Fake Professor, Misunderstood As Strong - Chapter 291

Chapter 291: The Relay Race Against ‘Destiny’! Part-3.
Sea of Endless Miasma, Relay Race, Log 11.

…

Somewhere in the world,

On a planet at an unknown time.

“Mom… I am hungry…”

A young child dragged his rotting and limping left foot on the ground as he walked with difficulty while holding his mother’s hand.

Dark clouds hung in the sky, and there was darkness everywhere around them.

There was barely anything visible in the area, and the ground was dark black sand.

The young child’s mother looked at the sky with a haggard and exhausted look on her face, and with her single intact eye, she could see dark cracks in the sky.

It was as if the sky was being shattered by some powerful force, and massive amounts of dark and purplish liquid were pouring down on the planet from the cracks.

That dark liquid was nothing else but condensed miasma.

From time to time the cracks in the sky would increase, and with each new crack the sky would brighten a bit, making it possible for people on the surface to see through the darkness.

The exhausted woman was extremely thin; there was barely any muscle or fat on her entire body. She barely had bones and skin on her body; she looked like a walking skeleton, as she also hadn’t eaten anything in days.

Her child was in an even worse state; he was infected with miasmic corruption. Each breath he took felt more painful and difficult than the previous one.

And with his malnourished body and innocent mind, he asked for food.

But the mother of the child was helpless; she had nothing to give to her child. Tears appeared in her eyes as she looked at her dying child with helplessness and despair.

She could not do anything for her child; she could not find any cure for him; she could not even give him clothes to protect him from these freezing cold winds.

“Why must this happen to us… what sin did we commit?”

The mother could barely even speak, as she didn’t have the energy for it, and she complained to the gods, to the heavens, but there was no one who would listen.

The cracks in the sky kept increasing as the memories of a long-gone past surfaced in the woman’s mind.

She remembered the time when she had a happy, loving family.

She remembered the time when her husband would come back from work, play with the children, and she would cook them all a meal with love and care.

It was a time of peace and happiness.

It was a time when there were no cracks in the sky; they were living happily in a small town with no threats to their lives.

Everything went downhill when the cracks in the sky appeared.

The nation collapsed; no armies could do anything against it, and no bigshot could stop it.

The reason was simple: the great barrier that used to protect them all from the ‘Sea of Endless Miasma’ was cracking and shattering bit by bit.

Before the nation was run over by monsters and demons, the woman had read the newspaper talking about the cracks in the sky.

They had been lied to their entire lives; there was no such thing as an open, free universe and a future for mankind.

There was no such thing as a sea of stars!

It was only just an illusion created by a massive barrier protecting their world from the ‘Sea of Endless Miasma’ outside.

Once the barrier collapsed, the demons and abominations started to invade their world.

Miasma leaked inside, and hell broke out on the entire planet.

Men were eaten alive and tortured to death, children were raised like pigs to be slaughtered sooner or later, and women faced atrocities so horrific that it was hard to describe.

Demons made the world hell; no armies could resist this, and miasma polluted their rivers and food supplies, completely destroying all hope.

In just a year or two, most of the creatures on the planet were slaughtered, and their souls were harvested.

The miasma didn’t let go of those souls either and put them through endless torture and sometimes even made them into demons and used them to kill their own loved ones later.

It was horrific; barely anyone survived by either escaping to hidden underground bunkers or to places that are filled with dangers.

The woman herself had escaped to this vast desert with her child as her husband held down the monstrosity to let her escape.

Thankfully, her husband was a warrior, a great knight who stood tall till his last breath and fought till his last breath to create an escape for the two of them.

Unfortunately, their son ended up being grazed by the demonic monstrosity’s power and got infected with miasma.

She wandered from place to place but could not find any cure; she could not find any food, as humans were eating each other due to scarcity of food, and she had to keep her distance from them.

“Mom… I don’t feel okay…”

The sad voice of her child woke her up from her daze; she fell on her knees and embraced her innocent child in her weak arms.

That was all she could do for him; she had no cure, no hope, no food; there was nothing. All she could do was give him a sense of comfort and a ‘hope’ at most.

“D-don’t worry… papa… papa will come and bring you something… to eat…”

While she said those words of ‘hope’ to the innocent child, tears fell from her lifeless eyes.

She knew better than anyone that there was no ‘Hope’ left for them two. No matter how much she tried, she could not hold back those tears from flowing.

All she could do was embrace that innocent child and give him hope for a better future.

“I l-love dad… mom… I am sure… he will come back… we will go to Ana’s home to play then… hehe…”

“I like playing… with Ana…”

The young child was suffering from immense pain; he hadn’t eaten anything, but despite all that, he just wanted to make his mother feel happy.

He was being brave.

He was assuring his mother that his father would definitely come back to save them both, and then he would go to his uncle’s home to play with his older sister, Ana.

The young boy smile was so innocent and bright that the woman could not help but feel helplessness, regret, and sadness.

But she couldn’t show that to that innocent child.

She smiled a bit and replied,

“Y-yes… you are the bravest kid of all… You are your father’s son after all! Just like your father, you will be a great knight in the future!”

“My adorable little k-knight!”

The two of them giggled and smiled at each other while hiding their pain and sadness deep inside.

The young child raised his small rotting hand towards the sky and spoke proudly.

“I will be a great knight! Hehe…”

And with that one last giggle, the child fell down.

His life was ended instantly as starvation claimed his life at that exact moment. Miasma made a mockery of his ambitions and dreams.

Miasma let the kid speak until now to further torture the woman mentally and give her more pain.

“HAHAHAHAHAH HE DIED AHAHAHAHAHAH AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

Seeing her son die right in front of her like that, she could not take it anymore; her mind shattered, and she went insane from pain and despair.

She lamented, despaired, and wailed, but there was no one who could help her.

“Why… why is this happening to us…”

*SHATTER!!* *CRACK!*

Before her question could be answered, a loud shattering sound rang out in the dark world.

The giant barrier finally couldn’t take it anymore; the despairing woman held her dead child in her arms as she watched a massive tide of miasma overwhelm the entire planet.

The planet could not hold up for even a second and shattered on the spot with no room for salvation.

With the planet, many races were destroyed, many lives were shattered, and many dreams were broken.