"She sells seashells by the seashore."

"How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?"

"A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose!"

"Seriously, what language are you even speaking?!" Elsa couldn’t stand listening to Zog’s strange, tongue-twisting sentences anymore. It was like being surrounded by a group of Shamans chanting at her.

She had been promoted from toy shop manager to Zog’s assistant. The toy shop was now managed by Karaman Ackley, who truly loved toys.

It was just that the relationship between the two Ackley brothers was now rather... delicate.

The Illusion Technique design work had also been handed over to the new graduates they had hired.

She had thought she would finally have some free time, but who knew that while Zog was a powerful pillar of support when there was trouble, he was the biggest trouble of all when there wasn’t.

If her salary hadn’t been as high as eighty Silver Coins a month, there was no way she would be putting up with this Dragon’s daily antics.

Just then, Zog suddenly stopped. He looked around the room, his eyes landing on a nearby table. With a single swipe of his claw, he split it in two. Even though it was furniture he had bought with his own money, Elsa, who was used to being frugal, still felt a pang of heartache watching it.

He used the tip of his claw to pry out a few wooden planks, bored holes into them, then found a strip of cloth and threaded it through the holes, tying it tight.

"CLACKETY-CLACK-CLACK—"

"This Tongrentang, ’twas an old apothecary shop..."

Elsa felt like her mind was being polluted. Even though she couldn’t understand what Zog was chanting, it was surprisingly catchy.

"A pity there are no bamboo clappers. The vibe just isn’t right," Zog said in the common tongue.

Yes, Zog could now speak the language of humanoids.

It was a new invention from the research institute: a vocalizer. It was originally designed to mimic monster cries to facilitate biological research, but Zog had ordered one that mimicked Human speech. It determined what to say by using Magic to read the vibrations of his throat and the shape of his mouth.

After a few days of acclimation, he could already use it skillfully. His mouth was even more agile than when he had been human.

He straightened the small bow tie on his neck. He had specifically chosen this design for the vocalizer. ’He’s a long-lived species, Conan is also a long-lived species, so it makes perfect sense for us to use the same kind of black-box technology,’ he reasoned.

From now on, he could act as his own public persona in certain situations.

Right now, many people were keeping a close eye on the Zog Group, which consisted of the toy shop, the film studio, and the Potion Factory. They speculated that some major power was controlling it from behind the scenes. Continuing to have Elsa act as the sole representative was putting too much pressure and risk on a young girl.

It was better to just lay some cards on the table. Let them think a powerful faction was behind it. He would have a "Sub-Dragon" wearing a vocalizer act as the mouthpiece and let his competitors guess all they wanted.

The unknown was often an effective defense.

"KNOCK KNOCK." The sound of knocking came from the door.

Elsa went to open it.

"Oh, our dear Elsa has gotten even prettier," Furin said as soon as the door opened, pulling her into a big hug. In her human form, Furin was a full head taller than Elsa.

She cupped Elsa’s slightly chubby cheeks with both hands and gave them a good, hard smoosh.

"Teacher, what are you doing?" Elsa had been feeling like Furin was looking at her as if she were her own daughter lately.

"Ah, I feel much better now. Do you have any idea how much effort it took for me to contact all these people for that goofy boss of yours?"

Behind Furin, a large group of white-bearded old men stood respectfully in two rows. Farther away on the stairs were slightly younger, middle-aged men, also dressed in exquisite Mage Robes.

Elsa recognized many of them; every single one was a renowned Illusionist on the Continent. ’Though, the prestige of being an Illusionist isn’t all that much to begin with,’ she thought.

It was all thanks to Furin’s prestige in the Illusion Realm that they had all been gathered. Some of them had even been far overseas but had still rushed to Twin Tower City.

This unprecedented all-star lineup of Illusionists had been assembled to achieve a crucial goal in Zog’s plan.

To complete the Illusion Technique magic model development tool—the Visible Inscription Workshop.

Everyone took their seats, and Elsa distributed the project proposal for the workshop.

Though called a "workshop," it was actually a type of Magic model that would run inside the Divine Remains, its purpose being to create other Magic models.

Zog simply couldn’t accept the current inefficiency of designing Illusion Techniques. There was no debugging, no command prompts, and it wasn’t even possible to reuse existing Magic; everything had to be written from scratch.

He needed a VSCode and a GitHub for Mages, followed by an operating system and a game engine. These were all nodes on the tech tree he had to unlock to build his magic internet and game Empire.

The function the Visible Inscription Workshop was meant to achieve was that of VSCode.

A simplified version, of course. He didn’t expect to catch up to Microsoft’s decades of iteration in one go.

For this reason, unlike in the past when he would just grab a couple of students from the Caster Academy, Zog had entrusted Furin with finding every high-level Illusionist she could on the Continent.

This was the first time any of the Illusionists had seen such a request for a new Magic. After they began reading through the project proposal, they were amazed to find that the requirements were specific down to the last detail, with different functions even arranged by priority.

In the past, when they wanted to develop a new Illusion Technique, they always started from a vague concept. The process was full of "inspiration" and "epiphanies," and in the end, the final effect was often a far cry from what they had initially envisioned.

But that was still considered a successful exploration of Magic.

The proposal they now held, however, was more like something written by people who spent all day with steam and machinery.

’It lacks the freedom, the spirituality, and the aesthetic beauty of Magic,’ a stubborn old Mage judged. ’It’s practically a betrayal of ancestral traditions.’

"May I ask what this Magic is for?" An old Mage raised a wrinkled hand. He wasn’t in his own Mage Tower, so some decorum was required. After all, the combined age of all his colleagues present probably didn’t even match Lady Furin’s.

"To create the future," Zog said.

"And this is...?" The old Mage rubbed his eyes. He had seen many strange things, but a talking Sub-Dragon wearing a bow tie was a first.

"Our boss’s... uh," Elsa searched for the right word, "spokes-dragon. Yes, a spokes-dragon."

"And how should we address it?"

"Zog. Just Zog is fine."

"Wow. Well, that’s certainly... unique."

’A group that isn’t afraid of angering the Red Dragon Zog must possess unfathomable power,’ the old Mage thought. ’No wonder they were able to get help from Lady Furin.’

Zog continued, "This Magic is the foundation for creating all future fantasy worlds. It will become an inseparable part of everyone’s lives. And because of it, Illusionists will become the most important School of Magic. Furin, how many new students at Repin Academy chose the Illusion School this year?"

"Twelve."

"Uh, and last year?"

"Eight."

"That’s a 50% year-on-year increase! It represents the Illusion School’s destiny to prosper! The Shadow of Evil, games... these are all creations of a flourishing Illusion School. And you, as the initiators of this revolution, will be forever recorded in the annals of history."

Selling them the dream was a necessary condition for motivating people. The idea of being immortalized in history held immense appeal for the people of this era—the temptation was equivalent to the legendary honor of getting your own page in the family records.

"Of course, all Illusionists participating in this research and development project will have a starting salary of Five Gold Coins, with additional monthly subsidies based on contribution. And upon successful completion, there will be a handsome bonus."

Furin was an anomaly among Illusionists. If you were to divide all the wealth of the world’s Illusionists into ten parts, she alone held nine and nine-tenths.

Therefore, sufficient benefits were the sufficient condition for motivating people.

And so, the starting point of all the changes recorded in the history books of later ages—the Visible Inscription Workshop development team—was officially established.