Chapter 15 - Dekan Decides To Stop Acting

The atmosphere of the demon classroom was extremely stifling.

It was comparable to the senior high exam room in Dekan’s previous life.

Dekan was in no rush to finish his test. Instead, he was stealthily examining the other people he believed to be ‘challengers.’ Some of them were getting anxious and others were completely calm.

Since even he doesn’t know the answers to the test, Dekan knew that the way to pass the exam would definitely not be dependent on their academic capabilities.

It wouldn’t make sense otherwise since it would mean most of the people who arrived at this Shadow World will receive a death sentence.

Since that was the case, the way to pass the exam became very obvious. The challengers will need to copy the answers from the demon students.

After all, the exam questions were meant for demons and not humans.

Dekan discovered that the movement range of the two examiners were quite set in place. The first examiner will turn around roughly every 50 seconds and then stand behind the podium for 10 seconds.

The second examiner turns around roughly every 40 seconds and will stop at the back of the classroom for 5 seconds.

There was a 1 or 2 seconds calculation error.

At where Dekan was seated, a blind spot would appear between the two examiners roughly once every three minutes. This blind spot will last for two to three seconds.

During that period of time, Dekan could attempt to exchange information or sneak glances at the exam papers of the other demon students.

However, if he was to pass the test using that method, it would be torturous.

He wouldn’t necessarily be able to copy enough answers. The demon students wouldn’t allow him to copy their answers that easily either.

He might need to cooperate with the other challengers.

Dekan took a glance at his beloved teammate.

Seated to his left, Cornelia’s little hands were trembling. It seemed like she was about to snap apart the pen in her hand.

He could sense her despair from afar.

She didn’t analyze the mechanisms of this game at all.

In fact, she didn’t even discover how difficult those exam questions were.

She thought that everyone else knew how to answer them, that she was the only one who didn’t.

Cornelia took a deep breath and gently placed her pen on her desk.

She seemed to have given up.

She was clenching her fist.

Judging from her appearance…

It seemed that… she was planning to fight her way out?

Dekan’s expression changed slightly.

Ignoring the fact that she might not be able to defeat those two examiners, if Cornelia was to cause a scene, they might be endlessly chased after by all the other demons even if they somehow managed to escape the exam room.

Fortunately, Cornelia decided to look at Dekan before doing anything.

Perhaps it was a habit of hers now.

Whenever she encountered any difficult problems in her studies, she would turn to look at Dekan.

It was a sort of mutual understanding they’ve established in the short period of time they’ve known each other.

Dekan heaved a sigh of relief. He was glad that Cornelia did not start fighting directly.

He shot a meaningful glance at Cornelia to reassure her.

Cornelia understood Dekan’s glance and nodded her head slightly. She seemed to have set her mind at rest.

Dekan couldn’t help but rejoice at their miraculous communication gift. At times, they were able to communicate without even using many words at all.

It would appear that he cannot rely on Cornelia for this exam.

Not only must Dekan successfully pass the exam by himself, he must also carry Cornelia and have her pass the exam too.

Dekan pinched between his brows.

Although he had a thought that he might be able to take care of both examiners, the risk was simply too large. He must first confirm the mechanisms of this exam room.

Actually, he needed to quickly finish this exam.

Of the three missions, the one that seemed to be the easiest of the three to complete, ‘explore over 50% of the academy,’ might actually be the most difficult one to complete.

The indication on the prompt: ‘current progress: 1%’ might signify the exam classroom only counted as 1% toward the academy exploration progress.

It was very possible that they needed to explore an area roughly 10,000 square meters in the next 12 hours.

Apart from the hallways and empty classrooms, places that were easy to explore, the other classrooms might be undergoing similar forced games like this demon exam room.

If the rules of the other classrooms were similar to that of this demon exam room, it would mean that it would be near-impossible to complete the 50% exploration mission.

Thus, Dekan was certain that the difficulties of the other classrooms were not the same. It was likely that everything would be up to luck.

It was possible to encounter an easily passable game. It was also possible to encounter an extremely difficult and time consuming game.

If they were to use all two and half hours allocated to them in the demon exam room, they would be extremely disadvantaged in the rest of the raid.

Originally, Dekan did not want to cheat.

However, for the sake of his and Cornelia’s safety and to smoothly clear this Shadow World, he decided to stop acting.

He decided to break this game.

“Master, help me!”

Dekan called out in his heart.

“...where am I?”

A slightly confused voice resembling someone who just woke up sounded in Dekan’s mind.

That voice did not contain the annoyance of being woken up. Instead, it was very gentle.

“I entered a Shadow World. I need to answer exam questions in this Shadow World. Please help me have a look at the questions to see if you know any of them.”

“......”

The voice grew silent for a brief moment.

“Question 1 is C.”

“Question 2 is A.”

……

“For question 16, write the answer in this order: slave, vessel, attraction, self-absement, abuse, suffer, desolation, mind-melt, thoughts…”

Dekan’s rapid writing speed started to capture the attention of the other challengers.

He’s acting like he’s copying answers! Does he not have to think over them at all?!

Dekan continued to write nonstop for roughly ten minutes. Finally, he finished his test.

“Master, thank you for all your troubles. You can return to sleep.”

“Be careful. I’m not able to wake back up for the time being.”

Leaving those words, Dekan’s master went back to sleep.

Dekan heaved a sigh of relief.

Fortunately his master knew these questions.

There was only one reason why Dekan was able to bring his master into the Shadow World -- his master was a part of his deck.

Exam?

How could an exam stop me?

I have a private tutor with me!

Dekan took a glance at the location of the examiners.

Judging by their location, there’s still several dozen seconds before the next blind spot appears.

He started to wait quietly. He cast a glance at Cornelia to instruct her to cooperate with him.

He waited for the blindspot to appear between the two examiners.

Three.

Two.

One.

Now!

With lightning fast speed, Dekan placed his test papers on Cornelia’s desk and grabbed her test papers.

Then, he spoke using his lips: “Hand. Wait.”

You can hand in the test. Then wait for me outside.

After instructing Cornelia what to do, he started to rapidly write on the black test papers he received from Cornelia.

Cornelia looked at the completed test papers in front of her with a surprised expression.

What luck is this?

Never had she experienced such a sense of ease at an exam site.

……

The Viewing Hall was already packed with people. Many people were standing on the walkway and watching the projection screen from afar.

Many students were paying close attention to the first raid of the Knight College’s two weirdo newcomers.

Upon learning that the two of them were sent to a tier four Shadow World, many students ran out from their classrooms to view their raid.

In fact, some professors came to view the raid too.

“What is Dekan doing?! That’s not something he can answer randomly like that! He’ll end up killing Cornelia!”

“Did he not properly analyze the rules of that Shadow World?”

“Clearly not. He’s a newbie, it’s normal for him to fail to pay attention to the details.”

For a team composed of two Knight College’s martial artist fools, encountering an opening stage that required intelligence was simply a nightmare.

“If one must answer those questions, it would take even the professors from the College of Alchemy half a day to determine the correct answers.”

“There’s nothing that can be done about this. Those newbies encountered a tier 4 Shadow World on their first raid. It’s truly a pity!”

“It’s over, it’s over now! Cornelia is handing over her test papers!”

“Something’s amiss! That Dekan is doing this on purpose! He’s testing out the answers with his teammate’s life!”

Some of the new students that didn’t quite understand the mechanism and rules of the stage began to think that way. After all, they’ve seen Dekan at the entrance exam and he did not resemble a fool to them. Instead, he seemed more like an extremely cunning individual!

“That bastard is a total scum! He does not deserve to study here!”

Some students started screaming in disappointment. Some started yelling in anger.

Some professors also started to facepalm and sigh.

They all believed that Cornelia would soon be attacked by the examiners.

They could only hope that she would be able to flee from those examiners’ attacks.

However, the next moment…

Cries of surprise started rising in succession through the Viewing Hall. It was like a boiling pot of water.

Even the passersby outside the Viewing Hall could hear the shouting inside.

“Ehhhhh?!”

“What happened?!”

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“Cornelia handed in her test papers and… passed?!”

“We misjudged him?!”

“Why would he know the answers?!”

“Could it be that he’s actually a demon?!”