20demayo Chapter 4 Do you even know how to program? You're just messing around?
Chapter 4 Do you even know how to program? You're just messing around?
In my memory, the mage hierarchy in this world was extremely rigid, absolutely monopolized by the massive Imperial Mage Guild. Each promotion from rank one to rank nine was not solely based on the strength of magical power, but also on "merit."
The guild implements a strict territory assessment system. The larger the city you protect, and the more magic crystal tax and magic potions you pay to the guild each year, the higher your title and authority will be.
The wealthy big cities have long been divided up by powerful and wealthy families. In order to meet the "KPIs" for promotion, those mages without any background can only plunder the control of remote towns and villages like hungry wolves, and even fight with other mages.
"Looks like this guy couldn't make it in the city, so he came to the countryside to grab welfare benefits to meet his sales targets," Luo Mu sneered to himself.
He didn't get angry, but calmly looked at Jack: "I don't care what you take over, I'm just here to get some herbs and food for the teacher. As for the territory, you can talk to Teacher Hamelin yourself."
"presumptuous!"
Upon hearing Romulus's nonchalant and indifferent tone, Jack's face immediately darkened.
In the main city, he was just a second-tier mage; but in this rural place, how dare an apprentice who didn't even have a mage's qualification speak to him in such a tone?!
"As expected, he's a blind man raised by a country bumpkin."
Jack snorted coldly, turned around, faced the townspeople around him, and suddenly raised his voice:
"Listen up! Hamelin is not qualified to guard this place, and this apprentice is said to be a vagrant without a trace of magic! He doesn't deserve to be called a mage at all! Anyone who dares to give them even a bite to eat or a single herb is making an enemy of me, Jack!"
Jack pointed to the large, nearly extinguished fire array in the center of the square and issued his final ultimatum with a cold smile:
"Without my second-tier mage's magical infusion, this great formation will surely perish tonight! At that time, everyone in Blackrock Town can expect to be feeding magical beasts in the snow! The choice is yours."
Upon hearing this, the townspeople around looked at each other in bewilderment and could only lower their heads, not daring to look Rom in the eye.
In this world, the wrath of a mage is something ordinary people simply cannot bear.
The bearded mayor's face turned bright red. He looked at Jack, then at Rom, who was all alone.
In the end, he could only lower his head and let out a sigh:
"Rom... I'm so sorry, the hundreds of people in this town can't die..."
Looking at the townspeople around him, whom Hamerlin had helped before, who were now choosing to remain silent, Romulus's eyes turned cold.
He didn't feel grief or indignation, but rather a sense of absurdity.
"You can't do this to Hamelin and Rom!"
A furious shout suddenly came from the back of the crowd, and a tall man with short, fiery red hair and stubble squeezed through. He was Gil, the owner of the town's tavern, and an old acquaintance of Hamelin's.
Jill strode over to Rom, glaring at Jack and the trembling townspeople around him, and roared, "How much has Hamelin done for Blackrock Town in the past ten years? Now that he's in trouble, you won't even give him a single herb? Is this the rule of Blackrock Town?!"
He turned to look at Romu: "Romu, I still have some medicine and food in my shop. Come with me to get them."
Seeing Jill's tough attitude, the mage Jack's face darkened.
He ignored Jill, instead turning to the mayor and giving a cold snort:
"Mayor, it seems there's still no consensus within Blackrock Town? Since you trust that dying old man and this useless apprentice more, I won't stand in your way anymore. I'm leaving immediately; you can feed the monsters yourselves tonight!"
"No...no, Lord Jack!" The mayor, pale with fright, quickly grabbed Jack and turned to Jill anxiously, "Jill! Are you crazy? The greater good is at stake! If the formation is destroyed, the whole town will die!"
"Fine, I'll just leave. From today onwards, I'm no longer a Blackrock Town resident!" Jill, with her fiery temper, stubbornly tried to take Rom away.
"No."
Just as tensions were about to rise, Rom suddenly grabbed Jill's arm. He turned to look at Jack, a meaningful smile suddenly appearing on his face:
"Grand Mage Jack, I know you are a noble second-tier mage, and your methods must be extraordinary. It's getting late. Since you want to take over Blackrock Town, please demonstrate your strength and repair this Fire Gathering Array."
"As long as you can repair the great formation and protect Blackrock Town, Master Hamelin and I will leave at dawn."
Hearing this, Jill was taken aback, but the mayor seemed relieved and echoed, "Yes, repairing the magic circle is still the most important thing."
Jack glanced at Rom with disdain and sneered, "You're a good-natured country bumpkin."
Jack pulled a delicate short staff inlaid with rubies from his wide robes and walked to the front of the array. Under the expectant gazes of the townspeople, he cleared his throat in a show of solemnity and began to prepare to cast a spell.
As he turned around, Jack, using his robes as cover, secretly pulled a small booklet from his sleeve.
He then took a deep breath, magic surged, and the tip of his staff glowed red. He waved the staff with an elegant gesture, chanting a complex incantation.
As he moved, the two damaged runes on the stone array were re-infused with magic, emitting a faint glow.
"It's lit up! It's really lit up!"
"My goodness, no wonder he's a mage from the city!"
The townspeople around were amazed to see the array's light return. The town mayor was so moved that he clasped his hands together, his eyes welling up with tears.
Listening to the flattery around him, Jack smirked coldly.
"A bunch of country bumpkins who've never seen the world."
Although this large magic array was complex, he had already scouted the location and secretly recorded the original runes in a booklet.
Yesterday, he secretly destroyed several key runes during the snowstorm, bringing the magic array to the brink of collapse. Now, he only needs to follow the book to complete those runes to easily repair the magic array.
If Hamelin is driven away today, Blackrock Town will be his territory! Then he can annex all the neighboring border towns, and by the end of the year, he can submit enough resources to the Red Dragon City Guild and apply for promotion to a third-tier mage.
With that in mind, Jack turned around and confidently walked to the east side of the stone circle to continue the repairs.
However, he suddenly froze, his face turning deathly pale.
"This...how is this possible?!"
Jack stared wide-eyed at the stone formation.
He clearly remembered that he had only destroyed the runes in the third and fifth rows last night!
But now… a large section of the runes at the bottom of the stone array is missing! Moreover, the patterns are completely disordered and do not match the original array patterns recorded in his booklet at all!
Jack broke out in a cold sweat; he even wondered if he had remembered the location wrong.
Luo Mu, who had been standing aside observing coldly, raised his eyebrows with a smile.
"You can tamper with things, but I can't?"
Just as Jill and Jack were arguing and everyone's attention was diverted, Rom quietly walked past the stone circle and, with his thick-soled boots, discreetly rubbed off several more runes.
The stone array formation has now become a dead end with "grammatical errors".
Unless you understand the underlying logic, simply relying on rote memorization to fill in the blanks won't save you.
"Lord Jack, please continue the repairs?" the mayor urged cautiously from behind.
Jack knew he absolutely couldn't lose face in front of so many country bumpkins. He gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and raised his staff: "What's the panic! I'm sensing the flow of magic!"
Since the original runes don't match, we can only use the "small fire-gathering array" taught in the academy to forcibly patch it up. Anyway, they are all fire-type magic arrays, so we just need to plug the magic gap!
As Jack chanted incantations, he waved his staff, forcibly inscribing familiar runes into the missing areas.
As magic was injected, the dim stone array suddenly lit up, and the red flames shot up a considerable height.
"It's lit up! The fire array is back!" the mayor shouted excitedly. "As expected of a second-tier mage!"
The surrounding townspeople cheered.
Jack secretly breathed a sigh of relief, just about to wipe his sweat and continue his speech to show off.
Suddenly, "Crack!"
A deafening explosion erupted from within the stone formation! Immediately afterward, the runes Jack had just added shattered like charcoal, sending sparks flying everywhere!
The flames that had just been restored not only failed to stabilize, but began to shake and flicker violently, and their color even changed from orange-red to a dangerous dark blue.
An extremely violent and chaotic fire elemental aura spread outwards like a runaway wild horse.
In Rom's system view, the screen was filled with a barrage of red warnings:
[WARNING: Illegal external code injection detected!]
[Incompatible underlying logic! Serious syntax conflict!]
The program is about to crash.
[Countdown: 5 minutes!]
...
Luo Mu coldly watched the scene before him and shook his head.
"Idiot, trying to patch a large formation with the basic code of a small formation? Isn't that like using a 32-bit patch to fix a 64-bit system? It'll give you a complete error!"