Following the test hall's orderly procedure under the proctor's guidance, Lanqi stepped through the giant Void Gate. Instantly, it felt as though he had been cast into a dark chamber that stripped away all five senses.
It was pitch-black. He could see nothing, unable to hear even the beat of his own heart.
Gradually, like a singularity in the void, a solitary point of light formed in his vision. Soon after, intelligible characters surged toward him like a shower of shooting stars:
[Welcome to the artificially created simulation of a Shadow World, technically supported by the School of Magic Engineering.]
[Note: This examination consists of a practical Shadow World simulation. There is no danger to your life within this simulated Shadow World.]
[Upon failing the Shadow World or dying within it, the candidate will be automatically ejected.]
[However, you may experience death and physical pain, including but not limited to terrifying scenarios such as falling from cliffs or being decapitated.]
[...]
[Have you read the above terms and do you agree to enter the artificial Shadow World?]
[Continue / Exit]
Lanqi did not simply swipe past it.
Instead, he thoroughly and conscientiously read through the entire manual on the artificial Shadow World activation terminal.
Only then did he move his finger toward [Continue].
He remembered reading in books that dying in an actual Shadow World meant true death for the challenger.
Thus, in Lanqi's understanding, a real Shadow World was an exceptionally perilous place, entirely unlike this artificial one with its safety mechanisms.
Furthermore, the laws of the Hutton Kingdom explicitly stipulated that novices had to undergo extensive practice in artificially developed simulation Shadow Worlds, obtain top evaluations, and pass an assessment by the Kingdom Alliance Council before receiving permission to challenge a genuine Shadow World.
Even so, the casualty rate in real Shadow Worlds remained stubbornly high.
It went to show just how dangerous these realms truly were.
Fortunately, the artificial Shadow World used for this exam was equivalent to a practice mode, making it quite safe.
*The chief examiner mentioned that the theme of the test is "wisdom and temperament"...*
*In that case, I naturally need to bring my wisdom and temperament to their absolute limits to avoid experiencing death inside this artificial Shadow World.*
Lanqi mused quietly to himself.
As he tapped [Continue], ripples spread across the silver-white screen of light, radiating outward from his fingertip. The text faded beneath them as though preparing to display new information.
Before he could read it, he felt as if he were plummeting from high above the world.
Accompanied by a sensation of weightlessness, Lanqi felt his entire mind and body plunge abruptly into an entirely new realm!
Soon,
his surroundings lit up.
In an instant, scenery flooded Lanqi's field of vision.
At that exact moment, a biting chill struck, piercing straight toward his heart like a merciless blade.
The temperature seemed to plummet drastically, freezing the entire world solid.
His blood felt as though it were congealing; the frost penetrated straight through his skin with ease.
"Brrr! What kind of godforsaken place is this?!"
The breath Lanqi exhaled nearly froze into ice crystals on the spot.
He could only grit his teeth, enduring the sharp ache wrought by the gale.
He found himself standing upon a vast snowy plain.
Boundless white snow blanketed the earth, and the howling tempest filled the air between heaven and earth, making his ears buzz!
A sweeping glance revealed a leaden sky, heavy clouds blotting out the sun.
The icy wind swept swirling flurries of snow into the air, gathering them in drifts one moment and scattering them the next, lending the stark white world a harsh, disorienting aura.
"My lord, we'll reach their home shortly!"
An elderly voice shouted almost frantically against the roaring storm.
Lanqi turned toward the sound. Behind him, an old man bundled in padded winter clothes and a heavily armored knight clad in silver-white plate were trudging through the snowy mist alongside him.
Although Lanqi did not yet understand the meaning of the old man's words,
he soon made out a small village standing firm amidst the wind and snow.
It resembled a jewel marooned upon an endless expanse of white.
And he was right inside this very village.
At the same time, information about the Shadow World surfaced before his eyes:
[Shadow World: Winter's Hidden Flame]
[Tier: Tier 1]
[Challengers: 1]
[The gap between the desire to do good and the power to do good is called benevolence. Forcing benevolence without the means to back it up may be foolish, yet there are always those willing to see it through to the end.]
[With a harsh winter approaching, you, a noble of the northern frontier, face a severe budget deficit in your territory, and you have little money left on your person.]
[While passing through this village for rest, you heard from the village chief that a magic furnace was stolen here today.]
[Severe blizzards have struck frequently of late. If this magic furnace is not recovered, the family of three may freeze to death tonight.]
[Mission Objective: Before nightfall (within 1 hour), resolve this family's predicament so that they may safely endure this freezing winter.]
[Note: As a noble of the Holy Kingdom and a devout follower of the Church of the Sacred Rites, your baseline is that you must never violate the law, harm commoners, or deceive commoners. Otherwise, the church executioner beside you—who knows your background intimately—will execute you.]
[Note: Correspondingly, if criminal acts are discovered, the executioner will assist you in meting out appropriate punishment to the culprit.]
Having grasped the requirements of the exam, Lanqi looked ahead.
Not far off stood a wooden cottage, its roof smothered in thick snow, almost concealed within this pristine, immaculate world.
Then the elder behind him had to be the village chief, while the knight in silver-white armor was the executioner.
Instead of rushing toward the house, Lanqi paused to analyze the situation.
Since his current identity was a noble of this inexplicable realm bound by strict constraints, crude and brute-force approaches were certainly out of the question.
For instance, he could not simply pillage supplies from other households to bail out this family.
Not unless he felt confident he could overpower this terrifying-looking executioner.
A reckless attempt would likely get him killed on the spot.
As for cramming this family into the village chief's house, that might get them through tonight, but it would not last the entire winter.
Clearly, that failed to fulfill the mission objective.
And if he were to forcibly order another household to take them in for the whole season,
that sort of abusive overreach—forcing someone out of their home—was almost certainly illegal.
"As expected, petty cleverness won't cut it in this Shadow World. All the shortcuts are blocked,"
Lanqi murmured into the howling wind.
Before long, his cheeks flushed red from the cold, frosted with a thin glaze.
When he tried moving again, his joints felt stiff in the freezing air, and every motion grew increasingly laborious.
Even his thick noble winter coat could not keep out the piercing chill.
Lanqi immediately realized that given an examinee's physical limits, the time one could spend active out in the snowy wilderness was quite brief.
Aimless searching would only bury him in the snowstorm.
"I should head to this house first to look for clues."
He hastened his steps and walked toward the wooden cottage ahead.
...
In a spacious, bright conference room within the School of Sages' main building, tables and chairs were arranged in round clusters surrounding a central projection screen.
Five or six instructors from each panel sat at each large round table, either watching the magic screen intently or conversing animatedly.
Rather than a formal meeting, it resembled a seminar or evaluation panel.
They diligently jotted down key highlights and nuances from each examinee's performance, occasionally trading remarks with their colleagues.
The screen clearly displayed the candidates' situations after entering the artificial Shadow World.
Without exception, all the examinees were making slow progress.
After arriving at the house, they learned from the husband and wife that strange noises had come from outside the window on the night of the theft. Immediately afterward, the front door had blown open as if caught in a gust, causing the temperature inside to plummet.
When the trembling couple crept out of their bedroom, they discovered that the magic furnace was gone. A few footprints remained outside, likely belonging to a tall adult man, though they were soon buried beneath the falling snow.
As for the little girl—the couple's adopted niece—she seemed to know something, but no matter how anyone spoke to her, she refused to utter a single word.
Some candidates decided to seek clues from the other villagers, while others tried finding an angle through the little girl's peculiar behavior.
Naturally, there were also candidates who failed to read the prompts carefully and tried to be clever, only to die bafflingly under the executioner's sword—
one had promised rewards to the village chief in exchange for taking the family in for the winter.
Given the territory's current state, however, the lord could not possibly guarantee the funds, which constituted fraud. The executioner, knowing full well the lord's financial standing, immediately saw through the deception and executed him on the spot.
"Those who fancy themselves clever often fail to notice logical holes. They are always the first to die in a Shadow World,"
Vice Dean Ron sighed as he crossed off an eliminated candidate's name.
"That is a lack of wisdom."
The correct approach was straightforward: spot the foundational clue in the little girl's anomaly, gather vital intelligence from other villagers, unravel the truth, and subdue the culprit. The crisis would then be resolved naturally.
"Shadow Worlds demand a balance of intellect and ability. At times, they also require noble character to win over the figures within and unlock key clues."
Even as they discussed this,
another instructor spotted an impressive mage candidate using wind magic to fell trees and fire magic to rapidly dry the timber.
Still others were attempting to craft fire-attribute magical tools to replace the magic furnace.
Everyone was displaying their unique talents.
Yet,
these seemingly brilliant moves garnered little praise from the faculty.
"Sometimes, candidates can use their unique traits to take shortcuts through a Shadow World, but other times, they walk straight into traps..."
"If I recall correctly, the original version of this Tier 1 Shadow World is quite sickening. An investigation ultimately reveals that this wicked couple hid the magic furnace on purpose, hoping to freeze the little girl to death in the blizzard so they could claim the northern territory's hefty funeral subsidies."
"Even if you give them dry firewood or a magic furnace, you won't save the girl. What's truly cold is the twisted human heart."
"Overconfidence and trying to bypass the Shadow World's mechanisms often lead to unexpected failure. That stems from an unsteady, impatient temperament."
A chorus of sighs swept through the instructors as they dissected the core intent behind this entrance examination.
For most examinees at Tier 2 or Tier 3, this Tier 1 Shadow World lacked combat elements requiring brute force.
It was merely the most basic, stripped-down model of a Shadow World.
Yet it served as the ultimate test of whether an applicant possessed the aptitude to tackle Shadow Worlds.
"Hey, what is this guy doing?!"
A sudden exclamation drew the attention of every instructor in the room.
Teachers at every table turned toward a split-screen in the corner.
There stood a candidate affiliated with the School of Knights.
His feed presented an entirely different picture from the others.
He had shed his noble winter coat, stripped down to nothing but a pair of trousers. With well-defined muscles on full display, he stood with his arms folded against the howling gale.
Even though snow dusted his messy ash-blond hair, he showed not the slightest trace of feeling cold. His deep purple eyes were as unyielding as a lone wolf's.
"What is he doing?"
"Wait! As a noble, the clothes this candidate wore are actually worth quite a bit. They're valuable enough to cover the village chief's expenses for taking in the family for the entire winter! That way, the little girl will be sheltered by the chief."
An ordinary person could never be so ruthless to themselves, seemingly disregarding their own survival entirely.
Then again, this Shadow World never explicitly required the challenger to survive to the end.
Sacrificing oneself to carry out benevolence was indeed a viable path.
"Those brutes from the School of Knights are always like this. There's always one or two whose heads don't work right."
"Still, this knight candidate named Frey... you want to call him dumb, but he seems strangely brilliant..."
Though Frey had utterly subverted the exam's intended approach, he had indeed satisfied the requirements using his noble character and extraordinary physique.
"Perhaps discarding wisdom and temperament altogether is its own display of wisdom and temperament?"
"You have to admit, he embodies many chivalric virtues—honesty, compassion, valor, sacrifice... He just veered completely off our original assessment objectives. The School of Knights struck gold this year."
Gradually, though the instructors found it hard to offer a conventional appraisal of Frey's strategy, they could not help but admire him.
At the very least, he was undeniable as a knight.
"Hold on,"
Vice Dean Ron, who had his head down reviewing candidate records, murmured gravely.
"...According to this file, this guy is addicted to gambling. He regularly loses until he's down to his trousers, so he's used to pawning whatever clothes he's wearing... It's probably muscle memory. The moment he landed in this Shadow World, his first instinct when faced with a problem was to pawn his clothes for cash."
"..."
"..."
After heaping praise on him for so long, finding out it was a complete misunderstanding left everyone feeling intensely awkward. A bizarre hush fell over the conference room.
After a moment,
Vice Dean Ron cleared his throat, finally shattering the stifling silence as he tried to steer the discussion back on track.
"Looking on the bright side, he's applying to the School of Knights. That headache belongs to them."
"Indeed."
"Our applicants are clearly far more normal."
The instructors nodded one after another, feeling immensely relieved.
Before long,
another teacher noticed something.
Over among the candidates for the School of Sages,
there seemed to be another rather unusual individual.
On the screen appeared a youth with black hair and green eyes.
Not only had he made no haste to investigate,
he had actually rushed straight back to the village chief's house at the first opportunity.
With the chief's permission, he pulled several books from the shelf,
then lounged comfortably on the sofa, leafing through the pages beside the hearth.
He even took occasional sips of hot tea, looking utterly relaxed.
Naturally, his bizarre behavior caught the instructors' attention.
"What is that fellow doing? Is he actually lounging around?"
The teachers observing Lanqi began asking one another.
Soon, a younger instructor gave a soft scoff, shaking his head.
"Candidates who give up halfway through usually act like this, staying put in a safe location. I've just never seen someone quit so decisively."
Upon hearing this,
the other instructors nodded in agreement.
They had nearly been taken in by his composed, leisurely demeanor.
"Lanqi Wilfort... His attribute test results were quite underwhelming. His family runs a prominent merchant house in the South Vantina frontier territory; he's the eldest son of the Wilfort family. Did he just come here for the experience?"
The vice dean pulled up Lanqi's admission records and sighed helplessly.
Having learned his background, the instructors lost interest in this lackadaisical young master.
...
Just as the professors' attention began drifting away from Lanqi,
he finally closed the book in his hands.
Carrying the tome, he brought the executioner along and marched decisively back toward the victimized family's home.
*Knock, knock.*
Lanqi tapped lightly on the door.
Faint footsteps soon sounded from within, accompanied by the whistling wind and snow.
The door swung open to reveal the middle-aged man shivering from the cold.
"My lord, have you made any progress with the investigation?"
The middle-aged man asked with a troubled expression that faintly concealed anticipation.
In truth, he was secretly laughing on the inside.
This foolish noble's investigation had been led completely astray.
All he needed to do now was shoo this shabby lord away from the house once more, leaving him to wander aimlessly in the freezing snow with his stupid notions of benevolence.
Yet,
Lanqi merely fixed him with a piercing glare, looking as though he had finally confirmed something.
"There has been no progress in the investigation. However, earlier and just now, when you saw me, did you fail to bow to me?"
Lanqi slowly raised a hand, pointing at the middle-aged man in the doorway.
"F-forgive me, my lord! We heard that you are always gentle and pay no heed to such details. It was our negligence..."
The abrupt question threw the middle-aged man into a panic. He hastily pressed the little girl's head down alongside his wife, bowing deeply to Lanqi as he stammered an apology.
He had no idea what had gone wrong to cause this noble's sudden change in demeanor.
This pushover of a lord hadn't even conducted any investigation inside their house. How could he have noticed anything amiss?!
Lanqi sneered coldly.
"According to the etiquette of the northern frontier, you and your wife ought to have bowed to me. Yet twice you failed to show the respect owed. I consider your attitude toward me exceptionally contemptuous, which constitutes an insult to my person."
He flipped open the law code in his hands and reprimanded them harshly,
"Under the Holy Kingdom Code, page 719, line 3, for the crime of Insulting Nobility, I place your entire family under arrest! Children under twelve are exempt from this offense, and pursuant to the Custody Regulations on page 134, this girl, having lost her guardians, will be brought back to town by me to be cared for by the church, strictly in accordance with protocol."
Having said this, Lanqi glanced back at the executioner, holding up the open book to display the page detailing the "Crime of Insulting Nobility."
There it was, set down in black and white.
As for the etiquette of the northern frontier, Lanqi had just verified it in exhaustive detail with the village chief and the executioner.
The executioner froze for a brief moment.
After a flicker of hesitation, he stepped forward and restrained the three utterly bewildered individuals.
"You will be temporarily detained at the village chief's house. Once the blizzard passes, you will all accompany me back to town. Those who belong in prison will go to prison, and the one who belongs in the church school will go to the church,"
Lanqi stated word for word, his eyes fixed on the legal code.
Afterward,
he watched as the executioner led the three off toward the village chief's house.
Amidst the wind and snow,
Lanqi slipped his hands into his pockets, let out a relaxed breath, and wore a gratified smile.
"Clearly, this exam tests the students' legal awareness. This way, their family can spend a warm winter in prison and at church."
...
Outside the trial,
"?!"
The professors who caught Lanqi's maneuver felt their eyelids twitching frantically.
Even Chief Examiner Loren, watching it all unfold in the testing hall, stared with wide eyes.
Chapter 17