After Slacking Off, I Became a Big Shot at the Evil God Academy

[Coming soon: When a Princess-Type Becomes a Legend in an Escape Game. Blurb at the bottom] / [Coming soon: I Went Viral After Playing an NPC in a Dating Sim. Don't miss it!]

[Recommended: My friend's novel What Do Humanity's Fate Have to Do with Me? It's a great soft sci-fi story, updated daily!]

Xiruo transmigrates into the body of a student at the Academy of Evil Gods. The academy is dedicated to teaching students how to found a religious sect, attract followers, and become qualified evil gods.

The student behind her is a half-worm covered in eyes, and her desk mate has gills on their face. Wearing silver-rimmed glasses, Xiruo sticks out like a sore thumb.

Required Course One: How to Choose a Suitable Habitat. The teacher presents a sheer cliff and a lightless cave as examples of excellent homework.

Required Course Two: How to Prescribe Rituals for Your Followers. The teacher lays out some bizarre sacrificial ceremonies as the standard.

Xiruo, who considers herself a perfectly normal human: “...Thanks. I'm just going to give up.”

For the habitat assignment, she chooses a bright, spacious classroom. For the sacrificial ritual, she turns in a blank sheet. In the practice class on eldritch whispers, she doesn't say a word, sure she'll be expelled.

Instead, the teacher says, “You can actually stand the light and the noisy human voices?! The students these days are terrifying!”

The ritual teacher says, “Why did you turn in a blank sheet? You don't need those lowly humans to worship you?! The students these days are truly terrifying. I have high hopes for you!”

Perplexed, Xiruo says, “I think there might be some misunderstanding here?”

She doesn't say a word in practice class, yet the human who has been used as practice material ever since the school was founded chooses to become her follower. In no time, Xiruo's name is the talk of the entire campus.

Everyone knows that Class One has a formidable student who wears silver-rimmed glasses and rarely smiles. She's won over the follower every evil god dreams of, the human who's served as practice material since the school's founding. Xiruo is hailed as the one and only strongest evil god on the surface.

Xiruo, who tried to slack off and get expelled: “I really can't thank you enough.”

*

Lou Jing has been able to see twisted, eerie figures since childhood. They fill his mind with whispers, tempting and threatening him to become their follower. He rejects every last one of them.

Then one day, a girl with beautiful eyes appears in his dream. For a brief ten minutes, everything is free of distortion. He falls in love at first sight and desperately wants to become her follower.

On the first day of school in September, a girl wearing silver-rimmed glasses joins Lou Jing's class. He recognizes her at once as the deity he worships.

Greedy love takes root in his heart. I'm your loyal follower, and I should be your only one.

From a slacker student to a true powerhouse, the evil god Xiruo returns after half a lifetime with just one follower: “...What a blessing. This is all my blessing.”

*, *, *

Jiang Youtao is the celebrated heiress of a billionaire family. She's never had to lift a finger, and even in an escape game she insists on acting like a pampered princess. On her very first day, she shows up in a million-yuan designer outfit, completely out of place among the players dressed for action.

Other streamers are either strong or obviously clever. Jiang Youtao is the only one whose chat can tell at a glance that she's going to be a handful.

No one wants her on their team. In the first game, the monster teacher calls her up to answer a question. Jiang Youtao says, “I don't want chalk dust all over my hands.”

The chat: [Seriously? Where did this little princess come from? Does she really think the world revolves around her?!]

System: “Congratulations! You've activated the Monster Teacher's Mentor attribute. He will explain the question to you personally.”

?! That worked?

*

In the second game, The Siren's Banquet, the players are nervously trying not to die for no reason, while Jiang Youtao indulges her signature princess attitude. “I'm sorry, but my cutlery has to be pure silver. This set has impurities, so I won't use it.”

“I don't eat fish with bones.”

“That mermaid's singing is awful. It's ruining my appetite. Make him shut up.”

The siren, the mermaid, and the chat: “?! Do you even know what you're saying? This is an escape-game livestream, not a hotel restaurant!”

System: “Congratulations! You've successfully avoided the mermaid's hypnotic song, the poisoned cutlery, and the parasitic fish.”

The chat: “...This game has to be bugged!”

*

Everyone else is fighting to survive on the beach. The princess is vacationing by the sea. When the monster old woman brings her a poisoned apple, the princess says she only eats apples freshly picked in Aksu, Xinjiang. The paper ghost lurks under the bed, waiting to strike, but the princess says something under the bed is poking her. The ghost prince says he wants to marry a beautiful princess. Jiang Youtao tells him he's too ugly and to get lost.

Everyone else is solving puzzles. The princess is inspecting the NPCs. The jumping ghost's ten-story building isn't tall enough. Jiang Youtao was jumping from the twentieth floor at age eight. The beauty ghost's lipstick is smudged, and her face isn't half as pretty as Jiang Youtao's. How dare she call herself a beauty? The magician's tricks aren't impressive enough. Jiang Youtao could perform a limb-regrowth trick at age ten, so he still has work to do.

At first, the chat said: [What kind of delusional freak is this?!]

Now the chat says: [The one and only Princess of the Escape Game: Jiang Youtao]

*

The survival game has an adjudicator who terrifies every player: Cen Ji.

One day, Cen Ji enters a game to handle a rule violation. He sits at the end of a long table, his gaze indifferent.

Suddenly, the game's famous princess steps out from among the players, kneels before Cen Ji, embraces him passionately, and confesses, “It's wonderful to see you on this beautiful day, my lord adjudicator.”

The players: “?! What kind of death wish does the princess have? That's Cen Ji!”

As the players stare in horror, Cen Ji reaches out and touches Jiang Youtao's hair.

The players: “No way. Are these two actually dating?”

Amid what looks like a passionate embrace, the knife in Jiang Youtao's hand sinks deeper and deeper into Cen Ji's chest.

Jiang Youtao: “Do you like the gift I gave you, Lord Adjudicator? A knife that can get right up close to your heart.”

[Jiang Youtao: princess type, chuuni, unhinged * Adjudicator]

* Featuring a princess type with attitude and an unhinged streak

* The author refuses to admit that the Aksu apples feel out of place in the blurb

* Rekindled love, loving enemies who try to kill each other; the princess's knife is made from the adjudicator's bones

Theme: Love is fated