Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor

Chapter 253: Echoing Through the Dark (3) [END MAIN STORY]

When I was trapped in the darkness, there was a demon with a triangular horn there. They called him the Demon King. But the bastard’s limbs were cut off, and he was already a dead corpse. If he ever resurrected, that would be another matter, but as of now, he was no threat.

When I smashed his skull, it broke apart. The Demon King Battle that was supposed to become Main Story Number Seven began and ended at the same time like that.

You have no idea what kind of hell three men went through for this moment. Abraxas died. Kaiser, doing schemes that weren’t even in his fate, barely managed to play the villain and left me on the brink of death, and in the end, I died too. Compared to some pointless final battle, this was easier and better, but my feelings about it weren’t particularly good.

I felt the darkness closing in.

“......Now it begins.”

The ultimate problem was the Curse of Forgetting cast on me.

But the more I thought about it, the stranger it became. The way I figured out the curse on me was only through circumstantial evidence. My self-awareness began to fade. A strange sensation started to stir inside my mind. Among that and other clues, I realized that I had been cursed. What does that mean?

It means that the Game System wasn’t working.

Back when I went to visit the elephant on Star-Greeting Mountain, I remembered that the Curse of Forgetting and the Game System fought fiercely, and the Game System won. Because of that, I was able to remember Eve.

It’s the best safeguard to protect the player when the game becomes reality.

But it didn’t activate.

At that moment, what came to my mind were the hundreds of players who, in another world or another dimension, failed the Hell Difficulty run and died.

I know there aren’t any maniacs who would choose Hell Difficulty on their first try.

It’s a game, it’s supposed to be fun. Who would want to suffer?

So the only people who could look at Hell Difficulty and press it were the ones who were completely addicted and burned into this garbage game. People like me, for instance. Dino said that hundreds of those people had failed their runs and died.

Living at Hiaka Academy, what I felt was: “yeah, that makes sense.” I got lucky—among the hardcore players, I was the most hardcore—and survived using all kinds of methods, but how miserably must the others have died in the face of that cursed bug...

At the same time, I began to understand a little bit ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) of what was happening with these so-called bugs in the game.

Right. Isn’t it strange? Almost every bug looked deliberately designed to kill the player.

Bugs aren’t supposed to be intentional; they shouldn’t be this specifically lethal.

For example: a hero turned murderer who can’t draw the holy sword. Another hero who can’t communicate with demons. A teaching assistant who can burst a skull with a flick of a finger. Jinksythe appearing before anyone had time to grow. Trappycche inflated sixfold so defeating it was impossible. A curse that bypasses the game system. And so on.

Sure, there were bugs that helped — like reading a Stigma from an unappraised item, or seeing a hidden person’s thoughts through a Script — but those were rare exceptions.

Most bugs were a complete mess, as if they had been designed from the start to make the player die.

So I thought it over.

If those bugs were man-made, in other words, if there was a creator, then conversely, couldn’t there also be a beneficiary?

If someone made a bug to kill me, then conversely, someone could make a bug to make someone happy, to make someone succeed, couldn’t they?

So I recalled many people I knew. Among them, I could single one out.

There was a beneficiary.

“.......”

I leaned my back against the wall in the dark and sank down. I was slowly fading. I had wondered whether this Curse of Forgetting — which didn’t even appear on a status window — was making me fade from others, or making me fade from myself. Now I thought I knew.

It was both.

“.......”

This Curse of Forgetting was a curse meant to erase me from this world. It was blatant. I felt my senses being severed, piece by piece.

First it was the nerves. It began in my extremities. I felt the sensation in my hands and feet gradually disappear. An invisible current climbed from my hands to my wrists, then up my arms. The same happened with my legs.

Next was probably my sense of time. That one was a little better. When I sat for about a month hoping the curse would subside on its own, I felt like I’d go insane from the frustration. But once my sense of time blurred, it became easier.

What did it matter. Whether months passed or years.

Life was just a bonus for me anyway.

I had already lived enough. If it were a game, I had used up all my rounds. I figured the extra rounds were continuing.

When did that start? Maybe when my whole family died in a house fire? Or when I was left with my uncle and took his drunken fists every day? Or when I somehow made it to graduate school only to have my thesis stolen by a professor? Or when I found out the cancer had already spread beyond help?

Whatever it was, I’d always had the thought that I could die any time and be fine with it.

If anything still weighed on me, it was the absence of a player. A world exists for a single player. But I had made a good answer of my own. By now, multiple illusionary copies of Dante would be building happy worlds with everyone.

I disliked Rebecca, but I couldn’t quite hate her; part of me tripped over pity for that girl... In truth, when she sometimes accepted death so calmly, it might have been because I saw myself in her.

Life is punishment.

Death is rest.

I agreed.

Here’s the funny part —

If it’s punishment anyway, what’s the difference between getting twenty lashes or twenty-one?

And yet I couldn’t treat Rebecca entirely cold. Judging by her behavior she probably deserved five hundred more lashes, but in the end I left her with a lovable Dante as a gift, didn’t I?

I even added the affection scenes that other Dantes don’t have — kisses and the like.

That lecherous Voyeur Constellation and the Life Constellation are probably watching something even dirtier by now. I knew it, you perverts.

For the record, it was hard to make because I had no experience. What the hell does a kiss even feel like... After making the Cain Tree and accidentally brushing lips with the Peaceful Constellation, I had to rely on that one memory. Pathetic, really.

......Anyway.

So, I think just having thoughts like these is embarrassing, but I’ll say it anyway.

Even if life is punishment, I hope others don’t have to receive that punishment.

That might be close to Rebecca’s belief that not being born is right, or conversely, the very ideal but not easy belief that if you are born, then even if it’s a little hard, you should be loved.

Excessively, I was the latter. Not so in reality, but at least here, I was.

Playing the unfated role of a genius professor, how many people clung to me as if they couldn’t live without me. In that, I surely felt the joy of being alive.

I was glad to be loved, even for a moment.

So now I could die and be done.

“.......”

Only, if there was something that kept me angry right up to this very end, it was all the people who died because of the bugs that had gone off before.

If there had been no bugs — if it had been just a normal world with high difficulty — I’m certain I would have defeated the Demon King with far fewer casualties.

Too many people died.

People who didn’t have to.

After I left the hospital and shut myself in at home to accept death, I kept visiting memorial altars. From the altar of a professor I only knew by face, to Shaman’s altar that I visited again and again. All the while, something hot kept burning inside me.

Life is painful enough as it is, and yet someone decided to punish so many people — that thought alone.

“.......”

My nerves blurred. My sense of time blurred. Next, my sense of self began to blur.

Who was I again......

Maybe someone had been waiting for that moment. A voice was heard.

“See? You should’ve just died quietly. Why cling to life and bother everyone.”

It was a familiar voice. Weakly, without even feeling my head lift, I raised my gaze and saw a familiar face.

In front of me stood the one who, in this bug-filled world, looked as if he alone had been blessed by heaven — the so-called beneficiary.

Kaiser.

But that wasn’t Kaiser. Strictly speaking, it was something that projected itself into Kaiser’s form. Like a Mary Sue.

And the only person who would do something like that is the creator.

“...You’re the developer?”

I asked.

Though the intent behind the question was slightly different.

I was actually asking if he was the System Entity.

“.......”

The one wearing Kaiser’s face laughed.

“What good does it do you to know that? You’re dying anyway.”

“...I’m curious.”

“You don’t even remember who you are anymore, but you want to know who I am? Are you an idiot?”

The man laughed.

“Do you know what they call someone who wanders without knowing who they are? A ghost. You’re turning into one right now.”

“.......”

“Still, I’ll give you that. I’ve got some experience, and all the ones who entered this Hell Difficulty before you, I sent them off easily. You were the first who clawed and screamed to survive. You were unbelievable, man.”

“.......”

“So, what was your question again? Am I the developer? Not anymore. I’m a god now. And this world exists for me. What’s broken is that annoying players like you keep possessing it, but that’s all over now. You’re the last one left.”

Then he started rambling about what kind of hardship he’d gone through, but I didn’t hear it. It wasn’t important.

“...Why are things like this happening?”

“What a joke. Do you know that people spend their whole lives asking why they were born and die without finding the answer? Ever seen a scientist ask why the Big Bang started?”

“.......”

“Exactly. There’s no reason for the beginning. It just began. I was dragged here because I helped create a part of this trash game. It wasn’t all bad, though. I had some authority from the System itself. It was troublesome, though — had to block the other side’s system of the stars.”

“...Don’t you already have enough?”

“What do you mean.”

“...You’ve destroyed enough worlds, haven’t you.”

The man laughed again.

“If even one thing isn’t mine, that’s unacceptable. That’s what being a god means.”

Then he started saying something strange.

“Still, I’m grateful to you. You were fun to watch. The others were boring. And you were lucky. How could a female-type hero turned mute demon manage to suppress her nature just because she was moved by one human? From that to the character building and relationship structure — perfect. Thank you. I’ll make good use of it.”

I realized something.

“...So you plan to take my place when I’m gone.”

“Yeah. Why not? It’s not hard.”

“...It’s meaningless.”

I said it flatly.

“What?”

“...It’s meaningless.”

He frowned.

“What kind of nonsense is that? Do you even know how I’m treated in the world I already own? You think your world and mine are different?”

Whether they’re the same or not, I don’t know.

Honestly, I don’t care.

He looked like some deranged pervert, and whether he built a harem in another world or not, that wasn’t my concern.

But one thing I was sure of.

“You know there isn’t a single real person in your world, don’t you?”

“...What?”

“That’s why you came for me, isn’t it. From what I hear, the only place you can control directly is Hell Difficulty. Even there, your authority’s limited, probably just enough to control people’s minds through the Stigma of the System.”

I know how the System’s power works. I learned through Ran and Director Hedwig. It’s mechanical. The people around you act like dolls who love you because they’re programmed to.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You must’ve had a dilemma too. The users who entered Hell Difficulty were all hardened veterans. Once they grew stronger, it was too hard to kill them, so you killed them early, when they were still weak. But that means no one could ever attach their heart to you —”

“Hey.”

“ —and you, you clearly look like someone incapable of connecting with others. My eye’s pretty good; I bet even back when you were a developer, you were a loser. Gloomy, petty, going around badmouthing people.”

“Shut your mouth. Stop spouting garbage. You don’t know anything.”

“No, it’s obvious. You faked relationships everywhere, and since they say the death toll reached into the hundreds, that means hundreds of worlds. And yet, despite all that, you never found a single real ‘person’ who loved you. You just thrashed around inside your dolls, empty, until you found me and started drooling. I’m a friendless loser, but at least I don’t see people as dolls. Everyone who gave me their heart was a real person. But too bad for you — I’m not the kind who dies easily.”

“You son of a bitch!”

Crack!

My head turned as he kicked me while I was lying there. The enraged bastard kicked again and again. I was sitting and being kicked over and over.

He might have called himself a god, but in this space we were just two ordinary men. And with my senses gone, it didn’t even hurt. I just couldn’t move. He was controlling my body as a bug.

He panted heavily.

“You know what? You can’t move anymore and you can’t live. You’ve got about thirty seconds left to breathe. So stop talking crap and die already! Just die and hand over the body!”

Bleeding, I thought. The situation wasn’t bad. I didn’t mind dying, and even if that loser took my body, from that pathetic head of his I could already tell he’d be exposed as a fake and everyone would abandon him soon enough. I had even planted several checks among the illusionary Dantes to verify which one was truly me. Those were in areas he could never reach.

But there was one thing that wasn’t fine. It was still him — the bastard responsible for killing so many people I cared about.

“.......”

They say someone wandering without knowing who they are becomes a ghost. True enough. And ghosts, filled with resentment, harm people. So even if I die, I’ll find a way to kill him. Like an assassin should.

Time passed, my mind blurred, and I slowly died inside the darkness.

That was the last memory I had of myself.

⋮

Clink.

A sound flowed in from somewhere beyond consciousness. In front of me, that pervert was grinning while rummaging through my body.

The thought “Who was I?” had already vanished. I was forgetting myself so thoroughly I didn’t even care who I’d been. That was the curse. But then —

Clink.

In my head, a dark field spread out. It was nighttime. Under the starlight. A cemetery, with the stars beautifully painting the sky. I was someone who found that place special.

Clink.

One single chime cleared my fading mind. The next thought was — maybe because that existence was born from an error, there had to be something that could resist what came from the error.

Clink.

Something touched my cheek. It wasn’t the pervert’s hand. It was something far more familiar. Something I loved — something I couldn’t exist without.

Clink.

The next moment, my head lifted on its own. “Huh?” a startled voice gasped. Without even knowing why, I moved and grabbed the man’s throat. It was an action I couldn’t understand, but little by little I realized it was the right one.

“Guh, ack...!!”

As the skin of the face wearing Kaiser’s body peeled away, an incomprehensible face appeared beneath. That was good. Now there was no reason to hesitate.

It didn’t take long.

***

At last, the darkness shattered, and I was in a room flooded with light like a stage.

The hand that had been touching my cheek and ringing the bell froze.

Someone was there, on the verge of tears, looking at me as I woke.

“.......”

My beloved elephant.

Assassin Academy’s Genius Professor

End

*

Afterword

Thank you. This is Yuzu.

Thank you for being with me.

Assassin Academy’s Genius Professor ends here. Somehow, this became my fifth story already. Thanks to all of you readers being with me, I was able to write it with joy. Thank you so, so very much for reading.

I’m just like a stray dog wandering around the neighborhood, so when you all show me affection, my job is to wag my tail. You showed me so much kindness that I wagged it all the harder. I can’t express how much of a blessing it is that I get to do this work.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped me while writing this piece.

Among them, special thanks to my friend H, who always reviewed my drafts; to artist Ishirin, who accepted the illustration commission; and to Team Leaders Choi Min-su and Ian at M-StoryHub. The help from these three was truly a great strength to me.

There is currently some good news in progress for Assassin Professor.

Of course, nothing is certain yet, and as the original author, all I can do is sit and pray—but wonderful professional people are working hard on it. I’d be happy if you could wait together with me for good news.

Later on, there will be side stories or an epilogue. They won’t be long, but they’ll tell the after-stories of the characters we love. There will also be a story of Dante, the first to clear Hell Difficulty, as he crosses paths with players from other worlds. Please look forward to it.

Personally, I’m most interested in the development of Dante and Eve’s relationship. If there’s a particular side story you’d like to see, please leave a comment. I’ll take it as top priority.

I love you all. Thank you.

This was Yuzu.