I wanted to kill the professor.
That was why I got so completely hooked on a game called Hiaca Academy: Department of Assassination.
A department where assassination is part of the curriculum—and you only graduate by successfully murdering your professor. How could that not be interesting?
Over the span of a year, I played through [Easy Mode] and [Normal Mode], killing the professor more than three hundred times. I’d become a relic of the game, a fossil-level veteran. Eventually, I reached the point where I could even take down the demon professor on [Hard Mode] without breaking a sweat.
‘Maybe I should stop here.’
I was starting to think I should finally return to real life.
And then—a pop-up.
< An update [The Heroic Professor] is now available. Would you like to play? >
There’s more?
As I read through the update description, I realized something: this time, you weren’t trying to kill the professor—you were the professor.
Apparently, you’d be taking on the role of the instructor in the Department of Assassination. You were supposed to train the students to grow stronger—while also making sure they didn’t kill you. That was the whole concept. And honestly... it sounded fun.
The setting had also expanded into full-scale heroic fantasy.
Still, something about it felt off.
‘Me? Playing from the professor’s perspective...?’
There was a time when I’d wanted to be a professor.
I enjoyed research. I liked the idea of teaching—of passing down knowledge I’d worked so hard to acquire.
I even admired the title itself. Professor. Businessman. Doctor. Politician. Professor. Weren’t those the poster children for “successful adult life”?
I’d lost my family when I was young. My life had been pitiful. And I thought—if I could change everything just by studying, wouldn’t that be amazing?
Even if I was born clinging to a ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) rotten rope, I believed that, with enough effort, I could turn it into a golden one.
I really did believe that, once.
But it was a delusion. The world doesn’t work that way.
They pitted me against others. Labeled me a misfit. I suffocated in grad school for years, with no outlet.
In the end, they stole my thesis. And by the time I turned thirty, all I had left was debt—and cancer.
That was the fruit of all my hard work.
Back then, the professor I once worshipped like a god said to me:
"Why would that be your thesis?"
Now do you understand why I became obsessed with a game where you kill professors?
Since then, while fighting this illness, I’ve done nothing but play games. No place to go. No one to see. Each day a blur of numbness and pain, not knowing why I’m still alive.
And now, of all things, a DLC where I get to be the professor?
‘This game really knows how to mess with you.’
Sure, “professor” in this game is just a title—it’s basically a glorified high school teacher...
Still, at least it’s not DLC [Grad Student].
All right. Let’s try it.
< Please select the difficulty level for [The Heroic Professor] DLC. >
After clearing [Hard Mode], I’d gotten cocky. I wanted to test myself. Push things to the max.
And then—a new difficulty appeared. One that wasn’t in the original game.
< The Heroic Professor: [Hell Mode] Ver 1.0.0 >
Hell Mode.
Not just hard—merciless. A level designed to break you.
But I didn’t think much of it.
After all, it’s just a game.
“...Huh? Wait. What’s going on with the screen—?”
...Because I had no idea I was about to be pulled into that game.
EP1 – Prologue: The Heroic Professor
END