How Could Lanqi Possibly Win?

The moment his surroundings gradually brightened, a scene unfolded across Lanqi's field of vision. He found himself inside a cold iron prison cell, feeling a biting wind seep in through countless unseen cracks, carrying bone-chilling cold. Every breath felt like swallowing hail, freezing his lungs solid. "This is way too cold..." Lanqi exhaled plumes of white mist as he spoke. In truth, he had never challenged this artificial Shadow World before, as his experience with Shadow Worlds was meager to begin with. Counting his two entrance examinations and the real Shadow World, he had only entered one four times in total. Scanning his surroundings, he saw a thick layer of frost coating the rough stone walls. In the corner, an iron chain was linked to the heavy shackles around his wrists. The floor had been unevenly pitted by time, its hollows filled with dark ice. Whenever the wind blew through the gaps in the iron bars, it set the ice and chains rattling in discordant clatters. Long icicles formed from the moisture inside the cell hung from the low ceiling, looking poised to drop at any second and pierce a prisoner's head. Thick iron bars formed an entire grated wall. Outside in the corridor lay ceaseless wind and endless darkness, the howling drafts seemingly laden with the wails of souls imprisoned there over thousands of years. At the same time, the Shadow World's information surfaced before Lanqi's eyes: [Shadow World: Bone-Chilling Cage of Despair] [Tier: Tier 2] [Number of Challengers: 2] [Welcome to the artificially simulated Shadow World, powered by the School of Magic Engineering.] [Note: This assessment consists of a practical Shadow World simulation. Under normal circumstances, there is no threat to life in a simulated Shadow World.] [Note: This Shadow World is unsuitable for challengers with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular conditions.] [Upon death, candidates will be automatically ejected from the Shadow World. Candidates may also choose to exit voluntarily. However, you may experience death and pain, including but not limited to unbearable conditions such as starvation and extreme cold...] [Even when trapped in an inescapable prison with no hope in sight, only the survivor will achieve final victory.] [You have been captured and thrown into the seventh floor of an absolute prison from which no one has ever broken out since its inception. Every day, the warden devises new methods to break the prisoners' will; today, you have been cast into an arctic disciplinary chamber.] [In this Shadow World, all magic cards are sealed, and tiers are restricted to Tier 2.] [Apart from initial supplies, a random supply cache will be granted every half-hour.] [Mission Objective (Endless Mode): Survive for as long as possible and extract as much information regarding the prison as you can from other inmates.] Lanqi calmly read through the Shadow World's briefing. It matched what he had crammed before the match began. In the registered challenger examination question bank maintained by the Southern Continent Shadow World Management Association, there were numerous classic replicas of low-tier Shadow Worlds. Among them, the "Bone-Chilling Cage of Despair" was a famous Tier 2 Shadow World frequently used for practice. Its premise was to survive for two hours in an arctic prison cell with an extremely harsh environment and ever-dropping temperatures. Later, various academies and the Southern Continent Shadow World Management Association discovered its potential for custom modifications. It could be adapted into a highly randomized "Endless Mode," where challengers utilized any means at their disposal to survive for as long as possible. Over time, it had become a renowned artificial Shadow World for record-setting. ... A raindrop splashed onto the stone steps, followed by an increasingly dense shower that soon turned the area around the square into a hazy sheet of white. A brief commotion had just broken out at the edge of Jera Memorial Square—someone else had fainted. However, the surrounding Ikerite Academy students quickly contacted the hospital over at the School of Alchemy, whose medics promptly arrived and carried the young woman away on a stretcher. Watching the unconscious girl being carried off, the students from Aloran Royal Academy expressed their gratitude to the helpful Ikerite students nearby: "Thank you for your help." They had not expected the Ikerite Academy students to respond to such an emergency with such decisive swiftness, nor that the School of Alchemy's medical staff would be so methodical. The entire procedure was smooth and practiced, without wasting a single second. It was as if they had just run a drill for this exact scenario a couple of days ago. The Aloran students could not help but marvel at the formidable efficiency and solidarity displayed by Ikerite's students in handling emergencies. "Don't worry, she probably just fainted from anemia. It's nothing life-threatening," the surrounding students replied modestly. Once the matter was resolved, the attention of the students across the square's stone steps gradually shifted back toward the screens. From the audience's perspective, the camera framed two adjacent cells: Adams on the left, Lanqi on the right. Both stood behind iron grates, separated by a dividing wall, while the neighboring cells on either side also held prisoners. Apart from their initial supplies, surviving every half-hour yielded a supply drop. This could be food and water, medicine, textiles, or even things like fire-attribute crystals. If a supply bottleneck arose—such as desperately lacking food while having surplus fire crystals—one could find ways to barter with the inmate in the neighboring cell through the margins between the wall and the iron grates. However, that required deducing the other party's needs and surplus to strike the best bargain. Veterans of this artificial Shadow World knew well that when bartering supplies, one could never let the other side see what they lacked. Sometimes, one had to bluff abundance even when supplies were scarce, or anticipate future needs when already well-stocked to optimize the balance of their inventory. At the same time, one had to assess the risk of being swindled; an inmate on the brink of death might attempt a one-off scam. In addition, surplus supplies could be exchanged with other prisoners for intelligence, and gathering information earned bonus points in this Shadow World. "In this Endless Mode, the temperature drops steadily over time. No matter how plentiful your supplies are, it's impossible to endure forever, especially locked at Tier 2. As of now, the solo-mode record holder lasted twenty hours and five minutes." Beneath the colorful canopy of umbrellas in the square, upperclassmen explained the mechanics of this Shadow World to the bewildered underclassmen around them. "Adams's advantage lies in his warrior conditioning; his tempered physique is superior to Lanqi's, and he has vast experience. Most of Lanqi's strengths are hard to leverage in this Shadow World." "Most importantly, I'm certain Lanqi has never challenged this artificial Shadow World before. Some things born of multiple playthroughs are hard to compensate for with mere wit." Squishy casters needed more wit to survive two hours, but combat classes with high natural endurance like Lanqi and Adams could tough it out through the early stage. The real contest lay in who could hoard as many supplies as possible in the early phase, followed by an ultimate battle of pure willpower in the later stages under plummeting temperatures. ... Within the grounds of the School of Sages stood a small library loft. Though modest in size, its interior design was steeped in an ancient, noble air of magical scholarship. The bookshelves inside were elaborately arranged in ornate patterns, rising from the floor and tracing the walls all the way to the ceiling like ramparts in an ancient castle. Ascending to the loft's second floor, an independent magic screen hung high on the wall, its surface flickering with light and shadow, broadcasting the same footage shown on the outdoor giant screen in Jera Memorial Square. And in the most prominent seat in this loft: "Hahaha! Lanqi is playing for such high stakes!" A woman in a black gown sat in the head seat, commenting on the broadcast while laughing so hard she trembled. This place belonged to a powerful team in the School of Sages, granted to them by the academy as a unique activity venue. The team's nominal leader was the Gold-rank challenger Lord Modan Gaxiges, but it was abundantly clear that this woman in the black veil gown—a fourth-year student of the School of Sages and a Platinum-rank challenger—was the true voice of authority. Modan, standing downstairs watching the screen, still looked tense. Having a history of friction with Lanqi, Modan had always believed that among the third-years in the School of Sages, if Vice President Asna of the student council didn't step up, he was the strongest. Yet everyone had unanimously put Lanqi forward. Even so, seeing the nature of this Shadow World, Modan did not think Lanqi could win easily. "Lanqi took such a big gamble this time. Do you think he dares to lose?" Seemingly sensing Modan's state downstairs, the woman in black veil stood up, leaned against the banister, and asked downstairs with a beaming smile. "..." Modan found it difficult to respond. He could not discern the mood or stance of the woman on the second floor. After all, she was somewhat connected to this wager as well. Because she happened to be one of Dean Loren's fiancées. "Senior, do you still think Lanqi can win?" After a moment of silence, Modan looked up and asked uncertainly. "I think he's going to lose~" Cupping her cheeks like someone offering a prayer, the woman in black veil murmured, "Lose, Lanqi, just lose! Make Dean Loren suffer even more!" Although she adored her teacher, Dean Loren, watching him suffer filled her with immense delight. How she wished she could toy with Loren herself one day! Just thinking about it caused an ecstatic flush to creep across her cheeks. Meanwhile, on the wall screen displaying the Shadow World: As expected, both Lanqi and Adams chose to endure with raw physical resilience, hoarding supplies while waiting for prisoners in neighboring cells to initiate trades. It seemed they truly were in for an ultimate duel of willpower.