Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 85

“I’ve already apologized to your team members, but let me apologize again. You all suffered greatly due to our management failures.”

Ha Seonwoo opened the conversation with an abrupt apology.

After lifting his respectfully lowered head, questions followed.

“Have you heard of an organization called ‘Antithesis’?”

“No?”

“It’s an organization that recently started activities, claiming all awakened should be quarantined. Starting last week, they’ve been committing terrorism targeting ordinary citizens, such as spraying hallucinogenic gas throughout the city.”

‘Antithesis?’

I found myself tilting my head involuntarily.

In <On the Brink of Destruction>, there are plenty of groups that hate awakened. Only 10% of the population awakens, which means 90% don’t.

When you become a hunter, you can climb the Tower and become high-income earners—naturally some people resent that.

When hunters claim ‘We risk our lives climbing!’, there are people who hate them for no reason saying ‘We can’t do it even risking our lives!’ Among hunters, there are actually plenty of thugs, so there are people shouting ‘Those bastards are worse than monsters!’ There are even restaurants that refuse awakened customers.

That’s why the academy and Hunter Association must put forward the justification that ‘We climb the Tower for humanity’s sake.’

“Do you really not know?”

“No, I don’t.”

Cold slime appeared on the back of my neck.

Seems like he’s slowly activating the lie detector, but I’ve genuinely never heard the name ‘Antithesis’ before.

Ha Seonwoo continued while curving his eyes beautifully.

“Many bugs occurred during this Field Training, right?”

“…Yes.”

“They’re all the work of ‘Antithesis.’ It’s presumed to be an organization with very excellent technical capabilities. They induced bugs in transfer zones, designed magic circles to forcibly open Outbreaks, and are conducting dangerous experiments.”

“Experiments?”

“To prove the dangers of awakening, they seem to be conducting experiments transplanting monster abilities into human bodies.”

“?”

“The two TAs assigned to your group are suspected to be members of this organization. The bizarre half-human, half-monster forms you witnessed were likely the results of the experiments I just mentioned.”

‘What is this?’

The twins were raised by the ‘Inventor of the Century,’ so having good technical skills is correct. Manipulating bugs is correct, opening the Outbreak is correct, conducting half-monster experiments is also correct, but…

The twins’ affiliation isn’t something like ‘Antithesis.’

A religious organization that only appears in the latter half of the work. It’s the ‘Divine Salvation Church’ operated by the mastermind.

‘Could it be… a butterfly effect?’

My heart sank for a moment, so I searched on my device. Since we’re outside the hospital now, searching is possible.

But the moment I saw the photo in the results—

Pfft—

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

Terrorists wearing gas masks are waving a giant flag.

The design drawn on that flag is a crescent moon and three stars.

The exact same pattern as Park Rahee’s necklace.

“Excuse me? Vice Guild Master? Doesn’t this look really familiar?”

When I projected the photo into the air to share, Ha Seonwoo gave a fox-like smile.

“I know, I was quite surprised too.”

“You’re saying this is coincidence?”

“Sometimes hard-to-believe things happen in this world.”

The last day I met Ha Seonwoo.

I told him that Park Rahee has a necklace with this pattern, and the accomplice I encountered at the movie theater also possessed an item with the same pattern.

A few days later, a terrorist group openly advertising this pattern was formed.

What does this mean?

‘Antithesis’ is a fake created by Ha Seonwoo.

‘He’s doing that again this time?’

I know this well because he used a similar operation in the original.

To understand this, you need to know the mastermind’s big picture.

From the early stages, the mastermind triggers Outbreaks, causes incidents that can’t be understood by science or common sense one after another, and cruelly eliminates the heroes who could resolve these incidents one by one.

The atmosphere clearly on the brink of destruction from anyone’s perspective.

And when people feel true terror, they naturally come to realize the importance of religion as humans always have.

Riding the surge of sudden religious faith, ‘Divine Salvation Church’ gets promoted from cult to official religion… this is quite an important moment in the work.

Anyway.

In the original, there was one person who greatly contributed to creating the atmosphere of destruction. An assassin who extracted all blood from people’s bodies and created instant mummies.

This assassin left absolutely no evidence at crime scenes, but some agitators called this ‘divine punishment.’

The possessor Gyeon Junhwi knew the assassin’s methods well, but there was no evidence. High-ups don’t listen to a mere student’s words without evidence.

So Junhwi went to Ha Seonwoo.

Around this time, Ha Seonwoo was practically a fugitive. The mastermind had devoted effort from the early stages to bring down Phoenix Guild. Major incidents always occurred only in Phoenix Guild’s territory, and numerous corruption allegations were being raised.

Gyeon Junhwi handed information about the assassin to Ha Seonwoo.

And shortly after.

At every mummy incident scene, a man in peculiar attire was witnessed fleeing. Obviously a suspect.

But people claiming ‘divine punishment’ insisted he was a ‘messenger.’ Soon, heated debates arose on the topic of ‘Is this divine punishment from god, or an unprecedented serial murder case?’

That’s when Ha Seonwoo revealed himself before the public.

In the original, Phoenix Guild was public enemy number one. Citizens threw eggs and stones the moment they saw Ha Seonwoo. Without even wiping the blood streaming down his forehead, Ha Seonwoo…

‘……’

Blood streaming down his forehead…

‘…Just thinking about it tears my heart.’

Anyway.

Ha Seonwoo said ‘This is a sensitive matter so I can’t disclose the source of information, but there are precautions’ and informed the public of safety rules.

The culprit appears from within shadows, only emerges from adult male-sized shadows so pay attention to shadow size when walking, the culprit taps the ground three times with their left foot before using their ability so moving to a shadowless space before that can help you escape death, and so on.

And shortly after.

People who testified they truly survived by following these precautions appeared in droves.

Ultimately, this incident became ‘an unprecedented serial murder case,’ and people who’d been hesitating whether to visit the temple once turned their steps toward the police station instead.

The mastermind?

Naturally became frantic searching for the fake assassin and circled around Ha Seonwoo.

Because the information Ha Seonwoo disclosed was all true. They needed to investigate how he learned it.

Similar context, but—

‘This time the scale has grown much larger.’

To create not one fake assassin but a fake terrorist group to provoke the entire church…

I never imagined this.

I was lost in thought when Ha Seonwoo’s voice brought me back to reality.

“Actually, we’d obtained information that day and were fully controlling the 1st floor… but I never imagined the academy’s TAs would be members of ‘Antithesis.’ I apologize again.”

“You were fully controlling the 1st floor that day?”

“Yes.”

“Is this also coincidence?”

“Luck.”

Meaning they were controlling it to capture Park Rahee, but the twins got caught instead.

“What happened to Park Rahee’s orphanage?”

“That terrorist group happens to be staging a sit-in at a certain orphanage in the city. They’re holding everyone inside as hostages.”

“What a coincidence?”

“What a coincidence.”

This is Ha Seonwoo’s speaking style.

It’s cumbersome, but the fact that we’re conversing like this means I’m quite a decent collaborator.

“Were any people who knew Park Rahee from that orphanage hurt?”

“Not yet? But neither ‘Antithesis’ nor the hostages can move rashly.”

“For how long?”

“We’re predicting minimum one month, possibly up to six months.”

Ha Seonwoo looked out the window.

Judging by the surrounding buildings, we’ll arrive at Gongdeok Station dock soon. Ha Seonwoo put his hand in his briefcase and pulled out a red macaron.

“You must be hungry leaving at dawn. Eat this.”

“Is that all you had to say?”

“No, actually I have one request. If possible, I’d like you to keep quiet about who closed the Outbreak.”

The twins triggering the Outbreak is public.

Ki Hyeonmin closing it is confidential.

“Did you make the same request to my team members?”

“Well… they were so focused on survival that they don’t seem to know the Outbreak’s status.”

Seems like he used mental-type skills on Boram and Juwan.

Ki Hyeonmin has a constitution those skills don’t work on, so he’ll remember…

“What about Gyeon Junhwi?”

Ha Seonwoo suddenly looked down at his own hand.

The macaron had crumbled before he knew it.

“Sorry, I made a mistake. My senses are a bit dull wearing gloves.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’ll get you a new one.”

A strange coldness flows through Ha Seonwoo’s warm, bewitching smile.

‘So they still don’t like each other this time either?’

Actually, Ha Seonwoo and Gyeon Junhwi don’t get along.

In the original, people called Gyeon Junhwi ‘Little Ha Seonwoo,’ and the funny thing is both horribly hated that nickname.

A kind of kindred hatred.

Meanwhile, the limousine stopped, and Ha Seonwoo gave a fox smile again.

“We’re specially treating your friend with care, so don’t worry too much. I’ll let you know when her condition improves.”

“You’ll really let me know, right? About the orphanage news too.”

“Well, won’t you be too busy focusing on classes?”

Meaning this time he’s sharing information because I’m directly involved, but there won’t be a next time.

“The ferry will depart soon. You should get going.”

To promise a next time, I need to throw something out now.

But I’m not worried. Because I have quite a nice item.

“Just hypothetically. If I happened to pick up Park Rahee’s belongings and they were items with the same pattern as ‘Antithesis,’ what should I do?”

That’s right! I have Park Rahee’s necklace!

But Ha Seonwoo just kept smiling without saying anything.

“Aren’t you curious?”

“Even if I ask now, you probably won’t remember where it is. When coincidences overlap again next time, you’ll remember then, right?”

That’s how our conversation ended.

* * *

Returning to Yeouido after a long time.

The ferry is cutting through the water and advancing.

I’m munching on a macaron while calming my troubled mind.

‘I never thought of this.’

I didn’t expect Ha Seonwoo to act this boldly.

Sure, I knew Phoenix Guild remained intact since I prevented the Awakening Test Disaster. But I had no idea how a guild with that much power would act going forward.

‘At this point, isn’t it just rewriting the novel entirely?’

The reason the plot twisted this much?

Obviously because of me.

Preventing the Awakening Test Disaster isn’t the problem.

Requesting the grasshopper background investigation from Ha Seonwoo was the biggest variable.

Now that I think about it, a normal possessor probably wouldn’t have dumped grasshopper investigation on someone else from day one.

‘Still, well, it’s flowing in a good direction…’

Ultimately, Ha Seonwoo, who’s smarter and more powerful than me, is seriously investigating the mastermind, so looking at the big picture, it’s good.

The problem is I have no idea what will happen next.

Even in the original, that trap investigation didn’t end well.

‘I don’t need to know! I’ll find out when the time comes!’

No matter how much I shout internally, sticky anxiety remains in my heart.

If only I were a real prophet, that would be great.

‘Honestly… there’s some possibility, isn’t there?’

Not prophetic dreams, but I’ve had quite realistic dreams.

The quest <Tower’s Wish> appeared as a reward too.

There are still two locked pillars in my skill tree, and there’s no law saying one of them isn’t prophecy.

But with just this much evidence, it’s too anxious to run hope circuits.

Rather than hope…

“Let’s quickly collect the fragments!”

The reward roulette definitely had <New Skill>.

Getting a prophet skill with that is best!

While organizing my thoughts like that, the ferry arrived at Yeouido.

Now I need to take the shuttle, drop by the dormitory to change clothes, then head to the classroom…

“It’s Yeon Sora!”

“It really is Yeon Sora!”

“She came to school!”

I can see people whispering everywhere.

Many are blatantly pointing fingers too.

‘This is also nostalgic.’

Intimacy with my babies has risen, but Yeon Sora’s social position within the academy remains the same.

The arrogant crazy bitch who gave eye-level smiles in front of the entire student body.

Maybe garbage with attempted murder charges against a classmate?

After enduring sharp gazes on the shuttle and arriving at the dormitory…

“Ooh! Our dormitory star has appeared!”

At the dormitory entrance, I ran into bias character #6, Min Dorim.

He’s wearing his uniform with a sword at his waist. Judging by how his hair is tied up more neatly than usual…

‘Combat mode?’

Seems like my baby #6 also has Field Training starting today.

This is my first time seeing Min Dorim holding a real sword, so my heart started pounding ridiculously.

I really wanted to see Min Dorim’s swordsmanship…

If I ask him to do a sword dance just once here, would he grant it?

Before I could ask the question, Min Dorim approached and patted my back.

“I’ll be cheering for you?”

“Cheering?”

“Waiting for the next coverage too! Hahaha!”

Min Dorim laughed heartily and disappeared just like that.

Leaving behind only ominously resonating words.

Coverage… don’t tell me?