After Xiang Tian left, Xiang Peng looked at us awkwardly and bowed.

"S-Sorry about him… he's a bit… troublesome."

With those brisk words, she walked away, unable to face us any longer.

"Xiang Tian… guess he's her little brother, huh?" Feng Mian murmured.

"He will most likely be in the same year as us, then," Yu An Yan sighed. "I just hope we don't end up in the same class as him — that would be a pain."

"I don't think he's all that bad…" Qing Yue shrugged. "Just annoying. At least, he doesn't actually try anything apart from calling us a few names, hehe."

"That's true, but it'll still be problematic to have to deal with him… oh, wait, I think the ceremony's starting."

As more and more students settled in, Liu Jian — the principal of this university — walked up onto the stage, wearing a formal and luxurious black suit. Placing his hands on either side of the pedestal on the stage, he smiled and spoke through the microphone attached to it.

"Good morning, students and staff of Shanghai Magic Academy."

In an instant, everyone quieted down, prepared to listen to his speech.

"My name is Liu Jian, the headmaster or principal of this university. Today marks the beginning of a new school year. For some of you, this is a mere continuation of your legacies… but for others, this is a beginning."

He swept his gaze through the audience, pausing briefly when he saw me.

"Every student gathered here today is a talent — only the best of the best, from all across the world. Within this school, there will be no racism, no sexism, no discrimination. There is only one factor by which you are all judged — strength."

Raising his hands to his sides, he continued. "The world out there is a place where dog eat dog, and I'm certain none of you here came to this place just to spend a few years of your life carefreely. Thus, allow me to make one thing clear to all you new students, and reinforce the idea for returning ones: competition here at this university will be fierce. The number of new students sitting here right now… only 5% will make it to graduation."

There was well over a thousand students in this audience chamber right now, but 5% was still a meager amount.

"Allow me to explain," Liu Jian cleared his throat, sensing the new students' confusion. "In this school, you will be divided into 60 different classes, 15 different sets. There are exactly 1,500 of you right now — you will all be placed into a class of 25 students, labeled Class A to D. Every four classes, A to D, is a set. There will be 15 different sets of classes in total."

"60 different classes… this campus is big, but not big enough to accommodate all these students…" Feng Mian murmured from beside me.

"I'm sure you are all wondering: this campus is so small, how can it accommodate 1,500 students getting around at the same time? The answer is simple — there are 14 parallel dimensions to the current one you are in, created by highly-advanced Space Magic. Each set of classes will take one dimension, thus avoiding interference with other students."

"Parallel dimensions, eh?" Yu An Yan fell into thought. "Is that like Realms, in a way?"

"No," Mei Gui replied. "Realms are their own existence, separate form ours. These 'parallel dimensions' are mere copies of this one, and do not expand infinitely like all Realms do."

"Huh, I see."

"In every parallel dimension, there is a headmaster responsible for it — and unless you are expelled from the school or choose to drop out of your own volition, you cannot return to this current dimension," Liu Jian explained. "Students who stay here in this dimension also cannot leave the campus, and contact with the outside world is forbidden."

This caused the crowd to shift uncomfortably, but they didn't come all the way here to this prestigious university just to back out now. After seeing their reactions, Liu Jian smiled.

"Further details will be explained by your respective homeroom teachers, and you can ask them if you have any questions. As for the class distribution… look up."

Suddenly, a sound like fireworks resounded across the audience chamber as thousands of pieces of paper flew down from the ceiling, much to the surprise of everyone.

"The sheets of paper falling down right now will contain your name on it. Remain seated, as the papers falling down in different areas have different names on them," Liu Jian said.

"Wait… if the pieces of paper have names based on where everyone is in the audience…" Lan Xiao Su gasped, covering her mouth in surprise.

I narrowed my eyes, noticing that a portion of the audience did not have any paper fall down on them — that's where the returning students were sitting. They were probably told to do so by staff.

"Yeah… the classes were determined based on where we're currently sitting."

"Ehhhhh?!" Qing Yue cried. "Isn't that kind of… er, rash?!"

"No…" I fell into thought. "This is actually quite smart, despite how it seems on the surface."

"Indeed…" Obsidia agreed, rubbing her chin. "Friends — in other words, people with good synergy — are almost guaranteed to be sitting together in the audience right now. By placing them into the same class, it can not only make them happy, but also grant the class a group with great teamwork together."

Catching a piece of paper, Feng Mian immediately scanned over it. "Hm… oh, we're Class 1-D, Series 1, apparently."

"Class 1-D… wasn't that our class back at Shenzhen Magic High School as well?" Qing Yue asked, tilting her head as she also skimmed over the sheet of paper.

"It was," I confirmed. "Now then… is that Xiang Tian guy in our class?"

"Thank the heavens, he's not!" Yu An Yan declared, letting out a deep sigh of relief as she finished reading through the name list of our class.

Obsidia narrowed her eyes. "Now the only question is… will we stay in this dimension, or be sent to a parallel one?"

As if on cue, Liu Jian began speaking once more on the stage.

"Alright, hopefully everyone has found out which class they are in already. I'm certain many of you noticed the 'Series' number on your sheet of paper, right beside the class label. That will determine whether you go in a parallel dimension or stay here. So, without further ado…"

He cleared his throat, furthering adoing the news.

"… Those of you in Series 1, you will be staying here. Series 2 through 15, you will be entering a parallel dimension. Remain seated after this welcome ceremony over, and I will instruct you on where to go."

The girls let out a collective sigh of relief as many of the other new students groaned in dissatisfaction.

"Alright, everyone. Those of you in Series 1, you may leave now. I wish all of you luck in your journey here at the Shanghai Magic Academy, and hope you find your destiny here. Remember, this is not a mere school — it is a place for you to forge your own legend. Keep fighting, Mages."

*****

After leaving the Auditorium, the ten of us followed the crowd towards the entrance of the school, where the Main Campus sat. There, four adults awaited, two male, two female.

"Class 1-A, form a straight line in front of me," a middle-aged man with glasses said through his megaphone, flailing his arm around like a traffic officer.

"Class 1-B, over here~" A woman of short stature and appeared quite young waved, smiling happily.

"Everyone in Class 1-C, stand before me in an orderly manner," a young man with glasses and a stern look on his face said formally.

All three adults but the last one said something about their class… and the last one just happened to be the one responsible for my class, Class 1-D.

The girls and I exchanged looks, but refrained from saying anything and just lined ourselves up in front of the last teacher to the right. The other students who were part of our class did the same awkwardly.

"… Follow me," the woman before us said, eyes drowsy and figure slouched. Turning around, she began walking towards the building slowly, as if this was the last place she wanted to be.

The other three classes also were led into the Main Campus, but we went our separate ways from there. Our homeroom was at the very left side of the first floor — quite far from pretty much anything else, but I didn't mind.

"Just find a random seat and sit down…" the woman said, shutting the door tight after the last student had entered.

I took the desk at the very back, near the right side of the room. The girls took up the rest of the seats in the back row, but since there wasn't enough space, Amane and Lin Luo had to go closer one row.

"Okay… everyone's here… uh, I'm your homeroom teacher… you can call me-"

She yawned, before continuing.

"-Ms. Cai… yeah, that's all. Any questions… before I continue…?"

She glanced around the classroom, the black bags under her eyes as clear as day.

Well… this is definitely not a good start to my university life.