Chapter 253 - 18: The Good Days Are Far From Over

Looking at the panicking Glasses, Duan Fei fought the urge to yawn.

It couldn’t be helped. The gap between them was just too wide.

His opponent was a somewhat clever kid who had let two minor victories go to his head. In the end, the blood rushed to his brain, and he came to provoke him.

Unfortunately, if his opponent knew how to rally the masses, he would have gathered a group of like-minded individuals to confront him together.

If he were a little smarter, he would have gathered more intel and then attacked by exploiting the Deceitful Object’s weakness, which Duan Fei himself was unable to see.

If he were more cautious, he would have tried to drive a wedge between me and Jinghong, further weakening my Power.

But alas, there were no ’what ifs’.

Walking up to Glasses, Duan Fei tapped his Crowbar and said with regret, "Too bad, kid. You’ve lost."

"I haven’t! I still have plenty of people I can use! I still have the Deceitful Object I can—"

He flicked out two Character Cards. One transformed into Hancock, the other into Anna.

With his two great generals at his side, Duan Fei continued, "Anna alone is enough to finish you. How can you possibly fight me? Kid, do you know where you went wrong?"

"...I didn’t have enough people?"

"No. It’s because you’re too weak!"

Duan Fei spoke these words with deliberate slowness. Paired with his dismissive tone and condescending gaze, they crushed Glasses with immense pressure.

"If you were strong enough, what would it matter if you were alone? You could have sent me flying! So what if you were at a disadvantage? You could have turned the tables with your fists. There’s only one reason you lost to me so easily: you are too weak."

Getting to his feet, Duan Fei spread his hands and pointed at Lin Daiyu and the Maid. "Because you’re so weak, I even lent you my own subordinates. Look! Even with their help, you still couldn’t stand before me. Admit it. You’re just too weak!"

Rage and anxiety surged in Glasses’s heart, mingled with boundless terror, making him feel a humiliation that came from his very core.

Just as Duan Fei was about to further indulge his over-the-top Demon King persona, Wang Yun suddenly stepped forward, blocking his path.

Though her legs were trembling with fear, she looked at Duan Fei with determination. "Don’t you dare talk about my Glasses like that!"

Seeing Wang Yun suddenly appear, Duan Fei wanted to slap his thigh and shout in applause.

’Nice one, girl! Perfect timing!’

With Wang Yun’s entrance, the atmosphere finally reached its climax. It was a clear sign to Duan Fei that he could proceed to the next stage.

Grinning viciously at Wang Yun, Duan Fei gestured at her from a distance and then said with a laugh, "See? You can’t even protect the one you like. Thank you for existing, my dear clown. You’ve shown me a good play. I hope that the next time I visit, I’ll get to see an even more spectacular drama. HA HA HA!"

Cackling madly, Duan Fei left the instance. His figure vanished, leaving only the echo of his smug, wild laughter.

Jinghong left with him, and once they were out, she couldn’t hold back her laughter.

The other players also received the notification that they could leave and exited the instance one by one. Afterward, they each received a letter of apology from Duan Fei, along with a share of the Energy.

In the letter, he vaguely mentioned the instance’s hidden mission, explained the distribution of Energy, and invited everyone to visit Love City if they had the chance, as there was a machine there for adding affixes.

Flora, for her part, got Jinghong’s contact information, which she had been dreaming of. She then tirelessly began sending a friend request every hour until Jinghong, unable to take the annoyance, finally accepted.

Lin Daiyu remarked that the booze had been pretty damn good.

Jinghong commented that the finale wasn’t thrilling enough. Specifically, she said that when Duan Fei held her in his arms, his actions weren’t domineering enough to convey a clingy, blush-worthy relationship, and she demanded they practice again offline.

All in all, for a small instance, everyone was quite satisfied with how it played out.

But after the players had left, the story for Glasses and the others was only just beginning.

Forced to watch them leave, Glasses felt his life plummet from a momentary high straight to rock bottom.

The utter defeat turned all his previous actions into a joke. He couldn’t take it anymore and ran out, crying.

But he had barely reached the door before Wang Yun threw him to the ground with a shoulder toss. "Stop crying!" she said fiercely. "Is this any time for tears?"

Pinning Glasses with her knee, Wang Yun looked up at the dean of students. "Dean," she asked, "I need an explanation."

The dean of students turned his back, dabbing at the corner of his eye as if wiping away a tear.

But only he knew the truth: he just didn’t want the students to see through his terrible acting.

He let out a long, heavy sigh. Following the script he had rehearsed with Duan Fei, he began to speak slowly. "As you’ve seen, we’ve been targeted. I never dared to tell you because I was afraid you would break down after learning the truth. That man... he’s not a teacher at all. He’s an Evil God."

His solemn tone doubled the three students’ anxiety.

"The Evil God already sees us as its playthings. Even I am powerless to resist its invasion. However, we are not without a weapon. The exams... the exams are our weapon."

"Exams?" Glasses asked, confused.

"Yes, exams. The better your grades, the stronger our Power to resist the Evil God becomes. That’s why I organize them. Students... I’m sorry. I..."

The dean of students continued to dab at his eyes, his trembling voice bringing tears to Wang Yun’s face as well. "Dean," she said, moved, "you’ve been through so much..."

But unlike the moved Wang Yun, Glasses felt that the dean’s words were full of holes.

But there were so many inconsistencies he didn’t even know where to begin, so he could only remain silent.

What he didn’t know, however, was that the moment he started noticing these holes, he had already fallen into the second layer of Duan Fei’s trap.

The deeper he dug, the more contradictions he would find, until he eventually became lost in a sea of information, unable to escape.

The dean of students had also prepared a mountain of lies. These would plunge the intelligent students into another kind of anxiety, causing them to continue providing a steady supply of anxiety Energy.

Although it was rather unfair to the students, it was the best method they could come up with.

And one could imagine that as the students grew smarter, they would gradually break free from the obsession with exams. Then, they would spontaneously begin to seek the truth, continuing to provide anxiety in the process.

Some students would even become the dean’s assistants, helping him manage the others.

Once they had fully matured, they would come to understand the dean’s painstaking efforts.

And having gone through this anxiety "training," they would finally be able to face the reality that their school was floating in the Void.

Only at that moment would they have truly achieved Growth, and they would begin to strive to escape this reality.

Although he didn’t know how long the entire process would take, the dean of students was filled with confidence.

Looking at the students before him, the dean of students couldn’t help but reflect, "The good days... they’re just getting started."