Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 7

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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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A long exhale. After finishing the first section, I set the diary aside and leaned back in my chair.
‘Literally a diary written in blood.’
I could tell just from the feel of the paper in my hands. Countless hands had read and recorded in this diary over the years.
How many of them had managed to escape the Fortress? Over all these long years, how many Amelies had been replaced?
But there was no time for sentimentality. I kept turning the pages.
「Still no sense of what the escape condition might be. Nothing from the Administration Office. For now, all I can do is work hard to earn credits.
Below are the methods I’ve discovered for earning credits.
1. Attend lectures and receive a grade of D or higher.
2. Receive additional assignments from staff members.
If there are other methods, I’ll add them below.」
Below that, a different handwriting continued.
「3. You can also do volunteer work in town.
I’ve heard that some shops are participating in programs targeting students. But I’m not sure if that’s a particularly desirable choice.
There’s still no way to go into town alone, and I don’t really want to take a bus or anything.
The Administration Office still hasn’t contacted me. They said they’d help with sincerity, but civil servants can’t be trusted.」
I turned the page. A printed sheet of paper was folded in half and wedged inside.
Hello, students of Gwangyun University.
Below is the course registration method prepared by the Administration Office in response to continued inquiries from students.
We notify you in advance that details may vary depending on the time of registration.
This semester’s course registration procedure is as follows.
1. Obtain the relevant forms from the Administration Office and fill them out carefully and correctly.
2. Submit the forms to the professor whose course you wish to take. Obtain their signature and seal.
3. Submit the paper bearing the professor’s signature to the Administration Office.
※ All forms must be received before the deadline without exception, and all students are notified that they must complete at least one course per semester.
※ We must stress that any enrolled student found not taking any course after the semester begins may be expelled immediately.
I tilted my head without thinking.
“Something seems off…”
At first glance, it seemed like a straightforward procedure.
It was a bit unusual to need a professor’s direct signature, but considering how few students might actually be staying here, it wasn’t something I couldn’t understand.
But what did this “expelled immediately upon discovery” even mean?
Setting aside the ominous tone of the warning, did that mean you didn’t have to attend classes if you weren’t caught?
No, why would anyone do that in the first place? You can’t graduate without attending classes.
But the moment I turned the diary to the next page, my confusion dissolved.
「Here’s the list of lectures confirmed so far.
I’ve drawn a strikethrough on lectures I’ve already completed.
○ The Great Foundational Thesis
└Failed it. I don’t think it’s possible to pass this.
I’m someone who’s learned plenty, and I still failed. Unless you’re really confident, don’t even try.
○ Advanced Bloodline Search
○ Thinning Out the Countless Sprouting Twigs
└Lost two fingers because of this one. My successor may or may not exist, but know that you owe me gratitude.
○ Unmentionable
○ The Krampus March, 10054th Iteration
└Barely passed it. Don’t even look at it sideways.
○ 42
└Known to be the easiest course. But the competition is so fierce it’s better not to even try.
└Who’s the professor? ヾ(・◇・)ﾉ
└This record is kept in a personal diary, not an internet forum, Amelie.
You might ask questions, but nobody can answer them. And even if a kind successor does answer, you won’t be able to verify it.
└It’s hilarious how this person replies to each comment anyway ㅋㅋ
○ The Minor Theater of Dracomorphides
○ The Light of Life
└It didn’t have a strikethrough, so I inquired at the Administration Office and learned I’d already completed it last semester.
It seems all students were replaced the moment they completed it.
A course you can only take once in a lifetime, they say. Either way, it worked out well for me.」
I flipped through the remaining pages, but the lecture list didn’t continue any further.
I doubt a four-year university program would have only this many courses to take. Of course, the Amelies who came after may have stopped recording, but even so, the number of courses taken was too few.
‘Course registration is… a week from now, wasn’t it?’
Gwon Tae-hyeon had said I should be fully prepared.
What if the Amelies didn’t fail to register—what if they were unable to? What if registering for courses and completing them had been difficult all along?
If that were the case, the warning about expulsion made a certain kind of sense.
As for earning credits besides course registration… the “volunteer work in town” seemed like the most doable option.
Either way, I had someone I needed to find. To do that, I’d eventually have to explore the town.
I tried to look for information about the town in the diary, but since it had been written haphazardly by multiple people, finding the information I needed wasn’t easy.
A soft rustle. I opened the next page. It contained the most critical information I’d seen so far.
「※ Food Supply Sources Compiled ※
It’s not easy to get food within the school. Secure as much food as possible when the opportunity arises.
There’s a refrigerator on the first floor of the Dormitory. Anything stored there seems to be preserved indefinitely. (But don’t put anything alive in it. You won’t like how it turns out.)
○ The juices and desserts sold at the Café next to the Student Center are all safe.
Except for one: the Lychee Smoothie.
All I can tell you is that the white, round things in it aren’t lychees.
The café is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The door is open at other times too, but you won’t be able to communicate with the staff member. Unless it’s urgent, avoid using it.
○ Some of the food in the Student Cafeteria can apparently be eaten.
But I don’t think it’s worth going through that hell for it.
└Why? School food has always been great for me ㅎㅎ The new menu items added recently are seriously delicious ٩(∂‿∂)۶
If you go during off-peak hours, you can minimize combat with the ‘students’!
I’m going to eat there tomorrow too!╭( ･ㅂ･)و╭( ･ㅂ･)و
└This Amelie’s records ended after this note.
We can’t know exactly when she was replaced, but just know that the new Student Cafeteria menu item ‘Cheese Tonkatsu’ isn’t actually Cheese Tonkatsu.」
Today is Tuesday, and the time is 7:20 a.m. The Student Center, where the Administration Office was located, wasn’t far. So perhaps I should try that café first…
“Oh.”
I had no money.
The little cash I’d had until yesterday morning had been taken by loan sharks, and to begin with, it was questionable whether it would even be accepted here.
I really did need to find a way to earn money. But how do college students usually make money? I’m not sure since I only finished high school, but I’ve heard there’s something like student labor…
First, I decided to go down to the first floor of the Dormitory. There was a chance the previous Amelies might have left something in that perpetually-preserving refrigerator.
It was ironic that the most trustworthy people in this world were the predecessors, and I didn’t even know if they were alive or dead.
When I opened the wardrobe, clean clothes were neatly organized on hangers and in drawers. Most were colorless, unremarkable everyday wear. I pulled off the grimy t-shirt I’d been wearing since yesterday and put on a thick hoodie.
Had the previous Amelies worn this too? How many of them had escaped alive? Thinking about it made my heart feel oddly complicated.
When I opened the door and stepped back into the hallway, the campus vista that had been hidden by darkness the night before spread out through the window.
Walking paths and a plaza, four Lecture Halls—it had the appearance of a modest but convincing single college. But beyond that, thick forest surrounded it, obscuring any view of the world outside the campus.
Come to think of it, the handbook had mentioned something about the Origin of the Fortress somewhere.
Most of it was baseless speculation and rumors, and I’d skipped over it thinking it wouldn’t help with immediate survival.
From what I half-remembered, most of the buildings in the Fortress were imitations of real places. Locations that actually exist across the country had been twisted and distorted here, brought together in this place.
‘But… there’s really no one here?’

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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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