Hutton Walking Plaza was becoming increasingly bright with the morning sun, gradually bustling with activity. The glass windows of large department stores, with their meticulously designed displays, attracted the eyes of passersby, filling this Saturday morning with a lively atmosphere.

On the second floor of the Card Creator Association, the giant magical screen, seamlessly integrated into the glass curtain wall, had switched from the association's rotating advertisements to a pre-broadcast preview of the Registered Card Creator Exam that would soon begin.

On the walking plaza, families with laughing and energetic children, couples smiling at each other enjoying this leisurely weekend, and many customers occupied the outdoor seating areas of cafes and restaurants.

At this moment, people were gradually beginning to look up, shifting their gaze from the busy street scene to the association's giant glass screen.

Fifth floor of the Card Creator Association.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could see the open scenery of the plaza below.

Lanqi and Hyperion chatted leisurely.

According to the signs, walking towards the atrium would lead directly to the Registered Card Creator Exam area.

"I feel like I'm in great shape today!"

Lanqi looked at the time, and as it was almost time to enter the examination hall to wait, he said goodbye to Hyperion for the time being.

Having just done a good deed to accumulate merit, Lanqi felt exceptionally cheerful, and even gained a bit more confidence in creating cards.

"...Lanqi, good luck."

Although Hyperion felt that Lanqi's fiery state was definitely not good news for Sophia, she would wholeheartedly wish Lanqi well.

Hyperion couldn't really say whether Lanqi would exert his full power in creating cards today, even if it was just for fun.

Oh well, she was used to it.

Hyperion's mood was very complicated.

She both hoped that Lanqi could pass and get a good ranking score, and worried that Lanqi would perform too well, causing Sophia to be unable to bear it later.

But it shouldn't be a big problem.

Hyperion had also learned about the Registered Card Creator Exam process.

Generally speaking, wanting to directly skip the first level, Iron-rank, and be ranked at the second level, Bronze-rank, was already very difficult.

Examinees have a total of five card creation opportunities, of which at least three must be successful to pass, and they must meet the requirements of three different categories: Spell Card, Equipment Card, and Summoning Card.

This is also why the Registered Card Creator Exam is difficult to pass by luck.

And on the basis of passing, the association will score the made magic cards.

The total score of all finished cards is the result.

To reach the initial Bronze-rank advancement score, if the three finished cards are all blue, Precious quality, the sum will be just right.

Those with this kind of skill already have the strength of a Bronze-rank Card Creator.

Going up to Silver-rank is even more difficult than ascending to heaven.

Hyperion had talked with Lanqi a long time ago and knew that his card creation skill had a high upper limit and a low lower limit. What he lacked most was stability in quality, and he could only ensure the success rate when making sealing-type cards.

As for the [Great Poet of Love] Epic card, it was a masterpiece of his teacher, and he himself had never made a pink, Divine quality card.

So Hyperion felt that if Lanqi could perform normally today and make one purple and two white cards, reaching Bronze-rank would already be quite good.

"Then Lanqi, I should be waiting for you on the third floor later."

Hyperion waved to Lanqi, signaling him to enter the examination hall quickly.

She was going to check the situation on the third floor. If Aenor and Sophia were getting along well, she would stay with them, watching the Registered Card Creator Exam through the magical screen on that floor.

"Okay, I'll go find you after the exam."

Lanqi nodded, then turned and walked towards the examination area.

...

More than ten minutes later.

The spacious atrium hall of the Registered Card Creator Exam.

Natural light streamed into the room through the large rose window design in the dome.

At this time, Lanqi had passed the qualification confirmation and was sitting quietly in the waiting area, waiting for the exam to begin.

Along the walls of the hall stood several giant magical devices, like a group of silent giants, with faint lights shining on them, reflecting mysterious and magnificent rays of light.

These huge magical engineering components were connected in a winding manner, and the cold colors of mithril and magic crystals gave a shocking visual impact.

Many out-of-town Card Creator examinees who were seeing this kind of large-scale magical machinery for the first time in the waiting area couldn't help but be amazed by one of the greatest masterpieces of magical engineering.

However, Lanqi was already used to it.

The "Artificial Shadow World Activation Terminal" was used during the entrance exam at the Yggdrasil Academy.

In recent years, the Registered Card Creator Exam has been improved from a normal examination hall exam to an artificial shadow world exam.

After the exam begins, examinees will carry a set of [Portable Card Creation Tools] magic cards and enter a harmless, single-person, first-order artificial shadow world.

The separated single-person shadow world can ensure that examinees are not affected by any external factors when creating cards, and do not interfere with each other. At the same time, the association can also record and evaluate the examination process extremely conveniently.

The entire process of the exam will not only be transmitted to the headquarters of the Card Creator Association, but will also be broadcast on a small scale on the giant screen on the outer wall of the Yggdrasil Card Creator Association and on the magical screens on each floor.

Generally, after the card creation exam begins, guests who come to the Card Creator Association to handle affairs or conduct transactions will take a look at the exam as a pastime.

A few citizens on Hutton Walking Plaza will also find a resting place such as a landscaped flower box seat or the stone steps on the edge of a tree altar to sit down and watch.

So this has led to many examinees who are participating for the first time, or even have failed several times, being quite nervous.

Compared to the anxious Card Creators around him, Lanqi appeared particularly calm.

His steady temperament made it seem like he wasn't here to create cards at all, but to invigilate the exam.

Having participated in two artificial shadow world exams and one real shadow world, he had no waves in his heart.

Since returning from that dreamlike demon world academy last time, Lanqi felt that his heart had been taken away by the demon world, and he might never have joy or sorrow in this life.

Lanqi waited with a calm mind.

From an unknown time, steady footsteps entered the ears of the examinees in the hall.

This feeling of the examiner entering naturally silenced the exam hall, which was originally slightly noisy.

Lanqi looked towards the direction where the examinees' gazes converged.

A figure walked in from the side of the entrance of the hall, wearing a dark suit, with the accessories of a Registered Card Creator and a senior examiner of the Card Creator Association on the outer pocket and collar.

It was a middle-aged man in his forties, dressed neatly, but with a hint of sleepiness in the corners of his eyes.

He walked quickly to the front of the waiting area and looked at the group of examinees.

There were many young people in the waiting area. These young Card Creators were almost all students from Yggdrasil Academy or from schools in other cities, such as the Holy Church Research Society and the Holy Craftsmen Academy, who came to participate in this registration exam.

Although the Kingdom of Hutton also has other large cities that can provide Registered Card Creator Exams, the number of test seats is small and the cycles are different. Sometimes, in order to catch up with the exam as soon as possible, many examinees will take the magic-powered rail train to the royal capital Yggdrasil to participate.

Most of the teachers and students of Yggdrasil Academy don't care about this kind of Registered Card Creator Exam. Often, only the Magic Engineering Institute cares about it.

If a student performs particularly well on the Registered Card Creator Exam, the association will notify Professor Polao, the dean of the Magic Engineering Institute of Yggdrasil Academy, of the good news.

On each Registered Card Creator Exam day, when there are promising new students from the Magic Engineering Institute participating, the professors of the Magic Engineering Institute will look forward to the good news.

However, it seems that there are no potential freshmen from the Magic Engineering Institute participating today, so the professors of the Magic Engineering Institute probably didn't pay much attention to this exam.

The middle-aged man thought casually, and then said:

"I am Laurence, the chief examiner today."

Even if the middle-aged man didn't need to introduce himself, his Gold-rank Card Creator status was enough to represent his authority.

"Each of you will enter a single, harmless shadow world, and can freely choose the environment. The exam time is a maximum of 5 hours. After the exam starts, you will have 30 minutes of preparation time to read the specific exam rules and purchase card creation materials."

"The exam will officially begin at nine o'clock and end at two thirty in the afternoon. In addition, if you are hungry during the exam, you can also purchase lunch in the artificial shadow world."

After Laurence briefly introduced the process, he embedded a key with a white, flawed luster into the "Artificial Shadow World Activation Terminal."

Immediately afterwards, the space in front of the magic device seemed to begin to distort, and the color gradually changed from transparent to dark, until finally it completely appeared, and an artificially created gate of void appeared.

Other Card Creator Association staff began to guide the examinees into the artificial shadow world.

At the same time.

On the glass curtain wall of the entire Yggdrasil Card Creator Association branch, the screen finally switched to the Registered Card Creator Exam!

(End of this chapter)