I Created Scientific Magic

"What's wrong? Ryder, did you have a nightmare?"

In the cold mine, a faint voice began to echo in his ears. Startled, Ryder instinctively shoved the ring into his pocket before turning to see Ham, the one who had spoken.

"Uncle Ham, how are you feeling?" Ryder asked in a lowered voice, concerned.

"A bit better, it seems I'm not dead yet," Ham said weakly.

"Uncle Ham, why do we have to spend our whole lives in this mine, toiling away just to have some black bread and wheat leaf soup, while those noble offspring don't do anything yet live in vast estates and feast on delicious food?" Ryder asked, puzzled.

Ham was momentarily stumped by Ryder's question, having never considered it before. After a long hesitation, he sighed and said, "It's fate!"

"The poor are born poor, and the nobles are born noble. It's all the will of the goddess, and it is to temper you and me!" Holding the wooden Holy Light Seal to his chest, Ham whispered softly.

Is everything predestined? Ryder felt an emptiness in his heart, but soon the roaring from his dreams echoed in his mind.

[Princes and generals, has any of them been born with their titles?]

The call for defiance against royal authority from another world, from its peasants, jolted Ryder and imprinted within him the mark of rebellion.

But sheer passion was clearly not enough for success. Ryder's rebellious thoughts fizzled out at the sight of the fully armed guards.
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After all, he was just a young man in his early twenties with a bit of knowledge about herbs; he was no match for the dozens of guards in the mine.

More importantly, reality differed from the Dream World. Without a wise and strategic Wu Guang by his side, he could do nothing.

Ryder could only carry on with his work, watching Ham, still recovering from old wounds, forcing himself to move one heavy rock after another, burning with rage but helpless.

As nightfall returned, Ryder hesitated before putting on the ring. He hid his hands behind his back and entered the Dream World.

Just as he had thought, he entered the magical Dream World once again. However, this time he didn't lose his memory. As Chen Sheng, he led nine hundred servants, ready to rebel against the oppressive Qin rule.

But this time things did not go as smoothly, the challenges were beyond difficult to describe.

For being inept, his best brother Wu Guang took his power, death!

Attempting an assault on Qi County, his secret plans were exposed, death!

When he finally managed to gather some forces and the empire's regular army came to fight, again... death!

Ryder was becoming depressed; he remembered it wasn't so hard before!

Ryder was unaware that the previously loyal and strategic Wu Guang was actually a form of newbie protection. In reality, there are not so many careful, wise, and loyal individuals.

After half a month, he had lost count of how many times he had died, and each dream was not exactly the same.

Sometimes he was Fang La, leading the oppressed peasants against the Song court, other times he was Zhang Jiao, deceiving a large number of Believers by pretending to be a divine being, and even wielding magical Magic, only to face a bunch of human war gods, mowing down soldiers like cutting grass...

His only advantage was that after death, everything would reset, and he'd have another chance!

Ryder's growth was incredibly difficult, but what made the deepest impression on him was not the pain of dying over and over again but the human tragedies on the vast land, where parents consumed their own children, and no chickens were heard for miles...

This was a dog-eat-dog world, where bureaucrats and nobles endlessly oppressed the poor, filling Ryder with immense anger.

At last, he led a ragtag group of impoverished people to overcome wave after wave of encirclement and finally gained a territory of his own.

However, Ryder discovered that his own men had changed, beginning to emulate the brutal regular armies they once despised, looting and plundering, enslaving the poor, and wallowing in wealth and power without any ambition...

Those who had once been oppressed, upon gaining power and status, immediately changed their tune, becoming the very people they had hated and despised.

Why? Why had this happened?

Ryder fell into a deep confusion, lost his vigor, and even stopped resisting. He let the city fall and died amidst the clash of swords.

This time, he did not leave the Dream World but arrived at a very curious place.

All around was the deepest darkness, with only the faintest glimmers of light twinkling in the distance.

In front of him stood a figure, a particularly young man, perhaps even younger than himself.

"Are you a devil?" Ryder mustered his courage and asked.

"What do you think?" Lynn replied with a question of his own.

Ryder hesitated without responding, and Lynn then spoke with a smile. "Of course, I'm human, just like you. If there's any difference, perhaps it's that I know a little more, and can perform some minor magic."

"Magic... Wizard? A believer of Evil Gods and devils?" Ryder paused, saying almost subconsciously.

"In fact, wizards don't worship Evil Gods or devils, at least not the vast majority of sane wizards," Lynn explained. "If you really want to say what wizards care about, it would be the pursuit of the world's truth!"

"The world's truth?" Ryder murmured softly.

"Why must humans stand on the earth and can't soar through the sky, why does the Sun rise and set... We uncover the laws that govern the world, draw strength from them, and this is what we call—magic!"

Lynn's voice echoed in the dark space like the tolling of a great bell, striking Ryder's heart but only adding to his confusion.

Isn't it simply because people have no wings that they cannot fly? Is there really another reason why the Sun rises and sets?

Ryder was puzzled, but what he was concerned about at the moment was obviously not these questions. After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but ask, "Why do I have these strange dreams?"

"Why do those poor people, who have experienced such oppression, inflict the same suffering on others after they have gained wealth and power?"

"It's human nature, a flaw but also a strength, depending on how you use it and what kind of world you want to create," Lynn said indifferently.

Desire is both the driving force that propels humans forward and the cause of change, as well as the root of corruption and greed. The Dragon Slayer ends up becoming the dragon, and this is the greatest challenge that reformers throughout history and across the world have faced...