Lanqi stood in the Sage Academy's waiting area in the atrium, his mind still lingering on the Holy Kingdom-style desserts.

"It's said that the food you can taste in the Shadow World is as real as in the real world, but in the artificial Shadow World, it's just an illusion. The pastry I baked for so long actually had no taste..."

While pondering, he also inadvertently heard many other candidates exchanging their clearance times.

It turned out that most qualified candidates needed forty to fifty minutes to barely meet the clearance requirements.

It seems everyone's legal awareness is still not strong enough.

Just as Lanqi's mind was wandering in space for a moment.

"How long did it take you?"

A light voice sounded not far from Lanqi.

Lanqi turned his head and found a tall female of similar age looking at him.

Her eyes were amber-colored, cold and proud, as if she could overlook the entire world with just a glance.

Judging from her obviously expensive attire and jewelry, she should be a noble from a prominent family in this kingdom.

She seemed to have noticed another candidate who was particularly relaxed and at ease nearby.

Such a person who didn't seem to care about the exam results at all was rare in the entire exam site.

"..."

Lanqi remained silent, roughly estimating in his mind.

Actually, his entire process only took about ten minutes.

"Less than fifty minutes."

Lanqi answered friendly.

He felt that this young lady, who looked very impressive at first glance, should be a troublesome person with a haughty temperament.

So if his clearance speed was really faster than hers, saying it in front of her would definitely make her unhappy.

Therefore, being conservative, it's better to just answer less than fifty minutes.

This is called social skills.

"I see."

Then, the young lady nodded expressionlessly and no longer focused her attention on Lanqi.

So he's just someone who doesn't care about his grades.

Huberrian thought to herself.

She had been misled by his overly composed demeanor earlier.

Then he probably won't become her teammate for the third round of assessment.

As the daughter of Duke Alansar, Huberrian already knew about the examination mechanism for this year's third round at the Sage Academy—

Students of different functions will be teamed up to battle with teachers.

Generally, under such exam questions.

A support mage or healing mage will be assigned to a team.

Sometimes, depending on the proportion of candidates, they might all be damage-dealing mages.

Good support can lower the difficulty of the third round of assessment for the entire team, while a slacker will greatly increase the pressure on other team members.

According to the grouping rules, it's said that this year will refer to the ranking of the second round of assessment.

That is, candidates with higher rankings in the Sage Academy are likely to become teammates, and then face stronger teachers.

Huberrian, who would definitely be at the top of the second round, as a damage-dealing mage, naturally didn't want to be assigned a clumsy support when facing the high-difficulty challenge in the third round.

Moreover, there are people in the kingdom who don't want her to enroll smoothly.

Being with her, the difficulty of the practical assessment would undoubtedly become very exaggerated.

Only getting a good support could slightly increase the possibility of passing.

Of course.

Those powerful figures who don't want her to enroll will also try every means to manipulate their minions in the academy to arrange the worst teammates for her within the rules, or even actors.

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Just thinking about these, Huberrian's heart was filled with an uncontrollable killing intent that spread like ripples.

"Give me a few more years... I will settle accounts with all of you... torture you inch by inch..."

She thought viciously in her heart.

But her expression remained as calm as ever.

...

During this waiting time when the exam site gradually became more noisy.

At the edge of the atrium, there was a cold-looking young man with gray-white messy hair, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. He was now wearing a pair of small round sunglasses, looking lazy and somewhat arrogant.

He could clearly hear the content of other candidates' conversations.

Most of them were discussing the clearance details of the second round of assessment, and the time they used.

Finally.

He closed his eyes with disdain and contempt.

He didn't understand.

Why do these people's clearance times...

All need to be calculated in "minutes"?

Frey frowned slightly, pondering this question.

Obviously, this exam was testing the candidates' borrowing mindset.

Pawning the clothes on your body for money, it's done directly, why would it take so long?

...

The chief examiner of this exam, Dean Loren of the Sage Academy, was waiting for the terminal to calculate the final scores for the second round of assessment.

Hearing the students' discussions, he knew that some candidates who were still proud of their clearance speed of over thirty minutes would soon question their life.

Originally.

Such a score could be considered very excellent.

As someone who had been observing the candidates' exam status on the screen at the exam site, Loren roughly knew the clearance speed that would be determined for each student.

Among all the candidates from the Knight Academy and Sage Academy, except for two certain guys, even the fastest of the other candidates took 25 minutes and 3 seconds.

While Lanqi completed the task requirements at about the 9 minute 53 second mark.

When normal candidates were starting to investigate, he had already arrested the entire target family.

Frey took 7 seconds.

He solved all problems at the start.

In such a Shadow World with uncomplicated mechanisms, clearance speed is the evaluation item with the highest weight.

Frey definitely obtained an extremely outrageous basic score in terms of speed.

But because he didn't have much decryption process in this type of decryption Shadow World, he would hardly have any other score bonuses.

As for Lanqi's score, even Loren didn't know how the terminal would calculate it.

If they can successfully pass the second and third rounds of assessment, then the scores in these two rounds will be weighted separately and recorded as the total score.

The ranking of the total score in the entrance examination will affect the subsequent class assignment in the corresponding academy, the priority of official challenger registration exemption recommendation, the representative seats for first-year students in academy visit and exchange activities, and so on.

The artificial Shadow World startup terminal was about to operate as usual, about to calculate the candidates' scores.

Just as it was running to a certain node.

Suddenly, electric arcs flashed on the mithril and magic crystals of the artificial Shadow World startup terminal, followed by constant electric cocoons bursting around!

As the image on the magic screen connected to the terminal suddenly froze, all images and indicators stopped moving.

In the next instant, the constantly appearing chaotic pixels made the image repetitive and blurry.

This abnormal movement obviously attracted the attention of all candidates, and a wave of panicked noise surged in the seventh floor exam site.

Loren frowned, without much hesitation, and forcibly shut down the terminal with a grave expression.

Although doing so might damage the valuable magical equipment, he must prioritize ensuring the safety of all students and staff present.

At the same time, the chaotic electric light on the terminal also dissipated.

This made many candidates sigh in relief.

However.

When Loren wanted to restart the terminal through the secret key.

He found that the terminal didn't move at all.

It seems that it was broken by that incident just now.

"...No."

Loren shook his head painfully, then pinched his brow.

He only felt very tired because of this exam today, and even more didn't want to go to the Magic Engineering Department to be scolded by Professor Bolao.

Even without calling Professor Bolao from the Magic Engineering Department for repair, Loren already roughly understood what the problem was.

After all, the artificial Shadow World is not a divine product like the real Shadow World.

The settlement of the replicated artificial Shadow World can only be evaluated using pre-set and pre-input algorithm models.

Like Frey's clearance method, although alternative, it was simple and crude.

Even if a few parameters were missing, it was still possible to calculate a score.

However, the replicator hadn't considered that there would be someone like Lanqi who completely subverted the algorithm model.

This guy actually had a bunch of abnormal parameter inputs!

So, the terminal malfunctioned and froze.

In terms of clearance speed, this round of assessment should have Frey from the Knight Academy in first place, with Lanqi from the Sage Academy just behind him.

But due to Lanqi's too bizarre operation, in the end, the specific scores of all candidates couldn't be evaluated!

Loren felt a headache just thinking about having to explain the subsequent urgent repair matters to the Magic Engineering Department.

Finally.

Loren let out a long sigh, and as if ignoring Lanqi, he looked at the many candidates and said:

"We will manually evaluate the second round scores based on the exam records, and the third round practical assessment will be held the day after tomorrow. All candidates will receive a notice of the specific exam arrangements before the end of today."

Out of sight, out of mind.

Everything is a test from the Goddess for him, and as a priest, he absolutely cannot get angry easily...

After announcing the important matters.

Dean Loren sent away all the candidates in the atrium as if seeing off guests.