Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The moment Russell pushed me hard again, all the clues snapped into place in my mind.
‘This is it.’
I grabbed Russell’s right arm.
Crack.
And I tore away the mechanical device attached to the inside of his elbow with all my strength.
Splurt—bright red blood sprayed. The IV tube connected to the catheter inserted in his vein ripped free.
He gasped sharply.
“No……, no, no, no, no……!”
I watched as he fumbled, trying desperately to reconnect the catheter to his vein. It seemed Russell had already forgotten I existed.
But it didn’t last long. His fingers fumbled uselessly, and the moment the mechanical device slipped from his grasp.
“Ugh, ugh…….”
His one remaining eye flew wide, and a moan leaked from his gaping mouth.
What twisted across his face was pain. Intense, pure pain.
“Ahhh……, ahhhhgh!”
As expected, what he wore on his arm was a kind of pain relief pump. And now, his numbed sense of pain was returning.
Russell’s knees buckled.
Whoop—
At the same moment, I lifted my head at a stupid whistle sound coming from somewhere.
Boom—colorful petals rained down over my head.
Soon after came the sound of recorded applause crackling out from something like a karaoke machine—clap, clap, clap.
Thump, Russell convulsed one last time, and I, standing there stupidly, inadvertently stepped on the platform set up at the entrance.
That moment.
[Attention.]
Following a mechanical beep, the Student Council president’s flat voice echoed through the Basement Floor.
[The third participant has entered through Entrance 6. Remaining academic credits: 8.]
Click.
So that’s what it was.
I spotted the number “6” lighting up on the platform beneath my feet.
That was why Russell had been so desperate to get me inside first. The moment I entered, everyone would know my location.
He was using me as bait. What he was trying to draw in was probably…….
Bang.
Screee—
The sound of metal scraping against the floor. At the far end of the straight corridor stood a man in a black baseball cap, a metal baseball bat gripped in one hand.
Bang, screee—
I stumbled backward at the sight of K approaching me with a wide grin.
Ding.
But as if blocked by an invisible wall, I couldn’t step beyond the platform.
Bang, screee—
“Man, I should’ve done this from the start. Damn it, what’s the point of running around? You just gotta flirt a little with the professor and boom—Equipment Advantage means nothing anymore.”
K snickered and cracked his neck.
He was not the same person I’d seen in the Large Lecture Hall moments ago. His muscular body had swollen to at least twice its size.
His exposed face glistened with sweat, and his shirt was soaked in some unidentifiable liquid.
Every time he spun the baseball bat, the sound of air being cut through filled the space.
How could I possibly beat that? I urgently pulled out my mobile phone. A crazed grin spread across K’s face.
“Long time no see. That thing? You know what I mean?”
Cra-cra-crack.
“Last time, Ameli got destroyed by me too.”
And then K started charging straight at me. Without another thought, I pressed the call button.
The signal went to the number displayed in the open message window. Whoosh—I barely dodged the bat being swung by hunching over at the waist, and I screamed.
“Help me, Professor!!”
-Huh? What? I can’t hear you very well.
Bang, screee—
“Haha, this is actually fun.”
K laughed and swung the bat once more. I threw myself at the ground.
Crash—the second strike shattered the panel wall I’d been leaning against moments before.
“Help me! You pathetic professor!!”
I staggered to my feet. I pushed K as hard as I could when he reached his arms toward me, then tried to flee down the corridor.
Thud.
“Oops.”
Oops……?
Soft blonde hair tickled my cheek. I lifted my head, my forehead pressed against his chest.
He bent his head over my shoulder and whispered teasingly.
“Who’s pathetic?”
K froze in place, the baseball bat hanging limply at his side. His wide eyes stared at Marlo.
Because of the blood-soaked shirt clinging to his body, I could see K’s chest rising and falling heavily.
If it hadn’t been, I might have thought he’d collapsed standing up.
“Did you call me?”
Marlo asked in a voice so gentle it was almost soft.
“Uh…….”
“Hm?”
His smiling face was close. I finally realized I was half-leaning against him and stepped back.
I, who had just been screaming for help, felt my mind go blank the moment he appeared before me.
“So, what would you like me to do?”
“That is…….”
I looked at K, who remained frozen. Then I turned to look at Russell, sprawled on the ground.
Russell was convulsing intermittently. From the way he struggled to lift his head, he seemed to still be conscious.
If I’d been even slightly slower, I might have ended up just like him.
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it.”
At Marlo’s sudden words, I looked up.
“Physical pain. That’s what you all do, isn’t it?”
“‘You all’? What do you mean by——”
That’s when K moved, as if entranced. Clang—the baseball bat slipped from his hands and fell to the floor.
Bang, rolling and rolling—K’s baseball bat rolled all the way to my feet.
“Frightened by something, are you.”
Marlo said that and kicked the bat lightly with his shoe.
When K staggered toward it, I thought he was about to attack me again.
But I was wrong.
Like a sleepwalker, K slowly picked up the bat. He knelt on one knee, then crashed it down—Thwack—against his own thigh.
“……?”
I couldn’t even turn my gaze away in shock. Even as his face twisted in pain, K didn’t stop.
Crack.
I didn’t know if a human could shatter their own shin bone.
What was certain was that the final blow had undoubtedly ruptured his muscle.
Ugh, K’s eyes bulged as if they’d pop from their sockets. His clenched jaw trembled.
Perhaps K wasn’t human anymore—perhaps he was under the influence of something else.
“Ugh…… uuugh……!”
K’s eyes rolled back. A torrent of red vomit poured out.
“Haha, gross.”
It was something Marlo muttered with a laugh. Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed his sleeve.
“Stop……doing this.”
“What?”
“Stop. I don’t want to see this.”
“…….”
K’s movements stopped. He arched his upper body backward one last time, then collapsed limp on the floor.
“…….”
After a brief silence, Marlo asked.
“Are you angry?”
“……Pardon?”
Angry?
I looked back and forth between Russell collapsed at the entrance and K sprawled at my feet.
Both of them groaned in apparent agony, their bodies shaking intermittently.
Ah, Marlo’s expression said he understood.
“It’s fine.”
“……?”
“They won’t die. Either of them.”
“How would you know that, Professor?”
“This is just Course Registration after all. No matter how much it’s like a war, surely people don’t actually die, right?”
[Attention.]
The moment Marlo finished speaking, the Student Council president’s voice rang out as if on cue.
[Two participants have just Withdrawn. The Withdrawn will be……, sigh, retrieved. A total of 8 academic credits remain.]
“You hear that? They’re going to retrieve them.”
Marlo smiled, and my head spun. I couldn’t gather my thoughts, feeling disconnected from reality.
The announcement, the petals from before—everything felt like a bad dream or a cruel prank.
“Then…… why didn’t you have them spray the petals this time?”
I asked in a trembling voice.
“Hm?”
“When that person collapsed earlier, they sprayed all those petals, and the applause…….”
Marlo glanced upward with a wink. Then, clap clap clap—a thunderous roar of applause accompanied an enormous shower of golden petals that began pouring down over my head.

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