The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 72

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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’s Absolute Professor Episode 72
It’d be reassuring to have them.
“Batar, are you in your right mind?”
Criticism rained down on Batar.
“These are monsters even Mongolia couldn’t handle with its full strength. And you’re suggesting we call in Korean Hunters—a less developed nation than us?”
“Exactly! I understand that Professor Batar was impressed by Korea during the recent exchange tournament, but this is a matter of national survival. Set aside personal feelings.”
Even under the leadership’s rebuke, Batar didn’t back down.
“Don’t underestimate Korea. Have you forgotten the Leviathan that appeared off Korea’s East Sea not long ago?”
“……The Leviathan?”
Someone furrowed their brow in objection.
“Wasn’t that classified as an S-rank Monster?”
Batar shook his head.
“That’s precisely the mystery. It was settled before the World Association could even dispatch a team. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? How long ago did they send the distress call, and five S-rank Hunters finished it?”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Korea may possess greater reserves of strength than we assume. More than that—”
Batar clenched his fist.
“There is one professor in Korea who understands this crisis very well.”
“Understands this crisis? What do you mean by that?”
“Kasar of the Nachalmun. He recently contracted the same mysterious illness afflicting Hunters. And he was completely cured by a Korean student.”
The leadership’s eyes widened.
The fact that Kasar had nearly died in Korea and miraculously recovered upon his return was an open secret even among the upper echelons.
“In this matter alone, it would be wise to place your trust in Korea.”
It was then that one of the leadership members let out a scoff of derision.
“Wouldn’t it be far more certain to seek support from a great power?”
“Naturally, if that were possible, it would be ideal.”
Batar raised his voice, exasperation clear in his tone.
“But do you truly believe they would readily help us?”
……
“They’ll certainly drag their feet with countless excuses, and later demand we surrender mining rights in Mongolia or territorial concessions. In the meantime, innocent citizens will perish.”
“I understand your concern, Professor Batar. But……what guarantee do you have that Korea won’t do the same? They’re a nation too. If S-rank Hunters must be deployed, demanding substantial concessions would be just as natural for them.”
“There is no guarantee.”
Batar conceded the point.
“Then shouldn’t we at least make the proposal first?”
Truth be told, Batar wasn’t trying to summon the Korean government.
‘Kang Hyun.’
He wanted to call him.
– Who is he targeting? That tick of a man.
He’d sensed it in the expression of closing a rattling bottle cap.
‘That man doesn’t avoid calamity……he actually desires it.’
What exactly was he concealing?
Frankly, Batar wanted to see Kang Hyun’s true nature.

* * *
Management Bureau, Director’s Office.
Snap!
Kim Hyung-seok set down the documents.
Across from him, the Special Task Force Team Leader swallowed dryly.
“Have you read it, Team Leader Hwang?”
“Yes, sir. It’s an official dispatch request sent directly by the Mongolian government.”
“Right. And the conditions are extraordinarily generous.”
Mongolia’s condition was three years of exclusive mining rights to a major lithium mine in the Namgobi Desert.
Lithium, the core component of next-generation Hunter equipment as well as batteries, was a resource precious enough to be called white oil.
“The Blue House is in turmoil. The VIP says to push it through immediately.”
“I understand their reasoning, but……”
The Team Leader’s expression grew troubled.
“The specific condition Mongolia specified is the problem, isn’t it?”
[Academy Professor Kang Hyun and Student Baek Yu-yeon must accompany the mission]
“It must be Batar’s doing.”
Befitting an S-rank Hunter, he’d glimpsed Black’s true nature.
The Blue House was suggesting they might as well reveal Black at this opportunity, but the Management Bureau’s position was entirely different.
‘Black’s identity must never be revealed to the world.’
He was an off-the-books asset.
If Kang Hyun’s military capability became known to the international community, the great powers would spare no effort or expense to bring him into their fold.
And if he refused?
They’d move to contain him—or eliminate him.
“What are we supposed to do? We can’t defy the director’s orders, but we can’t very well send Black in openly either.”
“There might be a way, sir.”
The team leader spoke carefully.
“Let’s hear it.”
“During that East Sea incident, remember those S-rank Hunters who signed the confidentiality agreement?”
“Ma Chul-ung and Gye Mu-jin?”
“Yes. We position those two as the central figures to draw Mongolia’s attention. And Black and Student Baek Yu-yeon are withdrawn as non-combat personnel—medical advisory staff.”
The team leader’s expression grew serious.
“Then we ask Black to move quietly behind the S-rank Hunters whenever possible.”
……
“Besides, he dislikes being bothered anyway, so it works out for both sides, doesn’t it?”
It was a fairly sound compromise.
But.
“Team Leader Hwang.”
“Yes, Director.”
“Who exactly is supposed to ask him?”
“Ah, well—shouldn’t Agent Lee Se-ah do it? She’s his primary monitor anyway.”
Huh.
Kim Hyung-seok rose from his seat.
He grabbed the overcoat draped across the back of the chair with a rough motion.
“Director? Where are you going?”
“How much longer are we dumping nerve-wracking favors on our youngest?”
Black was who he was.
He only moved when the state benefited proportionally to what he stood to gain.
And lately, it had become impossible to tell whether Lee Se-ah was a Management Bureau agent or Kang Hyun’s personal secretary.
‘I noticed it that time at the Korean restaurant too.’
This one, he had to handle himself.

* * *
Another VIP Korean restaurant.
Kang Hyun and Lee Se-ah sat on one side, Kim Hyung-seok on the other.
The dishes were arranged impeccably, but no one had picked up chopsticks.
Kang Hyun reviewed the report in silence, then reached his conclusion.
‘Sim Deung-gwi, then.’
Those accursed ghouls from Nachalmun.
He’d planned to find them slowly, but he hadn’t expected them to surface this soon.
‘And three of them, no less?’
Even Kang Hyun was caught off guard by that.
Even a single one was a calamity that could erase entire martial sects—and here were three gathered in one place?
‘These bastards are preparing something serious.’
That was when.
Hm.
The suppressed venom of Asura stirred in his Dantian.
Kang Hyun raised the whiskey glass beside him and drained it in one swallow.
He pressed the venom down with his will, then reflected.
‘Asura. That creature is conscious of me too.’
It was natural enough—he’d pierced its heart in the previous Martial World.
‘Sim Deung-gwi has to be dealt with, no matter what.’
Left unchecked, it would cause incalculable loss of life.
And while disposing of it, he’d need to uncover what lay behind Sim Deung-gwi—clues about Nachalmun itself.
“Professor Kang.”
Kim Hyung-seok broached the subject with care.
“How much can you help us?”
He’d already heard the condition: he had to move behind Ma Chul-ung and Gye Mu-jin.
Thud.
Kang Hyun set down the report and looked up at the Director.
“If I help you, what will you give me in return? It seems the nation stands to gain quite a lot.”
At the blunt question, Kim Hyung-seok cleared his throat as if he’d anticipated it.
“Ahem, what is it you want? Money? When we calculate conservatively the tangible benefits the nation will gain from this dispatch, it comes to roughly one hundred billion won. From that sum, we can arrange your compensation quite fairly…”
“Just a moment, Director.”
It was Lee Se-ah who interjected abruptly.
“Yes?”
“One hundred billion won is far too conservative. I just looked up the data, and those lithium mines have an estimated annual production of at least ten thousand tons… Even cutting it down conservatively, that has to come out to three hundred billion won.”
“Now, now…! Whose side are you on…!”
As Kim Hyung-seok stared at Lee Se-ah with a hand pressed to the back of his neck, she played innocent.
How could she be so infuriating!
“Listen here. When you extract ore, there are refining costs, labor expenses, so much that falls through the cracks… And the state always assumes the worst-case scenario anyway.”
“Director.”
Kang Hyun laughed softly.
“Surely you’re not trying to short-change me, are you?”
“No, no! Trust me!”
Kim Hyung-seok felt genuinely wronged.
Of course, internal calculations had yielded the mid-hundred-billion range.
He admitted to low-balling that, but three hundred billion was truly pushing it.
“Originally I was prepared to take just half, out of conscience, but since you’ve put me in this awkward position, I’ll be taking all three hundred billion. Then let’s proceed.”
“No, no! Three hundred billion won is really not possible!”
Kim Hyung-seok cried out as though he might faint.
But Kang Hyun didn’t bat an eye.
“And if I take it in cash, there’s tax and all sorts of complications, so let me be clear. What’s the current market rate for High-grade Mana Stones?”
“Around one billion won per kilogram.”
Lee Se-ah answered from beside him.
As though they’d rehearsed it.
“Fine then. I’ll take three kilograms of High-grade Mana Stones.”
“Isn’t that excessive?”
“Excessive? You just said it was conservative, Director. If things go well, I could earn even more, couldn’t I? Why should the nation profit from my skill and labor while I risk my life?”
“…!”
“And you asked me to hide my identity. Was that for my benefit, or the nation’s?”
‘Damn.’
Dealing with Black was never simple.
It was indirect coercion.
If he went to America or China, three hundred billion would be pocket change—he could easily get several trillion.
‘Ugh.’
Kim Hyung-seok sighed inwardly and shot Lee Se-ah a sharp glance.
‘That troublemaker.’
But Kim Hyung-seok knew well.
Lee Se-ah was executing her directives with meticulous precision.
The Management Bureau’s Special Operations Team’s mission wasn’t mere surveillance.
Rather, the paramount objective was to advocate for and protect the target more than the interests of the state or the Bureau itself, thereby building psychological rapport that made the target see the operative as a safe, trustworthy presence.
‘Three kilograms of High-grade Mana Stones—it stings a bit, true enough.’
But as the price of keeping Black bound to the nation, it wasn’t exorbitant.
“…Very well. I’ll prepare three kilograms of High-grade Mana Stones.”
Kim Hyung-seok nodded.
“And one more condition to propose to the Mongolian side.”
“What now?”
Kang Hyun rose from his seat as he spoke.
“Transfer all rights to every spoil obtained at the site after the monsters are subjugated to me.”
“…!”
“That’s a fair claim for my martial prowess. If this condition isn’t accepted, I won’t go.”
After issuing an ultimatum that could not be refused, Kang Hyun gestured, and Lee Se-ah quickly gathered her bag and stood.
“Enjoy your meal, Director. Once the dispatch schedule is set, contact me through Lee Se-ah.”
Slide.
The sliding door closed, and left alone in the empty room, Kim Hyung-seok gazed at his cold food with a hollow laugh.
“Hah… I envy whoever gets her as a secretary. Quite reliable.”

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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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