Only a dim desk lamp illuminated the left side of Lan Qi's face in the otherwise dark room.

He sat back in his office chair, brow furrowed, twirling an unlit cigar between his fingers as if to help him concentrate.

"Hyperion, where are you…"

Lan Qi murmured to himself.

The Shadow World's information hadn't given him any clues as to Hyperion's whereabouts. This world was too big; he felt utterly lost as to where to even begin looking.

This situation – Hyperion absent from the start, leaving him with only a cat – was a repeat performance.

To be honest, he didn't like this feeling.

He had felt incredibly lonely when he first landed in the Protoss Empire on the Northern Continent.

But back then, even though they had been separated at sea, they could at least deduce that the other was either in the Protoss Empire or the Aetherland Kingdom. The Great Poet was with Hyperion, so surely the two of them would be able to find each other somehow.

Now, in this story setting, they had been separated for over a decade, with absolutely no word from each other.

"Story setting…"

Something seemed to occur to Lan Qi. He suddenly looked up at the world map on the wall.

For the "Miss Witch" of this era, if she wanted to escape the pursuit of the Blood Clan…

The best option would be to flee back to the Demon Realm.

In the Infernal Corridor Academy, the first Shadow World in the Blood Moon Bad World series, Lan Qi had heard from the school authorities that the Blood Clan and the Demon Clan had a treaty called the *North-South Treaty*, also known as the "Blood Clan and Demon Clan Non-Interference Treaty."

In this chaotic world, the Blood Clan dominated the south, with the emperors of many human kingdoms serving as their slaves. The Demon Clan in the north was also weaker compared to the Blood Clan, merely relying on the icy terrain of the far north for isolation.

The Demon Clan had to remain neutral in any matters between the Blood Clan and humans – this was the basic condition for the Blood Clan not to attack the Demon Clan.

However, the Blood Clan had once suspected that the Demon Clan was secretly trying to break this balance.

The reason was that the Blood Clan had discovered humans disguised as demons, attempting to infiltrate the Demon Realm to steal demonic knowledge.

At first, the Demon Realm didn't believe it. It was usually demons who tried to disguise themselves as humans, but never the other way around.

Until later, a Blood Clan Duke seemed to have successfully extracted some key information through mind control magic from the family members of researchers at the Horning Empire's experimental site. He also learned that a few surviving members of the Horning Empire's secret forces were likely lurking in the Infernal Corridor Academy, and had been there for a long time. Thus, the crisis involving the Blood Clan's special investigator and the Infernal Corridor Academy began.

It was based on that background that Lan Qi's journey as a headmaster first started.

Lan Qi looked through the documents and letters on his desk, quickly gaining a clearer understanding of the current situation.

Apart from a conflict between the Demon Clan and the Blood Clan a few years ago, the Demon Realm still seemed to be a neutral country.

"Lan Qi, have you figured anything out?"

Boss Cat watched Lan Qi's expression worriedly. It knew that Lan Qi was thinking about Hyperion.

"If the ending of the Saintly Villain Dinner in the previous story was altered, then the Miss Witch who survived would most likely have returned to the Demon Realm. Hyperion probably fell into the Demon Realm at the very beginning of this Shadow World."

Lan Qi gradually felt like he had found some clues about Hyperion.

Even though it was just an inference based on the information he obtained in the first Shadow World, these three Shadow Worlds were connected. The Child of the Sun in the Saintly Villain Dinner should be the same as the Radiant Demon in the Infernal Corridor Academy. The opportunity for the Child of the Sun and the Miss Witch to meet was probably the Infernal Corridor Academy. After they went on an adventure together at the academy, the Child of the Sun took her, this half-demon classmate from the Infernal Corridor Academy, away with him when he left the academy.

Boss Cat was instantly relieved when it heard Lan Qi's words.

In any case, they finally had Hyperion's whereabouts. Lan Qi would finally be able to find the brakes.

And this time, they wouldn't meet Sigrid. Lan Qi wouldn't have the accelerator pedal.

Boss Cat had kept Hyperion's words firmly in mind this time: if she wasn't around, it had to keep an eye on him.

Although this opening felt a lot like the journey to the Northern Continent, surely this Shadow World wouldn't have Sid's part in it, right?

The more Boss Cat thought about it, the more relieved it felt.

"By the way, meow, you're the Prime Minister, so what am I, meow?"

As a Shadow World newbie, Boss Cat felt that everything around it was full of novelty.

"Obviously, you're the Prime Minister's contracted spirit."

Lan Qi hugged Boss Cat, stroking it as he said this.

Actually, it was a backpack.

"And in this era, a talking cat might be considered an ominous sign, a disguise of a powerful magical beast. If you want to come out most of the time, you should pretend to be an ordinary cat."

Lan Qi reminded it.

"Meow, meow."

Boss Cat nodded its head.

Seeing that Boss Cat had become obedient, Lan Qi looked at the calendar again and began to ponder.

The Shadow World of the Blood Moon Bad World seemed to be a continuous one.

It was just that because the ending of the last Shadow World was different from the true history, this third Shadow World had also deviated from the true history.

Lan Qi then looked at the very bottom of the Shadow World's prompt.

There was actually another indicator, related to the human side's chances of winning against the Blood Clan in Mission Objective 2, where you could see various indicators.

[Current Situation of the Polant Empire]

[Public Support: 132/1000 (Public support rate and cohesion)]

[Parliament: 419/1000 (Support rate among the upper echelons of the Polant Empire)]

[Military Strength: 124/1000 (Compared to the Horning Empire)]

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

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

[Overall Odds: 0.0000%]

[Note: Any item that falls below 100 will trigger irreversible consequences.]

"What kind of hell mode is this?"

Lan Qi was stunned after seeing these numbers.

He had originally thought it would be quite simple to increase the odds to 1% as required by Mission Objective 2.

Now it seemed that it would be very difficult to even move the fourth digit after the decimal point. The Polant Empire was no match for the Horning Empire at all.

At this moment, a knock came.

"Come in."

Lan Qi stopped his thoughts and looked towards the door.

He knew that his busy work as the new Prime Minister was about to begin.

The door slowly opened, and his secretary walked in with a few urgent communication letters.

"The Horning Empire has started attacking the northern border of the Kingdom of Bliss tonight."

The secretary said with undisguised anxiety.

After reading the letters, the expression on Lan Qi's face became even more solemn.

Once the neighboring Kingdom of Bliss fell, the next one might be their Polant Empire.

He lightly pressed the desk and stood up, beginning to instruct the secretary on his upcoming agenda.

At this moment, Lan Qi had fully entered the role, displaying his decisiveness as a leader.