How to get on the protagonist’s flower path

I couldn’t help but smile and strike up a casual conversation.

Fortunately, the trickster didn’t seem to want to dig too deeply into my questions and only gave short answers.

“Yuhan is Red Cola, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Yuri said the old Yuhan was Blue Cola, so why the change?”

At my question, the trickster shrugged and replied nonchalantly, “Just because. Objectively speaking, Red Cola is better, isn’t it? Blue Cola is too sweet.”

“But that sweetness could be good too, right?”

“It’s better to drink the sweet version of Red Cola instead.”

Why does he have such an unnecessarily deep philosophy about cola?

Anyway, I picked drinks according to my friends’ preferences while listening to the trickster’s chatter, which had finally opened up after a long time.

“I got them all!”

There was a rule for the drink selection that said we couldn’t use our inventory and had to carry them ourselves since it was a penalty.

As I hugged the drinks close to me, the trickster reached out his hand.

“Give it to me. I’ll carry them.”

“But my strength is higher….”

“…”

“Yuhan might get hurt otherwise!”

“…”

The trickster seemed to sink helplessly under the innocent concern of the girl, as if saying, “But you’re weak.”

It’s because you’re trying to show off for no reason that this is happening. Fool.

I started moving my steps while hugging the cans of drinks.

With vacation just around the corner, there weren’t many fools who would come to the training ground, so only the sound of our footsteps echoed in the quiet space.

In that silence, the trickster suddenly spoke up.

“Nahyun, by any chance—”

At that moment, a loud crash echoed, and a very familiar person appeared in the training ground.

Seeing us, she ran over in a panic, only to trip over her own feet and fall flat on the ground.

With amethyst-like purple hair and purple eyes, it was Park Yul-a.

“Help! My research materials were stolen!”

She was crying, and it was so heartbreaking that anyone would think the world was ending.

“…First, stop crying and tell me what happened.”

For the first time in a while, I agreed with the trickster’s words. Just calm down.

“Let’s take a deep breath, okay?”

I put the drinks into my inventory and patted Park Yul-a, leading her to our group’s training room, Room 101.

In the meantime, with her eyes swollen from crying, Park Yul-a explained her situation.

“The crow from the neighboring research room ran off with my affinity lens…”

In the neighboring research room, they were conducting experiments on the correlation between animals and magical power. However, today, the person in charge had neglected the management of the birdcage, allowing the crow to escape.

The escaped crow then barged into Park Yul-a’s lab and took off with her affinity lens, which apparently sparkled like a gem.

So bizarre.

“…Do you know where the crow went?”

“I caught the crow! The problem is, it didn’t have my lens! It must have thrown it away or hidden it.”

Park Yul-a shouted, crushing the can of drink in her hand out of extreme anger.

“With that lens, I could have completed the cosmic observer!”

Well, it seems like her anger isn’t going to die down easily.

“First, let’s calm down! Deep breaths! Deep breaths!”

Following my instructions, Park Yul-a took deep breaths, going “Hoo, hoo,” and finally managed to settle down a bit.

“What should I do… Everything is going to fall apart… It’s all over…”

“…I think she’s suddenly gone a bit crazy?”

Na Yul-ri’s comment was met with silent agreement from everyone.

At that moment, the trickster spoke up.

“I’ll help you find it.”

Park Yul-a’s eyes widened at those words.

“Really?!”

Of course, I naturally chimed in from the side.

“Uh… leaving Yul-a in this state doesn’t feel right…”

“That’s true.”

Park Si-woo chimed in beside us. Sin Ba-ran cleared her throat and added her input.

“If that’s the case, I’ll ask the secondhand item shop to let me know if the lens comes in. I know someone there. What does the lens look like?”

Starting with Sin Ba-ran, everyone began chattering excitedly.

“First, shouldn’t we figure out how the crow moved?”

“I-I’ll go look around!”

“Nya-ha! Then I’ll play around, and if I find it, I’ll let you know~.”

“…I’ll search too.”

Park Yul-a, looking touched, spread her arms and rushed towards us.

Since we had decided to help, it would be nice if she could stop crying. Judging by how she looked, it didn’t seem like her eyes were going to stop swelling anytime soon.

Anyway, we ended up searching for this ‘affinity lens.’

***

“Here!”

Having stopped crying, Park Yul-a manipulated her device and sent two files to our devices.

“It’s a map marking the places where the crow is presumed to have gone and an image of the affinity lens!”

At that moment, Na Yul-ri asked Park Yul-a, sounding puzzled.

“Wait, I’ve never given my device code to Yul-a! How did you send it?”

“Oh, I borrowed it from the teachers’ devices. It’s more efficient time-wise!”

Wait, is that even allowed? Our expressions turned cold.

“…Let’s confess to the teachers about this later.”

“Why?”

Why, you ask?!

Ignoring Park Yul-a, who started whining and clinging to Na Yul-ri, we all began the meeting.

Except for me. As the warm-hearted character, I had to comfort Park Yul-a. Sigh… it’s tough to make a living…

“I think these spots here, here, and here are places where the crow might have hidden the item.”

The meeting was led by the trickster.

“What’s your basis for that?”

“Instinct.”

So confidently for no reason.

Na Yul-ri silently clenched her fist as she looked at him with a lazy expression.

“Yuri…”

Calm down. If you hit him for real, he might die.

Na Yul-ri looked back at me, then glared at the trickster and lowered her fist.

“Just listen instead of opposing everything. We have no other sharp methods anyway, right?”

“That’s true.”

Surprisingly, Park Si-woo supported the trickster’s words.

Since we’d have to check everywhere anyway, why not leave it to luck for once?

In the end, we decided to focus our search around the locations the trickster pointed out.

We divided into three groups:

Na Yul-ri, Min Jae-yoon, and Sin Ba-ran in one group,

Lee Ha-na, Choi Soo-jung, and Park Si-woo in another,

And Park Yul-a, the trickster, and I in the last group.

Don’t ask me why it turned out this way. We drew lots.

“Is it here?”

Park Yul-a asked, but the trickster shook his head.

“Further ahead.”

I felt a sense of curiosity at his seemingly confident words. Could this possibly be an event that occurs in the game?

Considering past events like the Beast’s Temple and the Meister weapon, it wouldn’t be strange if he knew elements that I didn’t. I should check the later appearance parts.

As the silence stretched on, I casually threw a question at Park Yul-a as small talk.

“By the way, why do we need the affinity lens to observe cosmic beings? Is it important?”

Surprisingly, Park Yul-a responded enthusiastically.

“Great question! It’s extremely important!”

Park Yul-a continued to speak joyfully.

“Because we are already emotionally communicating with cosmic beings!”

“…Huh?”

Looking ahead, I noticed the trickster nodding silently.

Was that a setting already in the game?

“Cosmic beings observe our lives through various means! We’re still in the realm of speculation about what methods they use, though!”

A being that looks into our lives. I briefly glanced up at the sky.

From up there. Almost like a god.

“But since there are ‘Recorders’ in our world, we speculate that cosmic beings see us in the form of stories provided by some other being. Nowadays, this theory is widely accepted as almost a fact.”

At that moment, the trickster spoke up.

“By the way, the Recorder is our mother. She’s contracted with some being to observe everything in the world and record meaningful things.”

Then he added with a significant tone.

“Perhaps those records are processed and provided to cosmic beings as something like a game.”

In that instant, a thought crossed my mind.

A meta system. And…

Appearance parts and reader reactions.

“Yeeees! How cosmic beings look into our lives is secondary!”

Park Yul-a shifted the topic again.

“What’s important is how we can observe those cosmic beings using something like the affinity lens!”

To which I quickly responded.

“Right. Can we even see the emotions of those beings?”

“Yes! What’s important here is that their emotional expressions are the easiest things to observe.”

I took a deep breath.

Countless comments I had seen before came to mind.

The emotionally charged words that naturally flowed from being completely immersed in a story where the trickster was the protagonist.

“And the affinity lens has the characteristic of being a lens for observing emotions.”

Park Yul-a added with a “Ahem!”

“So, the cosmic being observer is made by maximizing and processing the properties of the affinity lens to observe them!”

“I found it.”

“Where?”

At that moment, the trickster casually pointed to a spot, and Park Yul-a dashed toward where he was pointing.

I watched her retreating figure, feeling a mix of emotions.

Now that I think about it, I had never considered who the people were that left comments while reading stories featuring the trickster.

It’s a strange feeling.

So, the trickster played a game where Park Si-woo appeared.

I read a story featuring that trickster.

And now, I’ve entered the world of that story, changing the narrative itself, and actively participating as a character.

Perhaps the ones observing my current performance are people from my previous life.

“Wowww!”

That was quicker than I expected.

I saw Park Yul-a kneeling, holding the affinity lens with both hands and offering her thanks to the sky. The sight of the trickster smiling at her also caught my eye.

Yes, the protagonist is over there. Even in this story, I am not the protagonist but a supporting character.

Well, that’s not a new revelation. A caterpillar should live as a caterpillar, munching on pine needles. I simply smiled and ran over to Park Yul-a.

“Great! I’m so glad!”

“Yes! Do you want to try using it once—”

“No way! It’s a precious lens that we finally found; what if it gets scratched? Put it away!”

“Yes!”

And I blocked any possibility of using our group’s affinity lens. What if I accidentally used it and the trickster caught on to my act!

“How about we hurry and finish the observational device? I’m curious about what cosmic beings will look like!”

“Oh, I’m curious about that too. Can I try using the observational device?”

Fortunately, the trickster also seemed more interested in the device than in the lens.

As we spoke,