Chapter 1 The Theater After the Show

The theater lights dimmed after the performance, slowly retracting from the stage, leaving only residual halos swirling, mysterious, and intoxicatingly chaotic.

Lanchi pondered for a moment and decided to take the opportunity to ask the Head of the Music Department for more information.

However, Lanchi couldn't interrogate him like he did Batchelor, directly asking, "Is there something wrong with the school?"

He didn't want to arouse the Head's suspicion rashly.

So, he chose a reasonable way to ask:

"By the way, Head, when will the Principal be back?"

"Hard to say. After a high-level meeting at the school a few days ago, the Principal went to the Demon Realm Education Department. But don't worry, the school can operate normally. Except for matters that must be signed and sealed by the Principal, the Vice-Principal can handle everything," the Head replied, shaking his head.

"A high-level meeting? Is something going to happen to the school?"

Lanchi muttered, seemingly not trying to pry, just purely curious.

"Every time they have this kind of high-level meeting, involving only the Principal, Vice-Principal, and a few senior professors, there's definitely trouble brewing. But don't think about it. It's none of our business. And don't worry too much. This is a famous school with many powerful *Da Mozu* (Great Demon) alumni. As long as we follow the rules, even the Education Department wouldn't dare to mess around."

In the Demon Realm, those who could be called *Da Mozu* were powerful figures, at least Eighth Order or higher, each holding a significant position in the Demon Realm.

The Head couldn't say for sure whether this Radiant Demon before him might one day grow into a *Da Mozu* with a unique title.

"Oh, oh," Lanchi replied, nodding quickly.

Lanchi felt that the "danger tonight" mentioned in Task Objective 2 was likely related to the content of this high-level meeting.

However, to get more crucial clues, he probably had to go to the classrooms with higher-level teachers, Difficulty 3.

Moreover, relying on just Lanchi and Hyperion's small team was probably not enough. He needed to exchange and share information with the other four challengers to uncover the truth of the difficult Task Objective 2, which was the difficulty of this Fourth Order Shadow World.

Of course, Lanchi now seemed to have unexpectedly found another path to victory—

If he could get into the school's upper echelons, he might be able to skip all the troublesome decryption steps.

Unfortunately, he only had ten hours left in this academy.

Taking the unconventional path of promotion would be a bit difficult.

...

Lanchi spoke with the Head of the Music Department for a while, then turned to look at Hyperion in the audience.

"Hyperion, it's your turn to perform!"

Lanchi waved his hand, inviting Hyperion to step into this music sanctum and begin her performance.

"Coming," Hyperion said in a low voice.

She slowly stood up from her seat, straightened her shoulders, and resolutely strode through the musical hell created by Lanchi.

Although the music in the classroom was still terrifying, constantly assaulting her eardrums and tearing at her nerves, Hyperion felt that she had found some kind of balance in this endless pain.

She was even surprised to find that she seemed to have developed some resistance to musical magic in this classroom, thanks to Lanchi's training!

On stage, the Head of the Music Department began to oversee the performance assessment again.

He didn't want to mess around with Lanchi anymore. He just wanted to send him away as soon as possible.

However, this time, due to the drastic change in the overall situation in the classroom, and the fact that there were now five music instructors, he needed to explain the new changes to Hyperion, who was still able to perform.

The entire classroom had now entered an automated loop mode.

The slumbering demon spirits, constantly alternating between fainting and waking up, would approve whatever the students performed because they were guaranteed to fall asleep during the performance.

And Lanchi, as a music instructor, had already stated to the Head of the Music Department that his musical philosophy was one of great love and tolerance, and that he would respect any form of art.

In other words, as long as the students could make a sound on stage, Lanchi would approve it.

So now there were at least two music instructors giving their approval.

And so, a new phase began.

Hyperion stepped onto the stage shrouded in the hellish screams of the audience.

She stood there, enduring the endless pressure from the audience, gritted her teeth, and sang a song.

"You sing so well! It's simply heavenly!"

After a round of hypocritical praise from Lanchi, Hyperion successfully passed the assessment.

"?!"

Hyperion didn't know how Lanchi could say such things against his conscience.

With a deadpan expression, she returned to the audience, dragged Batchelor onto the stage, and let him howl incoherently on stage like someone having an epileptic fit for two minutes.

"Perfect! Simply perfect!"

With the praise of Lanchi, the only sober judge, Batchelor was also considered to have passed.

Batchelor himself didn't know how he had passed.

...

The long final ten minutes passed.

This Demon King-bestowed theater, shrouded in hellish music, finally finished its first class.

The ancient bell, symbolizing the arrival of intermission, rang, seeming to penetrate the architectural walls of the entire Purgatory Corridor Academy, echoing in the empty corridors and every classroom.

This was the first thirty-minute break.

Uniquely, the wide corridor was empty after class, without a single student in sight.

After a while, three students finally emerged from behind the gate.

Only three students survived the G24 corridor classroom, "Demon King-Bestowed Theater."

One of them was being dragged out like a corpse.

...

At the same time, in the F13 corridor,

[Time Remaining: 9 hours 59 minutes]

[Task Objective 1: Academy Exploration Exceeds 60%. Current Progress: 10%]

[...]

A young man frowned at the 10% progress.

"Logically speaking, a classroom with one mark on the door should increase it by 1%, and we also increased it by 1% the moment we cleared it."

"Which means we contributed 2% to the exploration."

"Why is it only 10% now?"

He muttered to himself, completely puzzled.

Could it be that the other two teams contributed 4% each, and only they couldn't?

Or... did a single team directly contribute 6%...?

"Brother, could it be that someone powerful has been matched with us?"

The girl beside him, as if praying and repenting, finally raised her eyes and said to him.

"..."

The young man pursed his lips and shook his head.

"This kind of absurd, evil theme is the most dangerous type to put in a Fourth Order Shadow World. Normal humans simply can't adapt to the ethics and rules of this ancient Demon Realm... Even among Gold-level challengers, there are almost no people who specialize in Demon Shadow Worlds."

And the two of them, as Silver-level challengers from the Holy Church Research Society, found it even more difficult to associate with demons - disguising themselves as demons and imitating their behavior was torture to their entire being.

Listening to this, the girl took a deep breath, seeming to feel afraid.

"Could it be... that there is a real demon mixed in with the challengers?"