Free Web NovelChapter 795: The Meaning of April’s Ordinary Project
“Why push me to such a state?”
Looking at the dense cluster of muzzles in the distance, if April were still a teaching assistant, these thermal weapons would be nothing but a joke.
At this moment, however, they could take her life.
Furthermore, the other party was the Security Bureau, and their firearms were clearly special supplies from the Wizard Academy.
Although the Outer World generally did not allow ordinary people to possess transcendent materials or creations, the Security Bureau in the areas under the Wizard Academy’s influence had quietly bypassed this restriction.
Their weapons could apply for transcendent bullets for transcendent law enforcement.
This was a completely different treatment compared to the Security Bureau on the Witch Academy’s side, which could only wait for the Disciplinary Squad to arrive.
But… none of this was useful against April.
She possessed the Frozen World. Without an attack of the same intensity as a [Transcendent Knowledge] fragment or high-level attainments in the transcendent spatial layer, it was impossible to touch her within the Frozen World.
However, she was nearing her limit—the limit of her body, which was also the limit of using the Frozen World.
The Frozen World could not expand infinitely, and she could not rely on it to escape directly.
At this moment, the Frozen World was like a final frost coffin.
She had no choice…
So she chose to grit her teeth and support her body, enduring the wizard toxins to prop up the Frozen World.
The moment the Frozen World was activated, it covered her entire body, and then continuously expanded outward like spreading ice crystals.
Her true body also hid within it at the first moment, only the right hand that gripped it tightly had already lost all sensation.
April felt as if her entire right hand was about to be ruined, as the low temperature of the ice constantly eroded her body’s core temperature.
This sudden change instantly startled the family members, who thought she still wanted to resist.
After all, the opponent was still holding a powerful transcendent fragment!
And they were merely ordinary people.
“Fire!”
Suddenly, someone issued such a command without mercy.
But it was not a person from the Security Bureau; it was that man from the Hawthorne Family who issued the command.
Along with the command, most of the people holding firearms pulled their triggers.
Accompanied by intense gunshots, a large volume of bullets poured out.
For a time, the sounds of gunfire echoed across the sky of Mo Nuo Peng City.
The people from the Security Bureau had clearly not followed the order, yet many still fired along with it.
Only a few looked at their captain with difficulty, seemingly confirming whether to open fire.
The leader of the Security Bureau also had a grim expression.
Although it was a fact that the Security Bureau did not dare provoke the family, a command from the family bypassed their own law enforcement orders to open fire… what if those muzzles were pointed at them one day?
But in Mo Nuo Peng City, the Hawthorne Family held absolute power, and the Security Bureau had to bow its head.
As a round of bullets poured out, those bullets streaked through the overlapping space of the Frozen World without causing any harm to April.
At night, the area was illuminated as bright as day.
The tracer rounds dragged out a fan-shaped barrage that converged on a single focal point, appearing quite spectacular.
The buildings behind it were also submerged by the massive volume of bullets.
No one would care about the lives of ordinary people.
To recover the Frozen World, what did it matter if Mo Nuo Peng City was plunged into the flames of war all night?
To a Transcendent Academy, everything in the Outer World was nothing more than a place name.
It was precisely because of this attitude of the Transcendent Academies that the family’s lack of restraint was shaped.
“Stop! Cease fire!”
Along with this shout, everyone released their triggers.
After stopping, those people saw the girl still standing in place completely unscathed, and they instantly broke into a cold sweat.
These people were not typical ordinary people and naturally knew many things.
They simply could not afford to provoke a fellow who couldn't be killed by firearms.
These people didn't understand the current situation; they only knew a general outline—that there was a traitor in the Hawthorne Family, and this girl was it.
But now that the only thermal weapons they could rely on had lost their threat, they naturally began to feel afraid.
“Even if you hold that transcendent item, I want to see how much longer you can hold out!”
The person leading knew a bit more and naturally wouldn't be too afraid, so he chose to speak up to hold the situation.
For example, the opponent was just a witch teaching assistant who had lost all her means.
Her only threat was a fragment of [Transcendent Knowledge], and their goal was to recover the fragment at all costs.
As for this defecting woman, they would try to catch her alive, or kill her if it really didn't work.
Although the fragment in April’s hand was not a transcendent item and using it didn't require paying a clear price, the current Frozen World was no different from a transcendent item to April.
Even the Crown of Absolute Zero held by Tan Han required alchemy plus sealing sorcery to be made into a sealed alchemical item, specifically the type that protected the user.
Even so, Tan Han would suffer the backlash of the extreme cold when using it.
April, holding the Frozen World directly, suffered damage that was even greater than the price one would pay for an ordinary transcendent item.
For a moment, the scene fell into a stalemate.
The two sides were on different spatial levels, and neither could do anything to the other.
But if it dragged to the end, the one who would have nothing was April.
The Security Bureau people had arrived, and it wouldn't be long before the Wizard Academy learned the news here.
Then, the Wizard Academy would send people to provide support.
Those would be genuine enrolled students.
Enrolled wizard students had the right to use sorcery and other means.
While they might not necessarily be able to break the Frozen World, it destined that her end would be tragic.
Moreover, if the opponent brought out something that was similarly a [Transcendent Item] fragment to break her Frozen World, they might similarly succeed.
However… her physical condition wouldn't last until the opponent did that before she collapsed.
This kind of standoff should have been the scene she most wanted to see.
Just before, she had many questions she wanted to ask.
If she spoke up at this time and wanted to see her father, perhaps her father would appear before her again.
But she wanted to open her mouth, only to find she had no one she wanted to see.
She had not a single person she was close to… her mother was dead, her father was an absolute bastard, and her grandfather wasn't even someone she could see whenever she wanted.
As for other relatives, none of them had left a deep impression on her.
But just because she didn't say a word didn't mean the Hawthorne Family was willing to waste time with her like this.
They also dispatched someone from the Hawthorne Family to step forward and persuade her.
However, it wasn't the person who had called for fire just now.
It was another person April still had some memory of.
Finding someone in the massive Hawthorne Family who April still remembered even now was indeed not easy.
But… at this moment, April could no longer hear what those people outside were saying.
She only felt they were annoying.
She even missed her mentor a little.
In the final moment of the dream, her mentor had given her a choice.
Choose to resist, or choose to sit and wait for death.
With this final opportunity, she followed the most emotional choice in her heart and defied the shackles of the family.
She thought that was the best answer, but the icy reality had given her a lesson.
Sometimes, a lack of ability destined that she had no choice.
Just like now, she chose to resist, but in the end, she could still only sit and wait for death.
In her mind, she gradually recalled the choices Mentor Chris gave her time and again.
If, at the first choice, she had followed her own inner will… would she have had a completely different ending?
“I'm sorry… Mentor Chris… I’ve disappointed you once again…”
April suddenly knelt on the ground.
Her body was starting to become unable to handle the power required to maintain the Frozen World.
Or rather, numbness was about to strip away her ability to maintain her physical balance.
“But all of this was a dream… Mentor Chris is destined not to hear it… it was all just my own wishful thinking…”
Unconsciously, April’s tears gradually dripped down, but they were turned into ice crystals by the chill before they hit the ground.
The collapse of the dream made her gradually realize that everything she did was for nothing, and Mentor Chris would not come here to grant her redemption.
Her final relationship with Mentor Chris had also been completely severed after that competition.
So… was there really no hope left?
April felt there probably wasn't.
Although her subconscious had not given up resistance, the series of events she experienced was filled with an unusual sense of incongruity, proving someone was controlling all this… but her instinct suppressed the birth of this subjective thought.
April watched the clumsy performance of those people outside the Frozen World, her heart wanting to scoff but unable to smile.
In such a moment, a familiar voice drifted into her ears.
“Are you planning to give up just like that?”
A somewhat illusory voice echoed in her mind, even making her think it was another auditory hallucination.
“Since you chose to resist by way of escape, then why not resist to the very end?”
The voice echoing once more broke the possibility of April thinking it was a hallucination.
Her body instinctively jolted as she tried to find something.
Her somewhat blurred vision saw a familiar figure by her side.
“Mentor… Chris… how can you…”
“You still want to live, don't you? There is still unwillingness in your heart. You still have things you want to pursue.”
“I… I, I am indeed unwilling……”
“Why was I born into such a family? And I know… even if it weren't for the family, I similarly wouldn't get the life I want… Why is this world deformed into this state? Why can't it be as beautiful as in the dream? Even if it's not as beautiful as the dream, even if it's just that ordinary life and very ordinary love… is even this a luxury?”
April’s voice was somewhat hoarse.
Many words were even just uneven humming.
Perhaps only she could hear them clearly.
Only the emotions she expressed were poured into her words; even if they weren't heard clearly, her unwillingness and helplessness could be felt.
“The world is sick. Complaining is merely the moaning of the weak. Only the strong can emit their own voice.”
“But I… I…”
Even after hearing many truths, April was still immersed in her own world.
Truths are not something one can understand just by hearing; only by personally experiencing and feeling them can they be turned into one's own wealth.
She naturally understood Mentor Chris’s words, but right now she could barely save herself, so how could she be considered strong?
It was all just a joke…
“From the moment you entered the Witch Academy, you actually had such a path to walk, but you ignored its existence from the very beginning. Why not dare to make a bold attempt?”
“What is it…”
April asked subconsciously, but after she asked, she found she seemed to know what it was.
It was the path of advancement she had always discarded—that behavior promoted by the family as a taboo act of casting aside humanity.
The people in the family selected to apply for Transcendent Academies were taught their first lesson: they must not advance to Transcendent.
Because that was an act of casting aside the self.
Advancing to Transcendent represented abandoning the original self, becoming another person, and integrating into another race.
Even Wizards were no exception.
How many generations of ancestors in the family had tried to advance to Transcendent?
The subsequent examples were uncountable, and the final result was always casting aside the family.
So even though many people still didn't understand why they couldn't advance to Transcendent, this had already become a default rule of the family, and a rule that could not be exposed in the academy!
But now… April could no longer care about that much.
Advancing to Transcendent didn't seem as terrifying as the family said.
During the days she spent in the Witch Academy, Mentor Chris and the other mentors she interacted with were Transcendent Witches, yet they were similarly lovely existences who liked to be called "Sister."
But… was she truly still qualified to advance to Transcendent Witch now?
She had been expelled from the Witch Academy and had signed the Witch's Contract that regulated expelled students.
She had lost all her Magic Power Sources and spellbooks.
She had completely lost the foundation for advancing to Transcendent.
“It seems you already know. Witches welcome any reserve witch who is genuinely willing to join the big witch family.”
“Now then… redeem your choice.”
After Chris’s voice finished, her silhouette gradually dissipated, leaving only that outstretched hand holding a Magic Power Source, thoughtfully handed to her.
A single… Magic Power Source.
But it was enough.
At the earliest moments of the Witch Academy, the Witchification brought by a single Magic Power Source was enough to theoretically support a reserve witch in completing the advancement to Transcendent Witch within ten years.
Any extra Magic Power Source was an additional pursuit of power.
At this moment, Big Sis Bai and I watched expectantly from the side, waiting for the miracle to happen.
And I had made all the preparations.
The metamorphosis at the moment of life advancing to Transcendent, the completion of the witch racial concept, the hatching of Self-generating Magic Power, the foundation of power supported by the project, the sublimation between soul-substance and soul……
Each of these changes corresponded to a field I craved.
It was an observation experience I could search for but not easily encounter.
And I was also prepared to expose myself at the first moment and dominate the scene.
No one would be allowed to interrupt this advancement ritual!
Bai Yu was also on high alert beside me.
She clearly recognized that even a Transcendent could not be allowed to disturb Xiao Han’s attempt!
And at this moment, April stared blankly at the Magic Power Source before her, her gaze somewhat dazed.
“Truly… a Magic Power… Source?”
April thought all of this was just a fantasy of her own heart, an overlap of dream and reality, a delusion before death.
But… the Magic Power Source could not be faked…
April instinctively reached out.
She had never scrutinized a Magic Power Source so carefully.
Since she had reached the limit of ten thousand Magic Power Sources, she had never cared about such an existence as a Magic Power Source again.
But at this moment, she suddenly found it was so wonderful.
The life level within her body that nearly touched True Time was beginning to stir.
The attempts to advance to Transcendent taught by Mentor Chris in the past now reflected in her vision like the revolving lantern of life's final moment.
She felt as if she had returned to the time when she was willing to listen to Mentor Chris’s lectures.
At this moment, the Magic Power Source held in her left hand overlapped with the Magic Power Source in Mentor Chris’s hand during her lecture.
A resonance that could not be described by language stimulated every sensory nerve of April’s, as if something was blooming from the depths of her life!
At this moment, April felt an unprecedented comfort and smoothness, as if the various shackles of the past were all making way for her.
The most craved thought in her heart turned into her firmest source of power at this moment.
“I just long for an ordinary life and love… so… is this the meaning of my Ordinary Project?”
The scene before April’s eyes transformed into the moment when Mentor Chris had forced her to choose the Ordinary Project.
The past self had not planned to advance to Transcendent and had just silently accepted it.
But she had never thought that at that moment, Mentor Chris had already foreseen her predicament.
At that moment, Mentor Chris had fired a bullet that she didn't understand, and at this moment, it hit her right between the eyes.
But now, she was accepting it with a smile.
