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In Harry's impression, Awakened individuals were always those who exuded an aura of mystery and power. Whether it was Li Jiannan or Senior Seti, both of them possessed that unique quality—an unmistakable presence that made it clear they were no ordinary people.
Without that enigmatic aura, perhaps the two of them would have been dismissed as either an emotionless wooden puppet or an old man barely clinging to life, ready to swindle anyone at any moment.
But when his uncles and senior masters made their entrance, Harry found himself deep in thought. The world was vast, and there truly were all kinds of people out there!
Although there were no over-the-top special effects like the legendary "coffin dance" meme, the moment Li Jiannan revealed the golden short-barreled M500 Magnum revolver in his hands—and then casually introduced it as their most senior "Shibo"—Harry struggled to keep a straight face.
The absurdity didn't end there.
The revolver—yes, the talking golden revolver—was shouting things like, "Hurry up and get inside me!", "I'm gonna shoot you all out!", and "Let's give the newbie a surprise!"
And just when Harry thought it couldn't get any weirder, the so-called "Shishu" (junior uncles) standing nearby, after showing a collective look of helpless resignation, suddenly transformed—into .50-caliber Magnum bullets.
Unaware that Harry had witnessed everything through the window, the senior masters and uncles were now firmly grasped in Li Jiannan's hands.
"You gotta kick the door, kid! Ever heard of professionalism?"
Li Jiannan, just about to pull the door open, froze for a moment before his expression stiffened. Then, wordlessly, he raised his leg—BAM! A solid front kick.
Though there was no accompanying sound effect, Harry had already mentally filled in the blanks: "FBI, OPEN UP!"
As the golden revolver pointed itself at his forehead, Harry was utterly dumbfounded. Before he could even process the situation, Li Jiannan pulled the trigger—multiple times.
Yet, instead of the expected bang bang bang of gunfire, what followed was a bizarre chorus of:
"Mmm~"
"Ohhh~"
"Ahhh~"
"Hiss~"
"Ayy~"
The bullets, once fired, instantly reverted to human form midair, landing in various ridiculous postures upon hitting the ground.
Harry: "…"
"That… was quite an entrance."
Struggling to move his stiff neck, Harry turned to Senior Seti, who stood to the side with a calm smile—as if he had seen this play out countless times before.
"A… rather unique way to make an entrance?"
"Scared you, didn't we, kid?"
The golden Magnum, still being held reverently in Li Jiannan's hands, suddenly sprang to life. Somehow, it had built-in speakers, and from them boomed a deep, hearty voice. If Harry closed his eyes, he could easily imagine a burly dwarf warrior with a thick, unkempt beard.
"Uh… yeah."
As the "bullet men" dusted themselves off and turned their amused gazes toward him, Harry suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable, as though he were being scrutinized from all angles.
"Ha! He's too scared to speak! Youngsters these days—so timid! How disappointing~~!"
The golden Magnum's booming voice filled the air once more. Watching it bounce animatedly in Li Jiannan's palm, Harry was almost certain he could see a pair of nonexistent little hands perched on its cylinder, exuding a comically arrogant energy.
"I mean, is it possible that…"
Faced with this absurd situation, Harry finally gave up resisting and let out a twitching smirk.
"Because you were yelling so loudly earlier, I already saw everything through the window before coming in—so I wasn't actually—"
"Are you saying I'M LOUD?!"
With a sudden BOING, the golden Magnum practically jumped in outrage, like a tiny, grumpy old dwarf who had just had his candy stolen.
"It's because you lot were too slow!"
Absolutely refusing to take the blame, the golden Magnum immediately redirected its anger toward the bullet men, who had so eagerly played along with its antics just moments ago.
"And YOU!"
The revolver spun its barrel, its sights locking onto Li Jiannan before it used its thick, oversized muzzle to bang bang bang knock a red mark onto his forehead.
As the golden short-barreled Magnum (a.k.a. the sentient grumpy dwarf gun) started throwing a tantrum, the bullet men, who had earlier been standing around with their hands in their pockets, quickly stepped in. With a practiced mix of coaxing and consoling, they managed to calm the irate little gun down. Judging by their proficiency, this was clearly not the first time they had to do this.
Seizing the moment of distraction, Harry quietly shuffled closer to Senior Seti and whispered:
"What exactly is going on here?"
"Well, you see, Hammer is—"
"Hammer?"
Harry's eyes widened slightly.
"Urphamu Wanglong Hajin Hammer. He is the oldest—uh, I mean, the most experienced…"
Senior Seti hesitated, as if struggling to find the right words. After a long pause, he finally settled on:
"The most creatively minded senior researcher in transfiguration studies."
"…Right."
As if trying to reinforce this title, Seti repeated himself:
"The most creatively minded senior researcher in transfiguration studies."
Seti gave Harry a small nod, completely ignoring the increasingly bewildered expression on his face. However, after noticing Seti subtly signaling him, Harry began to understand.
There were certain things—certain truths—that absolutely should not be said in front of "Hammer."
As for the consequences of doing so? Severe or not, Seti clearly wanted nothing to do with it.
"Now that you know who I am…"
Seemingly having been eavesdropping on their conversation the whole time, the golden Magnum, "Hammer," urged his "mount," Li Jiannan, to move closer.
"Is my voice really that loud?"
He asked Harry in a booming voice, as if demanding a satisfactory answer—otherwise, the dark muzzle of his barrel might just erupt with a fiery blast the next second.
The bullet-men extras standing across from Harry pretended to stroke their chins in thought, sip tea, or fidget with random gestures, yet all of them subtly shook their heads in unison.
"Not very loud, it's just that my hearing is quite sharp," Harry quickly replied, catching on immediately. He wasn't sure why he had to say this, but given the hint, following along seemed like the safest option.
"Hmm, I thought so."
Upon hearing the response, the golden Magnum bent its barrel slightly in what seemed like a nod. Then, with a few energetic bounces, it leaped from Li Jiannan's palm.
And then—just like an Animagus transformation—its golden short-barreled frame distorted slightly midair.
The first thing to hit the ground was… a golden high heel.
Then, golden lace-patterned fishnet stockings.
Then a golden dress—
WTF?!
Harry rubbed his eyes furiously, yet the gleaming metallic gold before him remained unchanged.
Standing before him now was a figure exactly his height but with impossibly long legs—at least 1.4 meters. She wore golden high heels, a short, metallic-textured golden dress, and had skin that shimmered in dazzling silver-white—an ultimate-tier mecha girl.
Even though robots shouldn't have genders, the prominent, blindingly reflective twin metallic spheres on her chest seemed determined to emphasize hers.
"Stunned, aren't you? Heh~"
Her voice, now soft and sugary, was in stark contrast to the gruff, 200-pound, bearded dwarf-warrior tone from mere moments ago. Just as Harry was about to let himself be drawn into this surreal mecha-maiden fantasy, he snapped back to reality with a jolt.
"Y-Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"
Harry nodded frantically. No one can resist a Gundam in a dress— wait, no, that's not what I meant—"
He coughed and lowered his voice, suddenly unsure of what to say next.
"Well then, newbie initiation time is over."
As soon as those words fell, the once-brilliant, radiant mecha girl dimmed.
In the next second, a tiny, adorable M1897 75mm field cannon (an Italian howitzer, of all things) rolled onto the wooden floor, zooming around on its tiny wheels.
It drifted around chair and table legs like a pro, executing high-difficulty turns. Occasionally, when it overdid the stunt, it would whoosh into the air, flailing its barrel wildly in a panic to regain balance. When it finally landed, its recoiling breechblock even gave the impression of an exaggerated phew!—as if it had just patted its tiny cannon chest in relief.
Harry, now completely dazed, had absolutely no idea what kind of insanity he had just stumbled into.
As his brain short-circuited, he looked up blankly—only to see Li Jiannan deftly serving tea to every one of the senior masters, even preparing sunflower seeds, peanuts, and little biscuits for them.
"Senior Seti…?"
Harry turned to Seti with a pleading look. The situation was growing increasingly bizarre. Had these people lived in the cemetery for so long that their brains had…?
Harry immediately cut off that thought, fearing it might be a bit too rude.
"Didn't I tell you before? My dream… failed. But not completely failed."
Seti bent down and extended a hand. The tiny Italian howitzer, still zipping around, immediately leaped into his palm, then scurried up his arm and onto the tea table.
With a swift roll, it transformed again, looking strikingly like an unbranded Transformer.
"Many share my dream," Seti continued, "but few still hold onto it after seeing the gravestones. I am one of them. And Hammer is another. The difference is… I failed, but not completely. He succeeded… but not entirely."
"I failed to create a new world. The birth of life cannot be pieced together with magical inscriptions. But he succeeded in creating a new self—almost perfectly."
"The second stage of Animagus transformation is still relatively new, only about two or three hundred years old. And he…"
Seti glanced at the little cannon on the table.
"He is its very foundation."
"THIS ISN'T ANIMAGUS!"
With a biscuit in one hand and a peanut in the other, the tiny Italian howitzer shrilly interrupted Seti's explanation.
"THIS IS ANIMAGNAN!"
The golden short-barreled Magnum appeared again, and the peanuts that had been shelled on the table were used as bullets, one by one, being stuffed into the magazine.
"Don't put everything into your body." Before the magazine could close, Seti caught it and began picking out the individual peanuts.
"That's annoying~" The loud voice of the 200-pound muscle dwarf sounded again. "If you touch your butt, you should wash your hands~"
Seti froze for a moment, his fingers pausing mid-action, and his eyebrows twitched.
"I was touching mine," the muscle dwarf's voice added, almost teasing.
With a whoosh, the other five people in the room instantly disappeared. After a brief delay, they reappeared, but now they were dressed in casual clothes, their hoods and robes replaced. Three men, two women, with different skin tones and hair colors—clearly from various backgrounds.
"Ahem, Anan," Seti quietly stuffed a stack of biscuits into the now-mecha girl form of the Magnum "Hammer" and called to Li Jiannan. "Take your master back to the room to sleep. He's been out here playing for so long, he must be tired."
"Though he's almost finished the full body transformation, some unexpected issues have forced Hammer into a self-imposed slumber. Right now, it's using a fragmented version of itself, split personalities. So…" Seti paused, then continued with a slight frown. "I was hoping your arrival might wake it up for a few minutes. When Anan came to apprentice, I thought…" He shook his head slightly, offering a wry smile. "Looks like seeing the last of it might be harder than I thought."
"Let me briefly introduce you, Harry. There are only thirteen Awakenees worldwide, and six of them are here, including me."
"Six?"
"Yes. Anan doesn't count. He's not a full Awakener. Like you, he only possesses a fragment of the Awakener's power. But compared to him, your birth holds more 'fantasy elements.' When Danielles handed my stone to you, I realized you were different."
"I've been observing you for some time now. At first, we weren't planning on bringing you here. After all, you can read magical inscriptions, and this place holds all known records of magical inheritance. It's a powerful and dangerous force."
"But you managed to come here, which means you passed the test."
"I proved I'm not a… bad person?" Harry asked uncertainly. Honestly, he was still confused about what exactly this "test" had been. What had they really tested?
"Bad person?" Seti looked at Harry with mild confusion. "I'm no good guy. I've killed more wizards than the total population of wizards in England. I even discriminate equally against every 'N-word' and any human lifeform whose gender falls outside male and female. There are so many of them."
"Here, good and bad don't matter. At least not in front of the Awakenees. It's not that we possess some mighty power to disregard these things, but because, whether it's doing good or bad, it's all about following our own will. We only care about right and wrong, not good or bad."
"Even at the peak of the Awakener population, we never had internal strife because of this. Let alone now."
"The test I'm talking about is this," Seti pointed to his chest. "I don't care what you've done. I only care whether everything you've done aligns with your will. Did your heart waver because of your actions, and did it become polluted?"
"That's why you passed the test. And that's why I brought you here."
(End of chapter)