Lanchi's Debut Was a Major Operation

When Lanchi cooperated with the examination hall's procedures and stepped through the gigantic Void Gate under the examiner's guidance, he immediately felt as if he had been thrown into a dark room that deprived him of all five senses.

It was pitch-black. He could see nothing, not even hear his own heartbeat.

Gradually, like a singularity in the darkness, a single point of light appeared in his field of vision. Then comprehensible characters surged toward him like meteors--

Welcome to the Shadow World, artificially created and simulated with technical support from the Magic Engineering Institute.

Note: This examination consists of a practical simulation in the Shadow World. There is no danger to your life within the simulated Shadow World.

After failing in the Shadow World or being slain, examinees will be automatically ejected from the Shadow World.

However, you may experience death and pain, including but not limited to frightening scenes such as falling from cliffs and decapitation.

Have you finished reading the above information and agreed to enter the Artificial Shadow World?

Continue / Exit

Lanchi did not swipe past it with a single tap.

Instead, he carefully read the entire instruction manual for the Artificial Shadow World Activation Terminal.

Only then did he move his finger toward Continue.

He remembered reading in a book that if someone died in a real Shadow World, the challenger would truly die as well.

Thus, in Lanchi's understanding, a real Shadow World was an exceptionally dangerous place, completely different from this Artificial Shadow World with its protection mechanisms.

Moreover, the laws of the Hutton Kingdom clearly stated that newcomers generally needed to practice extensively in artificially developed simulated Shadow Worlds, obtain extremely high evaluations, and pass the assessment of the Kingdom Alliance Council before they could receive permission to challenge a real Shadow World.

Even so, the death rate in real Shadow Worlds remained extremely high.

This showed just how dangerous Shadow Worlds were.

Fortunately, the Artificial Shadow World used for the examination was equivalent to practice mode and was relatively safe.

"The chief examiner mentioned that the examination's theme is 'wisdom and character'..."

"Then naturally, I have to display my wisdom and character to the fullest so I can avoid experiencing death in the Artificial Shadow World."

Lanchi thought to himself.

As he touched Continue, ripples spread across the silvery-white screen from his fingertip. They quickly expanded, vanished beneath the text, and seemed about to reveal new content.

Before he could see it, he felt as if he were plummeting rapidly from the sky above the world.

Accompanied by a sensation of weightlessness, Lanchi felt as if his entire body and soul had suddenly plunged into a completely new world!

Very soon.

The surroundings rapidly brightened.

The scene filled Lanchi's field of vision in an instant.

At that very moment, a bone-chilling cold swept over him like a merciless blade, stabbing straight into his heart.

He felt the temperature plummet, as though the entire world had frozen solid.

His blood seemed to congeal, and the frost could easily pierce his skin.

"Whew—ha! What kind of godforsaken place is this?"

Even the breath Lanchi exhaled nearly froze into ice crystals at once.

He could only grit his teeth and resist the heart-piercing sting of the icy wind.

He discovered that he was standing on a snowy plain.

Endless white snow covered the earth. Between heaven and earth, the howling of wind and snow filled the air, making his head buzz!

Looking around, he saw an iron-gray sky, with heavy clouds blocking out the sunlight.

The cold wind swept up snowflakes that danced through the air, sometimes gathering and sometimes scattering, making the entire snow-white world both dreamlike and cruel.

"My lord, we'll reach their house soon!"

An elderly voice seemed to shout hysterically, struggling against the wind and snow.

Lanchi turned back along the direction of the voice. Behind him, an old man in padded clothing and a heavily armored knight in silver-white armor were also struggling forward through the snowy mist.

Although Lanchi did not yet understand what the old man meant,

he soon saw that a small village stood amid the wind and snow.

It was like a gemstone abandoned in the vast expanse of snow.

And he was inside this village.

At the same time, the Shadow World's information appeared before his eyes--

Shadow World: Hidden Flame of Winter

Tier: 1

Number of Challengers: 1

The gap between the heart to do good and the power to do good is called benevolence and righteousness. Forcing benevolence and righteousness upon others may be foolish, yet there are always people willing to carry them through to the very end.

Winter is coming. As a noble of the Northern Border, your territory is currently facing a fiscal deficit, and you have very little money left on you.

While stopping to rest in this village, you heard the village chief mention that a magic furnace had been stolen in the village today.

Severe blizzards have been occurring frequently lately. If the magic furnace is not recovered, the family of three may freeze to death tonight.

Mission Objective: Before nightfall (within one hour), help this family resolve their predicament so they can safely make it through this cold winter.

Note: As a noble of a holy nation and a believer of the Holy Rite Church, your bottom line is that you must not violate the law, harm civilians, or deceive civilians. Otherwise, the church executioner beside you, who knows your circumstances well, will execute you.

Note: Conversely, if you discover criminal conduct, the executioner will also assist you in administering the appropriate punishment to the criminal.

After understanding the requirements of the examination, Lanchi looked ahead.

Not far away stood a wooden house. Its roof was covered in thick white snow, as if concealed within this pure, flawless world.

The old man behind him was presumably the village chief, while the knight in silver-white armor was the executioner.

Lanchi did not hurry toward the house. Instead, he briefly analyzed the situation.

Since his current identity was that of a noble from this inexplicable country and he was under strict restrictions, some of the simplest and most brute-force methods of clearing the mission would certainly not work.

For example, he could not simply seize supplies from another family and use them to aid this one.

Unless he was confident he could defeat this executioner, who clearly looked terrifying.

Trying might mean dying.

As for bringing this family to squeeze into the village chief's house, they might survive tonight, but they would not make it through the entire winter.

That clearly did not meet the mission objective.

If he forcibly ordered another household to take in this family for the entire winter,

abusing his authority and forcing them to surrender their home would most likely also be illegal.

"As expected, ordinary little tricks won't work in this Shadow World. Every shortcut has been blocked."

Lanchi muttered to himself in the wind and snow.

In less than a moment, his cheeks had reddened from the cold and developed a thin layer of frost.

When he prepared to move again, he felt the joints of his limbs stiffening in the bitter cold, making movement increasingly difficult.

Even his thick noble winter clothes could not block this piercing chill.

Lanchi immediately realized that, based on an examinee's physical constitution, the time they could spend moving across an outdoor snowfield was actually very limited.

Searching aimlessly would inevitably leave him buried in the wind and snow.

"I'd better investigate this family for clues first."

He hurriedly quickened his pace and walked toward the wooden house ahead.

In a spacious, brightly lit Conference Room in the Sage Institute Main Building, the chairs and tables had been arranged in a round-table formation, with several large round tables surrounding a central projection screen.

Five or six teachers from each group sat at every table. Some stared intently at the magic screens, while others actively exchanged ideas.

Rather than a meeting, it was more like a seminar or review session.

They were carefully recording the highlights and details of each examinee's performance, occasionally exchanging opinions with other teachers.

The screens clearly displayed the scenes of the examinees after they entered the Artificial Shadow World.

Without exception, all the examinees were progressing slowly.

After reaching the household, they had learned from the couple that strange sounds had come from outside the window on the night of the theft. Then the door of the house had blown open as if pushed by the wind and snow, and the temperature inside had suddenly dropped.

When the trembling couple came out of the bedroom, they discovered that the magic furnace had vanished. A few footprints had been left outside, apparently belonging to a tall adult man, but they were soon covered by the falling snow.

As for questioning the little girl, the couple's adopted niece, she seemed to know something. Yet no matter how they tried to speak with her, she refused to say a word.

Some examinees therefore chose to investigate for clues among the other villagers, while others tried to start with the abnormalities surrounding the little girl.

Of course, some examinees, having failed to read the question carefully, had tried to show off their cleverness and inexplicably died beneath the executioner's sword--

One had promised benefits to the village chief in exchange for taking in the family for the entire winter.

But given the current state of the territory, the lord could not guarantee that he could provide the money. That constituted fraud. The executioner, who knew the circumstances well, immediately saw that the lord was lying and executed him.

"People who think they're clever often fail to notice logical flaws. They're usually the ones who die fastest in Shadow Worlds."

As he crossed the eliminated examinee's name off the list, Vice Principal Ron sighed,

"This is a lack of wisdom."

In fact, the correct approach was simply to notice the most basic clue—the "abnormality surrounding the little girl"—and gather some key information from the other villagers. Once they solved the mystery, uncovered the truth, and subdued the culprit, the problem would be resolved with ease.

"Shadow Worlds emphasize the combined use of wisdom and talent. Sometimes, you also need noble character to gain the goodwill of the people inside and unlock the clues."

As they discussed this,

another teacher noticed an examinee who directly used wind magic to chop down trees before rapidly drying the firewood with magic. He was an outstanding mage.

Someone else had even begun trying to make a fire-aspected magic item that could replace the magic furnace.

Everyone was displaying their own abilities.

However.

These seemingly impressive actions did not win much favor from the teachers.

"Sometimes, a Shadow World can indeed be shortcut by making use of one's own abilities, but sometimes that can also lead you into a trap..."

"I remember the original version of this Tier 1 Shadow World being particularly vile. After investigating to the end, one discovers that the wicked couple deliberately hid the magic furnace so the little girl would freeze to death in the blizzard, allowing them to claim the generous funeral subsidy stipulated by the Northern Border's territorial laws."

"Even giving them firewood or another magic furnace won't save the little girl, because what's truly cold is the twisted human heart."

"Sometimes, being too arrogant and trying to bypass the Shadow World's mechanisms can instead lead to unexpected failure. That is a sign of an insufficiently calm and steady character."

Amid sighs, the teachers began discussing the essence of this Entrance Examination.

For most of the examinees, who were Tier 2 or Tier 3, this Tier 1 Shadow World contained no combat elements requiring them to display their martial strength.

It was merely the most basic and simplest Shadow World format.

But it could precisely test, at the fundamental level, whether an examinee possessed the aptitude to challenge Shadow Worlds.

"Hey, what's going on with this guy?!"

A sudden cry of surprise drew the attention of all the teachers.

The teachers at each table looked toward the corner of one split screen.

The person shown was an examinee from the Knight Institute.

The style of his scene was completely different from those of the other examinees.

He was not wearing a noble's long coat. He had nothing on but a pair of trousers, the muscles on his body clearly defined, and stood there with his arms folded in the biting wind.

Even though his disheveled gray-white hair was covered in snowflakes, he looked completely unbothered by the cold. His dark purple pupils were as tough and unyielding as those of a lone wolf.

"What's this guy doing?"

"Wait! As a noble, the clothes the examinee is wearing are worth a fair amount of money. They're enough to cover the cost of having the village chief take in a family for the entire winter. That way, the little girl would be protected by the village chief."

Ordinary people could never be so ruthless toward themselves, as if they had not considered their own survival at all.

However, this Shadow World did not actually require the challenger to survive until the end.

Sacrificing oneself and carrying benevolence and righteousness through to the end was also an option.

"Knight Institute brutes are like this. Every so often, one of them turns up who isn't particularly bright."

"But this Knight Institute examinee named Frei... If you say he's stupid, he somehow seems rather clever..."

Although Frei had completely violated the examination's intended purpose, he had indeed fulfilled the requirements through his noble character and extraordinary physical constitution.

"Perhaps completely abandoning wisdom and character is also a display of wisdom and character?"

"You have to admit that he does embody many knightly virtues, including honesty, mercy, courage, and sacrifice... He merely deviated completely from the objective we set out to examine. The Knight Institute has found a treasure this year."

Gradually, although the teachers found it difficult to offer a fair evaluation of Frei's approach to clearing the mission, they could not help praising him in the end.

At least as a knight, he was unquestionably worthy of the title.

"Wait."

Vice Principal Ron, who had been looking down and flipping through the examinees' files, suddenly said in a solemn voice,

"...I think this guy may be addicted to gambling. He often loses everything until he has only one pair of trousers left, and he's used to pawning all his clothes... So he may have developed muscle memory. Whenever he enters a Shadow World and doesn't know what to do, his first instinct is to pawn his clothes and turn them into cash to solve the problem."

"..."

"..."

After praising him so enthusiastically only to get everything wrong, everyone felt awkward. The Conference Room suddenly became exceptionally quiet.

After a moment,

Vice Principal Ron finally broke the oppressive silence. He cleared his throat and tried to steer the meeting back on track.

"Look on the bright side. This guy is an examinee from the Knight Institute, so they're the ones who should be getting a headache."

"Indeed."

"The students on our side are clearly much more normal."

The teachers nodded one after another, unable to keep from feeling relieved.

Before long,

another teacher gradually discovered something.

Among the examinees from the Sage Institute,

there seemed to be another fellow who was not quite normal.

The screen showed a black-haired, green-eyed youth.

Not only was he in no hurry to investigate,

he had instead returned to the village chief's house immediately.

After obtaining the village chief's permission, he began searching the bookshelves and found several books.

Then he leisurely leaned against the sofa and flipped through them beside the furnace.

He even took a sip of hot tea from time to time, looking exceptionally pleased.

Clearly, his bizarre behavior had caught the teachers' attention.

"What is this guy doing? He's actually enjoying himself?"

The teachers who had noticed Lanchi began asking one another.

Soon, a young teacher let out a soft scoff, then shook his head and said:

"Students who give up halfway usually act like this. They stay somewhere safe, but I've never seen anyone give up as decisively as he did."

The other teachers heard this.

They all nodded.

They had nearly been deceived by the carefree composure this guy exuded.

"Lanchi Wilford... His attribute test results weren't particularly impressive. His family is the famous Wilford Family of wealthy merchants from the South Wantina Border Territory, and he's their eldest son. Did he come here just to experience life?"

The vice principal dug out Lanchi's enrollment information and sighed helplessly.

After learning about his circumstances, the teachers also lost interest in this lax rich boy.

Just as the professors' attention gradually shifted away from Lanchi,

he finally closed the book in his hands.

Then, carrying the book and bringing the executioner with him, he decisively returned to the household that had been robbed.

Knock, knock.

Lanchi gently knocked on the door.

A moment later, faint footsteps came from inside, accompanied by the howling wind and snow.

As soon as the door opened, he saw the middle-aged man who had come to greet him, shivering from the cold.

"Lord, have you made any progress with your investigation?"

The middle-aged man asked with a trace of anxious hope on his face.

But inwardly, he had already begun laughing.

This stupid noble's investigation had been completely misdirected.

All he had to do next was fool this shabby lord into leaving the house again, then let him continue wandering aimlessly through the snow and ice while clinging to his foolish sense of benevolence.

However.

Lanchi merely fixed the middle-aged man with a sharp gaze, as if he had finally confirmed something.

"The investigation hasn't made any progress. But earlier, and just now when you saw me, did you fail to bow to me?"

Lanchi slowly raised his hand and pointed at the middle-aged man in the house as he asked.

"I'm sorry, Lord. We heard that you've always been kind and don't care about such details. It was our negligence..."

The sudden question left the middle-aged man terrified. He hurriedly pressed down on the little girl's head together with his wife and bowed to Lanchi, speaking in a low voice.

He had no idea what had gone wrong to make this noble suddenly change his attitude.

The benevolent lord clearly hadn't conducted any investigation in his home. How could he possibly have noticed anything!?

Lanchi let out a cold laugh:

"According to the etiquette of the Northern Border, you and your wife should have bowed to me. Yet you failed to show me the respect I was owed both times. I believe your attitude toward me was exceptionally contemptuous, and I have been insulted."

He opened the code in his hands and rebuked them sternly:

"According to page 719, line 3 of the Holy Kingdom Code, the crime of insulting nobility, I am arresting your entire family. Children under twelve may be exempted from this crime. According to the guardianship regulations on page 134, this girl has lost her guardians, so I will take her back to town to be cared for by the church. This is fully in accordance with the regulations."

After saying that, Lanchi turned back toward the executioner and raised the book he had already opened, showing him the page on the "crime of insulting nobility."

The provision was clearly written there.

As for the etiquette of the Northern Border, Lanchi had just asked the village chief and the executioner for detailed confirmation.

The executioner was slightly stunned.

After a moment of hesitation, he finally stepped forward and restrained the three utterly bewildered family members.

"You will be temporarily detained at the village chief's house. Once the blizzard passes, come back to town with me. Those who should go to prison will go to prison, and those who should go to the church to study will go to the church."

Lanchi stared at the code and spoke every word clearly.

Afterward,

he watched as the three of them, led by the executioner, set off toward the village chief's house.

Amid the wind and snow,

Lanchi slipped both hands into his pockets, exhaled in relief, and revealed a gratified smile.

"Clearly, this exam is testing the students' legal awareness. This way, their whole family can spend a warm winter in prison and the church."

Outside the examination grounds.

"?!"

The professors who had accidentally witnessed Lanchi's maneuver began twitching violently at the corners of their eyes.

Even Loren, the chief examiner who had seen everything inside the examination hall, widened his eyes.

This chapter is 5,500 words, practically the equivalent of three chapters combined. It was difficult to find a good stopping point, so I posted it all at once. Thank you, everyone, for continuing to read. Xi Zhi is grateful!