I Possessed a Broken Academy Instructor - Chapter 82



Chapter 82

“I will buy every last drug you have. So bring it all.”

“Every last one?”

Viper, momentarily dazed by the order he had never heard before, quickly regained his composure and looked at the madman beneath the mask with eyes that spoke of disbelief.

“Every last one? You know how much my drug cocktails are worth, and you say that?”

He had already discarded the stale manner of speech he used due to his false identity, but in this moment, no one cared about such trivialities.

The moment he realized Viper was Volk, he recognized his true form, and for Jin Crow, whether he was an old man, a boy, or a hermaphrodite mattered little; what mattered was the stimulant.

“Of course, you can’t just whip up every last one. What I want is something akin to the tonic you sold before.”

“…Well then.”

Hearing that, Viper instinctively wanted to retort, “Do you think such a thing is easily made?” but at the same time, a calculator began to click rapidly in his mind.

Indeed, it was true that such items were difficult to create.

But did that mean there was no stock?

From noble mtl dot com

If it were that rare, would he have sold it?

‘My operating funds are running low, though…’

Viper glanced sideways at Volk.

After all, he was selling items he made as an individual, so the higher-ups wouldn’t say anything, but it was best not to stir up trouble.

In that sense, there was no need for Volk to worry.

Though his actions suited a foolish Chihuahua more than a wolf, he still bore a weighty demeanor.

“Ha. Volk, step outside for a moment.”

In the end, he nodded at Jin Crow’s words and sent Volk away, soon speaking to Jin Crow in the now-empty pharmacy.

“There’s nothing that is completely the same. That’s my creed.”

This was a premise Jin Crow could accept, and he silently nodded in agreement.

Viper was not the only one who was peculiar.

Unlike the ‘brand’ products churned out by factories like a pentacle, skilled drug bartenders possessed a certain ego or a kind of gonzo spirit, if you will.

“Isn’t it just a business under a name that sounds like a love?”

Jin Crow swallowed the words that followed him, forcing them down, and spoke to him.

“So, what about the goods?”

“Here.”

At this point, Viper could no longer back out.

Once Volk had been sent out, the deal was practically sealed.

For that reason, he handed over a small square paper box wrapped with something, along with a bottle of black pills he had previously given to Jin Crow, his face as gruff as ever.

“What’s this?”

Knowing the black pills already, Jin Crow asked, glancing at the paper box that typically held medicine. Viper replied.

“It’s a pain patch. If you don’t want it, just say so.”

“And the effect?”

“Well, it’s nothing special.”

Despite his words, Viper, hidden behind his mask, took a deep drag from his pipe, and soon, as if sinking into a sturdy armchair amidst the tremors, he spoke.

“It’s a pain patch that allows you to endure up to four times the recommended daily dose. You’ll build a tolerance, but that only happens if you shove the stuff into your body like beer CC… Two of them together, a one-time payment of a billion. What do you think?”

At that moment, a sharp gasp echoed from outside.

It was only natural.

Even Viper, who had named that price, was inwardly questioning if he had gone too far, his hand trembling slightly as he took another drag from his pipe. How much more would Volk be feeling it?

Let’s take a moment to consider the value of a billion.

The worth varies depending on whether the currency is synthetic dollars (USD), credits, or imperial francs (EF), but the average price of food for common folk in each nation usually doesn’t exceed twenty dollars. Considering that, Viper had thrown out the figure with a mind to negotiate a bit.

Of course, he should also be prepared to apologize for the insult to his naming sense.

“Since the money I received before was three hundred million, I could probably knock it down to about seven hundred million, right?”

Even with a discount, he would be free from financial pressure for nearly a year.

With that thought, Viper struggled to suppress the corners of his mouth that wanted to rise, and, as expected, he spoke to Jin Crow, who was gazing at him with eyes that had sunk low.

“Well, it is quite a lot for an individual to carry, isn’t it? I’ve been generous. If you write an apology for insulting the name of the Love Pharmacy here in your own hand, I’d be happy to…”

“Is that all?”

“Huh?”

In that moment, he couldn’t help but doubt his ears.

“Is this really all I should be satisfied with? I worried for nothing.”

Yet, Jin Crow, seemingly unfazed by Viper’s reaction, clicked his tongue in disappointment and casually pressed his watch.

Ding-

“Ugh, huh?”

At the sound of the watch’s alarm ringing, he lowered his gaze with a slight creak in his eyes, and upon seeing the recent deposit, he could do nothing but drop the electronic cigarette, the limited edition, that he had been holding in his mouth.

[1,000,000,000 USD]

“…You’re telling me someone just paid a billion dollars for a mere stimulant? Is he out of his mind?”

“I-I paid? Really?”

Just then, Volk, who had been waiting outside, rushed in to check the account, while Viper stared blankly at Jin Crow, who was gathering pills and patches from the bag he had brought, his expression hidden beneath a mask, as if hoping for something.

At that moment, Jin Crow, leaving the two in their stupor, checked a message from Tita Xenolua and clicked his tongue. He then tore open a patch and stuck it to the nape of his neck, saying,

“…Now I don’t even know what’s what, tsk.”

It was news that the Mer Corporation headquarters had collapsed and that the queen had made her nest there.

*

Where Stero Mer opened his eyes was a damp, dark space.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he recalled the place he had been shoved into and twisted his body with all his might, flailing his hands and feet in every direction, but soon he had no choice but to realize.

‘…The space has no end.’

The place he was trapped in was surely the belly of the queen, a space that could barely hold a single person, yet its vastness was beyond imagination.

And in that moment, when he was suffocating in confusion, the surroundings began to color like a canvas splattered with paint, and a familiar scene reassembled before his eyes.

“Move, move quickly!”

Swoosh! Thwack!

“Ugh!”

The first thing that filled his vision was the prison planet located on the outskirts of the Empire.

Figures clad in the Empire’s guard uniforms stood with crackling electric whips, while prisoners in tattered, worn-out uniforms continued their labor with trembling fingertips.

‘…Ah.’

Stero Mer sighed through his cracked lips.

Though no voice escaped him, he captured the Empire’s hell in his eyes, a nightmare he could never forget even in dreams.

“Move it! You worthless maggots!”

“You ungrateful insects, showing no gratitude for the Emperor’s grace!”

“Your very bloodline is a sin!”

Beatings were dealt from all sides, and the fair-skinned men and women became playthings for the guards, forced to endure labor and violence until death, all for the crime of their lineage in the Empire’s concentration camp.

In one corner of that place, a platinum-haired boy sat blankly, cradling the body of a peer.

‘The first me.’

The one in his arms was likely his younger brother, memories of whom had faded into obscurity.

He stared for a moment at the small chunk of flesh, helplessly drawn into the twisting memories that followed.

“Waaah!”

“You b*stards!”

“Kill! Just kill them!”

The colors of the space around him shifted.

It was not just that. The agents of violence also turned.

“Save, save me—!”

“Shut your mouth! You filthy whore!”

“Gah!”

The guards, who had unleashed all manner of humiliation, shame, and violence upon the prisoners with guns and whips, fell like swine.

Just as they had done, the fair-skinned were executed, enduring insults until the end, while those who finally reclaimed their freedom revealed the desires and violent tendencies they had hidden away, unfiltered.

‘A coup. Born from the hidden superhumans.’

At that time, the infrastructure to select superhumans was weak, making such a thing possible, and soon Steromeir could see another version of himself.

The platinum-haired youth, grown from the form of a boy, slashed the throat of the male guard who had played with him like a cherished doll, laughing as if he had lost his mind.

‘The great escape that followed.’

Naturally, the Empire would not sit idly by while the prisoners revolted.

Especially if superhumans led the charge.

Having shed all their pent-up grievances, they fled aboard the Empire’s old ships, and in the process, more than half were shot down or captured.

Some fleets surrendered to the synthetic nation that was at odds with the Empire, but that nation, which was in a truce with the Empire at the time, instead captured them and neatly packaged them for delivery back to the Empire.

In the vast galaxy, they had no allies.

“You treacherous b*stard!”

“Shut your mouth! It was foolish of us to oppose the Empire in the first place!”

At times, betrayal and discord followed, and the escapees, numbering over a hundred thousand with twenty ships, dwindled to a single vessel in less than a year.

Hope flickered and died, leaving only the fear that death was all that remained, a dread that hung in the air among them.

On a primitive planet where they had stopped to mine for food and fuel, Steromeir encountered ‘it’ for the first time.

“…What, what is this? A girl?”

“…”

In a remote world where only primitive forms of flora and fauna existed, Steromeir doubted his eyes upon discovering the girl, but soon realized that her body was a hologram and that she wished to take him somewhere.

Curiosity surged within him.

As he followed the girl, he found himself facing a massive cave that surrounded him like a temple, watching her skip into the depths ahead.

“……Ah, damn it.”

Now grown sturdy enough to be called a young man, Stero Mer scratched the greasy back of his head for a moment before quickly chasing after the figure ahead.

The ‘current Stero Mer’ could do nothing but close his eyes at that point.

It was only natural.

What he faced within was both hope and the terror of despair that pushed him endlessly onward.

“……Nectar. Yes, this is a deal.”

At last, emerging from the cave, carved like a temple, Stero Mer spoke to the girl following him, his face set in a hardened resolve.

“We need a homeland. Help us. Then I too shall aid you.”

The past Stero Mer extended his hand.

Slowly, the girl named Nectar took his hand and opened her mouth.

“……This is atonement. Furthermore, a sacrifice for the future.”

At that moment, Stero Mer could not comprehend Nectar’s words.

Yet soon, when he confronted the shards of truth she had concealed, he could only writhe in greater despair and a sense of betrayal.

‘…….’

What followed was the tale of Stero Mer’s life, but to others, it was the chronicle of the establishment of the Free Planet Alliance.

He organized the early factions and transformed this primitive planet, lacking even the most basic infrastructure, into a place where people could live.

For decades, he welcomed wanderers and built a foundation in a place thoroughly hidden from the Empire and the Synthesized States. As death approached, he took Nectar’s help to swap out his body, and when the Empire and the Synthesized States caught wind of the unbelievable growth of the Free Planet Alliance, he spread all manner of rumors, incited sabotage, and ultimately succeeded in nurturing it into a single force.

And finally, he found himself gazing down at a colossal skyscraper, overlapping with reality.

“……Ah.”

A voice slipped through his cracked lips.

He stared blankly at the city he had built, and behind him, a voice both chilling and soothing intertwined.

“Child, my companion.”

He must not listen.

The warnings of his flesh could no longer bolster his shattered mind, and he slowly turned his head to gaze at her.

“Your devotion is wondrous, pitiful, and yet utterly futile.”

The pure white angel and the visage of a demon overlapped.

Overwhelmed by her transcendent presence, Stero Mer felt the disparity in their status and slowly knelt. Soon, she whispered to him, insatiably greedy yet infinitely sweet.

“Lay it down, submit, dominate, reign, yet remain loyal.”

“……Ahh.”

He closed his eyes.

And once more, when he opened his eyes.

-Evolution. More. Advanced.

It was no longer the voice of a human.

The queen chuckled softly as she gazed upon the new King, conceived in her womb, while all the creatures rooted in the earth bowed low in reverence.

-Kyaaa!

-Krrrrrrrrrr!

At last, from the shattered remnants of the Mer Corporation, Icarus, with wings half-melted, soared into the false light.