“Kevin? Why are you stopping me? Weren’t you the one who suggested threatening him? Don’t tell me you’re starting to feel sorry for this pervert?”
Ian took the ‘Harmful Book’ from Amivy’s hand and replied calmly, “That’s not it. It’s just that Prince Arthur’s method was too childish…”
Amivy blinked. “Huh?”
‘Isn’t threatening a despicable tactic to begin with? Is there actually a more mature way to use it?’
While Amivy was lost in her confusion, Ian was already holding the book up and shouting toward Rodney’s girlfriend.
“Classmate! Do you want to know what’s written in this book!?”
Hearing Ian’s shout, Amivy instantly realized what this masked man was trying to do.
She felt as if a door to a new world had just been pushed open…
Rodney’s female companion heard Ian’s call and glanced at her boyfriend, who was currently trembling with pupils dilated in panic.
She replied in a calm voice, “Fine. You win. I concede.”
Rodney’s girlfriend took the book from Ian and began to flip through it.
“No! Lynn! Listen to me! Let me explain…”
Rodney was still trying to struggle.
“Rodney…”
After slowly closing the book and casually crushing it into dust, Lynn spoke to him in a flat tone.
“Lynn… could it be that you…”
Seeing his girlfriend destroy the ‘incriminating evidence,’ hope filled Rodney’s eyes once more.
“Let’s break up.”
With that, Lynn turned and left the arena without a single backward glance.
“No!! Lynn!!…”
Unable to bear the blow, Rodney fainted on the arena floor. He was soon dragged away by the staff.
The referee, who had witnessed the entire ordeal, didn’t hesitate to announce the victory of Ian’s duo.
The entire audience was silent. “???”
On the VIP stand, King William’s expression became fascinating once again, the look of admiration in his eyes growing even stronger.
Marguerite had already covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking more violently than before.
Once the referee announced the victory, Ian was the first to leave the arena, with Amivy following closely behind.
It wasn’t until they returned to the preparation area that Amivy looked at Ian with a wary gaze.
“You aren’t an undercover agent sent by the Demons, are you?”
Amivy felt like her worldview had been shaken.
“How could that be? I am not some kind of devil.”
“Then what exactly did you do before this?”
Amivy couldn’t help but ask.
“Me? I was just a poor worker who wanted to clock out on time but was always forced to work overtime.”
Amivy was speechless.
“…”
She didn’t understand him at all.
But that didn’t stop her worldview as a Hero from being further impacted.
In a corner of the spectator stands, Sherivelle and Otillia, who had witnessed the entire process again, fell into an even longer silence.
After a long time, Otillia finally spoke, her voice sounding dry.
“I think… we need to re-evaluate the grade of our ‘tool’ and the thoroughness of our ‘plan’.”
Sherivelle nodded in deep agreement, her red eyes reflecting the back of the seemingly harmless black-haired man leaving the arena.
Their ‘Mr. Cat’ was not only a mystery in terms of strength and incredibly cunning, but now it seemed they had to add another trait…
He had far too many wicked ideas.
To catch a ‘cat’ like this, ordinary ‘shackles’ and ‘traps’ would likely be far from enough.
The two women glanced at each other, seeing an unprecedented level of caution in each other’s eyes.
—
Every team in the graduation group needed to fight three sets of matches and win two to be considered successful in their ‘Graduation Defense’.
Having already secured two victories, Ian and Amivy simply chose to forfeit when the third match began.
One was here to ‘pick up girls,’ and the other had been dragged along to ‘work overtime.’
Winning two matches was already ‘not easy’ enough; there was no need to go through the thankless effort of completing a third match.
They weren’t actually graduates, after all.
They were just two ‘freshmen’ who had recently enrolled.
Their decisive surrender left the referee stunned for a moment before he recovered.
‘These two really don’t need to get high marks in this Graduation Defense.
The fact that they passed at all is already unbelievable.’
After the referee announced the victory of Ian and Amivy’s opponents, Otillia and Sherivelle, still in the corner of the stands, looked at each other with bitter smiles and left.
As expected of the man they wanted—he really did manage to bring them ‘surprises’ every single time.
Having finished his ‘overtime,’ Ian returned to the Tower of Stars.
He finally welcomed his first true vacation.
With the vacation authorized by Marguerite, Ian didn’t just sit idle.
He needed to restudy some details of the first act of the plot: ‘Dungeon Anomaly’.
He wanted to help the protagonist trio finish this first act faster so he could collect his second correction reward.
While reviewing the first act’s plot, Ian finally found the time to look at the task details for the third Correction Mission heroine the system had prepared for him.
He hadn’t looked at the details before, partly because of a lack of time, and partly because the third mission had remained locked.
Ian had asked the System about it.
The System’s reply was: **[The first act of the plot must be completed before the third Correction Mission can begin.]**
The ‘Dungeon Anomaly’ in the first act was actually caused by the Hero’s Holy Sword. After receiving the request to investigate the anomaly in the dungeon, Arthur—as the Hero—would sense the existence of his exclusive weapon, the ‘Holy Sword,’ upon reaching the thirtieth floor.
From there, the plot followed them as they descended further, fighting monsters and growing while strengthening their bonds.
It was a very classic opening.
Now, under Ian’s manipulation, the protagonist group had met and teamed up ahead of schedule.
Their strength was also higher than it should have been at this point in the plot, so they should be able to clear the first act much faster.
All the preparations were complete.
Now, he just had to wait for the ‘Dungeon Anomaly’ investigation request to be issued.
However, the description of the third Correction Mission caused Ian’s vision to go dark.
**[Third Task Correction Target: Evil Dragon, Delina Nidhogg.]**
**[Delina Nidhogg is the final boss of the second act of the plot: ‘Strong Enemies and Defeat.’ She was originally meant to be sealed by the Holy Sword on the ninety-ninth floor of the ‘Abyss Corridor’ dungeon.]**
**[Currently, due to unknown reasons, she has fallen to the 100th floor. Lacking the Holy Sword’s seal, she is still unable to break out of her shell.]**
**[Mission Objective: Before the end of the second act, travel to the 100th floor of the Abyss Corridor and help Delina Nidhogg hatch. Additionally, guide Delina Nidhogg to defeat the protagonist group.]**
**[Temporary Item: Regression Anchor. (Given that the mission objective and mission environment are extremely dangerous, this item is specifically provided.)]**
‘Regression Anchor (World-Class Item): Choose a point in time to set an anchor. You will have ten chances to regress back to the anchored time after death.’