Win Rate is 120 Percent!
It was 8 p.m. Seo Gaeul, who had been straining her senses toward the world outside, let out an irritated complaint.
“That bastard Ha Namjin. Don’t tell me he’s seriously planning to skip today too? He has to come feed me!”
Counting yesterday, Seo Gaeul had already gone two full days without eating. Her nerves were understandably frayed. Awakened burned through calories at an insane rate, so even a single day of fasting was genuinely painful.
Yu Yeoleum watched her with open curiosity. Seo Gaeul definitely possessed the Lady concept, yet her behavior was anything but refined.
A concept functioned like a restraint or a curse. Defying it was supposed to be impossible. Someone with the concept of Modesty would, by definition, act modestly.
‘…Or is the correction from Lady really only this weak?’
“Ugh, I’m starving.”
Seo Gaeul shivered violently as she grumbled. In truth, her unusual anxiety wasn’t solely because of hunger. The something that had been standing outside the stone door yesterday had left her deeply unsettled.
“That bastard Ha Namjin. He didn’t run into that grotesque thing yesterday and die, did he? Is that why he hasn’t shown up?”
She had just reached what she considered a plausible conclusion when Yu Yeoleum spoke.
“Seo Gaeul, all you’ve talked about since yesterday is Ha Namjin. Don’t tell me you…”
“What are you even saying? If he doesn’t come, who’s going to feed us?”
Seo Gaeul snapped for no reason. She didn’t know exactly what would follow Yu Yeoleum’s trailing “Don’t tell me you…”, but she knew it would be something irritating.
“Besides! No one else even knows we’re trapped here. And it’s not like we can scream for help when there are monsters right outside.”
Seo Gaeul stopped thinking about Ha Namjin and turned her mind back to the strange creature. What on earth was it?
“Yu Yeoleum, you couldn’t see exactly what was on the other side of the wall with your clairvoyance?”
“I saw it. It looked human. Its eyes were a vivid blood-red.”
Through Yu Yeoleum’s vision, the entity had taken human shape. Of course, while it resembled a person, certain parts felt… off. It left a subtly nauseating aftertaste.
“I was too out of it yesterday to notice properly,” Seo Gaeul said. “That eerie, ominous feeling. Like the uncanny valley. I’ve felt it once before—when I met Jin Eunbyeol.”
She recalled the daughters of the wealthy. Girls like her threw birthday parties to build connections, which was how Seo Gaeul of Seonam Group and Jin Eunbyeol of Samjin Group had first met.
Of course, Seo Gaeul had never liked Jin Eunbyeol. The girl was deeply unpleasant. It felt as though something else was wearing Jin Eunbyeol’s skin like a mask. It hadn’t always been that way. The change had come suddenly around the start of middle school. That was also when Jin Eunbyeol began flaunting her fame as a fortune teller.
‘If Chairman Seo Docheol swallows his pride, he’ll probably reach out to Samjin Group and ask Jin Eunbyeol where I am. Then she and Ha Namjin will collide.’
Seo Gaeul tried to picture the unpleasant Jin Eunbyeol clashing with the insane Ha Namjin. Who would win? It was a genuinely difficult question.
If Ha Namjin lost…
“Seo Gaeul, your heart rate is spiking sharply.”
“You perverted bitch! Stop peeking at my heart rate whenever you feel like it!”
Seo Gaeul whipped her hands over her chest and glared. Now that she thought about it, Yu Yeoleum gave off a sweet scent. To someone as starving as Seo Gaeul, the sugary aroma wafting from the other girl’s body was pure torture.
So when Yu Yeoleum lay on the bed peacefully enjoying her Photosynthesis, Seo Gaeul crept forward like a fox raiding a henhouse and pounced.
“Get over here!”
“What the—hey!”
Seo Gaeul licked Yu Yeoleum’s nape. Lick.
The dizzyingly sweet flavor that burst across her tongue from the unexpectedly soft skin made Seo Gaeul’s eyes fly open in shock.
‘…It’s sweet! And the taste changes depending on the body part? Is this the power of the Candy concept?’
Yu Yeoleum, naturally, was horrified. She clearly hadn’t expected Seo Gaeul to suddenly turn perverted.
“Stop! I don’t have that kind of hobby! You crazy woman! Get off!”
As the chaste Yu Yeoleum shoved her away, Seo Gaeul’s head spun from the sugar rush. The glucose flooding her brain quickly ran the numbers on a hypothetical fight between Jin Eunbyeol and Ha Namjin.
The conclusion was immediate. Ha Namjin would win. He possessed the Flyswatter of Love. It was a weapon that even Seo Gaeul—who had once been called the worst bitch alive—feared.
Flyswatter of Love!
Slap!
“Aaaack!”
Jin Eunbyeol, lying on the bed, bounced up and down in convulsions. The sight was oddly satisfying. She glared at me with bloodshot eyes, then showed off the party trick of spinning her head a full 360 degrees.
But that was all. A 360-degree head spin didn’t stir the slightest emotion or fear in me.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
By the time her pale skin had flushed bright red from the flyswatter, Jin Eunbyeol changed tactics. Tears streaming down her face, she began to beg.
“I get it! Stop! Please stop! Put that flyswatter away! What exactly do you want to know?!”
So her will had finally cracked. How disappointing. If it had been Seo Gaeul, she would have kept snarling for at least another hour.
‘As expected, I’ve become the kind of man who can’t function without Seo Gaeul.’
While I was feeling that regret, the extremely tense Changsik spoke up.
“The devil will not answer our questions obediently. She will surely try to mislead and confuse us! In that spirit, I shall ask the first question!”
Volunteering to be the test subject. What a noble spirit of sacrifice!
“T-tell me whether I can get a girlfriend!”
“Huh.”
“……”
At Changsik’s question, bread-butt Baek Yeoul and Deoksoon both frowned. Their expressions clearly said, You’re asking that in this situation?
Jin Eunbyeol let out a creepy giggle.
“Choi Changsik, son of Jeong Yu-na. You cannot have a girlfriend.”
“Wh-what?!”
“However, you will take two wives. It is not a lie. I cannot lie. That is the backlash of my Prophecy. Whether you believe me is up to you. My Prophecy is not perfect, after all.”
For real? Skipping straight past girlfriends and getting two wives? As expected, Changsik was on another level.
“What about me? When can I get a girlfriend?”
I asked because I was curious too. When would this pathetic solo life finally end?
Jin Eunbyeol stretched her mouth corners all the way to her ears in a grotesque smile.
“Ha Namjin. You will remain alone even after ten thousand years! You are destined to writhe in extreme loneliness for a very, very long time. Hehehehe—”
I was fated to never even get a girlfriend and spend my life battling loneliness? What utter nonsense!
“No way, you devil! I don’t believe a single word from a fortune teller!”
A real man never believed in prophecies or predictions. My personal theory was that people who fell for fortune-telling, face-reading, and divination simply lacked male hormones.
“Two questions remain. My Prophecy has a daily limit on uses.”
So there was a limit. She should have said that from the beginning! This bitch had hidden it on purpose.
Now we had to choose our questions carefully. While everyone was busy reading each other’s faces, Deoksoon—who had been trembling the entire time—finally gathered her courage.
“Why… why did you bully me? You even tormented my father and little brother. Why did you hate us so much? I never did anything to you.”
I’d heard Deoksoon had been bullied by Jin Eunbyeol in middle school. She must have wanted to know the reason.
Jin Eunbyeol’s expression suddenly grew calm. It was a completely different face from the demonic one she had worn moments ago.
“In my dream, you hit me.”
“…In a dream?”
So she had come to hate Deoksoon because of something that happened in a dream.
“Just… for that? Just for that reason…?”
Deoksoon clenched her teeth so hard it looked painful, but she somehow held her rage in check. There were clearly many things she wanted to say, but she must have realized now wasn’t the time.
Only one question remained. Everyone’s eyes turned to me. It seemed they were yielding the final question.
“Did you know that the newly inaugurated President Nam Taegeon and Seonam Group’s Chairman Seo Docheol were involved in the N-Mart arson?”
“Are you sure? Answering this question will cause one of you to suffer a deep wound.”
Jin Eunbyeol’s eyes narrowed into thin slits.
“I’ll give you one last chance to change your question. Sometimes the smallest truth can inflict a far more painful wound than the greatest lie.”
She was acting arrogantly, as if granting a favor. Maybe she simply didn’t want to answer. If President Nam Taegeon fell from power, his goddaughter Jin Eunbyeol would suffer massive damage too. In other words, she was trying to avoid strangling herself with her own hands.
So the backlash preventing her from lying about prophecies was real.
“No change!”
“………”
Jin Eunbyeol’s face twisted with bitter resentment. She had cornered herself. Grinding her teeth with a loud crunch, she began to thrash. The sight of her shedding bloody tears from sheer agony was almost pitiable even to me.
I struck the sole of her foot with the Flyswatter of Love.
Smack!
“Speak. Before I start hitting you for real.”
“Aaaargh! J-just as you said… The N-Mart arson was planned by Chairman Seo Docheol and… uuuugh! It had the president’s… approval! All the evidence documents have already been burned, but…! Even Yeomra is dead, hehehehe…”
Jin Eunbyeol finally confessed everything. It was a shame all the physical evidence had been destroyed, but having her publicly admit the crimes of such powerful figures in front of so many people was harvest enough.
The broadcast has been terminated due to violation of terms.
“Friend! The broadcast has stopped!”
The moment Jin Eunbyeol’s confession ended, the camera lights went dark. Had the higher-ups intervened? The goal had been achieved, so the broadcast itself didn’t matter, but a new problem arose.
“…Hehehe, it’s all your fault. Because of you… because of you— Keuk!”
Jin Eunbyeol began convulsing violently. She thrashed as if something were lodged in her throat and foamed at the mouth.
I rushed over, pried her mouth open, and cleared her airway. That was when I noticed a strange object inside.
It was a silver coin. An unfamiliar foreign silver coin.
◈ A 10th anniversary commemorative coin bearing the Fairy Princess’s face.
◈ Possesses Luck Lv.4 — Luck like the bluebird from fairy tales dwells within. It grants the owner’s wishes, but its power has been completely exhausted.
Baek Yeoul’s face turned deathly pale.
“Th-that coin…!”
She clearly recognized it. Then Jin Eunbyeol, still foaming at the mouth, spoke.
“It’s all because of you. Baek Yeoul! You’re the one who killed her! Kihihihihihi—!”
Blink. Blink. Flash.
The lights throughout the building flickered on and off before the entire villa plunged into darkness as if the fuse had blown. By the time the terrified Changsik hurriedly turned on his phone’s flashlight, something impossible had already occurred.
“…Wh-where did she go? Friend! The Jin Eunbyeol we tied to the bed is gone!”
The girl who had been bound to the bed had vanished. All the crosses on the walls were now hanging upside down.
Deoksoon suddenly pointed upward.
“Ch-Changsik… your shoulder…”
Drip. Drip.
An unidentified red liquid was dripping onto Changsik’s shoulder. When his face turned white under the phone’s glow, Deoksoon added in a trembling voice.
“Ch-Changsik, don’t look up. If you look up now, you die! It’s a horror movie cliché!”
Instead of the frozen Changsik, I raised my head.
Creak… creeeeak…
With her limbs grotesquely elongated and joints twisted in impossible directions, Jin Eunbyeol clung to the ceiling like a spider. Most disturbing of all was her face—it had been crushed into a swirling vortex.
Jin Eunbyeol was no longer human. She had become something that merely resembled one.
A Main.
This wasn’t a temporary rampage from swallowing a concept stone like Yeomra or Pinocchio. This was an Awakened who had been completely devoured by her own concept and reduced to a fallen state. This was only the second time I had seen a Main in such a complete form.
To ordinary high schoolers, this was an absolute catastrophe.
But? I was no ordinary high schooler!
I was the smartest middle-school dropout in the entire world!
“Kuhuhuhuhu! It’s finally time to unleash my secret weapon!”
I pulled the Ketchup Tube of Charging out from between my legs. In my expert opinion, this very tube was the key to overcoming the current crisis.
The win rate was 120 percent!