NOVEL NEXT Chapter 835
<835 – Shimma (2)>
Losing all meaning and ambition in life is akin to being lost on a path.
Wandering aimlessly, right?
Then where did the Oknodie, ensnared in Shimma, originally want to go?
Rustle rustle
Burying his head in the bushes alongside the path and awkwardly rustling, Professor Chaaku of Magic Engineering awkwardly lifted his head and spoke just as Oknodie passed by.
“Oh dear, I’ve dropped a legendary engineering part in the bushes. It would be great if someone idle could help…”
With a feeble voice, Oknodie responded to the professor’s glance.
“It could be the lazy squirrel clawing at my pocket to steal its contents, or a common bush from the chaos dimension disguised itself and devoured everything inside, or it could be the ego of an escaped magic sword that’s taken residence in a random item…”
“No way! Is there really such a dangerous squirrel at our academy? I sometimes fed it because it looked cute!”
Even while struggling with the shocking betrayal, Professor Chaaku lumbered onward as the slow-moving Oknodie quietly distanced himself.
So painfully slow, Chaaku easily caught up, disguising his “thank you” as continued conversation.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I think I have an idea of where to find my lost part. Speaking of which, it’s rather awkward to say, but you look troubled. How about sharing that with me? Among the students, they call me Chaaku, the counselor who helps avoid the worst.”
Unbeknownst to him, he was the first to get shaken down and scrubbed of his soul weapon by Oknodie.
Losing one’s charisma equates to theft of others’ functions and parts of their amassed history, allowing Oknodie to feel a touch of kindness towards Chaaku, lowering his wariness.
“Thank you… but I don’t think this is a problem that can be solved through counseling…”
“Hmm. It seems Shimma is quite deeply embedded… In such cases, it’s important to reflect on your starting point. Why did you start attending the Academy?”
“To get along well with everyone and be happy…?”
That was an answer overflowing with guilt for the one who had been mercilessly pummeled by professors the previous night for interrupting their lectures, resulting in a delightful festival of escalating educational experience points!
To treat such an innocent child like a functioning experience point vending machine, using him as a special experimental subject for harassment!
Other professors of the benevolent faction snooping through Chaaku’s device were equally aghast.
“Isn’t this making us look like total garbage?”
“We aren’t just looking, we already are…”
“The child raised by the evil organization merely dreamed of a harmonious and happy life with friends, yet we took joy in their daily deaths as they tried to stop their friends from dying…!”
“Oh my! How are we any different from the Foundation for all the things we’ve done?”
“No… my self-esteem, which I thought was grounded in being a good professor at the Academy, is collapsing… Shimma, Shimma is coming for us…”
The professors of the benevolent faction were overcome with the spicy truth they had never tasted before and were mentally disoriented by Oknodie’s peculiar aura.
At night, he elevated function points through beatings, yet by day, he elevated Shimma points through the same!
The consequences of touching a child that should not have been touched had just begun.
There was still a long way to go before it was over.
“Eating food for the first time with everyone is delightful, and learning unknown knowledge is joyous… New encounters, new relationships… That’s why I attended the Academy…”
Thud, thud.
From afar, a professor bumped his head against the wall, revealing his agony.
It was the self-inflicted torment of Professor Aiti from the Mental Barrier Department who couldn’t bear the reality of having stolen happiness from a child rejoicing in making friends.
“Now it no longer can be enjoyable… if this keeps happening, I won’t be able to meet my friends on time or attend classes together…”
Unable to hold back his sadness, tears flowed from Oknodie’s eyes.
“UAAAHHH!”
From afar, a professor screamed, feeling the immense mental pain of his actions.
It was a roar from Professor Hidden Boss of Monster Crowd Studies, grappling with the reality that he had made a child, who was simply happy to attend classes with friends, unable to go to the classroom.
Oknodie, leaving countless professors in shock, slowly disappeared into the distance.
That evening.
There were no special class lectures.
*
“Phew, curse has been lifted!”
During dinner, I was so overwhelmed wondering when this would all end that I could cry!
Curses infused with good effects are usually tough to break, but this time the [Curse of Walking Straight] required walking a hundred thousand steps to fix. It was supposed to realign my spine and balance my body, but my body was resistant to receiving the healing spell.
Because my overworked body, stuffed with junk food every single day, vehemently rejected anything beneficial for it by drawing upon biological mana to resist.
Just like a child gripped a bear doll to the point of tears when they’re about to drop it, if my body is forcibly subjected to the desired curse, it goes on strike demanding to quit everything.
“This wicked curse, it’s too unfair just to happen to me. I’ll remember this and use it myself!”
With so many lectures, I wouldn’t even make it to the classroom on time walking normally, and when they ask who attended whose lectures, the professors would double my misery.
If that’s the case, I felt rewarded spending today entirely devoted to breaking the curse instead of just having lunch, attending lectures, and playing with friends.
Having inscribed a condition reference on my mental barrier stating that there are no beneficial curses to prevent a recurrence meant I wouldn’t fall for the witch grandmother’s antics again.
Ugh.
Still, I needed to instigate the professors today, but now what?
The absence of a special class lecture signaled something ominous.
It appeared the professors were preparing something big.
This is not good.
I need to prepare one too!
*
Oknodie felt uneasy for not inciting any discord, but in fact, there was no need.
Professors of the benevolent side were already at each other’s throats, hurling insults and pointing fingers in a chaotic scene.
“You garbage! Do you even know how pitiful Oknodie is?!”
“Let’s just summon Oknodie onto the experimental table and inject the experiment spell we used during the day to quickly gather experimental data. Is that how you talk to a kid?!”
“You don’t understand the heart of that poor child who only wanted to befriend! You monstrous fiends!”
Those professors who went to spy on Oknodie came back as captivated as cat lovers enchanted by a stray.
“How can you say that poor child has slain more than ten of our professors’ spirit bodies?”
“Besides, Oknodie trains the mobs and Jaku, Titosso, and Hestia he calls friends just fine. What reason do we have to abstain from extreme training? This is all an act of love and teaching from a professor to a student.”
“More importantly, you fell under some charm magic from Oknodie, didn’t you? You all seem suspicious. Let’s see if you’re in your right mind by reading your minds!”
The Oknodie enthusiasts were taken aback.
“Are you saying our free will is a distorted outcome of Oknodie’s enchantment?”
“Plus, we were caught in our spirit bodies, but we’re in the Middle Realm now. Surely we adhere to a hierarchy… how could we fall under Oknodie’s influence? This is an insult to our abilities.”
“Are you the one who’s actually lost your mind because of the wicked demon’s spell? With all the Four Kings getting swept away, are you trying to appoint a new King as a professor?”
The Oknodie abuse faction professors were provoked further by the vehement opposition of the enthusiasts.
In the name of benevolence or malice, those that hold a professorship are inherently mad.
One cannot ascend to the dual-polarity of functional scores without a certain level of insanity; thus, these crazy professors felt their pride being scratched through bickering.
There’s a difference between being overtly wicked and subtly wicked, yet fundamentally, they all share a dark insanity.
As they started arguing, even the somewhat composed enthusiasts lost their cool.
“Don’t just stand aside like bystanders! Which side of the argument are you on?!”
“Myung So, you play the part of a civilized monk, yet you surely hide an unfathomable madness like the rest of us! Come this way!”
While caught up spectating, the slightly uncomfortable Myung So looked around for another professor, not wanting to get involved, searching for Professor Bronze.
Meanwhile, Professor Bronze, sensing the changing atmosphere, ghosted out of Myung So’s perception!
“That disciple is just like that master.”
Having taken no side, Myung So was left hanging for three hours, suspended by a long pole, warning passing students about the lurking danger present in the professors’ battle zone.