Magic Academy's Genius Blinker Chapter 1: Prologue

Roughly a decade following the launch of the game, its player base inevitably grew weary, their minds fraying from sheer boredom.

With no fresh updates in sight, gamers started pulling off bizarre stunts—like stripping down to just underwear for speedruns through dungeons. Others endlessly grinded the same old content until every last drop was wrung out.

Within that crowd, a few bold souls even picked up the infamous 'shit-tier characters' that everyone else shunned...

Yeah, and I happened to be one of them.

The title was 'Aether World'. Launched initially as a romance sim aimed at female audiences, it exploded in popularity among guys thanks to its dazzling battles, endless activities, and vast roster of characters.

Certain heroes were simple to handle yet delivered top-tier results, but others were utter trash, demanding such insane skill that even decade-long pros wouldn't bother.

Exactly.

I was that masochist who'd stuck with 'Baek Yu-Seol' for ten straight years—the guy cursed with nightmare difficulty, abysmal stats, and flaws outweighing any strengths. Honestly, I still couldn't fathom why they even created him.

In Aether's magical realm, where spells ruled and all could cast them, Baek Yu-Seol stood alone as the sole exception. No wonder he languished in obscurity, dismissed as a mere background nobody.

Naturally, this didn't imply Baek Yu-Seol was utterly magic-less.

He wielded precisely one spell: 'Flash.'

Any mage could pick up Flash, yet its lengthy cooldown, massive mana drain, and post-cast two-second stun kept it shelved by nearly everyone.

And that was the extent of it?

Hardly.

At its core, 'Flash' flung you 'randomly' anywhere from three to ten meters away, with the teleport direction equally 'unpredictable.'

Get truly cursed by luck, and you'd slam into the floor or burst through ceilings and walls—straight to instant doom.

Put simply, Baek Yu-Seol offered zero magic beyond the worthless 'Flash' skill that nobody bothered learning or deploying.

Sure, perks existed. Baek Yu-Seol had honed 'Flash' to perfection, granting control over direction and range, ditching the two-second stun. Plus, lacking any base mana, consumption never factored in.

That summed it up.

Ultimately, merely refining the junk skill 'Flash' a tad marked the limit.

'Flash' enabled blindingly swift dashes, so vicious that misjudging distance meant splattering against a wall from sheer force, dead on arrival.

Thus, in tight quarters swarming with foes, Baek Yu-Seol devolved into a useless fool.

Controlling 'Flash''s range proved vital yet brutally tough, ensuring its unpopularity. Why invest in a no-magic dud relying on 'Flash' when others flung potent spells effortlessly?

Countless diehards tried, only to abandon ship.

As they bailed, I drilled 'Flash' relentlessly until total mastery.

Grasping 'Flash''s propulsion trait, I mastered mid-skill cancellation for flawless 'distance control.'

Sounds straightforward, but with 'Flash' lasting just 0.1 seconds, mastery eluded most.

Obsessed with this one-trick pony, I ditched typical mage flair for pinpoint precision to conquer all. PvP duels against enemy mages consumed my playtime.

Then, after a full decade...

[You've defeated the final boss, The Demonic Black Dragon, Darkest Night of the Thirteenth Month.]

"Eh?"

Somehow, I'd slain a final boss I never knew was there.

"What?"

I'd merely chased a random quest for the vanished 'female heroine.' So why pop up with this grandly named black dragon?

"What is this final boss?"

Hold on, does a girl-targeted game even feature a final boss? Shouldn’t it wrap up with the protagonist tying the knot with a heroine?

“It’s my first time trying a game like this, so I wouldn’t know.”

Truth be told, my claimed ‘first time with this game’ dated back a whole decade.

For some reason, I sensed this boss would demand a grueling battle before going down. Even after gearing up with legendary artifacts and pushing stats to the max, victory hung by a thread. Luckily, I pulled through. Losing would’ve tarnished my rep as a hardcore gamer.

“What in the world is this dragon?”

The Demonic Black Dragon, Darkest Night of the Thirteenth Month.

Since it was the ultimate foe, curiosity led me to skim its lore briefly.

Here’s how the tale unfolded.

A fanatic bunch known as the ‘Dark Mages’ had sneaked into and lurked across the fantasy realm’s corners. Their grand scheme? Corrupting the world via the Underworld’s ‘Persona Gate.’ Once the Dark Mages fully shrouded everything through the Persona Gate, out emerged the Demonic Black Dragon.

I barely cared about the plot, preferring to mess with alchemy crafting or watch NPCs go about their business, totally missing these events simmering in the shadows.

“Whoa. The entire world’s turned to wreckage.”

Checking the map late, I saw 90% of the continent devoured and scorched by the Persona Gate, leaving only the game’s core setting, ‘Stella Academy,’ untouched. Yet it glowed red, signaling dire straits.

Too caught up in crushing rivals on the PvP server, I’d been oblivious.

Curious about forum reactions, I snapped a screenshot of the scene and headed to the Aether World Forums after ages.

Posts from the scant active players exploded with buzz, unseen in forever.

[Thread: Ugh, this garbage game—suddenly a Black Dragon pops up and wipes my save data to oblivion.]

[Thread: What’s this Black Dragon crap? Says my character’s dead, can’t even log back in.]

[Thread: Just returned after forever ‘cause SNS was on fire, and boom—character gone. What gives?]

The boards overflowed with rants from returnees discovering their characters erased.

“What?”

Turns out, the final boss didn’t just spawn for me—it hit every player’s game at once.

“That’s odd.”

Yet something felt off.

I scrolled the glowing threads endlessly, but zero mentions of anyone slaying the Black Dragon.

Even with my legend-grade gear decked out, my build was trash-tier at heart. Plenty of players exploited glitches for chars tougher or equal to mine.

Normally, that dragon should’ve fallen countless times by now. Then I spotted a thread from a top-tier ranker, and my eyes bulged.

[Thread: Hold up, folks—wasn’t this boss designed unbeatable?]

[Content: Damn this Black Dragon: ‘99% Magic Resistance’ passive, infinite ‘Magic Absorption’ with no cooldown, spamming ‘Magic Release’ nonstop. How do we even beat it? What glitchy beast is this? Devs need to explain, seriously.]

“Ah yeah... it had that gimmick.”

Nullifying magic in a magic-dominated world felt rigged, sure.

But not for me. ‘Flash’ being pure teleportation forced me to hone top-tier melee prowess.

Thus, I became the sole gamer pumping physical damage over magic, and the only one to claim the Demonic Black Dragon’s head.

“Incredible. Seems I’m the lone victor.”

Thrilled, I prepped to drop a massive flex on the forums with [Black Dragon Solo Clear.jpg] as the title, but—

Beep!

“Huh...?”

Out of nowhere, a world-shaking beep rang out, sapping my strength as everything spun wildly.

[Wrong ending reached: 90% of Aether World destroyed.]

The ceiling receded far away.

My sight grew hazy.

Reality faded into the distance.

[Yet you stand as the player nearest the ‘True Ending.’]

An uncanny, ghostly murmur drifted into my ears, yet it seemed oddly remote.

[I sincerely hope you reach the 'True Ending'.]

Darkness suddenly swallowed the entire world.