Ikerite Academy, Jera Memorial Square.
The giant outdoor screen that had been continuously broadcasting the news suddenly turned pitch-black. A moment later, footage of a brand new Shadow World began to play.
It immediately drew the glances of a few passing students.
Not knowing what tier this Shadow World was, most students merely took a passing glance before walking on. The end of the semester was exceptionally busy for them, leaving little time or inclination to pay attention to other people's Shadow World records.
Only a handful of students lingered, their eyes fixed on the outdoor screen a bit longer.
The opening scene revealed a city-state shrouded beneath the clouds of war.
Background prompt text floated at the very bottom of the screen. This was a capital city called Hersalem, belonging to the northern Polant Empire. At present, the entire continent lay under the shadow of the Horning Empire, a domain ruled by the Blood Clan.
The sky was dim, thick clouds hanging low as though heralding an impending tempest.
Citizens hurried through the streets, their expressions tense and anxious. Dressed in dark clothes, they nearly blended into the surrounding gloom.
The perspective shifted slowly, traversing the bustling streets of Hersalem to capture the latest war reports at a newspaper stand.
The banner headlines trumpeted good news, yet the fine print below betrayed deep unease and fear.
Shops along the street played low, rhythmic background music that wove eerily with the distant, intermittent wails of air-raid sirens.
The view turned toward the Parliament Building, the political center of the Polant Empire. The majestic structure appeared all the more solemn and unshakeable beneath the overcast sky.
Inside, the lighting was dim, and the long corridors and ancient oil paintings took on a somber, eerie quality.
Along these hallways, politicians murmured among themselves about the nation's fate, their faces etched with anxiety and the weight of responsibility.
Immediately afterward, the scene shifted to an enclosed office.
It was a small room packed with books, documents, and lingering smoke, looking rather cramped and cluttered. On the desk, a little black cat looked around in bewilderment.
A figure sat behind the desk, seeming to have just arrived as well, lost in thought over the challenges to come.
His gaze was profound, as though scrutinizing the past and future alike. Between his fingers, he gently twirled an unlit cigar.
He showed no expression, yet his identity was already unmistakably clear. The sign-off on the letter atop the desk symbolized the heavy burden on his shoulders—
[New Prime Minister of the Polant Empire: Lanqi Wilfort]
In an instant, gasps erupted from the students at the edge of Jera Memorial Square.
"Holy crap! It's Lanqi!"
Hearing the shout, more and more students and faculty turned around to look at the outdoor screen.
To many of the teachers and students at Ikerite Academy, the name Lanqi was far from unfamiliar. Last semester, nearly half of the visiting academic delegation from the Aloran Kingdom had fallen at their school, and it had everything to do with Lanqi.
Fortunately, he had spared Senior Karen, the Gold-rank card maker and most prized member of the Aloran Kingdom's delegation, rather than tormenting her as well.
After hearing no news of Lanqi for half a year, the fervor surrounding him had died down considerably.
Now, seeing him return like a lightning storm and plunge straight into a Shadow World the moment he was back, the students soon began spreading the word in high excitement.
The end of the semester no longer mattered—they wanted to watch the live broadcast of Lanqi's Shadow World after a six-month hiatus!
"By the way, what tier is his Shadow World this time...? It looks completely open-world."
The students who had already taken seats on the steps before the giant screen could not help but begin debating.
Most low-tier Shadow Worlds were confined environments.
They were akin to that closed-off demon school, Purgatory Corridor Academy, or the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains where challengers confronted the Saintess of Destruction inside a castle. Within a limited timeframe and strict conditions, it was exceedingly difficult to leave the operational area circumscribed by the Shadow World.
Yet this current Shadow World appeared to offer immense space, freedom, and possibilities.
It was practically indistinguishable from the real world.
A Shadow World of this nature was almost never low-tier.
...
Inside the mysterious Shadow World.
Lanqi leaned back in his office chair, quietly surveying the room.
He had just passed through a state of chaotic darkness, followed by the gradual return of sight as if the first rays of dawn were piercing layer upon layer of gloom, only to find himself in this environment.
Only Boss Cat accompanied him.
Hyperion was nowhere to be seen.
Lanqi's gaze moved slowly across the office, taking in every detail.
The oil paintings hanging on the wall seemed to reflect the Polant Empire's past golden age.
The bookshelves were crammed with books and documents, representing the scholarly and political side of his persona.
The room also carried the scent of tobacco, with a pipe and matches resting on the desk.
He picked up the pipe and examined it. He clearly did not smoke, yet it appeared the identity he was assuming spent his solitary hours in the company of tobacco.
"Meow meow, Lanqi, where are we?"
Boss Cat had spent quite a while trying to figure out what era they had landed in, and whether it was dangerous or safe.
Still, it had heard that the vast majority of Shadow Worlds provided a relatively safe starting environment rather than tossing challengers straight into a hopeless dead end.
"Probably tens of thousands of years ago," Lanqi answered, putting down the pipe and gazing at the wartime map on the wall.
The moment he saw the words "Horning Empire," he knew it was the era of the Blood Moon Cataclysm once again.
However, unlike their previous time in the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains, the Horning Empire—a colossal nation situated in the southernmost reaches—was vastly different now. It had nearly swallowed the central states whole, becoming the single largest power on the world map.
Meanwhile, the Polant Empire, where Lanqi currently found himself, was a northern human empire facing a mortal trial, one of the few nations still actively resisting the Horning Empire and the Blood Clan.
Judging by the map, the northern expanse of the Polant Empire consisted entirely of snowfields. Further north lay an intensely frigid land of eternal night with virtually no daylight; crossing that led into the demon realm.
"In terms of geography alone, the Polant Empire is quite similar to the Protos Empire, while the current Horning Empire is roughly equivalent to the entire Southern Continent, with no ocean dividing the two," Lanqi murmured, explaining the situation to Boss Cat.
Before Boss Cat could say anything more, the Shadow World's information materialized before their eyes.
[Shadow World: Darkest Solar Eclipse Realm]
[Tier: Seven]
[Total Challengers: 3]
[Sixteen years ago, following that banquet, you were hunted down by the Blood Clan and scattered across the lands.]
[After fleeing Lichtenstein Castle, you assumed a new identity and escaped all the way to the northern reaches of the continent. Over the course of sixteen years, you climbed into the political elite of the Polant Empire, which now stands as the final human line of defense against the Blood Clan and the Horning Empire.]
"The background of that Shadow World took place in late autumn, when twelve guests gathered at Lichtenstein Castle, an ancient fortress perched on a cliff, by invitation of Cleric Caligula. We appeared to come from diverse social standings, but in truth, all of us were members of a secret church dedicated to overthrowing the Blood Clan's tyrannical rule over humanity. However, Great Cleric Caligula met a gruesome death that very night, for a traitor among the twelve had defected to the Blood Clan."
Seeing Boss Cat's utterly blank expression, Lanqi explained the premise to it.
In that castle, Frey had teamed up with him to trick the Saintess of Destruction into exposing her identity as the traitor, used Basic Etiquette to force her to her knees, and ultimately captured Count Palocas and Viscount Augustine to construct the Fully Automatic Solar-Powered Boundless Merit Machine—all of which had transpired during the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains.
The historical timeline corresponding to this new Shadow World was precisely sixteen years after the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains, continuing the history of the Blood Moon Cataclysm.
However, based on the clear rewards Lanqi, Hyperion, and Frey had obtained, they had also seen the original, authentic history in the descriptions of their cards and materials. In the real timeline, the anti-Blood Clan faction had not achieved a resounding victory. The Child of the Sun played by Lanqi had barely survived, while the witch corresponding to Hyperion and the werewolf corresponding to Frey had both perished, leaving only the Child of the Sun to fight the Blood Clan alone.
Boss Cat nodded, perching on Lanqi's desk and reading on alongside him.
[The Horning Empire has now conquered the southern half of the continent. An army of two million troops presses against the borders of the Polant Empire's neighboring nations, poised to launch an offensive into the northern states at any moment. Due to the previous Prime Minister's policy of non-resistance and appeasement, which indulged the Horning Empire's expansion and aggression, the Polant Empire's Parliament has lost faith in him and begun searching for a successor.]
[However, Duke Moretti, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the candidate with the highest support within Parliament, is likewise a conservative. Pleading personal inadequacy, he refused to take over this disastrous mess.]
[A successor was required to shoulder the grave burden of restoring peace to the northern continent while remaining acceptable to the conservative faction. Thus, you seized this opportunity, ensuring that over a decade of effort did not go to waste, and stepped from behind the curtain onto the highest stage of the Polant Empire.]
[Yet what awaits you is a trial for which you are not yet prepared, and whose weight you can scarcely bear...]
[Because the outcome of the previous historical node was altered—both the werewolf and the witch survived—the projected world line has slightly deviated from the original course of history.]
[The werewolf may not necessarily help you; at least this time, he will not.]
[The witch's whereabouts are unknown; perhaps she awaits you somewhere in this world.]
[This slight, seemingly negligible shift in the grand gears of history may well become the catalyst that brings an end to the Blood Moon Cataclysm decades early...]
[Quest Objective 1: Discover the key to defeating the Blood Clan.]
[Quest Objective 2: By the conclusion of the Shadow World, raise humanity's probability of victory over the Blood Clan to above 1%.]
[Quest Objective 3: All challengers must survive until the 45-day time limit expires.]
[Failure of the challengers' quest objectives will trigger a real-world catastrophe.]
[Challengers are scattered across different starting locations based on the story background and the historical roles they assume.]
[Time Remaining: 44 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes.]
Chapter 531