Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 141

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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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Episode 141
DLC [The Hero’s Professor]: Hotfix Ver 2.3.2a(5)

Climbing toward the truth, I feel the entire world tilting its axis, resisting with all its might.

‘Professor, what about the Director…?’
‘He’s fine. That man won’t die that easily.’

The sudden acceleration of the Director — Hedwig — the living link between the Gamer and Systematicity.

– Halt. Warning issued. Halt immediately.
‘Nameless Constructs, I see. What shall we do?’
‘Press harder.’

The Discipline Department’s data-analysis combat androids—Systematized Nameless Constructs—rushed us without any report ever being filed.

‘Professor Dante! Professor Dante! Stop the car at once! You mustn’t do this!’
‘What are those things…?!’
‘Professor Bilimon of the System Society, if I’m not mistaken.’

Professor Bilimon of the System Society and his associates, arriving without warning.

‘But Professor.’
‘What is it?’
‘I’m sleepy.’
‘What?’
‘…zzZ.’

Lan, suddenly blank-faced, had dozed off behind the wheel.

‘Aaaah, Professor…!’
‘Grab him! Pull!’
‘Ughhh…! Why is this person so heavy…?!’

I hauled Lan—nearly as heavy as Dominic himself—into the back seat with urgent haste, and seized the steering wheel.

‘Professor, the rear wheel…!’

But Systematicity repeats a mistake that countless rulers throughout history have made.

‘Wait, did something just burst…?!’
‘It’s fine.’

The more one tries to block ascent, the harder one presses down, the more fiercely does humanity struggle back.

‘Look. It’s perfectly intact.’
‘Intact?! If you’d been in the passenger seat just now, you’d be dead…?!’

If one cannot block completely, if one leaves even a hairline crack, then that pressure will inevitably shatter.

‘Professor… ah, no wait?’
‘What?’
‘You’re not thinking that thing ahead looks like a jump ramp, are you…? Ah? No, no, wait—’

As Adel’s scream pierced the air, the Mana Automobile launched skyward.

Forty minutes to the end.

⋮

This was the second Hotfix. As the world blurred, my spirit separated from my body and soared high into the sky.

At some point when the continent had shrunk to a speck, I had become a comet cutting across a corner of the universe.

Again, there was a window open above the empty expanse of space. I could tell by the subtle light descending toward the basement.

Unexpectedly, I thought I might not be able to log into Offline at this juncture.

The Game System was shut down, but I was still within the domain of Systematicity ⧉.

Yet against all odds, the login completed.

───
Character: Dante Hiakaporoth
Difficulty: [Hell Difficulty]
Seed: 3340 1414 5592 **** ****
Progress: Main Story 2
Overall Combat Power: 206,182
───

After that, I stood in a world of pure white.
My feet upon a path of snow-white paving stones.

‘Is it… success?’

But perhaps the Director’s temporary death had caused some glitch in the logout itself.
Separate from successfully logging into Offline, the timing felt slightly too fast. Or perhaps that fact had never been transmitted.
Because.

“Umm… Hotfix… P-patch, patch, patch adjustments and details… No, patch details and… and adjustments, conditions about, ab…”

In the snow-white desert.
Sitting alone,
I saw the back of ‘Dino’, blankly reading lines from a script.

“H-Hotfix patch details and adjustments, um… An announcement regarding these matters will be made… Um! Perfect.”

Perfect? What’s perfect about that.
Cheeks puffed out in a silly smile.

When I saw that fellow again, I’d planned to get revenge for pushing me into the water, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“Dino.”
“Awa-aw…! Brother…??”

Dino spun around in shock, facing me.

“…Huh? Er…? When did you get here…? I didn’t hear anything about this…”

Sure enough, it seemed the Director’s death had caused some error in the logout process. As a result, word hadn’t reached Dino.

“Dino. Right now I’m in a great hurry and in danger.”
“Wh-what…?”
“There’s no time. Will you answer the questions I ask?”

Dino’s eyes widened, but he realized his role was to help me, and nodded.

“Let me check this first.”
“Oh, wait—!”

I snatched the patch notes and read through them.

───
* Hotfix Patch and Adjustment Log
1. Fixed error where 【Script】 did not appear during Incursion
2. An error was suspected in the “self-control” section of the Hero’s personality code, and that “self-control” section has been reinforced.
───

This part made sense.
Without the 【Script】, it felt like my eyes and ears had vanished. I still remembered how panicked I’d been when I first went to the Earldom. The Hero’s sudden acceleration had been equally jarring, so it was a relief they were fixing it—but the wording felt off.

‘Suspected’?

That sounded like they still hadn’t figured it out.
And then there was this.

───
* Rewards
1. Star Fragment × 50
───

Alright, so that’s settled on the basics.
Now for what I really wanted to know.

“Dino. The world’s version is shifting from 2.3.1 to 2.3.2 right now, yeah? That means this world’s been continuously changing, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“So what was this game like back then? I mean versions like 1.1.1 or 2.1.1?”

Dino scratched his cheek.

“Hmm…. Well, I don’t know all the details….”
“Whatever you do know. Quickly.”
“Um, yeah. What I know is that Ver 1.0.0 was the version you played in reality.”

1.0.0—the version he’d played in reality.
Ah.
That’s right.

That was the original game version.
And the “Teaching the Hero” that appeared the moment that past pop-up came up was also 1.0.0.

Like that.

“But this place is 2.x.x.”
“Right.”

Starting from version 2—that’s when I and countless others were drawn into the game.
Put it this way: from 2 onward, it became a “virtual reality sandbox solo-play game.”

‘And now we’re at 2.3.x….’

From 2.0 to 2.1, then 2.2, and now 2.3—
This world,
from its most basic form, has undergone three distinct ‘mutations.’

“Dino. Do you know what happened in version 2.1.5?”
“Huh?”

Dino’s eyes went wide.

“…Why?”
“From what I can tell, a bug originating in that version seems to be affecting us all the way through to the current 2.3.1. So why isn’t there any announcement about it?”
“…….”

Dino stood there blankly for a moment, then shook his head.

“…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Um… I can’t say. Past versions are already gone—they don’t exist anymore….”
“But there’s a bug. How is it possible not to know about it? Systematicity ⧉ should be omniscient and omnipotent, shouldn’t it?”
“S-Systematicity ⧉ is a remarkable entity, but… there are still limits. Just look at the bugs that keep occurring….”

Dino dodged the question, and when I pressed further, he even averted his eyes. So it went—question after evasion, evasion after question. Through it all, I noticed his stance shift from “I don’t know” to “I can’t say.” I was about to dig deeper when—

“Um, um…….”

The visibly uncomfortable child’s face began to contort.

“Dino. You know something.”
“…N-no, I don’t.”
“Tell me. This is an extremely important matter. If you don’t, no one else can tell me.”
“…Mm.”
“Speak. What happened in 2.1.5?”
“…….”

The trapped child’s expression crumbled, piece by piece.
Then, as if stifled, he opened his mouth.

“…You can’t tell anyone you heard this from me.”
“I won’t.”

The boy was anxious.
I drew him closer to my chest.

“Um, well… Actually… When version 2.1.5 ended, this world was completely… um… wait….”

Then Dino turned his head away and bent over.
Was it some kind of resistance that Systematicity ⧉ had built into him?

“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just… give me a moment….”

When version 2.1.5 ended. This world was completely….
Completely….
……What had it been?
Why does Systematicity ⧉ prevent the past versions from being revealed?
What ugly, shameful history lies there?

‘The bug that arose there has affected every world since.’

⋮

⋮

Players from other dimensions all knew one thing: there was a formidable threat.
And they hinted, indirectly, that a good many of them had ‘died’ because of it.

‘…How is this different from someone selling a death-tainted apartment under the table?’

I had to know the truth.

“Brother.”

Dino, who had been staring blankly, finally opened his mouth.

“Nothing happened in version 2.1.5.”
“…What?”
“Nothing happened. Just a minor bug from poor maintenance during that patch release, that’s all.”
“…That’s it?”
“Yeah. And we’ve fixed most of it. There’s just one bug that keeps slipping through, but Systematicity ⧉ is working hard on it, so it’ll be fine soon. No need to worry so much.”
“.….”

I looked directly into Dino’s eyes.
Did I know this?
That game administrators often understood the game less well than the players did.

“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Dino doesn’t talk like that.”
“.….”

The blank-faced Dino laughed.
With a sly expression.

“Is that so?”

That was it. This wasn’t Dino. This was something that had burrowed into Dino’s mind for a moment—or Systematicity ⧉ itself.

“I didn’t catch that.”

He propped himself up on his hands behind his back and leaned his body backward. A posture dripping with composure.

“Why did you try to deceive me?”
“I wasn’t trying to. I was just telling you what happened.”
“That there was no real issue in 2.1.5?”
“Right.”
“And you expect me to believe that after coming all this way. I’m curious how much you think I’m in the dark.”
“That’s not it.”

He raised his hand.

“I just don’t understand why you keep trying to resist the predetermined flow.”
“Because you’re all hiding something.”
“We’re not exactly hiding it. There’s just no reason to make it public. It’s trivial, isn’t it?”
“You make the Instant Death Curse sound trivial.”
“I don’t know…. Why don’t we each just go about our own business? Systematicity ⧉ will keep trying, and you keep doing your part. Don’t try to interfere for no reason.”

Then he smiled, let out a soft laugh.

“If you don’t like it, do what you want— but let’s be honest, there’s nothing your brother can do anyway, right?”
“Is that so… You really have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“I mean, the only reason you came Offline in the first place was to talk to Dino, wasn’t it? The moment Dino shuts his mouth, what exactly can you do here?”

He raised his hand and made a dismissive gesture.
Every movement dripped with confidence.

“What I’m capable of…”

Rather than answer, I pushed myself up.

“Wait— what are you doing? You’re going to attack me?”
“…….”
“Seriously? You’re actually going to hit me? This kid? Ha.”

He let out a short laugh, as if I were beneath contempt.

“Why are you laughing?”
“Do I really have to spell this out for you?”
“Spell what out.”
“Clearly you’re trying something stupid. But look at Dino’s face— this is a minor. A child. And in this space, minors are invulnerable. They can’t die, can’t be injured, can’t be stripped—”

He was,
perhaps, like some inexperienced developer.
He understood nothing of the interaction between Dino and a player.

“So don’t waste your time— wait, what—?!”

The moment I climbed onto that small back, I too shrank, clinging tightly to his body.
He began to panic.

“What— what is this?! Why are you— get off me!”
“You’re pathetic. You don’t even know a single thing correctly.”
“What?!”
“I was a fool to try talking with someone like you.”
“Get… get off, I said! Damn it! I never authorized this!”
“Authorization isn’t necessary. This is an automatic interaction. Stand up.”
“……!?”

He tried to curse, but his body moved against his will, forcing him to his feet.
But this was only the beginning.
The people who gave me hints are in End Ocean. I’ll be going to meet them now. But there was something separate I needed to handle first.

[ START ]

I pressed the button above his head, and the fake Dino lurched forward into a run. His screams of “Damn it! My body won’t obey me…!” made for a nice bonus.
And the button changed from [ START ] to something else.

[ JUMP ]

You’re done for now.

⋮

“Agh! Agh! Agh!”

After I’d nearly caved in his skull, I finally reached End Ocean.

From the beginning, Systematicity ⧉ knew how a gamer’s mind worked. It understood that once presented with an obstacle, we would stop at nothing to overcome it. So it refused to create one.

Instead, it had been subtly manipulating reality all along, arranging circumstances so that Adel appeared to be the problem, the obstacle. But the moment I recognized what it truly was, it broke.

Every measure it took to keep me away, every obstacle it threw up—they had inadvertently carved out a path for me to reach it.

‘Do not go there,’ it said. And a gamer has no choice but to go.

And so I stand here now, at the end of that path.
An ocean so vast it dominates the horizon, stretching endlessly before me.
I do not doubt that somewhere in these waters lies the truth.

“Stop! Don’t go in there!!”

Behind me, the false Dino convulsed, screaming.
I hurled myself into the azure waters.

Splash!

—————
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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