Chapter 1 Lights and Shadows

The lights in the House of Lords meeting room were focused and dim, reflecting off the documents and maps on the table.

Duke Moretti took a deep breath.

"Wilford, you've got one thing wrong. Whether our enemy is the Honin Empire or the vampires, what we need to consider now is the possibility of fighting. Resistance is doomed to fail, and continuing will only lead to the destruction of our army. Please analyze the problem rationally."

In contrast, Duke Moretti was more calm and cautious, reminding everyone present to be rational and realistic.

The other members of the House of Lords present seemed hesitant and uneasy in this debate.

They exchanged worried glances, sometimes looking at the Prime Minister at the head of the table, and sometimes at the Duke.

The tension was almost palpable.

"The northern strait of the continent is our natural trench, our battlement, the widest stretch of water that those southerners from the Honin Empire have never seen. We have the advantage of experience and geography. The vampires don't dare to fight us at sea in person. If it's on land, these guys who can't stand the sunlight will no longer have absolute security during the day."

Lanci stated slowly.

"Then men, women, and children will despise our wrong decision and dereliction of duty—because we have failed to fulfill our responsibility to protect them, leaving them to face the vampires unarmed."

Duke Moretti pressed closer,

"Once the kingdoms of Fooklore and Edith on the east and west sides fall, we will be surrounded and devoured on land, and even the northern snowfields behind us will be blocked. What will we use to fight against the Honin Empire? Do you think they won't fight a war of attrition with us? The Honin Empire has plenty of patience, and they are backed by the entire southern continent, while what are we backed by? The surrounding countries that are crumbling and could turn into enemies at any time? That snowfield that is dark all year round? Or the demons on the other side of the snowfield who are also eyeing us covetously and are equally impossible to communicate with?"

"I will try my best to use diplomacy to seek support from neutral countries."

Lanci said immediately.

Compared to Duke Moretti's sharp questioning, his response seemed particularly brief.

"Prime Minister, you shouldn't go over my head to try diplomacy with other countries. This is a lack of trust in me."

Foreign Minister Duke Moretti said, shaking his head.

"But have you considered putting aside your posture and seeking help from neutral countries, apart from considering seeking a chance for peace talks with the Honin Empire?"

Lanci questioned.

"Heh, I don't know whether to say that the Prime Minister is optimistic or naive. Neutral countries, even if you just grab a young person in the parliament who knows a little history, and ask them why there are still countries maintaining neutrality at this juncture, they can tell you the answer. If we could be a neutral country that reaps the final benefits, wouldn't our Polant Empire want to be the last one to enter the arena?"

This question only brought Duke Moretti's cold sarcasm in return.

"I'm not asking for a hegemon that is far stronger than us. If you have the ability, go and persuade even a neutral country that is evenly matched with us to help the Bliss Kingdom and give the people a little more confidence? Instead of risking our lives without any chance of winning, talking on paper, and boasting."

Although his tone still showed the restraint of a diplomat, the dispute between the two had obviously become more and more intense, and it was already starting to turn into an argument.

After Duke Moretti's words fell, many members of parliament finally lowered their heads and sighed weakly.

It wasn't that the Prime Minister's debating ability was inferior to Duke Moretti's.

It was that at this time and in the face of reality, the entire Hersallem was in a state of panic, and they couldn't help but lean more towards Duke Moretti and consider the possibility of peace talks that the Duke was talking about.

No one could see any hope of victory. Even if the Prime Minister's courage was like a flame, no one was willing to be a moth flying into the fire.

As long as the Prime Minister let go now, they could follow Duke Moretti's proposal, change the current direction of Hersallem, and actively prepare for negotiations.

"No need to say more, I will not change my mind. Our Polant Empire will show the vampires our backbone. They will never be able to conquer all of humanity. I will take full responsibility for this matter."

Lanci stood up, pushed the chair into the table, looked around the meeting room, and said.

"Are you sure?"

Duke Moretti's voice finally turned cold.

"Yes, that's why I'm sitting in this seat."

Lanci gently released the hand pushing the chair. Along with the heavy collision sound of the chair legs naturally falling to the ground, the surrounding members of parliament were suddenly startled back to their senses.

Duke Moretti was not intimidated by Lanci's aura at all.

"Can we understand that the Prime Minister has completely denied any possibility of negotiating with the Honin Empire?"

After Duke Moretti finished speaking, he silently looked at a group of conservative people.

"..."

Lanci was silent.

This time, he did not refute Moretti again and show his tough attitude, but walked out of the meeting room alone, using his back to announce that the meeting was over.

…

In the Capitol Building.

As Lanci walked around a deserted corridor corner, Cat Boss jumped out of the shadows and burrowed into Lanci's coat.

"Meow, meow, meow, why didn't you fight back? Do you really have any thoughts of surrendering?"

Cat Boss asked Lanci in an almost inaudible voice.

It was extremely worried, afraid that Lanci would really be persuaded.

It saw that the current situation of the Polant Empire had become—

[Popular Support: 132→145/1000 (Public support and cohesion)]

[Parliament: 419→305→252/1000 (Support rate of the Polant Empire's internal high-level officials)]

[Military Strength: 124/1000 (Referenced to the Honin Empire)]

[Finance: 221→222/1000 (Current productivity of the Polant Empire)]

[Diplomacy: 115/1000 (Diplomatic relations with the Demon Realm and surrounding countries that have not yet surrendered)]

The overall odds of winning were still locked at zero without any surprises, because the overall data was starting to go downhill.

They had been in this shadow world for more than a day.

Currently, there were still more than 43 days left.

On the first day, in addition to familiarizing himself with and gathering the people around him, after a public speech in front of the media after taking office, Lanci's popular support quickly rose from 132 to 145, and it seemed to be continuing to rise slowly according to the speed of the spread.

However, because he publicly expressed the idea that he should take the initiative to resist, it seemed that he had offended the conservatives. The parliament item plummeted from 419 to 305, and then fell again because of the argument with Duke Moretti just now.

The change in finance may have been because it was encouraged by Lanci, the people had more confidence, and productivity also increased slightly.

There was no change in military strength or diplomacy.

"If I had continued to refute Duke Moretti's words just now, I would have left written evidence of 'rejecting all possibilities of peace talks'. He was trying to trick me. Duke Moretti probably arranged for a meeting recorder in the next room to record the content of our conversation, and this would become a handle for the conservatives to impeach me, so I couldn't admit it just now."

Lanci answered the little black charcoal ball in a soft voice as if he was talking to himself.

"Meow."

Cat Boss suddenly understood.

There was such a trap.

Fortunately, you kid reacted just now, otherwise, this parliament item may have directly fallen below 100 and declared the game over.

Wait, aren't you a little too skilled?

How did you, an art student, become like an old fox when you arrived at the parliament?

…

Iklit Academy, the highest-level conference room of the Sage Academy's main building. The light in the light-colored wall conference room was transparent, and the green plants placed on the wide windowsill always brought vitality to this space.

But at this moment.

In this conference room, the discussion continued to become more and more intense due to controversial topics, and it was in a state of chaos.

"Now Lanci has several choices. First of all, he can only take care of either popular support or parliament. He must try his best to balance it first, use his knowledge to transform the Polant Empire, and increase military strength or finance as much as possible in a short period of time. Only in this way will there be hope to change the 0% chance of winning."

Many professors discussed.

The seats and tables were arranged in a round table format, with several large round tables surrounding the central projection screen.

Five or six teachers sat at each table, either frowning and staring at the projection screen, or actively communicating with the professors around them.

Compared to a meeting, this was more like a seminar or review meeting.

"Actually, Lanci's situation in improving popular support is not bad. If it weren't for the fact that the parliament is not easy to deal with, he might have been able to make the popular support item relatively high when it ends if he went all out."

Seeing Lanci in the shadow world fall into a dilemma, the outside world also discovered the relationship between the [Popular Support] and [Parliament] items in this shadow world.

Although Lanci seemed to have some talent for improving popular support, the corresponding price was a sharp drop in the parliament's support rate.

Public opinion does hope for a prime minister who can lead them to victory, but the parliament is mainly controlled by conservatives, with a solidified structure that Lanci cannot shake in a short period of time.

However, these two items are obviously auxiliary causes.

The calculation formula for the odds of winning is unknown, but one thing is certain. Military strength and finance are the two indicators that are most relevant to the winning rate of this shadow world. Even if the popular support and parliament items are raised very high, if the military strength is not enough or the finance is too low, the odds of winning must still be zero.

"Now time is Lanci's capital. Every day is almost a consumable for him. In addition to the necessary time spent stabilizing popular support and parliament, let's see how he chooses to allocate his time to improve the other three items."

"Lanci, as a magic craftsman from another era, is trying everything he can. Forty more days should be able to improve a little military strength, but unfortunately, he is not a seventh- or eighth-order magic craftsman, so it is difficult to make a significant improvement."

"In peacetime, Lanci can be inhuman and improve finance by sacrificing diplomacy, but in wartime, it is difficult to create productivity out of thin air, and diplomacy can no longer be lowered. Encouraging popular support can also slightly affect productivity, but there will be a limit after all."

"In terms of diplomacy, it mainly takes a long time. The above four indicator options are basically in units of days, but choosing the diplomatic route will take at least weeks, and once it fails, it is a pure waste of time, and then zero gains."

Deputy Dean Ron of the Sage Academy put away his pen and summarized the conclusions they had drawn in the past two days.

He glanced at Loren on the main seat of the conference room, and then at the silver-haired woman of the Goddess of Destiny Church beside him, the legendary saint of the Northern Continent, and said nothing more.

He knew that Dean Loren was already overwhelmed at the moment.

Since rushing back to the capital Iklit and then back to the emergency conference room of the Sage Academy, Loren hadn't said much.

This seventh-order shadow world is not only an internal meeting of the Sage Academy, but also professors from the Magic Craft Academy and the Alchemy Academy have come to discuss and analyze the situation in real time.

They need to provide feedback to the Southern Continent Kingdom United Assembly and the Shadow World Management Association. Once the shadow world falls into a runaway or out-of-control situation, causing unpredictable natural disasters, the Assembly and the Association will also take disaster relief measures at the first time.

Currently, according to their evaluation results, this shadow world is not an ordinary seventh-order shadow world, but a strategy type with extremely high difficulty.

"Loren..."

The Ice Witch sat next to Loren, gritting her teeth. She followed Loren to the conference room of Iklit Academy, as if to lower the temperature of the surrounding air.

She originally planned to come to Iklit slowly after arriving in the Southern Continent to see how Hyperion was doing, but she heard a bolt from the blue as soon as she arrived in Hutton Kingdom.

She almost strangled Loren's neck the first time she learned about the situation, demanding that Loren return her Hyperion.

Hyperion didn't turn on the live broadcast over there. She didn't seem to want to record the situation around her. Currently, she can only see Lanci's situation, and doesn't even know if Hyperion is still safe.

"..."

Now Loren was sweating profusely, sitting on pins and needles.

He didn't know how to survive these forty more days.

He originally hoped that Lanci would learn a lot of new skills after this half-year, and maybe there was a slight hope of passing the seventh-order shadow world, but when he saw Lanci's first day in this seventh-order shadow world, he felt even colder.

This shadow world is more biased towards strategy and mechanisms than combat. Even if he, Loren, was thrown in, he might not have much hope of clearing the level, because he could not rely on his own strength alone to fight against the entire Honin Empire.

He not only didn't know why Lanci suddenly came back and started doing big things again, but he also felt like he was going to start fighting against the whole world.

The Hutton dignitaries, His Majesty the King, the Southern Continent Kingdom United Assembly, and the Church are now all starting to ask him crazy questions!

(End of this chapter)