Chapter 60: The Fictional Realm

Chapter 60: Chapter 60: The Fictional Realm

Three days later.

"Jeremy, what are you thinking about? So absorbed?"

Yusha’s voice yanked Jeremy’s train of thought back to the present. He blinked slightly, put down the magic quill in his hand onto the table, and leaned his body back slightly against the sofa: "...Nothing, just a bit tired."

"Then get a good rest first." Yusha tidied up the pile of complex magic matrix blueprints that covered half the table, grumbling in complaint: "Out of twenty-four hours a day, you bury your head in practicing magic matrices for sixteen hours. It’d be weird if you weren’t tired."

Jeremy chuckled softly, reaching up to massage his nape: "With Teacher Yusha personally taking the trouble to instruct me, how dare I slack off."

"Hmph." Yusha tilted his chin up. Truly, he deeply admired this young man’s willpower and stubbornness. Not only could he endure hardship, but his comprehension was also extremely high. If he possessed a high-tier Sacred Covenant, his future could easily dominate the continental rankings. What a pity... Why did it have to be the most bottom-tier Spirit Covenant? Yusha let out a heavy sigh.

Jeremy was completely unaware of what his teacher was thinking. He rested his head against the back of the sofa, his face tilted slightly, his gaze unconsciously lingering on the swaying flower pot on the balcony. The thoughts in his head right now were a bit chaotic.

It had been three days since their defeat at the hands of the Genius Team. The Academy’s tournament also no longer had anything to do with their Eclipse Team. Their assigned mentor, Griffin, remained in a state of having vanished from the face of the earth, so the team’s schedule was entirely up to their own free arrangement.

After leaving the infirmary and returning to the dormitory that day, he hadn’t stepped foot outside his door for three days. At night, he soaked in the marrow-cleansing medicinal bath to wash away the impurities in his body according to schedule; during the day, he formally followed Yusha to dissect magic matrices. Everything was extremely normal.

It was just that... Lucius’s abnormal behavior that day kept barging into his mind from time to time, making him a bit preoccupied.

It was clearly Lucius himself who spoke nonsense and acted clingy, yet he ended up putting on a sullen expression as if he had suffered some monumental grievance. He even looked a bit angry. Well, perhaps it was due to intense emotional fluctuation; after blurted out the phrase "want to touch you", everything from the tips of his ears, his Adam’s apple, all the way to his cheeks flushed a patch of red. The way he hastily turned around and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him in the end looked quite funny too.

Compared to some puppy or whatever, at that moment, he looked more like an arrogant Persian cat whose fur was bristling. Was it because of that overly exquisite face? His deliberately unreasonable behavior actually seemed a bit... cute.

...Wait a minute.

Cute?

Realizing he had just unconsciously attached that word to a guy, Jeremy’s spine instantly went rigid. He was stunned for a long while, then raised a hand to cover half of his face, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly.

He muttered in his throat: "...I’m truly losing my mind."

What kind of tangled mess was he thinking about right now? Since when did his brain short-circuit? Cute, my ass. It’s not like he was acting in some melodramatic soap opera, self-conquering himself...

That guy Lucius did grow up to be truly handsome, and those ice-blue eyes were captivating beyond permission... In short, no matter how hard he racked his brain, it hadn’t reached the point of calling a guy cute.

Now that he thought about it... In the past, whether in his old world or the present one, had he ever indulged anyone to casually overstep his personal space boundaries?

Absolutely not.

Although he wasn’t the type to have a mysophobia or reject physical contact, having known Lucius for less than two months, when did he start getting used to his proximity, even letting him cling to him without a care?

Was he the type of person who would let his guard down just because of a pretty face?

"..."

Jeremy dropped his hand, sat up straight expressionlessly, and pulled out a brand-new parchment sheet to resume practicing drawing magic matrices. It seemed that after being in contact with crazy people for a long time, he had also caught their madness. He had to properly find some work to do to calm himself down a bit.

Yusha, sitting beside him, saw him sighing one moment, frowning the next, and then holding his forehead. Just as Yusha was about to open his mouth to ask what was wrong, he saw Jeremy suddenly become extremely serious. Then... he began to crazily dive into studying, his face stone-cold as he focused on dissecting every line of the spiritual vein formulas.

Yusha scratched his head, completely baffled: What on earth was wrong with this kid? He didn’t look like he was having a headache over encountering a difficult formula either.

Thinking for a moment, Yusha suddenly remembered his practice goal from the past few days. Could it be because he was dissatisfied with his progress?

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Yusha cleared his throat and spoke up: "Jeremy, you can try experimenting with the Twin-Star Spirit-Diving matrix a bit now. Your spiritual force has increased these past few days; who knows, it might just succeed."

"Okay." There were too many things to think about these past few days; if Teacher hadn’t reminded him, Jeremy would have almost forgotten about this matter.

He then dipped his pen in ink and sketched the Twin-Star matrix once again. Perhaps because after the marrow cleansing, the amount of magic power in his body was purer, coupled with his ceaseless practice these past few days, his spiritual force was exceptionally steady. This time, his pen strokes carving the matrix were no longer hindered like before. But reaching the final stage, he still felt a tiny bit short on magic power.

After three failed experimental attempts, Jeremy pondered for a moment, directly pulled a short-term magic power enhancement potion out of his storage space, tilted his head back, and downed it all.

Tried one more time.

The light from the matrix erupted blindingly.

A wave of drowsiness hit him instantly; Jeremy leaned back against the sofa, surrendering his consciousness to sink into a deep sleep. Only one thought flashed through his mind: He wondered if he would enter the consciousness space of the same person this time.

It probably wouldn’t be that coincidental.

It truly wasn’t that coincidental.

The moment Jeremy’s consciousness set foot into the space, before he could even get a clear look at the full view of this place, a surge of frantic power struck, crazily rejecting and driving him out. In the blink of an eye, he was forced to wake up.

"..." Jeremy snapped his eyes open, staring up at the stark white ceiling of his dormitory, his chest heaving slightly.

Judging by the characteristic hair color and physique that flashed by in a split second, this time he must have accidentally barged into Leon’s consciousness space. His resistance was truly intense, not someone to be trifled with. Although he didn’t have time to clearly see what his dreamscape looked like, it could still be considered that he had successfully completed the Twin-Star matrix. A massive leap forward.

However... being expelled so quickly resulted in him not having the time to conduct the experimental step to see whether he could use magic inside the consciousness space.

Should he try again?

Whether it was a dreamscape or a consciousness space, both were simulated scenes of the subconscious, so they were collectively referred to as Fictional Realms or Fictional Worlds.

The scenes in the fictional world were the most authentic reflections of the inner self; therefore, through the scenery within, one could pry into the opponent’s hidden thoughts. However, only mages possessing high-tier magic matrices from five stars and above could precisely lock onto a target.

Newcomers like him naturally could not control the destination; the system would randomly pull him into anyone within the coverage range.

Jeremy had also realized that when his teammates practiced this type of matrix themselves, their consciousness bodies had also accidentally wandered into his dreamscape. But because the effective duration was too short, they were forced to leave before staying for even a few minutes. As for what happened during that time, Jeremy could also recall a little bit.

The ’him’ in that fictional world did nothing but sleep, and the background was forever a boring, stark white. As for his four teammates, whenever they wandered in, as if they had discussed it beforehand, they just obediently stood still in place, waiting for the magic matrix to expire and disappear.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he had successfully entered the consciousness space of someone in his team. As for who the master of the dark fictional world he had accidentally fallen into the previous two times was, up to now he still had no concrete clues.

Based on the coverage range of the magic matrix, if it wasn’t a teammate on the same floor, it would be a classmate from the same department on the floors above and below. The two floors above and below combined only had ten occupants.

Seven were female students; eliminated. Three were male students, but their eye colors didn’t match; eliminated as well. The only person who satisfied both conditions was that guy Phoenix. But looking at his attitude and reactions, it didn’t seem like him.

Well... He was free right now anyway. Drawing it a few more times, there would eventually be a probability of falling back into that space. When that time came, wouldn’t personally confirming it solve everything? Letting doubts linger in his heart was truly very troublesome.

Jeremy decided to resolve this lingering question first.

After gritting his teeth and drinking more magic potions, trying dozens of times until his head spun dizzily, he finally got his wish. Jeremy’s consciousness once again set foot into the familiar dark land.

But this time... compared to the gloomy, dead-silent scenery of the previous two times, the surrounding space seemed to have undergone an incredibly bizarre change.

During his previous two visits, the path before stepping up to the door of light was completely submerged in blinding darkness; he couldn’t see any scenery clearly.

But right now, what appeared before his eyes bore a completely different color.