Strongest Existence Becomes Teacher Chapter 77: Zayne’s punishment

Teacher’s residence,

Zane sat at the desk in his quiet dorm room, fingers tapping lazily on his sleek black laptop. The glow of the screen reflected in his deep purple eyes as he scrolled through a docunt he wasn’t really reading.

"It’s been two days since I started teaching..." he muttered, leaning back on the chair. "Surprisingly... it’s fun."

He gave a small smirk, recalling the clueless students trying to grasp his intentionally half-baked explanations. But the smirk quickly faded, his tone dropping.

"...But still, no signs of that Administrator. Not even a whisper."

His eyes dimd as he tapped the desk. For a fleeting second, he considered spreading his perception outward, tearing through the barriers of secrecy this world held. The thought alone made him frown.

"No. If I do that, I’ll ruin it all..." he whispered. "It’s like turning on cheat codes in a ga. Sure, you win instantly, but..." He glanced at the window. "...there’s no satisfaction in playing anymore."

Just as the words left his mouth, a tap... tap... tap echoed from the glass.

Zane raised a brow and turned. At the window stood a familiar figure—his clone, Zayne—light purple eyes glinting mischievously under the moonlight.

"What’s he doing here?" Zane thought.

The clone gave him a casual nod before phasing straight through the glass as if it wasn’t there.

"Yo, boss! How you doin’?" Zayne greeted with a cocky grin, brushing imaginary dust off his coat.

Zane’s eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to continue as an adventurer? And investigate that girl, too?"

Zayne rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Ah, about that... actually, boss..."

He raised both hands, starting to explain. "That librarian girl? She’s gone. Just disappeared from Eldrin Town. And honestly... the town got boring. So, I left. Figured I’d continue adventuring in bigger cities."

Zane leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharpening. "That’s not the real reason you ca back here, is it?"

Zayne let out a nervous chuckle. "Heheh... well, actually... it’s because of this."

He reached into his coat and pulled out the dinsional bag. Unlike before, it bulged unnaturally, faint cracks visible across its surface. Worse—so of those cracks glowed faintly white.

Zane’s brow arched. "You broke it?"

"Y-you know, boss..." Zayne stamred, holding it at arm’s length like it was cursed. "Due to so... unfortunate accident, I might’ve... kinda... accidentally broken it."

For a mont, Zane was silent. Then his lips curled into a slow, sinister smile.

"So, let get this straight..." His voice dropped low, dangerous yet laced with amusent. "You almost destroyed it. Then you ca running back to so I could fix your ss?"

Zayne gulped, a bead of sweat forming. "Y-yes, boss..."

Zane leaned back in his chair, still smiling darkly, a faint laugh escaping him. The atmosphere felt less like a master scolding his subordinate, and more like a cat toying with a mouse.

Zane sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Give it to ."

Zayne, who had already squeezed his eyes shut in fear, peeked one open.

"H-huh...?"

With a casual blink from Zane, the dinsional bag floated out of Zayne’s trembling hands, drifting through the air until it landed neatly in his grasp.

He turned it over slowly, inspecting it. "The bag itself is fine on the outside. But the tears and cracks... they’re from the inside. What the hell did you do, blast a nuke in here?"

Zayne’s awkward laugh filled the room. "Heh... w-well, you see... funny story..."

Zane ignored him. He ran his palm across the surface, and where his hand touched, the cracks vanished, threads of shimring repair knitting themselves into perfection. Within monts, the bag looked as good as new.

"Done." Zane tossed it back without ceremony.

Zayne caught it and smirked, relief flooding his face. "Thank you, bo—"

THWACK!

A fist hamred down on his head.

"OWWW!" Zayne cried, clutching the spot as tears welled up in his eyes.

Zane smirked, knuckles still tingling. "That’s what you get for breaking things."

"You know I’m still not accustod to pain, boss!" Zayne whined, rolling on the floor dramatically. "And you’re one of the only ones who can actually hurt !"

Cracking his knuckles, Zane leaned forward, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

"After breaking things, showing up unannounced, and then whining about not accustod to pain.... let’s change that, shall we?"

Zayne froze, fear flashing in his eyes. He stamred. "W-w-wait, boss! I—I have sothing for you! Sothing you’ll find fun!"

Zane tilted his head. "...Oh?"

Frantically, Zayne opened his newly repaired bag and half-pulled out a figure—beaten, bloodied, unconscious. Grey hair matted with dried blood spilled across her torn outfit.

Zane blinked. "...You’ve got to be kidding ."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What kind of day am I witnessing? So now you’re wandering around, beating up chicks and kidnapping them? I didn’t know you had this kind of fetish..."

Zayne’s eyes widened in panic. "Eh?! No, no, no, no—I don’t have any fetish like that! This woman is—"

Zane’s laughter exploded, filling the room.

"Ahahahahahahaha! Look at you—relax. I’m ssing with you." He waved dismissively, eyes gleaming with amusent. "Now, tell the whole story."

Zayne let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his temples.

"...You’re the only one who can ss with like that, boss."

"Anyway... so..." Zayne began, scratching the back of his head.

He launched into a full recounting, from the mont he first crossed paths with Eirenyssa on the road to the bigger city. How she’d been muttering about so system, how her hatred for mortals practically dripped off her, how interesting she’d seed to toy with. How he decided to drag her into a dinsional pocket—so the planet itself wouldn’t suffer—and fight her there.

And then, with a grin, he added:

"...then I beat the shit out of her because she destroyed my snacks. My snacks!"

Zane raised an eyebrow, unblinking.

Zayne chuckled nervously, pressing on. "Aaand because of that fight, my dinsional bag got damaged. But, but! I thought you’d find it interesting too—she ntioned sothing about a system, right? Sounds like a novel, doesn’t it? So, I brought her to you. I’m a genius, aren’t I?"

Silence.

Then Zane’s lips curved into a slow, sinister smile.

"Oh..." he murmured. "Hey, Zayne. Let tell you a story."

Zayne stiffened. "S-sure, boss. Just don’t look so scary when you say that."

But the smile didn’t fade. If anything, it deepened.

"Okay, so..." Zane began. And he told him.

He spoke of Arin Blake—the boy with a system ddling in the threads of fate. How Zane had intervened. How the Administrator of that very system had nearly descended, only for the process to fracture. How Zane had been waiting for the inevitable...

Zayne blinked, lips tugging into a half-smile. "Well, that’s an interesting story, boss. But what does that have to do with this wo—"

He stopped.

Because Zane was still smiling. Eyes closed. That sa expression that chilled his spine.

Zayne’s smile stiffened. "...Well, I’m right fucked, aren’t I?"

Zane’s voice was calm. Almost too calm.

"Right in the down under."

For a mont, both of them just stared at each other. Then—

Zayne plastered on a grin and nodded furiously. "Yup! Totally! ...Okay bye!"

He spun around, instantly phasing through the window and shooting off into the sky like a cot.On the way out, he carelessly tossed the half-conscious Eirenyssa—still wrapped in the bag—onto the ground like discarded luggage before bolting away.

The impact almost jolted her awake just enough for a faint groan to escape her lips, but her eyes remained closed. Dust swirled around her still body, the only sign of movent in the quiet room.

By the ti silence settled again, Zayne was already nothing more than a streak of light vanishing beyond the city’s horizon.

Zane didn’t even open his eyes. He just snapped his fingers.

FWIP.

Still locked in his flying pose, Zayne found himself teleported right back into the room. His eyes went wide. "...What the—"

The next second, he phased again, bursting through the walls and shooting off with even more speed. He crossed continents, oceans, even reached the far side of the planet—

FWIP.

And once again, he was back.

Frozen mid-flight.

Slowly, his head turned. Zane sat there, smiling. Exactly the sa smile.

Zane’s voice was quiet, but heavy. "It was because of you. The Administrator didn’t appear. Because you beat her to a pulp, stuffed her in a dinsional bag... and broke the bag too."

Zayne’s gaze dropped to the floor. He whispered, "...Isn’t it your fault for giving the lowest-grade bag?"

Zane tilted his head. "Hmm?"

His smile sharpened, the faint curve of amusent turning into sothing far more dangerous.

"Zayne."

The single word was soft, yet it rolled through the air like thunder.

Every person in Astralis Arcanum suddenly froze as an overwhelming illusion swept across the realm—

A man’s desperate scream echoing through the skies.

"I AM SORRY!!"