Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 50

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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 50
DLC [The Heroic Professor]: Hotfix Ver 2.3.1a(1)

“Aren’t you even nervous?”

The middle-aged professor beside me on the airship had asked the question. We were flying toward the towering form of Zincsite—four massive arms jutting outward—and he was visibly tense.
I didn’t answer.

……

There was no particular reason for it.
I was never good with words. Spend enough years in graduate school, and there comes a time when you no longer know what to say. That was my state.

Normally, when I don’t respond, people lose interest.
But this middle-aged professor had been strange since earlier.
Strangely reverent in how he regarded me.

【 Professor Ludenbach of the Black Path: ‘Remarkable… truly extraordinary focus….’ 】
【 Professor Ludenbach of the Black Path: ‘One cannot stake one’s life on duty alone…. But if this man can truly defeat that enormous beast alone…. At such a young age?’ 】
【 Professor Ludenbach of the Black Path: ‘Youth is a weakness. But if Professor Dante truly constructs alone against that beast…. Perhaps our Assassination Department could wager the future of the Hiaka assassination industry on this young professor……(omitted)…’ 】

……Why so much weight.

Meanwhile, curiosity had stirred in me.
I was filled with questions about the Hotfix.

What would become of the Error Space now.
What was Eve’s Large Error Space.
Emergency patches like this—didn’t they only exist in online games.

From questions within the realm of common sense like these.

‘Bugs.’

Suddenly, doubts I had felt countless times during my time in Hiaka surfaced in my mind.

‘Come to think of it, haven’t I been benefiting from an unusual number of bugs?’

When I thought about it, that was true.
I had reaped the benefits of several bugs.
What were they?

1. Seeing Holy Marks and Curses—things that shouldn’t have been visible—in situations where I had no detection ability.
*Holy Mark: I saw a Holy Mark on a Liberator despite unappraised status.
*Curse: I saw three Curses on Rebecca’s Missil.

2. Hidden individuals being visible on the Minimap and similar displays, things that shouldn’t have been seen.
*Finding even Elise on the first day’s assassination.

3. The Script’s Minimap recognition distance exceeding 3,000 meters.
*Seeing through Balmung’s sniper attack.

I’d been sucking the marrow well, and the thought of having it taken away gnawed at me—but if that were the case, it would have been written in the Hotfix notice.

In any case, as all these thoughts ran through my mind, the time had nearly arrived.
The countless questions I harbored, first and foremost.
All the way to the reward that Systematicity promised.

There would be answers to all of it.

A soothing sensation spread through my body like anesthesia wearing off.
This was the process of my consciousness escaping from one world.

The world blurred.
Perhaps it was my vision that was fading.
Gradually, all of this began to feel like a dream from a single day, receding into distance.
Then a status window appeared.

Wait, what?
I lost consciousness just as that thought crossed my mind.

* * *

The world recedes.

My consciousness drifts, floating toward some distant place.
The ground beneath my feet fell away rapidly.

At the moment when the continent covering the earth had shrunk to a speck, I had become a comet, streaking across some corner of the universe.

If that vast expanse of land had vanished in an instant,
then perhaps I was moving as fast as light, or faster than light.
Yet even at such dizzying speed, the width of the universe I was crossing remained overwhelmingly vast. It was, quite literally, astronomical.

What came to mind was the Jamsil Sports Complex I had visited once. The sound of Bruno Mars’s song filling that enormous, sprawling arena.

If an atom were the size of that stadium, the nucleus would be no larger than a soccer ball, and the electrons would be no bigger than ants crawling around the perimeter of the field.
So an atom is essentially empty space. Since the universe is made of atoms, the entire cosmos is essentially empty space.
Now, having departed from somewhere near the back of some ant’s body, I was feeling that truth in my very skin.

The entire world was empty.

If there was one peculiar thing in all that darkness,
it was that somehow there was a window above the empty universe.
Ordinarily, there should be no such thing as direction in the cosmos.

To put it another way, this universe was a basement.

Having gone through that process, I emerged from some basement,
and when I came to my senses, I was standing alone in a snow-white world.

“…….”

I lifted my hand.
I had a body.
It was still Dante’s body.

I turned my head and looked around.
The description of it as a snow-white world was indeed apt.

Perhaps this is what the Arctic night looks like.
Everything from the floor to the sky and far beyond was white space.

Yet it was not a purely conceptual space; the ground was lined with white paving stones arranged in a grid pattern.

In a manner of speaking, this was a desert. A desert made of white paving stones instead of sand.

───
Character: Dante Hiaka
Difficulty: [Hell Difficulty]
Seed: 3340 1414 5592 **** ****
Progress: Main Story 1
Overall Combat Power: 157,440
───

So this is…… Offline.
I’d half expected to open my eyes back in reality.
But that’s not what happened.

The status window helpfully displays the patch time as well.
For roughly an hour, it seems I’m meant to stay here.
So what now?
A space entirely unfamiliar.
A situation entirely unfamiliar.
No matter where I go, the scenery doesn’t seem as though it will change.
There’s no sun above me. Just a plain white sky shining endlessly overhead.
Without a single cloud, there’s no sense of distance at all.

I might as well walk.

I began walking aimlessly for a start.
But even after walking for a long time, nothing changed.

Normally in places like this,
there’s a tree and an oasis far off in the distance,
and some suspicious temple somewhere over there….
For some reason it feels like there ought to be.
But here there’s nothing at all.

The feeling of being utterly alone.
It was strange.

Since possessing this game’s body, I’ve rarely been alone.
At most, just when I sleep.
My schedule as a professor never lets up in the first place,
and with incidents erupting constantly, I’ve been summoned here and there without respite.

Does walking have any meaning if I arrive at the same place no matter how far I go?

So I sat down on the ground.
Once seated, I lay back.

At least the patch time is only fifty minutes. I’m grateful for that much.

If it were three days or a week, it would’ve been somewhat unbearable.
It was as I was mulling over such thoughts.

“A-wawa….”

A child’s voice came from somewhere.
I raised myself up and turned my head, and there was something strange.

It was a child.
Dressed in a gray dinosaur costume.
A small face poking out just around the dinosaur’s neck—a remarkably cute-looking little one.

“Who are you?”

I asked.
The child cautiously raised a hand and waved.

“Ah, h-hello…!”
“Hello.”
“The wea-weather is. Very. Nice. Nice. Nice….”

A halting, mechanical way of speaking.
Then the kid pulled a piece of paper from their waist and glanced at it.

“The weather is, very nice…!”
“…….”

What is this kid?

“Who are you anyway?”

Going by height and face, I’d guess five or seven years old. A pure child. The one who’d been mumbling “A-wawa….” spoke.

“I am, I am. I am….”

Who?

“…I don’t know.”

……Rather philosophical.

“Oh, that’s right. I’m Dino!”
“Dino.”
“Yeah…!”

Then the kid pulled out a piece of paper again, glanced at it, and approached.

“Ah, anyway. Welcome to here…! What’s your name…!?”
“Dante Hiaka.”
“I see…! That’s a cool name…! So, from now on, while you’re in Offline, I’ll explain about the p-p-patch notes…! And…. Um, and….”

The child glances at the paper again.

“…emergency patch compensations and bug-related cases and adjustments to be made and related matters about….”

Mmm, umble-mumble….
At the end, the child hid the paper and spoke with confidence.

“…I’ll explain it all to you…!”

What are you doing by yourself?

‘Ah.’

This boy appeared to be an apostle of Systematicity.
Systematicity, one of the thirty-three stars, symbolized the game system itself—a helper to all users.

“Fine. Let’s hear what you have to say.”
“R-right…! So… uh… uh… g-grade assignment… the rewards for… inside….”
“Stop.”
“Ah… oh…?”
“It seems you haven’t prepared your script at all. Why don’t you just look at the paper and read it aloud?”

His face crumpled.

“Ugh… I prepared so hard for this….”

I reached out, thinking it might be easier if he just looked at the paper directly, but Dino quickly hid it away.

“Give it here. I’ll read it myself.”
“N-no…!”
“Why not.”
“If… if you take this… I’ll have no use left…!”
…….

Then there was nothing for it.
Soon enough, Dino was reading from the paper, stumbling through it in a halting voice.
The content was roughly as follows.

───
* Hotfix Patch and Adjustment Log
1. Corrected summoning timing error for Zincsite.
2. Corrected error: three of Zincsite’s eight arms had been afflicted with ninety-tier Curses.
───

I went pale.
Three ninety-tier Curses? On three separate arms?
If that were true, Zone 0 had come perilously close to annihilation.

───
* Rewards
1. Star Fragment × 50
2. Additional assistant for Error Space
3. Revival Coupons for the deceased × 3. (Validity: 1 day)
───

The rewards, meanwhile, were remarkably generous. Fifty Star Fragments? That was extraordinary.

“We have to use the Revival Coupons right now…!”

Dino held up three blue coupons, his voice urgent.

Many people had died in this crisis.
So only three could be brought back….
Fortunately—or unfortunately—no one close to me had fallen.
I named three people at random.

“But what does the second item in the rewards mean?”
“R-right…! That means… until now, players haven’t been informed about what errors occur in the Error Space… but now Systematicity will send someone—an assistant—to your side who can share information about the errors that have been identified…!”

That would be helpful.
Earlier, I fought the Zincsite match without any information whatsoever.
I’d come dangerously close to a bad outcome.

“A-and that concludes my explanation of the patch notes!”
“You did well.”
“Thank you…! Um, do you happen to have any questions?”
“Questions?

It intrigued me—being asked for questions.

“Will you answer anything?”
“Hmm… Well, not everything, but… If I can explain it, then to some extent….”

With that, Dino’s eyes darted nervously back and forth.

“…B-but I can’t tell you too much….”
“How much can you tell me?”
“Uh-oh….”

Dino shook his head vigorously.
As if even that itself couldn’t be discussed.

I’d had plenty of questions all along—ones I’d shelved because I couldn’t find answers. Now seemed like the right moment to open that door again.

“……What’s become of me in the real world?”

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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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