Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 23

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

‘If only the unpleasant ones would leave…….’
I turned over the Student Council President’s words in my mind. For a moment, I stood with my back against the wall, catching my breath.
Perhaps I’d already lost my judgment. Because this corridor, ever since a while ago, the angles of the walls and corners had been subtly…….
“Did you see that smartphone the new kid was carrying?”
At the sound drifting from the far end of the corridor, my body went rigid. I quickly looked around. There was a door nearby.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, I saw it. So could that be the new Amelie?”
‘They’re talking about me?’
I silently pulled open the classroom door and quickly slipped inside.
The footsteps of the unknown pair drew steadily closer.
“I hope this one lasts a while. I’m bored seeing the same faces every time. Now that we all know each other too well, everyone just avoids each other anyway.”
“Still, Russell definitely seems finished this time, right? That baseball bat Kay had—it was from the Central Library.”
“Good riddance, honestly. Russell’s been so unbearable, acting all high and mighty like he owns the place. I’m sick of looking at his face.”
I waited for the footsteps to fade, keeping myself perfectly still.
“Phew…….”
Fortunately, the two of them didn’t seem to notice I was here.
But what do I do now? I slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
The way everyone seemed at ease suggested there had to be some way through. But was going back out into the corridor really the right call?
The others already seemed to know everything about each other, and they also appeared well-versed in course selection.
Wandering aimlessly without any sense of direction was too risky. If I ran into someone else…….
I pulled out my smartphone. I opened the message app.
‘Should I ask for help……?’
Of course, I didn’t trust Marlo. I hated owing anyone favors.
But the situation was stacked heavily against me as things stood.
That was when it happened.
“Amelie.”
At the unfamiliar voice, I jerked upright. Someone was sitting in a chair by the window.
I clenched my fists. What a stupid mistake. I’d rushed into this dark room without even checking if anyone was inside.
The man by the window spoke in an oddly slurred accent.
“So you really are the new Amelie. Ha ha……, but who were you calling just now?”
“……What?”
I looked down. My thumb had already pressed the call button without my realizing it.
Click.
-Finally figured out how to use it?
His voice drawled playfully through the line. I brought the phone to my lips, barely moving them as I spoke.
“Um……, Professor, would it be alright if I called you back later?”
-Why does your voice sound like that? It’s cute.
It’s not cute at all.
Swish—the man took a step closer. The hood barely perched on his head slid off, and corridor light caught his outline.
It was the same hooded man who’d taken a baseball cap to the head.
“……Russell?”
“What, you already know my name?”
Russell chuckled. I just moved my lips wordlessly as I stared at his sunken skull.
Russell noticed my shocked expression and let out a light sigh.
“Not pretty to look at, huh? But at least I avoided anything fatal.”
Russell pulled back his hood with a flourish. Now his face came fully into view.
“…….”
It was a fine-featured face with sharp lines. At least, the undamaged side was.
Russell touched at his blood-soaked right eye socket as he asked.
“You have a mirror?”
“What?”
“Do you have a mirror?”
I just shook my head.
Russell’s right eye had completely dislodged from its socket. Of course, that’s assuming you could still call it an eye at this stage.
‘Avoided anything fatal?’
Bitterness flooded my mouth.
To be mangled like that and still go looking for a mirror—whether to call that serene or vicious, I couldn’t say.
At least he didn’t seem about to attack me. If he’d come at me from behind, I’d have been helpless.
“If you don’t mind, should we walk for a bit?”
“What?”
I echoed back, startled by the sudden proposal.
“Why so surprised? I saw everyone pairing up earlier.”
“But…….”
“You can’t get out of this corridor alone. And I think we could be useful to each other.”
Russell looked toward the corridor with his remaining eye.
There was nowhere to retreat to anyway. I pocketed Amelie’s smartphone, which I’d been holding until then.
“Lead the way.”
* * *
A moment later.
There was no sound in the corridor. Russell walked ahead with practiced ease.
I asked with barely contained anxiety.
“So what exactly can you do for me?”
“Is that pride talking? This is your first course selection. Just standing next to me right now should make you grateful.”
“…….”
Creak—Russell turned his neck at an odd angle. I’m no anatomist, but it looked like at least one bone or muscle was torn.
Both his hands also seemed fractured from deflecting blows. He felt carefully at the inside of his elbow with fingers that barely bent.
‘Is that some kind of wearable……?’
Through the thin fabric of his sleeve, I could make out a small mechanical device wrapped around his arm. It had no display or buttons.
Russell noticed my gaze and quickly pulled his sleeve down. He caught his reflection in a glass pane and let out a soft laugh.
“That bastard Kay, he really did it…….”
It didn’t take much to figure out that Kay was the name of the baseball-capped guy who’d smashed Russell’s skull.
The two people who’d passed by earlier had even mentioned that Kay’s baseball bat came from the Central Library.
Though right now, none of that probably mattered.
“Look, forget the mirror for now. Just explain things first. What are the rules of this game?”
“Game?”
Russell let out a scoff.
“Does this look like a game to you?”
If he meant whether I was approaching it with joy and levity, then no, definitely not.
But cowering and shrinking now would only make me easy prey.
To survive among these stagnant people, I’d have to become just as shameless as they were.
I looked out at the corridor that seemed to stretch infinitely. After walking and walking for what felt like forever, we’d finally round a corner only to find another long hallway stretching ahead.
Like the endless corridors I’d seen the day I first fell into the Fortress.
“……Anyway, it’s a fact that we have to find something here. You said it gets scored and becomes a grade.”
So couldn’t you call this a kind of game too? Didn’t I get graded by my performance score in Bad City?
‘……But why do I keep thinking about that game?’
That was when Russell spoke up.
“The content changes a bit each semester, but the rules stay the same. That’s why the Student Council President didn’t bother explaining much.”
“So what exactly are these rules?”
“Find the path, earn the credits.”
“So these credits you’re talking about…….”
“They’re a physical objective. Literally, objects symbolizing ‘credits’ are scattered around the underground levels, and we have to run around and find them.”
What is that?
“That’s incredibly simple…….”
“It is simple. Once you collect all the credits, course selection ends. The number of credits distributed equals the number of students participating.”
‘Equals the number of students?’
Kay and Russell, the masked woman and her two companions, and that pair of two who’d passed through the corridor earlier.
Including me, that made eight total.
“I think I’ve given you all the information you need.”
“Not even close.”
“The rest you’ll figure out as you go. That’s how games work. So should I explain what you need to do from here on?”
Click—Russell opened the metal door to his right.
I followed him inside the room. And I noticed scratch marks on the doorknob, as if someone had carved them with a blade.
Ah, so that’s how you navigate—by marking the path like this. Is this information shared with everyone else?
If so, this seems like a wildly unfair game for me.
Russell crossed the empty room and crouched in front of the fire extinguisher cabinet, tilting his ear toward it.
“……What are you doing?”
Instead of answering, he tapped the fire extinguisher twice—knock, knock—like he was knocking on a door.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————