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Chapter 91:
Sunhwa’s body began to spasm, almost like she was getting electrically shocked. Her pupils looked like they were covered with a white film.
A strange sound came from her mouth.
“Grr… grrrr.”
I was well informed about this phenomenon. Called ‘possession’, it was caused by one of three possible things.
The first was Demon Realm parasites. The second was a mind control attack from a ‘ghost’-type monster, a kind of spirit monster. The third was the aftermath from a Guardian’s descent.
The Great Explorer Jackson explained it like this:
–Divided even further, the causes of possession can be classified in six different ways, but generally, we differentiate the causes in three ways. Thankfully, mankind has come up with preventative measures for each case.
Demon Realm parasites hid in the human brain, controlling the human’s actions while consuming brain tissue.
–An outstanding cleric Player can exterminate the parasites without much trouble. The host of the Demon Realm Bugs must immediately request the help of a cleric of at least level 50. In this respect, Korea’s medical system is very well established.
If those bugs were to appear in the world right now, we wouldn’t be able to do a thing about them, but I didn’t think that was happening yet. I didn’t see the symptoms of Demon Realm Bug affliction.
–If a person is afflicted by Demon Realm Bugs, their eyes will turn pitch black, followed by their hands and feet. They will present with similar symptoms to a Pearl Centipede affliction.
Sunhwa was making a bizarre sound that was neither groaning nor breathing roughly, just a very odd sound.
“Kghhh…”
It didn’t seem like she was afflicted by Demon Realm Bugs.
–The method to determine whether the patient has suffered the mind control attack of a ghost monster is very simple. All you have to do is ask the possessed person a question. If they don’t answer the first time, ask them multiple times.
It was like Columbus’ egg. The method to diagnose a ghost monster attack was hard to come up with, but once it was discovered, it was an easy thing anyone could do.
“I’ll ask again. Who. Are. You?”
“Kghhh… psheee…!”
Sunhwa’s body continued to convulse.
–If you suspect that the possessed is afflicted by a ghost monster, all you need to do is ask them the question, ‘Who are you?’ multiple times. There will definitely be a reaction. Eventually, they will answer ‘who they are’.
“Who are you?”
“Kghhhh…!”
–If you ask them multiple times and they do not respond, then it’s almost certain that they are not afflicted by a ghost monster. The third cause is the aftermath from a Guardian’s descent, but…
Because ‘descent’ wasn’t a common occurrence, even Jackson could only guess what he thought might be the case.
–There are times when temporary symptoms similar to possession show up due to a Guardian’s descent. It has only been observed a few times on a global scale, and is said to disappear naturally on its own with time.
When a descent occurred, not all Players were affected by it. It wasn’t like the Guardian picked someone out to control their mind; it was basically something like a side effect from a descent.
‘Side effect from a descent. It affected Sunhwa… and even affected me.”
As expected of a Guardian’s descent. That was why I hadn’t noticed something being off. I really couldn’t deny it if you said this was just my mistake, but I did get the feeling I was indirectly under the influence of a Guardian’s ability and power. My hunch was probably correct.
‘In any case…’
Right now, Sunhwa was suffering from a side effect.
‘Side effects… don’t affect people the same way. Some people get them, some people don’t.’
Sunhwa was just unlucky and ended up manifesting that side effect.
‘Jeez, this girl.’
I put the spasming girl on my back. Her condition would settle on its own with time. I was relieved to see no one was nearby, since she would draw weird looks at the moment. I could feel her convulsing on my back.
‘This is actually a good thing,’ I thought while moving forward. ‘I might have gotten indirectly influenced, but it’s still true that I failed to notice it.’
There was something I missed other than Sunhwa’s condition being off, something directly related to Sunhwa.
‘It’s true that Sunhwa has genius-level talent.’
She had proven that as early as the Tutorial. Sunhwa was a diamond in the rough who would shine more and more radiantly with every passing year.
Even before all her talent plates were open, before her body was done growing, her growth speed and skills were already on par with guys like Yeonseo and Yoohyun. In terms of talent alone, she might actually outstrip them by a mile. Once she was a little older and had a more proper evaluation done, her results might cause a huge uproar.
‘It’s possible she’ll even be marked as having 67 talent plates.’
Considering the upper display limit for Korea’s talent plate evaluation device was 67, it was possible she had an immeasurable level of genius. But even for such a genius, there was definitely a weakness.
‘She’s mentally weak.’
She was still a kid in her teens. No matter how remarkable her talent for tanking was, her mind wasn’t as strong. She couldn’t be good at everything.
‘Her resilience against physical attacks is ridiculous… but she’s weak to non-physical attacks.’
When I thought about it, it was obvious. Even with such a talent, she was a kid who had been reduced to tears of terror because of a baby Goblin.
‘If one’s weakness is unknown, there’s not much you can do.’
But if you knew, you could cover for it. It was actually good that I knew now. Where could you find a person who was perfect in every aspect? Take the Byeon Gilsup, for instance. The man who became famous as the ‘Spear Demon’ had terrible poison resistance, so he went wild buying all the poison resistance items.
Thanks to the Ruler of the Plains, I was able to grasp a simple fact that I had missed. I should actually thank them.
‘We’ll need to invest in mental defense items. With that, she’ll be perfect.’
I should also have her put more points into her Willpower stat.
‘Thanks to this, I’ve learned something important.’
I now had a better idea on how to nurture Sunhwa.
“Mmm.”
Before I knew it, Sunhwa’s convulsions had subsided. The descent side effect seemed to have mostly passed. She was murmuring something to herself, and when I craned my ear to hear, they were just meaningless mumbles.
“Fried chicken.”
“Hamburger.”
“Pizza.”
“Tteokbokki.”
“Soondae.”
After listing a stream of foods, Sunhwa suddenly made a sound of utter bliss, going ‘Hyaaa!’ Her sleep talking didn’t end there. She screamed a ‘Sho tashty!’ and then suddenly came back to her senses. I couldn’t see her since she was on my back, but if I had to guess, her eyes probably flew wide open.
“Geh!”
She flailed like she wanted to get down, so I simply let go.
Thud!
She flopped to the ground with a thud. For her, an impact like that wouldn’t even sting. Her mind might be tofu, but her body was as sturdy as could be.
“Op-Oppa.”
“Back to your senses? Remember everything?”
“...”
Sunhwa’s face turned beet red.
“You don’t need to be that embarrassed.”
She just suffered a descent side effect, that was all. It could happen to anyone. The redness of her face had even spread to her ears.
In a small voice, she mumbled, “I’m on a diet.”
“...”
What was this girl going on about now?
“I don’t eat that much.”
And?
“So the things I muttered about just now… I’m absolutely not saying I want to eat them. It’s just… sleep talking. Yeah, something like sleep talking.”
The fact she could remember everything made it pretty unlikely that she was just sleep talking, but I decided not to mention that.
“I wasn’t thinking about it at all.”
“You’re telling the truth, right?”
That seemed to reassure her. Her summary instantly changed a little.
Summary: Slight Brocon Denying their Identity
Sunhwa spoke to me seriously, like she was trying to brainwash me.
“I’m not a pig.”
“...”
“I’m absolutely not a pig. Seriously. Seriously.”
Denying their Identity
I could see her summary all too clearly, but I didn’t show it.
“Should I order fried chicken?”
“Fr-Fried chicken?”
Sunhwa’s eyes widened like saucers, and she suddenly broke out into a blissful smile.
“Yeah, fried chicken. Want some?”
Sunhwa 0, Fried Chicken 1.
Summary: Slight Brocon
The ‘Denying their Identity’ part cleanly disappeared from her summary.
All her embarrassment forgotten, she smiled brightly as she clamored, “You’re going to buy two chickens, right? One per person, right? I’ll be disappointed if you don’t!”
* * *
Sunhwa was not the only one vulnerable to the allure of fried chicken.
“We’ve ordered half spicy, half regular.”
“...”
Noona just stared indifferently at me. At least on the outside, the person sitting at the table didn’t seem all that interested.
“Plus an extra soy sauce chicken on the house, which makes a total of three chickens, one per person.”
Noona was crazy about soy sauce chicken.
“Not interested.”
My sister experienced almost losing me once. Perhaps because of that, she was always very alarmed whenever she heard about gates or dungeons appearing. The press must have made an uproar about the flash gate that appeared in the ‘1st Players Convention’ as well as the Orcanthropes, so I could only imagine how anxious she must have been again.
“But it’s half spicy, half regular, with a soy sauce chicken on top?”
“...”
Noona, I can totally see the saliva going down your neck. Why’s your hand trembling like that? It appeared that the members of my house had very capricious summaries. Food might be an even stronger form of mind control than possession to them.
Summary: Tsundere Tempted by Fried Chicken
Well, Tsundere Tempted by Fried Chicken was better than Devoted Tsundere, I guess. After all, I had received plenty of my sister’s devotion in my past life.
“Are you buying?”
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll help you out and eat it this time.”
So why’re your lashes quivering? How come your lips are curling up? And why are you gulping your drool?
‘Is it because of Eye of Perception and Observer’s Eye…?’
Even without activating them on purpose, I could see my sister’s expression in high resolution. My vision was very different from my past life. Even if I saw the same things, I could see more, and in greater detail. From the way she was sneaking into her bedroom, she was probably planning on paying for the chicken herself.
‘Is it because I’ve become a Player?’
The formerly ‘talentless’ me was now already in their early level 30s. I was walking shoulder to shoulder with heroes. I’d have to get through level 40 to know if I was an early bloomer, but for now, anyone would say that I was speeding along.
‘And now, I can even eat fried chicken like this with my sisters.’
It would have been great if my mom could have joined us, too, but she would be coming in an hour or two.
‘Two hours, huh.’
Her return time wasn’t 100% set in stone, so I was curious as to who would come first. I called my noona and Sunhwa to the table.
“In a little bit, someone will probably come looking for me.”
“Who?”
“Mm, one of two possibilities. In any case, don’t be too surprised, no matter who ends up coming.”
I informed this tsundere older sister and tofu-mind little sister of mine in advance so they wouldn’t be shocked silly.
“Just trust me and don’t do anything. Okay?”
“...”
“You trust me, right?”
Noona gave me a dubious stare.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t go out and cause a mess somewhere.”
Sunhwa, looking totally excited by the prospect of fried chicken, chirped, “I trust you, oppa!”
To the current Sunhwa, ‘I can eat chicken soon’ was more important than my safety or her trust in me. I could almost see the thoughts of, ‘That doesn’t matter, I wanna eat chicken soon!’ swimming around in her brain.
‘Anyway—’
I glanced at the time. It was 6:40 pm. Would my mom come first, or would they? While I was waiting, [!!!] marks popped up over Darongi’s head.
At the same time, the doorbell rang. Someone had come to our house.
‘Ah.’ I found myself grinning. ‘So this is how they wanna do it, huh.’
It was amusing. With this, my course of action was also set. Perhaps because Senia was streaming me, I heard a new notice.
[The ‘Merchant of Venice’ is focusing on you.]
It wasn’t my mom who came first. As I expected, the people who came to our house were the police.
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