NOVEL NEXT Chapter 755
<755 – Like a Hero (1)>
The hero took down the professor.
Although he was a naughty professor, the kind that didn’t listen to Masugaki and hailed from the Empire, he was still a professor.
It’s not a system where a kind professor gives more experience points and a bad professor gives less.
It’s the total sum of possessed function stats.
It’s the total sum of possessed ability stats.
It’s the total sum of possessed titles.
The weight of a person’s entire life is immediately converted into monster-hunting experience points.
In that sense, evil professors tend to give more experience points instead.
Ka-ching!
Because they have a lot of experience in trampling and taking out others.
There’s a high probability they’ve grown by feeding off others’ experience points.
So they often rack up a higher total of experience points than kind professors.
Ding!
[Your apprentice has achieved the deed of professor-slaying.]
[Your apprentice has achieved the deed of demon-hunting.]
[Your apprentice has achieved an impossible feat.]
[Teaching Experience Points +500]
[Human Design Experience Points +200]
[Taming Experience Points +200]
[Speechcraft Experience Points +50]
[Insight Experience Points +50]
[Dark Double Experience Points +50]
[Dimension Magic Experience Points +50]
[Sympathetic Magic Experience Points +50]
Wow! Boom!
Naturally, the rewards were pouring in, but I was shocked in more ways than one.
Thud!
“No matter how much Sophia the hero of world-saving has been boosted, achieving professor-slaying in such a short time is just insane!”
The goblin warrior, who grew stronger from hunting professors.
Despite doing the same hunt, he gained more experience points than I did, who only landed the finishing blow.
It laid the groundwork for the warrior to truly become a hero.
Even a single act of heroism has always been done with no retreat, pouring out all strength, reminiscent of Ishtar or Astarot.
Dum dum!
“Those inefficient and stupid strategies.”
Facepalm!
There’s a smarter way to proceed.
Lacking information leads to traps and adversity.
You lose a lot and fall into despair.
Gah!
Madness.
Despair.
Crack!
Mutual destruction.
There are easily over ten paths of tragedy in the hero’s ending filled with despair.
In this world, just like the number of candidates for great evil, there are countless bad endings.
Whoosh!
“Notably, in this round, it was the previous hero Ni’alatotep who dealt with the drug lord.”
Originally, this candidate for great evil spreads influence in the residence or organization of an academy student.
If you don’t realize the actions of the academy’s supporting character leaving to save their family or organization?
One character gets hooked on drugs.
Willpower decreases, and cooperation is forced.
To prevent mana loss, they take drugs, and the more they take, it shakes their state even more, leading to a vicious cycle of dependency.
The only way to save them is for the hero to personally embark on a mission to take down the candidate for great evil under the guise of a student.
Crackle!
What if they fail?
They’ll encounter a character that falls into the pleasure provided solely by the drugs without getting hooked, becoming a playable character or hero who succumbs to evil.
That character becomes part of the adversarial forces, all relationships turn upside down, and the progress of the round takes a turn for the worse.
To start the three great evils, you need to deal with at least five candidates for great evil.
The empire’s revolutionary, Man’s Representative, and Leader of the Organization.
Even the candidates for great evil compel disadvantages; how much worse is the impact of losing in the final battle against great evil?
Basically, ensured destruction.
Boom!
A bad ending route is activated.
From then on, no matter how much power is gathered or results achieved, ruin cannot be prevented.
Even beyond all ruin, the endings waiting at the end are only survival in ruins, the last survivor, or the land of extermination.
Ugh!
Veterans know there’s no path like that.
They can’t risk such danger.
However, the hero didn’t know.
They didn’t know about the bad ending route.
They didn’t know the consequences that accompany their actions.
Therefore, they could be brave.
With their all, they could bring out 100% of their strength, or even up to 200%, 300%, 500% future power against a stronger professor.
Bam!
Because of that, the gamble succeeded.
From the veteran’s perspective, it was a gamble with slim chances, yet they succeeded.
Now, the goblin warrior has established a foundation to take down the professor without relying on luck.
“I… I feel so pumped up!!”
Is there a veteran who wouldn’t feel their heart warm seeing the achievements of such a newbie?
Playing strictly to strategies, keeping danger at bay, prioritizing safety.
It may seem dangerous at a glance, but the fake madness of taking only the safest paths can’t outshine the real madness of the newbie’s reckless rush!
“I once had days like this!”
Sigh…
Honestly, I reflected.
Even as a veteran, always playing it safe and reserving my strength, the time I enjoyed the game the most was probably in my newbie days.
Without hesitating, I went ahead to do what I wanted.
Even if the results weren’t good.
“It’s not that I regret not doing it,” but rather “I regret not being powerful enough to achieve it” took the front seat.
That’s why I kept challenging and re-challenging to gain that power.
“Am I still lacking?”
Gulp!
It’s not 100%.
But there’s no round with this much strength at the moment.
Yeah.
Now’s the time.
It’s time for me to live as I want.
There are plays I can’t do if not now.
“I’m going back to the original intention!”
Zoom!
Growing into a veteran, I avoided inefficient paths, postponed things due to lack of feasibility, letting one dream come forth.
The name of that dream is professor-slaughter.
Going beyond pretending, actively taking down corrupt professors one by one.
“Instructor Hitler! Are you doing well in the communication room?”
As the first step, I approached an instructor I had neglected for a long time.
“Thanks to you, the other instructors have all bolted. They’ve been struggling with overwork…”
Withdrawing from secret conversations with Masugaki and connections with the Foundation, the instructor learned too many secrets that shouldn’t be uncovered.
The moment they left the communication room, it wouldn’t be strange for any country or organization to swipe them away, and they believed there was no other way to survive than applying to be assigned as the communication room’s dedicated instructor, where they’d been for a long time.
I remember that instructor actually had a bias toward one organization.
“Have you been keeping in touch with Seoguyeon lately?”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Hmm. Do you think you can play dumb with me? In the [Picnic Healing] lecture, Adolf, who caught your eye, joined Seoguyeon. Aren’t you secretly giving him tips by gathering information you gained from various places?”
Gulp!
Instructor Hitler’s complexion turned visibly pale.
“I… I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”
“What a pickle~! Unauthorized transfer of internal academy information could get you locked up in the Great Prison, below the third basement! The student council would be thrilled if they heard you’d achieved some results, right?”
“Could you let it slide?”
“Ah, I see. You thought you’d be safe since the strongest current member, Senior Velvet, is a big deal in the Student Council! But you should know there are other candidates for student council president, right? What would happen if a faction opposing Seoguyeon gets ahold of the information?”
Gasp!
“Should I or shouldn’t I spill?”
Finally, Instructor Hitler raised his hands in surrender.
“Say what you want. I’ll cooperate with anything.”
“Those regional teams directed by Jezel have been utilizing information coming into the academy too well, which got me suspicious. Senior, you’ve been helping from behind the scenes, right?”
“Please keep it a secret from Jezel. I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement. If discovered, it’ll end up bankrupting me for breaching it.”
“If you connect me to Ishtar’s contact network, I’ll let this one slide specially!”
Ding, Ding!
The senior, who was showing signs of cooperation, suddenly expressed immense rejection.
“You… You’re not trying to lay a finger on a hero during this mess, are you? No matter how much I’m being coerced, this crosses the line. I can’t support killing a hero!”
“Killing? What are you talking about? I’m trying to help Ishtar!”
“I can’t believe you. You’re just trying to entice me with sweet talk to trap the hero. In your eyes, I might look like a dirty guy bribed by Jezel, leaking information, but I’m an upper-level information gatherer from the Thief Guild led by Professor Destroyer, your mentor!”
Gasp!
“Is that really true?”
“I might not be able to learn from the seniors who helped the hero party, but I won’t hinder them!”
As if responding to my senior’s staunch determination, a red violet lighting up behind me played [OST – Determination of the Informant].
“Oh no! Whenever that BGM plays, an informant dies shortly after!”
“…”
“Who was it again? A spy from the Demon King’s Army? A collaborator from a candidate for great evil? Was it a professor angry because their shady dealings got interrupted?”
Slap!
Just when Instructor Hitler was sweating like he was caught in the rain, a palm shot out swiftly like a knife, hitting the back of my head.
Thwack!
“Oww!”
“Don’t use words that raise misunderstandings. Are you looking to ask for the informant’s cooperation or trying to scare and toy with me?”
“Geez, nobody has ever hit me on the back of the head like that, not even my dad! That hurts, Sia!”
Emerging from a tear in space, Sing, with adjusted physical form and altered attire as if it was normal, strutted out like a model with pelvic rotation.
It even transformed the vocal cords to sound like a girl; the audacity to talk back because of pierced ears is utterly infuriating.
I was going to revert them to a male form when heading for revenge on the East, but I might as well make them live like that forever!
“Y-You… What’s that black thing at your waist?”
“…You can recognize my sword?”
“You’re the Sing that went missing at the academy! Is that form really…?”
As Sing’s identity was revealed in surprise, Instructor Hitler was further convinced and aghast.
“Is this… threatening that those who don’t cooperate with the Foundation will be deprived of their original gender, killed, and forced to become unknown identities in a different gender?!”
“…Exactly! I’ll change everything!”
It took a long roundabout, but nonetheless, scared Instructor Hitler promised to hand over Ishtar’s information network.
“Cough! I’m sorry, seniors… I’m not even qualified as a piece of trash as an upper-level informant of the Thief Guild!”
Seriously, he said he wouldn’t hurt me at all.
I’m just trying to take him to the principal for a moment!