Xiao Lin’s life has reached the kind of stage most people try not to think about for too long.
His first job is gone, job hunting isn’t going well, and most days blur together without much changing. Apart from the occasional gaming session and the usual lectures from family members about his future, there isn’t much worth mentioning. Then an admission letter arrives from a school he has never applied to, bearing a name that means absolutely nothing to him.
Curiosity turns out to be a mistake.
By the time Xiao Lin realizes the letter wasn’t some elaborate joke, he has already been dragged into Dawn Academy, an institution that recruits students directly from Earth for reasons that are not immediately explained. The campus looks normal enough at first glance, but that illusion doesn’t last very long. Classes involve magic, combat, survival training, and subjects that have no business existing in any ordinary educational system.
The academy’s students come from different backgrounds, but they all share one thing in common: nobody is guaranteed success.
Talent helps. Connections help. Luck probably helps too.
Unfortunately, Xiao Lin doesn’t seem to possess much of any of them.
His early performance leaves little room for optimism, and there are plenty of people willing to point that out. Still, years spent gaming have given him a habit of looking at problems from unusual angles, and Dawn Academy happens to reward people who can adapt when things stop going according to plan.
As lessons become increasingly dangerous and the gap between classroom exercises and real-world risks starts shrinking, Xiao Lin finds himself learning things that were never meant to exist in his old life. The academy clearly knows more than it tells its students, and some questions have a habit of becoming more complicated the closer he gets to answering them.
For Xiao Lin, graduating may be difficult.
Figuring out what he’s actually been recruited for could be even harder.
