Zog's Toy Store was now busy every day.
Thanks to the strategy of not charging royalties for *Firepower Young King* and allowing free reprinting, only the most serious newspapers were now without the comic.
It also gave rise to a large amount of fan-made works and, as a side effect, inspired a market for long-running serialized comics.
With a host of starving Painters locked in a frantic race to the bottom, art techniques were starting to innovate, and the first hints of storyboarding were already emerging.
The artist who drew *Firepower Young King* even put up a sign at the store's entrance, which read: "Signature Work: *Firepower Young King*."
As its popularity spread, the age range of Yo-Yo players grew more and more diverse.
At first, it was just children bringing their parents, but later, many teenagers and even people in their early twenties started showing up.
There were also parents who claimed to be buying for their kids but ended up having a blast playing with the toys themselves. These types would usually walk into the store and intentionally declare in a loud voice, "My kid wants such-and-such Yo-Yo."
It was understandable. After all, the social attitude here was still that toys were only for children. Adults had too much to worry about and weren't allowed simple joys.
"You're amazing, sweetie! You learned to walk so quickly! What does Daddy's special little one want as a reward?"
"Oh, a Yo-Yo? You like the Demon of Speed? Do you want the red one or the blue one?"
"You want both? Okay, just this once, then..."
Zog watched a father with a stroller put on his smooth little performance.
'Seriously, buddy? You're laying it on a bit thick.'
'How is your kid, who isn't even two, supposed to hold a Demon of Speed that big?!'
Zog rolled over. He hadn't been doing much lately, but he felt mentally exhausted.
That's just how it was for a boss. Employees just had to throw themselves into their work, follow orders, and try their best to bring in business. The boss, however, had a lot more to think about.
For instance, what to eat for dinner tonight.
It wasn't that this world had no good food. After so many years of living like a savage, he could digest just about anything.
But... it just felt like something was missing.
Aaaah—
'I miss Chinese food so much.'
'I'm craving savory double-cooked pork, candied milk tofu, braised pork knuckle... I'd even settle for a bowl of malatang...'
'I can't think about it anymore. If I do, I'll start drooling so hard it'll look like I'm crying from my mouth.'
'Time to think about Magic. I'll fight hunger with learning.'
'Earth, water, fire, wind—the four basic Elements. Primary configurations of the Elements, rules for elemental arrangement...'
'Wait!'
Hunger sharpened the Dragon's mind. Zog suddenly realized that the essence of Magic seemed to be a kind of quaternary language.
Different types of Magic used instruction sets with different architectures. The numerous Schools that grew out of these types of Magic corresponded to various High Level languages, each with its own unique features.
'So that's why these Schools are always claiming to be the best in the world. These guys aren't Mages, they're a bunch of programmers!'
In his past life, Zog had been a game designer whose entire family was routinely cursed out by players, but he had actually majored in engineering in college.
Not computer science, but he had studied things like programming and microcontrollers.
Suddenly, Magic lost its mysterious aura in his eyes and became something familiar.
And thanks to the Dragon Race's near-hyperthymestic memory, he could directly read the quaternary strings.
After reading through the primordial Inscriptions—that is, the instruction sets—used by the major Pantheons, he was left with two questions.
First, why were the effects of Magic today so limited? Logically, there should be enormous room for creativity. It couldn't be that the natives of this Otherworld just lacked imagination, right?
Second, why was there nothing like the internet, or a Magic Net?
The reason Magic in this world was so hard to learn was that the magic models each person constructed couldn't be shared.
When an apprentice learned a new spell, their master couldn't just copy over a pre-built magic model. The apprentice had to build one from scratch.
But once they had constructed their own magic model, they could use it directly for Casting.
'In other words, the magical programmers of this world have to reinvent the wheel several times for every new spell they learn.'
'And it's the kind of wheel-reinventing where you don't have an editor to help you, and you have to hand-code every single Inscription.'
'The inefficiency is staggering!'
It was almost as if...
A thought that frightened the Dragon took root in Zog's mind.
'Something is limiting the development of Magic in this world!'
"Alright, kids and grown-ups, Zog's Toy Store is now closed for the day! We hope to see you all again tomorrow!"
Elsa's voice broke Zog out of his wild thoughts.
'Whatever, I'll stop thinking about this for now.'
Zog decided to try cooking up a few spells based on his ideas, but he would need Elsa's help for that.
Although he could understand the primordial Inscriptions, that didn't mean he could directly use primordial Runes to construct a magic model.
Programming in machine language and programming in a High Level language are two completely different things.
The latter is like cooking in a modern kitchen.
The former is also cooking, but it's like having to start by drilling wood to make a fire and forging a pot from iron ore.
That's why he needed the High Level Inscriptions from the School Elsa had studied.
As for creating a set of High Level Inscriptions himself, that was fundamentally a math problem. And with math, if you don't know it, you don't know it. You can't force it.
After closing up the shop, Elsa flopped into a chair like a deflated ball.
Selling things is an exhausting job. Selling things to a bunch of kids is a downright hopeless one.
"Can you show me your School's Inscriptions?" Zog asked, sidling up to her.
"What?" Elsa struggled to shift from her slumped position into a proper sitting posture.
"I want to try Magic."
"Huh?" Unemployment alarm bells screamed in Elsa's head. 'No way. He couldn't have figured out that these simple Illusion Techniques aren't actually worth Twenty-Five Silver Coins a month, could he?'
"I'll give you a raise, pegged to the tuition fees at the Magic Academy."
Unemployment alarm: deactivated. Excellent employee system: activated!
As it turned out, Zog's aptitude for Magic was truly excellent. He basically mastered the Illusion School's Inscriptions in just a few hours, with a break for dinner in between.
They had steak. It tasted alright, but it was no match for beef brisket stew with potatoes.
'This is supposed to be the greatest city on the Continent, so how can there be no bay leaves, star anise, or cinnamon? Not even any similar spices.'
Zog drafted up a plan, ready to construct his first magic model.
"See if there are any problems with this."
With no editor to flag errors, the only way to check was manually.
"Theoretically, it should work. But you can't cast it."
"Can't cast it?"
"That's right. A person can't channel Magic Power like this. A Dragon probably can't either. At least, I've never heard of it."
Zog understood. Magic wasn't a purely data-based system; there was also a hardware component—the Caster. That's why the effects of Magic were so limited.
"Then is there a way to run a magic model without considering the Caster? It doesn't have to produce an effect in reality, just something like a virtual, ideal environment."
Zog wasn't sure if Elsa would even understand what "virtual" meant.
"Of course there is," Elsa answered almost without thinking. "It's called Illusion Mimicry. You can use an Illusion Technique to display the effects of a magic model, but you can only look at it. It has no real effect, so nobody really uses it."
"Being able to see it is enough!"
Zog felt like he had grasped the key to the gates of a new era.
Elsa quickly created a Mimicry of the model from the draft.
A line of text appeared in the air.
"Hello, world."
"What is this?" Elsa asked curiously.
"This is the future."
For the first time since he'd been transmigrated, Zog was this excited.
"But why 'Hello, world.'?"
"Because these words carry the most ceremonial weight."