014. Traveling Together
"Maybe it's because I've changed bodies, but my mindset feels younger now."
Li Aozi turned his head. 'Leo' was all alone, with no one to see him off. He grabbed his backpack and boarded the flying carpet, casually finding a seat.
The public flying carpet was for long-distance flights and just happened to pass by Blue Chrysanthemum Village. Quite a few examinees from nearby villages had come aboard, and after a few stops, the flying carpet was completely packed.
The people from Blue Chrysanthemum Village huddled together, but due to Li Aozi's usual 'kind and virtuous' reputation, no one from the same village sat next to him.
However, while familiar faces didn't come, the examinees from other villages sat around him and even started chatting with him.
"Hey, buddy, are you the only one from your village going to the exam?" A blue-haired young man saw Li Aozi sitting alone reading a book and immediately approached, extending a friendly hand. "I'm Kadfey Endar, the only one from my whole village taking the exam this time. How about we get to know each other? It'll be good to have someone to look out for along the way."
"Oh, I'm Li Aozi." Li Aozi instinctively replied, then realized he had slipped up, so he quickly explained, "Leo…Z is just because I'm not very social."
"Leo-Z? Leoz, huh? That's a nice name." Kadfey plopped down across from Li Aozi, pulled out a bag of dried fruit, and started chatting with him.
"Do you know what the name 'Leoz' means?"
Seeing that the other person misunderstood, Li Aozi decided to go along with it.
"Leoz—In mythology, the [God of Reality], a brave hero who fought against invading monsters. It's actually a pretty common name."
"Right! You're named after a god and a hero—hey, hey, how does that feel?" Kadfey, a chatterbox who couldn't keep quiet for a moment, continued to munch on dried fruit while talking. Li Aozi found it relaxing.
"Nothing special. Noah, Arthur, David, Caesar, Vladimir—these names are everywhere."
Li Aozi explained:
"Everyone rushes to pick good names. When too many people use the same name, it loses its mystique and divinity. That's the process of disenchantment. Actually, 'Leoz' probably didn't have a grand meaning to start with. Some people with the name might not have been famous at first, but later on, a famous 'Leoz' appeared, making everyone else with that name seem special by association."
"Hmm, what you're saying makes sense. It's not the name that's great, but the person, right?"
"Something like that." Li Aozi replied, "Leoz itself could be just an ordinary name. But because one 'Leoz' became famous, people started to think that others with the same name might have similar traits."
"But in reality, they don't?" Kadfey asked disappointedly. "I thought there might be some connection."
"A name is just a label, nothing more. Labels can always be repeated. What's unique are the soul and actions." Li Aozi said lightly. "I could have any name, but what kind of person I become depends on what I do."
"You must be well-read to say something like that."
Someone nearby, intrigued by Li Aozi's words, was drawn over. Perhaps it was Li Aozi's unique perspective, or maybe his [Charisma], but more and more people began joining the conversation.
Slowly, Li Aozi realized that his once casual remark about 'Leoz' had been completely accepted by everyone.
Two weeks of non-stop cramming had worn away the thick rogueish aura from this body, replacing it with a scholarly air.
Coupled with the world's favor and blessings, the image of 'Leo' had started to improve. Even the examinees from the same village didn't find anything strange—Li Aozi had been showing his face more often, gradually adjusting his demeanor, and people naturally accepted the changes.
Before leaving, Li Aozi had even gone out of his way to tidy up his appearance, visiting a barbershop to trim his messy blonde hair and shave his stubble clean.
Under the world's favor, his appearance was constantly adapting, changing from the initial rough and brutal face that 'Leo' had carelessly maintained into a rugged, handsome face with well-defined features. There was a wild beauty to him. His emerald green eyes, blonde hair, and tall, muscular frame easily brought to mind a lion of the wilderness.
Despite the significant increase in [Intelligence], his main attribute remained [Charisma], which made him highly attractive to ordinary people. Before long, all the neighboring village examinees had become familiar with him. No one treated him as an outsider—they laughed and joked freely, hiding nothing.
Most of the examinees had taken the test multiple times. Some were hopeful, gambling everything on this attempt, while others were completely unprepared, pressured into taking the exam by nagging parents.
The public flying carpet was a perfect place for people to gather in a circle and chat, which was very much in line with the cultural traditions of the Tanas people. Even strangers would bring out food and tea to share, chatting about various topics to pass the time on the journey.
This was the kind of place where introverts would explode from social anxiety, but extroverts would thrive. Li Aozi wasn't afraid of such environments, and chatting with people helped him gather useful information.
"I heard that at the top university on White Candle Star—Crystal Magic Academy—their fourth-year students are already working in space." Someone brought up space, and many others chimed in.
"Really? I'm so jealous. My hometown only has land oxen and rice paddies. I've heard that in space they can use high-energy radiation to grow special crops. Some lucky mages even form contracts with giant space beasts and travel freely between galaxies."
"Haha, I'm not going to space. For nobodies like us, I'd be happy to marry a compatible female mage, settle down in the city, work as a senior workshop employee while she teaches elementary school. That'd be enough for me."
"Yeah, I just want to be a small official, improve the environment in my hometown, build a magic tower there. That way, the unemployed could come work for me. That would be perfect."
Most of them had simple dreams, even though they were all Gamma-ranked, they still had the mindset of ordinary folk. Li Aozi, hearing them talk like this, was surprised to realize that their aspirations weren't so different from most people on Azure Star.
It seemed that grassroots people were the same everywhere.
"I'm joining the military!" Kadfey suddenly said. "On Corina—the planet being fought over by the Night Butterfly Federation and Crystal Tower—our fellow citizens are still there. The Night Butterflies are bombing and slaughtering our people, and it's still going on."
As he spoke, his eyes were filled with determination. "War is the only thing we can do now. I'm becoming a mage to join the army, to save our people and protect our homeland."