A super martial artist accidentally chooses the mage class while playing an online game. Used to fighting violence with violence and strength with strength, he decides to go with the flow and transforms himself into a close-combat, violent mage. When strength and magic are perfectly combined, a new path in gaming opens up for him!

Fireball? Chain Lightning? Frost Mirror... Wait, I’m here to practice kung fu—what do spells have to do with me?

I’m a mage? Oh, right, I’m a mage. But... do you really believe I’m a mage?

Fine then, watch my blade! Watch my sword! Watch my fists! Watch my hidden weapons! What? You’re saying I’m not a mage again?

If you don’t believe it, I’ll prove it to you; if you do believe it, I’ll put on a show for you: a mage who knows kung fu—no one can stop me!

Volume One: The Birth of a Mage

Chapter 1: Teacher Ryan Carter

The sky above Cloud City was gray, with a fine drizzle falling intermittently.

Near the player spawn point at the city’s Mage Academy, two NPC merchants were surrounded by a dense crowd. One specialized in selling brooms, the other in black-rimmed glasses. The influence of "Harry Potter" on the old theme of magic was so great that even the latest full-immersion online game, "Parallel World," couldn’t escape its shadow.

These two NPCs, taking advantage of the standard "Harry Potter" look, ruthlessly ripped off the new players. You see, the system only gives new players fifty copper coins as a bonus, but these two utterly useless accessories each cost 125, totaling exactly 250. Even so, players’ enthusiasm remained undiminished—they strove all day just to earn that 250. The entire Mage Academy was filled with players in long robes, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and waving brooms as they bustled about.

Amidst this festive atmosphere, there was one person who looked anything but happy.

Ryan Carter, dressed in a mage’s robe, stood in the center of the school plaza. Looking at the joyful crowd around him, he could do nothing but sigh—there was really nothing else for him to do.

The last thing he ever wanted to be was a mage.

But he just happened to become a mage.

It was all the fault of that student named Frank. Ryan Carter was originally a teacher at the school. By chance, he overheard a few students discussing this new online game that used full-immersion technology. After asking a few questions, the student named Frank eagerly gave him an account.

Who would have thought that good intentions could go so wrong? Frank had carelessly given Ryan Carter an account that already had a set class and name. After Ryan Carter went through the full-immersion scan and identity binding to enter the game, he discovered this. And since this was the first game to use full-immersion technology, it was getting unprecedented attention. Because the game servers could only handle so many players, the official policy was to send out a limited number of accounts—one per person. As a result, if Ryan Carter wanted to play, he had no choice but to be this mage.

Looking at the brand-new, top-of-the-line full-immersion equipment he had bought especially, it would be a shame not to play. In the end, Ryan Carter entered the game. Unfortunately, since he didn’t get the class he wanted, the whole point of the game was lost for him. Now, standing in the city, Ryan Carter had no idea what to do.

As he stood there in a daze, he suddenly saw a few mages, their robes torn and faces bruised, running back from outside the Mage Academy’s main gate. Ryan Carter spotted a short, skinny figure among them and instinctively called out, “Frank!”

This was the student—bad grades, poor at sports, average looks, and no real talents except for a slick tongue. At school, he was the kind of person nobody cared about. Ryan Carter had gotten this mage account from him. Meeting him in the game, Ryan Carter had to try hard to resist the urge to give him a beating—after all, it wasn’t intentional. Besides, he had to set an example as a teacher.

Frank heard someone call him, looked up, and stumbled over to Ryan Carter. “Hello, teacher!” Frank said.

“All right, all right, no need for that,” Ryan Carter said quickly. Being greeted by a student like this in-game was truly embarrassing. Many players nearby, having heard this, looked over curiously.

“What happened to you?” Ryan Carter pulled Frank a bit away from the crowd before asking.

Frank took a couple of deep breaths. “I didn’t expect this... I just went out for a stroll in the city and got beaten up.”

“What level are you?” Ryan Carter asked, puzzled. He knew that, apart from the spawn point, there were no so-called safe zones in the game, but there was still PK protection for low-level players. Players below level five couldn’t be PKed.

“Just spawned, haven’t leveled up yet!” Frank said.

“Then how could you get PKed?” Ryan Carter was confused.

“It wasn’t PK, it was just a beating,” Frank said.

“What’s the difference?” Ryan Carter didn’t get it.

“Teacher, PK means using in-game skills to reduce in-game health. But now, with full-immersion simulation, they just beat me up like a street fight. My health didn’t go down, but... it really hurt!” Frank rubbed his mouth, grimacing in pain.

“There are actually people like that!” Ryan Carter was surprised.

“Yeah! I didn’t expect this to happen after full-immersion simulation, either,” Frank said.