Human lives are short. How one could learn all the knowledge a Giant Dragon accumulates over its long eons within a single, limited lifetime was a difficult question.

Furin didn’t know the answer either.

But staying up all night playing games definitely wasn’t it.

Furin hopped on her little bicycle and headed straight for Zog’s Toy Store to demand an explanation.

’Letting my own direct disciple be led astray like this!’

The poor chain practically shot sparks as she pedaled. Bicycles in this era had no shock absorption, and the roads of Twin Tower City were far from smooth. The frame shook on the stone-paved road, RATTLING AND CLATTERING loudly. It was a good thing this bike was made of solid materials; a carbon fiber model probably wouldn’t have survived a kilometer.

Furin didn’t even stand up on the pedals, sprinting while still in the saddle. Any passerby who saw her would have to comment, "That girl’s got buns of steel."

With a stylish drift and a sudden stop, Furin turned onto Chrysanthemum Street. Zog’s Toy Store was just ahead.

She dismounted, straightened her clothes, and used a Cleaning Technique to dust herself off. As a Golden Dragon of refined taste, she had to maintain her elegance.

"Welcome to Zog’s Toy Store."

SNIFF, SNIFF.

’Something’s wrong. Zog isn’t here, and neither is Elsa.’

Just then, Toto burst out from a crowd of children and rushed over to Furin. "Lady Uman, the manager hasn’t been in the store for the past few days. He said if you came to play mahjong, you should go find him in the Mixed Zone. If you’re not playing mahjong, you should probably go find him too. He’s currently engaged in, uh..."

Toto trailed off, then fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a wrinkled slip of paper. He painstakingly smoothed it open and read aloud, "...’discussing the important topic of the future development and survival of the Illusion School.’"

"Huh?"

「Mixed Zone, Zog Dragon Island’s Twin Tower City Branch.」

"ACHOO!"

Zog sneezed.

"Can Dragons catch colds?" Elsa asked, as surprised as if she’d seen the sun rise from the west.

"No. It probably just means someone’s talking about me." Zog faintly sensed a murderous intent.

"So if someone talks about you, you sneeze? Zog! Zog! Zog!"

"How old are you?" Zog felt like he was raising a silly daughter. Even though she was a pillar of the Zog Group, she still didn’t seem particularly bright.

"Nineteen," Elsa said, blinking.

"Alright, break’s over. Time to get back to today’s workshop."

Back in the main hall, a banner hung at the front: "Illusion Mimicry Prototype & Hero Auto Chess Development Workshop."

Nearly every Illusionist in the city had been gathered here. It helped that Illusionists didn’t usually have much work, so their schedules were quite flexible.

Also present were colleagues Yuno had poached from the research institute, the best craftsmen for a hundred miles around (aside from the Dwarf Race), and a Magical Device manufacturer introduced by Craig.

Overall, development was going smoothly. He had to admire the marketing strategies born from the hyper-competitive mobile game industry.

With the help of strategies like leaderboards, regional rankings, and "share for extra plays," the Flying Red Middle Church spread like a virus. Its influence had already expanded to the Mage population across the entire Continent. The Divine Remains now had enough capacity to hold several large games without issue.

Art assets, one of the most expensive parts of game development back on Earth, were far cheaper when modeled with Magic. Animation didn’t require Animators to keyframe by hand, either; Illusionists could do it all with their minds.

Zog had plenty of people for a testing team, and the programmer-Mages could adapt and transition into the role seamlessly.

There were two main difficulties at the moment. First, how to shrink the magical gaming machine. Even the size of an arcade cabinet would be acceptable, but the current prototype was two stories tall.

Second, how to process data on the server—the Divine Remains. No one had ever created a Magic model with that kind of functionality before.

Processing the data on the Magical Device itself was easy enough with the help of mechanical structures, but that would make it far too easy to cheat.

The first method was basically an online game. If someone wanted to cheat, they’d have to develop dedicated hacks, which set a much higher bar.

The second was like a single-player game where you could just modify local data. Something like Wind Spirit Moon Shadow could handle that easily.

"Alright, let’s continue our discussion on how to solve the data problem."

"I have an idea," Uffie said, raising her hand. "What if we design a special ’recording’ Magic? It would be responsible for logging a player’s actions on the Magical Device. After a valid action is performed, the log is sent back to the Divine Remains, which then synchronizes the results of that action to all other players..."

’What a talent!’ Zog couldn’t help but take a closer look at the girl, who was even younger than Elsa. ’It’s only been a few days, and she’s already on the verge of figuring out event-based state synchronization.’

Just as Uffie was about to elaborate on her plan, the main hall door was suddenly kicked open.

Furin had arrived.

In Furin’s imagination, she would kick open the door and find Zog cackling as he researched strange, addictive, and evil Magic.

Then, she would sternly command him to stop. Zog would refuse, even on pain of death. The two dragons would come to blows, and Zog would ultimately lose because he’d be too embarrassed to fight for real.

Next would come his profuse apologies and compensation—preferably in the form of a few more paintings like the ones he gave her last time.

Who would have thought that when she actually kicked the door open, she’d be met with the sight of at least two hundred people who did, in fact, appear to be researching Illusion Magic.

She lowered her leg, a little embarrassed, and pulled her long robe back down. She’d had to hitch up the hem to deliver the kick.

’Zog wondered why she was blushing. She’d spent countless years in her dragon form without wearing a single scrap of clothing, yet a few years in the city and she’d become so demure.’

Furin beckoned Zog over, shooting a glare at Uffie, who had been cut off mid-sentence. ’No wonder she’s been so distracted in class these past few days. She seems plenty energetic when it comes to running over here.’

When Zog reluctantly shuffled over, the two dragons found an empty room.

Furin immediately went on the offensive. "What is this thing you’re making? If all the Illusionists start researching Illusion Mimicry, won’t it become even harder for them to make a living?"

"Illusionists aren’t good at combat in the first place, so they might as well not fight at all. This game can provide more jobs for the Illusion School. Trust me, in a few years, it’ll be just as popular as the Plastic Energy School."

"Impossible," Furin retorted without a second thought. After all, in her long experience, this was a world where power meant everything.

"How about this? Why don’t you try it out and see what Illusion Magic is really capable of?"

Zog led her to the massive prototype. It didn’t have networking capabilities yet, so they needed to gather eight local players. Six goblins expertly powered on their Magical Devices.

Although Furin disliked Zog’s methods for using Illusion Magic, she had to admit that this was an incredibly complex Magical Device. The mimicry it produced was also an exquisitely crafted and entirely unprecedented Illusion Technique.

’But what’s the point of a Mimicry that doesn’t produce any real effect?’

"Allow me to introduce the initial version of Hero Auto Chess. It’s still pretty rough, but it’s playable. Oh, right, and this is you."

Zog said, presenting a female hero designed to look exactly like Furin.

"For old times’ sake, I made you a 5-cost card, and a main carry at that. That punk Soron? I just made him a support who can only cast shields."

For the first time, Furin felt like she couldn’t understand the Dragon Language. She understood every individual word Zog said, but when he strung them together, she couldn’t make any sense of it.

’Still, with my talent, I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it if I just give it a try.’

Filled with immense skepticism, Furin began the first game of auto chess of her long, draconic life.