The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 289

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Civil Servant Who Hides His Strength Is Exceptionally Good at Possession – Episode 289
Kwon Ik-seong’s eyes opened.
‘The power to twist the world’s causality.’
The moment I heard those words, I activated the ‘Focus’ skill.
Either I instinctively knew when to use it—
Or it activates instinctively on its own.
And the moment the Focus skill activates, countless pieces of information flash through my mind.
Causality.
The moment I heard that word, certain scenes flashed past me for reasons I couldn’t explain.
‘Please… let me live… Ik-seong…’
A password made from my birthday.
‘I’ve liked Team Leader Kwon for a long time… a very long time…’
‘Longer than you might think. I’m serious.
How long is ‘longer,’ exactly?
My throat felt like it was burning.
Emotion was beginning to cloud my judgment.
I knew this feeling.
It was something I always felt whenever I saw Lee Yu-ji.
When emotion clouds judgment, the probability of bias increases.
Often, I end up thinking of answers the way I want them to be.
So I made an effort to remove emotion as much as possible.
I pushed the wavering emotion down below my solar plexus.
Then the situation where she said she liked me became clear again.
XX County XX Town 11-10
The source Choi Woo-jin gave me.
The path to Sky Orphanage.
And the dungeon that appeared to have been created by a strange magical stone the moment we arrived at the orphanage.
I never questioned whether Choi Woo-jin would actually give me such information.
I—
I simply—
Believed in you.
Wanted to believe in you.
I didn’t see the hesitation that lingered at the end of her words about liking me, nor the expression on her face that suggested there was more to say, nor the inexplicable loneliness that hung from the corners of your mouth. I saw none of it.
Now I see all of it again.
‘Seol Ok-gyun might have a strange artifact.’
A strange artifact.
A power that twists the world’s causality.
Why was Lee Yu-ji always at crime scenes before incidents happened?
Where did she get such information?
Come to think of it, Lee Yu-ji was the first to figure out the Gamer’s true identity.
And—
‘But you always believe in others. Always.’
It was Lee Yu-ji who had revealed a facet of myself I never knew existed.
How had all of this been possible?
“You’re the protagonist.”
Choi Woo-jin pressed his forehead as if a migraine were descending upon him.
“If you die, the world resets. Then I can give the protagonist role to Lee Yu-ji.”
The protagonist.
The words began to slowly interlock with one another.
Lee Yu-ji always acted as though she already knew the future.
If Lee Yu-ji wasn’t a prophet, then what was this prophecy she had read?
If the prophecy itself had a protagonist—
What did ‘reset’ mean to that protagonist?
“This can always be started over. It’s nothing. You know that too. You’ve experienced it once.”
Like chiseling away at an enormous block of plaster, slowly revealing the completed sculpture within—
The hypothesis gradually took shape.
It was unbelievable.
I couldn’t possibly accept it.
Such a hypothesis—
“No, actually. You’ve experienced regression twice, Woo-jin.”
First.
Lee Yu-ji already knows the world where Choi Woo-jin is the protagonist.
Second.
Choi Woo-jin is a regressor.
Third.
This world resets when the protagonist dies, and in that reset, the protagonist changes.
Fourth.
Probably… I was a fairly significant supporting character in the world where Choi Woo-jin was the protagonist.
Fifth.
Lee Yu-ji… liked that supporting character.
Sixth—
I quietly stared at the black liquid rippling beneath the steel rebar.
‘You are probably meeting that ‘world’ in there.’
In other words—
Baek Hee-ryeong was speaking to Choi Woo-jin with eyes bloodshot red.
“So—”
Tears streamed down Baek Hee-ryeong’s face.
“Die for me, Woo-jin.”
If Choi Woo-jin died, the world would reset, but I didn’t know if Lee Yu-ji could truly make that reset happen.
I made that judgment and immediately threw myself beneath the steel rebar.
I fell toward gravity without hesitation, at a speed no one could stop.
Falling.
I passed through the empty space that you must have traversed.
And then—
[Kwon Ik-seong encounters Lee Yu-ji, who has become ‘The Story’.]
A window materialized before his eyes.
[However, Lee Yu-ji has already become ‘The Story’ and cannot escape from it. This possession completely decomposed her. A world where everyone is the protagonist cannot exist. For The Story’s power to be maintained, she should have chosen a new protagonist.]
My vision began to open alongside that realization.
And in my field of view, within a dark room, Lee Yu-ji appeared, ceaselessly writing something.
“Lee Yu-ji.”
The moment I called out, a woman with only a gaping black void where her face should be turned around.
[Oh? It’s Kwon Ik-seong.]
Lee Yu-ji…?
Kwon Ik-seong’s eyes narrowed.
[I’ve been waiting! No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out how to start The Story.]
I couldn’t confirm Lee Yu-ji’s voice, face, or expression.
My ‘Focus’ skill didn’t work here either.
[The new protagonist hasn’t been decided, and the existing protagonist can’t do anything. We’re trapped in this Dungeon—what else can we do? The original protagonist was supposed to be one of two. You’ve read Aristotle, haven’t you? Every protagonist in a story meets either a tragic or comedic ending. It’s become narratively impossible to end in comedy, and truthfully, Choi Woo-jin should die here for it to be right… Will Choi Woo-jin die?]
Yet I still judged this entity to be Lee Yu-ji.
No.
This wasn’t judgment.
It was simply belief.
“I… don’t know that either.”
[Oh? Even you don’t know something, Kwon Ik-seong? How interesting! From what I know, the character Kwon Ik-seong doesn’t give answers like that. If you use your Focus skill, you can see everyone’s future—]
This entity seemed to have swallowed Lee Yu-ji whole.
Which meant at least Lee Yu-ji hadn’t ‘completely collapsed’ yet.
“You’re saying you can measure people’s futures? At least approximate them?”
[Isn’t that right?]
Kwon Ik-seong shook his head, staring at the black void.
“No, it isn’t.”
[?]
“Every time I tried to predict your choices, I couldn’t even come close to an approximation.”
[That’s because Lee Yu-ji is a special person! Lee Yu-ji is a being born from twisted causality. Every time I made a mistake in progressing The Story, traces of causality remained, and using those traces, Lee Yu-ji was able to become a possessed one.]
“A possessed one…”
I rapidly processed explanations that fit my hypothesis, yet remained unbelievable.
This ‘Story’—an EX-rank monster—had continued tormenting people.
Baek Hee-ryeong, Choi Woo-jin, and Lee Yu-ji.
While making this world feel like a single ‘Story’.
But—
[Yes, a possessed one! And a special reawakening has occurred too, hasn’t it?]
“That’s right….”
Yes. Lee Yu-ji is special.
“But Lee Yu-ji didn’t make that special choice because she’s inherently special according to her settings. She simply made that choice.”
[That’s also part of her settings! Lee Yu-ji is a good person! Unnecessarily so.]
“No. That’s not it.”
Kwon Ik-seong shook his head and approached the pitch-black sinkhole.
No matter how I looked at it, this didn’t resemble Lee Yu-ji.
Lee Yu-ji might have already disappeared.
She might have been completely decomposed by the EX-grade monster.
She might have reached a state that couldn’t be saved even by the world’s reset.
Yet I couldn’t give up.
I had to bring Lee Yu-ji out of here no matter what.
Because I made a promise.
Whenever Lee Yu-ji wanted to escape, I would always help her escape.
“What does it mean to be a good person?”
[Pardon?]
“Lee Yu-ji is a good person. Lee Yu-ji was once hurt while trying to do good deeds during her time as a national representative. Lee Yu-ji was raised by good parents. Let’s say you set it up that way.”
Kwon Ik-seong relentlessly pierced through the trap of the EX-grade Story.
“Then what does that goodness even mean? What constitutes being good? In Roman times, enslaving people wasn’t considered an evil act, but in modern times it is. Depending on how you construct the world, human choices become good or evil. So does the setting of ‘a good person’ have any meaning?”
[I can’t follow such logical reasoning. This is a story, after all! So it’s completely fictional….]
The moment the word “fictional” left its mouth, something paused above the sinkhole’s head.
It tilted its head in confusion.
Seeing that, Kwon Ik-seong spoke.
“Exactly. A story is fiction. Plausibility doesn’t matter at all. Whatever you want to draw, it becomes reality just as you draw it. So—”
Kwon Ik-seong grasped Lee Yu-ji’s hand.
“Let’s go. We just have to leave. Lee Yu-ji.”
Are you there?
I didn’t ask that question.
Because I didn’t need to hear the answer.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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