Cornelia jogged over to the dining car, picked up the plate that originally belonged to her dinner, and then brought it over to Dekan's side to start enjoying it.
Cornelia sat down next to Dekan and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the information they had just obtained.
Now that they had a lot of information advantage, Dekan needed to plan the next strategy route carefully.
After they rested, they still had nine and a half hours left.
Although Mission Objective 2 (Rescue Hostages) had already been completed, Mission Objective 1 (Explore the Map) had only progressed to 8.6% at the moment.
They were still far from the required 50% or more.
The slow progress was due to two reasons.
Firstly, Dekan and Cornelia had spent too much time in this room. Exploring the cooking classroom had only increased the total progress by about 1%.
Secondly, they had not encountered the boss room yet. The boss room could potentially reward a high exploration progress.
Fortunately, the other four challengers were making good progress. The configuration of the four indicated the presence of a Tier 5, two Tier 4, and one lower-tier participant.
In the matching mechanism, it wasn't just a Tier 5 and a Tier 3 team that was considered suitable for Tier 4 difficulty. Tier 5 challengers had the ability to break through some of the challenges in Tier 4 Shadow Worlds. This advantage needed to be balanced out by several lower-tier challengers.
So, Dekan and Cornelia were essentially here to balance out the advantages of the Tier 5 challengers or, in other words, they were originally meant to be cannon fodder.
"It's fortunate that we encountered such a good teacher as Baron Bacher," Dekan couldn't help but sigh.
Cornelia took a bite of her dinner and gave Dekan a glance. She decided to hold back her comment. Ever since Dekan arrived in the Shadow World, it seemed like he had completely let go of his moral constraints. However, in a way, it was a good thing. It made her, as a teammate, feel safer. They didn't have to think too much; Dekan pointed, and she smashed. It was an ideal situation.
...
"Cheers!"
Dekan lightly tapped Cornelia's wine glass, and they began to drink.
After dealing with Baron Bacher, they found that this room was quite nice. What "carnage banquet"? It was clearly a candlelit dinner! If the other team members could be more cooperative, the two of them wouldn't even bother going out.
"Well, let's continue the celebration banquet after we return."
Dekan sighed and seemed reluctant to move.
"When the time comes, we must have a good meal."
Cornelia leaned back in her chair, feeling that this Shadow World was indeed quite harmonious and beautiful.
Dekan continued, "If we continue to raise flags. Even if it's just the two of us, we might not be able to safely return."
Cornelia asked, "What does 'raise flags' mean?"
Dekan explained, "Some deaths are triggered when certain lines are spoken, and usually, once those lines are spoken, it's difficult to survive. So, we need to be careful with what we say, especially when a lot of people are watching us."
Cornelia: “Understood.”
Dekan looked at the time and reluctantly stood up. It was time to move.
He walked over to Baron Bacher, who was still unconscious, and untied the steel wire that bound him. From Baron Bacher's pocket, Dekan found the demon pass.
"Cornelia, could you please take Baron Bacher with us?"
Cornelia nodded and walked over, dragging Baron Bacher out of the room.
By now, it was time for classes to end, and the two of them were walking in the hallway. Occasionally, students passing by would cast surprised glances at them. It was the first time the demon students had seen a student dragging an unconscious teacher in the hallway! Moreover, the teacher had a noticeable wound on his head, as if his head had been deformed by a blunt object. Could it be these two?
The students dared to think but didn't dare to ask, fearing that they might provoke these two rather ominous-looking demons.
...
Dekan, based on the information obtained from the interrogation, found the destination quite quickly – the infirmary.
As one of the few public facilities that Baron Bacher was quite familiar with, the infirmary in this school was also quite unusual.
The demon school doctor in the infirmary would conduct experiments on the injured. If an injured person entered, there was a chance they would be healed, but there was also a chance that the school doctor would use them for experiments. However, if an uninjured student hid in there, they would be forcibly taken and used as experimental subjects by the demon school doctor. Although they would suffer great pain, there was also a chance to gain enhancements. It was a functional room where one gambled with their luck.
Dekan and Cornelia entered the room, one after the other, pretending to be in a hurry.
The room did not look like an infirmary at all but more like a laboratory for some "mad scientist." It was filled with a dark and decayed atmosphere, and on the shelves were bottles and jars filled with black liquid soaking various organs of unknown creatures.
Lying in a row of large glass containers against the wall were all kinds of creatures, some emaciated, while others were covered in red tumors.
In the middle of the infirmary, there was an operating table, and a figure with his back to Dekan and Cornelia noticed their arrival. This school doctor was a thin old man with a terrifying face, embedded with various metal patches. He held not a surgical knife but a saw in his hand. He exuded a suffocating stench of decay, and his eyes revealed hidden malice.
As if he had sensed prey, he was about to attack Dekan and Cornelia the next second.
However, Dekan was quick to shout, "Our teacher, Baron Bacher, is poisoned! Please, save him!"
"Baron Bacher?" The demon school doctor was first surprised, but quickly, his attention was completely drawn to the demon that Cornelia was dragging.
It seemed he had noticed something interesting. He put down the saw in his hand and quickly walked over to inspect the unconscious figure on the ground.
"Place him on the operating table," he ordered, no longer paying attention to Dekan and Cornelia themselves but giving orders.
Cornelia followed the instructions, placing Baron Bacher on the table. Then she stepped back to stand next to Dekan.
The demon school doctor began to grope Baron Bacher's body, checking for a while until he seemed to confirm that this guy was indeed Baron Bacher.
"Why does he have such a large injury on his head?" the school doctor asked, puzzled.
Dekan replied earnestly, "After being poisoned, the teacher went mad and kept injuring himself. In the end, he even knocked his head on the corner of the table and passed out."
"When he was still in his right mind, he told us that as long as we brought him to the infirmary, you could save him. He agreed to any modifications you might perform on him!"
The demon school doctor twitched his mouth.
Even though he didn't know how Dekan and Cornelia managed it, he didn't want to hear Dekan's nonsense anymore. Because he couldn't wait to modify Baron Bacher. The opportunity to modify a teacher was rare. Even if all Dekan said was lies, as long as there was a reasonable explanation here, he would pretend not to understand and proceed to modify Baron Bacher. In the end, the school principal wouldn't be able to hold him accountable.
"Ah, you two should leave now. I'll spare you this time," the demon school doctor urged Dekan and Cornelia to leave, while he restrained Baron Bacher on the operating table.
Dekan gave Cornelia a thumbs-up.
The plan had worked. They had effortlessly increased the exploration progress by about 1%.
