Repin Spellcaster Academy.

6:55 PM. Dinnertime.

The cafeteria was bustling with students. As a top institution renowned across the Continent, Repin Academy’s cafeteria was of a guaranteed quality.

It couldn’t compare to a first-rate restaurant, but it was better than the vast majority of nameless eateries.

Most importantly, the cafeteria was run directly by the academy, not contracted out to external businesses. This meant the prices were reasonable, and the aunties serving the food wouldn’t skimp on portions.

As a result, it was very popular among the students.

This was unlike some schools that relied on their cafeterias to make a profit, where every food stall was a lucrative post, serving different dishes that were all equally terrible.

The school administration and the contractors were in cahoots. Sigh. They even forbade students from eating off-campus.

"The usual?" the cafeteria auntie asked.

Xiaomo nodded and handed over his tray.

Cream of mushroom soup, bread, a grilled chicken breast, and a salad with no dressing.

In other words, a plate of plain leaves.

He ate almost the same thing for every meal and never got tired of it. Changing his menu would make him feel anxious. If the cafeteria were to stop serving these items one day, he would even choose to go hungry for the day.

He liked for every detail of his daily life to remain unchanged.

Just as after getting his dinner, he would turn, walk 42 paces to his right, then turn left and walk 31 paces to a table in the southwest corner of the cafeteria. He would sit in the bottom-left seat and then begin to enjoy his meal.

He would also leave the cafeteria promptly at 7:10 PM. He was cutting it a little close today, but he should still be able to make it.

Just as Xiaomo was about to turn, he suddenly remembered something.

He noticed that the Demon Vision in the cafeteria had been replaced. If he remembered correctly, the school paper had previously announced that all public Demon Visions on campus would be upgraded to color versions, thanks to a generous sponsorship from the Zog Group.

The Zog Group had always been generous to Repin Academy, and exceptionally generous to the Illusion School.

They had established all sorts of scholarships for the Illusion School. To encourage students to change their specialization, they even had a scholarship specifically for Mages who transferred into the Illusion School.

However, all of the Zog Group’s gifts came with a price, openly stated.

To receive this scholarship, one first had to sign a contract, promising to join the Zog Group immediately after graduation.

Xiaomo stared blankly at the Magic Vision Device. The spot where he usually sat would be blocked by a pillar, obstructing his view of the Demon Vision.

Tom and Jerry was about to start, and he wanted to watch.

Today was the day of the switch to the color signal, so all the good viewing spots near the Magic Vision Device were already filled with people waiting to witness this historic moment.

His older brother, Big Morris, was there too, and there was an empty seat next to him.

As the main offensive player for the School Magic Avoidance Team, his brother was definitely one of the most popular figures at the academy.

After "breaking his vow" and using Weibo during the last study trip to the Northern Domain, he had become unstoppable. Leveraging his dual identity as an elite academy student and an athlete, combined with his good looks, he had gained a ton of followers on Weibo.

Now, his advertising income alone was enough to cover both brothers’ tuition and living expenses.

The time was 6:58. The cartoon was about to start.

Xiaomo took several deep breaths and made a decision that was, for him, quite a breakthrough.

To eat with someone else.

Instead of walking to the southwest corner table where he had sat for years, he headed for the empty seat next to his brother.

On the way over, it felt like everyone was watching him. The hand holding his tray trembled, sending ripple after ripple across the surface of his mushroom soup.

But his desire to watch Tom and Jerry triumphed over his fear. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

This was the Shadow of Evil that Zog had promised him, made specially for his own cat and mouse.

Just the day before yesterday, Zog had even sent someone to deliver a pair of 1:1 scale cat and mouse dolls, their craftsmanship several times better than the ones he hugged every day.

He wanted to witness the premiere of this cartoon with his classmates.

For most people, the feeling of being watched is just a symptom of being self-conscious; in reality, no one is paying attention.

But Xiaomo’s situation was different. They really were all watching him.

Everyone’s expression was as exaggerated as if they had just seen Soron grow a full head of hair.

The cafeteria even fell strangely silent, waiting for Xiaomo to take the seat next to his brother.

"I win! Pay up!" Big Morris celebrated smugly.

The surrounding students, annoyed, all started pulling out Silver Coins and Copper Coins.

"Xiaomo, how could you be swayed by a cartoon? That’s not like you at all," said a Mage Apprentice who had just lost a whole 5 Silver Coins, sounding dejected.

He’d probably be eating dirt for the rest of the month.

Like most people, when betting on whether Xiaomo would be drawn in by the cartoon or stick to his habits, they had all chosen to believe he would act as he always did.

No one suspected the two brothers of setting it up, though. Despite their vastly different personalities, both were trustworthy, had a strong sense of justice, and were staunch defenders of the rules.

His brother Big Mo would even remind the referee to correct a bad call that favored his own team during a match.

"Xiaomo, you’ve already come all the way over to eat with us, so why are you still eating the same old thing?" the apprentice asked, looking at the unchanging combination on his tray.

Especially that salad with no dressing. It looked like something you’d feed a rabbit.

"Since you’re already making a change, why not go all the way? You’ll never find a girlfriend like this."

The students chimed in one after another.

Xiaomo, however, just lowered his head in silence.

’A girlfriend? What’s a girlfriend?’

’It’s not as interesting as studying Runes.’

He just wanted to watch the cartoon. He wondered how Zog had portrayed the relationship between the cat and the mouse.

Those two rascals at home, while technically natural enemies, had a relationship more like friends who were always roughhousing.

They fought fiercely but never went for the kill. And if an outside stray cat showed up, they would form a united front.

If Zog had just made it about a simple cat-and-mouse chase, it would be pretty boring.

"Quiet, quiet, it’s starting!" Big Mo shouted, and the area immediately fell silent.

"Wow, it’s really in color! And it’s so clear!" someone marveled in a hushed voice.

This was a student from the Alchemy Department. After hearing about the colorization of the Demon Vision, his entire department had discussed how it might be achieved, but in the end, they had only come up with a very blurry, dim, and unstable method.

It was nothing compared to the effect they were seeing now.

Fabric must truly have some outstanding abilities to have gone from an unknown, perpetually-delayed doctoral student to a famous alumnus whose portrait hung in the hallway.

As the cartoon played, the cafeteria, which had just quieted down, was immediately filled with laughter loud enough to tear the roof off.

Laughter is contagious.

Some gags might not seem that funny when you watch them alone, but once someone in the audience starts laughing, it immediately creates a joyous atmosphere.

Besides, some people’s laughs are funny in themselves, which can easily lead to a perpetual motion machine of laughter.

"Hahaha, I can’t, I’m exhausted! The cat actually got shortened by a pole, hahaha..."

"Stop laughing! When you laugh, it makes me want to laugh."

"This is way more interesting than those farces at the theater!"

"Hey, wait, how is the cat flying?!"

"Is that a curtain or a piece of cloth?"

"Who cares what it is? This cat could be burned to ash and come back to life. Just have fun with it."

Amidst the gasps of amazement, the episode’s plot reached its climax. Tom had tied two pieces of cloth to his arms and legs like bat wings and was flapping them to fly, engaging in a thrilling chase with a small bird.

After suffering several creatively-conceived setbacks, Tom dove and caught Jerry.

The audience’s hearts pounded in suspense.

The little bird flew to the rescue. Just as everyone was wondering what it would do, it simply reached out a claw, gave a tug, and unfastened the buttons on Tom’s wings.

Under the dumbfounded gazes of the audience, Tom plummeted from the sky, enacting a legendary, classic scene.

The iron-crotch tree-splitter.

His legs spread apart, splitting a large tree from top to bottom. On screen, the wood sent sparks flying, and the sound effects included the piercing screech of a saw cutting through wood.

The entire cafeteria of students winced with phantom pain, squinting their eyes in discomfort but still leaving a tiny crack to peek through.

’It’s so weirdly captivating. I have to watch.’

Xiaomo showed an unprecedented level of excitement, his small hands clapping rapidly.

He loved these simple, easy-to-understand, yet incredibly imaginative scenes.

The episode ended with Tom smashed into a "cat pancake" and Jerry shaking hands with the little bird in celebration.

"It’s over already? It’s only been seven minutes," someone said, disappointed.

Everyone was left wanting more.

While watching, the sheer amount of information packed into every frame had made those few minutes feel so long.

But now that it was over, they wondered why the happy times had to be so short.

"Wait! The schedule in the Magic Vision Report says there’s a rerun in half an hour!" someone shouted.

Hearing this, the people who were about to leave all turned around and came back. They were going to watch it a second time.

Just like the countless people in the city currently gathered in front of their Magic Vision Devices.