He was a man with a frightening ability as an S-rank esper. He had awakened as an esper only three years earlier. He suddenly manifested as an esper along with a rampage, creating a sinkhole in the middle of a city and causing 37 casualties.
“It was all boring and irritating stuff, but I wonder if it’ll make me enjoy myself a little.”
Gu Ja-seong stopped his ability and slowly came down to the ground. He looked at the unconscious Eun-chan. From Gu Ja-seong’s waist, a knife was drawn. At Gu Ja-seong’s sudden behavior, Im Se-ra felt an ominous feeling.
“Gu Ja-seong! No, stop!”
“Don’t want to?”
With a delinquent child’s look, pulling down below his right eye with a finger and sticking out his tongue. His level wavered and was at 92%. Im Se-ra’s face went white. The surrounding medical staff also saw the rampage level on his tongue and were horrified, stepping backward. It was a dangerous level. Like a time bomb, a rampage could explode at any moment.
“Evacuate outside the building right now!”
Im Se-ra shouted, slamming the warning switch on the wall with her fist. A loud siren rang and red lighting came down inside the basement. Under the reddened lighting, Gu Ja-seong’s mad appearance looked even more distinct.
He was in a state of extremely enjoying the pain just before rampage, along with the dopamine surging madly.
Blood flowed from Gu Ja-seong’s nose. Gu Ja-seong licked it softly with his tongue, acting like a wild beast savoring its taste.
“Where, make me enjoy myself more, you monster.”
Despite the dissuasion of those around him, Gu Ja-seong rejected it all and raised a knife high toward the lying Eun-chan, then drove it down at once toward his abdomen. As those dissuading him and evacuating all squeezed their eyes shut, and at the moment Gu Ja-seong raised a smile of ecstasy, a cold chill was felt at his nape.
“What kind of act is this?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m doing something fun. Don’t interfere, get lost, dear senior?”
It was the dramatic entrance of Cha Seol-hyeon, an S-rank esper of the same grade. He was blocking the tip of the knife with a knife made of ice. Gu Ja-seong found Seol-hyeon’s restraint amusing. He glanced at Seol-hyeon, then looked at the hand gripping his knife. The blade thoroughly protecting the guide’s body entered Gu Ja-seong’s eyes. Looking at it, he giggled as if it were disgusting, pulling up the corner of his mouth. A sneer mixed with sarcasm hung steeply on his mouth. Gu Ja-seong, despite Seol-hyeon’s restraint, had no thought of stopping, and opened his mouth vilely.
“Isn’t the senior curious too? What is inside this belly?”
“That kind of thing doesn’t matter. Back off at once. This is a warning.”
Ice spikes formed with a drill-like sound into the air. Sharp-ended ice spikes were aimed at Gu Ja-seong. But Gu Ja-seong was not one to be frightened by that.
“Do I look so easygoing that I’d obediently back off? Senior, did you get shot in the head somewhere?”
Strength entered the knife again. Gu Ja-seong put strong force into driving the knife deep toward the abdomen with both hands. Seol-hyeon’s face turned grim as he blocked it strongly. He wanted to shower spikes around him sharply, but the distance to Eun-chan was too close. Seol-hyeon felt as if his reason were running wild with rage. Gu Ja-seong threw mockery at Seol-hyeon’s impatient appearance and clumsy attack.
“The great senior was only this much? The exaggeration has been quite severe all this time?”
The knife was one step away from piercing the abdomen. There was a gate-barrier-like protective membrane toward Eun-chan’s abdomen, but Gu Ja-seong was rejecting it. He implanted his ability in the knife, minimizing the contact area and gathering all force maximally into the smallest place.
I’ll definitely confirm it. What is this thing he’s carrying in his belly!
Gu Ja-seong’s eyes were turning red. It was a symptom just before rampage. Seol-hyeon sensed the danger. Im Se-ra had already prepared the medical staff and judged it difficult to handle the standoff between the two. Eun-chan, urgently transported in, was also in a critical situation, but Gu Ja-seong was more urgent. His rampage could swallow the entire building here and make its very existence disappear.
[Warning.]
[This is an emergency. Please evacuate outside the building.]
[Warning.]
[This is a real situation. All staff, please evacuate swiftly.]
Warning sounds rang noisily inside the building. The staff, thoroughly trained as usual, were busy evacuating swiftly.
“Of all things, in such an urgent situation, to cause an accident on top of it…”
Im Se-ra glared at Gu Ja-seong. She watched the evacuating staff to the very last, while watching the standoff between Seol-hyeon and Gu Ja-seong as far as possible to the end.
Im Se-ra, dealing with the emergency situation, confirmed to the last that all staff in the basement had left, and turned her gaze. As Seol-hyeon and Gu Ja-seong stood in a grim standoff, an ominous energy hung in the air. A standoff between S-rank espers was also considerably dangerous, but the side of Gu Ja-seong, whose rampage level had risen, was a bigger problem. Im Se-ra wore a troubled expression and shouted at the two.
“You crazy esper bastards! Won’t you stop right now?! Do you know how many people are suffering because of you? Stop it at once!”
Espers were famous for being willful and not listening to words. They were beings as arrogant as their abilities, and threatening figures to ordinary people rather than gates. Keeping them bound in a state belonging to the nation was also no easy task. The only means by which they could be made subordinate to the nation was the existence of guides.
Guides were the only beings who could stop an esper’s rampage, and beings like medicine and painkillers who could lessen their pain. The nation thoroughly managed its guides and subordinated them by any means and methods. And using this, it created a means to restrict and manage esper behavior.
Especially among guides, there were guides who awakened naturally, but there were also guides awakened artificially through drug experiments. Among them, the first test subject was Guide Center team leader Im Se-ra. More precisely, it was Im Se-jin, an A-rank guide, another being existing inside her hidden personality.
“Haa… I said I didn’t want to deal with male bastards other than me… And again, without listening to me, they call me out so recklessly like this?”
Sweeping back his hair, an orange-colored wave sparkled. Gu Ja-seong’s and Seol-hyeon’s gazes turned toward the unusual wave, and the changed appearance of Im Se-ra was visible.
“Seeing that delinquent bastard here again?”
Spitting on the floor, he openly revealed his displeasure. Gu Ja-seong looked as if he knew Im Se-jin, his face contorting, and Seol-hyeon showed a wary appearance at the unfamiliar sight. Im Se-ra, unlike before, showed a deeper voice and a rapidly changed build, and a crooked attitude, showing a changed appearance. Her appearance still looked similar to Im Se-ra, as if they were siblings, but the changed build and the face with its lines deepened gave a clearly different feeling.
“So this time too, you called me out because of that bastard…?”
A sharp gaze flew toward Gu Ja-seong. Gu Ja-seong hid his displeasure in a mocking attitude, and waved his hand as if meeting a welcome person.
“How long has it been? About half a year? Your face has gotten better in the meantime. Before, it was a goddamn face… Well, thanks to that, old memories come back, and it’s nice to see you.”
“Nice to see you? What the fuck are you remembering that shit for? Or did I treat you so well that you missed me?”
Im Se-jin’s face twisted. At the same time, Gu Ja-seong also wore a stiff face, grinding his molars.
The two knew each other. About half a year earlier, to guide Gu Ja-seong, who was on the verge of a rampage, Im Se-jin had been forced to reveal himself in a state he did not want, and had to go through the experience of guiding him.
At the time, the two of them, pressed by the Center’s coercive orders, left each other with no good impression and a wound-like guiding, achieving a thoroughly bad first meeting. Because of that, Im Se-jin showed a strong aversion to guiding Gu Ja-seong, and wished as much as possible not to reveal himself, but this time too, because of Gu Ja-seong, he had to reveal himself. With a twisted face, Im Se-jin walked out in front of Seol-hyeon and Gu Ja-seong.
“Did you forget that if you smash the whole building and rampage at the Center, you both become national criminals? You things like sunfish with ruined minds who only got high ability for nothing, stop bothering people.”
Im Se-jin stretched out both hands and forcibly grabbed Gu Ja-seong’s and Cha Seol-hyeon’s arms. At the unexpected move, Seol-hyeon looked at Im Se-jin with a startled face. Gu Ja-seong, by contrast, reacted as if this were familiar, indifferent.
“Fuck, a lab-rat bastard who was fast asleep suddenly has damn strong strength and puts on airs about ability…”
Gu Ja-seong’s complexion changed and his words trailed off. Several of the wounds on his face healed, and Gu Ja-seong’s level dropped sharply, recovering to a stable level. His rampage left the danger range and found the safe zone. Seol-hyeon, on the other hand, was still at a dangerous level, yet showed no reaction at all in his level. Se-jin glared at Seol-hyeon’s level and looked at Seol-hyeon’s face.
“I see why Se-ra racks her brains over you. With this… control is difficult.”
Lowering the level alone also brought about treatment for the esper, and at the same time a role like a nerve stabilizer. Espers were people who constantly crossed the boundary of death. Everything they witnessed and experienced was often extreme and disgusting, things an ordinary person would hardly experience in a lifetime. Some espers found it hard to endure such mental shock. Making them forget such painful things and helping them stabilize, a guide’s existence was essential and blindly necessary to an esper.
‘The guide who matches with you is in for a hard road.’
Im Se-jin was a quick and sharp guide. Though he had not reached S-rank through experiments, he had awakened as an A-rank guide superior to most guides. On top of that, he was by nature a person with very high intuition. He turned his gaze to the unconscious Eun-chan. It was hard to pin down exactly, but as a guide he could feel a special power from him. It seemed Gu Ja-seong and Cha Seol-hyeon felt the same.
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