Ch.164164 – Why Is the Professor Here?

# Chapter 164 – Why Is the Professor Here?

Chapter bosses each have their own concept.

<Chapter 1: Berserk Slaughterer, Hestia>

Appearance – 981st Entrance Exam, Group A Testing Area

Event Period – Freshman Year Midterms

Description – Hestia, owner of the despised Berserker class. When she realizes her mental sanctuary is merely the <Responding Wall> mimicking a human, her rage turns toward her classmates.

Feature 1 – Attack power increases as HP decreases.

Feature 2 – Immune to all mental status effects due to lost sanity.

Feature 3 – Rapidly removes physical status effects due to abnormal blood flow rate.

<Chapter 2: ???>

<Chapter 3: Queen of Pets, Camella>

Appearance – 981st Entrance Exam, Group B Testing Area

Event Period – Sophomore Year Opening Ceremony

Description – An emotion manipulator who toys with people’s hearts using magic. Having steadily increased her pets as she advanced through grades, she reveals her ambition to dominate the school year at the opening ceremony.

Feature 1 – Students captivated by Camella become enemies.

Feature 2 – Students who sign pet contracts must respond to their master’s requests for help until they fulfill their designated contribution.

Feature 3 – When a master bestows grace upon a pet, the pet’s required contribution increases further.

Feature 4 – All masters who use Camella’s pet contracts are Camella’s pets.

<Chapter 4: Silent Death, Forest of Silence>

Appearance – After the 981st Entrance Ceremony

Event Period – Sophomore Year Summer Vacation

Description – A terrible disaster born from accumulated curse waste. The moment you lose senses you took for granted, you realize the curses abandoned by humans have returned.

Feature 1 – Sound does not exist within the forest’s domain.

Feature 2 – The forest seeks out and devours all living creatures that make sound.

Feature 3 – New curses are added each time the forest’s growth level increases.

Even excluding Chapter 2’s boss that changes every playthrough, each chapter boss has wildly different gimmicks.

Hestia, the Berserk Slaughterer, a close-combat DPS chapter boss who ignores all status effects and slaughters students indiscriminately.

Camella, Master of Masters, a group control chapter boss who manipulates countless students like limbs to fulfill her ambition of dominating the 981st class.

The Forest of Silence and Death, a death field chapter boss that will cause enormous casualties unless quickly found and eliminated.

The danger level naturally increases as you progress.

Chapter 1: Just need to deal with one Hestia.

Chapter 2: Unpredictable variables that threaten even veteran players.

Chapter 3: Must break through interference from numerous students.

Chapter 4: The entire field becomes your enemy.

What’s more, these bosses grow just like players do.

If you think “I’ll just enjoy academy life and my harem!” you’re setting yourself up for sudden death from chapter bosses that have grown uncontrollably powerful.

‘Some newbie on VTube went on a picnic with their partner and got devoured by the Forest of Silence, right?’

The unfairness of chapter bosses is that they can strike at completely unexpected times.

After this video spread, newbies never again carelessly went on picnics in forests or ventured deep into woods seeking rare items for points. Even if you don’t make loud noises, if the Forest of Silence happens to be near your path, being devoured is inevitable.

‘But well, that’s a newbie problem.’

[You weren’t startled by the specter sent by the Forest of Silence to frighten its prey.]

[Boldness experience +1]

[You weren’t startled even when the specters tried to scare you by telling you not to touch the branches and screaming.]

[Boldness experience +3]

[You weren’t startled even when the specters wept tears of blood while begging and creating an eerie chill with cutting winds.]

[Boldness experience +5]

[You broke through the specters’ persistent interference and collected cursed branches imbued with powerful curses from the cursed forest as materials.]

[Boldness experience +10]

[Gathering experience +10]

[Night Activity experience +5]

[Fear Inducement experience +5]

Chapter bosses might fear veteran players, but veteran players fear nothing.

‘My goodness. Why is this one struggling so much?’

The cursed tree gushed bright red blood like a human from where its branches were torn and struggled violently.

I repeatedly struck it with the sword in my scabbard as it kept trying to avoid my touch.

Bark fragments scattered and the trunk bent like it had been hit with an axe, finally stopping its struggle.

[Oddly Shaped Fruit]

[Withered Animal Bones]

[Disturbing Doll]

Besides the branches imbued with powerful curses, I collected items hanging from the tree like Christmas ornaments until my bag was completely full.

I was tempted to empty some contents to make room for more, but seeing Dorothy trembling pitifully, I refrained.

I was able to loot so many items thanks to Dorothy’s 5x item acquisition probability buff, so I should show some consideration.

[You entered the heart of the cursed forest with a friend and came out alive.]

[Concentration experience +10]

[Night Activity experience +10]

“Okay, now you can talk!”

I patted Dorothy’s back, and she who had been clutching her collar tightly collapsed to the ground as if melting.

“Oknodie… my legs won’t work…”

“Want to camp here?”

“Absolutely not!! I’ll get up, I’ll get up soon! Just wait a little, please!!”

Some friends remain nonchalant even in haunted houses, while others scream all day and crawl out for maximum value.

Dorothy seems to be the latter.

If I’d known she’d enjoy it this much, I would have brought her earlier.

Well, better late than never.

From now on, I should bring her here once a month without fail.

“Huh? Someone’s coming this way?”

“What now? Don’t suddenly try to scare me. I really hate that.”

“Ah. It’s that person? Don’t worry. It’s someone Dorothy will like too.”

“Really? In a place like this?”

“I’m telling you it’s true!”

Dorothy protested with suspicious eyes.

Soon after, a human figure began to appear through the dark forest between trees swaying in the wind, occasionally illuminated by moonlight.

Crack, crack

With each tree movement, the approaching figure made sounds like breaking bones with each step.

Dorothy, who had been dying of fear, finally covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Oknodie… this isn’t a forest first-years should be wandering in. How did you get to a place like this…?”

“I came to gather materials with my friend!”

“…Did you rob a cabin or something?”

The person blinked dark eyes tinted by darkness through long hair, looking surprised.

The identity of this person—who would make Dorothy, Titosoga, and Zhang squeal with delight if encountered in the forest—was Professor Sadaco, who teaches <Adventurer and Night Activities>.

* * *

Children have remarkable energy.

They run around expanding their own worlds without rest, covering distances that adults would find too bothersome to travel.

Most land has owners, and such purity disappears when one becomes an adult who becomes a slave to labor just to secure a place to lay one’s body.

‘It’s been a while. Seeing such purity.’

Oknodie who knows no fear.

A strange child possessing both childlike innocence and a hero’s boldness.

The bag on her back was so swollen it looked ready to burst, large enough to fit several corpses, showing how much she had been running around.

“What did you bring, Professor?”

“It’s dangerous to look.”

“That’s not fair~”

“…Want to see?”

“Yes! I want to see.”

Bags as large as Oknodie’s that I had been dragging along the ground.

Inside were nailed dolls, glass bottles filled with fingernails and toenails, talismans with patterns drawn in blood, and soot-covered books.

These are what you’d call curse waste.

“Huh? Why are these here?”

“…Because I’m disposing of them.”

“So the person dumping waste in the forest was you, Professor?!”

Dark Princess, Lord of Darkness.

There were many suspicious rumors surrounding Oknodie.

To think she even knows about “that forest.”

It seems those rumors weren’t unfounded after all.

“…Whatever you know, this was originally my forest.”

“Wow, really?”

Oknodie should be fine.

After all… when she advances and takes my class, she’ll learn about <Curse Studies> anyway.

Let’s consider this advance preparation.

As for the terrified child next to her…

I’ll consider that a bonus.

How fortunate to receive a professor’s teachings early.

She made a good friend.

“…Want to see? The disposal process.”

“Yes! I definitely want to see!”

I took the excited, bouncing Oknodie and her friend who was reluctantly being dragged along, following the cursed energy.

The <Forest of Curse Disposal> had settled in an unexpected location today, as if it had been wandering quite a bit.

Whoosh

I lightly pressed my foot against the ground as a warning.

The ground trembled, and the forest’s curse diminished sharply.

“Stay still.”

The cursed energy and spectral presences that had spread widely from the tree serving as a medium converged back into the tree.

Rattle, rattle.

Crash!

When I dumped the curse waste from my bags in front of the tree, branches frantically reached out to stuff the cursed items between leaves or devour them through knotholes in the trunk.

Amid the chaos, several specters pretended branches had taken items while stealing them for themselves.

How hungry must they be to steal such things?

Hiss.

Feeling pity, I reached out to the curse waste thieves, and the specters’ hands withered.

“…What did you just do?”

“Cast a curse.”

“A curse…? Why??”

“If they’re hungry enough to want waste… they’ll appreciate fresh curses even more…?”

For some reason, Oknodie trembled.

“Are you cold?”

“A-a little?”

“…Let’s go back together.”

“We have our carriage and regular carriage passes…”

“…But you’d have to wait until daytime. With the professor-exclusive carriage, we can return immediately.”

Oknodie had gathered so enthusiastically that she didn’t notice her body cooling from the cold.

When I offered the carriage as a courtesy to this admirable child, she seemed so exhausted that she could barely respond with a weak “yes.”

Did I look like an excellent professor, recognizing a student’s difficulty and offering help?

‘It’s guaranteed that Oknodie will take my class in the second semester too.’

When I smiled contentedly with a chuckle, Oknodie’s friend collapsed behind us.

She must have less stamina than Oknodie.