Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 52

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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 52
DLC [The Professor of Heroes]: Hotfix Ver. 2.3.1a(3)

Time was running short.

“How do you even get into End Ocean?”
“You just go in.”
“Into the sea?”
“Yeah.”

The idea of diving straight into the water gave me an inexplicable sense of dread.
The water looked clear enough, but it descended into depths so profound and dark that there was no way to gauge them.

“What’s wrong? Scared to go in?”
“Not exactly.”
“It’s the sea, but you should be able to hold your breath for a long time. Besides, we won’t go too deep anyway. We haven’t seen the ending yet.”

Hold my breath for a long time?
Not actually breathe underwater?
That sounds absolutely suffocating.

“Want me to help? I’ve got a good idea.”
“What is it?”

As an offline assistant, did Dino actually have some method up his sleeve?
The moment I finished thinking that—

“Well, see….”

Dino came at me with a full body tackle. Wham!

Splash—

Damn it, this little bastard.
That sneaky grin on his face made it clear—he was getting revenge for getting hit from behind.
But I’m no saint myself when it comes to holding grudges.
Once you’re out of here, I’m putting you through a 200,000-meter fall difficulty.
Until the jump button breaks.

“Blub blub…!”

……Those words never made it to the surface.

As I plummeted into the water in an ungainly fashion,
my consciousness began to sink along with me.

* * *

In the darkness, only text continued.

It was strange.
I was nothing but darkness, so I couldn’t see them.
Apparently, they couldn’t see me either.
Yet I felt a peculiar sensation—the awareness that I was near them.

I was surrounded by people.
Countless people, all around me.

Players who’d seen the ending at both difficulty levels were responding. The numbers were beyond imagination. But there was nothing from [Hard Difficulty Level].
After that, talk about me seemed to pour in endlessly.
Just as Dino said, they were very interested in me.

Since word had gotten out that a strong one had arrived, they were curious about things even I would be curious about.
But I had no way to answer. I had no mouth, no hands.

A rather shocking status window came to mind.
Apparently other people had different DLC options displayed.
Did a DLC called [Graduate Student] actually exist?
Good grief.
Whoever it was, I offered my condolences to any player who’d been trapped in a lab even within the game, exploited by professors.

A bug in version 2.1.5?
Now that I think about it….
Was the current hotfix [2.3.1]?
Huh?
What’s this.
There were apparently other versions too, and other bugs as well.
I had no idea what those were.
So I decided to hold onto my thoughts a bit longer and observe.

Beware the person closest to you…. That was it.
This seemed to be the only clue available to me now.

Meanwhile.

They were people, after all.
Separate from having seen the game’s ending, it seemed they’d had their own conflicts.
The strong oppressing and dominating the weak—wasn’t it a long-standing tradition among us living things?

Reactions in agreement followed suit, and I found it rather absurd.

Who asked me to take their side?

As part of this repugnant organism myself, I’m perfectly willing to join hands with the oppressors of Hard Difficulty and march toward a filthy, tyrannical autocracy.

After all, three-tenths of any peninsula dweller harbors a northern heart. And those with a northern heart learn to praise dictatorship.
In other words, doesn’t everyone carry a flag of artifice roughly one-third in their chest as they live?

I will become the Kim Jong-un of Hell Difficulty.

Hell Jong-un.

……I was merely watching the reactions while entertaining such dog-eared thoughts.

Oh.
For the first time, an opportunity to express my consciousness had arrived.
Overall Combat Power, then.
Should I reveal it or not?
After deliberating, I decided to reveal it.

Chaos erupted.
In a decidedly negative direction.

It was understandable.
150,000 isn’t a low figure, exactly.
But for players who’d seen the Ending, it would seem ambiguous.

To put it in perspective: America’s richest man comes to Korea.
When asked about his wealth, he says 100 billion won.
Huh? Of course, 100 billion won is a lot of money, but…America’s richest man, you say? That’s the kind of response that surfaces.

In reality, even players on Normal Difficulty can hit 300,000 by the Ending if they level carefully. And those on Easy Difficulty often reach 150,000 without much trouble.
Though I’d anticipated this reaction, I deliberately revealed my combat power anyway. A faint hope, perhaps.

As expected.

So he was hiding. A Hard Difficulty player.
I don’t know his name, gender, face, or anything else.
But since everyone had been cursing him, I wanted to see what kind of person he was.

Well-trained, I’ll give him that.
Hard Difficulty or not—140,000 at the Main Story Chapter 4 starting point means he’s leveled up seriously well.
So he must’ve made it all the way to the ending without dying once.

Though his tongue’s a bit sharp, I’ll admit.
Where’s his mother?

Come to think of it, anyone who can clear this game’s Hard Difficulty without dying once is definitely something of an outlier.

Either motherless.
Or a cancer patient.
Or a motherless cancer patient.
That’s me.

As disappointment spreads like wildfire.
Someone raises a question.

Another chance to make a choice.
I hesitated again.
Reveal it or keep silent.
Either way, it doesn’t change anything for me.
And hiding one’s strength is an assassin’s virtue.

But I decided to reveal it anyway.
Why shouldn’t I humble that Hard Difficulty hotshot?

Another uproar erupted instantly.
Naturally, it swung in a positive direction.

At Main Story Chapter 1, Overall Combat Power at most reaches 40,000.
Even on Hard Difficulty, that’s how it should be.
But I have over 157,000 at Main Story Chapter 1—the gap is incomparably vast.

The Hard Difficulty player who’d been running his mouth falls silent.
That’s what made it so funny.

Well, that’s just wishful thinking―

Unfortunately, it was time to return.

* * *

Every professor’s gaze converged on a single point.
Dante, who had gone alone aboard an airship to hunt down the Jinksite.
They had all anticipated a fierce battle.
But after Dante reached the Jinksite,
remarkably, without any warning whatsoever, the massive four-armed monster simply retreated into a fissure and vanished without a trace.
The professors were left utterly astonished.
Ludenbach, the Black Path professor of Movement Studies who had accompanied Dante, trembled inwardly.

‘Ah!’

He had been right!!
The Jinksite had disappeared! The process itself had resolved almost anticlimactically, but regardless, the fact remained that the Jinksite was gone!

“…What was that, Professor Dante? What happened?”
“The creature fled. It likely felt apprehensive about facing me and retreated to a distance.”

So that was it!!
He’d heard that Professor Dante had distinguished himself in the previous battle. So he was powerful enough to inspire fear even in a monster from another dimension!?

Ludenbach, who had fathered a daughter late at forty-eight, found himself considering naming his soon-to-be-born child Dante instead….

That Professor Dante would regard him with cold displeasure for merely entertaining such a thought was something he could never have known.

* * *

After the Jinksite disappeared, matters were quickly resolved.

The Academy Faculty held Professor Dante in high regard.
To describe it somewhat: a man of perhaps thirty years old, whose abilities were judged to be on par with the senior professors.
Consequently, they decided to keep Dante Hiaka’s abilities as concealed as possible.
Naturally, an assassin must hide a portion of their capabilities, and thus Professor Dante came to be regarded as a pillar of the next generation of the Academy.

Meanwhile, everyone witnessed the airship that had been falling suddenly deploy wings and glide downward.
Numerous professors and students wondered about it.
Who had unfurled the wings?
On this matter, after careful examination of the circumstances, the Faculty quietly let slip the name ‘Grey Habanero’.

“Grey! You’re absolutely amazing.”
“We knew you were a genius, but we had no idea you were capable of something like that!”

In the hospital room, upon awakening, Grey found herself blinking as Black Path students suddenly crowded around offering praise.

“Me…?”
“Yes! You did it!”
“……??”

Grey felt a headache settle in as confusion fogged her mind.
Had she really done such a thing?
She couldn’t quite remember.
At the time, a combination of heavy intoxication, flu, exhaustion, and finally the use of Overdrive had left her memories hazy.

“Grey is the best!”

Dumbfounded, Grey announced she needed rest and shooed everyone away. Then she sat alone with her thoughts.

‘…Grey, the best…?’

“The best indeed, truly!”

Around that time, Dominic happened to peek into the Critical Care Unit, and witnessed something shocking.

“The best? Everyone knows Hiaka’s medical standards are terrible….”
“Quiet now! Right now, it *is* the best, Professor Gula! She brought you back from the dead!”
“Don’t… shout like that…. My head’s pounding….”
“A miracle, a miracle!”

Professor Gula had a hole torn through his abdomen and had been in cardiac arrest for hours already. He’d been rushed to the medical bay drenched in blood, yet now he lay in the hospital room with his heartbeat restored, awake and whole.

…….

The moment their eyes met, Dominic pressed himself behind the wall. He’d never dared dream this would happen.
That his prayer would be answered.

“I shall offer a prayer.”

Meanwhile, Rebecca, as the Princess and the Palace’s saint, visited every funeral service to kneel before the Holy Mother in prayer. She mourned the fallen cadets and instructors with genuine sorrow.
Yet at the same time, she watched the neutral professors she was certain she had killed survive their wounds.
It made no sense. When had Hiaka’s medical technology become so advanced?

“Your Highness? It is time to proceed to the Memorial Hall in Sector Two.”

Rebecca was the sort who felt profound irritation at anything that refused to bend to her will, and lately such things had been multiplying.

“…Yes. I shall go.”

Thus the brief war came to an end.

DLC [The Professor of Heroes]

Hotfix Ver2.3.1a

END

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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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