Dekan Announces a School-Wide Holiday

Dekan took another look at their current exploration progress.

[Mission Objective 1: Academy exploration rate exceeds 50%, current progress 26.4%]

[Time Remaining: 6 hours 22 minutes]

About 7% of that exploration progress had been provided by him and Cornelia.

If their teammates could continue working smoothly, reaching the target an hour or two early shouldn't be a problem.

But now, it was hard to say how much time would be left.

Because they had to consider whether their other teammates would end up feeding the boss another kill or two.

If things went on like this, their pool party might just go down the drain.

"Sigh, let's get back to work. Hopefully, we can gather some intel on the boss room."

Life isn't easy, Dekan sighed.

If they chose to clear the stage without fighting the boss, they would miss out on the massive exploration points provided by the boss room.

In that case, to complete Mission Objective 1 (map exploration), they would need to push through more normal rooms than a standard run to make up for the missing exploration points.

But if they managed to clear the boss room, Dekan and Cornelia might not have to waste so much time grinding through a large number of normal rooms.

"Even though this exploration-type Shadow World is quite warm and healing, the plays from these wild teammates are truly unpredictable..."

Dekan lamented.

Even a plot-driven or escape-type Shadow World would be better than this.

The uneven skill levels of other challengers wouldn't directly add such a tangible workload for Dekan.

"If you're going to make me work overtime, you might as well match us into a versus-type..."

The most brutal Shadow Worlds were the versus-type.

You stop playing PVE entirely and switch to PVP.

Just wipe out all the enemy challengers and be done with it.

However, such Shadow Worlds appeared less frequently and had an extremely high mortality rate.

There was even a chance of encountering incredibly powerful Otherworld Magic Card users as opposing challengers.

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

"Dekan, listen. Do you hear something?"

Cornelia suddenly stared in a certain direction and spoke.

"...Let's go check it out. But first, let's dismiss the whole school."

Dekan trusted Cornelia's perception.

Her hearing and vision were far superior to his own.

It was currently class time; if there was movement in the hallway, it was highly likely related to other challengers.

Demon students had no missions to complete, so unless they were kicked out of class, they generally wouldn't be wandering the hallways during lessons.

It was very likely that other challengers were hiding from The Dean.

Or perhaps they were being chased by The Dean, which was why they were making noise.

If that were the case, they could just shut The Dean down.

In a wide hallway, a severely wounded challenger was being hunted by The Dean.

He relied on control-type spell cards and the desperate obstruction of his summons to delay The Dean for even a brief moment.

He stumbled, his figure swaying unsteadily.

It seemed he had reached a dead end.

He had originally failed a challenge in a classroom, triggering the teacher's kill mechanic, and had barely managed to escape.

On the way, he had the misfortune of running into The Dean.

Now, even if he escaped into a classroom, he was in no state to handle a teacher's exam.

He had to find the infirmary as soon as possible.

Although he hadn't given up hope of survival, his speed was slowing down more and more.

The Dean had completely wiped out his summons and closed the distance behind him in a matter of seconds.

He knew his fate was sealed.

From the moment he encountered The Dean in the hallway, it had essentially been a death trap.

No matter how he tried to dodge, it was all in vain.

In the end, he could not escape the fate of having his chest pierced by The Dean's bloody hand.

Everything had come to an end.

He thought to himself.

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

The school's end-of-class bell rang at that very moment!

The Dean: "¿"

The Dean's hand froze in mid-air, his expression incredibly bizarre.

Something felt off; wasn't this class period far too short?

And for the bell to ring exactly when he was about to kill this truant?

But he had no choice.

According to the rules, it was now break time, and he could no longer attack a student.

The challenger was even more bewildered.

He was able to see the mission interface timer!

It clearly wasn't time for class to end yet.

How could the bell have rung?!

This wasn't something that could be described as mere luck; it was practically a miracle!

Just then, two figures emerged from the end of the corridor.

Their steps were steady, neither hurried nor slow.

They didn't look like students at all, but rather leaders coming for an inspection.

As if they hadn't even seen The Dean, they walked briskly toward the challenger's side.

"My friend, you are safe now!"

Dekan said with a smile.

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

The challenger looked back at The Dean with slight hesitation.

He saw that The Dean seemed to be in a state of system crash.

Confirming that The Dean was truly no longer attacking him, the challenger stumbled toward Dekan's direction.

"The Dean's state... was this your doing?"

The challenger recognized Dekan and Cornelia.

These were the two guys who had cleared the examination hall.

When he saw the strange "Rescue Humans 101/3" on his mission bar, these two were the first people who came to mind.

These two must be veteran high-level challengers!

Regardless, he was saved!

"Who knows?"

Dekan just smiled, then asked, "You're heading to the infirmary, right?"

The challenger replied, "...Yes."

"Then let's go."

Dekan took a small bottle of potion he had swiped from the infirmary and handed it to him.

Then, he supported the challenger's arm.

The potion could only alleviate his injuries; he still needed to go to the infirmary for bandaging.

If he could save someone while he was at it, Dekan would lend a hand.

After all, he was a kind-hearted youth.

"Thank you for the rescue!"

The challenger thanked him and hurriedly drank the potion, his complexion immediately improving significantly.

"Have you two been to the infirmary?"

The challenger asked again immediately.

Dekan: "We have, five-star rating."

There were still normal medical resources in the infirmary, it was just that the demonic school doctor had a severe sense of twisted humor and generally didn't treat patients properly.

Even after the destruction caused by Baron Batchelor, there were still remaining resources that could be used.

The three of them walked down the corridor.

Dekan asked the challenger, "How did you get so badly hurt?"

"My companion and I failed while challenging a Tier 4 classroom. When we were fighting that teacher, my companion created an escape opportunity for me... but he... he must have perished in the Music Classroom... that damned! Hellish classroom!"

The challenger's expression gradually turned sorrowful and resentful, tears shimmering in his eye sockets.

Dekan nodded, finally understanding why "Mission Objective 3" had previously displayed "Disguise Integrity 5/6."

The disguise effects for all six of them were actually quite thorough.

Had they not encountered a demon with special means, they likely wouldn't have been discovered as humans until they were killed and turned into corpses.

However, upon hearing the challenger mention a "hellish classroom."

Dekan couldn't help but feel a bit curious.

Was there actually a place in this school that could be described as hell?