Lanchi Was Playing a Bigger Game

The spacious, classical examination hall was quiet.

The Dragon Demon took out a handkerchief and elegantly wiped his hands. His face was filled with satisfaction, as if the slaughter had been his greatest pleasure. Then he returned to patrolling with renewed anticipation.

"Excellent."

The Dragon Demon returned to his normal patrol route. As he passed by Lanchi, he praised him.

"Maintaining order in the examination hall is our duty."

Lanchi nodded, looking very much like a class monitor.

What followed was something Hughberlian could neither understand nor stomach.

Lanchi not only refused to stop.

He even entered a frenzy of reporting cheats.

He seemed extremely familiar with cheating methods and could even predict them. Any demon student cheating in the examination hall was caught by him without fail!

The two examiners had blind spots in their vision, but with Lanchi sitting in the back row, those blind spots were greatly reduced.

Thus, the entire classroom.

Had become the domain of three examiners.

Lanchi did not write on his own exam paper anymore, nor did he do anything else. He devoted himself entirely to invigilating.

When the other demon students glared at Lanchi, unable to contain their resentment, their eyes seemed to say: they could draw ten thousand kinds of horses in the world, yet somehow could not draw Lanchi's horse!

At Iketerite Academy's Clock Tower, the hands pointed to five o'clock. The Open-Air Mega Screen in Jella Memorial Square, surrounded by numerous teaching buildings in the distance, was broadcasting that day's campus news along with the Shadow World currently being challenged.

The huge Magic Screen stood in the center of the square. Normally, students would wait until night fell, when the place took on the atmosphere of an outdoor movie theater, before bringing drinks or snacks to sit on the steps opposite and watch while chatting.

At that moment, the crowd in the square was sparse.

Most of the people on the surrounding roads were merely passing by. Some strolled leisurely, while others were on their way to dinner. A few looked up at the Open-Air Mega Screen before continuing on their way.

The setting sun shone on the windows of the surrounding buildings, reflecting dazzling light. The square, Open-Air Mega Screen, and steps were all illuminated, as if dressed up brightly by the sunlight.

However, unlike usual, the students gathered in the square were clearly far more agitated than normal. Their clamorous voices were nothing like the relaxed leisure of an afternoon!

"What is that guy doing!"

"The other demons won't let him copy, so he won't let the other demons off either?"

"Has he gone crazy?"

The students who witnessed Lanchi's baffling actions began shouting.

Sure, what he was doing was satisfying, but now he could not copy anyone's answers either!

"That's what newcomers are like. They completely fail to understand the mechanics."

Many upperclassmen shook their heads and sighed, their faces pained.

He was too arrogant, too foolish, and far too unlucky.

The seriousness of the situation was no longer merely that two first-year newcomers had gone to challenge a Shadow World on their first day of school.

The key issue was: why had they been dragged into a Tier 4 Shadow World?

A Tier 4 Shadow World was absolutely not a level newcomers should encounter. Often, even Silver-ranked challengers might feel pressured when dealing with one.

Moreover, the Shadow World shown on the screen was exceptionally dangerous.

They had been plunged into deadly peril from the moment they arrived. Before they had enough time to adapt or devise a strategy, they already had to begin fighting for survival.

"Something's gone wrong. The teachers at the Sage Institute should already have called an emergency meeting."

In front of the Open-Air Mega Screen in Jella Memorial Square, more and more students gathered.

They discussed it noisily.

"Isn't that fellow called Lanqi Wilford?"

A student passing by stopped and stared at the screen with a frown.

"Who? Is he famous?"

"He's the dark horse who suddenly took first place in this year's Sage Institute Entrance Examination. His exact strength is unknown, though—the information from the Third Round Exam was personally sealed by the Sage Institute's Dean, Loren."

"All we know is that, as a magic-based combat profession, his magical power is bizarrely weak."

"Quite a few teams still haven't decided whether to recruit him. But now, it'll be a blessing if he can return alive."

"Don't say that. If he really survives this, he might become famous on the spot."

Once an audience formed, it often fermented rapidly, like dough.

In just a few minutes, the steps directly facing the square's Open-Air Mega Screen were nearly filled with Iketerite Academy students fresh out of class.

"The two bringers of disaster have teamed up again."

"So that's what the Duke's daughter is really like. What an evil, filthy demonkin... Heh heh, I wonder what that innocent young man will think after learning the truth."

Some passing nobles also sneered as they spoke. They left while laughing and chatting, as if they did not care in the slightest whether those two lived or died.

Shadow World, Purgatory Corridor Academy.

A thick scent of blood had already spread through the ornate classroom. The seemingly elegant, entrancing atmosphere had been shattered, replaced by an aura of frenzied slaughter.

Dark-red bloodstains had appeared on quite a few desks and chairs in the examination hall, standing out starkly against the dark wooden surfaces. The entire classroom had fallen into an eerie silence, broken only by the slow echoes of blood dripping onto the floor and the examiners' footsteps.

The two demon teachers patrolling the classroom were spattered with blood. Every step they took left a savage bloody footprint on the floor.

The Dragon Horned Demon's suit was dyed red in one area. His eyes were filled with cruelty and satisfaction. The Owl Demon, meanwhile, quietly wiped the blood from his hands. His eyes were dark, revealing no emotion.

In those short few minutes.

The classroom had gone from an examination hall to a bloody slaughterhouse, filled with an indescribable sense of absurdity.

Yet even after Lanchi had stopped being either a demon or a human and become the third examiner.

There were still demon students who chose to take the risk and attempt to cheat!

Because demon students who could not solve the questions would die if they did not cheat.

If they succeeded, there was at least a slim chance of survival.

Sometimes, Lanchi deliberately turned a blind eye.

Even when he saw them, he did not report the cheating demon students.

In a sense, this gave those demon students a tiny glimmer of hope.

The two Demon Examiners seemed to tacitly approve of Lanchi's actions. They reacted at top speed, ears pricked, waiting for his next report.

The back row of the examination hall.

Hughberlian now had her face buried on the desk, both hands covering it.

Her thoughts had already been chaotic and uneasy, and now she could no longer understand Lanchi's actions at all.

Moreover, she felt that compared with Lanchi, she was the one who looked more like a human.

But regardless.

Even if she followed Lanchi out of this examination hall today, the two of them would probably lose their human status anyway.

However.

Whether it was the demon students in the examination hall.

Or Hughberlian.

Or the Iketerite Academy students watching the Shadow World from outside.

None of them noticed a subtle change in the classroom.

Although Lanchi seemed to be hunting the demon students who violated the examination hall's rules at random, an uneven distribution gradually emerged without anyone realizing it—

It could have been a matter of luck, or something Lanchi was doing intentionally or unintentionally. It was also possible that he was doing it on purpose. His reports always came at a time that brought the Dragon Demon Examiner closer to the cheating examinee.

And so, in most cases, the Dragon Demon was the one who caught the cheating examinees.

Every time, the Owl Demon could only stare in frustration.

Thus.

The Owl Demon's gaze gradually filled with jealousy toward the Dragon Demon!

"..."

Lanchi rested his left hand on the desk and propped up his chin.

The corner of his mouth finally trembled ever so slightly.

He seemed to be barely holding back a laugh.

Lanchi's character illustration would be released next month, created by my old partner, Cui Teacher! You can refer to Talia's portrait on the book's homepage for her style—that's her work~