Inside the spacious and classical examination hall.
The dragon demon drew out a handkerchief and wiped his hands with practiced elegance, a deeply satisfied expression on his face, as if this slaughter were his greatest pleasure. With renewed anticipation, he returned to patrolling the room.
"Very good."
Having resumed his regular patrol route, the dragon demon offered Lanqi a nod of approval as he passed by.
"Maintaining order in the exam hall is my undeniable duty," Lanqi replied with a nod, radiating the earnest diligence of a model class representative.
What followed left Hyperion completely numb and utterly bewildered.
Not only did Lanqi refrain from stopping—
He threw himself into a reporting frenzy!
It was as if he were intimately familiar with every cheating technique in existence, anticipating them with uncanny accuracy and catching the cheating demon students dead to rights every single time!
While the two proctors had their blind spots, with Lanqi sitting in the back row watching the room, those blind spots shrank drastically.
And so, within the entire classroom...
There were now three proctors.
Lanqi wasn't even writing on his own exam paper anymore. He did nothing else, focusing entirely on proctoring the room.
The looks of suppressed resentment the other demon students shot at Lanqi were so venomous they seemed ready to curse him and every maternal ancestor he had into oblivion!
***
At the clock tower of Ikerite Academy, the hands pointed to five o'clock. On Jera Memorial Square, surrounded by distant academic buildings, the giant outdoor screen was broadcasting the day's campus news alongside active Shadow World challenges.
The massive magical screen stood at the center of the square. Usually, it was only after dusk fell—bringing with it the cozy atmosphere of an open-air night cinema—that students would gather with drinks and snacks, sitting on the steps across the way to watch and chat.
At this hour, the crowd on the square was sparse.
Most people on the surrounding walkways were passersby, either strolling leisurely or heading off to dinner. A few glanced up at the giant outdoor screen before continuing on their way.
The evening sun cast a brilliant glare across the windows of the nearby buildings, illuminating the square, the giant screen, and the stone steps, bathing everything in a vibrant golden glow.
Yet unlike ordinary days, the students gathered on the square were noticeably more agitated than usual, their noisy chatter completely devoid of the usual afternoon leisure!
"What on earth is that kid doing?!"
"Just because the other demons won't let him copy their work, he won't let any of them live either?"
"Has he lost his mind?!"
Students witnessing Lanqi's baffling conduct began to shout.
While this scorched-earth approach might feel satisfying in a petty sort of way, it meant he wouldn't be able to copy any answers either!
"That's newcomers for you. Completely clueless about the mechanics."
Many upperclassmen shook their heads with pained expressions, sighing in dismay.
Far too arrogant, far too foolish, and burdened with far too much bad luck.
The gravity of the situation was no longer merely that two first-year freshmen had run off to challenge a Shadow World on their very first day of school.
The real issue was why they had been dragged into a Tier 4 Shadow World.
A Tier 4 Shadow World was definitely not a realm freshmen should ever set foot in. Often, even Silver-rank challengers felt immense pressure dealing with one.
What was worse, the one shown on screen was an exceptionally perilous Shadow World!
The starting location was already steeped in lethal danger, forcing them into a fight for survival before they had any time to adjust or devise a plan.
"An incident has occurred. The faculty at the School of Sages must have already called an emergency meeting."
Before the giant outdoor screen on Jera Memorial Square, the crowd of onlookers grew larger by the second.
A flurry of discussions broke out.
"Isn't that the guy named Lanqi Wilfort?" one student remarked, pausing in his tracks and frowning at the screen.
"Who? Is he famous?"
"He was the dark horse who suddenly took first place in this year's School of Sages entrance exam. His actual strength is still a mystery, though—Dean Loren personally sealed the records of his third round."
"All anyone knows is that for a magic combat class, his mana is ridiculously weak."
"A lot of teams were still debating whether to recruit him. Looks like they don't need to bother anymore. He'll be lucky just to come back alive."
"Don't be so sure. If he actually manages to survive this, he'll be an overnight sensation."
Once a crowd started forming, it tended to swell like rising dough.
Within just a few minutes, the steps facing the outdoor screen were nearly packed with students who had just finished classes across Ikerite Academy.
"Those two jinxes wound up together again."
"My, look at Hyperion's true colors—how wicked, how filthy... Heh, I wonder what that naive boy will think once he learns the truth."
A few passing nobles sneered as they chatted, wandering off without a second glance, completely indifferent to whether the pair lived or died.
***
Inside the Shadow World, Purgatory Corridor Academy.
A thick stench of blood had already permeated the ornate classroom. The elegant, subdued atmosphere from before had been shattered, replaced by a frenzied aura of slaughter.
Dark red stains marred many of the desks and chairs, standing out starkly against the dark wood. The entire room had sunk into an eerie silence, broken only by the steady drip of blood onto the floorboards and the slow, echoing footsteps of the proctors.
The two demon teachers patrolling the aisles were spattered with blood, each step leaving a grotesque red footprint on the floor.
A patch of the dragon-horned demon's suit was soaked crimson. His eyes gleamed with cruelty and satisfaction. Meanwhile, the owl demon quietly wiped the blood from his hands, his dark gaze unreadable and devoid of emotion.
In just a few short minutes...
The classroom had transformed from an examination hall into a gory feast of slaughter, laden with an unspeakable absurdity.
Yet even with Lanqi acting like neither demon nor human and essentially becoming a third proctor...
There were still demon students willing to take the desperate gamble of cheating!
Because for those who couldn't solve the questions, failing to cheat meant certain death.
Pulling it off offered at least a sliver of hope.
At times, Lanqi deliberately turned a blind eye.
Even when he spotted someone, he didn't report them.
In a sense, this offered the demon students a shred of hope.
The two demon proctors seemed to tacitly approve of Lanqi's behavior, their ears pricked for his cues so they could react at top speed, eagerly awaiting his next report.
In the back row of the exam hall.
Hyperion buried her face in her arms against the desk.
Her mind had already been an anxious mess, and now she was completely incapable of understanding what Lanqi was doing.
If anything, she felt that next to Lanqi, she was the one who looked far more human.
Either way...
Even if they made it out of this exam hall alive today, both of their human credentials would probably be revoked.
***
However...
Neither the demon students in the hall,
nor Hyperion,
nor the Ikerite Academy students watching the Shadow World from outside...
noticed the subtle shift unfolding within the room.
Though Lanqi appeared to be randomly culling the students who broke exam rules, an uneven distribution had quietly begun to emerge.
Whether by mere coincidence, subtle calculation, or deliberate intent on Lanqi's part, his reports were always timed so that the dragon demon was closer to the offender.
As a result, in the vast majority of cases, it was the dragon demon who got to claim the cheating examinees.
And every single time, the owl demon was left staring in frustration.
Gradually...
A spark of bitter jealousy toward the dragon demon began to simmer in the owl's eyes!
"..."
Lanqi rested his left elbow on the desk, his chin propped in his hand.
The corner of his mouth finally gave a faint, almost imperceptible twitch.
It looked as though he was barely holding back a smile.
Chapter 48