Shadow World: Banquet of Sanctuary Villains

In a chaotic, featureless darkness, it felt as though they were submerged beneath ages of accumulated time, though in truth only ten-odd minutes had passed. At last, like the first ray of dawn piercing through layers of blackness, light returned to their vision, signaling that their matchmaking had succeeded and they had stepped into the Shadow World. Lanqi looked around. Standing to his left and right were Hyperion and Frey, their faces as familiar as ever, completely unchanged. His gaze swept across his companions' faces and settled on the floor-to-ceiling glass windows nearby. His clear reflection proved that his own features had also retained their original contours. The scene outside the window was difficult to discern, blanketed as everything was in dense fog. Were it not for a few faint, flickering lights like fireflies in the garden outside the glass, they could hardly have told whether it was early morning or the dead of night. Beneath the heavy mist, the outdoor dawn seemed set in a bewildering, mysteriously beautiful world. Indoors, Lanqi and Frey were both dressed in formal attire. Though in different styles, the clothes complemented their temperaments perfectly. Lanqi wore a classic beige suit paired with a brown vest, his hair neatly combed. This slightly formal look made him appear even more gentle and refined than usual. Frey wore an open, dark blue double-breasted trench coat over a slightly casual black suit, a pair of rigid black leather gloves on his hands, and a pair of sunglasses perched halfway down his nose, concealing half the look in his eyes. Hyperion, on the other hand, was dressed in a red evening gown reminiscent of the Poet of Great Love. Exquisite makeup completely transformed her demeanor, lending her an air that was graceful, gorgeous, and endearing. Draped over her shoulders was a light jacket, seemingly keeping the chill at bay. Such attire convinced them that this was not the Demon Realm. Moreover, unlike the examination hall at the Demon Academy, they had not been forcibly locked into a room with mandatory mechanisms right from the start; everyone seemed free to move about. A subtle coolness hung in the air. It was not the piercing cold of winter, but rather the crisp, austere freshness of breathing atop a high mountain peak. None of the three spoke immediately. Instead, they took in their surroundings, quietly observing. Before them stretched a colossal banquet hall with a vaulted ceiling easily ten-odd meters high, resembling an ancient sanctuary. Looking up, a magnificent pipe organ nearly five stories tall dominated the entire rear wall. Some pipes were straight, others curved; some gleamed golden, others bore the understated hues of polished wood. Arranged in various shapes and tiers, they radiated an indescribable sacred solemnity. Set within the stained-glass ceiling, an ornate crystal chandelier with intricate gilded carvings hung down, casting soft light like a starry river suspended from above. It illuminated the opulent, dark carved-stone walls and the sleek marble floor. Dominating the center of the hall was a grand, spacious Baroque-style dining table. Silver candelabras gleamed in the firelight. Arranged neatly along both sides of the table were twelve dining chairs meticulously carved from brown oak, fully evoking an atmosphere of luxurious indulgence and clinking glasses. Scattered throughout this vast, imposing banquet hall stood several figures. Clustered in groups of two or three, they lingered quietly where they stood, motionless as stone statues. Neither the sumptuous sanctuary, nor the coming dawn, nor the biting cold could shake their cold detachment. For this hall was not at all harmonious. Amidst this scene, a stench of blood mixed with the tang of death and raw iron permeated the air, its sharp pungency completely overwhelming the fragrances of the hall. At the far end of the hall, in the master's seat at the head of the long table, a corpse in lavish clothes sat slumped against the high-backed chair, head tilted to the side. An expression of despair and unwillingness lingered on his face, extreme agony frozen in his hollow eyes. From below his chest down to his abdomen, he had been savagely torn open like a gruesome anatomical painting. A bubbling scarlet spring had poured from his body, splashing a tragic work of art across the floor. The seeping blood mingled with the patterns of the marble floor, flowing through the banquet hall and leaving crimson marks along the lines of the table legs. This vivid crimson acted like an invisible blade, carving apart the banquet hall that had once shone with the brilliance of gold and silver, transforming it into a bizarre, terrifying cage rife with killing intent. Soon, the notifications appeared before their eyes. [Shadow World: Banquet of Sanctuary Villains] [Tier: Tier 5] [In this late autumn, you twelve guests have been invited by Sir Caligula to gather at this ancient castle perched upon a cliff.] [Though you each appear to hold different social identities, all of you are in truth members of a secret church dedicated to overthrowing the Blood Clan's bloody dominion over humanity.] [However, High Priest Caligula was brutally murdered this very night.] [Among the twelve of you, traitors have defected to the Blood Clan.] [Total Challengers: 12] [Challengers with Special Identities: 3] [Special Identity - Detective (Non-Traitor): Automatically selected as the non-traitor among all challengers with the highest likelihood of unraveling the mystery. Distinguished by the Cross of Holy Radiance Brooch bestowed by Sir Caligula.] [Special Identity - Blood Clan Dependent (Traitor): Once per day, may borrow the authority of Count Palocas and Count Saiberna respectively while the respective Blood Lord is awake.] [Note: If a Blood Clan Dependent dies, a Count-rank Blood Lord will arrive at the castle within one day.] [Objective 1: Identify the traitors (0/2).] [Objective 2: Uncover the secrets and dangers hidden within the castle.] [Objective 3: At least one person must survive until the 120-hour time limit expires.] [The Traitor faction has entirely different objectives, visible only to traitors; non-traitors receive occupational identities, visible only to non-traitors.] [Failing the challengers' objectives will trigger a real-world cataclysm.] [Time Remaining: 119 hours, 59 minutes.] [All challengers begin in the ground floor hall.] High on the hall's wall, a large clock hung quietly. Its hands had just crept past five-thirty, the moment of early dawn. As the Shadow World's notifications faded, the atmosphere in the banquet hall snapped taut. Inside this castle, everyone felt endangered! People's gazes sharpened, like beasts trapped in a cage, warily eyeing one another. Each of them knew that what lay ahead was a five-day challenge fraught with a crisis of trust, with their very lives on the line. This was no ordinary Shadow World. Nor were their enemies mere historical figures projected by the Shadow World. This was a deadly game played among challengers acting as historical figures—a game of deception and seeing through deception, of killing and preventing murder! The challengers in the sanctuary, whatever thoughts they harbored, finally turned their gazes toward the man chosen by the Shadow World, the one wearing the Cross of Holy Radiance Brooch— His ash-white hair was slightly disheveled. Tall and muscular, he radiated the explosive power of a wild wolf. With angular features and sunglasses perched halfway down his nose, his aggressive gaze was deep and callous. From head to toe, he exuded an overbearing, arrogant swagger. At first glance, he looked every bit a hitman. "..." Wait. *This* was... The detective...? ... In the dead of night at Ikerite Academy, Jera Memorial Square shimmered with soft white light. The clock on the tower also pointed to five-thirty in the morning. Yet at this hour, the square was already bustling. Many students who had deduced the timing of Lanqi and Hyperion's second Shadow World had brought camping blankets and picnic boxes, claiming seats on the square's steps with prime views. As the projection of Lanqi's trio in the Shadow World appeared on the massive open-air screen, Jera Memorial Square erupted into chatter once more. "Frey is the detective?!" "Isn't he a strength-type fighter?!" Many students in the School of Knights knew that Frey had monstrous growth in strength and stamina. Even though he was only Tier 4, the Tier 5 senior students in the School of Knights dared not claim they could beat him in a straight clash. In the third-round combat test of the School of Knights entrance exam, he hadn't used any fancy tricks at all; he'd simply charged forward and landed the punch that stunned the entire School of Knights. Aside from his bizarre train of thought, he was unquestionably the strongest top-scoring freshman in the history of the School of Knights. Yet no matter how you looked at him, he didn't look like a detective! A Tier 5 Shadow World was already exceptionally dangerous for challengers operating out in the open. At any moment, they could face the unknown and overwhelmingly potent powers of the Blood Clan. Even a Tier 6 challenger could suffer a sudden, horrific death if caught off guard. For ordinary Tier 3 and Tier 4 challengers, this difficulty was vastly beyond their level. The detective's competence would directly decide the challengers' hopes of victory. A detective with an undeniably trustworthy identity was the key to exposing the traitors! If the detective dragged his feet and failed to identify the traitors, everyone would be driven into a corner as the traitors' secret objectives advanced in the shadows. Furthermore, the challengers couldn't corner the two traitors serving as Blood Clan dependents too aggressively. They had to maintain a massive information asymmetry to keep the traitors steady while looking for a way to smoke them out. Otherwise, if the traitors grew desperate and opted for mutual destruction, summoning a Tier 7 Blood Clan count, it would trigger a berserk rampage that would wipe out all the challengers. Even a Tier 7 powerhouse could not withstand the immortality of a Blood Clan count; in a one-on-one duel, there was virtually no hope of victory. Even if all the challengers in this Tier 5 Shadow World banded together, they could not defeat a count in the night. Even if they managed to survive during the day, once the sun went down, they would be brutally slaughtered by the Blood Clan count! "This is bad. If Lanqi were the detective, that would be fine... Why did it have to be Frey..." "The detective can only be chosen from the non-traitors. Does that mean Lanqi might be a Blood Clan dependent?" Although the students had immediately suspected the identities of non-human entities like Lanqi and Hyperion, because both had activated the [Shadow World Recording Program], the information from their perspectives was clearly visible. Lanqi and Hyperion held the identities of [Lawyer] and [Actress] respectively. The [Lawyer] was familiar with the laws and regulations of the current realm, viewable on their Shadow World status panel. The [Actress] was more prone to drawing attacks. Their quest objectives were also the standard version. Clearly, neither Frey, Lanqi, nor Hyperion was a traitor. The traitors had to be hiding among the remaining nine challengers of unknown strength. On Jera Memorial Square, the dim, shifting glow from the giant outdoor screen illuminated the students' faces, making them gulp involuntarily. Just imagining themselves thrust into this Shadow World where death could strike at any moment sent a chill down the spines of many students, making their hair stand on end. Whenever night fell, what awaited them might well be the gruesome fate of Sir Caligula sitting in the master's seat, his chest and belly ripped open. "This kind of mind game, a Shadow World where challengers and villains play at deception and slaughter, is usually a severe test of psychological resilience. Sometimes, before reaching the final hour, a person's mental defenses might collapse, and they might even commit suicide to seek release," a senior student sighed gravely. However... Gazing at the screen, looking at the detective, the lawyer, and the actress, and thinking back to the recent "Promote Civility, Foster New Trends" campaign on campus, his voice hitched mid-sentence. "But with these three student council tyrants in there, why does it feel like the whole tone has gone completely off the rails?!"