Chapter 演出落幕The Curtain Falls

The theater lights dimmed after the performance, the stage lights slowly retracting, leaving only lingering halos swirling on the stage, a mysterious, noisy trance.

Lanchi pondered for a moment, then decided to take the opportunity to ask the head of the music department for more information.

However, Lanchi couldn't interrogate Bachelor like that, directly asking the head of the music department, "Is there anything going on at the school?"

He didn't want to arouse the music department head's suspicion rashly.

So, he chose a reasonable question:

"Speaking of which, when will the principal be back, Director?"

"Hard to say. After a high-level meeting at the school a few days ago, the principal went to the Demon World Education Department. But don't worry, the school can operate normally. Except for things that must be signed and sealed by the principal, the vice-principal can handle everything."

The director shook his head and replied.

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

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

"Every time there's a high-level meeting involving only the principal, vice-principal, and a few senior professors, there's definitely some trouble. But don't think about it, it's beyond our control. And don't worry too much, this is a prestigious school with many archdemon alumni. As long as we follow the rules, even the Education Department won't dare to mess around."

In the Demon World, those who can be called archdemons are powerful individuals at least at the eighth rank or higher, each with a significant position in the Demon World.

The director wasn't sure if the radiant demon before him might one day grow into an archdemon with a unique title.

"Oh, oh."

Lanchi nodded quickly.

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

However.

To obtain more crucial clues.

He probably had to get them from classrooms with more advanced teachers, with a difficulty of 3.

Moreover, Lanchi and Hyperion's small team was probably not enough. They would need to exchange and share information with the other four challengers to uncover the truth of the difficult task, Task Objective 2, which was the difficulty of this fourth-tier Shadow World.

Of course, another strategy path seemed to have unexpectedly appeared before Lanchi's eyes—

If he could get into the school's upper echelons.

Maybe he could skip all the troublesome decryption steps directly.

Unfortunately.

He only had 10 hours left in this academy.

It would be a bit difficult to take the unconventional promotion route.

……

Lanchi chatted with the head of the music department for a while, then he looked back at Hyperion in the audience.

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

Lanchi waved his hand, inviting Hyperion to enter this music sanctuary and begin her performance.

"Coming."

Hyperion lowered her voice.

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

Although the music in the classroom was still so terrifying, constantly impacting her eardrums and tearing at her nerves.

But 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 under Lanchi's training!

And on the stage, the head of the music department began to host the performance assessment again.

He didn't want to bother with Lanchi anymore, he just wanted to send Lanchi away as soon as possible.

However, this time, due to the drastic changes in the overall situation in the classroom and the change of music instructors to five, he needed to explain the new changes to Hyperion, who could still participate in the performance.

Now the entire classroom had fallen into an automated loop mode.

The sleeping magic spirits, constantly alternating between fainting and waking, would consider anything the students performed as approved, because he would definitely fall asleep during the performance.

And Lanchi, as a music instructor, had already stated to the head of the music department that his proclaimed musical philosophy was one of great love and inclusiveness, 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.

So now there were at least two music instructors' approvals guaranteed.

Thus.

A new stage began.

Hyperion stepped onto the stage shrouded in the audience's hellish screams.

Standing there, bearing the endless pressure from the audience, she gritted her teeth and sang a song.

"You sing so well, it's heavenly!"

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

"?!"

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

Wearing a deadpan expression, she returned to the audience again, dragged Bachelor onto the stage, and let Bachelor howl on the stage like an epileptic for two minutes.

"Perfect! It can only be described as perfect!"

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

Bachelor himself didn't know how he had passed.

……

The long last ten minutes passed.

This Demon King-bestowed Theater shrouded in hellish music finally ended its first class.

The sound of the ancient bell, symbolizing the arrival of recess, rang, as if it could penetrate the 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 just after class, with no students in sight.

After a while, three students finally came out from behind the door.

Only three students survived from the classroom on the G24 corridor, the Demon King-bestowed Theater.

One of them was dragged out like a corpse.

……

At the same time, on the F13 corridor.

[Time Remaining: 9 hours 59 minutes]

[Task Objective 1: Academy Exploration exceeds 60%, current progress 10%]

[...]

A young man frowned as he looked at the 10% progress.

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

"That means we contributed 2% of the exploration progress."

"Why is it at 10% now?"

He muttered to himself, completely puzzled.

Did the other two teams contribute 4%, and only they couldn't?

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

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

The girl beside him, as if in prayer and repentance, 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 in the fourth-tier Shadow World. Normal humans simply cannot adapt to the ethics and rules of this ancient demon world... Even among gold-ranked challengers, there are almost no people who specialize in demon Shadow Worlds."

And they, as silver-ranked challengers from the Holy Religion Research Association, found it even more difficult to associate with demons—pretending to be demons and imitating their actions was torture to their whole being.

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

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