Of course Lu Kang had a cheat.
The memories he had brought with him as a transmigrator were nowhere near enough to count as a true advantage in this world.
Even if those memories let him know many of the world's secrets—even if he knew that this place, with its Clock Tower, magi, and Mystery, had once existed in his pre-transmigration world as a fantasy setting known as Type-Moon—
The domain of Mystery and magecraft was already profound and unfathomable. This world was hardly lacking in sages with prophetic abilities, people capable of glimpsing future phenomena.
Only a true "cheat" could give him an advantage over everyone else.
And the reason he slept in class every day was precisely to accumulate mental energy, piecing fragments together bit by bit, awakening that special ability—
Today was the day the "assembly" had finally been completed.
He could already feel the extra "phenomenon" that had appeared in his mind. It just wasn't the right time to examine it closely yet, so he forcibly suppressed the restlessness in his heart.
At that moment, the young man's confident declaration still echoed faintly through the empty lecture hall.
Waver, who had been packing his things, froze in place. He silently repeated the words to himself a couple of times, and the more he turned them over in his mind, the more marvelous they seemed.
"That was brilliant!"
Convinced once more that Lu Kang was indeed a genius, Waver actually rose to his feet and applauded.
"Since you think I said it so well, then get ready to treat me," Lu Kang said, standing up as well. "You made me miss cafeteria hours, so compensate me with your wallet. We're going to the most expensive restaurant nearby."
"I refuse. I'm broke!" Waver Velvet answered without a moment's hesitation. When it came to money, even like-minded comrades were not to be indulged.
…
In the end, Waver still treated Lu Kang to a "big meal."
It just wasn't at the most expensive restaurant nearby—only an ordinary little diner by the street.
Waver knew perfectly well what Lu Kang's circumstances were like.
Although they were both from insignificant rural mage families with no more than two or three generations of inheritance, Lu Kang's financial situation was clearly even worse than Waver's.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be haunting the cafeteria every single day.
And everyone knew the Clock Tower cafeteria food was… very average.
By the time Lu Kang had successfully extorted his meal from Waver and the two of them returned to their respective lodgings, it was already close to evening.
Inside the quiet bedroom, the sky beyond the window gradually dimmed, like the heavy curtain of a theater slowly falling.
The afterglow of the sunset outlined the bustling modern city in the distance. From afar, the high-rises swayed like layered silhouettes.
Back in his single dorm room at the Clock Tower, Lu Kang leaned lazily against the window and yawned, letting the jagged strands of fading light spill across his face.
He thought to himself:
It was time.
Time to investigate the cheat he had finally finished assembling.
The very next second, the information he had been suppressing all this time burst forth like a broken dam, flooding his mind almost instantly and seizing control of his thoughts—
[Dream fragment assembly complete.]
[Successfully generated: "Family (Primary) Simulator."]
[Dream AI generated automatically.]
[Simulation Sprite, at your service.]
It was as though a spark had ignited within his consciousness, only to explode into a prairie fire in the next instant. Lu Kang barely managed to wrench himself free from the torrent of awareness. The thing had appeared so abruptly that it felt like being drowned before he even understood what was happening.
And yet, he couldn't help but feel delighted.
There was no cheerful little "ding," no goofy system voice full of theatrics. This newborn AI clearly wasn't that advanced yet.
But this so-called Family Simulator was without question the very advantage Lu Kang had been waiting for.
It was the fruit of all his daily "hard work" slacking off and sleeping in class.
Every time he fell asleep, all activity within his dream-consciousness had been automatically gathered up. Once enough had accumulated, they had naturally pieced themselves together into this thing.
And this—this was his true cheat.
[This system will help you simulate your family lineage and generate a powerful bloodline background!]
The Simulation Sprite's crisp voice rang out in Lu Kang's mind, audible to him alone.
Yes. This was exactly the ability he needed.
In a world of magecraft ruled by inheritance and bloodline, nothing was more important than family lineage.
"Inheritance" determined the power of a Magic Crest. A Magic Crest was the condensed essence of a magus's lifetime of research. Before death, every magus would crystallize their magecraft into a crest and pass it on to the next generation. The more generations it had been inherited through, the stronger and more comprehensive the mysterious formulae contained within it would naturally become.
"Bloodline," on the other hand, determined the magus's own natural aptitude—namely, the quantity and quality of their magic circuits, the organs that governed the strength and amount of magical energy. Generally speaking, only powerful magi, through generations of reproduction, could produce descendants with circuits numerous and potent enough.
For a magus, both inheritance and bloodline were indispensable.
The former was like an engine—a fixed tool for recreating in the present the phenomena that had once existed in ancient ages.
The latter was like the fuel that ignited that engine.
Or rather—
The oil well from which that fuel was refined.
Perhaps a genius might, through the efforts of a single generation, create powerful magecraft and develop an advanced enough "engine."
But without sufficient fuel, both in quality and quantity, it would still be useless.
Only when the two were combined could Mystery truly be preserved. Only then could ancient phenomena genuinely be reproduced in an age where Mystery had grown increasingly barren.
Which was precisely why the ability to return to the past was so valuable.
And the older the era, the stronger everything was—not just magi, but the world's environment as well. If he could trace back to ages when Mystery was denser and more abundant, he would have far more room to research the hidden truths of magecraft, to pursue kinds of mystical inquiry that were impossible in the present era.
Under the right conditions, he might even be able to fuse inheritance and bloodline together into a complete system, forging them into a foundation capable of gathering together the Mysteries of past, present, and even future.
And that was an extremely important step.
A foundation was itself one of the core pillars of modern magecraft.
Every ancient lineage possessed its own magical foundation, and countless such foundations, gathered together, were what formed the complete foundation of modern magecraft.
The modern magecraft foundation allowed many families without one of their own to gain access to Mystery.
—but in the end, that still meant being constrained by others.
It could be said that only a family with its own magical foundation could truly be considered an ancient mage lineage.
And this simulator would give Lu Kang the chance to become exactly that.
A thought stirred in his heart, but just to be safe, he still asked:
"So, system… are you actually legit?"
[Verified as absolutely genuine—more genuine than pearls.]
The Simulation Sprite replied almost instantly.
[This system uses the host's dreams as a bridge, helping the host trace back through time and granting the host a chance to fulfill their ideals. There is absolutely no falsehood in the process.]
So it wasn't some useless bargain-bin system after all?
Lu Kang was inwardly startled.
Still, if that was the case, then there was no reason for him to hesitate.
This thing had been assembled from the fragments of his own dreams. It was practically another "incarnation" of himself. There probably wasn't any danger.
After all, it was only a simulation.
Just a dream.
"Then let's begin."
As he spoke, Lu Kang glanced once more out the window.
The sun had sunk below the horizon, and the last traces of twilight had vanished completely. Vast night spread across the sky, studded with stars. Moonlight turned like a great wheel overhead as the evening wind drifted in, pouring through the open window and stirring the curtains.
Countless mystical instruments gleamed under the moonlight, while on all four walls faintly shimmered the magical formations engraved there to carry Mystery.
This was Lu Kang's bedroom.
At the same time, it was also his "workshop" as a magus—his base for researching thaumaturgical formulae, the stronghold from which a magus operated.
For Lu Kang, there was no safer place in the world.
And at that very same moment—
The Simulation Sprite spoke again in his mind.
[Simulation confirmed.]
As the words fell, Lu Kang's vision darkened.
He sank into a dream.
[Simulation beginning.]
[Welcome to the dimension of infinite possibilities.]
…
[Late 19th century CE.]
[Age 0: You are born in a rural corner of the Russian Empire. A great famine has broken out in the place of your birth. With no means of survival, your parents abandon you in the woods. Fortunately, a young nun from a convent hears your cries and finds you.]
[You are taken in by the nuns. Based on the mark on your body, they give you the name "Lu Kang Luvister." It is a name that sounds neither Tsarist nor Russian.]
[You grow up in the convent.]
[Age 1: You begin to babble your first words. The very first phrase you learn is "Thus saith God" from the Bible. The nuns are astonished, believing you to be a blessing granted to them by the Lord.]
[The next day, you tear up a Bible and get beaten for it.]
[Age 3: You officially begin your education. You display astonishing intelligence and quickly master written Russian.]
[You begin accompanying the nuns through the streets and alleys, "bestowing blessings" upon the people.]
[People begin calling you the "Little Priest."]
[Age 4: You discover a hidden room beneath the convent, filled with strange instruments and books.]
[Your traces are discovered by the abbess. Expecting punishment, you instead find the old abbess kindly asking whether you would like to learn true "miracles."]
[It turns out that the abbess is a genuine magus. For a woman of the cloth, such conduct is undoubtedly blasphemy against God—but as a young child, you do not understand this. You are simply thrilled by the mysterious power she demonstrates. Knowing her time is running short, she decides to accept you as her apprentice so that her life's research may have a successor.]
[This year, you truly step into the world of Mystery.]
[This year, you awaken twenty-three dormant magic circuits within your body. The abbess defines you as "a genius among commoners."]
[You study magecraft every day.]
[…]
[Age 15: The abbess passes away. Before her death, she condenses her life's research into a "Magic Crest" and passes it on to you.]
[After the abbess's death, you decline to take her place as head of the convent and begin traveling throughout the Russian Empire to broaden your knowledge.]
[1912: The Russian Empire is beset by turmoil at home and threats from abroad. War and famine have brought great suffering to the people. As a "member of the clergy," you use the power of Mystery to soothe their pain, and in the process begin developing magecraft that belongs to you alone.]
[People begin calling you the "Little Sage."]
[Nicholas II, Emperor of the Russian Empire, hears of your deeds.]
[You also hear that Nicholas II is widely seeking talented people to treat his son Alexei, who suffers from hemophilia.]
[In the autumn of 1912, you are invited to the imperial court in Moscow.]
[This year, you are seventeen years old.]