I Became a Fortune Teller in the Game My Little Sister Made – Chapter 197

The swarm of spider-like monsters was disturbingly large.

What appeared to be just a dark spot in the distance slowly morphed into a massive wriggling mass of monsters.

Was it because they were all black? It was hard to even count their numbers.

Surely, they numbered well into the thousands, if not more than ten thousand.

The very insides of the Dream Within a Dream artifact seemed poised to be tainted black by them.

Everywhere I looked was black; everywhere I saw, there were only monsters.

The six humans who charged in there were—

Whoosh!

“Kyaaaaaaaaa!!!”

“………How annoying….”

—literally grinding the monsters to bits.

Leading the charge, the hero swung his greatsword like a twig, slicing through the monsters.

Using the skill <Holy Sword>, the greatsword absorbed a pure white sword light and easily slaughtered dozens with each swing.

He had already executed that madness more than ten times in one breath, and despite facing the most monsters at the front, he was still remarkably unperturbed.

With his usual expressionless face, and without even the slightest disruption to his breathing, the hero showed no signs of faltering.

But it wasn’t just the hero who was frantically rampaging.

Boom!!!

“Haha, how long has it been since I fought like this since the training at the Royal Palace…!!”

Kim Sung-il, who had never shown his fighting prowess until now, was smashing incoming monsters with his fist, just like Kim Eun-ha, proving that he was of <Royalty>.

Though overshadowed by his younger sister’s overwhelming power, Kim Sung-il nonetheless possessed exceptional physical abilities as a <Royalty>. He might not compare to Eun-ha, but he was undoubtedly a special class.

With each punch, shockwaves were generated, and even though he struck the air, the impact resonated all the way to the back.

But since all he had were his fists, there were undeniably limits he could not cover.

“These bastards… they definitely look like they were born from magic…”

It was Lucas’s magic that filled in the gaps.

Through the job skill of the special class <Warlock>, Lucas could use and interpret all forms of magic in the world and didn’t even lift a finger.

In fact, he was closely observing one of the monsters he had killed, levitating it in midair with magic.

The spells he had levitated were already more than enough to do their part.

Boom!!! Crackle! Whoosh!!

Dozens of magic powers wrecked, tore, and incinerated hundreds of monsters.

Killing over a hundred monsters with a single spell meant that with Lucas’s adequate magical supplementation, they had the firepower to wipe out tens of thousands of monsters.

In the meantime, he was also casting all sorts of enhancement and defensive spells on his allies, making it hard to gauge the extent of Lucas’s capabilities as a wizard.

The one who was struggling the most among them was Liu.

“Ugh! These damn bastards!!”

Of course, he meant relatively speaking.

At the back of the group, surrounded by a bizarre statue with seven arms, Liu, along with the statue, unleashed different artifacts from their nine arms.

While it was weaker than the hero’s sword strikes, Lucas’s magic, or Kim Sung-il’s fists, the sheer overwhelming number compensated for it.

More importantly, they were indeed weaker compared to those guys, but it was more than enough to overwhelm the spider monsters.

Yet the reason Liu was furious was… perhaps because it felt wasteful to use artifacts worth hundreds of billions against such inferior foes.

Unless.

“Well, I can see the end approaching. Namgoong Min.”

“……Is that so?”

“Then we can just sweep a bit more, right?”

Was it because he felt a sense of rivalry with Rain, who was the only one floating in the air, looking utterly relaxed?

Unlike the others, who were talking with me without glancing at the monsters, Rain was undeniably the most extraordinary among them.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

“Kiiiii….”

With just a casual motion of her hand, the once-gathered monsters in the distance were crushed and exploded.

She killed far more monsters with a single gesture than the great sword, magic, or fists, significantly reducing their numbers.

In fact, while the hero fought comfortably at the front because of his combat skills, Rain’s mass slaughter greatly contributed to that.

Unlike the others who merely killed monsters in front of them and advanced, she single-handedly wiped out about half of the monster horde with her superpowers.

And while being protected by all of them, I was left standing there.

“…………”

I… was actually bored. Really.

The inside of the bubble created by the artifact that Liu tossed was warm and cozy.

Sitting there, staring blankly, monsters were falling and advancing on their own.

Honestly, I knew I shouldn’t think this way…

‘This is comfortable, huh?’

It was sweet as honey. Is this what group project hope feels like?

For some reason, it reminded me of that first hiking class.

‘Back then, I was just giving direction.’

Since I hadn’t proven my abilities back then, I was a bit on edge, and suspicion was directed at me.

But now, being protected felt completely natural, and everyone accepted it.

Is this… trust? Or friendship?

One thing was for sure.

That there was no problem in having such useless thoughts.

The surrounding blackness began to fade, and the original rainbow hues gradually emerged.

Had it been just over ten minutes since we charged into the horde of monsters? It was a bit astonishing that the six—no, just the five of us had broken through to take on hundreds of thousands of monsters.

“Stronger than I thought. These trash.”

“Liu, but the monsters that come out from the Gate are still average, right?”

“So what? Unlike the intelligent beings, these fools just keep dashing at us. They say numbers are power, but if they’re this dense, they’re just meat chunks.”

“I agree with the Rich Tycoon.”

“……The ones who’ve gathered here…… must be exceptional…….”

“True, if they were typical job holders or academy students, they would have been dead by now.”

While I had a vague understanding that special jobs are strong… seeing them in this large-scale battle made each one feel like a strategic weapon.

I suddenly understood why they gathered these exceptional individuals in one place under the Special Class name at the Romance Academy.

Clearly, they were on a different tier than ordinary students.

‘Battles and tests are different, so I didn’t see a huge gap at the academy.’

If it truly became a bloody battle… even Liu, who was likely the weakest here, would nonchalantly handle all the academy students combined.

And amidst these powerful individuals was me, the academy’s weakest fortuneteller, Namgoong Min.

It really swelled my heart…

“By the way, Namgoong Min, now that we’ve broken through, where do we go next?”

“……First, we keep advancing. Since there’s no sense of direction in the Dream Within a Dream, something should come up as we move forward.”

“Sounds good. Just be cautious of the golden crown. About a third of it is already tainted black.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Although I had said we would just advance, I was merely going where my instincts prompted me.

Thanks to my heightened <Observation>, I could catch every small hint of discomfort in this shimmering rainbow.

‘Over there…’

At first glance, it seemed to be only a rainbow hue.

But over there was the only place where faint black was mixed in with the rainbow.

Whether it was another monster horde or perhaps the principal, heading over there didn’t seem like the wrong choice.

Thinking that, as I focused on the barely noticeable blackness, suddenly—

“…Namgoong Min.”

“Lucas, what’s wrong?”

“These monsters… I’ve kept investigating them, and something seems off.”

“What do you mean?”

“If they were real monsters, they shouldn’t show any traces of magic. But… I can tell for sure. They were made using magic.”

“That means…”

“At first, I thought the principal had shaken the Dream Within a Dream to resurface the monsters, but that wasn’t it.”

Thud.

The black monster, which looked like a mix of a caterpillar and a spider, that Lucas harshly tossed away.

“Every single one of these is an artificial creature created by the principal. This could… solidify the potential justification for what’s to come.”

“The hero of the Gate, in truth, aiming to overturn the world by creating monsters. Hmm, not a bad scenario.”

“…This isn’t a scenario…”

Tsk, the hero clicked his tongue at Lucas and Kim Sung-il’s words.

“…Wait, Namgoong Min!”

Before I could react, Rain, who was floating with a nonchalant look, hurriedly reached out to me.

“Surely, quite the interesting scenario, right?”

──Snap.

A refreshingly crisp sound echoed through.

As soon as the principal, with her arms crossed and looking down with a ridiculously arrogant expression, suddenly appeared.

When she snapped her fingers—

Bang.

The unyielding golden crowns on everyone’s heads shattered.

The crown, which had already turned about a third black, disintegrated into tiny pieces and vanished.

Thud.

Maybe it was because of the sleepiness that rushed in as I lost the artifact’s protection, but I couldn’t utter a word and fell straight to the ground, going to sleep.

“…………”

And among all of us, the only one who remained standing, just barely avoiding slumber, was me, who was still wearing the crown that had barely evaded breaking thanks to the <Superpower> invoked by Rain.

“Hmm? Oh my, as expected of special job holders. To react in that brief moment… they truly are children who will lead the future.”

“That’s a dirty ambush, Principal. What are you doing against your younger students?”

“Don’t call me with that filthy, weak voice. You’re not someone worthy of my respect.”

Snap.

As she snapped her fingers disdainfully again, in the shimmering rainbow space, I used <Observation> to clearly see the ‘attack’ and threw myself forward.

I dodged the strikes that aimed precisely at my arm and rolled back to my feet.

“Ohh… that gaze. It’s not a skill that a mere fortuneteller of society should have. If I kill you, I could give that skill to a worthy student.”

“Go ahead and try.”

“…What?”

“Principal, I know you pretty well. With your self-righteous sense of superiority… you call it ‘Noblesse Oblige,’ right? You have this idea that being special isn’t just a proper job holder, but a mental illness, don’t you?”

“Hah.”

“You’d never look at me favorably, and of course, you’ll see me as someone to be disposed of. Isn’t that right?”

She smirked with a scoff, but I had seen plenty of scoffing faces throughout my life.

In that sense, the principal’s smile was── clearly an attempt to force down boiling anger.

“Knowing that and still babbling on, just like a fortuneteller.”

“If you know that, why don’t you kill me? Earlier, you aimed for my arm deliberately. I see you have great patience, and if you can bear to listen to my disrespect, it’s more about not being able to kill me.”

“…You speak quite smoothly. It’s quite annoying.”

“Your situation is annoying too. So, take me away.”

“…What?”

“The reason you cannot kill me is that someone else ought to do that. I think I have a rough idea of who, so hurry up and bring them out.”

This was arrogance. It was arrogance silly enough to make the principal feel incredulous.

Given her attack earlier, I could probably lose an arm, and perhaps she couldn’t kill me.

But I played the part of the shameless and relaxed one. I wore an expression born of deception and lies.

In this situation, panicking or acting ruthless would be pointless.

As everyone else lay asleep, I was simply going to do what I did best.

“…Alright, follow me then. These pathetic abilities should be enough for that, right?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll need to take my friends with me.”

“What? You nonsense. Those students are special job holders, far beyond you, like the difference between humans and dust. I won’t allow you to simply call them your friends or take them with you.”

“What the hell do you mean by that? Again, I say, mind your own business. I won’t leave my friends with a wicked grandmother who’s lived for over a hundred years.”

“………You little brat.”

“Being a young brat is, at the very least, much better than forcing an aged appearance while being senile.”

I didn’t care how the principal reacted. After all, our relationship had already crossed lines long ago.

I carried the sleeping hero, Kim Sung-il, Rain, Liu, and finally Lucas…

“………”

“Hah, is it getting heavy now? Truly pathetic, aren’t you?”

“Your friends here are probably lighter than your current age, Principal.”

“…………”

Having lifted Lucas too, I managed to hoist all five onto my back.

Despite being the weakest, I was still a job holder, so it wasn’t that difficult.

But.

“If they’re that light, this much should be fine, right?”

Whump, whoosh.

With a twisted smile, the principal waved her hand, and needles made of magic sprouted from thin air.

The small, infinitely thin needles pierced through my body, which was hoisting five people.

No matter how much it was the principal’s magic, needles thin as lead pencils would barely make me bleed or send me to the ground.

They merely inflicted extremely delicate and agonizing pain.

“………Childish.”

And the principal’s antics were utterly ridiculous.

So I kept walking without letting my smile falter.

Onward, into the unknown path.