I Possessed The Villain In a Hunter Novel And It Fits Me Perfectly

Im Haekyung put force into their grip and tugged the suppression restraints toward themself. The moment I pulled back in the opposite direction, they abruptly let go.

I nearly lost my balance and fell over before forcing myself steady and lifting my head.

“You say you have low pain tolerance.... Have you actually been hit before?”

“Of course.”

What kind of situation would an S-rank Guild Master ever get hit by? Or maybe they just got beaten up a lot before awakening. Honestly, that option sounded more likely.

Their life had been pretty hardcore right from the start.

When I simply stared at them without saying anything, Im Haekyung spoke in a chilly voice.

“You don’t remember?”

“What exactly am I supposed to remember?”

Their already stiff expression turned even colder.

'What the fuck are they talking about?'

I hit Im Haekyung before?

I searched through my memories of the days I had spent with them. After staying silent for quite a while without recalling anything, they let out an incredulous laugh and said,

“Forget it. I don’t hold onto things like that.”

“Sounds like you do.”

“Jehyun, I’m... giving you an incredible amount of leeway here. If you had any conscience at all, you should at least be able to tell that much.”

Ignoring their nonsense, I kept digging through my memories. After responding with nothing but silence for a long while, I finally managed to dredge one thing up.

“Ah....”

Back in the Abandoned Land Dungeon, when they were out of their mind seeing hallucinations and couldn’t even get up, I lightly smacked their jaw to snap them back to their senses?

Sure, I had wanted to hit them, but I’d done it with good intentions in my own way. The fact that they had handcuffed my wrists over something that minor, like this was some sadistic sex game, was ridiculous.

The bullshit they had been spouting earlier was just as absurd.

“You’re saying you went easy on me, Guild Master? You sent a weak-ass rank like me into S-rank Dungeons twice.”

“Now that I look at it, I think you’re the one holding onto things, Jehyun.... And both times, I fully intended to bring you back alive. Though there were parts that didn’t go as expected. And one of them was voluntary. Wasn’t it?”

“You practically forced me into it. I had no intention of going.”

“I never once believed coercion would work on you. Which means if I had truly wanted to force you into an S-rank Dungeon, I would have adopted an inhumane method like the Teleport Box again. Just like the method you requested from me.”

While listening to Im Haekyung ramble on, a sudden thought slipped out of my mouth.

“I’ve vaguely felt this for a while now, but you really talk a lot. You speak all softly and smooth, but you never pause. You kind of sound like an AI assistant.”

The faint trace of life that had returned to their face while they were talking disappeared again immediately. Smiling proudly, I added,

“I’m truly glad I could contribute to the Guild Master’s dopamine levels.”

“Do you not remember that I’m the one unilaterally granting your requests? You only come looking for me when you need something, like pulling out an artifact, and otherwise you just drag my name through the dirt....”

“I never thought coercion would work on you either, Guild Master.”

The moment I threw their own words right back at them, Im Haekyung calmly pulled the handkerchief out of their jacket pocket, folded it neatly with a few crisp motions, then shoved it straight into my slightly parted mouth.

Wondering if it had some function similar to the suppression restraints, I obediently bit down on the handkerchief and stared at them. Only then did Im Haekyung curl the corner of their mouth upward and say,

“Ah, this doesn’t really have a function. I just stuffed it in there to make you be quiet.”

“.......”

This motherfucker?

Up until now, I had been the quiet one the entire time, while Im Haekyung had been the noisy one, yet somehow they still had the nerve to say that.

When I could do nothing but stare at them in speechless disbelief, they finally smiled beautifully in apparent satisfaction.

“Ha ha.... I never thought I liked quiet people, but seeing you like this, Jehyun is... hm, a very different feeling. In a positive way?”

“.......”

After saying something utterly ridiculous, Im Haekyung leaned back against the sofa with one arm draped over the backrest, looking down at me from above as their eyes slowly curved.

“Then get some sleep.”

“.......”

“See you later, Jehyun.”

Yeah, well. This was what I had come here for in the first place, so there was no reason to get angry over some amateur sadist act.

Relaxing completely, I sprawled out across someone else’s sofa.

Mental Domination (S) is activating.

Soon, a familiar sensation washed over me.

Mental Strength (S) nullifies Mental Domination (S).

Mental Strength (S) is activating.

A penalty occurs due to the rank difference with the caster of Mental Domination (S).

My passive Skill briefly struggled to neutralize their Mental Domination, making my head feel noisy and chaotic. However, even that was instantly swept away beneath overwhelming mana.

'If my rank were higher, this might’ve been difficult?'

If my body’s rank rose further than it currently was, it did not seem like Im Haekyung’s Mental Domination would work quite so smoothly anymore.

It felt as though the conscious parts of my mind that always existed and the unconscious regions I had never once considered were both being violently ripped open at random. I was definitely looking at the ceiling of Im Haekyung’s house, yet unfamiliar scenes kept layering themselves over it.

I could still perceive reality, but it kept blurring. It was far too vivid to dismiss as a dream, yet not fully reality either.

Before, I would definitely have been confused by this...... but not anymore.

Because now I knew what it was.

These were not simply missing memories.

This was a deleted regression, and the wall that had been covering my mind.

And, borrowing the words of the Guild Master in front of me....

Mental Suppression (S) is activating.

A part of my mind that had already been suppressed for a very long time.

As though it had been waiting, a red warning window appeared.

Unauthorized access.

Well, by now I was used to this sort of thing.

The backlash from tampering with those memories appeared immediately.

“There it goes again....”

After that characteristically gentle, softly drawn-out voice, I felt fingers brush beneath my nose. Blood began pouring from my nose, and blood rising from deeper inside soaked into the handkerchief already in my mouth.

“Making people feel bad.”

Amid the dizzying, chaotic blur, the only thing that remained “real” was Im Haekyung’s eyes.

Their unnaturally bright irises showed through pale, dense eyelashes.

Along with the unpleasant sensation of my consciousness being crushed apart, my vision abruptly went dark.

Of course, even this sensation was not unfamiliar either.

***

I found myself in a dim space so dark I could not distinguish front from back.

Well, “found myself” was not quite accurate, since there was actually nothing visible at all. It was more like I had simply been thrown into the space.

'Is this the ‘blocked’ part of my mind?'

I considered it briefly before speaking immediately.

“Let me review the deleted regressions.”

A warning window instantly filled my vision.

Warning.

Reviewing deleted regressions may result in penalties depending on the mental impact incurred, including mild pain, internal injuries, coughing blood, rank reduction, physical abnormalities, death followed by regression, and more.

There was probably no point asking how far those effects extended.

Would you like to review the deleted regressions?

“Yeah.”

Instead, there was one more condition I needed.

Smiling while suppressing the urge to smash the Status Window apart, I spoke.

“But before that, let’s set one condition.”

It did not seem like this thing was capable of reason, but something was definitely behind all this anyway.

Staring directly at the Status Window, I continued.

“Show me from the very beginning. Deleted or not... I need to know now. Even if it’s incomplete, piece it together somehow and show me anyway, you bastard.”

Yeah.

It was finally time to uncover the “truth.”

The Status Window remained silent for a long while before finally displaying text.

Permission granted.

***

The first thing I saw was an unfamiliar house.

Not unfamiliar in the sense that it simply did not look recognizable. I meant it literally—it was a place I had never seen before.

'What the hell?'

I tried to stand and search the space, but the attempt was instantly blocked by an external force.

Then, the next moment, I realized the source of the strange sensation I had been feeling.

'This... isn’t me?'

Every review up until now had been from Seo Jehyun’s perspective. Whether I separated “myself” from Seo Jehyun or not, I had still been a participant in the situation.

But this time was different.

That did not mean I had possessed someone else’s body or experienced some out-of-body phenomenon. It felt more like watching the entire situation as an observer through CCTV footage or from a movie theater seat.

Except aligned to a first-person perspective.

And instinctively, [N O V E L I G H T] I knew exactly who the protagonist of this situation was.

I stared at the unfamiliar Status Window floating before my eyes.

No, more accurately, it would be correct to say I was watching what this protagonist was staring at.

Save the world from destruction!

This was Kwon Taehan’s perspective.