I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy

Rumble…!!!  

A sudden, thunderous quake erupted from Illa Jeridon Reverse Mountain, an inverted colossus looming above the clouds.

Even the slightest tremor on this snowy peak could set off avalanches, and sure enough, torrents of snow came crashing down. 

Yet, there was no cause for alarm.

After all, hardly any life existed on Reverse Mountain.

[Scales of Harmony]  

Two glowing magic circles formed at the tips of Flame’s fingers, twisting and expanding into shimmering scales etched into the sky.

Buzz…!  

As the scale tipped to one side, a small sigil appeared on Alpha’s chest.  

The spell was a special magic of the angelic race, designed to drain power from a stronger opponent and bless the caster.  

“But let’s see how you handle this!”

[Scales of Judgement]  

“W-What?!”  

As a dark crimson scale appeared in the air, Flame felt a surge of power drain from her body.  

It was the opposite of her spell—a demonic curse that weakened enemies who were weaker than the caster.  

The demonic magic directly countered her angelic magic, leaving her utterly exposed. 

Although Flame was not significantly cursed due to not being stronger than Alpha, what mattered was that all her strategies had been countered.

‘This is insane. Demonic magic?!’  

Flame’s wings flared wide as she shot downward, zigzagging through the jagged cliffs of Reverse Mountain in a desperate bid to escape.

“Is running all you can do?”  

Despite her frantic pace, Alpha closed the distance with chilling ease, extending his hand toward her.

[Come, Descent into Hell]  

Alpha’s magic circles dispersed in midair, and crimson claws rushed toward Flame’s body.

Flame veered to dodge, but one claw grazed her wing.

Rip! 

“Aagh!”  

Her wing was torn apart, and unbearable pain surged through her body.  

Tears blurred her vision, and the unbearable pain made it impossible to cast even the simplest shield.

Flame began to plummet, her body spiraling downward.  

Alpha’s lips curled into a smirk.

‘Pitiful. Completely pathetic.’

Legends spoke of angels who split the heavens asunder, calling down mighty spears to judge the demons of the earth.

Compared to the angels of legend, the girl before him was pathetically weak and insignificant.  

The wings of angels, said to soar unharmed through storms summoned by grand mages, had proven brittle, torn apart by a mere handful of spells.

Her heavenly shields, believed to be strong enough to withstand even the attacks of a demon king, had shattered from minor impacts.  

‘Still… If I had allowed her to grow any stronger, she could have become dangerous.’  

Judging by her appearance, Flame was likely in her late teens.  

Yet she already possessed enough power to resist him, even if only briefly.  

Indeed, the blood of angels was no ordinary gift.

‘Female angels must never be allowed to survive.’

Since ancient times, both angels and demons had faced a scarcity of females, making their ability to reproduce perilously limited.

In some ways, it preserved the balance of the world.  

Had these beings - already feared as overwhelming forces - been able to multiply like humans, they would have long since claimed dominion over the earth.

‘I’ll end her here.’

Falling toward the depths, Flame once again drew power from the heavens, spreading her wings anew and soaring upward.

Alpha silently watched her rise, then clenched his fist.  

In response, a dark crimson spear materialized in his hand.  

“Running won’t save you.”  

This was [Punishment of Doom], a spell developed by the Angel Hunters with the power of demons.  

It was designed to strike down any angel within his sight—a cursed inheritance passed down through his bloodline.  

Sensing the danger, Flame desperately summoned a golden shield to protect herself as she fled.  

But it was useless.  

Against such a vast difference in power, her shield could be easily pierced.  

“For the first angel to appear in centuries… you’re disappointingly weak.”  

He tightened his grip.

“Goodbye, last angel.” 

Alpha poured black mana into his right arm, and his eyes came alive as he prepared to hurl the Punishment of Doom at Flame—  

—when suddenly—  

Rumble… RUMBLE…!  

The entire Reverse Mountain quaked, its roar reverberating like the bellow of a living, sentient beast.

“... What?”  

Alpha instinctively stepped back, his expression frozen in shock at the unexpected phenomenon.  

“What is this…?”  

The great Illa Jeridon Reverse Mountain seemed to glare at Alpha.  

Two blazing eyes ignited within the rock face, and a gaping maw twisted into a menacing snarl.

Its grotesquely twisted expression seemed to be sending a warning to Alpha.

'Leave this place at once.'

Alpha’s lips curled into a bitter, mocking smile as he gazed at the impossible sight.

“Even nature... is siding with the angel now?”

Why?  

Why would nature stand with the angels?  

Weren’t angels supposed to be the enemies of the earth?  

“Why…?”  

No matter how hard he tried, Alpha couldn’t understand.  

***

Meanwhile…  

Baek Yu-Seol had already mastered Flash the moment he arrived in Aether World.  

Thanks to his experience playing Aether World Online, he could seamlessly apply his in-game knowledge to real life.  

But there was something he had misunderstood.  

While he had perfectly learned how to use Flash Magic, he had no idea how its mechanics actually worked.

Ordinary mages drained vast amounts of mana to cast Flash Magic.

But Baek Yu-Seol, thanks to his Mana Leakage Delay, didn’t face such a problem.  

Why?  

Baek Yu-Seol didn’t know.  

Most mages couldn’t even adjust the direction of their Flash, but Baek Yu-Seol could.  

Why?  

He didn’t know that either.  

It had simply been possible from the start.

Because that’s how his ‘settings’ had been established. 

But this is real life.  

There was no such thing as ‘settings’ here.  

In reality, every phenomenon must have a cause, governed by logic and laws.  

It couldn’t be explained away by convenient terms like ‘settings.’

This means there must be a reason why Baek Yu-Seol could control Flash so freely.  

The problem was, until now, he had never questioned it—nor had he tried to find out why.  

Baek Yu-Seol’s Flash was bound by cooldowns and range limitations, much like the game mechanics he had grown accustomed to.  

These restrictions could only be bypassed by either leveling up his skill or employing high-risk techniques like Harmony of Heavenly Qi.

But what if he could analyze Flash Magic the way other mages did?  

What if he could train and refine the magic itself to overcome those limitations?  

[Flash]  

Tap!  

Baek Yu-Seol teleported through a zigzagging path between training dummies and slashed with his sword as he moved—  

—But his breath caught when sharp spikes suddenly shot toward him.  

Though the dummies were controlled by artificial intelligence and posed no real danger, a mistake mid-teleport could still lead to serious injuries.

[Pink Spring Moon’s Essence]  

The brief fear of death faded as quickly as it came, replaced by clarity.  

Baek Yu-Seol teleported again, this time toward the opposite side of the training ground.  

Thud!  

He materialized at maximum range, his blade carving into another dummy… only to feel a sharp jolt ripple through his wrist.

Yet, there was no pain.

[Harmony of Heavenly Qi Activated!]  

An overwhelming surge of natural energy wrapped around his wrist, protecting him.  

With his entire body enveloped in the power of Harmony of Heavenly Qi, Baek Yu-Seol unleashed Flash Magic without restraint.  

There was no need for calculations, only instinct mattered.  

He relied entirely on his gut feeling, chaining flashs one after another.  

One wrong step could send him colliding into the dummies, leading to devastating injuries.

But Baek Yu-Seol didn’t hesitate.

He trusted himself completely.

The Mana Leakage Delay skill originally included a [Sixth Sense] as a subskill, but the intuition derived from Natural Harmony of Heavenly Qi was on a completely different level.  

It felt as though he had grown eyes in the back of his head.

Without even turning to look, he could discern every detail around him.

He sensed the movements of the training dummies with precision down to 0.001 seconds, detecting their range of motion within a single millimeter.

It felt almost like he could see into the future, predicting their next moves with stunning accuracy.  

‘Something about this is definitely strange.’

No matter how much he trained, his control over Flash Magic improved rapidly.  

But that wasn’t Baek Yu-Seol’s goal.  

He wanted to analyze Flash using the heightened senses granted by Harmony of Heavenly Qi.  

‘No matter how much I use Flash, there’s no visible mana flow.’  

Baek Yu-Seol had no mana within his body.

And yet, Flash was a spell that consumed massive amounts of mana.  

There had to be some hidden mechanism fueling it. 

Given that most white magic in this world relied on blue mana, this was an inexplicable phenomenon.  

‘What exactly is this?’  

Baek Yu-Seol closed his eyes entirely and activated Flash again.  

It was a reckless move, but he trusted the intuition from Harmony of Heavenly Qi.  

[Flash]  

The sensation was like folding space—or being yanked violently by some invisible force.  

But throughout the process, there was no change in the surrounding natural energy, and he still didn’t consume mana.  

However, Baek Yu-Seol felt it. A tiny disturbance. It was barely detectable but undeniably there.  

“This is…!”  

Thump! Thump!  

His heart pounded.  

Was this how Newton felt when he discovered gravity? Or how Einstein felt when he formulated relativity? 

‘Eureka.’  

It was faint—so small and fragile—but it had entered Baek Yu-Seol’s perception.  

And now that he had seized that thread, the path ahead no longer felt impossible.

Flash.

Again and again.  

Baek Yu-Seol darted between the training dummies, wielding Flash in a trance-like rhythm, chasing after the fleeting sensation he had just brushed against.

Most of the time, the feeling slipped away, like water leaking through his fingers.  

But occasionally—just briefly—it lingered at his fingertips.  

‘This is it.’  

Mana—the source of power that composed all space in this world.  

Mages draw upon this source to trigger supernatural phenomena known as magic.  

However… The world wasn’t constructed from just three-dimensional space.  

To complete the concept of reality, another layer must be added—time.  

A force fundamentally distinct from mana.

‘Could Flash’s principle… be connected to time?’  

His ability to teleport more than 10 meters in 0.1 seconds without physically moving through space violated spatial laws.  

But what if its mechanism wasn’t tied to space, but instead to time?  

‘I think I’m starting to understand…’  

Baek Yu-Seol halted his chain of Flashs, lowered his wooden practice sword and raised his left hand.  

He focused quietly, drawing energy from deep within his chest.  

During his earlier Flashs, he had faintly sensed an unknown mana stirring inside him.  

There was no need to second-guess. This is unmistakable.

[Silver Autumn Moon’s Essense]  

A mana as unique and extraordinary as time itself.  

Hum... Hum...  

A soft, silver light began to pulse faintly in Baek Yu-Seol’s palm, tiny sparks dancing and scattering outward.

“Ah…!”  

His eyes snapped open, wide with awe and exhilaration.

He almost shouted in excitement.  

“I did it…!”  

He hadn’t yet unraveled the full mystery of Flash.

Nor had he unlocked the true power of Silver Autumn Moon.  

But he had finally taken his first step toward uncovering the truth.  

0 and 1 are completely different.  

A zero is nothing… void and without possibility.

But a one?  

A one can grow into a ten, a hundred, or more—  

Clench!  

Baek Yu-Seol clenched his fist, carefully regulating the flow of silver mana pulsing within him.

'Alright, I need to change locations.'

Now that he had uncovered the essence of Flash, there was no longer any need to keep attacking training dummies.  

He needed solitude… a quiet place to meditate and refine his discovery.

But just as he was about to step out, a vibration echoed from his waist.  

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!  

“Huh?”  

This world didn’t even have smartphones—so what could it be?  

Reaching for his waist, Baek Yu-Seol quickly identified the source of the vibration.  

“The pocket watch…?”  

It was the pocket watch symbolizing his status as a Stella Academy cadet.  

Click!  

He pressed the button and opened the watch, revealing a distress signal flashing on the display.  

“A distress signal?”  

This was a special function installed in his watch by Arein, the Commander of the Stella Knights.  

Stella Academy cadets could send emergency signals to the Stella Knights if they encountered danger while outside the academy.  

Baek Yu-Seol’s watch had been customized to receive these signals as well.  

Although he was still a student, and technically not in a position of authority, Arein had added one special feature for him.  

Instead of receiving all emergency alerts, his watch was set to only receive signals from those he considered close friends.  

“Flame and Eisel?”  

The two had mentioned going to the ski resort for a short break.

Has something gone wrong again?  

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!  

As his pocket watch vibrated again, a second distress alert appeared.  

“Another one?”  

This time, it wasn’t just one signal—but two.  

[Distress Signal – Flame, Eisel]  

[Distress Signal – Hong Bi-Yeon]  

Flame, Eisel, and now Hong Bi-Yeon?  

The two signals were coming from completely different locations.  

“What’s going on…?”  

Distress signals - appearing so suddenly - right in the middle of winter break.

Even if he left immediately, there was no guarantee he’d make it in time.

And worse—he’d have to choose.  

Flame and Eisel?  

Or Hong Bi-Yeon, who was alone?  

“I…”  

After a brief moment of hesitation, Baek Yu-Seol snapped the pocket watch shut and bolted out the door. 

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Goal: 20 Bonus Chapters to Celebrate 300 Chapters of Flashing Genius!

I’m beyond excited to share that we’ve reached an incredible milestone: 300 chapters of Flashing Genius! When I first started translating this novel, it was just me, my laptop, and a passion for this story. Back then, I never imagined that this book would receive so much attention.To celebrate, I’m setting a Kofi goal for 20 bonus chapters of Flashing Genius. Once we reach our target, I’ll release these bonus chapters. Every tip, pledge, or share makes a difference.

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