Still, with his ears still red, Joohoon asked while pretending as if nothing had happened. Yoohee cleared her throat a couple of times, trying to shift the mood.
“Anyway, you can get out of here if you just receive guiding, right? I know it might sound like I’m chasing something vague, but please trust me this time. I’ll definitely succeed in guiding you.”
At Yoohee’s confident declaration, Joohoon’s eyes widened even more.
If Joohoon did not know about Yoohee’s scenario system, he might have thought it was absurd. Yoohee was only a C-rank Guide, and she was a rookie who had just awakened and entered the academy.
However, Joohoon’s answer was unexpected.
“…I believe you.”
Joohoon fidgeted with his hands tangled in chains.
“But I don’t want you to push yourself because of me, Yoohee. If I… if you’re forcing yourself even though there’s no hope for me, then don’t.”
Joohoon’s voice trembled slightly. Even in this situation, it seemed that he was more worried about Yoohee than himself.
“Joohoon, can you give me your hand for a moment?”
In the center of the transparent glass wall, there was a hole just large enough for a hand to barely pass through.
When Yoohee suddenly asked, Joohoon hesitated for a moment. However, he soon moved the clinking chains and pushed his hand through the small hole.
Joohoon’s hand, bound by chains, was in a worse state than she had expected. His wrist, where the hard restraints had pressed against, was covered with scabs and countless scratches from wounds that had repeatedly torn open and healed.
Yoohee bit her lip tightly. How much pain and hardship had he endured? But she couldn’t bring herself to offer words of comfort.
Right now was the time to show her feelings through actions rather than words.
“Let me touch it for a moment.”
She held Joohoon’s roughened hand in hers.
The moment she held his hand, she could feel Joohoon’s mana. The restraints probably acted as mana suppressors, but they only seemed to prevent his mana from flowing outside.
Because of that, she could still clearly feel the mana violently surging within Joohoon’s body.
“Phew.”
After taking a small deep breath, Yoohee began to focus even more on the mana she sensed from Joohoon. She had to push her own wavelength into the gaps between Joohoon’s mana.
[The Constellations within the channel are puzzled by your actions.]
In her ear, she only heard the reaction that the SSS-rank Free-to-Play Player was puzzled, but the other Constellations were probably the same.
Her guiding ability was still only at 4, yet she was attempting guiding right away.
‘Will I fail?’
Failure was the obvious outcome. But even so, Yoohee thought it was worth placing her hopes on it. Because of the memories from her previous life.
‘…I crawled through gates until my bones broke.’
In her previous life, which already felt like a distant memory, she had rolled through countless gates as a government pawn.
At that time, Korea was suffering from a severe shortage of Awakeners, so people were often deployed into gates that did not match their ranks.
Gates where creatures that attacked humans were created. Inside those gates, the purpose of a Guide was to assist Espers whose mana had become unstable while fighting creatures, helping them regain stability.
‘When it comes to guiding experience, I’m not lacking.’
Simply because she was a C-rank that was easy to throw around, she had provided guiding in various situations and to many different people.
Therefore, with this experience gained from going through all kinds of hardships, there was a chance—just maybe—that she could succeed.
“…Haa.”
However, even with that experience, it seemed she could not surpass her absolute guiding ability.
No matter how much she tried to adjust her wavelength to match Joohoon’s mana, it refused to connect, like gears that didn’t fit together.
As beads of sweat began to form on Yoohee’s forehead, Joohoon was the first to withdraw his hand.
“It’s okay, Yoohee. Stop now.”
Joohoon’s face was distorted with overwhelming guilt.
Realizing that it was impossible for now, Yoohee slowly relaxed the strength in her hand.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? It’s all because I’m the one who’s messed up.”
A light of self-loathing, almost close to contempt, settled in Joohoon’s eyes. Yoohee hurriedly denied his words.
“Right now, it’s because my ability isn’t strong enough yet. It’ll be different next time.”
However, Joohoon only gave a lonely smile.
It seemed as though he thought Yoohee’s answer was nothing more than comforting words.
“Really…”
Just as Yoohee was about to deny it again, the doors on both sides of the visitation room suddenly burst open.
A guard who entered with quick footsteps grabbed Joohoon’s chains again.
“Visitation time is over.”
***
[Scenario Notification: Tutorial for Newbies (1/3)]
Ignoring the status window floating before her eyes, Yoohee trudged through the academy grounds.
Right after classes had ended, couples and friends scattered throughout the campus were laughing and chatting happily together.
Yoohee stared at them with blank eyes.
[Constellation ‘Mother of Failure’ says that no one succeeds from the very beginning.]
[Constellation ‘Mother of Failure’ sponsors a chocolate bar to you, who has failed.]
Plop.
A chocolate bar fell from the sky.
Huh?
True to her nickname, Mother of Failure was generous toward failure.
But the sponsorship…
[Constellation ‘SSS-rank Free-to-Play Player’ mocks the insignificant sponsorship.]
[Constellation ‘Mother of Failure’ warns the Free-to-Play Player to be quiet.]
‘But if the nickname is SSS-rank Free-to-Play Player, does that mean they don’t sponsor anything?’
Whatever. She didn’t think too deeply about it.
Instead, she quietly looked at the chocolate bar that had fallen into her palm. It was a small, long chocolate bar that looked like something you could buy from a convenience store shelf.
‘It’s really a chocolate bar.’
She had thought sponsorships were only possible through scenario rewards, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
Based on the information she had gathered so far, there seemed to be two main types of sponsorship from Constellations. They either directly created a scenario and gave rewards, or they sponsored someone because they liked the scenario shown by the possessor.
The items they sponsored also seemed to be divided into two categories: rewards within the status window that could provide ability adjustments, such as increasing stats, and physical items like this chocolate bar.
[Constellation ‘Mother of Failure’ quietly wishes for your success.]
‘Is this like wishing someone good luck on their college entrance exam?’
People often gave things like sticky rice cakes or chocolates to someone before an important exam.
Still, it was better than being ignored. Either way, she needed to grow while receiving the attention of the Constellations.
Yoohee put the chocolate bar into her pocket and started walking again. Her black Mary Jane shoes touched and left the ground faster and faster.
‘I have to find what I can do and do it.’
There were only three Constellations currently watching Yoohee. Moreover, it was uncertain whether SSS-rank Free-to-Play Player would even sponsor her.
She didn’t have the luxury of time to leisurely wait for the Constellations’ scenarios.
She didn’t know much, but the Constellations would probably be able to watch the broadcasts of other possessors even if they weren’t Yoohee. According to the explanation of the status window, Yoohee was the twenty-ninth possessor. That meant there were at least twenty-eight other possessors before her.
In other words, even if Yoohee failed the final scenario, the Constellations could simply go and find another possessor’s channel.
“…I’ll definitely save you.”
She made a firm resolve.
She did not yet know that because of this decision, the lives of many people would later come to depend on her.
***
After class ended, Yoohee headed to the academy library.
One might wonder why she had gone all the way there while climbing such a steep hill, but there were old books there that couldn’t be found on the internet.
[Constellation ‘SSS-rank Free-to-Play Player’ finds the quiet atmosphere boring.]
Yoohee ignored the Constellation’s reaction ringing in her ears and sat down at an empty seat by the window.
Since she planned to read until late at night, she put on her glasses and rolled up her sleeves.
“The female protagonist also studied guiding theory here.”
Still, she thought she should explain the situation to the Constellations, so she muttered quietly. Then, the Hardcore Romance Fantasy Reader immediately reacted.
[Constellation ‘Hardcore Romance Fantasy Reader’ lights up their eyes at your self-talk, saying ‘Oh-ho.’]
‘As expected, it’s because they’re a romance fantasy veteran.’
Usually, in romance fantasy stories, the trope of a possessor remembering the original plot and changing the story was one of the most common clichés.
In the original story, the female protagonist was a B-rank Guide. From Yoohee’s perspective, even becoming B-rank would have been something to be grateful for. However, the female protagonist in the original story was not satisfied with a rank that was neither high nor low, and she never neglected her guiding studies.
In fact, toward the latter half of the story, the female protagonist was able to obtain guiding abilities far superior to her original rank.
“I have to try everything I can.”
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