The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Professor Nini's candy fruits had long since dried up.

　Given her habit of giving out to everyone who sees it, she probably already finished distributing the money. In that case, why not give her a new job?

　Thinking this, Dark immediately went to Professor Nini's side. He then politely asked the two third-year students to leave and began discussing the matter with Professor Nini.

　So a few minutes later, Professor Nini's candy bag was full again.

　Her smile was innocent and she was very happy.

　Dak's smile was also very genuine and he was very happy.

　Right now, the news that he's the escape room's puzzle designer hasn't reached the lower levels yet, so he can still walk around a few more times.

　Once the news has spread throughout the castle, he will likely find himself unable to move an inch.

　Therefore, the distribution of those quiz rewards could only be left to Professor Nini. Fortunately, he had kept the correct answers to those "question cards," which he gave to Professor Nini so she could compare them herself and naturally know who was right and who was wrong.

　In addition, the silly thing is that she puts "Dark Dimon's" head on her pumpkin lantern and candy bag to indicate that Dark's "question cards" and quiz rewards have been transferred to her.

　Then the students who answered the questions correctly and earned the rewards went to Professor Nini. Those who weren't acting normally, those who were only looking to profit, those who were stuck in the escape room puzzles, or those who were just there for the fun of it all...

　Just come find him.

　After fully preparing himself mentally, Dark began his inspection of the upper levels. Then, he immediately transformed into a parkour athlete.

　But he had mentally prepared himself, and the idea of ​​being chased was no longer as unacceptable as before. In fact, he gradually found it amusing, and simply led the crowd in a run through the castle.

　In the monitoring room.

　Professor Mitia watched Darkdemon constantly moving from one light screen to another, and couldn't help but show a strange expression.

　Led by Darkdemon, the parkour team rampaged through the castle. Like a locust swarm, Tauros swept through, leaving not a trace.

　Gradually, it became a unique sight at tonight's masquerade ball!

　In short, it is absolutely impossible for Dark to reveal any secrets about solving escape room puzzles to the students.

　Therefore, the parkour event ultimately ended in failure. Darke had initially thought that the students would stop chasing after him after ten or twenty minutes.

　But unexpectedly, they seemed to find enjoyment in the chase.

　Looking back, the number of people chasing them hadn't decreased; in fact, it had increased! "So what are they all doing?"

　Dak couldn't understand.

　The masquerade ball is only for a short time. If you don't try to acquire as many resources, credits, and points as possible now, what will you gain by just chasing after him?

　Is it merely for the sake of clear thinking?

　Nine o'clock sharp.

　The masquerade ball is halfway through.

　It took Dak nearly an hour to finally calm the group of students down.

　He glanced at the points rankings and suddenly noticed that Pandora's ranking had moved up two places, from tenth to eighth.

　"Candy Merchant No. 3," which was originally ranked seventh, has fallen to eleventh place.

　Such a huge drop is likely due to the fact that the "candy merchant" was unable to communicate with the student groups.

　But in Darkdemon's view, that was clearly a sign of "knowing one's limits." After all, those who play the "candy merchant" are usually professors.

　And none of the professors are exactly like Professor Lily.

　Oh, there was once a professor named Diddy Maxwell who was a spitting image of Professor Lily.

　However, Professor Didi has been missing for a long time.

　The students of St. Marian Academy had almost forgotten about her. Dark glanced at "Candy Merchant Number One," who was still ranked number one, and couldn't help but sigh.

　When Professor Lily gets serious, she's truly unmatched by ordinary students. Even sixth-year graduates are no exception.

　If nothing major changes happen, she'll probably stay in first place forever.

　However, failing to achieve first place could severely damage students' enthusiasm.

　Dak thought for a moment, then continued scrolling down and soon saw two familiar names.

　Katrina and Britney Spears are surprisingly ranked very high. Although they didn't make it into the top ten, they hovered around the twentieth.

　This led Dark to wonder if they had gotten the answers from the magical elves.

　After all, they were members of the Fantastic Beasts Club, so getting answers from some magical spirits wasn't too difficult.

　If you can quickly obtain rare "item cards", you will naturally be able to conquer the secret room more easily.

　However, that's not the case in reality.

　Both Katrina and Britney managed to conquer the escape room through their own abilities.

　If I really have to find a reason...

　Perhaps it can only be attributed to the fact that as members of the Fantastic Beasts, they had more opportunities to interact with Erganny, or were more familiar with Darkdemon's way of thinking.

　In short, the two of them performed exceptionally well at tonight's masquerade ball.

　Only by scrolling further down can you find the names of the third-grade students.

　Dark suddenly noticed Emma's name and was slightly surprised.

　Emma, ​​who had been far behind before, had caught up in the points ranking and was now among the top third-year students, becoming a strong contender for the top spot in the third-year points ranking.

　However, the chances of being number one in the third grade are still quite high. Usually, because he's there to keep things under control, it's not always obvious.

　He didn't participate in the points ranking tonight, so the fierce competition among the third-year students immediately came to the fore.

　Looking at it again now, you'll find that there are more students with strong thinking skills in the third grade than you might have imagined.

　Besides Sarah and Emma, ​​who have consistently been at the top, many of the Magic Academy's contestants are actually very bright.

　In addition, there are several other candidates in the Noble Academy who are ranked quite high and are all real potential stars.

　These bright students only need one opportunity to stand out.

　Darke vaguely remembered their names, then flipped through the pages and quickly found the names of the second-year and first-year students.

　He was just as familiar with the second-year students as he was with the third-year students.

　The gap in ability caused by the grade difference ultimately affected the younger students.

　Even with the aid of the "updrafts" outside the castle, reaching the secret chamber after entering the upper levels remains difficult.

　And Dark did not set up any traps in the high-level secret chamber.

　Bonus points for lower graders who complete the game.

　Therefore, the ranking of lower-grade students is generally lower than that of higher-grade students.

　However, as the activity continued, the younger students have learned to make choices.

　They would take the "key cards" they obtained, which belonged to the upper-level secret rooms, to the "candy merchant" to exchange for "key cards" for the lower-level secret rooms.

　The "candy merchant" also took on the responsibility of "transportation," delivering the "key cards" belonging to the upper floors to the senior students located on those floors.

　After all, the "candy merchants" are professors, and once they've had their fun, they'll naturally think about how to help their students and give them a better experience at the masquerade ball.

　With the help of these "candy merchants," the entire escape room system became more efficient and effective.

　After Dak outlasted the group of students who were chasing him, he would occasionally mingle among the students to observe their interactions.

　After 9 p.m., there were noticeably more students sharing information about the locked room.

　Some of the most ingeniously designed escape room numbers have also circulated among the students.

　Some students even buy "key cards" with corresponding numbers from the "candy merchant" in order to experience those escape rooms.

　However, most of the "key cards" of the "candy merchant" were acquired through acquisition, and not all "key cards" had any number.

　Moreover, the number of secret rooms in the entire castle is indeed a bit too many.

　As the event progressed, the means to accurately obtain "key cards" became somewhat limited.

　But Dark had already considered this aspect and made preparations in advance.

　It was exactly 10 p.m.

　There were only two hours left until the end of the masquerade ball.

　Dark has completely completed the task of "giving out sugar" - and has entrusted the unfinished parts to Professor Nini.

　So he changed into the "Candy Merchant" outfit, disguised himself as a student using the "Candy Merchant Transformation," went to the ninth floor again, and then returned to the monitoring room.

　When he came out again, his candy bag contained a whole bag of unnumbered "key cards".

　The so-called "unnumbered key card" does not mean that it actually has no number.

　Rather, it refers to "key cards" that can be arbitrarily numbered. When designing the escape rooms, Dark left a window on the ground floor. Using these unnumbered "key cards," one could locate and open escape rooms with any number.

　These "key cards" were specifically prepared to improve students' speed in completing later stages of the game.

　As the game progresses, many escape rooms will have already been cleared, and students who have made significant progress will easily obtain "key cards" for rooms they've already cleared. Naturally, they'll want to use these cleared "key cards" to exchange for "key cards" for rooms they haven't cleared or failed to clear. Therefore, "key cards" that can be written with numbers become very important.

　However, the existence of these "key cards" is a secret. Dark didn't even tell Professor Lily.

　Looking back now, it was absolutely the right decision not to tell Professor Lily!

　Because if the existence of this "key card" is exposed, it will disrupt the entire "candy merchant's" trading system.

　Therefore, Dark only planned to secretly distribute these "key cards" to the "candy merchants" other than Professor Lily, and let them use them secretly as needed, and absolutely not let the students find out.

　Fortunately, keeping it a secret wasn't difficult.

　As long as the number is written down before the transaction is given to the student, it will definitely not be discovered.

　Apart from Professor Lily, the other "candy merchants" are all very reliable, so there's basically no need to worry about them.

　Dressed as a "candy merchant," Dak descended from the ninth floor, finally free from the students who wanted to obtain the secrets to the escape room.

　He discovered that the "candy merchants" had stopped wandering around and were now evenly distributed in fixed locations on each floor.

　This wasn't even a pre-agreed decision; it was their spontaneous action.

　It can only be said that there is no harm without comparison.

　Professor Lily is no match for them... no, she's not even close.

　It took Dak nearly half an hour to distribute all the unnumbered "key cards".

　Then he stuck a "Closed for Business" sign on his back and continued to wander around the castle dressed as a "candy merchant".

　Emmm...

　It wouldn't be accurate to say he was just wandering around aimlessly. He did have a purpose.

　His main purpose was to see for himself what his magical spirits were doing.

　By now, almost all the "question cards" from the magical spirits have been solved. However, many students have still not been able to solve them, so the magical spirits' task is not yet over.

　But of course, they can't be like professors, obediently waiting for students to come to their homes.

　When Dark found some of the magical spirits, he was very surprised to discover that they were actually looking for clues about the floor boss and preparing to summon it!

　Regardless of whether they receive any rewards after defeating the floor boss, the rules do not prohibit "candy-giving" players from attacking the floor boss.

　The process of summoning the floor boss is itself a complete exploration process.

　From searching for clues about the BOSS to solving puzzles, finding the trigger mechanism to summon the floor BOSS, the game offers a high level of playability and a great sense of accomplishment.

　During this year's masquerade ball, many students were drawn to the escape room challenges, and their attention to the escape rooms increased as the event progressed.

　— Instead, this traditional program has been overlooked.

　But Dark's magical sprites were full of longing for this traditional program and had long wanted to complete the process and have a go.

　However, they didn't seem to be very interested in the final step of defeating the BOSS.

　The entire process continues until the floor boss is summoned.

　Once the summoning sound of the process boss attracts the other students, they retire and hand over the floor boss to the students to take over.

　Look, even Dark's magical elves know better than Professor Lily!

　In short, the participation of the magical spirits has significantly accelerated the summoning progress of the floor boss.

　Otherwise, Dark would find it hard to imagine how many floor bosses could be summoned this year.

　It would be quite funny if they couldn't even summon Behemoth, the most anticipated final boss of the annual masquerade ball.