Chapter 2: Possessed: The Reluctant Hero

Whooooosh—

A chilling wind swept across the field, tousling the hair of awakened hunters standing before an unprecedented S-rank gate.

Within the world of the cliché webnovel I landed in…

I, a side character destined to fail, became the top-ranked Hunter—Rank 0.

***

Jet-black, waist-length hair.

Sharp eyes.

An expressionless face.

A tight-fitting black t-shirt and black jeans—all of it came together to amplify the cold, intimidating aura she gave off.

“Let’s go.”

I—Dana—threw the words out casually toward the raid team standing at a considerable distance from me.

‘What am I, a monster?’

We’ve raided dungeons together a few times already, and yet they still flinch and keep their distance?

With my usual scowl firmly in place, I stepped into the gate.

None of the elite raid members noticed how annoyed I looked as they cautiously followed me inside.

***

Step, step—

Only the sound of our footsteps echoed through the pitch-black dungeon.

“Why is it so quiet in here…?”

“Have you ever seen it like this before?”

No one dared relax.

Dungeons that lured you into false security were often the ones hiding the nastiest surprises.

We kept moving forward, tension coiled tight.

Rumble—

Suddenly, a faint tremor pulsed through the ground, vibrating up from our feet.

“Something’s coming.”

I, at the front of the group, warned those behind me. But for some reason, no one responded.

Had I walked too fast and gotten ahead without realizing it?

Just a moment ago, I could still hear them chatting.

Did a monster ambush them from the rear?

No, that can’t be it.

If something had approached from behind, I would’ve sensed it.

I would’ve responded—attack, defend, something.

But when I turned around, the entire team—who should’ve been right behind me—was nowhere to be seen.

Not a single strand of hair.

All that stretched out behind me was an endless, yawning cave.

The thick darkness swallowed everything.

No voices, not even the sound of wind.

“Hello?”

“Can anyone hear me?”

No reply.

My thoughts spun quickly.

It wasn’t common, but I had heard about things like this before.

Interviews with Hunters who said they got separated from their teams due to sudden dungeon terrain shifts.

So that rumbling from earlier… it was the dungeon rearranging itself.

Realizing that much, I immediately focused, trying to sense any traces of magical energy from my team.

However, not only could I sense no trace of magic, but as I kept walking, a maze of countless branching paths suddenly unfolded before me.

Ten different paths.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

In an S-rank gate where the terrain could shift at any moment, I didn’t have the luxury of standing around fretting over a few forks in the road.

I had to find my teammates fast.

So I quickly chose one of the paths and strode in.

Think fast, act faster.

That was my motto in dungeons where the situation could change at any moment.

I had been walking down the long corridor for a while when—

***

[! Warning! Abnormal interference detected.]

[Dimensional boundary error has occurred.]

[Error! Error!]

[Unauthorized #@&!%∑Ø system modification detected LI⊂]

“What the—?!”

A flurry of status windows popped up in front of my eyes, all filled with bizarre, garbled messages I couldn’t make sense of.

“Errors? What’s going on all of a sudden?”

More windows blinked into view, now even harder to read:

[You have entered ΣPW-486.]

[An error has been detected in ΣPW-486.]

[Due to emergency stabilization procedures, you will now be forcibly possessed into the world <The Top-Ranked Delinquent Lives a Double Life as a Model Student>.]

“Wait… what?!”

That was the title of the romance web novel I was reading right before entering the gate.

“Possession? Who—me?!”

A dizzying wave of nausea hit, followed by a wave of unfamiliar sensations that wrapped around my entire body.

[To purge the error, gate activation is initiated.]

[Measuring gate rank…]

[Gate Rank: D]

Huh?

The rank dropped?

What happened to spacing in this UI?

It looks like a bad emoji.

I stared blankly at the chaotic system messages.

The momentary joy of a downgraded gate rank vanished in an instant—

ROOOAAAR!

An ogre came charging down the tunnel like it meant to pulverize the entire dungeon, swinging a massive club straight at me.

I kicked off the ground and leapt onto the ogre’s club as it swung, using the momentum to rocket myself forward—

WHAM!—

…Wait. Why am I flying?

I twisted my body midair and barely managed to land with a roll.

The distance felt… off.

Just slightly.

Like my body wasn’t calibrated right.

I staggered slightly, but quickly corrected my stance.

Did I just let my guard down?

I was stunned for a second, but my body reacted before my brain could.

BOOM!

I rolled across the floor to dodge the ogre’s next strike and reached into my inventory to pull out my long spear—

But… the inventory wouldn’t open.

Panic flared, but I kept calm and threw a punch instead.

My fist sliced through empty air.

It should’ve smashed the ogre’s skull in, but the reach was all wrong—shorter than I was used to.

Still in midair, I stared at my fist.

What the hell is going on with my body?

***

[! WARNING! Due to an error during the possession process, data from your original body could not be fully restored.]

[All skills except for basic physical ability have been temporarily sealed.]

[Skills will be gradually unlocked as you defeat dungeon bosses.]

[<Quest>
Defeat 10 dungeon bosses!
Progress: 0/10
Reward – One random original skill restored.]

…Seriously? Give me back my skills!

***

THUD—

I finally brought down the ogre using nothing but my fists and sheer brute force.

Damn it.

It took way longer than usual because this body’s so short!

I grumbled, panting as I looked up at the new status window.

[You have successfully defeated the D-rank dungeon boss: Ogre!]

[<Quest>
Defeat 10 dungeon bosses!
Progress: 1/10
Reward – One random original skill restored.]

[Achievement unlocked: First Awakening in Possessed Body!]

[Special rewards granted – Inventory Restored, Random Skill Unlocked, ??? Recovered.]

[Inventory and Skill “Shackles of Darkness” have been unlocked.]

***

A little celebratory animation flashed across the status window, like fireworks.

Wow.

I only killed one and already got a skill back—wait, no.

Is this a joke?!

Fuming, I checked the newly restored inventory and skill.

Then—only then—did I finally look down at the body I’d been possessed into.

Gone were the tight-fitting, combat-ready clothes.

Instead, I saw an oversized beige hoodie and baggy black sweatpants.

Smooth hands with not a scar in sight.

Soft, squishy limbs with zero muscle definition—this body looked like it had never worked out a day in its life.

I frantically examined my new physique, which seemed to have been squashed vertically and horizontally compared to my original form, and—

Unfamiliar memories flooded in like a tidal wave.

From early childhood moments to recent memories of school life alongside the main characters—all of them belonged to the body I’d possessed.

“No way… What the hell is this?”

I was no stranger to possession stories.

I’d read tons of them in webnovels.

But me, actually getting possessed?

And not even into a heroine, or a side character with decent screen time—but a stalker who obsessively chased after the male lead?

Why this one?!

I’d hated how that extra had my same name.

Just remembering it pissed me off.

Then, the dungeon around me started to fade.

In its place, a stormy sky appeared overhead, and rain began to drizzle, soaking into my clothes.

From below came the sound of chaos.

ROOOAR!

“Aim for the head!”

“Bullets are bouncing off!”

The gate was closing behind me, revealing me to the outside world.

Beneath my floating figure, a town was in utter disarray.

Weaker versions of the ogre I’d just defeated had spilled out of the gate and were now wreaking havoc across the area.

It looked like the civilians had evacuated long ago.

All that remained were a few shattered buildings and a squad of heavily armed soldiers firing back.

There wasn’t a single Hunter in sight.

***

[Skill “Shackles of Darkness” activated.]

With no time to think, I immediately used the one skill that had been restored.

As my gaze locked onto each ogre, dark tendrils of shadow surged up from beneath them, binding them tightly in place.

KRAAAH!

“W-What the hell is that?!”

“Now’s our chance—fire!!”

The ogres stood frozen in place, screaming but unable to move.

The soldiers took it as a divine opportunity and unleashed a barrage of attacks.

While they were distracted, I flipped my hood up and landed silently through a gap in a ruined rooftop. I drew a pistol from my inventory.

BANG—

Each bullet pierced an ogre’s skull cleanly.

Unlike the standard-issue bullets the soldiers were using, mine shredded through ogre flesh effortlessly.

The soldiers frantically scanned the area, trying to figure out where the shots were coming from.

I ducked a little deeper and finished off the last monster.

“A-A hero!!”

Someone shouted.

Then came the cheering—loud, tearful, and full of hope—as the crowd pointed up at me like they’d just witnessed a hero rise in the middle of chaos.

The praise was so familiar, I almost waved back out of habit.

But I pulled my hood down lower, turned around quickly, and left the scene.

I haven’t even figured out what’s going on yet. If I get too much attention now, it’ll be a pain later.

I didn’t know much at this point—but one instinct remained sharp: the overwhelming urge to go home.

So that’s where I headed—toward the unfamiliar-yet-familiar house I remembered from the memories of the body I had now possessed.

A luxury apartment complex in Gangnam.

As I walked through the well-kept complex at a slow pace, the earlier chaos felt like a distant memory—as if it had never happened.

It was my first time here, but… it wasn’t.

I walked a path that was unfamiliar and yet deeply familiar, straight toward the home of the body I’d possessed.

Beep-beep-beep-beep—

Even as I glanced around nervously, my hands moved on their own.

I entered the front door and instinctively punched in the passcode from memory.

Slipping off my shoes carefully, I stepped inside.

“I’m home…”

The words felt odd and hung awkwardly in the air.

I stretched the last syllable out and stood blankly, looking around the house.

“Oh, you’re home! Did you hear about the monsters in Hannam-dong?!”

“Uh—yes?”

My possessed body’s mom ran over from the hallway, took me by the arm, and dragged me to the living room in a hurry.

I stumbled along, confused, until we were standing in front of the TV.

A reporter was breathlessly relaying the earlier disaster on the news.

***

[Mysterious monsters appear in Hannam-dong, overwhelming even military forces.]

The creatures terrorized the neighborhood, shrugging off bullets and firepower.

But shockingly, a hooded girl with a small frame appeared and managed to subdue them with unknown powers.

Her face was hidden, and she vanished soon after.

Locals have started calling her a “Hero.”

“If that hooded girl hadn’t shown up… I can’t even imagine. The damage to the buildings is heartbreaking, but thankfully, there were no casualties.” — Kim Miseon, resident.

***

So I made the news.

As the hooded girl who took down monsters the military couldn’t handle… right after being possessed.

I stared blankly at the looping footage showing my figure.

“Hmm? That girl in the hoodie… isn’t that exactly what you’re wearing?”

Thud.

My heart sank.

Something in me screamed that I should not be found out.

And just then—

***

[Breaking news: Numerous reports are coming in about glowing blue “gates” marked with foreign characters reading: “Dimensional Rift — External Access Activated.”]

Netizens are speculating that this could be a villain from another world, intentionally endangering Earth…

So much for being a hero.

The moment I got possessed, I was already being accused of being a villain.