Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 28

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

Knowledge I’d never known before flooded in, smashing through neural pathways I didn’t even know existed.
The back of my skull tingled. My heart hammered. My body burned. My brain, comprehending nothing, flooded me with endorphins.
I jolted upward without thinking, but my head remained locked in Mallo’s grip.
Hah, the adrenaline’s really pumping. Didn’t need that. Guess I was nervous.
“Ngh…….”
A gasp escaped my open mouth before I could stop it. Mallo exhaled long and satisfied.
Quick learner, as expected.
Then, like lightning, consciousness snapped awake.
“Gasp, gasp…….”
I surfaced as if pulled from water, breathing hard, and felt my face with both hands.
I was fine. My cheeks blazed crimson, but there was no pain, no aftereffect.
“What… what…! What the hell are you doing, you crazy professor!!”
The moment clarity returned, I shoved Mallo away with both arms.
Except…….
“Huh……?”
Something was off. Something felt different from usual. Somehow…….
I looked around. Everything seemed sharper than before. How to put it—the world’s resolution had increased.
Until now, I’d never had any real mnemonic technique. I just crammed sentences into my head blindly.
Not that I had a choice; if I didn’t memorize scripture properly, I’d be locked in a dark room, starved, or beaten.
My mind was like a cluttered storage closet, memories and data piled haphazardly atop each other.
But now, just as Mallo had described, every piece of information was perfectly visualized and spatially organized.
It’s hard to explain, but it was…… like a library of memory. Find the right index, and I could summon whatever information I needed.
A Memory Technique, an Association Method—something like that, wasn’t it? I’d heard those required months of steady practice to use skillfully…….
“Professor.”
“Hm?”
“Am I… smarter now?”
I asked numbly, and Mallo burst into laughter. After laughing for a while, he murmured as if he couldn’t help himself.
“Ah, anyway, Lee Yuri…….”
I folded my hands, which had been resting on my cheeks, and placed them on my knees.
“…….”
I didn’t know exactly what Mallo had touched, but my mind was certainly clearer and more composed now.
Calm enough that I could easily pretend not to notice he’d called me by my real name—something he’d never been told.
* * *
A short while later, I’d collected five Credits.
With each Stage cleared, the ceiling above my head darkened, and the panel walls gradually shifted to a red brick hue.
No matter where I looked, this was Bad City at night—not the basement of the Student Center.
From somewhere unseen came car horns and sirens. In the distance, a purple Skyscraper loomed.
The cyberpunk cityscape—straight out of a ’90s film—had its own appeal. If circumstances were different, I’d have wandered the alleys aimlessly.
“This seems to be the final Stage.”
Earlier, the Student Council President had announced over the broadcast that one Credit had been recovered. Probably the person in the Gas Mask from before.
As it stood, two Gold Coins remained in the Maze. Collect those, and this nightmare Course Registration would finally be over.
Thanks to Mallo “improving” my memory, reaching this point had been absurdly easy.
With no enemies attacking, it was actually simpler than the actual game.
“You look happy.”
“What?”
I lifted my head at the strange remark.
“Why? Not enjoying yourself?”
“Enjoyment doesn’t even… there’s no room for that, actually……!”
I clamped my mouth shut.
Right, my nerves are on edge. Otherwise my stomach wouldn’t be churning like this.
I’d even shouted for help for the first time in my life back there…….
Just then, a phone rang. Amelie’s Mobile Phone.
“Hello?”
—Huh, you’re picking up?
A coarse, thick male voice, layered with a metallic rasp.
“Who is this……?”
—Never mind that. You’re the Amelie in this round, right?
“……But?”
—Damn, when someone who should know better does their job like this, how am I supposed to handle it? Do you know how long it took to get here?
A glance.
“Twenty-five minutes?”
—Sharp, aren’t you? I don’t know what trick you used, but if you keep this up, we’ve got a problem. Every time the Recording gets caught, the film burns through—you have any idea how many complaints we’re getting from above?
‘Recording’?
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
—What?
Mallo extended his hand. I hesitated, then passed him the Mobile Phone.
“Yes, this is Mallo.”
He answered playfully, humming a little. Even from here, I heard the other person suck in their breath.
“Huh? You were chattering away just now—why the sudden silence?”
At Mallo’s words, the other person not only quieted but spoke in a strained, strangled voice, mumbling a few incoherent words.
“Equity, what about Equity?”
From what I could gather, they were upset that I’d cleared the Maze too quickly.
I’ve received all sorts of complaints in my life, but complaining about fast work was a first.
Anyway, this confirmed it: Course Registration was just a game, and the professors were somewhere watching students tumble over each other…….
But why?
Our eyes met then. Phone still in hand, Mallo gave me a knowing smile.
Right. Wondering won’t help, and besides—they say knowing about the System is more dangerous than useful.
“Haha, you’re chattier than usual. But hey.”
Mallo switched the Mobile Phone to speaker.
“Did you yell at my student?”
—What? No, I never… how could I have yelled at anyone…….
“You did yell.”
I couldn’t hold back and jumped in.
“You yelled.”
Mallo drew out his words reprovingly, and the person on the other end gave an awkward laugh.
—Hah…… Ha-ha-ha, guess my rough manners caught up with me. Sorry, sorry, student.
“Hmph.”
—But professor, why are you even there…….
Click—Mallo hung up and handed the Mobile Phone back to me.
“Is that person a staff member too?”
“Well…… something like that.”
“But why are they abusing their authority?”
“Was I?”
I nodded, and Mallo furrowed his brow thoughtfully. Then, as if remembering, he spoke.
“Why—even among students, there are regular students, and then there are students with a little more authority, right?”
“Like the Student Council President?”
“Like the Student Council President. Professors are similar.”
So what does that make it? Since you’re the leader of the professors…….
“Professor… chief?”
“Maybe?”
Mallo smiled brightly. Something about it felt off, but I decided to let it slide.
The real problem was the Skyscraper visible in the distance. I’d collected all the Gold Coins on the map, but Course Registration hadn’t ended.
That meant the last one was inside that purple high-rise.
But in the version of Bad City I’d played, there was no implemented path to reach the final Stage.
“In the game, the scenario would end here, fade to black, then the final Stage would start in front of the Skyscraper. That’s strange. Everything else has matched perfectly so far.”
“Dummy Data.”
“Dummy?”
“A final map they built during development but never implemented in the commercial release—it was left as hidden data. They probably trimmed the middle path right before launch because the scope grew bigger than expected.”
“I see…….”
“We borrowed the entire game data when we built this Maze. The scenario they’d scrapped came along as active code.”
“…….”
I stared at him, and Mallo’s eyes crinkled with amusement.
“What?”
“Just wondering how you know so much.”
Like you’d designed it yourself.
“I told you, the professor knows everything. Interested? We could add it to the syllabus.”
“Don’t joke…….”
It seemed he wasn’t going to give a straight answer this time either, but so far, Mallo had never refused any request of mine.
So…….

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