Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 54

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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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“You knew stagnant water when you saw it. Russell’s closer to rotten water, if anything. But it’s not that rare a case either. Plenty of people move between realities without any real constraints.”
Momo spoke.
“Even so, though…….”
I didn’t know where to even begin objecting.
I looked at Russell. No matter how generously I assessed him, his face couldn’t have looked more than mid-twenties.
“How old are you, anyway?”
At my question, gazes flickered between Russell and Momo.
“I suppose it’s time I told you the secret too.”
Momo made a beckoning gesture. As I leaned in close, she whispered into my ear.
“Have you menstruated since you came to the Fortress?”
Huh?
“Come to think of it…….”
I traced back through my memories.
It had already been nearly two months since I arrived at the Fortress. I’d dismissed it as stress and the chaos of everything going on.
So that was normal here?
“That’s not all either. Your hair, your fingernails—they’re exactly as they were when you first arrived. In short, your biological clock stops.”
According to Momo’s explanation, you neither aged nor progressed in illness within the Fortress.
The mechanism of eating food and expending energy remained intact, so the survivors who moved between worlds in short cycles barely noticed the effect.
But for long-term residents like Russell or Momo, it was an open secret.
Momo continued.
“Which is to say, you won’t die of old age in here. Though the odds are pretty high you’ll die some other way first.”
“But why am I only learning something this important now?”
At my question, Russell gave a snort of derision.
“Stick around a few more months. You’ll see that doesn’t matter at all.”
Looking at Russell like that, a certain thought struck me.
‘Russell’s practically an old man. And here he was, constantly checking himself in mirrors and pouting about his lips.’
“……I know what you’re thinking, and don’t look at me like that.”
“Oh, you! How dare you be so rude to Amelie! What kind of tone is that!”
Getting back to the point, to deal with the Black Market, we first needed to find a “broker.”
“I can connect you with a broker. Getting the first deal set up is a bit tricky, but you should be fine. I’d like to go with you, but there’ve been a lot of grudge-related incidents in that neighborhood lately…….”
To Momo’s hesitant expression, I quickly shook my head.
“No. I’m grateful to both of you. Seriously, thank you for making the time to come out like this.”
I meant it. There had been all sorts of complications with these two people, but I understood that sharing advice like this within the Fortress wasn’t something done lightly.
A brief awkwardness settled over the table.
“……Why?”
As I asked, Momo glanced at Russell before speaking.
“It’s just been so long since I’ve heard someone say thank you to me. And I never imagined the three of us would end up sitting together eating cake like this…….”
Russell, who had been silent with his eyes downcast, finally opened his mouth.
“Amelies always were like that.”
“What?”
At my question, Russell lifted his gaze to meet mine.
“The Amelies before you. I don’t know how exactly, but they left their knowledge to you, didn’t they? Am I wrong?”
I didn’t answer, but his words made me think of Amelie’s diary.
One past Amelie had written that whenever she learned something new, she should share information for her successor.
The other Amelies seemed to have diligently maintained the records as well—for Amelies who would come after them, Amelies with whom they had no connection, Amelies who would replace them.
Russell continued.
“In the last enrollment period, I nearly died. I know more about Gwangnyon Hall than anyone in the Agency does, but do you think I’d leave a single scrap of that knowledge behind? For the ‘Russell’ who comes after me? Not a chance.”
“…….”
Russell clicked his tongue softly. His gaze fixed on something distant.
“That’s why you lot were always so difficult.”
I didn’t know what to say in response. Momo laughed, giggling.
“You praise people in strange ways, don’t you?”
Russell answered with only a scoff.
Some time later, as I parted ways with them and returned to my room, Russell’s words kept spinning through my mind.
Perhaps I wasn’t the selfish, narrow-minded person I thought I was.
Perhaps I was quite altruistic after all, and perhaps that wasn’t as bad a thing as I’d believed.
‘Thinking thoughts like this—I guess I’ve gotten more livable.’
As I climbed the stairs, mocking myself, I noticed footprints.
They were muddy boot prints identical to the ones I’d found in front of my room before.
‘The scarecrow.’
When I first came here, the scarecrow had only lingered in the second-floor corridor, but since that encounter in the Freezer Storage, it had been lurking around my room constantly.
It hadn’t actually done anything or caused harm, but the uncertainty of its purpose made it unsettling.
‘The third floor was supposed to have only two residents—me and Momo.’
The first door in the hallway was my room, the next one was Momo’s. There were three more doors beyond that, but I’d never been curious about them.
When you can’t see even an inch ahead, curiosity is worthless.
That’s what I thought. But…….
‘Why do the footprints lead over there…….’
The end room of the corridor.
The small wooden door seemed to serve as storage.
Of course, none of the doors in the Fortress were truly physical doors.
There was no way to know what space lay beyond it.
“……Come out.”
Looking at the still-wet footprints, I spoke.
“I know you keep lingering around here. If you have business with me, come out and say it.”
…….
I waited for a long time, but the corridor remained silent.
Just as embarrassment was beginning to creep in, a notification chimed.
I checked the screen. Goosebumps crawled up the back of my neck.
[K4N_8■?JN: Come with me.]
* * *
In a café located in the lobby of an upscale hotel in central Seoul.
The coffee had grown cold, and Kang Do-jin had already checked the time for the fifth time.
‘None of them ever show up on time, these people…….’
Not that he could complain to anyone. Kang Do-jin sighed and absently fingered his necktie knot.
He’d worked under Chairman Song for over ten years, but meetings with Agency personnel always made him uneasy.
Infiltrating mercenaries into the Agency had its limits. Real valuable intelligence almost always came from insiders.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to turn Agency operatives directly deployed to the Fortress. But any organization so large and secretive invariably had at least one or two places where it leaked.
“Sorry about that. Have you been waiting long?”
At the glib greeting, Kang Do-jin smiled. He immediately rose and extended his hand for a handshake.
“Not at all. Thank you for making the difficult trip out here.”
As Kang Do-jin lifted his head to see the other man’s face, bewilderment crossed his features.
The man was supposed to be an insider who knew Agency secrets and had been selling information to the Chairman for ages.
So naturally, Kang Do-jin had expected a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair. But the figure before him couldn’t have looked more than mid-thirties, no matter how generously assessed.
As if accustomed to the reaction, he smiled and took Kang Do-jin’s hand.
“Kwon Tae-hyun, team leader. I suppose I look rather young?”
He dropped heavily into the chair and sucked down the pre-ordered orange juice through a straw in long pulls. Then he exhaled deeply, as if finally able to breathe.
“That’s better. Everything in the Fortress tastes so bland and off—I can’t stand it. Anyway, what kind of luck is this, being able to see such glory…….”
“Ah……, so you’ve recently come over from that place?”
“Yes, I go back and forth. But…….”
Kwon Tae-hyun paused briefly and glanced sideways at the hotel lobby.
“It’s quite the coincidence, isn’t it.”
“Yes? What…….”
“This hotel. It has a twin. One in there as well.”
“In there” meant the Fortress.
Kang Do-jin had heard of it too. Around the time this hotel, owned by Chairman Song, was built, an identical twin hotel had been constructed alongside it.

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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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