When Lanci stepped into the Giant Void Gate under the guidance of the examiner, he immediately felt as if he had been thrown into a dark room where he lost all five senses.
Complete darkness in which he couldn't even hear his own heartbeat.
Gradually, like a singularity in the dark, a single point of light appeared in his view. With it, intelligible characters emerged like meteors—
[Welcome to the Shadow World, simulated by artificial creation with technical support from the Magic Engineering College.]
[Note: This assessment is a Shadow World practical simulation. There will be no threat to your life in the simulated Shadow World.]
[In the event of failure or death in the Shadow World, you will be automatically ejected.]
[However, you may experience feelings of death and pain, including traumatizing scenes such as falling off a cliff, beheading, etc.]
[...]
[Have you read the above and agree to enter the Artificial Shadow World?]
[Continue/Exit]
Lanci didn't just skim through.
Instead, he read the instruction manual for the Artificial Shadow World Startup Terminal carefully.
Only then did he move his finger to the [Continue] side.
He remembered reading that if one died in the real Shadow World, the challenger would indeed die as well.
Therefore, in Lanci's understanding, the real Shadow World is an extremely dangerous place, quite unlike this protected Artificial Shadow World.
Furthermore, it is clearly written in the laws of the Hutton Kingdom: newcomers often need to practice in the simulated Shadow World developed by mankind, achieve high ratings, pass the evaluation of the Kingdom Alliance Parliament, then only would they be permitted to challenge the real Shadow World.
Even so, the mortality rate in the real Shadow World remains high.
This shows how dangerous the Shadow World is.
Thankfully, the examination's Artificial Shadow World is essentially a practice mode and is relatively safe.
"The chief examiner mentioned that the point of the examination is 'wisdom and heart'..."
"So I naturally have to maximize my wisdom and heart to avoid experiencing the feeling of death in the Artificial Shadow World."
Lanci thought in his heart.
Accompanying his touch on [Continue], ripples appeared on the silver-white screen, quickly spreading from his fingertip, disappearing underneath the text as if new content was about to surface.
He had no time to see it as he felt like he was plunging from the sky.
With a sense of weightlessness, Lanci felt like he had suddenly plunged into a completely new world!
Quickly.
The surroundings brightened rapidly.
The view filled Lanci's sights in an instant.
At the same moment, a bone-chilling coldness assaulted him, like a ruthless blade striking at his heart.
He felt the temperature drop sharply; the whole world seemed to have frozen over.
His blood seemed to coagulate, the frost was able to easily pierce his skin.
"Huff, ha! What the hell is this place!"
The breath Lanci exhaled almost instantly condensed into ice crystals.
He could only clench his teeth to resist the piercing pain from the icy wind.
He found himself standing on a snowy plain.
The endless white snow covered the earth. The wind and snow howling between heaven and earth made his brain buzz!
Looking around, the sky was lead-grey, heavy clouds blocking the sunlight.
Cold winds stirred up snowflakes in the sky, sometimes gathering, sometimes scattering, making the snowy white world appear both illusory and harsh.
"Sir, their house is not far now!"
An old voice, almost hysterically shouting, competing with the wind and snow.
Lanci turned towards the sound, and saw an elderly man dressed in padded clothing and a silver-armored knight walking through the snow fog behind him.
Although Lanci didn't understand the old man's words at the moment.
He quickly saw a small village standing amidst the snow.
It was like a gem abandoned in the endless snowfield.
And he was in this village.
At the same time, Shadow World information appeared before his eyes—
[Shadow World: Flame of Winter Concealment]
[Level: First-order]
[Number of Challengers: 1]
[The disparity between the heart to do good and the power to do good, called righteousness, enforcing righteousness can be foolish, yet there are always people willing to see it through.]
[Winter is coming, you, as a noble of the northern border, are currently facing a fiscal deficit, and you have little money left.]
[While you are resting in this village, you heard from the village chief that a Magic Furnace was stolen from the village today.]
[Recently, there are frequent harsh blizzards, if the Magic Furnace is not retrieved, a family of three may freeze to death tonight.]
[Task Objective: Please help this family overcome their crisis and enable them to survive this cold winter before nightfall (within 1 hour).]
[Note: As a noble of the Holy Country and a believer of the Church, your bottom line is you absolutely cannot violate the law, harm civilians, or deceive civilians, otherwise, the Church Executioner who knows you well will execute you.]
[Note: Accordingly, if you find any crimes, the Executioner will assist you in punishing the criminal.]
After understanding the requirements of the examination, Lanci looked forward.
Not far away, there was indeed a house built of wood, with a roof covered in thick snow, seemingly hidden in this pure and spotless white world.
Then, the old man behind him must be the village chief, and the silver armored knight is the Executioner.