The Red Dragon Lord is OP, but Insists on a Pop Culture Invasion!

On the lawn in front of the Craig Teaching Building at Repin Spellcaster Academy, Zog and Elsa had set up a stall.

Craig was a famous Mage no Magic History Book could ignore. Though he was only Level Six, his treatise, *Magic Mechanization Engineering Principles*, founded an entire discipline. From then on, Mechanical Armor was no longer just a toy for High Level Mages. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He was also the starting point of the Craig Clan’s prosperity. To commemorate him, Repin Academy named its largest teaching building—the one with the most classrooms—after his family.

That was why Zog chose this spot to take the first step in spreading his faith.

Generally speaking, the less educated people were, the easier it was to convert them, which made a Caster Academy a poor choice for proselytizing.

But Zog had no choice. The Divine Remains’ only function at present was to let people play games, and playing games required Mimicry. Ordinary people didn’t know how to do that. To promote it to the general public, they would need a Magical Device capable of casting Mimicry, and that was still in development.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class, and Apprentice Mages filed out one after another. ’If you’re not eager to leave class, there’s something wrong with your head.’

Elsa quickly ducked her head, covering half her face with her hand. Her eyes darted upward, furtively watching the passersby as she muttered, "Nobody knows me, nobody knows me..."

"What are you doing?" Zog asked, confused. "Are you dissatisfied with my appointing you as Cardinal Archbishop?"

"No, Zog..."

"Address me by my title during work hours!"

"Right, Pope. But can we please change the name of our sect? It’s honestly a little embarrassing."

A huge banner hung over the stall, proclaiming: "Flying Red Middle Church."

The tablecloth was printed with the slogan, "Creating Happiness with Heart."

On the table was a pile of promotional flyers showing how to play various mini-games.

Zog had actually wanted to call it something like the Church of Steam or the 9934 Church, but the former was already registered, and an all-numeric name wasn’t allowed.

Yes, founding a sect was quite simple in this world. As long as you acknowledged the leadership of the Church and the Deities it worshipped, you could register your own sect with the Church.

And the only one that went without a specific name, simply referred to as "the Church," was the one whose influence spanned the entire Continent and whose power surpassed even the strongest nations.

"Is anyone really going to join something with a ridiculous name like this?" Elsa was still young and thin-skinned.

"Of course they will," Zog said with complete confidence.

"What kind of idiot would fall for that!"

"Whoa, what’s a ’Flying Red Middle’? It looks so interesting!" Galina came jogging up to the stall, dragging a very reluctant Uffie with one hand.

Elsa shot Zog a look that said, ’Where did you hire this shill?’

Zog remained silent, feigning the air of a master, and gestured for Elsa to get to work.

"Do I get to play all these things if I join the Flying Red Middle Church?" Galina was already flipping through the promotional flyers on her own.

These pictures were made with recording magic—in other words, they were GIFs.

Moreover, they were well-versed in the art of promoting web-based mini-games. After showcasing the gameplay, the controls in each demo were so appallingly bad that it made one’s hands itch to try it for themselves.

"Yes," Elsa said, putting on the professional smile she had perfected at the toy store. "But there is one small prerequisite. To activate these games, you need to use Illusion Mimicry."

"I know how to do that!" Galina puffed out her chest proudly. Although she wasn’t from the Illusion School, Illusion Mimicry wasn’t difficult. She had learned it to cheat on exams by using Mimicry to cast Magic she wasn’t good at.

It hadn’t worked, though. She had somewhat underestimated her proctor’s intelligence.

Without a second thought, Galina activated the Red Middle Rune and began trying out the mini-games inside one by one.

Uffie carefully observed the Illusion that appeared in front of Galina, her expression gradually turning serious.

From an Illusionist’s perspective, those inscriptions were an absolute mess, like something a complete, uneducated amateur had scribbled together.

But it was precisely because they were "amateurish" that these Illusion Techniques were so imaginative.

’Perhaps... this is the kind of Illusion Technique I’ve been searching for?’

"Senior Elsa!" The usually cool and detached Uffie suddenly grew excited. "If I join the Flying Red Middle Church, can I study these magic models?"

"Huh? Uffie!" Elsa had been so focused on Galina that she’d only just now noticed Uffie.

As mentioned before, everyone in the sparsely populated Illusion School knew each other. Uffie and Elsa were both students under Furin, but Uffie’s talent was far superior. At eighteen, she was already a Level Four Mage, especially skilled in model calculation, and was being groomed as the next Legendary.

"You can," Elsa hesitated. ’But I feel like the future hope of the Illusion School is about to go down the wrong path.’

"Alright then, I want to join the Flying Red Middle Church too!"

————————

The coursework at Repin Academy was demanding. Galina and Uffie quickly finished their lunch and rushed to the classroom to save seats. Even so, they couldn’t compete with the ’kings of grinding,’ so they could only find spots in the back rows.

This was an elective class related to Illusion Techniques, open to students from other Schools, which was why Galina was there too.

Of course, Galina didn’t actually want to take it. Her course selection strategy was simple: whatever Uffie chose, she chose, ensuring she always had a top student to carry her.

Right now, Uffie was studying ahead for the class, while Galina was playing ’Jump Jump’.

Charge, release. Charge, release...

Game over. Score: 322.

A leaderboard appeared on the screen.

1st Place: Toto the Half-Elf, 5844 points;

2nd Place: Zog, 1024 points;

...

15th Place: The Great Legendary Soron, 323 points;

16th Place: Jiajia is super cute, 322 points;

HISS—

Galina sat up straight and stretched her wrist. ’Just one point off! I’ll definitely beat him next round. And calling himself ’Soron’? Who does he think he’s fooling? So shameless!’

She tapped ’Restart’.

A message popped up on the screen.

"You have 0 plays remaining for today. Share the Red Middle Rune with others to get extra plays."

’I’m desperate!’

Galina’s head shot up. As someone who always latched onto the top students when picking classes, she knew exactly which experts were good at what. She immediately scanned the classroom and locked onto several students who knew Illusion Mimicry.

There were still five minutes until class started. Plenty of time.

After a whirlwind of vigorous socializing, Galina returned to her seat, satisfied, with dozens of extra plays. The class bell rang right on cue.

She dove back into her game.

"Galina," Uffie whispered, poking her.

Galina didn’t budge. She had already reached 600 points and was about to surpass the player in the spot above her, "I Own a Toy Store." This was the most critical moment.

"Galina!" Uffie poked her again.

The game piece fell.

"Argh," Galina muttered, annoyed. But then she saw Uffie giving her a frantic look. ’What’s wrong?’

She turned around to see the teacher’s terrifying face looming over her.

"Having fun, are we?"

Galina cursed her bad luck. ’This professor is the strictest elective teacher of them all! If it weren’t for Uffie, I never would have chosen this class.’

"Why don’t you come up to the lectern and play? Show everyone what’s so fun that you can’t put it down."

"That’s not necessary, Professor. I know I was wrong."

"Oh? Do you still want credit for this course? If you do, get up to the lectern."

Forced into a corner, Galina had no choice but to play a round of ’Jump Jump’ in front of everyone. Due to her nervousness, she failed after only a few dozen points and scurried back to her seat amidst the laughter of the entire class.

Class resumed.

"I’ll give you all ten minutes to solve the example problem on the blackboard."

The professor assigned the task and took the opportunity to have a sip of water and rest for a moment.

For some reason, the image of Galina playing that game just wouldn’t leave his mind.

As if possessed, he quietly moved his hand under the lectern and activated the Red Middle Rune.