Chapter 41: The Basement Office
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The so-called "free activity time" is just what it sounds like.
Apart from the regular teaching and the occasional free time he got,
Hogni Zed would be confined entirely within this sealed teaching building,
The school would provide meals three times a day and any other needs for experiments and daily life as much as possible.
...
"His time outside is strictly limited, does the academy treat him as some kind of usable 'prisoner'? Just how dangerous is this guy that the authorities would make such a decision?"
Yi Chen sensed an even greater danger emanating from Teacher Zede,
but he felt no fear or desire to flee; instead, his curiosity heightened, and he looked forward to the physical training.
Because in the classroom,
he had witnessed Teacher Zede dissect nearly every part of his body and even display his internal organs... Such acts, which would have killed a man a hundred times over, seemed like child's play to Zede.
Moreover,
he seemed to be able to "self-heal superfast and selectively",
such as immediately healing the parts of his body that were no longer needed to be shown after being cut open. As for the parts that needed to continue to be displayed, the wounds were kept open, and he could even actively restrict blood flow and interfere with the circulation.
He had complete control over every inch of his body.
If he could learn the real deal here, it would undoubtedly help his physical development greatly.
...
Before following Zede to his 'office',
Yi Chen looked at the classroom filled with corpses, "What about these bodies?"
"Don't worry,
they were created for the purpose of the classes.
The bodies have been injected with special preservatives; the shelf life is upwards of three months.
Since they will still be needed for next week's classes, let them stay in the classroom."
"Got it."
He followed Zede down the narrow stairs of the sealed teaching building... the stairs even extended below the first floor, heading deeper.
Click~ Opening a hidden door.
There was actually a small elevator below, leading even deeper.
"Are we going down further?"
"Yes~ ever since I got in trouble, my title was revoked, and my original office was renovated. Those people in the academy made me a specially customized underground office."
"Mr. Zede, were you a professor at the academy before?"
"I barely made it to associate professor, because I was not very adept at socializing and writing... In fact, I don't really like teaching students,
but when I display and cut my own body in front of you newcomers, the surprise in your eyes gives me a sense of satisfaction on a mental level,
which is probably largely related to the peculiar structure of my hypothalamus.
That's why I chose to teach here."
"Oh..."
Hearing this,
Yi Chen had a fair idea of what a "Quirk" entailed... Of course, 'displaying the body' might just be one of the quirks.
During the elevator ride,
Yi Chen casually glanced a few times at the black cloth covering Zede's eyes,
and from the details during the previous class, he could roughly tell that there was something wrong with Teacher Zede's eyes.
Yi Chen was also quite curious how a gentleman with such powerful self-healing abilities like Zede could be blind... If the eyes were damaged, couldn't they just heal and recover?
But it was better to wait until they were more familiar with each other before asking such sensitive questions.
At that moment, Little Grape's voice came:
"His 'Eye' has been deprived."
"Deprived? Can't it self-heal?"
"I cannot sense the concept of an 'Eye' in him; it's completely different from the concept of eye damage or loss... Essentially, in his fundamental biological structure, there is no organ of the 'eyeball'.
Thus, he cannot self-heal, and there's simply no method for repair.
However, looking at this human's daily actions, he has already adapted to a life without grapes; his other senses have completely replaced the functions of grapes for observation."
"Is this congenital?"
"Maybe... or it might have been conceptually stripped during an exploration in the Gray Domain."
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"Understood."
Clang!
The elevator descended to the very bottom.
Before him, there was only a narrow arched passageway, wide enough for just one adult to pass through.
At the end stood a completely sealed iron door without any viewing window, equipped with hydraulic valves.
The door also had a clock-style timer embedded in it, with the last minute ticking away.
Every time Zede left, the clock would start to count down,
If he didn't return before the timer ended, the entire teaching building would sound an alarm, and a large number of gentlemen would rush over immediately to capture and suppress Zede.
If it turned out he was attempting an escape with malice, he would also face execution.
Hum! The iron door opened.
Racing against the last few seconds, he stepped into Zede's office.
The hydraulic valve turned,
Three cylindrical locks, each two meters thick, shot out between the iron doors, embedding into the walls and locking in place entirely.
The moment the door closed, Yi Chen felt as if he had completely lost contact with the outside world.
The interior of the office was quite spacious,
With multiple rooms,
Suitable for Zede's daily life, storage, corpse preservation, personal experimentation, and some other rooms whose purpose was unknown.
However,
Each room was equipped with a 'Monitoring Living Eye'.
Indeed, it was a living eyeball tethered by numerous nerves, hanging in the corner, monitoring everything in Zede's office at all times.
If there were any needs, one would just have to signal to the eyeball, and after a while, staff would come down to inquire about the specific situation.
"This is not just any office; it's more like a 'Private Prison' with better conditions.
Exactly how dangerous is this teacher Zede, or what kind of heinous act has he committed, that he warrants such a dedicated underground prison under 24-hour surveillance?"
…
Vilsterman Teaching Building upper level—[Monitoring Room]
This was a room piled high with a mass of brain tissue and neural connections, also 'fitted' with a large number of zombie heads.
These heads were produced in the cemeteries under the organization's command and were products of zombies with well-developed brains.
The back of their heads were smashed open to create a 'data port,' into which the neural connections were inserted.
The other end of the connections corresponded to the 'Surveillance Eyes' in every corner of the teaching building,
The monitors in the room were able to get a real-time 'monitoring image' by looking through magnifying glasses at the pupils of the zombie heads.
Areas like this 'improper' would never appear on Zion's surface.
Gurgle~
Associate Professor Qian Bosen had arrived here an hour earlier,
With just one purpose in mind—
To see if there would be any problems during the first meeting between Yi Chen and Hogni Zed.
After hearing about Yi Chen's excellent performance in class,
And watching the monitoring image of the two cheerfully taking the elevator and heading to the office, he was largely reassured.
"It's rare to see you, Associate Professor Qian Bosen, taking an interest in a freshman and even introducing him to Zede, that sick psychopath.
I'm a little curious, could you share the reasons behind this?"
The person asking was the person in charge of the monitoring area—a tall lady wearing high heels, a black dress, and a mask with a 'dark gold brain' pattern.
"Zede's talents on the Physical Level are unparalleled in the entire academy… My student's Profession is associated with 'Intelligence,' but he also wishes to develop 'Physique' in conjunction.
I agree with his Thought,
But to achieve the Multi-attribute Extreme, one must seek the best mentor.
That's the reason."
The supervisor asked back, "Even if it means risking death and losing an important talent, it doesn't matter to you?"
"Dying at Zede's hands is far better than dying outside…"
"Interesting, I'll pay some extra attention to this student and do what I can to prevent his Death."
"Thank you, Miss Olesya."