Chapter 1 When the Light Returned

When Lan Qi felt the surroundings brighten again, his vision gradually focused.

He found himself sitting in the back row of a classroom as vast as a theater.

In the dim space, the only light source was the faint glow from a few oil lamps hanging on the walls, a dim, almost tangible golden yellow.

They flickered constantly, like the pulse of life, ensuring a certain degree of visibility while adding a touch of mysterious drama to the place. In the dim, yellowish light, the shadows of the desks and chairs were distorted and elongated, rustling in the silence with some swaying dark figures.

Although what Lan Qi could see at this moment did indeed resemble a classroom—long tables covered with red tablecloths were neatly arranged, a brand-new black and gold blackboard stood on the stage at the far end of the classroom, and the frames and carvings of the windows appeared simple and elegant.

However, this space, estimated to be about three hundred square meters, should have given a sense of spaciousness, but for some reason, it was completely absent, replaced by a rich, bloody smell and an indescribable sense of eeriness.

For a moment, Lan Qi even suspected that he had come to the underworld.

His gaze moved down, and he saw only a rough and ancient parchment on the red tablecloth, next to which sat an ink bottle and a quill pen.

The surface of the parchment was imprinted with mysterious characters different from human languages, but after the shadow world's own translation technique, Lan Qi roughly determined that this was a demon language magic exam paper with test questions.

Why is it still school?

Lan Qi was incredibly shocked.

He thought he had finally escaped from school, but he didn't expect to have just escaped to another school!

What's worse.

Originally, he was just attending classes at the Yikelite Academy, but now that he came to this demon school, it seemed like he was going to start taking exams directly!

With the feeling of going to a grave, Lan Qi raised his head slightly and scanned around, only to feel a sudden sense of alienation surge in the air.

The students in this classroom looked different from each other, each one stranger than the last.

Each of them had an indescribable characteristic, most of them had sharp horns, and their skin was covered with strange纹路 and exoskeletons, and some even had slender black tails.

In the aisle of the classroom, two guys who looked like examiners were wandering in an orderly manner, wearing classical clothes similar to suits, neat and deep.

But surrounded by the smell of blood and evil, they looked particularly eerie and terrifying.

It looked very ominous.

Compared to the artificial shadow worlds he had experienced before, [Winter Hidden Flame] and [Infinite Phantom Canyon], which seemed to have milder themes, this real shadow world was obviously not in the same league!

Soon, the relevant information of the shadow world also appeared in Lan Qi's vision.

This was a hint that only shadow world challengers could see—

[Shadow World: Purgatory Corridor Academy]

[Level: Fourth Order]

[The number of challengers is 6]

[Historical background: This was once the darkest era for mankind. Humans could only own the daytime. The nights were all servants of the blood clan. However, there were also some people who did not hesitate to shatter their dignity for the sake of the dignity of the human race. If you want to regain the South shrouded in the blood moon, only by obtaining the power of the demons can you create miracles. So, a crazy plan was born—a group of humans disguised themselves as demons through forbidden surgery in the Imperial Experimental Field, crossed the extremely cold and dangerous northern border into the Demon Realm, and tried to integrate into the Demon society and learn the magic of the demons...]

[Mission Overview: You are lurking in a Demon Realm academy that is too absurd for human civilization to investigate intelligence, and tonight will be the most dangerous night. You need to try to survive it safely.]

[Time Remaining: 11 hours 59 minutes]

[Mission Objective 1: The exploration of the academy exceeds 60%, the current progress is 3%]

[Mission Objective 2: Investigate the source of the danger tonight]

[Mission Objective 3: At least 1 person survives until the end of the time limit, currently 6/6]

[Challengers Lan Qi & Hyperion's starting location is the examination scene. The examination time is 2 hours. Subject: Demon Magic Language]

[Any form of cheating during the exam, once discovered by the invigilator, the invigilator will have the right to obliterate the examinee]

[If the score is judged to be lower than 50 at the end of the exam, it will be unqualified, and the invigilator will immediately execute the obliteration]

[You can hand in the paper early. If you have any needs, you can raise your hand to seek help from the invigilator]

[Time Remaining for the Exam: 1 hour 59 minutes]

As Lan Qi's thoughts converged, these information panels, similar to the artificial shadow world, could be hidden or displayed again.

It was just that after he understood the content of his first real shadow world, he frowned tightly.

Fourth order, what the hell?

Lan Qi didn't comment on the nightmare scene of "exam" at the beginning.

He was a second order, Hyperion was a third order, as long as the shadow world had learned math, it shouldn't match the two of them into a fourth order shadow world?

However, Lan Qi was more concerned that if according to the shadow world's prompt information, he should be temporarily disguised as a demon by the shadow world's mechanism at this moment.

Would it damage his image?

Lan Qi looked down at himself. Apart from wearing the dark black uniform of this Purgatory Corridor Academy, his joints seemed to have exoskeleton like white jade crystals, with a faint glow.

Touching his head again, he indeed had two more horns. Judging from the faint light and shadow reflected from the ink bottle, his black hair and green eyes had not changed, and the horns and纹路 on his face were pure white.

…

At the same time, inside the campus of Yikelite.

The academy at five o'clock in the afternoon was immersed in a deep tranquility. At this moment, the setting sun had begun to slowly sink below the horizon in the west, spreading its last golden red on every corner of the campus.

In the Jera Memorial Square not far from the entrance of the academy, a group of passing students had begun to enjoy their after-school time, discussing their dinner choices. There were also many students sitting on the steps of the square, watching the campus news broadcast projected on the open-air giant screen in the center of the square.

Often, the open-air giant screen would broadcast the actual situation of the shadow world that the students in the current academy were challenging.

Because the shadow world is a projection of a period of history, the actual situation of the shadow world challenge is often no less than a wonderful and unique movie.

Students often watch the real-time clips of the shadow world here.

It is both a way to entertain and enjoy life, and a learning process.

Of course, there were also many students sitting on the steps in front of the giant screen, just leisurely discussing the courses that had just ended with their friends, or quietly reading books, immersed in their own world.

"Huh? There's a new fourth-order shadow world?"

"It's actually a rare demon history shadow world..."

On the steps, a student suddenly said to himself.

This made many students look up and look at the screen at this moment.

Because there were not many students who challenged the shadow world on the first day of school, it was easy to know when a new challenge was opened.

Moreover, it was a dark-toned picture with extremely distinct theme characteristics.

"Wait, aren't these two freshmen?"

Soon, some students noticed the [Challenger Information] column below the live broadcast of the shadow world and exclaimed!!