Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 156

‘Is this a cold snap?’

Just being outside briefly left his hands numb from cold, but Gyeon Junhwi didn’t enter the building. Instead, he moved to the outdoor rest area located on the building’s side.

Whoooooosh—

A section where biting wind whipped around. No people.

Naturally. Wandering outside leisurely in this weather would be insane.

‘Just stay 5 minutes.’

He detested cold, but right now an undisturbed space was more desperately needed.

Gyeon Junhwi set an alarm and opened his notepad. Recording thoughts freely then reorganizing them was his habit.

Gyeon Junhwi didn’t know this, but Yeon Sora had learned and copied this exact method.

[Did Yeon Sora notice the plan?]

Gyeon Junhwi’s original plan was using Yeom Juwan as bait to draw out the mastermind.

So he’d deliberately made Yeom Juwan’s preparations the most inadequate. He’d placed a special tracking formula on the bait and passed that data to the chairwoman.

The chairwoman owed Gyeon Junhwi a debt. When he’d helped cover up the twin TA incident, she’d promised to grant any one favor.

If things had gone according to plan, the moment Yeom Juwan was dragged away, the chairwoman would have tracked and found him.

But Yeon Sora got caught instead of Yeom Juwan.

He couldn’t know the reason. Because Yeon Sora was lying intensively about that specific part.

[Yeon Sora can lie even to me?]

The moment he recorded the new sentence, wrinkles formed between Gyeon Junhwi’s brows.

The lie itself wasn’t particularly problematic.

Deception is human nature, after all. Rather than wielding moral standards and criticizing, properly analyzing to grasp that person’s characteristics and patterns was the time-efficient method.

“Haaa….”

A sigh escaped involuntarily. Gyeon Junhwi suppressed his disappointment and barely managed to input a new sentence.

[Yeon Sora’s priority ranking isn’t absolute?]

Gyeon Junhwi had already grasped Yeon Sora’s priority ranking through the ideal type world cup.

Gyeon Junhwi was 1st, Yeom Juwan was 3rd.

But if she lied to 1st place for 3rd place’s sake, this ranking was essentially meaningless.

‘A behavior pattern I’d barely grasped….’

A single pattern had become meaningless.

His mouth tasted bitter, but he forcibly shook off the helplessness and moved to new analysis.

[What did Yeon Sora gain from this lie?]

Tracking this might produce other clues.

Just as he was about to start new deductions—

|Ha Seonwoo| Busy?

A DM arrived.

Gyeon Junhwi’s face automatically crumpled upon confirming the sender’s name.

‘I want to ignore this….’

Of course, he couldn’t.

Ha Seonwoo was Phoenix Guild’s real power. And Phoenix Guild was the organization with the most information resources in this worldview.

|Gyeon Junhwi| Busy, but for the vice guild master I can always make time

|Ha Seonwoo| Haha yeah you’re busy

|Ha Seonwoo| Really sorry when you’re busy but this incident erupted (link)

The attached link was a news article.

The title indicated one of Hwarang Guild’s units on expedition last night had been annihilated.

‘As expected, he ground up his own subordinates.’

The mastermind needs Awakened soul stones to use Authority. If he’d used his own guild members as fuel, it meant fuel was that insufficient.

|Ha Seonwoo| Any hunches?

Of course, he had no obligation to tell Ha Seonwoo this. Just as he was about to answer he didn’t know… suddenly felt suspicious.

He brought up the article again and scrolled down… had to scroll quite a while. Abnormally much text.

Checking the publication time, the article had come out 30 seconds ago.

|Gyeon Junhwi| My apologies. Still reading.

If he’d answered immediately that he didn’t know, he’d have said something like ‘how can you be certain without even reading?’

What kind of human. Every single exchanged sentence is a trap, bait, lure.

|Gyeon Junhwi| Sorry but it’s too long, can’t finish reading right now. Is there content related to me?

|Ha Seonwoo| No, just thought it was interesting that this happened right after you requested Hwarang Guild materials ^^

Clearly meaning it’s an incident related to you, so don’t talk nonsense. Gyeon Junhwi took time to provide a plausible answer.

After finishing, exhaustion poured over him. Just dealing with Ha Seonwoo completely drained his energy.

‘Should I not have asked for help?’

In the process of investigating Bang Haeun’s father’s background, Gyeon Junhwi had received Ha Seonwoo’s help.

He’d had no choice. Maybe because it was a mastermind-operated guild, but publicly available information was too scarce.

‘Well, still, the results were solid.’

The materials Ha Seonwoo provided contained information that made him wonder how on earth anyone discovered this.

Within that, Gyeon Junhwi had found an important clue.

Inside Hwarang Guild existed a team with zero performance for several years. Before and after periods when that team went on expeditions, Hwarang Guild experienced windfalls. Making profitable investments, or people hostile to the guild going missing.

A team covertly gathering information existed inside the guild. The mastermind likely possessed information-type abilities.

‘Plus what I heard from Bang Haeun.’

During practicals, Gyeon Junhwi had secretly fed Bang Haeun a truth serum. Since the opponent was a mastermind, asking direct questions like ‘parents’ identity’ or ‘suspicious activities in the guild’ risked reverse tracking.

So he’d asked relatively innocent questions that might come up among students, like ‘have you ever secretly gone to areas your parents told you not to go as a child?’

To that question, Bang Haeun had spilled that there was a room full of torture devices in the mansion basement.

Thus he could gather all necessary pieces.

Information-type ability user, torture devices.

Since the mastermind organization is a religious group, the ability was highly likely related to religious trials and interrogation.

That’s why he’d used Yeom Juwan as bait. If it was Yeom Juwan who’d passed the Boogeymen test, he might survive even religious trials. There was possibility the mastermind’s ability wouldn’t work on Yeom Juwan.

“Would’ve been nice to confirm….”

Regret dripped from his voice, but there was no time to mull over failed plans.

Beep beep beep—

Because the alarm rang.

Staying away longer would look strange.

“Later.”

Gyeon Junhwi stopped all thoughts and headed to the campus store.

The menu was abalone porridge. Yeon Sora said she needs to eat vegetables every meal, so buying vegetable juice too would be good.

‘Lots of varieties.’

While briefly debating between three drinks with promotion stickers at the display case, Gyeon Junhwi suddenly felt a new question.

‘Don’t tell me… top ranks can change anytime?’

He himself hadn’t even glanced at other juices on the display. But he’d debated among the three drinks with promotion stickers.

Perhaps Yeon Sora’s priority ranking is similar to this. Top ranks can flip anytime.

‘Need to verify.’

After finishing payment and returning to the room, Yeon Sora wasn’t visible. Only Ki Hyeonmin was savoring solitude in the living room.

“Where’s Yeon Sora?”

“With Han Boram looking at the Han River view in that room. Oh? You bought juice too?”

Yeom Juwan smiled brightly and began setting up Yeon Sora’s meal. His attitude toward Gyeon Junhwi showed no particular difference.

‘Should I stay away a bit longer?’

If he stayed away a bit longer, a private conversation might occur between Yeon Sora and Yeom Juwan.

Since Yeom Juwan is clumsy at lying, he’d notice immediately.

“I need to step out briefly for something, will that be okay?”

“What could happen as long as we’re inside here?”

“Oh right. Can you also send today’s measured data? Before I forget.”

Yeom Juwan immediately transmitted the data. Biometric data measured when Yeon Sora caused a commotion earlier.

After confirming it, Gyeon Junhwi smiled and went out.

Destination: faculty building.

But just as he was about to enter the building—

“Junhwi!”

A female student waved her arm while greeting him cheerfully.

A person he’d barely exchanged a word or two with. He didn’t even remember her name, but when the female student approached, a hologram window popped up.

[Name: Lee Sooyoung]

[Bang Haeun theft incident victim.]

[Last conversation: January 29, right after Skill Theory class lecture…]

Since he’s been meeting too many people lately, Gyeon Junhwi had upgraded his device settings. He’d added a function attaching memos to each person he met.

When the female student approached, Gyeon Junhwi wore the most consideration-filled smile possible and asked gently.

“Did that loss incident you mentioned before get resolved properly?”

“Huh? Huh? Oh, y-you remember?”

The female student couldn’t make eye contact and only looked at the ground while speaking. Judging by how red even her ears had turned, she might have some romantic interest this way.

“I contacted the insurance company….”

This female student had been robbed. She’d gotten caught up in the incident Bang Haeun staged to frame Yeon Sora.

He’d approached to secure her as a witness just in case… but with Bang Haeun now discarded, she was no longer needed. Still, Gyeon Junhwi sold smiles wholeheartedly while matching the conversation.

“That’s a relief. Let me know anytime if you need anything.”

“Th-thanks. Even when you’re busy with stuff like this.”

“I’m the class rep, it’s what I do.”

“Th-then see you later!”

The female student anxiously shifted her gaze here and there before scurrying away.

‘This face really is useful.’

It helped greatly in extracting information from female students. At first he’d wondered what he was doing dealing with kids, but now even that thought had dulled.

Because it shortened the time to obtain information. Gyeon Junhwi was too busy. If he could save time, he could do anything.

Knock knock—

After entering the faculty building, Gyeon Junhwi found Professor Ban’s office. The moment he knocked, the door burst open and Professor Ban leaped out.

“Cadet Gyeon Junhwi! Any unusual developments last night?”

No greeting, straight to business… but from Gyeon Junhwi’s perspective, that was actually appreciated.

“Yeon Sora said she had a bad dream. We measured her physical data but there were no particular abnormalities. Should I give it to you anyway?”

“Of course!”

“I’ll look for the file. You also had something to give me, I think….”

“Ah! Here!”

Professor Ban held out several unusual bracelets.

The orange bracelet was Yeon Sora’s monitoring device. It measures body temperature, pulse, etc. in real time. The remaining black bracelets were bracelets that shared Yeon Sora’s location and information in real time.

Gyeon Junhwi had also made a deal with Professor Ban. In exchange for extracting and providing various data in real time whenever Yeon Sora had episodes, he’d obtained Yeon Sora’s location tracker.

“When will the rest be ready?”

“Will take some time. The quantity is too large.”

“Please, I’m counting on you. The 10th floor makes me uneasy. Feels like Hwarang Guild will pull something.”

Originally only Gyeon Junhwi possessed the tracker, but this time he’d requested a bit generously. When he used the mastermind as an excuse, Professor Ban got heated and poured out complaints for quite a while, but promised to provide spare trackers once again.

“I’ll have them within two days.”

“Thank you. You must be busy too, Professor….”

After leaving Professor Ban’s office, just as he was turning his steps toward the library—

Another person was standing at the entrance. Ki Hyeonmin.

He’d been in a confused state since Yeon Sora spilled the mastermind dream, but seems he’d finally collected himself.

“Can we talk briefly?”

Hard to believe even seeing it.

For this guy to come on his own feet requesting consultation….

Well, for Gyeon Junhwi it was appreciated.

“I left something at the student council room, can we talk while going there together?”

The student council room had formulas preventing eavesdropping and hidden cameras, so it was the best space for secret conversations. When he suggested going there, Ki Hyeonmin also agreed and nodded.

And the moment they entered the room, he brought up his question.

“Do you… believe Yeon Sora’s dream is true?”

Gyeon Junhwi shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Before proving it’s not, I’m the type to believe everything first. We’ll know if we verify, right?”

Thanks to Yeon Sora mentioning the mastermind dream, various things became easier.

If Gyeon Junhwi had mentioned masterminds with his own mouth, Ki Hyeonmin would have been suspicious, asking ‘how did you find that out?’ But now justification to consult naturally arose.

“The 10th floor… do you think enemies will really appear?”

“Won’t Hwarang Guild pull some kind of sabotage?”

“……”

“But the chairwoman and Professor Joo are also watching Hwarang Guild warily, so they’ll establish some countermeasures.”

“…I see.”

The second reason Gyeon Junhwi used the bait.

If the chairwoman finds the mastermind suspicious, she’ll fortify the 10th floor’s defenses more solidly.

Since they’re being targeted anyway, the strategy was to openly exploit the chairwoman’s shield.

‘……’

All of Gyeon Junhwi’s thoughts briefly stopped while continuing his reasoning.

Ha Seonwoo, the chairwoman, Professor Joo.

All connections formed because of Yeon Sora. And even now, Ki Hyeonmin was consulting with Gyeon Junhwi over Yeon Sora’s dream story.

A familiar feeling.

This was… a sensation similar to when Gyeon Junhwi himself grasped people’s lies and set up chess pieces. So without realizing it, such a thought arose.

‘Don’t tell me… I’m also a chess piece?’