WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Professor

Translator: Touch

Editor: Grass

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Chapter 75: Glass Butterfly (3)

“Should we take a 20-minute break before continuing?” Gray suggested.

“Sure.”

As we sat down to rest, an alien sensation flickered through my mind.

Was it because I was embracing a completely new form of illusion art?

“…”

In the end, the butterflies I created weren’t actual Glass Butterflies, but forged ones made with 『World Forgery』.

And some of those forged butterflies had flown off elsewhere.

“...Gray.”

“Yes?”

“About the butterflies that disappeared earlier. Do you remember what I ordered them to do? I can’t seem to recall. Did I tell them to go somewhere?”

“…?”

Gray blinked, her gaze drifting off into the distance.

Even amidst the frantic pace of our lesson, she remembered the day more precisely than I ever could.

“…Huh, you’re right. We didn’t give them any orders,” she confirmed.

“I see.”

“You didn’t give any commands to the butterflies that disappeared. We were just casting the illusion art, and they somehow just left… Huh, strange. What’s up with that?”

In the end, illusion arts were all about mimicking reality. 

And to mimic something properly, there needed to be proper intent behind each action.

With that hazy, strange sensation still lingering in my head, a clue started to form about where those forged butterflies had gone.

Form, phenomenon, space, perception… Something I could forge beyond these things.

Suddenly, I realized why my proficiency with 『World Forgery』 had been stagnating.

…Because I already achieved the highest level of proficiency I can reach.

For nearly a week, I’d hovered at 89.99%, endlessly repeating the same achievements and crafting the same types of illusions. I wasn’t forging anything new.

That’s why I can’t reach 90%.

I had already achieved a level of mastery close to perfection, so what was the point of doing the same things repeatedly?

It’s not that I can improve my proficiency to 90% through practice and then unlock a new realm of illusions once I reach that goal... It’s actually the other way around.

I first had to find enlightenment and explore a new realm of illusions. Only then would I reach 90% proficiency.

So the question was: how was I supposed to find that enlightenment?

The answer was with the butterflies… or where they went.

I mentally retraced what had happened earlier.

I had created multiple butterflies, and somehow lost a few.

Where did they go?

Whenever I crafted a large number of them, a few would occasionally slip out of my control. They would leave my hands and vanish, flying beyond the Cain Building.

Even though they still contained my mana, the connection would eventually cut off, and I’d lose the ability to track them.

At first, I merely found it odd. I didn’t think much of it.

Having crafted countless illusions since I first entered the game, it was my first time experiencing such sensations—as if the butterflies had minds of their own, as if they were resisting my commands. 

After a while, I simply attributed it to my own lack of skill in handling this unfamiliar style of illusion art.

But no.

I was starting to realize that it wasn’t so simple.

Having reached near-ultimate mastery of the 9th-level ability 『World Forgery』, my forged butterflies weren’t malfunctioning—they were flying toward a new possibility.

So where had they gone?

An unbelievable conclusion crept into my thoughts.

Somewhere outside of space.

The world is defined by at least two axes, one of them being space.

And if they’re outside of space…

…Then it must be through the axis of time, or perhaps dimension.

That was where the butterflies had gone.

And the moment my thoughts landed on that conclusion, a series of surprising system messages appeared before me:

< 『World Forgery』 Proficiency: 90% (▲0.01%) >

< ⧉ Congratulations! You have reached a new level of mastery in the 9th-level illusion art ability. Tales of your extraordinary skill in shaping the world have traveled far and wide, and some stars in the sky have heard your story! >

< ⧉ A star of unknown nature whose identity defies comprehension(…) has delivered to you a forged formula! >

< Following [Form], [Phenomenon], [Space], and [Perception], three new formulas have been added. You now also possess the ability to merge existing formulas and forge even the formulas of others. >

< New Formulas Acquired: [Unknown Formula], [Time], [Memory] >

Aha!

I clenched my fist in excitement.

Finally!

At that very moment, light poured into the building through the window from the night sky above.

“Eh? Huh? What’s going on? What’s this sensation?” Gray, resting absentmindedly beside me, suddenly sat up, startled.

A stigma was descending into this world.

Ordinary students wouldn’t sense it, but Gray—being unusually sensitive to such things—felt it clearly.

“It’s a stigma,” I said.

“A stigma? That came out of nowhere.”

“Someone must’ve done something incredible to receive it.”

“Oh…”

I played dumb, acting as if I had no idea who had triggered it.

After all, we were in the middle of learning 『Glass Butterfly』.

If Gray realized I was the one receiving the stigma, she might feel jealous, confused, and even betrayed—especially since she was the expert teaching me how to use 『Glass Butterfly』.

And as I suspected…

“Whoever it is, I’m jealous of them,” Gray muttered, glancing out the window with me.

“That lucky bastard…”

“…Why are you insulting them?” I asked.

“Why not? Anyone luckier than me can eat shit.”

│ㅅㅇ)

We now had a spectator watching us.

Peering from the shadows was the Spying Star│ㅅㅇ)—the most useless and perverted weirdo among all the stars.

And yet, it was still one of this world’s gods.

I’ve got two stigmata now.

The first one came from the Peaceful Star☮, and this time, it was from the Spying Star│ㅅㅇ).

“By the way, Professor,” Gray said, “those Kreutz bastards are probably seeing this too, right?”

“They probably are.”

Whenever a stigma descended, those who were interested could sense it even from across the continent.

It was like how legendary item drops in MMOs triggered server-wide notifications.

“Stigmata are usually bestowed once every few months normally. But this is the second one in two weeks—in Hiaka, no less. I wish I could see the faces on those Kreutz bastards. Their expressions must be priceless.”

Gray chuckled.

“Indeed.”

I, too, was curious what kind of faces they were making right now.

“If only some kind-hearted star out there would give us a peek…”

I sneakily tried to provoke the Spying Star│ㅅㅇ), but the bastard didn’t budge.

This useless star…

Guess I’ll start by checking on the changes with 『World Forgery』.

I first needed to examine the newly acquired formulas.

Leaving aside the unidentified [Unknown Formula], the two usable formulas I had obtained through enlightenment were:

[Time] and [Memory].

Something about them felt ominous…

Forging memories?

Could it really mean manipulating someone’s memory?

I checked the information of the formula, and sure enough, it did.

…This is an incredibly dangerous ability.

This formula could forge the memories of anyone and anything with a memory storage system, including humans. As long as the criteria were met, it could forge any memory, along with any sensation within that memory.

But there’s a condition.

It could only be used once per person.

Not twice, not thrice, but only once in their lifetime.

Furthermore, just accessing their memory to begin forging was considered activating the ability.

The condition for use is… when the target recalls the memory?

I turned to look at Gray, who had just taken off her sneakers.

If I forged her memory now, she’d live the rest of her life believing that the fake memory was real.

A wave of disgust surged in my chest.

I can’t do it.

I shelved the formula for now.

Next is Time Forgery.

I was even more excited about this one.

I immediately tried to use it.

『 World Forgery: Time Forgery 』

Two input fields appeared before me:

[Seconds / Frames]

What did these mean?

I entered some numbers based on instinct.

『 World Forgery: Time Forgery [10 seconds / 60 frames] 』

And then, I activated the ability without hesitation.

…Did it work?

Nothing appeared to change.

What’s going on?

“By the way, Professor.”

Gray, who had been fiddling with her toes, suddenly spoke up.

“I’m listening,” I replied.

“What are you doing the day after tomorrow?”

The day after tomorrow? Why is she suddenly—

The very next instant, the entire world—including the gymnasium, Gray, and me—was crushed and collapsed.

“…!”

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the gymnasium as before.

I looked around. My mana had definitely been drained.

Soon after, Gray started fiddling with her toes again.

Ah, that same line.

“Are you about to ask what I’m doing the day after tomorrow?”

“Eeeh??” Gray's eyes widened in shock.

“…How did you know what I was going to say?”

Ahh, I fully understand now.

The moment I used Time Forgery, a forged time had begun flowing. 

Once the preset duration ended, everything reset back to the initial point.

This formula is absolutely crazy.

But it had its downsides.

It devours mana like crazy.

Just setting it to 10 seconds at 60 frames had drained me of 189 mana. And that was just for 10 seconds!

“Professor?”

“Ah, right. I just had a feeling you were going to ask me that. Just my intuition.”

“That’s so creepy… So, what are you up to the day after tomorrow?”

“Not sure. It’s the weekend, and I’ve got nothing planned.”

“Hm…”

“Gray. Since we’re taking a break, want to play a game?”

“A game?”

I decided to take this opportunity to answer some of my lingering questions about the new ability.

I pulled out nine 1-hika coins from my wallet and handed them to her.

“We’ll flip these and try to guess if they land on heads or tails.”

“And? What happens if I win?”

“I’ll give you all the coins.”

“And if you win?”

“Just let me flick your forehead once.”

“That’s so unfair.”

“Then you can flick me once too.”

“Deal.”

Nice.

Ever since I got Time Forgery, I’d been dying to test one thing...

Could I cheat at gambling?

If this worked, it could be the start of my billionaire lifestyle!

……

Ultimately, it failed.

There is a flaw with Time Forgery.

When I lowered the frame rate to 1, mana consumption dropped drastically—only about 3 or 4 per use.

However, in exchange, reality began to falter, and the coin flips I had foresaw in the future became inconsistent with reality.

“Ah, I lost…”

Gray looked up cautiously, so I gave her only a light flick and switched games.

“Wanna try rock-paper-scissors?”

“Yep yep!”

Surprisingly, my win rate was 100%.

After five tries, I stopped testing Time Forgery. Gray kept throwing scissors.

Odd. What’s the logic here?

Could it be a matter of proficiency? Like, if I reached 99.9% proficiency, would the gambling outcomes also become more consistent?

I didn’t know the answer to this yet…

But I read in a neuroscience paper before that when people play rock-paper-scissors, their brain decides what to throw several seconds before the reveal.

I still didn’t fully understand the Time Forgery formula, but here’s what I’d deduced so far:

When causality was firmly established—when an outcome was unavoidable or predetermined—the results of forgery and reality matched. 

But when it shifted toward pure chance, the two started to diverge.

…But does that even make sense?

My thoughts spiraled even more as I pondered various theories like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Chaos Theory, Laplace’s Demon… 

All these complex theories that deny determinism swirled in my mind before coming to a halt. 

This was a game world.

I can’t know for sure. The laws of this world may be different from Earth’s.

Still, could I use Time Forgery to make money?

Something like Roulette wouldn’t work. It relied too much on random chance and luck.

Ah, but Poker might.

But if I wanted to make a lot of money quickly, I would have to go to a large-scale gambling house.

Unfortunately, most of those businesses had sophisticated devices set up to detect ability usage and catch people cheating.

And since 『World Forgery』 was a forbidden skill, if I got caught using it that way, my head would roll.

So in the end, that plan was a bust too.

If only there were a stock market in this world… things might’ve worked out. How unfortunate.

Something like ultra-high-frequency trading might’ve worked.

I’d have to think more carefully about how to apply this new formula to my advantage.

Then, a new idea struck me.

Can I use it like this?

『 World Forgery: Time Forgery [10 seconds / 30 frames] 』

“Gray.”

“Mm? Why do you keep bothering me?” she mumbled, resting her chin on her knees.

“There’s something I want to tell you.”

“What is it?” she asked, blinking curiously.

“I lo—”

I almost said something incredibly dumb without thinking it through. Even if this was a forged moment in time, I was still a professor, and she was my student.

“―ve watching you fail.”

“Huh?”

“Die.”

“Why…?”

“Just die.”

“Hell no.”

Gray reflexively flipped me off.

“You die, Professor…”

The moment she finished saying that, the world shattered again, and we returned to reality.

It works.

I could use Time Forgery to test someone’s reaction ahead of time.

This is fun.

Even setting aside its potential utility, the formula itself was endlessly fascinating.

It felt like I’d gotten my hands on an incredible toy.

But it devours mana like crazy. And with my current proficiency, I can’t forge time for long. Ah, wait a second…

Testing someone’s reaction?

Oh!!

A light bulb went off in my head.

I quickly used my crystal watch to call someone.

“Hello, Professor~”

It was Adele.

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