When it comes to transmigration, it's impossible not to think of novels, manga, anime—or at the very least, TV dramas and web series.
Even without actually crossing worlds, most people had, at some point in their youth, wondered whether they might secretly be the protagonist of some story.
And now—he had truly transmigrated.
Naturally, Kanzaki Rei had thought about this question too.
If this were a novel, what kind would it be?
If it were an anime, how many episodes would it have? A long-running epic, or a short series?
He should be the overpowered protagonist type, right?
Am I the main character?
Or… am I just a stepping stone for someone else to show off and slap faces?
Or perhaps… one of those hidden masters who only exist in the world's background, appearing only in legends long after?
These thoughts had drifted through his mind from time to time over the past few months.
But now…
Excuse me?
What kind of situation is this?
Could it be… I'm actually the male lead of a galgame?
Rei pulled himself out of his imagination and returned to reality, speaking plainly:
"Pally… do you realize what you're saying to an eight-year-old?"
"I do," she replied.
Rei's tone remained calm. "That's obviously impossible."
"I figured as much," Pally said.
Shing—
The space around them shifted once more. In an instant, they were back inside the White Tower.
Pally returned to her original seat exactly as before, as though nothing had happened.
It seemed… touching her was going to be impossible.
A sneak attack might work.
But the problem was—she was a prophet. And likely a very powerful one.
That made her extremely difficult to deal with.
"Pally, I apologize for earlier," Rei said.
Pally lifted her teacup slightly. "Are you apologizing for a future that hasn't happened yet?"
"If so, you have more than one thing to apologize for."
She set the cup down and returned her gaze to her book.
"Pally, what will happen on the first of next month?" Rei asked.
Without looking up, she replied, "Are you asking for everything that will happen throughout the entire day?"
"That would be very expensive."
"Not exactly," Rei said. "I mainly want to know… what will happen to Ansin."
Pally responded calmly, "So you want to divine the actions of a Level 8 Mage… one month in advance."
"That will cost… fifty quadrillion gold coins."
"If you want it doubled, then one quintillion."
Rei's mouth twitched slightly.
Did that much gold even exist on the entire Loren Continent?
And what kind of 'doubling' logic was that? Even the excess gets doubled?
"Haha… I'll pass," Rei said dryly.
Evil Diviner…
Come to think of it, Loth was also a diviner.
But Loth was only Level 1, and divination wasn't even her main class—she wouldn't strictly follow a diviner's rules.
Rei sighed inwardly.
Hopefully Loth wouldn't "learn the wrong things" from diviners.
Then again… with her carefree personality, it was hard to imagine her ever becoming a proper diviner.
After all, the first lesson of divination was probably deception and manipulation.
Pally clearly wasn't going to provide any useful information.
And Rei had no intention of wasting what remained of this first day.
So he extended his perception outward.
It didn't take long before he located Yuna.
She was at another desk on the same floor, surrounded by a thick stack of manuscript papers.
She was calculating something.
Shing!
Rei swapped positions instantly, appearing beside her.
His perception brushed against her gently, careful not to disrupt her focus too abruptly.
Yuna was deeply concentrated. Only when she sensed the intrusion did she turn her head and notice Rei behind her.
"Rei? So you still remember me."
…Yuna, have you learned sarcasm now?
It's only been a dozen days—how did you suddenly pick up this tone?
Rei ignored it and answered naturally, "It's not the Month of Forgetting right now. Why wouldn't I remember?"
"Iz—Master Iz called me to see Ansin. I went to discuss Root Magic with them."
"Oh…" Yuna responded softly.
Rei stepped closer and looked at the dense symbols and equations on her paper.
If a mathematician from his previous life were thrown into this world, they'd probably have a breakdown.
Imagine transmigrating into another world… only to still be solving math problems.
And the mathematics here was no simpler than before.
As for which world had the higher ultimate difficulty…
Rei couldn't say.
After all, he hadn't been a mathematician in his previous life, nor had he encountered its most difficult problems.
But in this life…
Just thinking about the problems he had to analyze and solve gave even him, as a Decipher Scholar, a headache.
Sometimes he just wanted to sigh and declare himself a warrior—anything to avoid dealing with these brain-breaking challenges.
Warriors had it easy.
All they needed to do was fight.
Mages, on the other hand… had to think.
Sometimes Rei even wondered—was this class system really balanced?
It felt unbalanced… yet somehow strangely balanced at the same time.
Balanced… yet with subtle distortions.
"Yuna, this… is the Final Time Deduction?" Rei asked.
Yuna's voice today was slightly cold. "I was interested, so I worked it out."
Rei smiled and sat down beside her. "Then I'll join you."
"…Okay."
She didn't refuse, allowing him to sit beside her.
There were only two books on Time Studies.
Both had been obtained from the seventh floor of the White Tower:
"Theory of Temporal Principles""Introduction to Spacetime"
After extensive inspection, both were confirmed to be free of knowledge contamination…
But they were still extremely obscure and difficult to understand.
Time Studies. Future Studies. Fate Studies.
Rei had already mastered Future Studies and Fate Studies.
The three disciplines were interconnected—but while Future and Fate had lower-level textbooks, Time Studies only had these two references.
Fortunately, the theories within them were sufficiently rich.
Enough to derive meaningful conclusions.
Even if he couldn't fully comprehend everything in them, they were more than adequate as foundational references.
—
"Time is not absolute."
"Fate divides into True Fate and Observable Fate."
"The future of time is not necessarily the future."
"Time is not continuous."
—
Using Future Studies, Fate Studies, and Time Studies together…
One bizarre theory after another was derived.
Some theories even completely contradicted the common sense of his previous life.
Sometimes, knowledge from his past life was useful—it allowed him to view problems from multiple perspectives.
But other times, it became misleading.
For example—assuming concepts like impulse, force, and kinetic energy applied here.
In reality, they were entirely different.
Many foundational truths from his previous world had to be discarded.
Yet some results remained the same.
For instance—objects of different masses still landed simultaneously when falling freely.
Even though the relationship between force and acceleration differed, some outcomes were identical.
What made it even more interesting was that different schools offered entirely different explanations.
Magic Theory. Life Studies.
Each discipline had its own interpretation.
And yet… all of them seemed reasonable.
"These… I'll handle them," Rei said, taking the paper from Yuna's hand.
She paused for a moment but let him take it.
This was how they usually worked.
Yuna analyzed and developed ideas.
Rei verified and calculated.
As a Decipher Scholar, he excelled at this.
Yuna, as a Polymath, excelled at associative thinking—linking different disciplines together.
In the Month of Knowledge and Wisdom…
Every thought flowed effortlessly.
Problems that were normally incomprehensible could now be solved at a glance.
Rei wrote down answers one after another.
Yuna took them, developed new ideas, and passed them back.
At first, she still carried a faint trace of emotion.
But as she became immersed…
Her foot began to sway slightly.
She started explaining her thought process aloud—her brilliant hypotheses about the Final Time Deduction.
So easy to coax.
The "ice queen" Yuna lasted less than twenty minutes before melting completely.
Time passed quietly.
There wasn't much time left on the first day to begin with.
And once immersed in research…
Time seemed to accelerate absurdly fast.
Before they realized it—
Midnight had passed.
Pulling an all-nighter for research was routine for scholars of the White Tower.
But this time…
As midnight struck, Rei felt the fervent atmosphere surrounding the entire White Tower recede like a tide.
Inspiration dropped.
Thought slowed.
Even without losing his spirituality…
He could feel his mind becoming dull.
Problems that could be solved at a glance earlier now felt like entering numbers incorrectly in a dream—no matter how he tried, it wouldn't work.
Irritation and anxiety surged within him.
But his inherently high spirituality steadied him.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and calmed himself.
Only then did the unease gradually fade.
…As expected.
Losing something after having it is far harder to accept than never having it at all.
He must never lose his spirituality.
That would be unbearable.
Rei opened his eyes again, calm and composed.
Beside him, Yuna held her chest, letting out a sigh of relief.
Rei smiled. "Good thing… we finished it at the last moment."
Yuna nodded lightly. "Mm."
Just before midnight, they had completed their research—integrating the theories of Time Studies into a unified system.
At this point…
Their mastery of Time Studies had reached proficiency.
As for what counted as "proficient"—
Being able to explain one or more foundational theories of a discipline, and understanding dozens of derivative branches.
That was proficiency.
"Yuna."
"Mm?"
She leaned back in her chair, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Her mind was completely empty.
She had been drained by the prolonged research.
"…Thank you."
At his words, Yuna turned her face away.
"…I-it's not like I did it for you."
"You found such valuable texts. I… I was interested too. It would've been a waste not to study them."
Her voice was soft.
Her face slightly red.
She was telling the truth—she was genuinely interested.
But for some reason…
His gratitude made her heart race.
Rei simply smiled.
After all…
Yuna's parents were among the administrators of the White Tower.
It was probably better not to tell her…
That those two books had been stolen from the tower.
—
Time Studies: mastered.
Ancient Ansur Script. Time Studies. Precognition. Future Studies. Fate Studies. Divination.
All mastered.
Everything required for the Prophet class advancement… was complete.
Ever since obtaining that scroll on October 6th…
It had taken five full months to reach this point.
What a pity about the Puppeteer scroll, though.
There were too many classes in this world.
Each one was valuable.
If he tried to take every class he encountered…
He'd never finish.
—
Early the next morning, Rei went to find Kumironi.
Using Radiant Transfer for advancement was possible…
But completely unnecessary.
It was too expensive, and required coordination of time and manpower.
"Kumironi, big sis…"
"I've deciphered the requirements for the Prophet class scroll. I think I meet them now."
"Oh?" Kumironi tilted her head. "Another class advancement?"
It had only been six months since she found Rei.
Yet he was already Level 16.
Almost three levels per month.
"Mm."
"Prophet is a Unique Class. I want to try for it."
"That makes sense," she nodded.
Unique Classes were stronger than ordinary ones.
Anyone who had the opportunity would choose them.
"But… are you sure? You already have so many classes."
Dual-classing was already rare.
Five simultaneous classes… was unheard of.
"It should be fine."
Rei felt he could still meet the requirements of each class.
His Decipher Scholar served as the baseline—and he was still within manageable limits.
But more than anything…
It was greed.
Holding a Unique Class scroll—especially a Fate-type class like Prophet—
It was impossible not to reach for it.
"Alright," Kumironi smiled. "Then… now?"
"Now."
—
[Advancement Hall]
The rear hall had already been rebuilt.
But for a simple Level 1 advancement, a small chamber was sufficient.
Rei and Kumironi entered a private room.
Rei summoned the Prophet scroll before him.
With a light tap of his finger—
The text detached from the scroll.
Ancient glyphs floated into the air.
With another motion, the glyphs rearranged themselves, embedding into different positions in space.
Buzz—
A golden field expanded from the scroll, enveloping the glyphs.
The arrangement shifted.
Buzz!
It changed again.
Buzz—buzz—buzz—
With each pulse, countless glyphs flickered across space.
At a glance, they appeared chaotic and meaningless.
But when observed across time—
Their arrangement formed complete sentences.
The first step was to decipher how each glyph changed over time.
This required Precognition and Divination.
—
[Precognition: Phenomenon Prediction]—Infer future changes based on known information.
[Precognition: Divinatory Insight]—Interpret symbolic meanings from the spiritual realm.
—
These glyphs themselves were divination results.
No further divination was needed.
Only prediction.
As Rei extracted them, the scroll created a distorted temporal field.
Time itself became irregular.
He calculated the transformations of each glyph across varying time flows.
Then reconstructed their proper order in normal time.
Each vibration formed incomprehensible text—
But when viewed from future to past, and decoded using Ancient Ansur Script—
They became complete sentences.
Rei had already foreseen every transformation.
From the final state… back to the origin.
Everything was clear.
Now—
Before the glyphs vanished—
He had to chant them.
Rei spoke aloud:
"I shall lift the veil that blinds mortal sight—the layered curtain of ignorance and present that obscures truth."
"I understand: foresight is not a gift, but a burden. Insight is not power, but a shackle."
"When foresight reveals despair, separation, and inevitable calamity… the path of the seer is one of solitude."
"May this body alter the course of the tide, if only slightly—guiding the lost for but a fleeting moment."
"I accept the fracture brought by foresight—walking between known and unknown, possibility and inevitability."
"With clarity, I embrace the chaos of the future. With insignificance, I touch the grand design of fate."
"—Thus, my name is…"
Whoosh—
At the final moment, the meaning of the first glyph finally revealed itself.
Because it required unveiling fate itself.
It was—
His name.
It had always been written there.
This… was the Prophet.
To glimpse destiny's inevitability.
"My name is… Kanzaki Rei."
"This is my vow. This is my… path to the summit of prophecy."
Buzz—
As his voice fell—
The golden glyphs burned into his body like searing brands.
The scroll's glow faded.
And in that moment—
Rei knew.
He had become a Level 1 Prophet.