Chapter 28 - Dekan Announces School-Wide Vacation

Dekan once again checked the current progress of their exploration.

[Mission Objective 1: Explore over 50% of the academy, current progress 26.4%]

[Time remaining: 6 hours 22 minutes]

About 7% of the exploration progress was contributed by him and Cornelia.

If their teammates could continue working smoothly, it would probably be no problem to reach the goal one or two hours ahead of schedule.

However, it was now uncertain how much time would be left.

They had to consider whether their other teammates would fail their disguises again.

If this continued, their pool party might be canceled.

"Well, let's continue working and hope to gather some information about the boss room."

Life wasn't easy, Dekan sighed.

If they chose not to clear the boss room, they would miss out on the high exploration points offered by it. In this case, to complete Mission Objective 1 (map exploration), they would need to clear more regular rooms than usual to compensate for the exploration points from the boss room.

But if they cleared the boss room, Dekan and Cornelia might not have to waste as much time slowly clearing a large number of regular rooms.

"While this exploration-type Shadow World is quite heartwarming and soothing, the wild performance of our teammates is difficult to predict..."

Dekan lamented.

It wouldn’t be as difficult if they were in a plot-based or escape-type Shadow World. The varying skills of other challengers wouldn't directly increase Dekan's workload to such an extent.

"Having me work overtime, you might as well match us with a combat-type Shadow World..."

The most straightforward Shadow World was the combat type.

Instead of fighting PVE, they fought PVP.

Eliminate all opposing challengers, and it's done.

However, this type of Shadow World appeared less frequently, and the death rate was extremely high.

There might even be people with incredibly powerful magic cards obtained from other Shadow Worlds as hostile challengers.

...

Dekan and Cornelia left the broadcasting room, sealed the door, and prepared to continue their work.

"Dekan, do you hear that? Is there something going on?"

Cornelia suddenly stared in a certain direction.

"...Let's go check it out. But let's declare a school-wide vacation first."

Dekan trusted Cornelia's perception.

Her hearing and vision were much better than Dekan's.

It was currently class time, so if there was any commotion in the hallway, it was highly likely related to other challengers.

Demon students had no tasks to do during class time and generally didn't wander the hallways unless they were expelled from their classrooms. It was very likely that other challengers were evading the principal or even being chased by the principal.

If that was the case, they could simply deactivate the principal.

...

In a spacious hallway, a severely injured challenger was being pursued by the principal.

He could only slightly delay the principal's approach by using control-type spell cards and summoning creatures.

He walked unsteadily, swaying as he went.

It seemed he had reached a desperate situation.

Originally, he had failed the challenge in the classroom, triggered the teacher's killing mechanism, and narrowly escaped. Unfortunately, he encountered the principal in the hallway.

Even if he managed to escape into a classroom, given his current condition, he would struggle to deal with the teacher's questions.

He had to find the infirmary as soon as possible.

Though he hadn't given up hope of survival, his speed was getting slower and slower.

The principal had completely eliminated his summoned creatures, and in a few seconds, he would be right behind him.

He knew his fate was sealed from the moment he encountered the principal in the hallway.

No matter how he tried to evade, it was futile.

In the end, he couldn't escape the fate of being pierced through the chest by the principal's bloodthirsty hand.

Everything was over, he thought.

Just as he closed his eyes, preparing to embrace death...

Music signaling the end of a class period began playing in the school!

The principal: "?"

The principal's hand froze in mid-air, wearing a very strange expression.

Something didn't seem right. Was the class period too short? And right as he was about to kill this truant, the bell rang?

But he couldn't do anything now.

According to the rules, it was now the end of the class period, and he couldn't attack students anymore.

The challenger was even more bewildered.

He could see the mission interface timer!

Clearly, it wasn't the end of class period yet.

How did the dismissal bell ring?!

This was no longer something that could be explained by luck; it was simply a miracle!

At this moment, two figures walked out of the end of the hallway.

Their steps were steady, neither fast nor slow.

They didn't look like students at all; they seemed more like leaders on an inspection.

They walked past as if they hadn't seen the principal and approached the challenger.

"My friend, you're safe now!"

Dekan said with a smile.

He remembered the challenger's face; he had seen him in the examination room.

The challenger hesitated for a moment and glanced back at the principal.

It seemed the principal was still in a sort of frozen state.

After confirming that the principal truly wouldn't attack him anymore, the challenger hurriedly staggered toward Dekan.

"Is this...your doing? The principal current behavior?"

The challenger recognized Dekan and Cornelia.

It was these two who had broken through the examination room.

When he saw the strange mission counter "Rescued Humans 101/3," his first thought was these two.

These two must be veterans; high-level challengers!

In any case, he was saved!

"Who knows?"

Dekan just smiled and then asked, "Are you heading to the infirmary?"

The challenger replied, "...Yes."

"Then let's go."

Dekan took out a small bottle of medicine obtained from the infirmary and handed it to him.

Then he helped the challenger to his feet.

The potion can only alleviate his injuries; he still needs to go to the infirmary for proper treatment.

If he could save someone along the way, Dekan would definitely lend a helping hand.

After all, he's a kind-hearted young man.

"Thank you for your help!" the challenger expressed his gratitude and quickly drank the potion, visibly looking better.

"Have you been to the infirmary?" the challenger immediately asked.

Dekan replied, "Yes, we have. Five-star review."

There were still some normal medical resources in the infirmary, but the demon school doctor had a twisted sense of humor and usually didn't provide proper treatment to patients.

Even after Baron Bacher's destruction, there were still some remaining resources they could use.

The three of them continued walking down the hallway.

Dekan inquired of the challenger, "How did you get so severely injured?"

"My partner and I failed challenging a tier 4 classroom. When we were confronted by the teacher, my partner created an opportunity for me to escape... but he... should have sacrificed himself in the music classroom... that damned place! It's like hell!"

The challenger's expression gradually turned sorrowful and resentful, tears glistening in his eyes.

Dekan nodded, understanding why "Mission Objective 3" had previously displayed "Current number of humans still in disguise: 5/6."

Their disguises were all quite convincing.

If they hadn't encountered demons with special means, they probably wouldn't have been discovered as humans until they were killed and turned into corpses.

However, when the challenger mentioned the "hellish classroom," Dekan couldn't help but become curious.

Was there a place in this school truly deserving of being called hell?