Normally, the examinations would finish before dusk, but with today's overwhelming number of applicants, night had already fallen by the time Nawa—the very last candidate—was called.
After the Four Heavenly Kings completed their tests, the reporters packed up and left. There was nothing left worth reporting. Most association staff had clocked out as well, leaving only the female examiner and a few entry-level employees behind to conduct the Player equipment orientation for those who had passed.
Everyone who had finished their tests only wanted to hurry into orientation. Even though it was late, the day was not yet over—they still had time to celebrate becoming Players.No one cared about the upcoming test of a nobody like Nawa.He wasn't even an Asashi Academy student, and all his previous scores barely scraped past Rank E.
Yet when his turn finally came, Nawa did something that made every head snap toward him.
"Excuse me, I have one more question,"he said as he raised his hand and walked toward the examiner.
Even though he had the right to ask, at this hour it was natural that many would be irritated.
"Can this guy stop being difficult? All he has to do is walk up and punch the damn target—what's so complicated?"
"Yeah! Who does this trash think he is? Wasting our time like this!"
The examiner maintained her professionalism.
"What would you like to ask?"
"I want to know… are we allowed to use any kind of skill for this test?
I noticed no one used long-range offensive skills."
Nawa had observed something strange: Several Asashi students clearly possessed elemental-control psychic abilities—powers that excelled in ranged destruction—yet not a single one used a proper offensive spell.
They only produced mild heat or cold in their hands.
This was absolutely bizarre.Everyone knew elemental-type skills were famed for overwhelming firepower and range.So why didn't anyone use them?
A chorus of annoyed voices rose immediately:
"It's late, idiot! Didn't the examiner already say no artifacts allowed? Without artifacts, who the hell can cast long-range spells!?"
"Exactly! Even a Rank C Mage can't fire long-range offense without an artifact. Who does he think he is—some High-Rank Player!?"
"He's asking like he can use one. What a joke."
The moment one insult began, dozens followed, until the room filled with jeering.
But Nawa remained unmoved.He did not react—not even slightly.He cared only for the feelings of those precious to him.The opinion of strangers meant nothing—mere chirping birds in the background of his life.
The examiner raised her voice.
"Everyone, quiet. Maintain your manners."
Silence fell. She turned back to Nawa.
"As I said earlier, all skills are allowed—including long-range Mage-class skills. The only rule is that you must not use any artifact to assist you. Doing so will result in immediate disqualification."
"As for why none of the others used long-range or wide-area destructive skills… simply put, they can't. Without artifacts, Mage-type skills cannot be executed at full power. If someone could use them unaided, it would still be allowed."
She proceeded to explain.
Players of the Mage Class used elemental-control psychic abilities—such as Pyrokinesis (fire) or Cryokinesis (ice).But without artifacts containing magical cores, they could only generate sparks, small flames, or gentle breezes.
To produce true destructive force, they needed artifacts to gather and compress mana before releasing it as a spell—what Players called chanting.This process took time, and during chanting, the caster was nearly defenseless.
That was why Mage-class Players required party protection.
Worse still, their skills consumed enormous amounts of mana, and mana could only be restored by absorbing energy crystals, which were expensive and slow to replenish.
For these reasons, the Mage Class was both elite and impractical—accessible only to the wealthy or the exceptionally talented with guild sponsorship.
Nawa listened carefully, then nodded.His eyes sharpened with silent determination.
He stepped back—twenty feet away from the testing pillar.
He extended one hand, and slowly closed his eyes.
"Is this idiot not done acting crazy? Just punch the damn target!"
"It's late! Some of us want to go home!"
Their complaints died instantly when a small, glowing orb—about the size of a ping-pong ball—formed before Nawa's hand.
FWOOOM…
The air crackled as it ignited.
"No way… Is he really using Fireball!?"
Gasps echoed across the hall.
Even the examiner's eyes widened.
"That's impossible! Trash like him shouldn't be able to cast a Rank C spell—especially without an artifact!"
In reality, what Nawa was doing was not a magic skill. To be blunt, Nawa had hardly learned any skills since his time in the Himmapan Forest. Almost all of his combat abilities stemmed from his application of Telekinesis.
Most people understand Telekinesis as the mental power to manipulate objects without physical contact. However, the truth is quite the opposite: Telekinesis does not control objects. What it truly manipulates is the fabric of spacetime.
As everyone well knows, gravity is caused by the curvature of spacetime, which is typically generated by objects of immense mass, such as stars or black holes.
If one could curve or distort the spacetime fabric at will, they could create a force identical to gravity. Through this mechanism, Telekinesis appears as if it is moving objects around.
However, if that were all, Nawa would never have been able to recreate attacks similar to a mage's skills.
Nawa had discovered the answer that scientists worldwide had spent centuries searching for—the key to explaining the conflict between Einstein's theory and quantum mechanics.
Current scientists only know that matter and energy are the same thing and can transform back and forth. But Nawa's knowledge went a step further. He discovered that not only can matter transform into energy, but time and space themselves can also be converted into energy.
Nawa conducted numerous experiments to prove his findings, bringing him closer to the Theory of Everything than any human had ever reached. With this knowledge, Nawa's Telekinesis was no longer merely the mental power to move objects.
Nawa proceeded to bend the spacetime fabric in front of him, generating immense gravity that sucked the surrounding air mass together into a dense ball of compressed air currents. After that, he accelerated the flow of time within specific areas of that air ball.
According to the law of entropy, disorder increases as time passes. By accelerating the flow of time, the disorder of particles increases, causing the atoms of various elements to lose their stability and release energy—energy that humans call heat.
This is the method Nawa used to create a fireball, which closely resembled the 'Fireball' skill of a Mage class.
The more the air currents were compressed, the more intense the heat became. At that moment, the ball of fire had grown several times larger than a ping-pong ball; nevertheless, it was still miniscule compared to what Nawa had once created during his time in the Himmapan Forest.
But for now, this fireball represented the full extent of Nawa's power.
When he could no longer contain its energy, Nawa opened a small vent in the sphere, causing the fireball to propel forward like a missile. The ball of fire streaked from Nawa's hand toward the test target with the speed of an arrow shot from a crossbow.
ZOOM---BOOM!
It exploded upon impact, erupting into a towering blaze more than ten feet high.
Heat waves surged across the hall, triggering the automatic fire-suppression system.
When the flames died and smoke cleared—The number on the testing machine appeared:
1,898
Higher than the examiner's Blade demonstration.
More than double Natee's highest record.
Everyone froze.
Some suspected he must have cheated—used an artifact.But the room was filled with artifact-detectors.It was impossible to fool them.
Others theorized he was an elite trainee from another nation, pretending to be weak in order to earn the "Newborn Genius" title.
But that made no sense.Monster meat efficiency decreased the more one consumed the same type.Time on Earth flowed three times slower than in the One-Ness.
No one would waste years just to steal a title.
None of it added up.
All they knew was this:
The nobody…
The commoner…
The man they mocked…
Had just shattered every expectation.