Controlling the body and mind of a living creature—puppeteering—was an extremely high-level skill.
And the ability to control a human? No one had ever even heard of such a thing.
The only story she had heard involving manipulation was of an S-rank Hunter from another country, who nearly destroyed an entire city by controlling a swarm of rats.
Maybe it would work on creatures with weak self-awareness, but the human mind? That was far more delicate—and difficult to handle.
Lee Romi smiled brightly, as if she could read exactly what Nayun was thinking.
“The world’s still overflowing with things we don’t understand, right? I love that kind of stuff.”
She reached out with the hand not holding her phone and gently stroked Nayun’s face.
While doing so, she looked Nayun over from every angle, as if measuring something, and kept smiling.
“There’s always joy in uncovering the unknown.”
“It’s easy to slip in through a weak heart. This girl’s had a really hard time because of you, you know.”
She tapped her chest and gestured to Lee Romi’s own body.
That cheerful tone made despair the only response Nayun could muster.
“So, what should we do now?”
She pressed her index finger hard against her lower lip.
The mismatch between her gestures, her voice, and the entire atmosphere sent a shiver crawling up Nayun’s neck.
Then Romi spoke again, like a child who’d just discovered a new toy.
“I’ve decided. Come with me. I’ll give my student a gift—and give you a chance to learn something too.”
Come with me?
Alarms blared in Nayun’s head.
Her instincts were screaming that something was wrong.
But when Romi lightly tugged on her hand, her frozen body took a step forward.
She tried to twist away, to turn her body in another direction—but it wouldn’t move.
It felt like her body wasn’t hers.
Even down to the last cell, everything felt detached from her control.
Her limbs were moving purely by someone # Nоvеlight # else’s will.
In that unknowable moment, teetering on the edge of danger, despair washed over Nayun.
“Hi-yah!”
A sudden battle cry?
The next instant, the sound of something hitting—then breaking—rang out.
Pop! Crack!
Ding!
[Emergency Guardian Quest: Black Leaves in the Mouth]
[Save prospective guardian Shin Nayun from danger.]
[Reward: Register Shin Nayun as Guardian, +1,000 Filial Piety Points]
Danger...
Nayun-unnie is in danger?
It was the same quest window Guru had seen back when Gidan was in trouble.
If Guru hadn’t been there back then, Gidan might not have made it out alive.
Remembering that moment made her chest tighten.
I have to go right now!
“Wooju-ya, can you stay here by yourthelf?”
“O-Of course! Do I look like a kid to you?”
“Then Guru gotta go for a bit.”
“What? Where?”
“It’s a thecret!”
But what could Guru really do?
Maybe she should ask Guildmaster Jurim for help?
Just as she turned toward the hallway where Nayun had disappeared—to check the situation—
Bzzzzzz—
Her backpack began to shake. The egg was vibrating like it wanted attention.
“Shakipiyo?”
When she placed it in her palm, a soft light bloomed around it like a halo.
The dancing light extended and pointed in a straight line—toward somewhere down the hallway.
I know what that is!
The ventilation shaft.
The light stretched all the way into the vent, like it was marking the path forward.
Could this be...
“Shakipiyo’s guidance?!”
Not even born yet and already helping Mama.
Shakipiyo really is a good baby.
Without any real proof but full of confidence anyway, Guru petted the egg, then began crawling toward the ventilation shaft.
Following the light, she soon stopped where voices could be heard.
“The world’s still overflowing with things we don’t understand, right? I love that kind of stuff.”
Right beneath the vent, Nayun and Lee Romi stood together.
And Nayun—she was clearly frozen in place in a way that wasn’t normal.
Why?
Then a pop-up appeared in front of her eyes.
[Contamination visibility enabled via ‘Mephisto.’]
Suddenly, Nayun appeared completely covered in black sludge.
That’s what’s keeping her from moving...
The black sludge was only growing thicker.
Guru’s eyes darted around, following it back to its source.
That’s it.
The phone.
The black muck was definitely pouring out of the phone in Romi’s hand.
Guru’s mind raced.
If that phone disappeared, unnie would be able to move again.
She was an A-rank Hunter, ranked ninth overall. If she regained control, she’d be able to handle everything from there on.
If I go down there right now and break the phone...
A simulation played out in her head.
Guru lands with style.
Guru marches forward with pride and smashes the phone with her Duck Grabber.
Nayun-unnie breaks free from the paralysis.
Lee Romi breaks down sobbing at Guru’s feet.
“This is it.”
Guru rolled her eyes downward to look below.
Then suddenly, a question mark popped up over her head.
“Can I even make it?”
It was... higher than she thought.
What if she just jumped recklessly and ended up tumbling and getting caught?
Hadn’t she seen scenes like that all the time in cartoons?
The hero leaps in to save a trapped friend—
and then gets caught too.
“Of course! You’re the protagonist! You came to save me!”
“No, I got caught too.”
The image of such a hopeless moment drained the color from Guru’s face.
And just then—
Guided by Romi, Nayun’s body began to move with a slow, creaking stiffness.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Guru panicked hard.
If she hesitated any longer, the phone would get farther away from the vent.
That would ruin the entire plan she’d so carefully crafted.
Guru was only four years old.
Even normal adults could overpower her easily.
Which meant every single plan had to work like a surprise attack—
so fast they couldn’t react in time.
The longer it took from the moment Guru appeared to when the phone was destroyed,
the greater the chance it would turn into “I got caught too.”
“There’s no time left.”
Guru steeled herself.
You can do this! You even did fire safety training in preschool!
Granted, it was just that lame training where you wore a harness and jumped off a first-floor ledge with a rope tied around your waist, but still—
Resolved, Guru opened her inventory and bravely pulled out the Duck Grabber.
“Let’s go. Just like in that famous scene I saw on YouTube.”
Gripping the Duck Grabber tightly in her right hand, Guru slowly opened the vent.
Then, emptying her mind of everything else, she focused only on the phone in Romi’s hand.
“Guru becomes Gaksital!”
And then—she jumped.
Holding the Duck Grabber high over her head with both hands—
“Hi-yah!”
Pop!
Her tiny body hit the floor, and the beak of the Duck Grabber struck the phone head-on.
CRACK!
The phone slipped from Lee Romi’s hand and clattered to the floor.
It tumbled noisily and rolled beneath the sofa.
Landing like a superhero, Guru struck a pose with one knee on the floor, closed her eyes, and basked for a moment in the glory of her success.
“Guru’s hit rate... not bad at all.”
As expected of an S-rank.
Sure, all her stats were still at 1 except for mana,
but she always reminded herself of her S-rank grade.
That was her last shred of pride.
Guru wiped her nose and sprang to her feet.
“No time for this!”
She came here to save her unnie!
Guru turned her attention to Nayun.
“Unnie!”
Nayun was still frozen.
The quest hadn’t completed yet—meaning she was still in danger.
At that moment, a squirming blob of black sludge emerged from under the sofa and sped toward Lee Romi.
When the slime grabbed her ankle, Romi blinked, as if snapping out of a trance.
Shakipiyo’s egg began glowing again, this time extending a path of light toward the space beneath the sofa.
“The phone!”
As Guru took off running, Romi suddenly dashed forward too.
Nayun’s eyes followed the two of them.
For a brief second, she was shocked to see Guru—
but that didn’t last.
In a state where she couldn’t even move,
watching Guru face off against some unknown enemy—
a wave of emotion surged through her like a tsunami.
Something she had never felt before.
Fear.

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