Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 189

Meanwhile, while the mastermind focused on the fake, Gyeon Junhwi was also moving busily.

“The bean crumbs are buried over there.”

The task of walking one lap around the auditorium with the real Yeon Sora while checking the radar. The prescient’s typhoon warning was actually reacting to this side.

“I planted beans but beans didn’t sprout.”

She wore Seong Hayul’s appearance, but anyone could tell it was Yeon Sora. As expected, beyond appearances, Yeon Sora was Yeon Sora—the thought made him involuntarily smile.

While Yeon Sora, who took the direct hit of that smile, briefly experienced an out-of-body experience, Gyeon Junhwi coldly analyzed the situation.

‘But this radar, isn’t it kind of a cheat skill?’

The information that could be inferred from the radar was unexpectedly abundant.

The mastermind had taken possession of a cadet named Hong Soo-ah’s body, and earlier had inhabited a security guard’s body, and so on.

It didn’t take long to thoroughly squeeze out both visible and invisible information.

“Why? Don’t you need anything else?”

When Gyeon Junhwi briefly crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, Yeon Sora tilted her head.

“No, just organizing my thoughts for a moment.”

After giving her a gentle smile, Gyeon Junhwi briefly closed his eyes.

Though he acted calm outwardly, Gyeon Junhwi was also in an extremely tense state. There was the pressure felt from the first battle with the mastermind, but—

‘Do I really have to bring these chicks along….’

Dragging dozens of clueless kids into a dangerous place still bothered him.

“Whew….”

It was necessary work.

The mastermind would seriously target this side going forward, so to properly oppose them, they needed to utilize the academy’s resources.

To raise awareness at the academy level, they needed a crisis targeting not ‘Yeon Sora’ but the group called ‘students.’

But ‘doing anything for a purpose’ and ‘sacrificing others for my purpose’ were distinctly different.

‘If even one person actually dies, I’ll have nightmares….’

No bloodshed was best. But if asked whether he could protect all the freshmen before the mastermind… well.

If they just listened well there’d be no problem, but would energetic 17-year-old contrarians do as told?

That moment.

“It’s okay, we can do it!”

“Waaaaah!”

Cheers shaking the entire auditorium.

At that tremendous momentum, Gyeon Junhwi involuntarily shuddered slightly. Because just over 40 cadets emanated the majestic energy usually felt only at group cheers or mass singing.

‘What’s this now, suddenly.’

When Gyeon Junhwi looked to the side, Yeon Sora rolled her eyes.

“Actually….”

Her gaze avoided him but her mouth faithfully provided excuses. Thanks to that, he could hear the explanation.

Seong Hayul was shrinking too much, so to help her act, they’d fed her an Enchantment Potion, and that potion’s side effect was narcissism.

When and where did she even pick up such a potion, why had she carried it around until now, and why did she use it right before war to create an additional variable… such questions weren’t helpful right now.

The answer would obviously just be that she did it impulsively.

“But I didn’t know it’d be this much either? I thought she’d just do ‘mirror mirror’ stuff, but this isn’t even mass hypnosis….”

The cadets were picking up and treasuring Seong Hayul’s every word with shining eyes. With that level of command, they might get through this situation without a single sacrifice.

The mysterious luck following Yeon Sora had activated again.

If the mastermind sends a puppet, pull out the radar, and if the kids won’t listen, cast mass hypnosis with a hidden potion.

‘At this point, she’s basically Sora-emon, isn’t she?’

Any ordinary person would unconditionally rejoice at such a luck buff, but Gyeon Junhwi wasn’t ordinary.

Random rewards thrown out with ‘here you go’ depending on the situation made control freaks turn pale.

However, Gyeon Junhwi suppressed his instinctive revulsion and forced himself to smile.

“Ah, I see. That worked out well.”

His cheekbones hurt. But he had to overcome this revulsion. Either way, the results were good.

But really, he didn’t want to create any more additional variables.

“Until practicals end, absolutely don’t leave my side.”

“Okay!”

Yeon Sora obediently nodded. With Seong Hayul’s appearance and innocent smile, she somehow resembled a puppy.

How to put it—the feeling of becoming a beagle owner.

The moment he took his eyes off her, she might cause some accident somewhere. The cleanup was always Gyeon Junhwi’s responsibility.

‘Come to think of it….’

During that brief moment of carelessness earlier, their family’s beagle caused another accident.

She’d scurried over to the regressor, handed him Medusa’s pill, and declared ‘Even if I die, I’ll become a water ghost and follow you.’

After that, Ki Hyeonmin had been hopelessly distracted. Even now looking at him, he still hadn’t fully recovered.

‘Will he be okay….’

He wondered if he should approach and provide mental care, but the mastermind was watching. He just had to hope he recovered on his own.

Beside the worried Gyeon Junhwi, the beagle was still innocently wagging her tail.

“It’s okay! Everything will work out!”

* * *

As Gyeon Junhwi feared, Ki Hyeonmin was experiencing mild confusion. And he was making desperate efforts to steady his wavering heart.

‘Mistakes cannot be tolerated.’

This mastermind was an opponent he’d never met in the past.

If he messed up, over 40 casualties would occur.

When such situations hit, a physical reaction invariably appeared in Ki Hyeonmin’s body. The phenomenon Yeon Sora called the ‘trauma button.’

His hands and feet turned cold and his mother’s voice echoed in his ears. The voice she’d expelled with her last breath at her final moment.

— You… must save more people… because you’re a hero….

But today, a clear yet cheerful voice pushed aside his mother’s voice and occupied that place.

— No matter what desperate situation arises, feed this to me no matter what. Then we can keep going together.

A voice full of conviction. The kind of thing Yeon Sora would say. Considering Yeon Sora’s usual personality, it wasn’t particularly strange either, but….

Ki Hyeonmin’s interior was stirring bizarrely intensely.

He himself didn’t know the reason. That’s why it was more confusing, and he was somehow trying to name this emotion. Because he knew that naming emotions made them easier to escape from.

‘Is it because it’s the first variable I’m encountering….’

Ki Hyeonmin felt unfamiliarity and anxiety when exposed to environments he experienced for the first time.

It was similar to that, but the intensity was different. Perhaps anxiety had amplified several times over at such an unexpected variable.

Moreover, there wasn’t just one such variable.

— Do exactly the same for Sora as you do for me. We promised not to separate.

— I-I want zombie insurance too! A-all together!

Perhaps this life’s end might be a bit crowded. He couldn’t even imagine what that would look like.

A future he couldn’t even picture. That would explain this strange churning and whirlpool he felt now.

‘Is this extreme anxiety.’

He’d reached the peak of the emotion called anxiety. He’d never reached this level of anxiety before, so he was clearly shaken.

“Whew….”

Ki Hyeonmin exhaled and clenched his fist tight. He’d named it. Now he had to put down the emotion and focus on the enemy before his eyes.

‘My physical condition is… good.’

Usually when his interior was noisy, his body also showed abnormalities.

Pressure, burden weighing heavily on his heart. His hands and feet turned cold and his entire body’s muscles stiffened rigidly. But right now….

‘Flexible.’

He could feel each grain of muscle beneath his skin. No tangled sections at all. His shoulders and neck weren’t stiffly knotted either.

Pleasant tension and elasticity filled his entire body. He even felt a strange elation.

Ki Hyeonmin grasped his shoulder and rotated his arm once largely. As expected… light. Refreshingly so.

His body was in peak condition.

‘What’s different?’

He pondered briefly but couldn’t find the answer. Because it was a change occurring in the unconscious realm Ki Hyeonmin didn’t properly recognize.

For a regressor, all failure meant reset.

Without a single save point, when life returning to the beginning repeated countless times, anyone would inevitably feel fatigue.

But Yeon Sora had provided Ki Hyeonmin with a kind of ‘insurance’ by handing him medicine to revive her. Even if the worst situation occurred today, there was no need to reset.

Yeon Sora’s statement had forcibly evicted the psychological fatigue and burden that had long resided in Ki Hyeonmin’s unconscious, and locked the doors tight so they could never enter again.

With the negative emotions weighing down one corner of his heart gone, slight leeway emerged. Thanks to that, his body’s movements also improved.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

Yeom Juwan approached, extended his hand, and pulled Ki Hyeonmin to his feet. Then after checking their surroundings, he whispered quietly.

‘You remember the promise, right?’

Ki Hyeonmin nodded. While doing so, he felt that strange sensation again.

He traced back memories of the last time he used the word ‘promise.’ Strangely, it was a word he’d heard unusually often only in this cycle.

“We’re entering now!”

Following the TA’s guidance, cadets moved in line. Passing through the rainbow-colored portal, his vision briefly went dark.

Then a semi-transparent window appeared. As expected, there was bad news.

[Entering 10F Boss Area]

[Maximum Capacity: 1,000]

[Entry Count: 412]

[Difficulty: Triple Hell]

An absurd difficulty. This meant the mastermind was already inside.

Usually numerous inspections proceeded before entry to prevent such situations, but the 10th floor was the mastermind’s managed territory, so manipulating numbers was entirely possible.

“T-Triple Hell? What, is this a joke?”

“But the… the terrorists aren’t Awakened, right? They’re an anti-Awakening organization!”

“DMs aren’t working either!”

“Communication failure?”

“Why’s the climate like this! Why’s it so dark! It’s supposed to be broad daylight!”

Terrified cadets flailed everywhere, but Ki Hyeonmin calmly focused on the numbers.

Entry count 412. Estimated that besides the mastermind, around 370 subordinates had entered.

“Everyone, quiet!”

The surrounding murmurs stopped all at once.

She was using Yeon Sora’s voice, but the person speaking right now was Seong Hayul.

“Asking ‘why’ comes after securing safety! Right now we need to focus on getting out of here without a single person getting hurt!”

Explanations continued point by point without excess, befitting Seong Hayul. The anxiety filling the surroundings had already quieted.

No cadets panicked and ran off alone.

“……”

Ki Hyeonmin only now became aware of himself observing the other cadets and widened his eyes.

Usually he would have managed cadets who might panic and act impulsively first. But today he’d completely skipped that process.

‘No, is it an earlier problem.’

He had noticed the murmuring. In that brief instant, he’d even considered the possibility they might get excited and run outside.

But he’d ignored that possibility and only focused on the stage information window.

He’d unconsciously assumed that other team members besides himself would handle it. He himself couldn’t believe he’d made such a decision without going through consciousness.

He needed a bit more… vigilance.

He didn’t know what would happen going forward.

“Yeom Juwan and Ki Hyeonmin will secure a safe location and return! We just have to wait here until then!”

While Seong Hayul explained, Ki Hyeonmin surveyed the nearby terrain. This time it was a conscious decision.

Ki Hyeonmin lacked the talent to persuade others with words.

“Yeom Juwan, we’re counting on you!”

“We trust you!”

“Ki Hyeonmin can do anything!”

Before he knew it the explanation had ended, and numerous classmates rushed over gripping Ki Hyeonmin’s hands.

Requests and cheers poured from all directions.

“……”

His interior stirred strangely again.

The [extreme anxiety] he’d named earlier.

Until now Ki Hyeonmin had protected others’ lives throughout all the past. Even if no one acknowledged it. Alone. Steadily. Firmly.

But that had been one-sided duty.

Right now he was making mutual promises.

“Let’s go.”

Before he could even adapt to this sense of dissonance, Yeom Juwan tapped his shoulder and gestured. Soon Yeom Juwan left the safe zone first and sprinted. Ki Hyeonmin started late and quickly caught up.

‘This is a first too.’

He’d run ahead before. But he’d never run ahead together with someone.

Leaving someone behind his back was also a first. And not looking back while doing so was also a first.

All of this… was unfamiliar. But Ki Hyeonmin’s body was faithfully charging forward.

As if there was no need to think and worry about it.