I Became an Unknown Professor at the Academy

“What’s wrong, why are you just standing there?”

“Seo-in… let’s watch quietly.”

The two sisters frowned slightly at Nam Seo-hee’s action, as she didn’t form an attack formation when she saw the group appear in front of them.

The reason was that the leader of the group they had just encountered was a young man whose face they were familiar with.

As it was, rumors were circulating that he had fallen out with his fiancée, Na Joo-hee, and as the situation became more mysterious, the two sisters glared at Kang Seok-ho as if they were about to tear him apart.

‘That bastard…’

‘…We have to kill him.’

If he so much as touched their youngest sister, they would tear him to pieces and grind him into minced meat.

“Ughh!”

“Huh?”

Nam Seo-hee furrowed her brow slightly and approached Kang Seok-ho, who was suddenly shivering.

“If you’re cursed, give up on your own.”

“It’s just a sudden chill, so don’t be so harsh.”

Kang Seok-ho cleared his throat and coughed to lighten the mood, feeling a little embarrassed by his own words.

Nam Seo-hee looked at Kang Seok-ho’s group with her characteristic indifferent gaze and continued.

“If you’re planning to betray us again, tell us now.”

“That’s not…!”

Kang Seok-ho’s face turned bright red in an instant.

Thinking back to last year around this time, when he had tried to betray Baek Hana by grabbing her tail, he still felt so ashamed and embarrassed that he would wake up in the middle of the night and kick his blanket.

“Ugh…”

Kang Seok-ho rubbed his face with both hands and spoke in a very soft voice that was difficult to hear unless you were paying attention.

“I’ve already apologized on my knees, so please forgive me now.”

“I’ll see how you do this time.”

“Damn…”

Kang Seok-ho sincerely wished he could slap his past self after hearing Nam Seo-hee’s firm response.

If he had at least succeeded, he wouldn’t feel so embarrassed.

How could he not regret what he had done? Instead of betraying them, he had been kicked out with a single kick, and his relationship with his fiancée, Na Joo-hee, had also soured.

“Seo-hee…”

At that moment, Lee Nayoung, who was being protected by the group, took the pocket watch she was wearing around her neck and stepped forward.

“Shouldn’t we start moving soon?”

“I was going to do that without you saying it.”

Unlike last year, when they didn’t mention the given time separately, this year’s test provided each team with a pocket watch so they could check the test end time in real-time, which was a slight convenience patch.

Nam Seo-hee checked the pocket watch around Lee Nayoung’s neck and continued.

“Let’s meet in front of the gate at nine o’clock.”

“Confirmed.”

Kang Seok-ho, who also checked the watch, hesitated for a moment and then agreed with Nam Seo-hee’s suggestion.

“What do you plan to do with the freshmen?”

“Make a suggestion once. If they don’t listen or seem suspicious, kill them.”

“That’s harsh.”

Although he said that, Kang Seok-ho nodded in agreement this time because his thoughts weren’t much different from Nam Seo-hee’s.

‘Kang Hanna… I’m going to give her a taste of her own medicine this time.’

‘Yoon Iseul… I’m going to stab her.’

The two looked at each other for a moment and then turned around.

.

.

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[The Deepest Part of the Gate]

“Isn’t this dangerous?”

Jane Moore, wearing a gray mask with a teardrop mark, looked up at the holographic screen and asked.

“Hmm, maybe it’s because we experienced this last year? The second-year students are working hard to unite.”

Yoon Iseul, wearing a black robe with gold embroidery, sipped her coffee and replied.

“Haha.”

Baek Hana, wearing armor reminiscent of a valkyrie from mythology, laughed awkwardly.

As Yoon Iseul said, the second-year students had experienced this once last year, and since last week, the students in charge of the reinforcement department had been fired up, wanting to give Kang Hanna a taste of her own medicine.

[Ugh!!]

[Are you crazy? We’re going to fight each other?!]

[That’s stupid. The points we can get are limited, so who are we going to fight?]

[What about the second-year seniors… Ack?!]

Another freshman team was wiped out.

“Still, it’s a relief to have that kid on our side!”

“That’s right.”

The group of female students had already wiped out six teams.

And that girl was someone Baek Hana knew.

[Mina… Can’t we take a little break?]

[I can handle the Knight-Dolls, but if we run into Kang Mu-seok, it might be tough…]

It was Park Mina, who had been disciplined before.

Park Mina’s group had decided to attack other teams and take their points instead of acquiring points by obtaining monsters and collection items.

“Thanks to the freshmen, there might be some monsters left!”

“On the other hand, the number of freshmen is decreasing.”

Jane Moore and Yoon Iseul looked up at the freshmen falling one by one and laughed happily.

This was because as the number of monsters decreased, the power of the restraint devices they were wearing on their bodies increased, and conversely, as the number of participating students decreased, the power of the restraint devices became more relaxed.

‘Was she always like this…?’

Baek Hana blinked as she saw Jane Moore’s eyes sparkle at the sight of the freshmen fighting each other.

She remembered that when Yoon Iseul first introduced her, she was told that Jane Moore was overly righteous, and she had indeed shown such behavior.

[Huh!]

[You bastards! You stole our last hit because there was nothing else to take?!]

“They’re all so cute and clumsy!”

“Is that so? They just look pathetic to me.”

Jane Moore, who had been sitting next to Yoon Iseul, was watching the freshmen hit each other’s heads, get angry, and roll around, and she was enjoying it.

Baek Hana’s gaze naturally turned to Yoon Iseul, as she was the only person who could influence Jane Moore.

“But apart from the fact that those kids are pathetic…”

Yoon Iseul put down the teacup she was holding and looked around at the ancient temple-like environment, with blue flames blazing.

“This space is truly amazing.”

“I agree with you, Iseul. To recreate a gate with human power, and this restraint device that reflects real-time changing data… It’s an incredible artifact!”

Jane Moore tapped the mask she was wearing and spoke her thoughts honestly.

“I’m more interested in how the eliminated students are naturally collected than the restraint device. I wonder how they’re being collected…”

The eliminated students were swallowed up by the floor or walls and transported to a separate space when they reached a certain level of damage or lost consciousness.

The summoning device, which extracted magic power from magic stones and artificially created fictional monsters, was an invention that could turn the world upside down. However, after experiencing this space today, Yoon Iseul was convinced that this was not a space that could be created by the Magic Tower or magic engineers.

This was not a space that could be created by human hands.

Yoon Iseul accepted this space as a real gate.

“Someone’s found the map!”

Baek Hana and Yoon Iseul looked up at the holographic screen at Jane Moore’s exclamation.

[Here, here. This is where we are right now.]

[It seems correct when we look at the passage we’ve been through and the door-like markings.]

A group of male freshmen.

And they were also familiar faces to Baek Hana.

[…Mu-seok.]

[Did you find it too?]

Kang Mu-seok looked at his right-hand man, Baek Jung-gil, and called his team members to look at one side of the map.

[The wall part is painted black, but this part is…]

Kwaang–!!

The stone door, which had been locked, was broken, and a familiar-faced girl rushed into the sanctuary.

[Park Mina?!]

[Formation B!!]

Kang Mu-seok quickly gave instructions in response to the sudden intrusion, and Baek Jung-gil and the team members swiftly moved to their respective positions.

[Idiots! Don’t just stand there, run!]

[What trickery…]

[The upperclassmen are chasing us!]

[…!!]

Park Mina broke through the opposite stone door and quickly left the sanctuary.

[…Chase Park Mina.]

Kang Mu-seok quickly changed his plan, judging from Park Mina’s anxious expression and disheveled appearance that he saw in a flash that her words were not a lie.

Kang Mu-seok and his team quickly followed Park Mina with the map in hand.

“I didn’t see who smashed them…”

Jane Moore, who had been tense since entering this place, showed a sullen expression for the first time.

“Where… It seems to be over there.”

Park Mina, the upperclassman closest to Kang Mu-seok and the others.

Nam Seo-hee, holding a sword filled with lightning energy.

“Uh, we should get ready!”

Jane Moore, who had been sullen a moment ago, regained her energy and manipulated the holographic screen.

[There’s no way we can beat such a monster…]

Park Mina, surrounded by Kang Mu-seok’s group, muttered softly with a grim face.

Kang Mu-seok, who had been watching her silently, took out the map he had put in his bag and spread it out.

[Park Mina. If the upperclassmen are hunting us and they’re an opponent we can’t handle, we can strike them by other means.]

[…?]

Park Mina looked up, and Kang Mu-seok spread out the map and continued the words he had left unfinished earlier.

[Here. This is definitely the secret passage leading to the deepest part.]

The only space not colored.

It was connected to the deepest part, right at the center of the map.

[Since we’re going to be hunted by the upperclassmen anyway, it’s better to struggle.]

[…Do you trust me?]

[Seeing you like this, I have no choice but to trust you.]

Her hair was standing on end as if struck by lightning, and there was a slight smell of burning.

Park Mina frowned for a moment and stood up.

[…I’ll cooperate just this once.]

[Speak clearly. I’m giving you a chance.]

[What a jerk…]

Kang Mu-seok started moving cautiously with his team members and Park Mina toward the secret passage.

“Huhu, I hope those kids make it through without getting caught.”

Yoon Iseul stood up from her seat, looking up at the hologram with her eyes narrowed like a snake.

She was the lower-level guardian who would be the first to face the intruders in the deepest part.

“Just in case, Jane, get ready too.”

“I love this kind of development!”

Jane Moore stood up, following Yoon Iseul with a smile.

Baek Hana, watching the two of them, awkwardly smiled and remained in her seat.

‘There must have been a hint near the map.’

The place recreated within the gate was ultimately a space created by the crystal at its core. But why would the crystal create a comfortable path for intruders to reach its nest?

It was a part that could be easily realized with a little thought.

‘I didn’t know this either before taking the lecture…’

Because no one knew that the crystal was learning and thinking.

Baek Hana watched Kang Mu-seok’s group approaching the secret passage and smiled bitterly.

The crystal, which was the fruit they were trying to obtain without going through the set trials, would respond to their attempt.

‘…They’re going to have a hard time at the Academy.’