Soon, he placed the paper cup on the transparent tea table and said, “I can tell you are a material civilization, seemingly still at a rather early stage. From what I’ve observed so far, your development is quite balanced, though.”

William Clark tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Still at an early stage? Maybe you should take a look at your own patchwork clothes before making such bold claims!

He asked, “What about your world?”

“Our world!” Old King pursed his lips slightly, looking quite stylish. “In your terms, we might be called a mysterious civilization, a magical civilization, a sorcery civilization, or perhaps an energy civilization, a supernatural civilization—I’m not even sure how to describe it. In our world…”

Ding-a-ling-ling…

A burst of ringing interrupted him.

“Sorry, let me take this call first.” William Clark decisively pulled out his phone and answered the call from Emily Clark.

“I got the score.” Emily Clark’s cool voice came through.

“How many points?” William Clark asked immediately.

“699.”

“That’s great! Amazing, amazing!” William Clark shouted excitedly right away—damn, just one point short of 700! “With this score, getting into Tsinghua or Peking University should be no problem. Last year, the top science student in the whole province only scored just over 700, right?”

“The questions were even easier this year,” Emily Clark said.

“Still, it should be fine. Have you decided yet, Tsinghua or Peking University?”

“No.” Emily Clark replied blandly, “I’m going to post on my Moments and Qzone first, I’ll hang up now.”

“Uh…”

A busy tone came from the phone.

William Clark put down his phone and looked at Old King a bit awkwardly. After a while, he said, “Sorry for the embarrassment. My little sister is still young, still at the tail end of her rebellious phase, not very mature.”

“Most people are like that at this age.” Old King smiled gently.

“Where were we?” William Clark said sheepishly. “Please, go on.”

“In our world, there are people who possess wondrous abilities. They’re somewhat like your scientists, doctors, philosophers, and so on.” Old King didn’t mind being interrupted earlier and continued in his usual tone, “I searched for many words in your language—maybe we should be called mages, wizards, spellcasters, or something like that…”

At this point, William Clark suddenly widened his eyes and stared at him: “You… you’re speaking Chinese now!!”

Right after he’d made that phone call, this Old King had actually learned Chinese. Does that mean mages in that world don’t have to suffer through language exams?

“Yes.” Old King nodded. “I just acquired your world’s language.”

“Where did you get it from? Don’t tell me it was from my brain…” William Clark suddenly froze. “Wait, our world’s language? Not just our country’s language?”

“Yes, I obtained the language of this world from this world itself.” Old King’s eyes flashed with a strange light as he confirmed the question. “Your country’s, other countries’, modern, ancient, those still in use, those already lost…”

“……” William Clark was utterly shocked. “Master Mage, please teach me your magic!!”

Chapter 4: The Small Inn Opens

Old King glanced sideways at William Clark.

William Clark stared back at Old King.

The principle behind such a marvelous technique was undoubtedly beyond his imagination, but that didn’t matter—as long as he could use it.

“I don’t mind teaching you the theory of spellcasting, but I must be honest: at present, I really haven’t seen any magical talent in you.” Old King said calmly. “Actually, it’s not a big deal. You can completely make up for this flaw with a long lifespan, or find a way to change yourself over the course of a long life. But there’s one thing that’s fatal—”

“The most basic and most important quality for becoming a mage is a strong thirst for knowledge, and I haven’t seen that in you so far.”

“Maybe you’re just too old.” Old King tapped his staff on the ground. “Every newborn baby is full of curiosity about this world. They’re always excited to explore everything, but unfortunately, if no one preserves that thirst for knowledge, after being brushed off tens of thousands of times, they’ll become someone who takes the world for granted, someone who gets used to the world’s rules and appearance, who no longer asks what things are, or why they are the way they are.”

“They become ordinary, trapped in trivialities. If they don’t break out, they’ll never be able to become an outstanding spellcaster.” Old King kept staring at him.

“……” William Clark didn’t respond.

It seemed as if he’d been inexplicably struck by a node in time and space, and now, muddleheaded, he was about to start running around for the sake of “world peace” and “not letting a guest from another world starve to death.” But now this Old King had told him in just a couple of sentences that none of this could change his inherently lazy nature—at most, it just made him a slightly more unusual slacker.

If what this Old King said was true, and he really did have a very long lifespan, for a slacker, that just made it harder to muddle through life.

“So what should I do?” William Clark asked.