Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 44

Tonight’s dinner is Dining Hall C.

The menu is galbi-tang.

Attendees: me, Yeom Juwan, Han Boram, Lee Hyojun, the two suspects, and Gyeon Junhwi.

‘My baby, did the work go well?’

Gyeon Junhwi was busy today.

He had important possessor duties.

There’s a bribed employee among the academy staff, and that rat bastard’s going to hammer some weird stake into Yeouido Park, causing a labyrinth dungeon to open next semester.

On enrollment day, Gyeon Junhwi had installed a surveillance item at the location where the stake would be hammered.

Today the alert came, so he went to monitor the rat bastard.

‘He went… right?’

I can’t ask outright, so I dropped my spoon, bent down to pick it up, and checked his shoes—they’re covered in dirt.

Gyeon Junhwi’s shoes, which are pathologically clean, covered in dirt.

That must mean he went and came back successfully.

By the way, my baby!

With all that dirt, you look like a cultural heritage artifact freshly excavated from the ground!

“Gyeon Junhwi, why didn’t you come to club recruitment today? The first day’s the most fun…”

“I had to ask a professor something briefly.”

Gyeon Junhwi is conversing with Lee Hyojun.

“What, you don’t look like it but you’re a model student?”

“Haha, not quite that.”

“If you don’t know something, ask this hyungnim!!”

“…Hyungnim?”

My baby’s expression changed subtly.

The corners of his eyes and eyebrows both drooped slightly, and the corners of his mouth also showed a faint downward movement.

He’s probably muttering internally right now, ‘At my age, do I really have to call a high schooler hyungnim?’

‘So that’s what his reality-check face looks like?’

This is oddly entertaining, isn’t it?

I know the inner monologues my baby would have.

Comparing them with his expressions while observing, new patterns emerge.

For example, something like this.

“So everyone, what clubs did you join?”

It sounds like a casual passing question, but if this were a novel, it’d be accompanied by narration like ‘Let me first check if Han Boram joined a club as in the original.’

It’s a question with intent.

And when there’s hidden intent, Gyeon Junhwi blinks twice in quick succession.

Normally he’d blink once every 4 seconds, but he does two 2-second blinks in a row.

“I-I joined th-the, the place that makes props! Th-they said I can make dolls and decorations!”

“I joined the Meditation Club, Broadcasting Club, and… just a place that takes care of animals.”

“Yeon Sora, what about you?”

“I joined the Meditation Club, Broadcasting Club, and Strategy and Tactics Club.”

“Strategy and Tactics Club?”

Gyeon Junhwi’s eyelashes fluttered oddly.

I don’t know what that means.

Anyway.

Analyzing this and that while eating made time fly. When the meal was wrapping up, Gyeon Junhwi did the two-blink succession again.

“What’s everyone doing tonight?”

A question with intent.

And I know that intent.

‘Trying to track the limpets’ movements, huh?’

Tonight, Gyeon Junhwi and I have a prior engagement.

If a prophet has nightmares and comes to school sobbing, asking about the dreams is common courtesy!

We’d decided to have a secret meeting, but while we’d set the time, we hadn’t chosen a location yet.

My baby asked that question to select a location where we wouldn’t be caught by the limpets.

But one limpet made an unexpected comment.

“We decided to hang out at Yeom Juwan and Yeon Sora’s dorm today, right? Gyeon Junhwi, you coming too?”

“Today?”

“Dormitory 2’s game room is famous! Last year’s dorm head was a board game maniac and collected all sorts of games, so there are lots of rare items. How about it?”

Gyeon Junhwi is looking at me.

His eyes are exceptionally elongated.

What? I don’t know about this either! The limpets arranged this on their own!

“I’m passing tonight because I’m tired.”

To prove my innocence, I announced my non-participation, and the kids all opened their mouths at once.

“Why?”

“I-if Sora doesn’t come, it won’t work! Y-you’re the main character, you know?”

“Right, it’s only fun with Sora.”

“We can only play around now, right? Starting next week, homework alone will be brutal…”

“What about participating briefly for a change of pace?”

I could feel their strong determination to drag me along no matter what.

Even Yeom Juwan sided with them.

I soon learned the reason why.

“L-lately people have been saying terrible things about Sora, s-so I think Sora’s anxious. S-something bad happened today too… so I-I wanted to cheer her up!”

Han Boram was explaining to Gyeon Junhwi.

They’d prepared a surprise event thinking I’d been hurt today.

How thoughtful.

But what about my secret meeting?

“Ow! Hey, Yeom Juwan! Wh-why are you stepping on my foot?”

“When did I.”

“Y-you just stepped on it! Twice even!”

“I didn’t step on it. And develop some tact.”

“I-I have tact too!”

While Yeom Juwan and Han Boram bickered, a DM arrived.

|Gyeon Junhwi| Don’t skip it, you participate too

|Gyeon Junhwi| I’ll give you a signal, so wait for it.

Seems like he has a plan.

Well, this is my baby’s specialty, so I can leave it to him.

* * *

The game room was fairly crowded, but the moment I entered, people fled like migratory birds, so we could use it as if we’d rented the whole place.

Yeon Sora’s notoriety is good in this way.

Wherever I go, the air density drops! So refreshing!

“It was definitely somewhere around here… Found it! This!”

What Lee Hyojun pulled out was an extremely worn-looking box.

A box covered in layers of time’s passage.

“What’s that?”

“Tower Climber! This is a discontinued item, really hard to get.”

“Is it fun?”

“I’ve only played it once, but the addictiveness is insane. Humanity’s endless greed! Struggles and conspiracies for absolute power! A game where all kinds of schemes and tricks run rampant. They say if you want to know a person’s true nature, play Tower Climber with them.”

Apparently it’s a dice strategy game modeled after the Tower.

From what I hear, Lee Hyojun tried it once last year when visiting Lee Hyorim’s dorm.

“The rules are simple. The first person to reach the top of the Tower wins! To climb, you have to pass through dungeons, and dungeons can’t be soloed. So you have to form party members, but you absolutely can’t reach the top if you stick with the same members. The charm is in when and who betrays. First you roll the dice and…”

The rules were not simple at all.

Did I really need to memorize this many rules just to play one game? I’d never properly played board games anyway, and would this even be fun…

“Aaaaaaaah! Yeom Juwan, how could you!!”

“Park Rahee, watch your back!”

“Never let your guard down, right? This is a game where one move can flip everything.”

“Please be a 6… 6! 6! 6!”

…This is fun?

Is it because I’m winning?

Right, anything’s fun when you’re winning!

Just three more dice rolls and I’ll become the Tower’s ruler and conquer the world—this thrilling moment!

“Hahahahaha! Yeon Sora, Gyeon Junhwi out!”

…Or so I thought, but Gyeon Junhwi dragged me into a 2-person dungeon and we both crashed together spectacularly.

“We’re not out yet.”

“If you have to rest 15 turns, you’re basically out.”

“Tsk tsk, you were both too greedy.”

My baby, you’re the intelligent type! Why are you pulling a suicide pact with me and sinking together! This goes against your character!

I glared at Gyeon Junhwi with resentful eyes, when—

“Should I get some drinks while we wait? Everyone, what do you want?”

My baby was calmly taking orders with a composed face.

“I’ll have cola.”

“Sparkling water.”

“Gyeon Junhwi’s treating, right? Then Monster-Aid!”

“Yeon Sora, want to come with me?”

Only then did I realize Gyeon Junhwi had orchestrated this situation.

But is that even possible?

This was a vintage game I was playing for the first time, wasn’t it?

Did you tamper with the dice? Swap cards? How did you know which cards existed?

I was hesitating whether to ask with the mindset of an audience member trying to understand a magic trick, when—

|Gyeon Junhwi| Hold out your hand for a second.

Gyeon Junhwi was standing right next to me but deliberately communicated via DM.

When I obediently held out my hand, he dropped a small jade bead onto it.

‘Wait, I know this!’

It’s an item called the Promise Orb.

In the original, Gyeon Junhwi frequently used this item with Han Boram.

“While holding this orb, the other kids can’t hear our voices. But if our lips move it’ll show, so let’s keep our backs turned.”

Gyeon Junhwi brought up the main topic while extracting drinks from the vending machine.

“Feeling better now? You look better than this morning…”

“Yeah, much better.”

“What kind of dream did you have?”

Gyeon Junhwi is pulling out maximum charm with his handsome features.

Serious lips, eyes filled with untold stories.

Weaving tragic beauty and innocent purity with delicate lines—this is the look that would ruin a nation.

‘You don’t have to go that far.’

I was planning to tell him about the dream straightforwardly anyway.

To reinforce the prophet setting that’s been getting hazy lately, to stack prophet points, and to emphasize that one possessor alone isn’t enough.

But my baby was so beautiful that instead of the smooth spilling I’d planned, I ended up pouring it all out like a waterfall.

The ruins in front of the academy main building.

Blood-red sky.

An apocalyptic landscape with bones piled like mountains.

And…

“Everyone was… dead. Yeom Juwan’s… lower half had turned to ash, and Ki Hyeonmin’s… stomach had a long stab wound…”

Recalling my babies’ final moments suddenly cracked my voice.

Because even though it was just a dream, it was unnecessarily vivid.

“But I died too?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Can I ask how I died?”

“Your right arm and left leg were missing…”

“Me?”

Gyeon Junhwi’s eyelashes fluttered subtly.

That’s the same flutter I saw when I said I’d joined the Strategy and Tactics Club.

‘I can’t believe it,’ that’s what it meant.

Gyeon Junhwi is a character serious about preserving his limbs.

Having suffered from disability in his past life, he deeply feels the importance of having intact arms and legs.

He always said ‘I’d rather die than go through that again,’ and rarely stepped up for anything with injury risk.

Gyeon Junhwi picks up a blade and enters combat only three times.

Once during the awakening test, and the other two at the endings.

He even severs his own limbs right before the finale to rush to his comrades faster…

But he wouldn’t believe me even if I told him that.

“Was that all the dream?”

“Yeah.”

“Was there anything different from the outbreak dream you had before?”

“Different?”

“Not every dream you have is about the future. We need a way to distinguish them…”

He’s completely treating this as nonsense.

My baby’s eyes are slightly apathetic—delivering the truth actually dropped my prophet stack.

That’s troublesome…

Should I throw in one more credible prophecy?

“I did have one more unusual dream.”

“What kind?”

“A chimera appeared. At a Yeouido shopping mall.”

A chimera appearing at a Yeouido shopping mall.

The monster escape incident happening this weekend.

“There was a screen in a dark place. Probably a movie theater. The chimera had a barcode on its neck, so it’s not a wild monster…”

After listing a few more clues, life returned to Gyeon Junhwi’s eyes.

“If it’s real, the damage would be considerable.”

“Will this dream also happen in reality?”

“Who knows…”

My baby is resting his chin, wearing a serious expression.

“I’ve been researching your dreams in various ways.”

“Really?”

“If those dreams are really the future, I need to know what principle they work on. The most likely hypothesis is that you’re a multi-pillar holder. You have an undeveloped ability besides flame magic. It hasn’t manifested as a skill yet, but there’s a possibility that ability is manifesting under certain conditions.”

My baby, you’ve understood my setting!

Right, that’s it!

My second pillar has a hidden prophecy skill that hasn’t bloomed yet!

“I think we need to know the conditions for that ability to manifest, so I looked at existing research on undeveloped abilities. There are only case studies so far, and 97% of cases were related to survival situations. The ability manifested when one’s existence was threatened. Your outbreak dream and this movie theater dream fall into that category.”

“I see.”

“But there’s something strange about that.”

“Something strange?”

“You said I appeared in the dream, right? You said there was something to give me.”

During my prophet coming-out, I’d said something like that while showing the nine-tailed fox tail fur.

“This is the only exception among your symptoms.”

Cold sweat ran down my back.

Wait, is there a setting error?

I don’t remember any major errors, but I didn’t expect my baby to analyze things this meticulously down to research cases.

I nervously swallowed, when Gyeon Junhwi continued his lengthy explanation.

“To understand exceptions, we need to look at the 3% rather than the 97%. So I analyzed the remaining cases, and there were instances where the ability manifested in indirect forms that contributed to survival.”

“?”

“Actually, I’m a crafting-type ability user. Maybe it means to overcome that crisis indirectly by utilizing me.”

An involuntary sigh of relief escaped.

Ah, you want the item?

“Here.”

I obediently pulled the tail fur from my inventory and handed it over, and Gyeon Junhwi gave me a nation-ruining eye smile while adding a lengthy explanation.

“But 3% of cases isn’t statistically significant. Plus this is all based on case studies, so I can’t be certain of the results…”

I nodded without understanding, watched my baby’s beauty work overtime, and after the conversation ended, I even got to observe Gyeon Junhwi having a brief reality-check moment as he released his charm offensive.

Anyway.

I’d established a subordinate surveillance system, safely met Yoo Seoha, and successfully delivered the prophecy and item.

This should be enough to call it a day, right?

“I’m heading back first.”

When I announced my intention to leave, the limpet group looked quite surprised.

“Huh? Not playing one more round?”

“Next time.”

“Wow, ending it here takes willpower—Yeon Sora’s self-control is impressive, huh?”

It’s not that I don’t want to play one more round of board games.

But an even more thrilling reward awaits me.

I haven’t checked my intimacy with my unnie yet.

I have to hurry to my room and check it!