Rebirth? Transmigration?

Ever since arriving here, he had spent each day drifting aimlessly, neither alive nor dead, through the gaps between turbulent currents. By some bizarre damn luck, he had survived—countless times, he had nearly been sucked into the currents, only to be unexpectedly pulled out by another one and continue drifting in the balance between their opposing pulls.

As time passed, he felt changes occurring in his body—his physical age was growing younger and younger, his height and build shrinking, his clothes becoming increasingly oversized. Once his body had shrunk to a certain point, he felt his capacity for thought beginning to deteriorate.

He felt that his age was regressing, and his brain was developing in reverse as well.

If this continued, even if the currents did not grind him to dust, he might regress into a fertilized egg and vanish.

But luck favored him once again. Before he could completely become an embryo, he happened to stray into a crack and passed through it unharmed, emerging from the other side into a new world, where he appeared at the entrance of this orphanage.

By then, he had regressed into a baby. Most of his clothes and belongings had been lost in the spacetime passage, leaving only his underwear and a signed white metro card—through which he recovered the name from his previous life: Ye Ting.

As Ye Ting gradually grew up, he began to notice the changes his experience in the spacetime passage had brought him. Those changes made him feel that, even though he had not gained a system like the protagonists of novels after transmigrating, he still counted as one chosen by fate.

He discovered that he possessed a talent for limitless learning and growth. It was somewhat similar to Saitama from One-Punch Man, but also different.

Any ability, talent, or skill he possessed could grow infinitely stronger through constant study and training.

As long as he trained, his body would grow stronger; as long as he studied, he could master new knowledge; if he tempered his will, it would become more resilient; if he thought diligently, his intelligence would become sharper.

It was as if he had no limiters in any respect. Even his talent itself, which determined the speed of his progress, would gradually grow stronger with practice.

For a long time, this had made him obsessed with studying and training, until he realized something was wrong—he was simply too different from everyone else. Only then did he slow down his studies.

He also discovered that he had an extraordinary talent for time and space. He could sense distances without any reference points and judge the passage of time without a clock. These were undoubtedly benefits bestowed by his experiences in the spacetime passage.

Furthermore, as he grew older, he began to discover that he could unconsciously influence and alter matter—he could move a cup of water, make a spoon disappear, feel time begin to slow when he concentrated, and even occasionally summon objects from other worlds... With his mature mind and self-control, he gradually prevented accidents caused by momentary emotional agitation, and through constant experimentation, he slowly learned to consciously use this ability, which was in fact called "magic."

Now, he could move relatively light objects with his mind, and he could instinctively use certain abilities related to time and space. For example, he could briefly control the flow of time within his own body, much like Emiya Kiritsugu's Intrinsic Time Control or the Bullet Time in The Matrix. He could also use a summoning spell: most of the time it failed, but occasionally it could summon things from other worlds.

By now, his treasure chest was filled with all sorts of strange items from other worlds, including a Konoha forehead protector that seemed to come from the world of Naruto, a katana that appeared to be an Asauchi, a Master Ball, a novel titled Energetic Dragonkin Maid (written entirely in Nord, though it had illustrations), an erotic book by "Eri Kashiwagi," a coin engraved with "I hope my sisters and I can grow up together and marry together." (the wishing coin Sylvanas Windrunner threw into Dalaran's fountain), a ring called "Doran's Lost Ring," and so on...

Most of what he summoned were inanimate objects. The only exception was a little white cat named Himari, currently lying on the windowsill basking in the sun—a cat demon from Omamori Himari. When she had first been summoned, the little creature had still been a baby. Ye Ting had raised her by hand, and Himari was now two years old. Perhaps because she was a cat demon, she had already become quite intelligent and spirited. He looked forward to the day Himari could truly speak and take human form.

Until today, Ye Ting had believed that he had merely returned to Britain in the eighties or nineties. With knowledge and experience two or three decades ahead of the era, as well as his powerful cheat ability, he was certain that even without a system, he could become the richest man in the world amid the Internet boom of the new age and reach the pinnacle of life.

Until he opened his door and saw the white-bearded old man before him.

"Hello, Mr. Ye Ting. I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts."