IRM Chapter 77

“Clang clang clang——bang!“

The morning breeze mixed with moist moisture, interspersed with the familiar fresh scent of grass and wood, blew in through the open window, stirring drowsy eyes.

This should have been a pleasant experience, but it was harshly shattered by the incessant clanging and banging.

Harvey’s brows were tightly furrowed as he covered his head with a soft cotton pillow, letting out a muffled groan of distress. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and sat up. Sure enough, he found several freshly fallen hairs beside his pillow, his expression growing even more depressed.

Harvey grabbed his house robe from the coat rack, jumped out of bed, and angrily ran to the neighboring house to knock on the door and complain.

Ji Chi was immersed in the pleasure of assembling machinery and couldn’t extricate himself, completely oblivious to the repeated knocking on the door. It wasn’t until Harvey used the law of time to turn his newly assembled armor back into scattered parts that he darkened his expression and also angrily ran out.

The battle of gods on the Demon Sword Continent once again commenced outside the courtyard at No. 223 North Street, Saint Trilley Royal City.

The first to strike was the God of Knowledge, who controlled time and passed down knowledge. At this moment, He froze all the surrounding time, using His lifelong accumulated knowledge to berate someone’s complete lack of civic virtue.

Now counterattacking was the new God of Forging, who excelled at breakthroughs. Although still very inexperienced, one could sense the abundant divine power surging through his soul. At this time, he stubbornly retorted that someone should just try closing their window when sleeping.

“Why should I? I need the fresh scent of flowers and grass to wake me up—that’s what makes it a brand new day. What right do you have to deprive me of that right!” Harvey was angry.

Ji Chi frowned and counted on his fingers. “First, I’ve already commissioned someone to set up a soundproofing magic array, though I don’t know why it doesn’t work on you. Second, I suggest you counter magic with physics—closing the window would indeed help a lot. Third…”

Ji Chi was also angry. “So what time do you actually go to bed? You came to my house making noise yesterday evening, the day before you wouldn’t let me assemble anything in the afternoon, and the day before that at noon you said you couldn’t sleep… Is your NPC rest schedule randomly generated? You’d be cursed to death by quest players, you know!”

Harvey was rendered speechless. He irritably paced in circles on the spot, then finally stopped and said, “How about this—from now on, I’ll tell you in advance when I need to rest, and you stay quiet during that time, okay?”

Ji Chi crossed his arms and looked at him sideways. “Why should I unconditionally obey you? What’s in it for me?”

Harvey looked at him with great resentment. “The Machinery Design Guide.”

Ji Chi chuckled. “One book’s worth of explanations isn’t enough. Add the Principles of Machinery Manufacturing too.”

A vein throbbed on Harvey’s forehead. After much deliberation, he finally nodded with humiliation. “…Fine.”

Headmaster Harvey’s explanatory function had been inadvertently discovered by Ji Chi. The knowledge and theoretical systems of this world were completely different from his original world, and Ji Chi easily got stuck in dead ends, unable to get out for ages.

Harvey had once overheard his muttering and couldn’t help but offer a pointer. The God of Knowledge was indeed the God of Knowledge—Ji Chi instantly had an epiphany and shifted his dangerous gaze onto Harvey.

Although Harvey didn’t actually dislike students with a thirst for knowledge, the problem still lay in the different knowledge systems of the two worlds. Ji Chi understood some high-difficulty knowledge very quickly, but his grasp of the basics was… indescribable.

Imagine a Tsinghua or Peking University mathematics professor being constantly asked questions like “why does 1+1 equal 2″—it would also be extremely maddening.

Harvey deeply sighed, rubbed his forehead, and dejectedly returned to his house, sincerely hoping for the first time that Ji Chi could quickly pass the engineer examination. That way, he could throw him into the Engineering Academy, where he could clang and bang together with a group there, and no one would disturb anyone.

At this moment, the deity was devoutly praying.

The unchanging study time always passed quickly. During the day, Ji Chi slacked off at the Magic Academy reading machinery books, occasionally going to Harvey’s office to have him explain problems. After returning home in the afternoon, depending on Harvey’s rest schedule, he practiced the most basic assembly work.

During this period, he made a special trip to Bard’s wand shop to see Chloe, whom he hadn’t seen in some time.

Under Bard’s modifications, Chloe’s appearance had become much more normal. All her functions were retained, but from a distance, she looked about the same size as an ordinary girl.

Ji Chi told her about having his own little nest and asked, “Do you want to move in and live with me?”

Chloe thought for a long time, then shook her head. The connection at her neck hadn’t been repaired yet and made creaking sounds. “No, Chloe wants to continue staying with Master Bard.”

Ji Chi was stunned. He had thought Chloe would go with him without a second thought. He had even cleaned out a room on the second floor for her in advance.

He was very puzzled and couldn’t help asking, “Why?”

Chloe stiffly lifted the corners of her mouth. She had recently been sitting in the corner of the shop observing the coming and going customers, studying human expressions. Now she was practicing smiling. “Chloe isn’t good enough yet. I want to continue learning from Master Bard, and then come to your side to help you.”

Ji Chi realized that in the few days they hadn’t met, she had once again started treating him as her master. He was about to wave his hand and say it wasn’t necessary, but in the end, he didn’t say it. He just helplessly agreed: “Alright, you decide. Come whenever you want—the room will always be ready for you.”

After Ji Chi left, Chloe stood at the door for a long time.

She had no voice, no heartbeat, just silently watching through the shop window, causing some customers to think she was a humanoid machinery model and specifically running to ask Bard how much she cost.

Bard helplessly tugged at her, bringing Chloe inside, saying as he did, “Living with him and learning from me aren’t mutually exclusive. If you’re so reluctant to part, you can come find me when he’s at school.”

Chloe reluctantly followed behind him. “Didn’t Master say the new materials would be back soon? Chloe wants to become human before going to find him.”

“Is this what humans often call a surprise?” Chloe suddenly asked with great interest.

Bard was somewhat silent. He had seen the ideas Chloe had drawn out and felt that for Ji Chi, there might be more shock than surprise…

In the blink of an eye, two months had passed, and the nationally watched academy admission tests began to be held successively in various locations.

The Combat Academy had set up seven test locations throughout the Saint Trilley Empire. Each test site would run for seven consecutive days to allow the seven profession divisions to test candidate students one by one.

Ten days before the test began, Ji Chi received a test invitation. The invitation was delivered by a flock of magic pigeons. The plump white pigeons suddenly burst into the classroom one morning, flew to Ji Chi, and a bright red beak held an envelope stamped with the Engineering Academy’s emblem.

The young mages were obviously very familiar with the messenger pigeons. Seeing again the scene they had personally experienced a year ago, they gathered around Ji Chi in surprise, chattering about that invitation.

“Did the magic pigeons deliver it to the wrong place? Why was an Engineering Academy test invitation delivered to the Magic Academy, and to a student already enrolled?”

“I don’t know, maybe it was delivered wrong… Wait, look at the name printed on it—it’s Ji Chi’s name!”

“It really is! Come to think of it, Ji Chi has been reading machinery books for the past two months. Is he really going to transfer schools…”

Before the young mages could discuss it thoroughly, another fluttering sound came from the side. They watched wide-eyed as a pigeon carrying a Warrior Academy letter flew over their heads, and a letter slowly floated down onto Brandon’s desk.

Before they could cry out in surprise, another pigeon swooped past at low altitude, delivering a Summoner Academy invitation to Saintess Coralie’s hands.

The young mages: ??? Is multi-profession about to become popular? But it doesn’t conform to common sense at all…

At this moment, a thought that had never been noticed before crossed their minds—what is common sense? A person’s life is so long; how could trying other professions be considered against common sense?

A small seed was planted, waiting to break through the soil and sprout, eventually spreading curiosity and experimentation across the continent, ushering in an unprecedented revolution.

Under the gazes of the crowd that seemed both confused and awakened, Brandon opened the letter and glanced at it. “Mm, as expected, still in the royal city… What day are your tests? Mine is on the sixth day.”

Saintess Coralie also unfolded the white page, lowering her eyes to scan it. “Summoners all test on the third day.”

Having said this, they simultaneously turned their heads, their gazes burning as they looked at Ji Chi.

Ji Chi casually broke the wax seal on the envelope. “I remember the machinery test is in the middle days. That’s right, the fourth day, at…Yiste Town?”

Ji Chi turned the letter over and over for a long time before confirming he hadn’t misread the place name.

Yiste Town was in the southeastern direction of the Saint Trilley Empire. It was the most remote and poorest of the seven test locations. The vast majority of those taking tests in Yiste Town were commoners, with a small portion being slaves.

The place with the most test accidents every year was also there—after all, it was a chaotic area with questionable character.

Brandon was also shocked. “Yiste? How did you end up going there… Ah, right, this test region is divided according to your original address. You also passed the Magic Academy test there two years ago, didn’t you?”

Two years ago, Ji Chi had still been lying in a hospital bed. He didn’t know how his identity had actually been set up, so he could only vaguely acknowledge it.

Learning that Ji Chi came from such a place, the young master immediately became excited and curious. “It really is a very mysterious place! I must take a good trip to Yiste in the future!”

Ji Chi looked at him helplessly. What kind of strange hobbies were these…

Then he saw Saintess Coralie and Evan also silently nod.

Ji Chi: …Alright, as long as you’re happy.

The tests for the seven professional divisions were very grand. Ji Chi had to depart for Yiste Town two days in advance.

He was now quite used to traveling around. He found a large-capacity magic bag, stuffed daily necessities and tool reference books into it wholesale, then scavenged a half-used linen backpack from a street stall and put some half-worn clothes inside.

Besides the essential items, Ji Chi learned from his lesson this time. He specifically ran to the academy cafeteria and, under the angry but helpless glares of a group of young mages, bought out all the freshly baked sandwiches, meat pies, and other foods that day.

He didn’t put the food emanating rich charcoal fire aroma directly into the bag. Instead, he turned right out the door and knocked on Harvey’s door, having him help freeze the food’s time.

Harvey was simply speechless about this impolite little bastard. He was a perfectly good deity—why was every day now like taking care of a child?

Ji Chi thought making full use of resources was perfectly reasonable. He poked him and urged, “Hurry up, hurry up. It won’t taste good when it gets cold.”

Harvey sighed and raised his hand, drawing a circle over the food. In that instant, the steam rising from the golden-brown bread froze. It was as if they had been forgotten in the river of time, maintaining their original temperature and appearance.

Ji Chi satisfactorily placed this absolutely unique ration frozen in time into the magic bag, hefted the backpack on his shoulder, walked toward the door, and said goodbye over his shoulder. “Well, I’m off to take the test~”

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Halfway there, Ji Chi suddenly turned around and came back, trotting up to Harvey. He pressed his palms together and devoutly bowed to him, “God of Knowledge, please bless me to pass every exam I take——“