Chapter 133: The World of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
Flying all the way, he soon arrived at the bustling Manhattan district and landed on the roof of the tallest building.
On the four corners of the roof were four massive metal eagle statues.
It was midnight, so his flight in the air didn't attract attention. If it had been daytime, it would have been much more inconvenient.
"This world is also set in 2010."
George looked at the electronic billboard on the opposite building, which displayed advertisements and the current date, confirming the timeline of this world.
However, knowing only the location and time still left him clueless about what kind of world this was.
"This won't do. It seems I'll have to go down and investigate."
After flying around the area a few more times without finding anything useful, George decided to find a computer to search for information online.
As a panda, walking into a place like an internet café would be highly inappropriate. So, he decided to break into a private residence, preferably a villa, to borrow a computer.
Soon, he found a suitable target in a suburban area.
Quietly landing on the balcony of a villa, he used the Unlocking Charm to open the door and walked right in.
Using his telepathic abilities, he had confirmed that only one person lived in this villa. Moreover, the villa was quite large, and the neighboring villas were far enough away to avoid detection.
"Oh, my God!"
At this moment, a bald middle-aged man in the villa's living room, sipping red wine and listening to music, widened his eyes in shock.
What he saw was a panda walking into his living room from the balcony—and it was walking upright.
If he hadn't been so disciplined in his habits, he would have thought he'd taken some hallucinogenic drug.
"Imperio!"
Before the man could recover from his shock, George had already cast the Imperius Curse on him using hand gestures.
There was no other way. George's current clone wasn't exactly suited for typing on a computer. So, to search for information online, he not only needed a house with a computer but also someone to type and search for him.
Hit by the Imperius Curse, the bald man's face immediately lit up with a blissful smile.
"Go turn on the computer!"
George couldn't speak, so he used his telepathic abilities to command the man.
The bald man quickly got up and obediently walked from the living room to the bedroom, where he turned on the computer.
"Search for news related to magic."
George followed closely behind, standing behind the man as he began searching for relevant information.
Half an hour later, a few peculiar pieces of information caught his attention.
"The world's greatest magician, Drake Stone."
"Self-proclaimed inheritor of ancient dark magic."
"Winner of the 2009 Best Magician Award."
Clicking on a video of Drake Stone's magic performances, George's eyes lit up after watching a few tricks.
"Finally, a lead."
He was certain that what Drake Stone was performing wasn't normal magic tricks but actual magic. Using magic to perform magic tricks explained why he had become a world-famous magician at such a young age.
"Drake Stone... why does this name sound familiar? And he's a famous magician too."
George sat on the edge of the bedroom bed, trying to recall his memories from his past life.
He enjoyed watching fantasy and sci-fi movies, and he was sure he had heard this name in one of them. However, it might have been a minor character, which was why he didn't remember it well.
After thinking for a full twenty minutes, he suddenly stood up excitedly.
"I remember now! This guy is the modern inheritor of Morgana's faction in *The Sorcerer's Apprentice*."
*The Sorcerer's Apprentice* was a fantasy movie about magic.
The movie was set in the year 740 AD, a time when magic flourished.
At that time, there were two major magical factions: the Merlin faction, representing justice and goodness, and the Morgana faction, representing evil and bloodshed.
Morgana, the leader of the Morgana faction, wanted to use a resurrection spell to bring back the souls of powerful sorcerers who had died long ago, creating an army of the undead to conquer the world.
Merlin, the leader of the Merlin faction, launched a magical war to stop Morgana's plans and save the world.
Merlin should have won, but he was betrayed by one of his disciples, Horvath, and killed.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, Merlin's other two disciples, Balthazar and Veronica, arrived in time.
Veronica used her own body as a seal to temporarily trap Morgana's soul.
To protect Veronica from being possessed by Morgana, Balthazar used a nesting doll seal to trap both of them inside.
Before dying, Merlin gave Balthazar his dragon ring, telling him that only by finding his reincarnated successor, the Prime Merlinian, could Morgana's soul be destroyed and Veronica saved.
Thus, Balthazar began a thousand-year-long quest to find the reincarnated Merlin.
During this time, sorcerers from the Morgana faction continuously attacked Balthazar, trying to free Morgana, but they were all defeated and sealed into nesting dolls by the powerful Balthazar, including his traitorous disciple Horvath.
Finally, in the year 2000, Balthazar found Merlin's reincarnation, a young boy named Dave. Unfortunately, the ten-year-old Dave accidentally released Horvath from his seal.
After a fierce battle, both Balthazar and Horvath were sealed in a jar for ten years.
"This magical world is perfect, just perfect!"
After confirming the world he was in, George felt a surge of excitement.
It wasn't because the magic in this world was particularly powerful. In terms of raw power, it couldn't compare to the Fairy Tail world, and in terms of wonder, it wasn't much different from the Harry Potter world.
However, there was one thing about the sorcerers in this world that the other two worlds didn't have: immortality.
As long as they weren't killed, the sorcerers in this world could live forever.
Whether it was Morgana, Balthazar, Veronica, or Horvath, they had all lived for over a thousand years without any change in their appearance.
In contrast, even the Philosopher's Stone in the Harry Potter world, which could create an elixir of life, had side effects. It couldn't stop the body from aging, making the user more of a living corpse.
In the Fairy Tail world, there was no record of any sorcerer living for several centuries. Even the top-tier sorcerers lived only a little over a hundred years before passing away.
Immortality—this was something George had always sought.
Previously, he had considered researching ghosts and living on as a spirit after death. But now, it seemed that wouldn't be necessary.
As long as he mastered the magic of this world, he wouldn't have to worry about death anymore.
(End of Chapter)