Gu City World

The process of lining up was always boring and a waste of time.

"Say, aren't these churches, companies, and whatever else afraid of sinking the ship and taking everyone down with them? I know those things are endlessly greedy, but surely the people at the helm know where the line is."

"That's hilarious. Who told you everyone was on the same boat? Besides, who told you this was their first boat?"

"Now that's interesting. Do tell."

"My Secluded Courtyard."

After saying that, she fell silent and hung up on her own initiative.

Maybe it had touched on something painful for her. Or maybe Lu PingAn had tied her final exam results to her allowance and implemented a performance-based system for substitute test-taking, so she was scrambling to read more.

But Lu PingAn understood that single sentence—and it made him suck in a chilling breath.

Reality was even more absurd than he had imagined. And worse.

That independent secret realm Chris called the "Secluded Courtyard" was also called the "Doomsday Ark" by her.

When would one need an ark? At the end of the world.

Combined with "Who told you this was their first boat?" and the fact that Big Cat's own world had already been destroyed, the implications gave Lu PingAn plenty to think about.

"Tsk, when a nation is about to fall, ship girls are everywhere. Are the big shots all getting ready to run at any time?"

But the next moment, he stopped caring. The line had reached him anyway.

".When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. I don't even know how long I can keep going. As long as it doesn't come crashing down on my head, I'll happily live my little life. Let the big shots worry about that kind of thing."

"Your admission ticket."

He accepted the ticket with a smile, then glared back at the somewhat familiar face behind him that was glaring at him.

At the same time, still smiling, he took out a black egg-shaped object and casually tossed it in the air.

The other person immediately fled for his life, drawing waves of disgruntled complaints from the people around him.

One look was enough to confirm it—the victim from the previous registration incident.

Watching him get squeezed away by the crowd, Lu PingAn silently peeled the braised egg in his hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Ah, delicious."

He opened his admission ticket, his expression turning somewhat strange.

He had already found it odd that they could only receive their admission tickets right before the exam.

Yet after such a long line, things had moved so quickly. They had not checked anything at all—how were they supposed to match the admission ticket to a person's identity?

"Number 27289. To enter the examination room, find a pine tree on campus and say to it, 'Raise a toast and sing; I only wish to live happily until old age.'"

There were so many things wrong with that that he did not even know where to begin.

".I suddenly kind of like this school. I hope it's as interesting as my first impression suggests."

There were trees everywhere on Gu Da's campus, so Lu PingAn did not even need to identify which ones were pine trees.

He only needed to find the one beneath which people kept disappearing, then recite the phrase.

The next moment, his vision blurred, and he had arrived in another world.

All around him were ordinary candidates with bewildered expressions. A single sentence had opened the gate to a New World.

The miraculous sight left the students, who had only recently been living in the ordinary world, utterly incredulous. They shouted and cheered in excitement.

".A sacrifice?"

A week ago, Lu PingAn would probably have been just as confused. But now, he could already understand the "principle" behind it.

He had long known that Gu City was inside a secret realm. If all the pine trees were entrances and exits to it—

Then "that sentence" was the toll paid to the secret realm.

That was the usefulness of "principles." What seemed like a complicated mystery actually followed an internal set of rules. Those were the "secrets" that Keepers had always sought and guarded.

But when he truly looked over this secret realm, he was still stunned.

"So this really is a world."

It had been daytime just moments ago, but now a night sky filled with brilliant stars stretched overhead.

On distant hills stood faint outlines of castles, skyscrapers, and modern buildings. Lu PingAn even spotted a Tokyo Tower and a Gundam with only its lower half remaining.

To the south lay a boundless sea. The shadowy forms of gigantic dragon beasts could be seen within it, while near the coast, an enormous shark head stared in their direction.

Farther north, Lu PingAn saw gigantic vines rising into the sky, with a majestic city in the air hanging alongside the stars and moon.

"It's eight-thirty. Prepare to enter the examination room."

He did not know whose voice it was, but the next instant, night turned into day.

Blue Sky White Clouds. Midnight became morning, and the morning breeze, carrying birdsong and the scent of flowers, returned.

The fairy tale became reality. Dreamlike divine beasts became snarling giants with extremely high threat levels. And what every newcomer had to face was a cruel examination.

Yet even if they were eliminated in the future, the sight before them would surely leave them deeply attached to Gu Da and this world.

".Looks expensive."

Unlike the excited—and the, well, whatever—peers around him, Lu PingAn, as a novice operator of a secret realm, first thought of the costs involved.

"Going against a secret realm's preset rules requires paying an extra price. Revising the 'sacrifices' allowed to enter, adjusting the time within the secret realm... tsk tsk, they must have paid through the nose. All just to win people over?"

But the next moment, he realized that the academy had probably truly bled itself dry for this occasion.

As dawn broke, countless sets of desks and chairs appeared across the plains, hills, and sandy ground. Sealed exam papers could vaguely be seen resting on top of them.

"Please take any seat you wish, then write down your personal information and examination number on the paper."

This was a pretty crude move. Sit wherever you wanted and take the test?

Still, with a vast army of examinees stretching out before him, the sight was quite spectacular.

Lu PingAn casually found a desk and sat down. Looking at the endless sea of examinees, even though he had taken countless tests before, this one still felt remarkably fresh.

The surprise on most examinees' faces was impossible to hide. They clearly had yet to calm down after being thrown into such a bizarre environment.

This was not an indoor examination hall. The ceiling was blue sky and white clouds, while tens of thousands of competitive examinees sat on either side. Countless pairs of eyes watched openly and secretly, leaving many people unsettled.

But if they could not even withstand such a simple test of their mental state, then naturally they could not become Professional Keepers.

Lu PingAn opened the exam paper pouch, but his gaze drifted toward the Steam Airship hanging in midair, where numbers kept flashing.

Number 10011. Number 21231.

Lu PingAn was still wondering what they meant—whether they were announcements telling those people to take their seats quickly—when the male voice that had been making announcements sounded again.

"Examinees whose numbers have been called and who have cheated, please bring your cheat sheets and electronic devices to report at the secret realm exit."

Lu PingAn smiled. It had started already? They had been caught before the exam had even officially begun. This batch of examinees was really pathetic.

Gazes came from distant buildings and castles alike. Senior students and teachers, whether they had anything to do or not, were carrying out their proctoring duties.

Cheating under so many watchful eyes still required a bit of skill.

There was not a single visible proctor, yet that only created the eerie deterrence of "punishment unknown."

It placed immense psychological pressure on those with guilty consciences, and even made those with clear consciences start to feel guilty.

"Big Cat, I'm counting on you."

Lu PingAn calmly opened the exam paper and began battling it. Or rather, bargaining with it.

"...Chris, you're practically a demigod. Isn't it a little much to jack up the price on the spot? Fine, fine, let's both take a step back and talk after we get back. What? It'll be useless after we get back? Think about it, I still have the next round to take, right? Fine, fine, just don't go overboard."

Ten minutes later, Lu PingAn stared blankly at the exam paper before him, which was already completely filled out.

He had underestimated how terrifying the high-level Scholar path was. Even though Chris had no interest in this field and had not put much effort into it, her accumulated knowledge at this level was still beyond what most on the Scholar path could ever reach in a lifetime.

Big Cat gave him the answers directly, and Lu PingAn was only responsible for writing them down. He had not hesitated for even a second.

At Lu PingAn's level, after staring at the paper for so long, not only had he failed to spot any questions, he had actually learned a few things. Was this the downgraded examination-hall version of attaining enlightenment at Longchang?

At this point, some unlucky bastard had already handed in his paper.

And the reason he was called unlucky was that this special college entrance examination did not prohibit early submission, so there would naturally be the inevitable "exam quitters."

But in this special environment, handing in your paper early was a public execution—the kind watched by tens of thousands of people.

Examinee number 23212 has completed the exam. Mathematics test, full score 150. Time used: 13 minutes 27 seconds. Score: 18 points. Proctor's evaluation: Utter nonsense. All 18 points came from multiple-choice questions. Go back and start studying from elementary school.

Less than two minutes after he submitted his paper, it had been graded, and the result was displayed directly on the large screen of the airship overhead.

The first examinee to submit froze in place. Countless gazes swept over him, and his face turned scarlet.

Clutching his stationery, he lowered his head and hurried away.

It seemed he would not be coming back.

In an instant, the few people who had been eager to submit their papers or abandon the exam stopped moving.

Some planned to check their papers another two times, while others intended to wait until the exam time ran out.

"Yawn."

Lu PingAn yawned, left his paper behind, and walked away.

The moment he stood up and left, the paper vanished.

Before he had even reached the secret realm exit, the result had already appeared in the sky.

Examinee number 27289 has completed the exam. Mathematics test, full score 150. Time used: 14 minutes 10 seconds. Score: 150 points. Proctor's evaluation: Did you score 150 because the full score is only 150? Are you a high-level Scholar who ignored out-of-syllabus questions, or a cheater so arrogant you cannot even be bothered to pretend? Pick one.