NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 1053
<1053 – Super Weak and Pathetic Mode (11)>
Professor Weird.
Professor Sadako.
Professor Bronze.
The individuals boldly listed among the top three insane geniuses of the Academy were said to possess a level of madness that was on another level even among professors.
The outer appearance of these extraordinary women’s madness seemed to peel back like an onion, revealing deeper layers—the depths of an unfathomable abyss.
Among them, the worst and most notorious was—
Professor Weird.
Here she comes.
“Yikes! Let’s get out of here, Jiang!”
Even the brave Oknodie turned into a scaredy-cat just like Titosso when faced with Professor Weird’s presence.
“No way. You need treatment.”
“A former student of Professor Weird once said that she… feeds her students stones!”
“Oknodie, you eat stones too.”
“It’s not a stone! It’s a Stat Stone!!”
“What’s the difference?”
Recently, Oknodie, having boosted her stats with Stat Stones, had stopped eating rocks.
Thanks to this, Jiang, reminiscing about the past Oknodie, was hit with a wave of nostalgia.
Next time, I should find a rock that’s just the right size for Oknodie!
“It’s too late. She’s coming.”
Whoosh.
With a cold wind, leaves flew everywhere.
Beyond the swirling leaves appeared a woman with an alluring figure, her important body parts only covered by leaves.
Deceiving those attending her lectures, she made students weep uncontrollably.
And she fed stones to graduate students.
It was the arrival of Professor Weird.
“Hmm… why am I so sleepy?”
“I want to take a nap…”
“Should I lie down for a bit?”
The sight of all the citizens suddenly sprawled out on benches and the dirt to sleep was not just peaceful—it leaned dangerously close to bizarre.
“I’ve put all the nuisances to sleep. Now, Oknodie. Come here.”
“N-No way!”
“Struggling in a weak state is pointless. Patients should be forcibly subdued for treatment. Whether you agree or not, I’m taking you.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To the research lab.”
“But you said you’d treat me!!”
“We’ve got ourselves a rare new contagious disease. So of course, we gather and store specimens and prepare to cultivate them before giving treatment, right?”
She had a condescending attitude, almost as if she didn’t believe Oknodie could be that clueless.
As a result, Jiang and Professor Red Mountain, who were watching from the side, had adopted a surprisingly polite posture, like they were students attending a lecture.
“Isn’t Professor Weird just supposed to deal with Nature Magic?”
“Contagious diseases are part of nature.”
“Nature really is too much.”
Unlike Jiang, who felt wronged, Sadi thought, well, here we go.
Professor Weird was also notoriously remembered as a menace by her new students like Oknodie.
In other words, she had been the same troublesome mess every year.
“Help me, Jiang!”
“I… I’m not sure if it will work, but I’ll try.”
Jiang stepped in front of Professor Weird in an attempt to let Oknodie escape.
Professor Weird tilted her head.
“You’re a student, and I’m a professor.”
“Even if I don’t win, I can at least buy some time, right? You’re not going to kill a student.”
“…”
“…”
“…Is that a no?”
“Of course it’s a no!”
The senior instructor, unable to just watch, sighed heavily.
“Isn’t it better to just give up? You might actually get killed.”
“Surely you’re joking.”
“Once, there was a senior who thought like you—would Professor Weird really kill someone just for stealing a fruit?”
“Did they die?”
“They’re outside earning money to send back for Spirit Herb growing until the fruits mature. They’ve been working for ten years on a fishing boat, hunting big game in the seas where monsters roam.”
“Isn’t that a level beyond just dying?”
“If you don’t want that kind of fate, be careful. Crossing Professor Weird is that kind of thing.”
It’s not easy to inflict damage, but if you did get caught, your life was at stake with a punishment so merciful it really felt like a reward.
The situation where Thesis Thief Kiote fled from Professor Weird’s lab and landed a managerial position overseeing adventurers in Oknodie’s Taboo City was a miracle that only happened because Oknodie existed.
Jiang pondered seriously.
Then she pressed the mask sitting on her forehead down tighter.
I won’t back down.
It was a declaration of her strong will.
“After all, I can’t leave my best friend behind.”
“Huh? If you’re best friends, you should know how to help your friend heal, not make it so the professor has a wasted trip~? What a loser. You’re a fake best friend. The real one is me♡”
“…You’re trying to meddle?”
“Do I really need to step in~? Since the professor’s here, just flail about as you wish.”
Under Masugaki’s watching gaze, the knights protecting the Empress who had come to watch were stationed around her, half wanting to see the so-called renowned professor in action and half wanting to protect the Empress.
“Have you finished your mental preparation?”
“Done.”
“Then go down.”
The ground shook.
Before anyone understood what was happening, a colossal earthquake engulfed the peripheral small town.
Realizing that in the surge of seismic waves, the convoy knights were alerted to protect the nearby citizens and realized they were facing swooning citizens and standing houses.
This wasn’t an earthquake hitting a small town.
It was a natural disaster, or rather a man-made disaster, manifesting right where they stood!
“Surprisingly steady.”
“I’m not taking Oknodie.”
Jiang used adhesive magic to bind her feet to the ground, making it impossible for her to fall.
Even in the face of Jiang’s incredible will, Professor Weird calmly spoke in a gentle tone, like a parent chastising a child.
“Have you finished your tantrum?”
“Not by a long shot.”
“Good. Hang in there.”
In the next moment, Jiang felt her breath being stolen.
Professor Weird’s Nature Mana manipulated the components of the air and forced Jiang into a suffocating state.
But Jiang wasn’t going down without a fight.
The application of domain control.
Using the surrounding air, she bound it to her own realm to secure oxygen.
This was a skill she honed through classes at Gift Academy and her adventures intertwined with Oknodie.
“Don’t bully Jiang!”
‘That fool. Why didn’t she just run away?’
Jiang felt both resentment and joy.
Her gratitude was directed at Oknodie, who hadn’t abandoned her.
“If you love your friend that much, why don’t you just surrender?”
“Pfft. Jiang and I are escaping together!”
Just as Oknodie threw a poison bomb, the wind whipped in and scattered the toxins everywhere.
As soon as the Paper Airplane flew out of her backpack, it was torn to shreds by the cutting wind.
A few swords sprang out of the backpack, akin to a display of swordplay, but faster than the swords, vines shot out from the ground, colliding with the backpack’s opening and its blades.
Crunch!
As a strong impact was detected from the connected space, the entrance to the pocket space of the backpack vanished in an instant.
The backpack, which had consistently performed excellently throughout their countless journeys, was hit in one second.
“You have quite a few tricks, huh? This professor has a few tricks up her sleeve as well. Want to see one?”
“No thanks!”
“I do.”
Professor Weird’s vines sliced through the space, opening a non-visible dimension, retrieving one of the items stored in her hidden space.
A bug that resembles a ladybug, nourished by a concentrated poison accrued over many long years of decay in a swamp where corpses and pollution piled up.
It was the Guardian of the Death Zone—Disaster Bug.
The bug’s name was Poison Bug.
A being that could die simply from being exposed to poison dust, lacking immunity to deadly poison was a disaster in every sense.
━━━
<Level 4 Dodgeball>
<Dark Ball>
━━━
A ball imbued with all kinds of attributes.
Or a Dark Mana-rampaging ball.
The attack gathered by Oknodie through Gathering would absorb the Poison Bug’s dust.
Among countless poisons, if there was even one she didn’t know, the meaning of defense was diminished, and curiously enough, every single attack was absorbed by the Dark Ball.
This single move indicated that Oknodie had faced the likes of Professor Weird countless times before.
“The kids in our lab who eat stones don’t act like this.”
“They only eat stones, that’s why!”
“Did you also feed them sand?”
Professor Weird’s vine split into three branches, firing mana parasites like a machine gun.
Although the Dark Ball absorbed the mana parasites, it was useless against the mana parasites, as they drained energy from the very essence of mana.
As the Dark Ball flickered out, the path ahead of Oknodie cleared.
Thud.
Professor Weird’s vine released Jiang from her adhesive surface and caught Jiang who was about to leap away.
Then, she brazenly shook Jiang in front of Oknodie.
“If you don’t get treatment willingly, I’ll use Jiang for research. I’m gonna feed her stones.”
“That’s too cruel!”
With the Acceleration Afterimage Sword, Oknodie dashed forward in an instant, slicing Professor Weird’s vines.
The severed vines rapidly regenerated, wriggling back around Jiang.
“Let Jiang go!”
“Then will you get treatment?”
“I’ll only accept it until I’m healed, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Then I will.”
Jiang felt a pang of guilt for Oknodie, who was willing to undergo treatment because of her.
“No way! Run, Oknodie. Don’t do this for me.”
“I can’t leave Jiang behind.”
Realizing she couldn’t run away until Jiang did, Oknodie steeled her determination.
Slash!
Drawing from her training with the Ghost Warlord, she unleashed the secret technique of ambush, severing the vines and regaining her freedom of movement.
However, the ground refused to grant passage to her shadowy movement, stubbornly sinking beneath her.
The action of reaching into the belly of the object.
Within the shade.
The very act of reaching there was being denied by a power that was akin to the terrain-altering dominion, and Jiang’s shadow stealth was fundamentally blocked.
“If getting punished is the only way to be released, then I’ll comply.”
“What have you done until now?”
“Isn’t it nice to run into students outside? I was just saying hello instead of greeting them.”
“…”
Professor Weird’s greetings concluded.
Now it was time for her to face the music.