Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 3

The ‘Awakening Test Incident’ is an event that appears in the very early part of <On the Brink of Destruction>, later to be called the ‘Awakening Test Disaster.’

On this day, the students entered the Tower cheerfully as usual to take their awakening test. But by sunset, several groups hadn’t returned.

All the students who didn’t return were those taking their test in the cave.

When Phoenix Guild belatedly sent people, a horrific scene unfolded inside the cave.

Corpses mutilated beyond recognition.

A horde of goblins gleefully hacking away.

An irregular rift had occurred inside the test site. And an outbreak at that, with over a thousand monsters pouring out in droves.

The situation soon ended with the guild members’ intervention, but the damage was devastating.

Fifty-one casualties. Nine survivors.

The entire nation trembled with anxiety at this news.

—Why the hell did an outbreak happen inside the Tower!

—How could this result happen even with rankers present!

—What about the barriers and safety devices installed at the test site!

Though outbreaks would later pop off constantly without warning, until this point outbreaks were rare events.

The outbreak wasn’t the government’s fault, of course.

But when various safety devices should have been in place at the test site, the fact that as many as fifty-one casualties occurred was unforgivable.

The public demanded the truth be revealed and the government immediately began investigating, but only announced the result of ‘accident of unknown cause.’

With this announcement, the public’s anxiety turned to rage.

—What exactly are they hiding!

—The people have a right to know too!

—How can we trust them to take care of our kids like this!

The word ‘unknown cause’ was the ultimate kindling.

Kindling that blazed humanity’s imagination.

The firepower was so tremendous that even ordinary office workers became Hollywood-level creators, circulating dozens of scenarios.

That among the victims was the child of a famous political figure and this was a cover-up operation to kidnap that child. That Phoenix Guild, which manages the test site, embezzled all the funds to build villas and holds cannibalistic parties every weekend.

All sorts of conspiracy theories flourished, and civic groups declared they wouldn’t go home until the truth was revealed.

Tents began appearing one by one in City Hall plaza, and before long City Hall became known as downtown Seoul’s camping ground. Along with it, stocks of camping-related companies shot straight up…

Ah, this isn’t what’s important.

What’s important is that parents nationwide united to refuse participation in the awakening test.

Thanks to that, the number of freshmen enrolling in academies noticeably decreased.

In the year the protagonists advanced to second year, fifty enrolled, and in third year only ten enrolled.

Wow, that’s obviously mastermind-ish.

That’s right.

All of this was the mastermind’s scheme.

As the work progresses, star hunters meet mysterious deaths, and the promising rookies meant to fill their places also bid farewell to the world in novel ways. A catastrophic incident cycle occurs every semester at the academy, and freshmen become an endangered species.

Monsters increase, but there are no hunters to face them.

And so the world rapidly walks the path to destruction.

This is the future I know.

* * *

I’m currently heading to the awakening test site.

That awakening test site which becomes the starting point of destruction.

Just the thought made me dizzy, but I barely held onto my sanity.

Calm down, calm down.

There’s no guarantee the outbreak will happen today, right?

The awakening test runs for a total of one month, from December 15th to January 15th.

The day the outbreak happens is January 11th.

It just has to not be January 11th, just not January 11th…

I asked Yeom Juwan in a crawling voice.

“Juwan, what’s today’s date?”

“Today? January 11th.”

Huff, huff.

Calming my rough breathing, I organized my thoughts again.

Stay calm.

Now that it’s come to this, I just have to not enter the Tower today.

Plan ① is escape.

The form is a bit pathetic, but it can’t be helped.

I’m a pacifist who, even when bitten by a mosquito, attempts negotiation saying ‘I’ll let you have one more bite so please just leave.’

If I fall into the middle of an outbreak, I’ll die.

“What’s wrong? Are you nervous?”

Yeom Juwan is looking at me with eyes full of concern.

His gaze is so warm that strength drains from my legs without realizing.

Since the strength drained anyway, I inwardly shouted ‘let it go’ and closed my eyes just like that.

Let’s collapse first and see.

“Hey, hey!”

Fortunately Yeom Juwan caught me with good timing so it didn’t hurt.

“Yeon Sora! Open your eyes!”

Would you open them?

Sending Yeom Juwan alone to the death test site weighs on my conscience, but that child’s survival is guaranteed.

He’s a supporting character who appears even in the latter part of the work.

Right, is now the time for an extra to dare worry about a supporting character?

“Student, are you alright?”

Someone slapped my cheeks, but I kept my eyes firmly closed.

Not open for business today!

I said not open!

“A1039, one dose.”

Someone rolled up my sleeve and vigorously rubbed something cold on my arm.

And shortly after, tremendous pain covered my arm.

…An injection?

It was a painful enough injection to make me scream, but I miraculously didn’t open my eyes.

If I open my eyes here, it’s the outbreak.

“There’s no response.”

“Then let’s do one in the eye too.”

Are you saying you’ll inject into the eye?

Haha, what nonsense!

…But I really felt the touch of a cold alcohol swab on my eyelid.

A terror worse than death covered me.

‘I, I surrender!’

Waving the white flag and snapping my eyes open, a woman in a doctor’s coat was looking down at me with a bright smile.

“Oh? You woke up.”

She shoved a long metal device into my mouth.

“Vital signs ‘Healthy+++’. You must have been nervous. I gave you a tension-relief injection so you’ll be fine. Is there anything else uncomfortable?”

“I can’t breathe well.”

“If you’d like, I can give you one more injection. However, it has to go in the eye, so it’ll hurt a bit…”

I can tell from that look in her eyes.

This person is an expert.

An expert who sharply sees through malingering.

“No, the injection is fine.”

“Then get up quickly. If you’re not careful, you might be misunderstood as an awakening refuser.”

Come to think of it, there was something like that.

In <On the Brink of Destruction>, all citizens bear the duty of awakening confirmation.

Should I say awakening confirmation instead of military service?

After graduating middle school, regardless of gender, everyone must go to the Tower to take the awakening test.

Refusal means five years in prison.

Anyway, the conclusion is… escape failed.

* * *

“We’ll now hand out Tower entry forms! After filling them out thoroughly, please go to the inspection desk!”

I haven’t even made my next plan yet, but I’m standing in front of the Tower entry inspection desk.

The Tower entry inspection desk looks like an airport immigration desk—a place you must go through to enter the Tower.

The Tower entry form is similar to an immigration form.

If there’s a difference, it’s the phrase written next to the signature line.

“I voluntarily enter the Tower, aware of the possibility of death.”

Voluntary my foot!

After cursing inwardly, I started racking my brain hard.

‘I don’t want to die, absolutely not!’

When I was going to die elegantly from coughing, I obediently said ‘I’m off now,’ but faced with a death of being stabbed repeatedly by goblins, I want to live somehow.

I desperately searched my memories, forcibly summoning the early part of the novel.

The awakening test site consists of a total of fifty zones. The outbreak only happens in the cave zone.

Just avoid the cave, just the cave.

“You’ve come to take the test. Good luck.”

When my turn came, the desk staff smiled brightly and stamped my hand firmly.

The number stamped on my hand is ③.

“This is your awakening test location. Please wait in the waiting room with that number.”

Which test site number was the cave?

I tried hard to remember… but I don’t know.

During my thirty-three complete re-reads I made thousands of excerpts and reviewed favorite sections morning and evening, but that doesn’t mean I remember every sentence, word, and number in <On the Brink of Destruction>.

‘It’d be nice if I could check…’

The author next door was sharing text versions from the start, but our author shows no mercy.

Though I felt a bit resentful, I shook my head left and right, dispelling negative thoughts.

That’s not what’s important right now.

If I don’t know, I’ll ask!

“Can I know if the test location is a cave?”

“Test locations are randomly assigned and information is not provided in advance.”

“I have claustrophobia. I panic when I go to enclosed spaces.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. It’s not that narrow of a cave. Next!”

The desk staff mercilessly dismissed me.

* * *

The chairs in waiting room ③ are cushy.

Thanks to that my body is luxuriating, but my mind is gloomy.

That comment earlier… that’s a death flag, right?

No, I can’t say for certain!

There might be multiple cave test sites.

As I shake my head vigorously, Yeom Juwan looks at me with eyes full of concern.

“You really don’t look well. Are you okay?”

Even in this situation, Yeom Juwan’s beauty shines brilliantly.

Truly this appearance is truth.

Right, truth is on my side!

“You don’t have a fever though…”

Watching Yeom Juwan check my temperature, I tried racking my brain again.

Yeom Juwan is active until right before the ending.

In other words, he survives today’s catastrophic incident.

Is it because he doesn’t enter the cave?

‘No, I can’t say that for certain.’

In the work, only four of the nine survivors had their names revealed.

It’s not impossible that Yeom Juwan is among the remaining five but wasn’t mentioned because he’s not yet a named supporting character.

Either way, this child survives today.

If I stick to Yeom Juwan like gum, won’t my survival rate increase too?

“Should I get you some water?”

Nod, nod.

Fortunately, even without me asking, Yeom Juwan voluntarily became the gum.

These two are really close.

If they’re this close, why didn’t Yeon Sora appear in the work?

Could this be… a death flag?

Just as I was about to continue that thought,

Creeeak!

With an ominous sound, the waiting room door opened and about fifteen students came flooding in.

I cut off all trains of thought and carefully examined the faces of the kids who just entered.

‘Whew… not here.’

My sigh of relief was brief.

I immediately turned my gaze to the entrance.

There’s a reason I’m obsessed with the door.

Because the protagonist was at the outbreak scene.

If the protagonist enters through that door, it means all of us gathered here will go on an outbreak tour.

Creeeeak!

‘Not here.’

Creeeeak!

‘Safe!’

Creeeeak!

‘Survived!’

Each time the door opened, my heart plummeted, but the protagonist didn’t appear.

Thinking I’d been too frightened prematurely, I was patting my startled heart when a familiar face entered my vision.

Dazzling silver hair.

Blue eyes that turn gray when they catch the light.

Described in the work as resembling a Siberian husky, and it’s exactly like that.

Like a well-trained wolf, a properly beautiful boy where wildness and gentleness coexist.

Not the protagonist, but a face I know well.

That child’s illustration was also enshrined in my photo album.

Ki Hyeonmin.

Trait ‘Regressor.’

A person who experienced the world’s destruction as many as seven times.

Ki Hyeonmin settled into a chair in the furthest corner of the waiting room, then closed his eyes and lowered his head.

And my world began spinning round and round.

Not the protagonist, but Ki Hyeonmin was also at the outbreak scene.

Second death flag.

Am I going to die like this?

Creeeeak!

Without time to be dejected, a new person entered the waiting room.

Lustrous black hair and long, sharp eyes.

Ruby-red eyes that shine like jewels.

This face I know too.

Gyeon Junhwi.

A reader who thoroughly studied the novel featuring a regressor, and the true protagonist of <On the Brink of Destruction>.

And my third death flag.