Sunday night.

Before the class meeting started.

Zheng Qing was the first student to arrive at Classroom 601 in the east of the teaching building.

Because there was no one in the classroom, the stick figure seemed very listless, merely glancing at the young teaching assistant before holding its potato-shaped head on the blank paper, tidying its sparse hair.

The reason Zheng Qing came to the classroom so early was that when he left the assistant team’s conference room, it was already close to three in the afternoon. Returning to the dormitory at this time, completing one or two assignments, and then rushing to the teaching building would waste at least half an hour on the road.

For Zheng Qing at this moment, nothing was more precious than time.

Moreover, for nearly six hours from morning to afternoon, Zheng Qing spent most of the time studying in a state of higher efficiency than usual. The result of this high-intensity learning was that when he left the conference room, basking in the afternoon’s bright sunlight, he had a strong feeling that if he returned to the dormitory now, he would surely fall asleep immediately.

Going to the classroom could somewhat avoid this situation.

But apparently, Zheng Qing overestimated his willpower and underestimated his level of fatigue.

Sitting alone in the classroom, not even finishing an assignment—accurately speaking, his feather pen had just left the first line on the parchment—the young warlock fell into a drowsy state. Fortunately, before he fell asleep, he kept wearing an invisibility talisman, so there was no worry about being ambushed while dreaming.

In a daze, he vaguely heard familiar voices of his companions—

"...The Starry Sky Hunting Team said that if Absolution participates in the competition, then besides hunting trophies and tickets, including betting, surrounding the event, and other income, we will have a share... Of course, it will be shared with other hunting teams..."

"...Doesn’t that mean the fewer hunting teams participate, the more money we can divide?"

"...That’s not necessarily... The more teams participate, the more supporters from different teams will come. With more audience, the event’s surroundings and betting will have a larger scope, and income will be more."

"...Does Absolution have supporters? I’ve never heard of them!"

"...Why does it sound like something Mr. Zha would say! It’s understandable that he doesn’t know since most of his energy goes into courting pretty witches. But you, as the main hunter of the Absolution Hunting Team, another head of the team, don’t care about the supporters? That’s disgraceful for you! Managing the relationship between the team and its fans is a crucial skill for every successful hunting team!"

"...Isn’t that the responsibility of the hunting team manager?"

"...Hunting team manager? Ours? Lin Guo? Are you joking?"

Too impudent!

Zheng Qing hazily opened his eyes, wanting to see who was so bold. Unsurprisingly, he saw the oily face of the Fat Wizard, who was grabbing a manuscript in one hand and a donut in the other, enjoying afternoon tea while reviewing the manuscript. Several feather pens of different colors danced joyfully on the parchment under his gaze, sketching a series of colorful circles, dots, and editing symbols.

"Nonsense." He muttered, his voice slightly hoarse and deep due to just waking up.

The feather pens dancing on the parchment staggered in unison, and the Fat Wizard tightly gripped the donut in his hand, swiftly glancing left and right, finally directing his gaze down the aisle, lowering his voice:

"Is Mr. Zha here?"

"He’s been here all along." Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, rolled up the bamboo slip law book in front of him, and signaled with his eyes: "He was here before I came."

"Can he stay quiet for so long?" Xin Fat Man’s eyes widened, looking accusingly at Xiao Xiao: "Why didn’t you tell us earlier!"

"He must be asleep." Zhang Ji Xin rubbed his chin, accurately guessing the truth.

"You didn’t ask me, did you?" The Doctor spread his hands.

The small corner suddenly fell into silence. Meanwhile, at Zheng Qing’s seat, a fragmented light and shadow receded, revealing the young cost student’s yawning figure.

"I heard you bad-mouthing me behind my back." Zheng Qing rubbed his eyes.

"That’s a delusion from your dream."

The Fat Wizard calmly stuffed the squashed donut into his mouth, mumblingly changing the topic: "How was your day? What was the content of the assistant team’s special meeting? Is there really a secret weapon? Don’t play dumb, we’ve signed a contract... The Doctor can testify."

Zheng Qing’s expression stiffened slightly.

After a moment, he honestly replied: "I don’t know."

"Don’t know what?" The Fat Wizard’s brows furrowed.

"Don’t know how my day was, don’t know the meeting content, don’t know if there’s a secret weapon." Saying this, the young teaching assistant couldn’t help but yawn broadly again, his eyes feeling sore.

Several companions exchanged glances.

At this moment, Xiao Xiao seemed to recall something, took out his black-cased notebook, flipped through a few pages, then cautiously looked at Zheng Qing: "Feathers of radiance?"

"Gold Jade Pearl." Zheng Qing lazily replied, then asked in surprise: "Isn’t the password supposed to be me asking and you answering... Didn’t you guys refuse to do it because it was too troublesome?"

Last weekend, after Zheng Qing came up with the idea of using ’meeting codes’ to verify identity, the warlocks of dormitory 403 found it amusing at first, but they hadn’t lasted five days before complaining and protesting against the cumbersome security measure. Due to pressure, Zheng Qing had stopped insisting everyone remember the frequently changing new passwords in the past two days, so hearing Xiao Xiao recite the last code used yesterday startled him.

"Didn’t you refuse to answer Fat Man’s question for security reasons?" Xiao Xiao clearly misunderstood the meaning of Zheng Qing’s earlier reply.

"Certainly not!"

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but chuckle but quickly noticed the Doctor’s lowered eyelids, promptly regaining his composure and hastily explained: "I genuinely don’t know... The day was tiring, fulfilling, yet relaxing, so I don’t know how to describe it; the special meeting was merely some ’minor task assignments’, with no substantial content disclosed, I spent most of the time doing assignments in the conference room; and regarding the secret weapon, Old Yao said, ’I know you’ve heard many rumors, this way or that way, but I need to clearly tell you now, what you’ve heard is incomplete’..."

"Was the assistant team’s special meeting hosted by Old Yao?" Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, interrupting Zheng Qing with unmistakable surprise.

"Yes." Zheng Qing nodded, counting on his fingers: "Besides Old Yao, there’s Vice Director of the School Works Committee Qian Jiuzhou, Vice Dean Atlas Sister Margaret, Vice Dean of Starry Sky Academy Professor Simon, Vice Dean Alpha Professor Charles... and all assistant team members."