Failed Possession Chapter-4

## Chapter 4

—

Yuri lay flat on the floor, barely opening his eyes to survey the situation.

“Damn… I’m so tired I could die, seriously…”
“Quit whining, little brother.”

Just as he’d heard from outside—two voices. Two pairs of feet. One of them was dragging a leg, as if injured.

That confirmation was fortunate.
At the moment Yuri had been stabbed to death before, that bastard had been perfectly fine, without a single injury.

“So what, we check? What’re we supposed to do?”
“Stab each corpse once with the knife. If none of them scream, they’re dead. Hard?”
“Ah, seriously… they’re already dead, I’m telling you. Why bother checking more?”

The one dragging his feet was the younger brother. Grumbling, he moved as ordered.

Thud!

A knife plunged into a corpse lying near the door.

‘Shit.’

They could’ve just left—why the hell were they doing confirmation kills?
Flattened against the floor, Yuri broke out in cold sweat.

“Hyung, we stabbing our guys’ bodies too?”
“Of course. We weren’t exactly good big brothers, remember? If you don’t want revenge later, make sure they’re really dead.”
“Yeah… true.”

Thud. Thud.

While the corpses near the entrance were stabbed one by one with equal treatment, Yuri had a brief moment to think.

If he stayed still, he’d get stabbed and die.

If he died in this body… would he return to his original world?

No.

He already knew the answer. Dying in this body wouldn’t send him back.

*‘If you die, you just die!’*

Damn Lorellia had said that with a bright smile.

Naturally, Yuri didn’t want to die.

Thud!

A stab that started at the entrance pierced a corpse nearby.
A glance told him it was Jangsam.

“Ah, fuck, why’s this one so tough?”

The limping younger brother was right next to him now.
He couldn’t hesitate any longer.

The knife was still stuck in Jangsam’s back, but the next one might go into Yuri’s.

If luck favored him, maybe the one after that.
But if he stayed like this, he’d get stabbed, scream, and then stabbed a few more times until he died.

What he needed now was resolve.

Slash!

He grabbed the foot that had come close and slashed hard behind the ankle.

“Gah?!”

The bastard didn’t have enough imagination to expect a blood-soaked corpse to suddenly cut his ankle.

“Aaaaagh! Fuck! What the hell?!”

His other leg was already injured from the earlier fight, and now a blade sliced into his perfectly fine ankle.
Bad position. Bad depth.

He lost his balance and collapsed.

Yuri sprang up, dagger forward, retreating step by step.

Only then could he clearly see the faces of the brothers who’d entered the office.

The Oh brothers.

Outsiders from the East who’d come to the back alleys not long ago. They’d gathered some lowlife punks and were slowly forming a gang. Recently they’d begun encroaching on the Black Snake faction’s territory, causing several clashes.

Cruel and dangerous bastards.

Yuri had seen them occasionally on the streets but had never made proper eye contact.

“Aaaagh! My foot!”

Oh Bong-seok, the younger brother, clutched his bleeding ankle and screamed, but the older brother, Oh Bong-chun, simply stood there staring at Yuri.

Not charging immediately despite his brother’s injury wasn’t just because Bong-chun was cautious.

The brothers simply weren’t that close to begin with.

“Kid… what are you?”

Bong-chun was also covered in blood, but nothing looked critical.
He pulled a hand axe from his belt and grinned, showing yellow teeth.

“Strange… everyone here should be dead. Even if they survived, they shouldn’t look fine like you.”
“Hyung! Fuck—my, my ankle!”

Bong-seok screamed, but Bong-chun didn’t even glance at him.
He narrowed his torn-looking eyes and studied Yuri.

“What are you? You’re not one of the guys I brought, so you’re from Black Snake, right? Then why don’t you have a single wound? Huh? Where were you hiding?”

What should he say?
No—did he even need to answer?

Yuri kept his mouth shut.

Bong-seok couldn’t stand.
Right now, the only one he had to deal with was Bong-chun.

“Kid… scared?”

Bong-chun smirked at the silent Yuri.

A blatant provocation, but Yuri didn’t bite.

There wasn’t room to care about that. He’d possessed this body less than ten minutes ago and might die already.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart pounded like it would burst.
He kept noticing the dagger in his right hand.

Lee Su-hyeok had never held a knife and swung it at a person.

But Yuri was different. This bastard had threatened people with knives and stabbed them before.

Even so, those memories didn’t help much now.

“…Hoo.”

The dagger felt too awkward in his hand.

Yuri exhaled shortly and dropped it to the floor.

“What?”

Bong-chun’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you’re throwing away the knife and surrendering? Kid, even if I’m a shit big brother, you think I’d spare the guy who crippled my little brother for life?”

Yuri still didn’t answer.

Instead, he clenched both fists and raised them.

“Is this bastard crazy?”

Bong-chun burst out laughing.

He couldn’t understand it. Throwing away a perfectly good knife—and not even begging for his life.

“What’re you gonna do with those hands? Some martial arts master or something? Gonna smash me with your fists?”

Yuri ignored the mockery.

Honestly, he wanted the dagger.
Fighting an axe barehanded sounded impossible.

But he had no choice.

The old Yuri might’ve known a little knife work.

But the current Yuri was far more familiar with his bare hands.

He’d learned how to use his fists by getting beaten.

“Fuck—looking down on me?!”

With a roar, Bong-chun charged.

Compared to Lorellia, his movements weren’t even worth mentioning.

He could see the axe coming.

Just seconds ago he’d thought fighting an axe barehanded was impossible—
but seeing it now, a different thought surfaced.

And—

Now he understood why Lorellia had stressed striking living humans without hesitation, without fear, with killing intent, with full strength and precision.

That was exactly what he needed now.

The bloodied axe barely grazed past him.

He slipped inside the narrow gap and threw his fist.

The instant he swung, he knew.
If this landed, Bong-chun might die.

But if he didn’t throw it, he would die.

So he threw it.

There was no reason not to.

Crack.

He felt the jaw shatter beneath his fist.

“Hy… hyung?”

Bong-seok muttered, disbelief on his face.

—Thud.

Bong-chun’s body fell backward, eyes completely unfocused.

‘Did he die?’

He didn’t know. He’d hit with everything he had, but killing a man—especially one that big—in one blow wasn’t easy.

“….”

An indescribable emotion washed over him.

He’d never thought he’d strike someone with the intention to kill in his life…

“Hyung?! Hyung!”

No time to dwell.

Yuri swallowed and lowered his fists.

If he hadn’t killed him, he would’ve died.

That rationalization calmed him.

At the same time, he understood his situation.

Possession or not—if you’re unlucky, you die in this world.

“Hey.”

His fist hurt.

He glanced at it. The skin on his left fist, the one that smashed Bong-chun’s jaw, was torn and bleeding.

‘In the waiting room, I punched dozens of times without bleeding…’

The mental world and reality were different, after all.

Maybe he needed to train his fists.

Thinking that, Yuri turned to Bong-seok.

“Hey.”

His wrist throbbed too. Maybe he’d twisted it when punching.

“Why did you attack this place?”

He could guess, but wanted to hear it directly.

Bong-seok, staring blankly at his fallen brother, flinched and looked up.

“…Answer me.”

Yuri’s voice grew rough.

Bong-seok immediately flattened himself to the ground.

“Y-Yes?! S-sorry, please say it again—”

“Why did you attack here?”

“Th-that… it wasn’t my idea. The one you knocked down—my brother—he suggested it!”

“Who asked that? I’m asking why.”

Words alone wouldn’t work.

Yuri picked up Bong-chun’s dropped axe.

“S-If we got rid of the Black Snake gang, we could take over this area… th-that’s all! If we’d known there was a master like you backing them, we wouldn’t have come here…”

Just as expected.

Even in his memories, the Oh brothers had been eyeing Black Snake territory.

A fight was inevitable. They’d just struck first.

“Who told you to do it?”

He asked in case someone else was backing them.

If there was a sponsor, Yuri could be in trouble.

“W-What do you mean, told us?”

Bong-seok blinked.

Yuri shook the axe.

“Tell the truth and I’ll spare you. The one who ordered you dies by my hand. Your choice.”

The impression of crushing his brother’s jaw must’ve worked.

Bong-seok looked like he had no will to fight—just desperate to live.

“N-No one ordered us! I swear on heaven and my dead parents!”

“You an orphan?”

“Yes…!”

“Me too.”

Not a lie.

Lee Su-hyeok was an orphan. Yuri too.

Maybe shared circumstances would help.

“…Ah… that’s… tragic…”

“That’s not why I said it. Really no one?”

“Y-Yes! The Black Snake aren’t even anything special! They’re just wannabe black-path trash who didn’t even get a Black Order! Why would we need backing to attack them?!”

Black Order.

The word wasn’t unfamiliar.

It appeared in *Seronis*, the game that brought Lee Su-hyeok here, and in Yuri’s memories too.

The Black Dragon Alliance, commanding hundreds of organizations.
Affiliated groups paid tribute and could borrow the Black Dragon’s name.

Black Snake wasn’t part of it.

So even if they were wiped out, the Black Dragon wouldn’t interfere.

‘In the game, the Black Dragon leader was that old monster called the Savage Fiend…’

But Yuri’s memory was different.

Ten years ago, the current leader killed the Savage Fiend and took over the Black Dragon Union.

And it hadn’t been a clean death, either.

The new leader hadn’t even shown the courtesy due to a predecessor—he displayed the Savage Fiend’s severed limbs and head on the east, west, south, and north gates and the central plaza of Amnyang, the city ruled by the Black Dragon.

Despite such shocking brutality, the new leader’s identity remained unknown to the world.
Rumor had it he might be a “possessor,” but it was never verified—just hearsay.

“I-I just followed my dead brother because he told me to…! It’s true, please believe me!”
“Got it.”

While Yuri frowned, lost in thought, Oh Bong-seok pleaded desperately.
It probably wasn’t a lie.

Yuri gave a small nod and continued.

“You told the truth, so I’ll let you live.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah. Crawl out the door.”

Bong-seok hesitated and watched Yuri carefully, then glanced at his legs.

His right ankle was deeply cut—his toes were numb.
His left leg still worked, but it couldn’t support his weight.

‘Fuck…’

Without someone to support him, crawling was the only option.

Eventually, Bong-seok placed his hands on the floor and began dragging himself forward.
On the blood-soaked ground, his body traced a line like a brushstroke.

Watching him, Yuri steadied his emotions.

He had to do it.

Making up his mind, he strode toward Bong-seok.

The crawling body trembled.

“Fuck you…”

Still on the floor, Bong-seok spat out a curse.

“You bastard… you think I don’t know what you’re thinking? Let me live? Crawl out? You… fucking…”

He wasn’t completely stupid.

He knew Yuri had no reason whatsoever to spare him.
And in his current state, there was no way he could win even if he tried.

A guy strong enough to drop his brother in one hit had played dead on the floor waiting for a chance.
“Crawl out and live” was obviously just a trick to kill him easily.

“F-fuck… j-just… hit my head. Okay? I did what you said… please… kill me in one blow…”

There was no need to answer.

Crack!

The brother’s axe split the younger brother’s head.

Bong-seok convulsed, twitching, then soon went limp.

“…Huu.”

It felt different from throwing a punch.

His head suddenly spun. His stomach churned.

Yuri covered his mouth and swallowed back the nausea.

‘What now?’

The Black Snake gang, and the ones who attacked them, were all dead.

The Oh brothers had no backing.

Yuri was alive.

Should he just run away and become a dead man on paper?

Fortunately, Yuri’s relationships were thin. Disappearing wouldn’t cause trouble.

But he couldn’t run yet.

Now that he knew the Oh brothers had no sponsors, he had to wait for Lorellia’s “gift,” which was supposed to arrive within a month.

From his pants pocket, Yuri pulled out the key labeled “203.”

“….”

He reached a conclusion.

For now, he would live as Yuri and assess the situation.

Even in a world like this, having a verified identity was too valuable to throw away. He could get a new identity through a black-market broker, but that cost too much money.

Fortunately, Yuri was an orphan with barely any connections.

That much, at least, he had in common with Lee Su-hyeok.

He turned and looked at Oh Bong-chun.

Still alive.

Black Snake’s boss, Dekan, used a large war hammer.

Yuri lifted the hammer above his head.

When back-alley thugs killed each other over territory, there wouldn’t be any serious investigation.
They’d probably already bribed people before attacking anyway.

In this world, the deaths of those with nothing weren’t a big deal.

Crack!

He brought the hammer down on Bong-chun’s head.

Once didn’t seem enough, so he struck several more times.

Next was Bong-seok.

Yuri grabbed a large machete lying nearby and hacked several more times at the ankle he’d already slashed with the dagger.
Then he drove a few dagger stabs into Bong-seok’s relatively intact back.

“…What the fuck am I even doing right now?”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

What should he even call this feeling?

Disgusting. Sickening.

Grinning faintly, Yuri collapsed to the ground.

It was all just to survive.

He’d possessed some shitty game and ended up with a shitty life—but he didn’t want to die.

Maybe someday living would become so hard that death seemed easier.

But that day wasn’t today.

He would survive somehow.

If someone killed the God of Chaos, possessors could return to Earth.

Honestly, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go back—but looking at the corpses around him, a homesickness he never had seemed to rise up.

And the possessor who personally killed the God of Chaos would receive one wish from the Goddess of Order.

*‘If it’s you, Lee Su-hyeok, the player Padlip-Immune, you can do it!’*

What was so great about just playing a game hard?

Lorellia’s bright smile, her fist pumped full of baseless optimism, echoed in his ears.

Yuri gave a dry laugh and gripped the dagger.

Like he’d seen in movies and dramas, he tore his clothes and stuffed the cloth into his mouth.

He didn’t know exactly what it did, but there had to be a reason people did it.

The Black Snake and the Oh brothers’ gang fought and all died.

Twenty-year-old youngest member Yuri barely survived the chaos.

Surviving without a single wound sounded too convenient.

Clenching the cloth between his teeth, Yuri looked down at his body.

Better to cut than stab.

“Ghk—”

Unlike the violence disguised as “training,” this was self-harm—cutting his own flesh.

He immediately understood why people bit something during torture scenes.

*

*

 

Gordon, the general store owner.

One of the few good people among Yuri’s thin circle of connections.

Even if they were unsold, dusty old goods, he regularly donated to the Aldor Orphanage, and when business went well, he’d send small donations too.

Yuri had met him several times back when he lived there.

Even then, Gordon had often scolded troublemaker Yuri.

After Yuri left the orphanage and became a pickpocket in the back alleys, Gordon still nagged him—telling him to just get a job at the store instead.

When Yuri finally joined the Black Snake gang and started gang life, Gordon had only sighed heavily.

When Yuri, the youngest, came to collect protection money, Gordon never made things difficult or used old ties as an excuse.

Instead, he’d ask if Yuri was eating properly.

“Yuri…?”

Gordon, yawning in the quiet, customerless shop, shot to his feet when he saw Yuri staggering in covered in blood.

“Yuri, Yuri?! You brat! What happened to you?!”
“Ah… mister…”

Yuri called out weakly.

Gordon rushed over, supporting him, face twisting.

“All this blood…! Hey, don’t talk. Stay still.”

His top, soaked and torn from cuts all over, looked more like a rag than clothing.

Gordon stripped it off and examined Yuri’s body.

“…You…”

Old scars and burn marks.

And new wounds layered over them.

Gordon’s lips trembled; he couldn’t continue.

“If Elena… saw you like this… what would she think?”

At that name, Yuri’s cheek twitched.

Elena.
A childhood friend, same age, from the Aldor Orphanage.

But not all orphans were the same.

In ten years, Yuri hadn’t seen her even once.

“What the hell happened? Where’d you get hurt?”
“The Black Snake… is finished.”

He gave the answer he’d prepared.

“The Oh brothers. Those bastards. They brought their gang and stormed the office. And… and everyone died. The hyungs. The Oh brothers too.”
“Everyone? All dead? What are you talking about?”
“I… I don’t really know. I was hiding…”

No need to finish.

He stopped midway and bit his lip.

Gordon stared blankly, then shut his eyes tight.

“…Thank god.”

After a moment of silence, Gordon let out a long breath.

“Thank god those bastards are dead… and thank god you’re alive.”

Hearing that, Yuri couldn’t help but feel complicated.

—