After Stephen's vision blurred when the demonic energy exploded, his sight gradually cleared again.
The scenery before him was no longer the museum.
All he could see now were rocks.
The ceiling was made of stone, the walls on both sides were stone as well, and a dark passage stretched ahead of him.
'A cave?'
Stephen looked around in confusion.
'Was I teleported?'
His brows furrowed. He could feel demonic mana everywhere in this place.
'So I'm inside their domain now.'
'That ring… it's connected to demonic energy.'
'Could the story Student Council President Velkan told actually be true?'
'But if it is true, then there's a ninety percent chance that Velkan himself is involved with demons.'
'I don't know how deep his involvement goes, but…'
Stephen's eyes darkened.
'If he's already crossed the point of no return, I'll eliminate him now before he becomes even more dangerous.'
Stephen began walking forward while analyzing the situation.
'The demonic mana inside that ring exploded the moment it sensed even the slightest outside interference.'
'It seems to have some kind of activation mechanism that teleports nearby people.'
'If that's the case, then it explains how the students disappeared.'
'But if the ring's story is real, then the most likely explanation is that the students are being used as sacrifices.'
'…Maybe none of the previous missing students ever survived.'
Stephen frowned deeply.
'Wait.'
'I wasn't the only one inside the museum, and the demonic mana surrounded the entire place.'
'It's possible the other students were dragged here too.'
'But… who's to say we were all sent to the same place?'
'They might be somewhere entirely different from this underground cave.'
Stephen suddenly stopped and stared strangely at the walls.
'This… haven't I passed through here before?'
He placed his hand on the wall and examined the differently sized rocks embedded firmly within it.
One particular stone stood out.
Its exposed surface was slightly concave, making it different from the others.
Stephen had noticed it earlier when he passed through this area.
And now he was seeing it again.
Which meant he was lost.
'Something's strange…'
'I only walked forward. There were no other paths, so there should've been only one route.'
'There's no way this place is just a circular tunnel.'
'This must be some kind of mechanism meant to confuse people or waste their time.'
'And if it's a mechanism, then there has to be a way to disable or bypass it.'
Stephen carefully observed his surroundings, searching for anything unusual, but all he saw were rocks and dirt.
'There has to be something different, even if it's subtle.'
After searching for a while, Stephen suddenly remembered something.
He took a few steps and stopped in front of the wall with the concave stone.
'This is the only unusual thing here.'
He raised his hand, placed it into the hollow part of the stone, circulated mana through his body, and infused it into the rock before closing his eyes.
Immediately, he sensed a white light gathered inside the circular hollow.
That light branched out into multiple paths spreading throughout the cave.
'Found it.'
Stephen pulled his hand away and looked around.
'Now I just need to find whatever connects to this stone.'
A short distance away, he found another oddly shaped rock.
Stephen walked toward it, picked it up, and inspected it carefully.
'It fits strangely well with that hollow stone.'
'If I place it there, it should complete it.'
He returned to the concave stone and inserted the rock into the hollow.
The two pieces fit together perfectly, becoming indistinguishable from the surrounding stones.
The moment he inserted it, another passage suddenly appeared at the end of the tunnel.
Now two paths stood before him, branching left and right like the letter Y.
'The mechanism stopped.'
Stephen walked toward the split paths and chose the left route since the demonic energy there felt stronger.
After walking some distance, he noticed several shallow holes in the ground.
They were about the size of an adult's footsteps.
'…These look like footprints.'
Stephen stopped and examined them carefully.
The pattern resembled footsteps, but they did not move in a straight line.
Instead, they curved in an S-shaped pattern.
Stephen placed his foot into the first indentation, then stepped into the next one, continuing along the S-shaped route until he reached a wall.
Looking down, he noticed the final footprint was positioned at the base of the wall.
He placed his foot into it.
Immediately, a hidden path opened before him.
The moment the passage opened, Stephen heard screams ahead.
Using his ability, he merged into the shadows and vanished from sight.
He moved toward the source of the screams.
When he arrived, he saw several students tied up and thrown onto the ground.
There were seven students in total.
Four of them were unconscious and covered in injuries that looked serious, though not fatal.
The remaining three were awake.
One of the girls, who had light brown hair, was suddenly kicked hard in the stomach and sent crashing into the rocky wall.
"AGH!!"
The girl lowered her head and vomited from the force of the blow.
Another girl screamed in terror.
"HAIDIIII!!"
With furious red eyes, she glared at the man who had kicked Heidi.
"You bastaaaard!!"
Standing before the students were three individuals.
All of them wore black robes covering their hair and featureless white masks hiding their entire faces.
A crown symbol was engraved into the upper-left corner of each mask.
The man who had kicked Heidi sneered mockingly.
"Who told her to scream for help?"
"You idiots should just stay quiet so we can finish this quickly."
"No one will find you as long as you're here, so your screaming is pointless."
"It's just annoying."
The girl clenched her teeth in anger and shouted back.
"Do you really think the teachers won't notice our disappearance?!"
"We're in the best academy in the world! They'll find us and kill you bastards!"
One of the masked men standing in the back suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha!"
"The best in the world? Hah, that's hilarious!"
"Did you hear that, guys? The best in the world!"
The other two also started laughing.
The girl frowned in confusion.
She could not understand why they suddenly began laughing.
These people were insane.
Stephen watched them coldly.
'The Hollow Crown Organization.'
'So it's confirmed now… these organizations are connected to demons.'
He observed them for a moment.
'They don't seem overwhelmingly strong, but they aren't weak enough for ordinary students to defeat either.'
'If Stephen suddenly becomes too strong, it'll attract attention.'
'Hmm… maybe I should gradually increase Stephen's strength in front of others.'
'There's no way I can hide my power forever.'
After seeing the demons' movements and remembering the events of his novel, Stephen understood that sooner or later he would be forced to reveal his identity—whether due to some unexpected incident or unavoidable situation.
'Seems like an ordinary life is impossible for me…'
Stephen looked back toward the three conscious students.
'There are still students awake. I can't appear as Stephen.'
'And since this place doesn't seem to be inside the academy, it's fine if Black Crow appears suddenly.'
Stephen put on his cloak, removed the academy emblem from his sleeve, and stored it inside his storage ring.
He also folded the ends of his pants several times to hide the academy markings.
Fortunately, Stephen was not wearing the academy jacket, so he did not need to remove it.
He drew his black sword.
Its hilt was decorated with strange engravings centered around a black four-leaf clover.
Then he rushed toward the closest man.
In a single swift motion, he severed the man's head.
A small amount of blood splattered onto the face of the furious girl who had been yelling at the man moments ago.
She stared blankly at the figure who had appeared out of nowhere.
Slowly, she shifted her gaze toward the headless corpse beside Stephen… then toward the severed head rolling near her feet.
Her pupils trembled violently.
Then she bent over and vomited.
The male student beside her did the same.
Ignoring the students behind him, Stephen turned his attention toward the remaining two masked men, who immediately prepared for battle.
One of them shouted furiously,
"You bastard!! How did you get in here?!"
This place had been designed with a unique trapping mechanism.
Only members of the Hollow Crown organization knew how to disable these mechanisms, and every section of this underground area contained them.
That was how the organization could easily locate students, imprison them, and bring them here.
Demonic mana surged violently around the two men as killing intent poured from them toward Stephen.
Stephen raised his sword and vanished from before their eyes.
The next thing they felt was a blade slicing through both of their necks simultaneously from behind.
Their bodies collapsed onto the ground without another movement.