Leo had no doubt that the slightest mistake in his answers would bring about an outcome he absolutely did not want to see.
Over a hundred questions in succession left the tense Leo drenched in cold sweat as he answered. He had never expected this alien to know so much about Earth. Even Leo did not know some of the details he was asked about, and could only frantically search his memories, hunting for answers as though grasping at a lifeline, striving to answer perfectly.
"I am very satisfied with your answers."
The questions finally stopped, and Leo cautiously let out a long breath. This meant his chances of surviving had grown considerably.
But just as Leo relaxed a little, a ray of light shot from the magician's hand. Before he could even react, it struck his forehead, and a great mass of memories brutally forced its way into his mind.
Leo's eyes instantly rolled back, but his powerful body kept him from passing out. His body twitched and trembled as he passively received the memories pouring into him.
The two magicians watched the convulsing Leo indifferently. Both seemed to be sitting calmly, but the surging energy fluctuations around them spoke of their private exchange.
Leo simply could not see them, and of course, even if he could, he would not have known what they meant.
"Whew."
Leo gasped for breath, keeping his eyes tightly shut, trying to forcibly suppress the surging shock within him this way.
The forcibly implanted memories contained an introduction to this alien world, as well as the reason for Earth's upheaval, briefly explaining what had happened. They also included this world's written and spoken language systems, allowing Leo to communicate with them normally.
Even this preliminary understanding left Leo unable to calm down for a long time.
What on earth was all this?!
The plane he now occupied was called the Wizard Plane. The people Leo had called magicians were not magicians, but wizards.
These were beings who took power to its utmost extreme, terrifying life-forms who ruled countless worlds, absolute powerhouses who could cross the universe and tear apart the starry sky as individual beings!!!
In the implanted memories, the names of the indifferent wizards alone could make countless worlds tremble.
Such powerful beings would never notice a planet as insignificant as Earth, much less inferior life-forms like humans, who could not even break through the limits of their physical bodies.
Earth had been torn apart merely because of an accident.
Space was not fixed and unchanging. Like the surface of the sea, it could constantly shift, sometimes raising tides thousands of meters high, sometimes sinking into troughs.
The Wizard World was beyond the imagination of Earth's humans like Leo. Its area was enough to contain the entire solar system, which meant its mass was infinitely great.
Of course, the immense scale of the Wizard World had nothing to do with Earth. After all, the distance between them was too great, like parallel lines that could never intersect.
But one day, the space between them, seemingly so vast that they could never touch, underwent a tidal effect and reached a trough.
The Wizard World tore through space with brute, unreasonable force. Or rather, the thin spatial barrier could not withstand the Wizard World's mass and was torn open, abruptly bringing two worlds that should never have met even at the end of the universe face-to-face.
Earth was like an ant facing Mars, utterly incapable of resisting. The powerful gravity from the Wizard World tore Earth apart directly.
This apocalyptic catastrophe for Earth had occurred entirely passively, without any conscious intent.
By now, Earth had long since been torn into countless pieces and incorporated into the Wizard World, contributing to its construction.
Earth was not the first planet the Wizard World had captured through a thin layer of space and torn apart, nor would it be the last. Otherwise, the Wizard World would never have attained its current, unbelievable size.
As for the pillars of light that had shone on and protected Earth's humans and other animals and plants when Earth was torn apart, those had come from the wizards of the Wizard World.
Wizards devoted their lives to studying the unknown and acquiring knowledge. A newly captured planet, especially one with life that had developed a civilization, was to them what enticing nectar was to industrious bees.
"You more or less understand the situation now, don't you?" asked the wizard who had been questioning him.
"Honored Lord Wizard, I understand."
Leo answered with utmost respect. He dared not be anything but respectful. Wizards were beings who could destroy countless worlds with just two words. Saving him had been nothing more than a coincidence, and saving half of Earth's living beings had also been for the sake of promoting the Wizard World's diversity.
Wizards enslaved countless worlds, planes, and planets. In their eyes, life-forms like humans were lowly slaves whose lives and deaths did not matter at all.
Just as they had been in the basement prison earlier: sacrificial offerings penned up by that wizard apprentice.
Such behavior was extremely common in the Wizard World, something that could be called an everyday occurrence.
Leo should originally have become a sacrifice for that wizard apprentice to communicate with the outside world, his fate to contribute his own negligible power to the great Wizard World.
But unexpectedly, whatever world that wizard apprentice had contacted had actually transmitted its power into Leo through the temporarily opened spatial passage.
Simply put, Leo had been permeated by the other world's power. He had evolved from a frail life-form, an Earth human, and transformed into a higher life-form with the potential to evolve further.
This was undoubtedly a tremendous boon for Leo, because it was not merely a transformation of his fundamental nature as a living being. It had also granted him unexpected abilities, changing his circumstances from waiting helplessly for slaughter to being able to offer a little resistance to his predicament.
But he did not believe that such a coincidence and acquired evolution would attract the attention of two full-fledged wizards, much less make them waste their precious time on him.
The Wizard World had no shortage of fighting power, nor did it lack evolved life-forms. Such beings were as numerous in the Wizard World as grains of sand in a desert.
The two wizards before him saw Leo's confusion and actually offered an explanation. "Just one day ago, the great Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard issued a sacred decree. Because of your reasonably developed intelligence, you Earth humans have been granted the rights of second-class native inhabitants of the Wizard World. Wizards may not slaughter you at will or take you as slaves."
Leo nearly burst into tears. His luck was simply too good. He had actually survived right at the cutoff.
The Wizard World placed great importance on distinctions of rank. Slaves were the lowest, possessing no rights whatsoever and occupying the very bottom of the world. When Leo and the others had been casually thrown onto the altar earlier, their designated social status had been that of slaves.
In contrast to slaves were the ordinary commoners of the Wizard World. Under normal circumstances, wizards would not interfere with their lives, and would even provide protection at certain times.
Of course, wizards occupied the very top of society. They held countless worlds in their grasp.
All of this was information Leo had obtained from the implanted memories. Now that Earth's humans had been granted the rights of second-class native inhabitants, it meant they would no longer be casually killed as experimental subjects and could live and reproduce.
If this order had been issued a minute later, he might have been disposed of as an invading creature from another world.
"I was so lucky," Leo sighed, still shaken.
"The other Earth humans will soon be assigned new towns where they can begin new lives. Thank the great Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard. The fact that you Earth humans can continue living is entirely due to the great Stigmata Wizard's benevolence."
"As for you, we have already determined that you have not been contaminated by a creature from another world, and there is nothing abnormal about your soul. You could say you have gained a blessing from misfortune. Unlike the other Earth humans, you may remain at the Purple Flame Academy and choose to become a wizard. Of course, you may also choose to go with the other humans to the new towns and begin a new life. The choice is yours."
The so-called assessment the wizard before him mentioned had been those earlier questions. Leo could guarantee that if he had been a moment slower in answering, he would have faced a thunderous strike.
Even Leo had needed to search the deepest recesses of his memories to recall the answers to those questions. If he really had been contaminated, or possessed, there would have been discrepancies in the merged memories, causing delays when searching them.
Of course, Leo did not think the other wizard, who had asked no questions, had merely been sitting there. He must have used some means Leo did not understand to examine him thoroughly, inside and out.
Considering that this wizard had spoken to him in Chinese from the very beginning and knew so much about Earth, just what methods had he used to learn so much?
Leo dared not dwell on it. The more he thought about it, the more his hair stood on end!
What lay before him now was how he would live from here on: one option was to leave, and the other was to remain at the Purple Flame Academy and become a wizard.
"I..."
"I..."
Every time Leo opened his mouth to say he did not want to remain at the wizard academy, he saw the wizard opposite him gently rubbing his staff, watching him with cold eyes. For some reason, that gaze reminded Leo of a cold blade pressed against his throat. He feared that the moment he said he did not want to stay at the academy, his throat would be slit.
"I..."
Fear of death left him little time to hesitate. Almost as quickly as he would have cried for help, he shouted, "I choose to stay at the academy and become a great wizard."
After shouting those words, Leo was almost completely drained. He could feel the threat of death receding.
Thank goodness for my keen intuition. It saved my life!