Ultimate Evolution I Became the Master of the World

Outside the classroom hallway, Nikolai was still busting his butt trying to keep the old man from whipping out that Ghost Realm again. If that creepy Ghost Realm popped back up, those kids wouldn't stand a chance, even if they managed to get out of the classroom. However, the old man's power was way more than Nikolai bargained for, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep him at bay. Meanwhile, everyone was bolting down the stairs like a bunch of scared rabbits, thinking freedom was just around the corner.

But just as Henrik hit the stairwell corner, a faint sizzling noise echoed, and bam, the lights went out, plunging the whole staircase into pitch-black darkness. As soon as the lights died, a girl let out a terrified scream.

"Shit, is Nikolai tapped out? Did that Ghost Realm come back? What level is that old man, seriously freaky."

Henrik's face was slick with cold sweat. In the dark, he didn't dare to hang around and yelled back, "Keep moving, don't stop."

He didn't really care about saving these people, but he couldn't let them croak inside the Ghost Realm. That would just make it even scarier.

Everyone kept feeling their way down the stairs in the dark, which wasn't too hard for those who knew the place.

But as they kept going, Henrik suddenly froze. Something was off.

Not just him, Michael behind him also sensed something was up. He was all tense, realizing they'd gone way more than five floors down, and there were still more stairs ahead.

"Stop. Don't go any further." As soon as Henrik stopped, the others behind him instinctively did the same.

In this mess, the cool and collected Henrik seemed to take the lead.

"Henrik, what's wrong? Why'd you stop?" a shaky female voice asked.

"If you don't wanna go, I will. I'm not sticking around to die."

A boy, driven by fear, kept walking and quickly vanished into the darkness.

"Henrik, don't steer us wrong, it could be deadly," someone else said, their voice breaking.

"Shit. From the fifth floor to here, didn't you count how many floors we've gone down?" Henrik snapped.

"Who the hell counts this? We were running for our lives!" someone shot back.

In a panic, not everyone kept a clear head.

Then Michael spoke up after a brief pause. "Before the lights went out, we were already on the third floor, heading to the second. But when the lights died, we should've only needed to go down one more floor. But since then, we've gone down at least three, maybe four floors. In other words, we're already underground."

"But this building doesn't even have a basement."

"Michael, can you not freak us out right now?" someone shot back in the dark.

"So, what now? Do we keep going or what?"

"Maybe we should try going down a few more floors? Michael could be wrong."

As everyone was debating, a faint light flickered in the darkness. A girl, shaking like a leaf, had turned on her phone's flashlight.

Seeing this, everyone was stoked that the phones still worked and quickly whipped out their own to turn on their flashlights.

Suddenly, a dozen beams of light cut through the dark, but it was way too few compared to the number of people in the class. Had the others gotten lost?

And weirdly, the light wasn't as strong as usual, like it was being swallowed by the surrounding darkness, only lighting up less than a foot ahead. Beyond that was just more blackness.

The suffocating darkness made it feel like they could get lost in it at any second.

"Keep moving forward," Henrik gritted his teeth. He had no other options now.

This wasn't something they could fight with brute strength. They could only hope Nikolai wasn't dead and could hold off the ghost a bit longer, breaking the Ghost Realm. Otherwise, they might be stuck in this Ghost Realm forever, never finding their way out.

They kept going down the stairs.

This time, not just Henrik, but a bunch of students started counting the floors.

One floor, two floors, three floors. The more they counted, the more freaked out they got. When they hit the fifth floor and the stairs still hadn't ended, everyone stopped, their hands and feet ice-cold, terror plastered on their faces. Some girls had already broken down, sitting on the ground and crying.

"We've already walked five floors."

"I counted five floors too. We're screwed, we can't get out of here."

For a moment, everyone was lost.

Henrik's face was dead serious. He didn't dare move forward. He couldn't accept that he might die here.

"Michael, you still alive?" he suddenly shouted angrily.

"Henrik, I haven't done anything to you, so don't curse me to die," Michael replied coldly.

Henrik turned around, pushed through the crowd, grabbed Michael by the collar, and said fiercely, "If you're not dead, then lead the way. You will definitely get out of here alive. With your potential, you won't die here."

Michael said, "You know more than I do. If you can't get out, what can I do?"

"You must know something. Tell me!" Henrik said, his expression turning vicious.