Jiang Li had to lower his head down since when he entered the office he saw that the upper part of the wall on the right was made of transparent glasses. Beyond it was a line of 20 odd students who all looked listless and malnourished. Their eyes were lackl.u.s.ter, lacking in spirit, and had dark circles beneath them.

Everyone was lining up for the telephone after being called up from their classrooms earlier by their teachers. They heard their parents phoned the school, requesting to speak with them. However, none of them looked excited.

With more than ten big and scary guys eyeing them, it would be impossible to tell anything. And even if they managed to, the other party would not believe them. It was already tested by many. Every first-timer did that. They learned their lessons the hard way... betrayed and not taken seriously, and then beaten up or forced into the black room.

Now they knew, sometimes, it was just more heartbreaking to talk with somebody who doesn't listen yet always assume they know the exact situation.

'Behave alright?! Don't you dare touch those accursed devices again! Also always listen to your teachers. The teachers are always right and know the best for you.'

What always made the students cry was that their guardians never forgot to tell these to them through the phone? And every time, their hearts would be dying to ask, 'Why can't we know what's best for ourselves?'

The fat principal was in the room, seated at a wide desk opposite the transparent wall and busy reading something on his computer. The person had a round face, wrinkled forehead, and thick lips. He was lifting the frame of his thick eyeglasses when he saw an intruder coming into the place. The man's eyes first went large from surprise, then fury.

"Who giv---"

"Shut up unless asked," Jiang Li's back was getting drenched in sweat. But at least he could finally march boldly into the place without worrying for eyes from the adjacent room.

'Damn this body. Can't even stand a mere illusion spell.' He complained in his heart after the hypnotism went successfully. What he meant earlier was the illusion that made it appear to those from the opposite side that the principal was still burying his head on work and from time to time watching the students speak on the receiver.

In his anger, while the fatty was overwhelmed and frightened by his sudden loss of voice, Jiang Li dashed towards him, jumped over the desk and punched him in the face. Yet even those simple maneuvers caused him to be out of breath and feel all spent.

"I need to train from scratch, damn." After kicking the fatty ball curling up by his feet, he sat down the computer to get some things done. Destroying the school and the real mastermind could be left to the leads, but freeing the students could be done by him now. It would take a lot of effort, but all would be small things as long as he could get out of here as soon as possible.

'First... I need to make sure the students who would get out of here would be able to escape from police suspicions or have an easier time transferring schools.'

The majority of the students here, no matter how spineless and meek, were just neglected, unconfident, or orphaned kids that couldn't even defend themselves or talk back. They don't truly deserve to have an internet addict title attach on their profiles, or have bruises and wounds just for accidentally doing something which remotely irks an instructor.

As he typed furiously on the keyboard, he worked his brain just as much.

He had nothing on him that could knock out all the personnel here at once, but doing it by himself would be stupidity. His physique was not the best too, at most he could confront five instructors. Black arts were so hard to cast due to his body's lack of affinity with it. Hypnotism was his best shot. But who to hypnotize?

At one corner of his eyes, he saw the principal groggily standing up and then glaring at him with wide red eyes. That got into his nerves since it destroyed his concentration, so he stretched his leg and kicked the muted fatty man on the stomach again. The principal was clumsy so his head knocked on the wall, causing him to suddenly roll his eyes and lose consciousness.

'Tch.' Jiang Li clicked his tongue when he finished his work and realized he had to wake up the fatty if he wanted to gather everyone somewhere.

...

There were many reasons why he couldn't postpone the escape. For example, the abuse, unwarranted corporal punishments, and the forcing of students to labor six out of the seven days. Only Monday was a study day, the rest would be spent in a workshop where everyone would be required to create all sorts of decors which the school would sell to the outside world. However, none of the proceeds would benefit the students. They were exploited, made to eat hard bread and untasty soup every day, yet their hard work only feeds the teachers' pockets.

But that was not yet the worst. Outside of that, there would still be other sh*tty things going around. The main one was the unspoken rules which made him worry about Jiang Ying Yue's incarnation. That was one of the most disgusting evil happening here, the victims were not only pretty girls, but even pretty boys.

He couldn't find someone who looked like her in the database, but it didn't make him relax. No matter where she was, the best thing to do was bring all the teenagers away from this place and have every evildoer there be sent to a greater hell. To be honest, he would not be in a hurry to find her if not for the kind of institute they were in.

"All students to proceed in the multi-purpose hall!"

Ten minutes after he left the principal's office, the announcement started being broadcasted all over the buildings.

He briefly slowed down his walking pace and glanced at the speaker above, appearing lost in thoughts. Not long after, he went back to running to the black house direction.

"Follow me." After opening the door, he coldly said to those staying inside.