[Location]: The Tulip Club · Top Floor "Blue Diamond" Suite
"GET OUT!!!"
WHAM.
A velvet cushion flew across the room at supersonic speed, slamming into Rhode’s face.
Lin Zhaojun leaped up from the sofa, her face turning crimson from a mix of humiliation and rage.
"You think I haven't thought about it?!"
(Hathaway: ? You definitely considered it for a second, didn't you?)
Lin roared, her voice shaking the expensive crystal glasses. "But the Lead Examiner is Heidi! That god-rotted Heidi Lucent! That woman doesn't just hold a grudge; her aesthetic standards are literally designed as my personal bankruptcy!"
Lin pointed frantically at her own face.
"To get a woman like Heidi to let you slide, do you know what you have to look like? You have to be so beautiful she loses her damn mind! Only then would she drop her pen and beg you to sign a marriage license instead of an exam paper!"
She slumped back again, laughing self-deprecatingly. "I’m a magazine cover girl, sure, but in Heidi’s eyes—eyes that are used to seeing 'Transcendent' beauty—this face is just 'interesting.' It’s not 'IQ-dropping' material."
"And besides," Lin’s knuckles cracked. "That woman is still keeping score."
"Keeping score?" Hathaway asked. "From a duel?"
"That wasn't a duel; that was a public execution of her soul." Rhode’s eyes were full of mock sympathy. "Four years ago, at The Evocation Invitational. Heidi, the genius heiress, already held the 10th Seat of the Grand Witches. She was only there to collect her [The Zenith of Evocation] ticket to complete her 'Dual-Cert' achievement. Everyone thought it was a formality."
"Then she met Lin."
Rhode held up a zero. "There was a rule: each side could ban two of the opponent's schools. Lin, that maniac, facing a sitting Grand Witch, decided to 'Open Ban.' She didn't ban a single school. She basically told the world: 'I don't care if you're a Grand Witch; I'm winning with one hand tied behind my back.'"
Hathaway sucked in a breath. In this world, doing an Open Ban against a Throne was more than arrogance—it was pulling the dragon's teeth while it was awake.
"Heidi turned green with rage. To save her pride, she Open Banned back. The result?" Rhode glanced at Lin. "In a Best of Seven, Lin pulled a perfect 4-0. She wiped the floor with a Grand Witch on a universal broadcast and didn't give her a single point."
"The killing blow? After winning the final set, Lin slowly pulled out an expensive mana potion and performed a 'Spiral Drink Taunt'. She wasn't even low on mana; she just wanted to tell Heidi: 'I didn't even break a sweat beating you'."
Lin grumbled into the sofa. "I was just thirsty..."
"Thirsty?" Rhode laughed. "Heidi didn't think your magic was bad. Quite the opposite—she knew you were better, which made the humiliation even worse. As revenge, the 'Lord of Glow' went straight back to the Council and exercised her privilege to personally oversee the A3 Exam Question Bank."
"So, Hathaway, do you see it now?" Rhode patted Hathaway’s shoulder. "This is Instant Karma. Heidi doesn't need to win on the battlefield. She knows Lin is a 'Genius of Instinct'—someone who casts by feeling rather than calculation."
"So, Heidi flooded the exam with High-Theory Logic Traps and Paradox Calculations. She didn't ban Lin," Rhode sneered. "She just strictly enforced the 'Academic Standard'. She turned the battlefield into a math class."
Lin let out a muffled wail of despair into the cushion: "But my answer worked!! If I use enough mana, I don't need to calculate the trajectory! I just blow up the whole grid!!"
"And that gets you a zero," Rhode ruthlessly pointed out. "Because the question asked for the 'Minimal Mana Consumption Solution', and you wrote 'Tactical Nuke'."
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Hathaway watched her idol crumble. There was no elegance here. Only "Genius Sabotage," "In-game Taunting," and "Academic Revenge."
But as she looked at the weeping "Sovereign of War," Hathaway felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.
"Wait," Hathaway asked, trying to piece together the fragments of knowledge floating in her head. "Can't Lin just... beat her up again? Or challenge someone else for a promotion?"
"Challenge?" Lin laughed bitterly, lifting her head from the cushion. "You think this is a shonen manga? This is the Witch Association."
"The Apex Ticket is the key to the upper ranks. One ticket makes you an Arch-Witch—officially recognized, formally ranked. Two tickets?" Lin held up two fingers. "That's the minimum to even be considered for a Grand Witch seat. And even then, it is not guaranteed."
"There are only 351 Tickets in existence. They are the 'gateway' to the summit. Academic, Combat, Political... every path has a limited number of seats. And currently? There are only 236 people holding those 351 Tickets."
"Why?" Hathaway asked.
"Because the people at the top are squatting on them," Rhode interjected, her tone turning cold. "Chief Ovelia holds five tickets alone. Heidi holds two. They collect titles like stamps."
"They have effectively welded the door shut for the forty-two million High Witches below," Lin murmured. "Without an Apex Ticket, you cannot even be an Arch-Witch—let alone dream of a Grand Witch seat. And without being a Grand Witch, you can't change the exam rules."
"It's a closed loop," Rhode concluded. "Heidi defines what 'Correct Magic' is. And as long as Lin refuses to bow to that definition, she will be an 'Associate Witch' forever."
Hathaway sat back, her inner corporate slave nodding in recognition.
I see.
It’s not magic; it’s a monopoly.
The elites haven't just locked the door; they’ve swallowed the key. They control the Discourse. If you don't play by their textbook—a textbook they wrote—you don't exist.
"Anyway." Lin suddenly sat up, switching from "Academic Failure" to "Capitalist Mogul" in a heartbeat. She looked at Hathaway’s non-glowing eyes. "These eyes... while they can't help me cheat, they have immense commercial value."
Lin snapped her fingers, a small flame dancing on her tip. "Rhode, let me borrow your cousin."
"Borrow?" Rhode raised an eyebrow. "For what? If you corrupt her, the Council of Elders will hang you from the White Tower to dry."
"Nonsense! We’re starting a New Project." Lin flashed a predatory, snaggletoothed grin. "The theme: [Gaze of the Night Queen: When a Ludwig Learns to Stealth]. Trust me, we put these 'dark red eyes' on a poster with some black gothic lace, and Witch Fashion will be begging for it."
"Oh?" Rhode’s interest piqued. "And think about it—we plaster those posters all over District 2. The Wellingtons will see a Ludwig who looks as 'gloomy and introverted' as they are. They’ll be too disgusted to eat for a week! Hahaha! Pure psychological warfare!"
Lin shrugged. "I don't care about the Wellingtons. I care about the A3 re-exam fees. They are ten thousand a pop, and there's a waiting list."
Hathaway’s lip twitched. So in your eyes, I’m just a tool to annoy your rivals and a walking ATM?
"Oh, and before I forget." Lin reached into her tactical suit and pulled out a stack of crumpled, suspiciously scented parchment, shoving them into Hathaway’s arms. "Since you’re a fan, here’s a gift. These are my... ahem, 'private' Pink Spells. They won't help with the A3 (damn you, Heidi!), but they’re 'useful' in certain situations. Study up. Don't embarrass the Ludwig name."
Hathaway looked down at the parchment. The top page read: Tentacle Summoning: Not Just for Fighting—On the Aesthetics of Physical Entanglement and Asphyxiation.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: HIDDEN INTERACTION TRIGGERED!]
[Item Obtained: Lin Zhaojun’s "Special" Manuscripts]
Quality: Epic (Taboo)
Type: Knowledge / Mental Pollution
Description: Contains 108 unconventional uses for tentacles.
Warning: Reading this does not cost Mana, but continuously drains the user's [Sanity (SAN)].
Note: "Knowledge is power, but sometimes, knowledge is also a one-way ticket to a detention center." — Rhode's Commentary.
Hathaway looked at the two partners in crime now planning which bar to hit.
There really isn't a single normal person in this world.
Suddenly, a knock at the door. A waiter entered, pale as a ghost, carrying an exquisite gift box. "U-um... Lady Lin, Lady Rhode... Lady Adeline from the Ruby Hall sent this wine..."
"WHAT?!"
Both Rhode and Lin roared the word simultaneously.
The two "Arch-Witches" who were just acting like they ruled the world suddenly looked like cats whose tails had been stepped on.
"That... that Plumed Dragon?!" Rhode’s voice cracked. She stared at the box as if it contained an anti-matter bomb.
[WARNING: HIGH-RISK CAUSALITY WEAPON DETECTED!]
[WARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL LUCK LEVEL DROPPING RAPIDLY...]
Outside the window, a stray meteor suddenly streaked across the sky, slamming into the city's distant shield with a violent flare.
"RUN!!" Rhode grabbed Hathaway’s hand. "Adeline’s gifts aren't wine; they’re a Curse of Probability! Last person who took her gift was hit by meteors for three days straight!!"
"JUMP!!" Lin roared, grabbing her staff.
Lin didn't use the door. She used a [Force Impact] to blow out the entire expensive floor-to-ceiling window.
SHATTER—!!
The wind screamed in. Before Hathaway could even ask why, she was sandwiched between the two witches and leaped.
They were three thousand meters in the air.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"
This was Hathaway’s first morning in the new world: Her idol was a cheating student; she was carrying illegal tentacle textbooks; and she was currently skydiving without a parachute because of a woman named "Adeline."
It was... quite productive.