Chen Jing's office was located on the third floor of the Tianquan Building, in a spacious and bright south-facing room.
On the way, Lin Xiyue quietly nudged her sister with her elbow.
She lowered her voice and asked in a whisper, "Sis, when the teacher asks us later, what should we say? Tell the truth?"
"What else?" Lin Qingyue replied at the same volume.
"Should we make up a story about how we went through untold hardships, narrowly escaped death, and finally relied on love and justice to reform the BOSS, barely managing to clear it?"
"...That's not a bad idea." Lin Xiyue seriously considered the feasibility of this proposal.
"That sounds more in line with a normal hero's script. The teacher would probably find it easier to accept."
Listening to the sisters' whispers, the corner of Su Wan's mouth twitched uncontrollably beside them.
She silently moved half a step away, using her actions to show that she didn't know them.
Xia Lian, on the other hand, nervously pinched the corner of her clothes and whispered a reminder, "Let's just tell the truth... If we lie and the teacher finds out, the consequences will be very serious."
"Xia Lian is right," Lin Qingyue agreed.
"We didn't do anything shameful anyway, so we just need to tell the truth."
"As for whether the teacher believes it or not, that's her problem."
Lin Qingyue added a sentence in her heart.
'Besides, wouldn't keeping such an interesting experience to ourselves and not sharing it to see their worldview-shattering expressions be like walking in the dark in fine clothes? What a waste!'
'I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of expression Teacher Chen will have after hearing about our "Elven Royal Capital Royal Gourmet Vacation Tour".'
Lin Xiyue immediately understood her sister's sinister intentions, her eyes lighting up as she nodded heavily.
"Makes sense! Let's do that!"
-
In Chen Jing's office, the cold air from the air conditioner blew away the stifling heat from the corridor.
She poured a glass of water for each of the four, motioned for them to sit on the sofa opposite her, and sat back down behind her desk.
Her usually calm and serious face now bore a radiant smile that she simply couldn't suppress, and the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes relaxed.
It was rare to encounter a group of freshmen who had successfully purified and restored a Dungeon. She was already mentally drafting what to write for her Outstanding Tutor Commendation report at the end of the year.
"Alright, you can speak now."
Chen Jing turned on the recording function of her personal terminal, leaned forward slightly, and assumed an posture of attentive listening.
"Give me a detailed report of your experiences in the Dungeon."
"Remember, do not leave out any details."
"Including your initial landing point, the environment you encountered, and... how you accomplished the mission step by step."
Her gaze fell primarily on Lin Qingyue.
As the Captain and backbone of this squad, Lin Qingyue's report was crucial.
"Yes, Teacher."
Lin Qingyue cleared her throat, the corners of her lips curling upward into a perfectly well-behaved smile, and began her account.
She didn't embellish or deliberately conceal anything, recounting their experiences in a casual tone, as if simply reporting on what she saw during a summer vacation.
When she mentioned taking the Human Race's conscription route to the frontline, Chen Jing nodded, a gratified expression of looking at a promising pupil appearing on her face.
This was the best way to gather frontline intelligence. Clear thinking, not bad.
"On the road, we were ambushed by a group of undead. We purified them."
"Then we met a Captain of the Knights from the Elven Race. She was a Death Knight, but... a living one."
Chen Jing's hand, which was about to take notes, paused, the pen tip hovering over the screen.
The smile on her face quietly froze for a split second.
A living Death Knight?
This defied the common sense of the known class system.
She frowned, but her brow quickly smoothed out.
After all, a Dungeon was another world; having some special rules was understandable.
She impassively signaled Lin Qingyue to continue.
"From her, we learned that the conflict started because the Human Prince and Princess had sticky fingers and stole a forbidden book belonging to the Elven Race. She advised us not to get involved."
"Then we followed her to the Elven Race's territory, as she promised to introduce us to the Elf Queen."
"After that, they were ambushed by the Undead Death Knight Order. Considering we still needed her to lead the way, we helped them fight this encounter battle."
"Cooperating with their Apprentice Death Knight, we wiped out about a hundred level 35 undead Death Knights."
"We also cooperated with that Captain of the Knights to force their three leaders to retreat."
Clatter.
The pen in Chen Jing's hand fell onto the desk, making a crisp sound.
The smile on her face completely froze, then shattered inch by inch.
"Wait... wait a minute..." her voice drifted a little. "You said you... wiped out about a hundred... level 35 Death Knights?"
Those were Death Knights!
Not leeks waiting by the road to be harvested!
A team of freshmen, all under level 30, took part in an encounter of city-destroying intensity and actually won?!
Lin Qingyue blinked, her expression innocent and sincere:
"Yes, Teacher. Then we moved with the Elven Race's main forces. First, we went to see the Elf Queen to ask for information about the Dungeon Core."
"Then we went to the Human Kingdom and punished the Human Prince who stole the forbidden book."
"Finally, we went to a place called Frost Path to intercept the main undead force, and while we were there, we rendezvoused with the Elf Queen's reinforcements."
Chen Jing couldn't process it anymore.
She sat there blankly, her gaze unfocused. The words "met the queen," "punished the prince," and "intercepted the main force" hammered relentlessly inside her head.
Each phrase struck like a heavy sledgehammer, shattering the professional understanding she had built over twenty years.
Lin Qingyue paused, took a sip of water to wet her throat, and then, in a tone as casual as remarking on the nice weather, delivered the final blow:
"After that, we found the Dungeon Core—a Goblin who called himself 'The Artist.'
"I figured leaving him alive would only cause more trouble, so I just used a Skill to obliterate him. Dungeon Purification complete.
"But we weren't teleported out. We figured there was still unfinished business, probably related to restoring the Alliance. So, we followed the Elf Queen back to Silvermoon City.
"The Elf Queen treated us to a grand feast. Afterward, we witnessed the humans return the forbidden texts and helped restore the Alliance between the two races. Then, the Dungeon was fully repaired."
"..."
The office fell into an absolute, dead silence.
Chen Jing had completely shut down.
Her mouth hung open, the light faded from her eyes, and her stiff expression shattered, ultimately dissolving into a blank, vacant stare.
It was as if her soul had been extracted, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
She looked at Lin Qingyue, whose face clearly read, "I'm telling the truth."
Then she looked beside her at Lin Xiyue, who was desperately covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking as if set to vibrate mode.
Finally, her gaze swept over Su Wan and Xia Lian—one was entirely engrossed in the patterns of the ceiling chandelier, while the other had her head bowed, earnestly inspecting the toes of her shoes for dust.
It took a full half-minute for Chen Jing to find her voice again.
Her voice was dry, hoarse, and filled with a profound doubt about the world.
"Wait... wait a minute! Let me get this straight!"
She rested her forehead in her hands, feeling as if her entire worldview was being pinned to the ground by a giant, invisible hand, repeatedly scrubbed, crushed, and polished with a steel wool pad dipped in dish soap.
"According to all the intelligence you provided about the 'Shattered Alliance' Dungeon, the correct strategy..."
"Shouldn't it be to first restore the alliance between humans and elves, thereby greatly weakening the Dungeon Core's power, and finally having the allied forces of both sides go together to crusade against the weakened Core?"
She suddenly raised her head, staring fixedly at Lin Qingyue with a look as if she were seeing a fish walking upright for the first time, her voice pitching up and distorting from sheer shock!
"How did you... how did you just follow an elite squad, skip all the prerequisite quests, skip all the weakening mechanics, rush right up to the final BOSS's face, and forcibly purify a full-status final BOSS?!"
After Chen Jing said all this, she suddenly remembered that analyzing the correct strategy based on intelligence was a specialized course taught only in university.
The four people in front of her were freshmen who hadn't even attended the opening ceremony!
This was no longer just "not playing by the rules."
This was "flipping the table without even seeing the card table"!
Lin Qingyue blinked her big, innocent eyes, a perfectly measured look of confusion and bewilderment appearing on her face.
"Huh? Teacher, so that's how it was supposed to work?"
In reality, she was screaming internally:
So there was actually a solution like that?! I knew there was no way a normal level 20-something student could possibly deal with that Dungeon Core!
Even a cheat-like player like me would have had a hard time dealing with it without dropping a Planet Befall.
I remember now! The System notified me back then that I completed the Purification on Hard Mode!