be sure to find me in time.” Madam Emma tapped on the podium, smiling as she drew the young mages’ attention back.

Her gentle, water-like gaze swept across the young, tender faces, finally lingering especially long on Ji Chi. She looked at Ji Ch. “No one has been able to completely master the mysteries of magic to this day, but one thing is certain—every mage has amazing potential within them. Any setback is not a reason to give up.”

The young mages in the classroom were moved to tears by this inspiring speech, and even Ji Chi felt it made a lot of sense.

That’s right, any setback is not a reason for me to finally become a mage. Even if I died, crossed over, had my skills locked—I still won’t become a mage!

Madam Emma was very pleased and gently began explaining the history of the Demon Sword Continent and the origins of magic to the young mages.

Ji Chi was also very attentive at first, but as he listened, it sounded quite familiar.

He had actually encountered this content before, but had skipped through it all at the time. He never expected that one day he’d need to make up for it word by word in class 🙂

The history of the Demon Sword Continent was simple—nothing more than going from the Age of Gods to the Twilight of the Gods to the current sole faith in the God of Light.

“Legend says that in ancient times, everyone could sense the magic power of all elements, every being could freely choose their profession talent, all were equal, and light and darkness coexisted.” As Madam Emma spoke, her face showed longing. “If there really were such an opportunity, maybe I would choose to become a mermaid engineer, haha.”

The young mages in the classroom all laughed, clearly finding such a combination quite heretical.

Ji Chi didn’t laugh. He was integrating into this world, but he also hadn’t forgotten his past memories.

In his understanding, players could choose any race and pursue any profession they liked. Undead and elves could run dungeons together, angels and demons could form guilds together. How normal all this had been in the past was how absurd it seemed now.

But Ji Chi didn’t voice any objection to Madam Emma’s viewpoint either. He was no longer that player who dominated the entire server, and this wasn’t a relaxing, carefree holographic game.

This was a real world. All Ji Chi could do was accept it, or—change it.

****

After finishing a nearly five-hour Principles of Magic class, Ji Chi walked out of the classroom holding the brick-thick magic grimoire, feeling dizzy and with an increasingly strong sense of having truly crossed into another world.

He didn’t want to attend classes ahhhhh—

Evan was also dizzy from hunger.

Commoners didn’t have the habit of enjoying breakfast. They would only eat a bit of hard bread on the way to class or work to supplement their energy.

Evan had the same habit. His breakfast was hastily gnawing on a palm-sized piece of hard bread in the dormitory, which had long since been completely digested. Hunger came flooding in like a tide.

“Class is really physically exhausting… I wasn’t even this tired when I went out with the priest to spread the faith…” Evan said weakly. He assessed his physical condition with some regret. “I think we’ll have to take a centaur carriage. I really don’t have the strength to walk to Central Street.”

Ji Chi’s half-drooping eyelids suddenly lifted, looking at him in shock. “So you originally wanted to walk to Central Street?”

The map on Ji Chi’s panel was drawn in great detail. The Magic Academy was quite a distance from Central Street. Without teleportation magic circles, it would take about an hour to walk there at normal speed. For these delicate mages with an average walking speed of 0.5m/s, by the time they reached Central Street, it might already be dusk.

Evan put the magic grimoire into his burlap backpack and slung it over his back, smiling embarrassedly. “A magic carriage ride costs two copper coins. I still want to save where I can…”

Copper coins… Ji Chi had never heard of this unit of measurement.

He looked at his backpack. In the game, coins didn’t take up backpack slots but were represented by a long string of numbers in the upper right corner of the panel.

He had never paid attention to how much money he had. After all, in this type of large-scale online game, coins were the easiest resource to obtain—inversely proportional to the difficulty of obtaining yuan in reality.

Ji Chi estimated his nine-digit gold coin amount starting with nine and said seriously, “Let me cover these small expenses. I have quite sufficient coins.”

More than quite sufficient! Enough to buy two Saint Trilley Empires with money to spare!

Evan’s azure eyes curved into crescents upon hearing this, golden light flowing between his brows and hair. “I’ll pay instead. You should save your money to buy some better equipment. Knowing only one type of magic is still too dangerous…”

Evan was very worried about this roommate. He knew how hard life was for commoner mages who hadn’t grown strong yet—without money, they couldn’t buy magic scrolls, and without learning magic, they couldn’t earn money.

A closed loop that only unparalleled talent could break through.

Evan really, really wanted to help him. He had seen so many suffering commoners during his missionary work, but none of them were like Ji Chi.

There was light in his eyes.