My physics masters couldn't possibly be grand mages.

When I opened my eyes again.

Char felt as if he had entered a strange place.

There is no sound, no light, and no distinction between up, down, left, or right; it is as if you are in a void of the universe without stars.

Then the words appeared and gradually coalesced into a human-shaped outline.

Then, Xia heard an old and magnetic voice.

"If one day you were asked to sacrifice one person to save the world, would you be willing?"

Xia paused for a moment, then said.

"I don't want to."

"But what if that person..."

The humanoid paused, realizing what was happening.

"What?"

"I said, I don't want to," Xia said.

Why?

"Because I'm not qualified," Xia said casually. "I can decide my own life or death, but I'm not qualified to decide the life or death of others."

Even if it could save more people?

"Do you think this is a math problem?" Xia said with a chuckle. "Sacrifice one to gain a hundred, a net profit of ninety-nine?"

"What do you think people are?" Xia retorted, "Just a bunch of emotionless numbers?"

He gazed at the humanoid figure. "Saving the world is the job of a savior. I am not a savior."

"What if you were?"

"Anyone in this world who thinks they are a savior is usually the biggest problem."

"So you're just going to do nothing? Watch those people die?"

Char looked at the humanoid figure and spoke calmly.

"I will look for a third way."

"What if we can't find it?"

"Let's keep searching until we find it."

"Looking for death?"

Char paused for a moment.

He stared at the humanoid figure's featureless outline.

Then he laughed.

"Find death."

He spoke those three words softly, but each word was firm.

The humanoid figure paused for a moment.

"What if..." The humanoid figure seemed to want to say something more.

"What if I find it?"

Char interrupted it.

"Reality doesn't offer so many 'what ifs.' Reality isn't a multiple-choice question. As long as I'm alive, I'll always have a third option: to do what I haven't done yet, and to think of solutions I haven't considered yet."

Even if we ultimately fail?

"Even if we fail in the end," Xia said, his tone unwavering. "In this world, for humanity, there are always things more important than death. At least I have a clear conscience."

The void remained silent for a long time.

The humanoid didn't ask any more questions, but simply stared at Xia quietly for a moment before continuing.

"You chose the most difficult path."

He paused, then smiled.

Although the humanoid form had no facial features, Char could sense that it was smiling.

"But... I like it."

The characters that formed the humanoid figure began to disperse and flow back into Xia's body, and a mechanical voice devoid of any emotion rang in his ears.

"The All-Seeing Eye is loading..."

Char felt a sudden weightlessness envelop his body, the surrounding void vanished, and he was plunged into darkness.

But gradually, a familiar voice came to my ears.

"Pulse is stable, heart rate is steadily recovering," Tesla's voice said.

"His breathing has stabilized..." came Einstein's voice. "He should be alright now."

Char opened his eyes.

ceiling.

The fireplace light flickered on the ceiling. He lay on the carpet, the back of his head resting on a cushion on the sofa.

The black lines faded from the back of his hand, and even the wound on his index finger healed completely.

"Awake?" Einstein's voice came from the side.

Char pushed himself up from the ground. The fireplace crackled and popped.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Three minutes." Einstein released his wrist and stood up. "Or maybe four minutes."

Tesla chimed in, "It's past ten o'clock now, all the therapists are asleep. If you're still not awake in a few minutes, we're all about to go knock on Meredith's door."

"How are you feeling?" Einstein asked.

Xia stared at the flames in the fireplace and remained silent for a few seconds.

"I had a dream in which something asked me if I was willing to sacrifice someone to save the world."

"What was your answer?"

Char recounted their conversation.

Einstein put the pipe back in his mouth, leaned back in his chair, and looked at the flickering flames in the fireplace.

"It seems that thing has accepted you."

"I would say the same thing," Tesla said, bringing a glass of water from the kitchen and handing it to Char. "Aside from the laws of nature, there is never a 'must' in human choices. Any question that presupposes a 'must' is flawed."

Tesla paused, then continued, "Are these words still inside you? Just to ask you a question?"

Char took the water glass, took a sip, and looked at Tesla again.

Beside him, Char saw a cluster of words.

Nikola Tesla.

Rank: Third rank.

Attributes: Wind, Thunder.

He opened his eyes and turned his gaze back to Einstein.

Albert Einstein.

Rank: Peak of the third tier.

Attribute: Empty.

"It's still there," Xia murmured softly, "but it seems to have transformed into some kind of special ability."

He began to share the information he had seen with the two of them.

Tesla thought quietly without speaking immediately, but then he spoke.

"Those texts... must be a vast database." He spoke with certainty, "possibly the sum of knowledge left behind by some powerful mage."

"It translated what's measurable about me, what contains information in the data, into a language you can understand. As for that thing you encountered in your dream..."

He paused, his lips twitching slightly. "It's probably an automated question-and-answer program used to filter who is qualified to use this database."

Tesla turned to Einstein and smiled, "I think we shouldn't have to waste time going to the library to find information anymore."

"Any book in that library has that effect..." Xia's eyes gleamed. "What about the rest?"

"You need to understand this," Einstein said. "We're not the only ones who can enter the library. But even so, the books are still there. So it's not that we choose the books, but that the books choose us..."

"And you passed the Q&A session," Tesla continued. "What if you hadn't?"

Char remained silent.

He sank into the sofa, slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and rubbed his temples wearily.

"There are too many unknowns in this school, so it's better to be cautious."

Char glanced at the time on the clock on the fireplace.

"Now we still need to adjust to the time difference."

Tesla looked at Einstein and asked, "Doesn't your theory of relativity offer a similar explanation for the different flow rates of time?"

Einstein nodded. "The time dilation effect."

Tesla paused for a moment, then said, "I can admit that there are some aspects of your theory of relativity that are worth learning from, but could you explain it in simpler terms?"

Einstein raised an eyebrow and joked, "If you're standing on hot coals, time slows down. But if you're in bed with a beautiful woman, time flies by like the speed of light."

The living room was quiet for a while, with only the fireplace flames crackling and burning, before Char's voice broke the silence.

"Suddenly, I understood."

"The better a woman's figure, the faster she finishes?" Tesla chimed in.

Tesla and Einstein exchanged a glance and burst into hearty laughter.