[Time]: 11:20 AM
[Location]: Yggdrasil Academy · Golden Bough Apartments · Room 302 (Second Floor Bedroom)
Hathaway pushed open the door to the second floor, backhanding it shut to lock out the "Old Money" Necrotic Hall downstairs.
Her bedroom, though lacking the vampire-castle gloom and luxury of the ground floor, was spacious enough. It featured a four-poster bed with drapes, an en-suite bathroom, and a massive floor-to-ceiling window. Outside lay the dreamlike, tower-filled skyline of the White City, with countless floating islands casting giant shadows under the midday sun.
"Phew..."
Hathaway threw herself heavily onto the bed, which was as soft as a cloud.
"I survived."
Although the process was thrilling (nearly had her internal organs vibrated to mush), and the methods were despicable (referring to the chili powder), the result was good. Enrolled successfully. Housing acquired. And she had reached a shaky truce with a mortal enemy who probably wanted her dead.
"Next is..."
Hathaway sat up abruptly as her stomach let out a roar akin to a dragon's.
Grrr—!
"An army marches on its stomach."
She opened her magi-tech terminal, ready to check the location of the nearest cafeteria, and casually glanced at her financial status.
[Account Balance: 30,245 Gold Solars]
Hathaway nodded at the precision. As a former Game Designer, her data reflex threw up a revenue and expenditure spreadsheet:
Income A: 30,000 Solars (The "Angel Round" startup capital from Mom Margaret).
Income B: 250 Solars (The pathetic remnant balance on the original Hathaway's nearly maxed-out card).
Expenditure: -5 Solars.
"5 Solars. Now that is unbeatable value."
The "Low-Profile Enrollment" strategy had ruled out the family carriage, so she had taken [Route 66 · Aerial Dragon-Bus] instead, and Route 66 had turned out to be a velvet booth with its own tea table, a wind dragon doing the pulling, mahogany shelves along the walls under oil portraits of dead Grand Witches, and an alchemical arm that topped up her iced lemon tea at every stop without being asked. Back home, five units of currency bought a plastic seat with someone else's gum on it.
She had filled her thermos twice. On principle.
"This is a highly developed magical civilization."
A True Dragon had been her chauffeur, and the fare had not covered the tea. That was the White City flexing its title as Capital of the Inner Sea of Stars.
Holding a massive sum of thirty thousand, Hathaway felt her backbone stiffen. In Witch society, this money was enough for her to live like an empress for a semester. She heard the "Ash-Rock Dragon Steak" in the cafeteria was only 25 Solars a serving, and it was made from the tenderest juvenile dragons.
"Decided. Going to the cafeteria to smash some dragon meat and replenish the calories burned from throwing chili powder."
Just as Hathaway was about to get up, the terminal on her wrist vibrated.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Three crimson urgent notifications popped up like blood splatter, dominating the entire retinal projection.
[Academic Affairs Warning: Dear Transfer Student Hathaway]
1. [Target Assessment: A1 · International Universal Witch Qualification]
Nature: Mandatory Adult Obligation / Basic Survival Guarantee Certification.
Status: Not Held (High Risk).
Description: The A1 Certification is the cornerstone of Witch society. Passing this exam deems one "possessing independent civil capacity" and grants a monthly 200 Solar government welfare allowance.
Ultimatum: Given that you are 18 years old and have not passed this certification, according to the Witch Code: Compulsory Education Act, you must pass the assessment on the Unified Exam Day 30 days from now. Failure will trigger Mandatory Expulsion and revocation of Witch citizenship.
2. [Credit Exchange Protocol (Gambler's Clause)]
Current Credits: -24 (Due to transfer status).
Option A: Score 50 on A1 (Pass). Gain formal student status, but must complete all assignments from the first half of the semester within one month.
Option B: Score 120 on A1 (Distinction). Exemption from all Level 100 Basic Compulsory Courses this semester (e.g., Brief History of Spells, Basic Common Tongue), receiving full credits instantly.
3. [Exam Prep Material Pack]
Attachment: A1_Question_Bank_2003_Real_Test.pdf (Total 120,000 pages)
Hathaway looked at the familiar "A1" on the screen.
Her vision went dark.
"A1...?" Hathaway rubbed her forehead, feeling the original Hathaway's memories attacking her brain. "A1 Certification... isn't this basically the Witch equivalent of a GED?"
"But..."
Hathaway walked tremblingly to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked outside.
Once an adult, at 18, a Witch's time froze physically, and a monster hundreds of years old might still look like a youthful girl.
But height and developmental stages told the truth.
Hathaway watched helplessly as several tiny tots, shorter than their broomsticks with baby fat still clinging to their cheeks, ran supersonic maneuvers on the latest Nimbus brooms.
This was Yggdrasil Academy. The highest institution of Witch Civilization. Seeing a 10-year-old here meant only one thing:
While others were playing with mud, she had already cleared all basic education and charged into this ivory tower as an "Absolute Genius."
As for the A1 Certificate that was causing Hathaway such a headache?
To these kids, that was probably scrap paper they used to level table legs when they were 8 years old.
"..."
Hathaway looked down at her fully developed, curvaceous 18-year-old body.
The Original. Of course it was the Original.
That top-tier slacker who was good for nothing except being rich, pretty, and hot, had dragged this "Literacy Exam" out until her 18-year-old physical freeze period without taking it!
"Which means..."
Hathaway clutched her chest. "Those tweens changing teeth outside are already licensed elites. And I, a physiologically mature 18-year-old adult, am legally an oversized toddler who can't read, without even a 'Literacy Proof'?"
"And to avoid expulsion, I have to spend a month desperately studying for a... welfare test that is as simple as 'breathing' to them?"
Then her eyes tracked back up the notification, past the expulsion clause, to Option B.
Score 120 and the entire Level 100 tier evaporates. That is a speedrun category.
But immediately, the will to survive took over.
"Calm down... Hathaway, calm down." She took a deep breath, trying to comfort herself with Earth logic: "Since it's a 'Primary School Diploma,' since it's a welfare test for 10-year-olds, how hard can the questions be?"
"Even if I'm an Earthling without magic common sense, with my logical thinking skills, doing some 5th-Grade Arithmetic shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Fueled by the sheer denial of "I won't believe I'm screwed until the Game Over screen appears," Hathaway tremblingly opened the [A1 Prep Material Pack].
"Let's see what Witch primary schoolers are learning..."
She turned to the first page of last year's real test paper.
[Question 1 (Divination & Mana Calculus · Value: 10 Points)]
"Regarding the Level 3 Divination Spell [All-Seeing Eye]:
When observing a target in a 'High-Interference Environment' (e.g., The Abyss Layer 6), the mana consumption increases non-linearly with the duration of the spell.
Please establish a differential equation to compare the 'Minimum Mana Maintenance Threshold' against the 'Information Fidelity Coefficient'.
Calculate the exact Marginal Utility Decay Point where the mana cost exceeds the value of the information received (assume Observer Stability is constant at 8.5)."
Clatter.
The magi-tech terminal in Hathaway's hand dropped onto the blanket.
Her vision went dark again.
"This is... A1?!"
"This is for 10-year-olds?!"
Hathaway clutched her hair.
"Calculus? Differential Equations? To cast a Level 3 spell?! I thought magic was about chanting 'Fireball' and throwing stuff! Why do I need to calculate Marginal Utility Decay?!"
Unwilling to give up, she picked up the terminal, her hand shaking like a chihuahua on caffeine, and swiped to the next question.
[Question 2 (Linguistics & Spatial Geometry · Value: 5 Points)]
"Please translate the following incantation using Ancient Witch Tongue (Third Dynasty Variant) and point out which three grammatical traps would lead to what degree of Non-Euclidean Spatial Collapse."
[Question 3 (Practical Application · Value: 10 Points)]
"Assume you are thrown into an 'Anti-Magic Field' with only a toothpick and a bar of soap. Please design an alchemy plan to kill an adult Hellhound (Fire Immunity) within one minute."
Hathaway threw the terminal across the room.
"It's over."
She collapsed on the bed, eyes lifeless. "This isn't something self-study can solve... the logic in these questions is high-dimensional..."
This was Quantum Physics, High-Dimensional Geometry, Macroeconomics, and Wilderness Survival in a blender, with a thesis due in an alien language!
As a senior Game Designer in her past life, Hathaway knew the importance of "Numerical Balance." If a starter village quest was impossibly hard, either the dev was crazy, or she hadn't found the correct "Walkthrough."
Her hand trembling, she grabbed the terminal. Her fingers hovered over the keys, about to type 'Otherworld Transmigrators', but she violently hit the brakes.
Digital footprints. A pureblood Ludwig would never search for that.
But an arrogant pureblood absolutely would look up statistics to mock the lower species.
She deleted the text and typed a perfectly safe, condescending query: [A1 Exam, Transmuted Witches, Failure Rate].
The moment the search results popped up, Hathaway felt her heart skip a beat. It was a highlighted post from the Witch World's largest anonymous forum, "Cauldron Hub":
[Rant] Day 300 of converting to a Witch, still gazing at the stars from the Abyss of A1
OP: Location: White City. I was originally an Elven Priestess from the Emerald Dream with two thousand years of natural casting experience. After converting to a Witch, I thought A1 would be a breeze.
Result: I've been repeating for 9 months, still dying on the modeling questions for 'Mana Fluid Dynamics.'
Reference Data: According to the 2003 Annual Statistics of the Journal of Witch Sociology, for Otherworld species (Elves, Succubi, Dragons, etc.) converting to Witches, the average time to pass A1 Certification is 11.4 months. Among them, individuals from non-magical lower civilizations have an average time of 3.5 years, with a pass rate of only 12%.
The replies below were a sea of wailing:
Reply 1 (Succubus Sis): Don't mention it. I'm in my third year and I already want to go back to Hell to sell seduction potions. Witch brain structures are fundamentally different from ours. They are 'Biological Supercomputers'; we are 'Abacuses'."
Reply 2 (Former Dragon): Even getting the 'Eidetic Memory' racial trait after converting is useless! A1 tests Logical Reconstruction! Logic! The kind where you smash a ten-thousand-page book and reassemble it into a spell model! Anyone who comes here has to kneel!"
"..."
Hathaway's gaze was pinned dead on that "Former Dragon" reply.
"Eidetic Memory... is a racial trait? And... it's useless even if you have it?"
A chill crawled up her spine. As a designer, she understood this too well. This meant "Memory" was just the entrance ticket to this dungeon, not the cheat code to clear it.
"I don't believe it."
Hathaway gritted her teeth and grabbed the [A1 Prep Material Pack]. "Verify. Must verify. What if I'm special? What if Earthling logic can create a miracle?"
With trembling fingers, she opened Chapter 1, "Fundamentals of Mana Fluid Dynamics."
Her gaze swept across the page.
Buzz.
A strange, cool sensation came from the depths of her brain. The dense text, complex formulas, and obscure definitions were instantly burned into her cerebral cortex like a data stream.
She closed her eyes. The content of that page floated in her mind as clearly as a photograph.
[Passive Skill Confirmed: Witch-Level Memory (Eidetic Memory) · Functioning Normally]
Hathaway opened her eyes.
"It's true..." She muttered, her face pale. "This body comes with a built-in 4K Scanner. I literally have the .jpg files of these pages in my brain. But I don't have the software to read them."
She pulled up the real test question that had made her black out earlier:
...[All-Seeing Eye]... Minimum Mana Maintenance Threshold... Information Fidelity Coefficient...
Hathaway's brain mobilized the knowledge she had just scanned.
Standard Model of [All-Seeing Eye]? In the brain. Clearly visible.
Mana Calculus Formula Table? In the brain. Every symbol was sharp.
Interference Parameters of the Abyss? Also in the brain.
"Deduction Start." Hathaway took a deep breath and tried to combine these ingredients. "Let 'X' be the Mana Output, let 'Y' be the Vision Clarity..."
Clunk.
The gears of her thinking jammed instantly.
The knowledge points in her head were isolated. She knew the "Abyssal Interference Constant" was 8.5 and she knew the definition of "Information Fidelity" by heart, and when the question asked her to build a "Differential Equation" out of the two of them, her mind went blank.
She could recite the definition of every single brick and had no idea how to build the cathedral.
"GPU not supported... CPU computing power insufficient..."
Hathaway stayed exactly where she had landed.
"This isn't a memory issue. This is an Operating System issue."
The Witch A1 Exam tested "Witch-Style Thinking Logic." That was the multi-threaded, high-dimensional logic processing capability carved into their genes through thousands of years of evolution and education.
And Hathaway, although possessing Witch hardware (body and memory), her Soul Kernel was still that of an Earthling accustomed to linear thinking.
"Even that dragon took three years... Why do I, an incompletely evolved 'Primitive,' think I can pass in 30 days?"
Checkmate.
Unless someone reinstalled her operating system. Unless there was a top-tier admin, fluent in this logic, willing to take her thinking apart with both hands, break the Earthling's linear wiring, and solder it back together as Witch mesh.
Hathaway's gaze involuntarily passed through the floor, looking towards the ground floor.
Beneath that thick carpet, in that dark Gothic hall, lived the Perfect Candidate.
Victoria Wellington.
Victoria's ranking in the school was an unknown, but the duel had shown Hathaway two things clearly:
First, she is a Wellington. A top-tier noble family from Holheim, with unfathomable family learning.
Second, her foundations are extremely solid.
In the duel, one casual glance had let Victoria pinpoint the "loose structure" and "low frequency" in Hathaway's spell model, staff still holstered.
This meant that the A1 knowledge points, which were like hieroglyphics to Hathaway, might just be 1+1=2 common sense in Victoria's eyes.
"..."
Hathaway gritted her teeth, her jaw working through three separate objections. "My life-saving straw... is actually her?"
Ludwig and Wellington were mortal enemies, and an hour ago Hathaway had ambushed this particular Wellington with a packet of extra spicy chili powder.
The current Victoria probably wanted to turn Hathaway into a specimen and hang her on the wall.
Grrr—!
The hunger in her stomach spiked again, as if urging her to make a decision quickly.
Hathaway jumped off the bed, grabbed the black trench coat prepared for "low profile (not really)," and dug out the Void Dragon Leather Boots from the shoe rack to put on.
"Whatever! Eat first!"
"So what if we're mortal enemies? So what if I used chili powder? As long as my skin is thick enough, as long as the benefits (or sweet talk) I offer are enough... Even if I have to be her exclusive maid for a month, I will 'borrow' that tsundere princess's brain!"
She pushed open the door and rushed down the stairs with high morale. Passing the first-floor hall, she aimed a "Just you wait" gesture at the silver-haired silhouette in the dark.
"Going to the cafeteria to refuel! Once I'm full, I'm initiating 'Roommate Conquest' mode!"
Hathaway rushed out of the apartment, bathed in the midday sun, sprinting towards the Cafeteria No. 1.
Objective: Ash-Rock Dragon Steak.
Strategic Objective: Conquer Victoria, the "Humanoid Question Bank," and make her carry me!
This tragedy titled "Transmigrator vs. Otherworld Exam-Oriented Education" officially entered the "Humble Learning" arc.