Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 171

“We’ll enter in 30 minutes! Please wait just a bit longer!”

“What, it’s delayed again?”

“If this was going to happen, they should’ve just started late….”

At the TA’s announcement, cadets grumbled here and there. Because despite waking up early in the morning and coming all the way to the Tower, they’ve been waiting in the waiting room for close to two hours.

No matter how much it’s for security, the work processing speed is seriously bad.

“That’s just how Ascle Guild is.”

Seong Hayul’s mouth is pouring out complaints but her eyes are smiling brightly.

Ascle Guild, the 4th floor administrator, is a famous potion guild. The biggest rival to Seong Hayul’s family business.

Since her rival is getting cursed out, she can’t help but be excited.

“Wh-what’s Ascle Guild like?”

“A place with no skill that relies on their size to do business. They got lucky early on securing golden land and are living off that.”

“R-really?”

At Boram’s question, Seong Hayul began passionately holding forth.

Ascle Guild apparently manages from the 4th to 8th floors all together, and this land has a peculiarity.

Namely, plants grow ridiculously fast.

The <On the Brink of Destruction> worldview has exceptionally slow plant growth due to the Great Cataclysm’s aftermath. When you plant a tree, it takes over 20 years to bear fruit, but on this land it apparently becomes a full-grown tree in a week.

“If you plant crops on that land, you could solve the world’s food shortage problem, right? But Ascle only plants precious crops like mandrake to make potions. That’s why people lump potion guilds together as greedy evil guilds focused only on money!”

“Th-that’s bad!”

Our Boram believes too literally.

What Seong Hayul says isn’t wrong, but the world isn’t that simple a place.

“You guys would’ve done the same thing though?”

“Are you crazy? If it were me, I would’ve donated part of the land to relief organizations.”

“Like you’d really do that.”

“I really would!”

“Then that’d be stupid. Potion guilds’ customers are all Hunters, right? Not planting materials Hunters need on precious land and donating instead? The guild would collapse.”

“Who said donate everything? For the price….”

Seong Hayul tried to speak but stopped short.

She swallowed the words ‘just donate enough to improve the image, thinking of it as marketing costs.’

“P-price what?”

“Huh?”

It’s not particularly bad, but she can’t say it confidently. Since watching Seong Hayul in difficulty isn’t particularly pleasant either, I decided to change the subject.

“Go Daesik! Any new files?”

“One more page came out? Should I send it now?”

“Yeah, to Boram and Seong Hayul too!”

When Go Daesik transmitted the file, Boram completely forgot her question and focused on the hologram window.

It’s a document translating the hieroglyphics discovered yesterday.

However, no matter how much I scan it, the content I’m looking for isn’t there.

‘Strange….’

Lost Treasure is an object needed to summon the Tower Goddess. Yesterday Junhwi clearly told Hyeonmin that.

I thought he’d reached that conclusion from obtaining new information from Go Daesik, but the document has absolutely no related content.

|Yeon Sora| Junhwi, is there any new information about the goddess by chance?

|Gyeon Junhwi| ???

|Gyeon Junhwi| It’s exactly what was shared with everyone though?

Thinking it might be a sensitive matter, I asked via DM, but he says there’s nothing to tell me.

So my doubts only deepened.

‘Why does he tell Hyeonmin but hide it from me?’

My baby must have his reasons, but the problem is I don’t know what those reasons are. While I was racking my brain worrying like that—

“Kyaaaaah!”

“See!!! I told you I was born lucky!!”

Suddenly a commotion arose from one side of the waiting room.

From the mix of wails and cheers, lottery results must have come out.

Seeing that, Boram tilted her head.

“Why, why doesn’t everyone do joint ownership?”

“Because there aren’t kids as close as us.”

“Hehe, that’s true!”

The Tower’s 4th to 8th floors are the Garden of Hesperides.

The hero who killed Medusa receives plenty of gifts from the Olympian gods in this garden. Winged shoes, special material bags, helmets that make you invisible, and so on.

Since Awakened also receive the same gifts on those floors, this section is also called the freebie section in crude terms.

The problem is there are only five gifts.

Members belonging to one team number 7-10 people. If they rotate as joint ownership there’s no problem, but the majority aim for the jackpot opportunity through lottery.

In fact, except for us, all the other kids were focused on lottery drawings, ladder games, dice rolling, and such.

“Let’s just decide by skill instead!”

“Got any conscience? A freebie stage that even passing kids can clear?”

When I turned my head because I heard a somewhat grating voice, as expected it’s those two troublemakers from yesterday.

Wondering if I should press them down once more, I gently rubbed my ring and waited for Junhwi’s response, when there was no need for me to step forward.

“It’s not a freebie.”

Because Professor Joo personally descended.

“The only thing that can kill Ladon is Hydra’s poison. Forty-nine people lost their lives before discovering that strategy.”

Freebie stages also have monsters.

They’re just treated as nonexistent because you can deal lethal damage in one shot.

We climb the Tower safely through knowledge humanity obtained by sacrificing lives for 27 years. Calling that ‘getting it for free’ is insulting those lives.

Professor Joo was saying that with his eyes.

“W-we’re sorry.”

“We were thoughtless.”

The duo immediately bowed their heads, and Professor Joo disappeared without further comment, but… the waiting room atmosphere became solemn.

Clatter. Clatter.

The cadets all put away their lottery tools and began discussing other topics.

“If we use sleeping potions….”

“No, with speed….”

This time it’s a treasure hunting strategy meeting.

Because there’s also Lost Treasure on this floor.

The Garden of Hesperides has another name.

The Garden of the Golden Apples.

The golden apples that the earth goddess Gaia apparently gave Hera as a wedding gift, the golden apples that became the spark of the Trojan War also came from here.

These golden apples are the undiscovered treasure.

Apples the gods eat.

Apples of immortality.

Apples that can give absolute power or wisdom.

There’s much talk about what their effect is, but no one has seen them yet.

‘Ah! Come to think of it, before I forget….’

I took out toy guns I’d prepared in advance and distributed them to team members.

Hyeonmin, Juwan, and Junhwi already have them, but the other team members don’t.

“Today absolutely don’t use weapons. Use these guns no matter what!”

I repeatedly implored them.

The fairy called the 3rd floor’s monsters divine beasts. Then the key to treasure hunting is not killing monsters.

We’re the only ones in this world who can do that.

* * *

After waiting another full hour, we finally entered the stage.

A garden full of fog.

Fwooosh!

Bang!

Simultaneously with Seong Hayul throwing a fog-clearing round, a gunshot sounded. When visibility opened, everything was already resolved.

Far away there’s a giant tree, and at the tree’s base a snake-shaped monster has collapsed. Ki Hyeonmin hit it using the Incapacitation gun.

“That’s Ladon collapsed, right?”

“Really! It didn’t disappear!”

“Crazy!!! Are we the first!!!”

Team members’ excited voices could be heard.

If you hit the monster using poison according to the original strategy, this entire zone apparently turns to dust. That’s why no one saw the golden apples. Because they couldn’t approach that tree.

However… my Incapacitation worked after all.

“Let’s go closer!”

“Be careful because there might be traps.”

Go Daesik is in an unusually excited state, and even Juwan giving warnings has a reddened face.

Because treasure hunting is a kind of romance!

My heart is also pounding.

Moving carefully to the tree like that and craning my neck to examine the fresh green leaves….

“There aren’t any though?”

“Really?”

There aren’t.

I don’t see any gold color.

No, forget gold color—there are no fruits at all.

Belatedly looking around and examining the entire garden, there are no other trees in this garden either.

“As expected… was it just a legend?”

“I really thought there’d be some….”

The other kids were disappointed, but Junhwi and Hyeonmin’s faces completely hardened. Cold sweat also trickled down my back.

‘There have to be some!’

Lost Treasure is a tool for summoning the Tower Goddess.

We must summon the Tower Goddess to prevent destruction.

If we don’t find treasure here, the world could literally end.

‘I should’ve investigated and studied a bit more yesterday!’

I came in too unprepared and carelessly.

Even knowing there’s no such thing as freebies in this world….

I should’ve watched less yesterday, slept less, and done research—while regretting that—

Fwaaaaaash—

Rummmble—

Enormous light arose and the ground shook.

The earth is violently trembling.

Normally I’d be surprised or worried, but instead a sigh of relief came out. Not just a sigh but tears pricked too.

‘The treasure was here after all!’

The ground kept trembling.

The shaking is too weak in intensity to call an earthquake, but there’s no way Yeon Sora’s body could maintain balance.

“Sora!”

“M-me! C-catch me!”

While Juwan and Boram jointly prevented me from rolling away, I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the shaking to stop. Soon I heard the footsteps of team members with better balance sense than me running somewhere.

“Apples!”

“There really were some! Golden apples!”

When I opened my eyes, several tombstone-like things had risen beneath the tree at some point.

These popping up is what shook the earth.

Go Daesik and Seong Hayul were busily pointing fingers, and at the end… there really were golden-colored apples.

“If you touch them carelessly, they might disappear. Go Daesik, you can interpret it, right?”

“Of course! Wait….”

Junhwi’s tone is also calm but his expression is slightly excited. He must have been worried like me.

‘Right, I can’t try to go too easily! I have to work hard!’

I collected myself and approached the tombstones.

Four tombstones total.

There’s one large tombstone right in front of the tree trunk, and three small tombstones beneath the golden apples. The inscriptions carved on those tombstones are all hieroglyphics, but… we have Go Daesik!

After waiting a bit, a translation of the tombstones came out.

————

The earth goddess bestows a blessing upon the human who has come this far. You will be allowed to taste the god’s gift for just one bite, so choose carefully.

What do you truly desire?

————

This is the content that appeared on the large tombstone.

And the inscriptions on the small tombstones beneath the golden apples were each as follows.

————

Those who wish to wear the crown, all lands shall be placed beneath your feet.

Those who desire wisdom, the path shall be visible in all wars.

Those who desire love, the most beautiful being shall stand beside you.

————

Everyone scratched their heads at the extremely familiar phrases.

“This is….”

“No matter how you look at it, that’s it, right? The Apple of Discord.”

“Th-the Trojan War!”

Even our Boram can recognize it.

Right.

It’s the same as the golden apple that caused the Trojan War.

In mythology, the spark of the Trojan War is the Olympian gods. One goddess who wasn’t invited to the gods’ wedding got angry and threw a golden apple, on which was apparently written ‘to the fairest.’ Three goddesses who saw it each claimed to be the apple’s owner.

Knowing there’s nothing to gain from taking sides here, Zeus told a human man to answer. Decide which of the three goddesses is fairest.

At this, the goddess Hera offered power, Athena offered wisdom, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful woman, and the man chose the woman. But that human man happened to be a Trojan prince, and the woman was married and moreover the wife of the Spartan king, so war broke out.

And now the same question is being thrown at us.

“First… definitely not love. War broke out from choosing that, right?”

“But war appears in the other two as well. You can’t gain power without war, right?”

“Then isn’t the answer wisdom? Even if war breaks out, it’s ultimately the most advantageous choice….”

While team members freely shared opinions, I only looked at Junhwi. Because whatever our Junhwi chooses will be the correct answer.

‘If I choose, it’s perfect for ruining everything.’

If told to choose among power, wisdom, and beauty?

I’d choose beauty without hesitation.

Really honestly, without pretense, truthfully speaking… being pretty is the jackpot.

However, history tells us. Going that route leads to war, and results in not just me being ruined but catastrophically ruined while dragging in surrounding countries too.

The apple I choose is the wrong answer. So while I’m earnestly waiting for our Junhwi’s choice, Junhwi, who’d been resting his chin on his hand, said something unexpected.

“Let’s decide this by lottery.”

“Huh? Suddenly? Why?”

“Because the wording in the main inscription bothers me. Seeing expressions like ‘taste only one bite’ and ‘careful choice,’ maybe only one person possesses the fruit. Since joint ownership is impossible….”

Junhwi gave various explanations, but I know the truth.

That lottery is Junhwi’s item.

He can create the result Junhwi wants.

My baby wants to make the treasure his own possession but can’t give a legitimate reason, so he’s trying to use a trick.

‘Because then even if Junhwi gobbles up the treasure, there’ll be no talk.’

It seems petty but there’s no choice.

To prevent destruction, sometimes you have to commit fraud.

Accepting it like that, I roughly grabbed anything from the lottery box and pulled it out… but my expectation was wrong.

“Yeon Sora wins!”

Junhwi told me to choose.

The golden apple with the world’s survival at stake… he’s telling me to choose.

Really… is this okay?