I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

Opening the door to the Sixth Archive, a wave of excrement assaulted the nostrils.

This couldn't help but make Lee Read wonder… wasn't there a toilet? Was it full?

Looking inside the archive, chunks of hard meat and buckets were scattered haphazardly, positioned diagonally at the greatest distance from the washroom; the number of slave scholars seemed fewer than yesterday, or perhaps those who remained were clustered at the entrance, as if observing whether they needed to "start work" today.

Upon seeing the skeleton open the door, the slave scholars retreated two steps, eventually pushing forward the blond Tom to negotiate with the skeleton.

"Let us out, we want to see Lord Book Demon…" Tom said, but dared not look Lee Read in the eyes.

For the slave scholars, the Book Demon usually sided with them, so if forced to choose a guardian, they would choose the Book Demon.

Lee Read, however, didn't listen to a word Tom was saying, instead scanning the slave scholars one by one with the Demon Illustrated Handbook, listening to their inner thoughts like he listened to the Brain Spirits—the success rate of predicting human actions had two data points, but Lee Read guessed that most of them were thinking about "surviving," so the deviation shouldn't be large.

Of course, most of the slave scholars were still in a state of confusion—the Book Demon hadn't appeared for two days, and the Brain Spirits and Mini-Minnies seemed to have found their own places, even stopping to supervise?

Had the archive changed?

A faint hope flickered in the hearts of the slave scholars, but it was overshadowed by fear.

"The Book Demon won't care about you anymore, and you're not needed here either," Lee Read spoke the truth—ever since learning that the Closed-Door Battle Training operated on a 12-year cycle, Lee Read had stopped considering the slave scholars' fate.

"Not needed…?" Tom stammered, "But aren't we supposed to translate the archives to prepare for the next Closed-Door Battle Training?"

All the slave scholars were extremely afraid of losing their value—after all, in a place like Demon King City, for a group of humans with little self-preservation ability… losing their value was no different from being vegetables in a "vegetable garden."

"Yes, not needed," Lee Read didn't care about the apocalyptic flood of 12 years later.

He would never be confined to an archive in the future. Even if Budi Bu Ge and Oki Bu Ji feared the consequences of "not storing enough knowledge," Lee Read felt it didn't matter—the city lord had changed several times, and the person in charge of the current Closed-Door Battle Training seemed to be Mento?

He could just explain it to Mento.

Moreover, after attending two lessons, Lee Read had already discovered that the Demon Princes… didn't really care about the archive's accumulation over the years.

In other words, the decades or even centuries of time, the slave scholars, Mini-Minnies, and Brain Spirits who died here, died completely without value.

Or rather, their only value was to help Lee Read collect enough knowledge.

Everything was like a twisted joke—a group of demons no one cared about, in a place with no way out, translating knowledge no one expected.

"So… congratulations, you are free," Lee Read opened his bone hands, announcing the end of this twisted joke to the slave scholars.

【Freedom… what is freedom? Does he want us to fend for ourselves? Or… is the academy here to redeem us?】

"What do you mean?" "Are you going to send us away!" "Where to?" "It's not the vegetable garden, is it! I know that place! No one can come out of the vegetable garden alive…"

"We want food!" "We want weapons!" "Let us out… we'll die!"

The slave scholars instantly descended into chaos, half unable to accept the reality, half wanting to change the established reality.

Without hesitation, Lee Read extended his molten right hand, smashing the nearest, loudest slave scholar into grilled meat: "You want food? Here it is."

"Want more?" Lee Read's right hand flowed with magma, and the tip of the bone sword trembled like a pointer of death, searching for a target.

Lee Read knew that he needed to resolve the legacy issues of the archive in the shortest amount of time, and for that, he didn't hesitate to stain his hands with blood—just like dealing with Rockefeller, Lee Read let the slave scholars choose for themselves.

The difference was that when he met Rockefeller, Lee Read didn't even have the ability to protect himself, but now, he was truly the king of the archive.

Not eating the vegetables, throwing them away? Shadow followed Lee Read, impressed by his extravagance.

The skeleton's killing intent was real, and the methods were shocking—the slave scholars quickly realized that this reckless skeleton wouldn't care about their feelings, nor would he care about Lord Book Demon, and even less would he care about the unwritten rules of the archive.

To this skeleton, the slave scholars were not valuable assets, but troubles that were difficult to get rid of.

The slave scholars immediately quieted down, each calculating their way out, and then realizing… there was no way out.

【Where should we go… the Gate of Chaos? Going straight out will definitely be eaten by the wolves in the courtyard… the bats will also suck us dry… Damn it… what to do…】

【Let's stay here… the meat chunks will continue to be supplied, right… I seem to have read that… skeletons like to dance…】

Amidst the slave scholars' pitiful responses, Lee Read was startled by Tom's inner thoughts.

【Escape… climb down the toilet pit… next full moon night… from the Demon Market… escape…】

This thought was extremely familiar. Lee Read searched his memory and remembered where he had heard of the "Demon Market"—when he first arrived at the archive and the old scholar was killed in the toilet, he had also thought the same thing!

At that time, the old scholar was about to suffocate to death, and Lee Read tried to extract useful information, and he heard this passage.

It was just that later, he forged the scene and encountered the slave owner chasing after him… For a long time, Lee Read had forgotten about this, but this time, when Tom mentioned it again, Lee Read, combined with his current understanding of Demon King City, suddenly had some guesses.

Could it be that the washroom in the Sixth Archive led directly outside the city? The toilet pit?

Climbing down would lead to the Demon Market?

But why wait for the full moon?

Lee Read looked at Tom, and found that the blond scholar was still secretly calculating something.

【Damn it… the Demon Market is not open now… the toilet pit will lead directly to the alien world at the bottom of the city… I must be here… until the next full moon… until the Demon Market opens…】

Tom's inner thoughts also explained why the Sixth Archive smelled so strongly of feces—it seemed that this young man had already gone down to check once, but to no avail.

Lee Read, who had the blessing of "absorbing," had stored the lower archive's knowledge, and immediately began to search for content related to the "Demon Market" in his mind, quickly finding the corresponding introduction, and then vaguely connecting his thoughts into a line.

The toilet pit in the washroom of the Sixth Archive originally led to an alien world, but when the Demon Market was open, for some reason, the toilet pit would lead to the Demon Market?

And the existence of the Demon Market was a twisted product created jointly by Demon King City and the Demon Expeditionary Force—the villages and towns conquered by the Demon Expeditionary Force would be pulled to the vicinity of Demon King City, and would be open for trade with humans at a fixed time, becoming the "Demon Market."

Whenever the Demon Market opened, humans from all over the continent would come to exchange materials with demons and conduct sacrifices… As long as the right method was used, they could return to human society…

The Demon Market was one of the ways out of Demon King City!

Obviously, the dead old scholar had long discovered this way out, and was originally waiting for the next full moon when the Demon Market would open to escape Demon King City—taking with him the evil arts learned from Demon King City, taking with him the demon knowledge copied for several years…

Unfortunately, his ambitions were not realized, and he was killed by Lee Read next to the toilet pit.

Now this path has also been explored by Tom, who cleans the toilet, and is preparing to put it into practice at the next full moon.

"The next full moon… will be very lively," Lee Read thought silently—the next full moon had the Killing Cup finals, which Budi Bu Ge would inevitably miss; at the same time, the next full moon was also the time when the Demon Market would open, a chance to escape Demon King City?

Lee Read never expected that visiting the Sixth Archive would yield such a harvest, and suddenly felt a little troubled—he had finally cleared the archive, but suddenly there was an opportunity to escape in front of him?

Take the Mini-Minnies with him? Even send them back to their hometown?

Lee Read couldn't make this decision now, and suddenly transmitted a thought to Shadow: "Can I ask you a question?"

"Please speak," Shadow didn't expect Lee Read to be so polite suddenly.

"Would you mind… taking a trip down the toilet pit?"