Chapter 19: Lanchi's Social Graces
Chapter 19: Lanchi's Social Graces
Lanchi stood in the examination area of the Sage Court in the central courtyard, his mind still lingering on the sweet treats of the Holy Nation.
"It's said that the food one can taste in the Shadow World is just as real as in the real world, yet in the artificial Shadow World, it's merely an illusion. The dessert I just baked for half a day turned out to have no taste at all..."
As he thought, he also inadvertently overheard several other candidates discussing their respective clearance times.
Turns out, most qualified candidates needed forty to fifty minutes to barely meet the clearance requirements.
Looks like everyone's legal awareness isn't strong enough.
Just as Lanchi's mind wandered.
"How long did it take you?"
A light and gentle voice sounded near Lanchi.
Lanchi turned his head and saw a tall, young woman around his age looking at him.
Her eyes shone with amber, cold and proud, as if she could overlook the entire world with just a glance.
Judging from her obviously expensive attire and jewelry, she was likely a noble of great influence in this kingdom.
She seemed to have noticed that there was another unusually relaxed candidate nearby.
Such candidates, who seemed to completely disregard their exam results, were quite rare in the examination hall.
"..."
Lanchi remained silent, mentally estimating the time.
In fact, the whole process had only taken him about ten minutes.
"Less than fifty minutes."
Lanchi replied amicably.
He felt that this young lady, who seemed extraordinary at first glance, was probably a troublesome person with a high and mighty attitude.
So, if his clearance speed was indeed faster than hers, telling her so directly would likely displease her.
Therefore, he decided to be conservative and answered "less than fifty minutes."
That's what social grace is about.
"I see."
Immediately, the young lady nodded expressionlessly and then shifted her attention away from Lanchi.
So, he was just someone who didn't care about his performance.
Hiberlian thought to herself.
Earlier, she had been misled by his overly calm demeanor.
Then he probably won't be her teammate for the third round of exams.
As the daughter of Duke Alan Sal, Hiberlian was already aware of this year's third-round examination mechanism for the Sage Court -
Students of different functions would be grouped into teams and pitted against teachers in battle.
Usually, under such exam conditions.
There would be a support mage or healing mage in each team.
Sometimes, depending on the proportion of candidates, the team might consist solely of offensive mages.
A good support or healing mage could reduce the difficulty of the third-round exam for the entire team, while an incompetent one would greatly increase the pressure on the other members.
According to rumors, this year's grouping rules would be based on the rankings of the second round.
In other words, candidates with higher rankings in the Sage Court were likely to become teammates and face stronger teachers.
Having undoubtedly excelled in the second round, Hiberlian, as an offensive mage, naturally didn't want to be paired with a mediocre support mage during the third round's high-difficulty challenge.
Moreover, there were those in the kingdom who didn't wish for her to enroll smoothly.
Being in a team with her would undoubtedly increase the difficulty of the practical exam.
Only by having a good support mage could they slightly improve their chances of passing.
Of course.
Those powerful figures who didn't want her to enroll would also try their best to manipulate their lackeys within the academy to assign the worst possible teammates to her, or even actors, within the selectable range allowed by the rules.
Just thinking about this made a layer of ripples of hard-to-suppress murderous intent spread in Hiberlian's heart.
"Give me a few more years... I will make all of you pay... inch by inch..."
She thought viciously in her heart, while her expression remained as calm as ever.
...
In the waiting time that gradually became a little noisy in the examination hall.
At the edge of the courtyard, there was a cruel youth with gray-white hair, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. At this time, he had put on a pair of small round sunglasses, looking lazy and a little arrogant.
He could clearly hear the conversations of the other candidates.
Most of them were discussing the details of the second-round clearance and the time it took.
Finally.
He closed his eyes with a bit of disdain and contempt.
He didn't understand.
Why did these people's clearance times...
Need to be calculated in "minutes"?
Fred frowned slightly, pondering this question.
It was obvious that this exam tested the candidates' loan-thinking ability.
Pawning the items one had on hand to get money, why would that take so long?
...
The chief examiner of this exam, the Dean of the Sage Court, Loren, was waiting for the terminal to calculate the final scores of the second round.
Upon hearing the students' discussions, he knew that those who had previously been proud of their clearance times of over thirty minutes would soon be questioning their life choices.
Originally, such a score would be considered very excellent.
As Loren, who had been observing the exam takers' progress on the screen in the exam room, was aware of each student's expected clearance speed.
Among the Knight and Sage Court examinees, with the exception of a certain two individuals, even the fastest student had taken 25 minutes and 3 seconds.
Lanchi, on the other hand, had completed the task in approximately 9 minutes and 53 seconds.
While the others were still investigating, he had already arrested the entire target family.
Fred, on the other hand, had solved all the problems in 7 seconds.
In this not-so-complex artificial Shadow World, clearance speed was the most heavily weighted scoring item.
Fred had undoubtedly achieved an extremely outrageous base score in terms of speed.
However, due to the lack of a decryption process in this type of decryption-based Shadow World, there wouldn't be any additional score bonuses.
As for Lanchi's score, even Loren had no idea how the terminal would calculate it.
If they could pass the second and third rounds of the exam, their scores in these two rounds would be weighted and recorded as their total score.
The ranking of the entrance exam total scores would affect subsequent class assignments in the respective colleges, priority for official Challenger exemption recommendations, and first-year student representative seats during inter-college visits and exchanges, among other things.
The artificial Shadow World terminal was about to operate as usual and calculate the examinee's scores.
Just as the computation reached a certain point.
Arcs of electricity suddenly flashed on the mithril and magic crystals of the artificial Shadow World terminal, followed by continuous explosions of electrical cocoons all around!
As the screen connected to the terminal suddenly froze, all images and indicators stopped moving.
In the next moment, the constantly appearing disorderly pixels made the picture blurry and repetitive.
This anomaly naturally attracted the attention of all the examinees, and a wave of panicked noise arose in the seventh-floor exam room.
Loren frowned deeply, with little hesitation, and solemnly forced a shutdown of the terminal, prioritizing the safety of all students and staff present.
At the same time, the erratic electrical lights on the terminal also dissipated.
This allowed many of the examinees to breathe a sigh of relief, albeit still feeling a little startled.
However.
When Loren tried to restart the terminal using the secret key.
It refused to budge.
Looks like that last jolt had fried it.
"Ugh..."
Loren shook his head in dismay and pinched the bridge of his nose.
He felt incredibly weary from today's exam and did not want to deal with Professor Pola of the Magecraft Institute.
Even without calling in the Magecraft Institute expert, Professor Pola, for repairs, Loren already had a vague idea of what had gone wrong.
The artificial Shadow World, no matter how advanced, was not a divine creation like the real Shadow World.
The settlement of the replicated artificial Shadow World could only be assessed using preset and pre-input algorithmic models.
While Fred's method of clearance was unconventional, it was straightforward and brutal.
Even if a few parameters were missing, a score could still be calculated.
However, the replicators had not anticipated Lanchi's method, which completely overturned the algorithmic model.
This guy had introduced a whole bunch of abnormal parameters!
Hence, the terminal malfunctioned and froze.
Based on clearance speed, Fred from the Knight Court should rank first, and Lanchi from the Sage Court should be second.
However, due to Lanchi's bizarre actions, the specific scores of all the examinees could not be determined!
Loren felt a headache coming on just thinking about having to report the subsequent urgent repair matters to the Magecraft Institute.
Finally.
Loren sighed and, as if ignoring Lanchi, addressed the crowd of examinees, "We will manually evaluate the second-round scores based on the exam records, and the third-round practical exam will be held the day after tomorrow. All examinees will receive a notification about the specific exam arrangements before the end of today."
Out of sight, out of mind.
Everything was a test from the Goddess, and as a priest, he must not lose his temper...
After making the important announcements.
Dean Loren dismissed all the examinees from the courtyard as if seeing them out.
(End of Chapter)
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