Killing the Possessor - Chapter 144

Chapter 10. The Hunt

As a reward for clearing this chapter, my residence permit was extended by eight more chapters. I’d survived by the skin of my teeth once again, but the stress of not knowing what’s next lingered even after renewing my residency permit.

Up until now, I’d always managed to get through each crisis thanks to the decisive clues provided by that Mockingbird. But there’s no guarantee they’ll always be around to help. Even if I manage to muddle through this chapter again by sheer luck, what about the next one? Or the one after that?

“In other stories, you know? Sometimes they let you check the text file or something so you can see what’s coming. Why don’t you do something like that?”

[You may only view each purchased chapter once.]

A rather deadly bit of information flashed back in response to my idle complaint. It was so shocking I could hardly believe my ears.

I read and reread the words in front of me, dumbfounded.

“You mean… you’ve been hiding this from me all this time?”

[You skipped lunch. Please remember to eat!]

“Hey! Who cares about lunch right now? Why are you only telling me this now?”

If I’d had access to that kind of valuable information, I should have been told long ago! Isn’t the whole point of these pop-up messages to help me survive? Other than that one tip about getting permanent residency early on, this message window has been almost useless.

“Come on, hurry up and show me. Wait, but it said I can only view it once, right?”

If only they’d just let me read it as much as I wanted. But no, being stingy is apparently the default here.

“What do I remember about the story…?”

As I pondered, stroking my chin, I recalled that while the game mostly followed the original plot, the order of the chapters could change depending on where the player went. Maybe if I wanted to romance the male leads, I’d have to stick to the right order, but when I played, I was too busy just trying to clear chapters to bother with that.

“What I do remember is the debutante ball, the chaos at the count’s manor, and then the masquerade ball that comes later on.”

What about the novel? I’d only purchased up to episode 18, so was there anything useful for me now?

“Ugh, I can’t even remember which episodes I bought.”

Sometimes I skipped ahead, sometimes I waited for updates… it was all over the place.

“Can you tell me which episodes I’ve actually purchased?”

[This information cannot be accessed.]

“…You said I could read any purchased episode. So do I have to guess the exact number? Like, ‘Chapter 20!’ Is that it?”

[Correct.]

“Ugh!”

Why can’t anything just be easy? This was almost as bad as that “donate 50 trillion to get citizenship” nonsense. Except this time, it was theoretically possible, just incredibly tedious.

“You really underestimate Korean determination. I will succeed, you’ll see.”

I tried to guess which episode I might be in now. I’d cleared three chapters so far, and the masquerade ball was pretty far down the line…

“Chapter 25!”

[You do not own ‘Chapter 25’.]

“…Chapter 26?”

[You do not own ‘Chapter 26’.]

With the stubbornness of a true Korean, I kept guessing episodes from 25 all the way up to 43. But after 18 fruitless tries, even I started feeling a little silly.

So I decided to make a bolder leap.

“Chapter 53!”

The moment I skipped ahead by ten episodes—

[Would you like to view ‘Chapter 53’? Remember, it can only be viewed once.]

“Finally!”

At last, I found a chapter I actually owned. Wow, I really did read these out of order.

“Open it!”

With eager eyes, I stared at the message window, determined to memorize everything, even if my memory wasn’t photographic.

[Now displaying Chapter 53.]

As always, a blend of voice and text tickled my senses. I focused as if I were taking an important exam, cramming all the information into my head.

Chapter 53 was the beginning of the ‘Hunting Festival’ chapter. I clapped my hands as I remembered this forgotten arc.

Of course, a proper romance fantasy always needs a hunting festival at least once! Usually, these events are designed to throw the protagonists into some kind of adversity, which then helps them grow closer as they overcome it together.

Just in case the chapter right before “Hunting Festival” was one I hadn’t cleared yet, I tried checking chapter 52 as well.

Fortunately, I owned that chapter too.

But then—

“…Wait, this one’s about a witch hunt?”