Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 70

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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 chill raced across my entire body. But before I could properly react, the mysterious figure vanished through the doorway.
I shot to my feet and ran.
“What—what is it? Amelie?!”
I rushed past Momo, who’d just climbed the stairs, heedless of what lay ahead or behind. I tore open the Facility Room door.
The person behind that door might well have been the architect of all of this.
And if I’d seen correctly—that face half-hidden by the hood, that distinctive scar on the lips—it was surely…….
Thud.
The small room was empty. Only the motor sound of an old machine echoed through the space.
“Hey, Amelie, you——!”
Momo chased after me, her breathing sharp with alarm.
“What is all this?”
Twisted pipes and rusted lockers—what remained between them was unmistakably evidence of someone living in hiding.
“This is insane, it’s creepy. Someone’s been squatting here this whole time?”
Momo muttered, nudging a worn sleeping bag and backpack with her foot.
I scanned the room.
‘There doesn’t seem to be an escape route…….’
Then my eyes caught an old desktop computer hidden behind the door.
And beneath the metal table it sat on, there was a narrow space—just enough for one person to squeeze through.
‘A fire exit, maybe……?’
A narrow corridor stretched through the partly opened door. It was strange that there was no sound of anyone there, but I had no time to dwell on it.
“Momo, you have a weapon on you, don’t you?”
“What?”
“Lend it to me for a moment. I’ll return it right away.”
Momo’s expression shifted. But seeing that I was serious, she wordlessly pulled something from her jacket pocket and handed it over.
“……You serious?”
“Hey, do you know how much this cost? The performance is solid despite how it looks.”
I took the crudely made Pink Automatic Pistol that looked every bit like a factory toy. The click of the safety engaging sounded almost convincing.
“Amelie? Hey, where are you going!”
Behind me, as I crawled under the desk, Momo called out.
“I saw his face.”
“What? Whose face?”
“Kang Woo-jin.”
“Who’s that?!”
At the end of the corridor, I kicked the door open. Something heavy crashed to the floor.
Peering out cautiously, the object I’d toppled came into view. A simple broom.
“Ah.”
〈Thanks for letting me know the Facility Room on the third floor of the Dormitory connects to the Student Council Building’s supply closet, Amelie. (｡• ◡ •｡)♡ I know you won’t hear this, but thanks to you, I escaped getting caught. ㅎㅎ〉
“Ugh…….”
As the tension drained from me, my entire body went slack.
Had I let him slip through my fingers right in front of me?
The moment I saw the silhouette vanishing through the doorway, certainty crystallized. The man on the CCTV from Room 1202 of Nest Building, the shadow that had lunged at me when consciousness was implemented, the figure in the feed.
And K4N_8■?JN, who had sent me messages posing as Scarecrow—they were all the same person.
What could it mean.
‘Kang Woo-jin. And…… the Cheong Shin Jin-ri Research Institute.’
That cult that had shattered my parents’ lives and my childhood, that had vanished from the world—why did it now circle around me?
Perhaps the gaps in my memory being filled in was not mere chance.
“Amelie? Where did you go! We’re turning out the lights soon!”
“……I’m coming now!”
Whoever he was, whatever he was, I would not let him escape like this.
I turned my steps around.
* * *
‘Is the season changing?’
Sitting on the Academic Building Front Stairs, basking in the sun, I thought.
The weather had felt off for a while now, but it seemed as though we’d entered early summer. The sky was high and bright with sunlight, though it wasn’t yet noon.
‘Well, the semester’s already half over.’
A week had passed since Scarecrow’s identity was revealed. The one who’d unexpectedly helped settle the matter was the Student Council president.
Scarecrow—or rather, Freya—was shockingly still listed as an active student in the school records.
According to the Student Council, suicide wasn’t grounds for expulsion or any other such action.
The fact that she’d hanged herself in the female dormitory was itself the problem. With restricted access conditions, no one had come to help or intervene even after she was found that way.
So Freya had to remain suspended in the corridor, hanging in a Near-death State closer and closer to death, growing more and more senseless with each passing day.
〈We will address any complaints submitted through the proper channels with utmost promptness.〉
The Student Council president had said this in an utterly bureaucratic tone.
After my final communication with her, what remained of Freya’s consciousness had apparently been extinguished.
No longer a student in any meaningful sense, the school had no grounds to keep her any longer.
‘Should I call that a good thing. Now, of all times…….’
The Facility Room where Kang Woo-jin appeared to have been hiding yielded no significant clues.
The desktop mentioned in the diary was completely unresponsive.
But if he’d remained here because he had business with me, wouldn’t he eventually show his face of his own accord?
“…….”
I pulled the Pink Automatic Pistol from the Cross Bag I’d been carrying.
〈I’m giving that one to you, Amelie. I’ve got another one just like it. It’s almost like a friendship item, right?〉
With those words, Momo had gifted me the pink pistol. It matched my personal color perfectly, or so she claimed.
Another undergraduate rolled around near the bushes. I clicked the Laser Pointer at them.
Since things had come this far, I might as well do some Shooting Practice.
“Good stance.”
I looked up at the sudden voice. Mallo stood behind me with a hand shading his eyes.
“……You shouldn’t startle someone holding a gun.”
At my complaint, Mallo laughed.
“Let me know if you need tutoring. I can drill it straight into your head.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
He looked down at me for a moment, then turned and began walking away. I quickened my pace toward the Student Council Building lobby.
Mallo had agreed quite readily to my request for a tour of the Underground Research Facility.
“You look troubled.”
Mallo said as he pressed the elevator call button.
Troubled was certainly an understatement. But I still didn’t know precisely what I was searching for.
The Underground Research Facility was the same. I merely hoped there might be some clue to the scene Lee Ha-young had witnessed.
〈Otherwise I’d feel weak!〉
That had been my last call with Mallo. Even as I resolved not to treat him so casually, I found myself growing emotional with him too often.
It happened last time too. I said what I wanted to say and hung up abruptly, then later texted a sudden request. It was something I could never have imagined doing before.
Did Mallo truly want nothing from me? Could it really be that I could summon him like this, never attending his lectures, never participating in his sessions, whenever it suited me?
“Um……, Professor.”
“Hmm?”
“I was rather rude last time.”
“Hmm? What did you say?”
“…….”
“Ah, I did get the text. You asked if I was asleep, didn’t you?”
……He was teasing me.
Ding. The elevator doors opened.
Standing beside Mallo in that narrow space, nothing could have felt more awkward. After standing silently and staring at the panel for a moment, Mallo spoke.
“Do you still feel that way?”
“Pardon?”
“Do you still feel weak with me?”
He remembers.
“I’m sorry if I upset you. It is funny that I’d say such a thing after getting all that help…….”
“I wasn’t looking for an apology. I know you don’t mean it. What I’m curious about is why you felt that way.”
Mallo was looking at me. I slipped my gaze away again.
“I suppose it’s pride.”
“Pride.”
“…….”
“That accepting help means admitting you’re weak?”
“That’s…….”
“By now, you should understand. Your intellect, your judgment—none of it means anything against the world’s irrationality.”
“…….”
“So what I want to know is this. Why do you blame yourself for your misfortune?”
I had no answer to give. Ding. The elevator stopped, and we stood in the corridor where I’d first fallen.
As if nothing had happened, Mallo walked ahead and spoke.
“I’ve been busy too, you know. I would’ve at least cleaned up if you’d let me know in advance.”
“Please don’t say things you don’t mean.”
But I was a little on edge. Mallo’s research office—what could possibly be there?
Click.
The moment the door opened, what played on the large screen greeting me was…….
[The most exquisite ‘balance’ of technology and art ― Not design, but attitude. The purest curve completed in your hands, Orbit X0.]
A commercial for the latest smartphone model.

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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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