The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 103

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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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Academy Absolute Professor Episode 103
Second Cohort of Students
Four special admissions.
Twenty second-round passes.
Twenty-four students total had been accepted into the second cohort.
They sat with eager expressions, watching Kang Hyun intently—though countless other eyes remained fixed on the Old Training Hall Practice Grounds. The Dean’s, the professors’, and even the failed applicants’.
Their curiosity was understandable, but Kang Hyun found it uncomfortable.
So he spoke.
“From now on, go back to the dormitory and pack all your belongings. Every last thing.”
The students tilted their heads in confusion.
Pack our things?
Were they planning to go somewhere already?
That moment, Min Seo-jun, standing behind Kang Hyun, set down twenty backpacks on the ground.
“Please take one each. You’ll need to use it carefully and return it.”
Geonkun C—prototypes.
“Oh, and when you pick one up, do you see the Formation Wood I’ve placed in front? Please infuse it with your aura for about three seconds.”
“Our aura?”
“Yes!”
On the ground beside the bags lay twenty-four meticulously crafted pieces of Formation Wood, each the size of a finger, arranged in neat rows.
As Kang Hyun nodded, the students, still bewildered, released their aura as instructed.
Each piece of Formation Wood then gleamed softly, now carrying its own unique Qi Signature.
Once these were inserted into the security system at the Main Base, they would grant access rights.
As the students stared at their new backpacks in wonder,
“You have exactly twenty minutes.”
Kang Hyun spoke flatly.
“Pack everything you’re bringing and reassemble here. Anyone who’s late gets penalized.”
The students froze.
Twenty minutes?
Even if they sprinted back and forth, at least ten minutes would pass.
And the backpack given to them was little more than a basic pack.
How could they possibly fit moving luggage into that?
Moreover, their legs were already unsteady from climbing the mountain all day.
“Um, Professor? Physically speaking, the time…”
Someone cautiously began to object.
“Nineteen minutes, fifty seconds.”
Kang Hyun started the countdown in a low voice.
“Go! Run! Just run!”
The students, suddenly alert, bolted from the Practice Grounds in panic.
Yet not even fifteen minutes had passed before they all reassembled.
The speed was truly remarkable.
Of course, they were gasping for breath, their eyes wide with bewilderment.
‘What is this bag?’
‘I kept shoving things in, but why is it so light?’
In their desperate rush, they hadn’t had time to properly grasp the technology behind the Geonkun.
Could the threat of a penalty really be this terrifying?
“Well done.”
The second cohort of students looked far more disciplined than any elite special forces unit.
Of course, it wasn’t discipline imposed by brute force.
It was voluntary discipline born from the firm belief that under Kang Hyun’s tutelage, they could certainly become the best.
“Follow me.”
Kang Hyun turned and led the way.
At last, the time had come to enter the Main Base, built specifically for Kang Hyun’s Special Guidance Studies.

* * *

Any student would have heard about the construction happening here.
The sound of it had continued throughout the entire last semester.
But?

She had never imagined the mist would be this thick.
“Listen as you follow.”
Kang Hyun’s voice pierced the ears of the Students.
“Only those who breathed Aura into the Formation Wood earlier can pass through here. Don’t bring anyone without it—they’ll wander lost in this mist until I pull them out.”
The Students followed closely, their faces taut with tension, eyes fixed on each other’s backs.
A soft rush of air.
The dense Protective Mist swallowed their vision, then parted in an instant.
“Huh?”
“This is… insane.”
Gasps escaped the Students’ lips.
From outside, it had looked like merely three buildings.
But beyond the mist lay something else entirely—a space of impossible grandeur.
The temple-like structure radiated an ethereal Aura, and the whole place breathed with openness.
It was like stepping into a world beyond the Academy.
The Practice Grounds, in particular, left them breathless.
“How is it this vast?”
“Am I hallucinating?”
Even the Old Training Hall and New Training Hall’s Practice Grounds combined would be smaller than this.
It was almost laughable.
Outside, hundreds of Students shared a single Practice Grounds, fighting over hourly slots, while here a handful of chosen few commanded a space that dwarfed it many times over.
And the training equipment scattered throughout the grounds looked expensive enough to make one’s eyes water.
‘This really is another world.’
Of course, none of them resented the privilege.
If it bothered them, they could always pass the Selection Examination themselves.
“Pay attention.”
Kang Hyun climbed onto the raised platform at the center of the Practice Grounds.
“For the next month, you’ll undergo joint training here. Then, after midterms end, each of you will choose a team suited to you.”
At the same time, Kang Hyun tilted his chin toward the back.
“The team leaders who will guide you forward. Greet them.”
Cha Yu-sik, Gwak Do-jin, Yun Hyun-jong, and Han Tae-ho ascended in succession.
Some Students looked puzzled.
‘Why isn’t Seo Hae-in coming up?’
‘Are there only four teams?’
And in that very moment.
A deep, resonant pulse shook the air.
Two men emerged from behind the platform, their presence so crushing it sucked the breath from the room.
“What?”
“Wait…”
The Students’ eyes went wide.
Was there anyone in South Korea who didn’t know those faces?
Certainly not a Student.
“M-m-m-ma, Ma Chul-ung!”
“Am I your friend?”
“Eek!”
The Student who’d gasped out the name in shock clapped both hands over his mouth in terror.
Though he’d seen Ma Chul-ung countless times on television, the man’s actual presence was something else—a gaze sharp enough to pierce through steel.
“Starting this semester, we have Professor Ma Chul-ung and Professor Gye Mu-jin joining as contract instructors for the Academy. Both will also serve as team leaders here at the Main Base.”
A jolt ran through the Students.
S-rank Hunters…
as team leaders?
And more than that.
What could possibly bring S-rank Hunters of such caliber to work under Professor Kang Hyun?
The thought defied comprehension.
“Good to meet you, brats. I know more than half of you would jump at a chance with the Tiger Research Institute, but I don’t take lazy ones. Got it?”
Ma Chul-ung bared his teeth in a predatory smile.
“Anyone here use a spear?”
When Gye Mu-jin asked, two Students shot their hands up.
“Good. Train till you’re ready to die. If I see any of you falling behind the swordsmen, you’re already as good as dead by my hand.”
“Yes, sir!”
It was at this point the Students truly understood.
Being selected as a student in Special Guidance Studies was a stroke of fortune that ranked among the greatest turning points of their lives.
That from this moment forward, everything would change.
Of course, they all understood well enough that obtaining such fortune was only the beginning.
No matter how thick a rope heaven lowered down to you, if you didn’t grip it with ruthless determination and climb, it would eventually rot and snap away.
“Spend the next month observing what Martial Arts each team leader uses, then decide where to go on your own. Yu-sik will handle the rest of the explanation. I’ve got too much to do, so I’m heading out.”
Having bluntly delivered his words, Kang Hyun turned without hesitation and made his way toward the office of the Taejeong Main Hall.
Cha Yu-sik, bowing with respect as the professor departed, explained everything with elite precision and clarity.
How teams operated much like guilds, and…
“We maintain strict meritocracy. The strongest becomes team leader.”
He also went over what being a team leader meant.
“Uh, Yu-sik.”
One of his third-year classmates raised his hand.
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“So if we second-generation students just build up our strength, we could become team leaders later, right?”
“Obviously.”
Cha Yu-sik was nodding when—
“You? Team leader? Beat me? Wake up, kid.”
Ma Chul-ung growled.
Though he was only joking, to the student’s eyes he looked like a man-eating ogre ready to devour them whole.
“Oh, no! Not Professor’s team! I-I meant a different team!”
The student flailed his hands in panic, prompting Gwak Do-jin to burst into a fit of laughter.
Cha Yu-sik cleared his throat and continued.
“As you can see, each team has its own atmosphere and character. But the professor’s direction is crystal clear: the strong take responsibility and lead, while the weak grit their teeth and follow. If you’re unhappy with that, you’re free to leave after graduation.”
The students’ eyes blazed with renewed intensity at these words.
For any martial artist committed to self-improvement, there was no reason to reject a world built on respect for the strong.
At least there would be no unfair grievances born of bloodline or political connections.
“The rest of the details and dormitory room assignments will be handled by Secretary Lee Se-ah. That’s all from me. Dismissed.”
The first day of the semester passed in this manner.

* * *
That night.
Jo Ah-young, the seventeenth student to arrive at Cheonmubong, couldn’t stop her tears.
Ding, ding!
The Academy Net notifications kept piling up with posts from the successful applicants, and below them streams of envious comments flooded in.
‘It’s not fair.’
She’d just come early and practiced together with others—so why had she failed?
Was the exam supposed to work this way?
Her emotions spiraled beyond her control.
Jo Ah-young didn’t return to the dormitory but headed home instead.
Without telling her parents a word, she locked herself in her room and cried beneath the covers.

* * *
The next day, at Yeouido.
Jo Tae-hwan, a four-term assemblyman and chairman of the Hunter Security Committee, was nursing a headache.
“Ah-young still hasn’t come out of her room?”
– Yeah, since yesterday afternoon. She’s locked the door and just keeps crying. Won’t eat, refuses to go to the Academy. Does puberty have a second wind? I have no idea what’s gotten into her.
At his wife’s exasperation, Jo Tae-hwan found himself equally baffled.
Jo Ah-young, his youngest and only child, was his pride.
An elite student who had confidently enrolled at the nation’s most prestigious Hunter Academy.
Yet her behavior seemed off, so he’d asked his secretary to look into it.
Moments later, his aide came rushing in with the findings.
“Assemblyman, I’ve confirmed the matter you asked me to investigate.”
“Well, Kim? What in the world happened to make her act like this? Did someone bully her?”
“That’s not it, sir. There’s a class taught by a contract professor named Kang Hyun, and she wasn’t accepted into it.”
Jo Tae-hwan’s brow narrowed.
“A contract professor?”
Not a tenured professor, not the dean?
Why not just skip some class like that?
“Did you get rejected from course registration?”
“No, it’s just that it’s such a popular class the whole school applied. They held some kind of selection exam, and unfortunately I didn’t make the cut.”
“Tsk.”
Jo Tae-hwan clicked his tongue.
‘Maybe I should visit the Dean soon.’
With his influence, getting his daughter into one class would be trivial.
He was a man who could audit the Academy’s operations or redirect the Hunter Management Bureau’s budget.
‘But first.’
I need to find out who dared make my daughter cry.
“Kim.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That professor—Kang Hyun, was it? Look into him.”

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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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