One.
Then two, then three…
“S-Seol-bin?”
As I kept firing at the oncoming monsters, taking them down one by one, I eventually realized I’d cleared the entire area. Kim Seong-gyeong had made his way over, staring at me with wide, stunned eyes.
Ah—guess I overdid it.
I hadn’t meant to stand out this much.
“D-Did you really take down all of these…?”
I nodded.
“But you’re a Guide… How can a Guide…?”
It just kind of happened.
The first few were tough, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t so bad.
“…Guides get basic combat training too. I can handle this much. I found the gun by chance over there earlier.”
I mumbled, almost defensively, but it didn’t make a difference. Kim Seong-gyeong wasn’t looking at me—he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pile of monsters I’d taken down, disbelief still etched across his face.
Since he was out of it, I kept an eye on our surroundings. Things had quieted down for now, but there was no telling when more might rush in.
Didn’t seem like too many were left… How many bullets did I have again?
As I scanned the area, I couldn’t help but feel a flicker of awe. The horde that had come charging at us had been reduced to a mountain of corpses.
Kim Seong-gyeong might’ve been stunned by me, but the real monster… was him.
While I’d been sweating over taking out a handful, he’d handled dozens without even breaking a sweat. Was this why people always went crazy trying to get their hands on an S-Rank Esper?
Then it hit.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion tore through the darkness.
I turned instinctively toward the sound—and saw bright fireworks blooming in the sky, far off in the distance.
And that meant—
“The Espers! The Espers are here!”
It was the rescue signal—meant to alert survivors trapped inside the dungeon.
“They’ve come to save us!”
“We’re going to live! We’re really going to live!”
“Over here! We’re right here!”
Relieved sobs, cheers of joy, desperate cries for help—every voice was different, but all of them filled the space with overwhelming emotion.
UWOOOOO!!!
At the same time, the commotion stirred the remaining monsters, who let out deafening howls.
“Take down the monsters first! All Espers to the front!”
“There are survivors! Survivors over there!”
“Protect the Guides!”
The Espers charged into battle while the rest of the rescue team rushed toward the survivors.
UWOOOOO!!!
The Espers were fast and efficient, cutting through the monsters with ease. Before long, the remaining beasts lost their nerve and began to scatter, some even fleeing outright.
***
It was finally over.
We were alive. We were getting out of this place—without dying.
The tension that had locked up my shoulders for so long finally drained away, leaving me weak and breathless.
I’d just started to relax when—
“Hey!”
A familiar voice snapped me back. It was Kim Hyun-joong—the same guy that I kicked out of my own house.
“Almost didn’t recognize you. You alright?”
“You…”
“I got dragged into this mess too, alright?”
He scratched the back of his head and muttered irritably, like he was annoyed—but it felt more like guilt.
“I moved around a bit to get a read on the situation, and I just happened to run into some Espers. Got lucky, I guess. Ugh, what shitty timing…”
I just stared at him, silent.
Was that really what happened?
From what I knew, Espers received wristband receivers—watches, basically—issued by the government. They used them to receive real-time updates about dungeon locations and threat levels. Which meant Kim Hyun-joong probably knew this was an S-Rank dungeon. He must’ve figured it was hopeless and ran.
And now, he was pretending he’d been trapped in here with us the whole time.
A stark contrast to Kim Seong-gyeong, who’d seen the same data… and chose a completely different path.
“You should be thanking me for still being alive! I’m the one who killed those monsters here to keep you safe, got it?!”
Typical. Not even worth responding to.
“Huh? Do you know each other, Seol-bin?”
While Kim Hyun-joong kept flapping his mouth, Kim Seong-gyeong approached and naturally slipped into the conversation. Hyun-joong scowled at the interruption—until he saw who it was. The moment he recognized Kim Seong-gyeong, his expression flipped like a switch.
“Ah, I’m Esper Kim Hyun-joong. Thank you for looking after my Guide.”
At his words, both my and Kim Seong-gyeong’s faces froze at the exact same time.
Ugh. There he goes again—calling me his Guide.
Maybe Hwang Seol-bin from the past would’ve been over the moon about it, but—
“Why the hell am I your Guide? Can you not say crap that makes people misunderstand?”
“You’re still hung up on that?”
Still? This guy had to be delusional.
“Shouldn’t the real question be how long you’re planning to keep saying that?”
“What?”
“I was never your Exclusive Guide, and I don’t have even the slightest intention of becoming one. So how about you stop clinging and go find your actual Guide?”
My blunt words must’ve hit home—Hyun-joong’s face flushed a deep red.
And then—
“…Hello?”
A small, clear voice drifted over from somewhere nearby.
“…Ah.”
I turned toward the voice—and let out a quiet gasp.
Petite frame. Porcelain skin. Eyes so large you’d think they were drawn on, made even more striking by his soft, double eyelids.
He was beautiful. The kind of pretty that didn’t feel real. Like a doll—or maybe even more than that. With a slightly dazed expression, the boy greeted us. Standing protectively at his side was a towering man, well over two meters tall, with a rough, intimidating face.
And in that moment, I just knew.
No way that ethereal beauty was just a coincidence.
And those signature sleepy-looking eyes—
Kim Yong-ha. The S-Rank Guide. The protagonist himself.
No doubt about it. He was finally here.
This… this was the moment I’d been waiting for. The official start of the original story.
“Kim Seong-gyeong, you alright?”
“Jin-sik hyung! You’re leading the team?”
From the look on his face, Kim Seong-gyeong clearly knew the mountain of a man.
“Damn right. You know how much it freaked me out when I heard you got caught up in this? You’ve got a hard enough time staying stable without Guiding!”
“Haha… Yeah, it kind of spiraled.”
“Now’s not the time to laugh. This is Guide Kim Yong-ha. We haven’t run official tests yet, but judging by what he’s done already, the man’s a beast. He Guided all of us and didn’t even flinch. You should go get some Guiding too.”
“Ah, about that…”
The giant—apparently named Jin-sik—introduced the boy and gave an awkward laugh before turning to him with a polite request.
“Guide Kim Yong-ha, would you mind? This guy’s about to go into rampage mode. Looks fine on the outside, but inside? He’s falling apart. A bit of Guiding could really help…”
Kim Yong-ha and Kim Seong-gyeong locked eyes.
I watched the moment unfold, fully invested.
I knew they’d meet eventually. But seeing it happen right here in front of me? It felt like watching a live-action version of the novel come to life.
Sure, it wasn’t quite like the original—where Kim Yong-ha calmed a rampaging Seong-gyeong and sparks flew between them—but honestly? This more low-key beginning didn’t feel bad at all.
“…Should I Guide you?”
Kim Seong-gyeong paused, clearly thinking it over. Then he shook his head.
“No. I’m fine.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about?! You’re gonna explode if you keep this up!”
The man next to Kim Yong-ha shouted, his booming voice loud enough to rattle my skull.
And honestly—what was I still doing here? Now that the main characters had met, there was no reason for a background extra like me to hang around.
While they kept talking, I slowly began to back away, ready to slip out unnoticed.
But then Kim Seong-gyeong stepped in beside me, standing close.
“I already found a Guide who matches me. Thanks to him, I feel great.”
I froze mid-step, completely rigid.
“A Guide? If someone matched you…”
Jin-sik and Kim Yong-ha both turned toward us. Meanwhile, Kim Hyun-joong—who had been practically drooling over Kim Yong-ha just a moment ago—snorted.
“Him? He’s just a D-Rank Guide. No way he’s got what it takes to stabilize an S-Rank.”
“…That’s what I heard too.”
Jin-sik looked me up and down, clearly skeptical.
He wasn’t wrong—I really was a D-Rank Guide. There was no logical reason for Kim Seong-gyeong to fixate on me like that. The longer I stayed here, the more questions people would start asking. It was better to make a clean exit before things got messy.
Not to mention, I had zero plans to Guide anyone again. Whether it was Kim Seong-gyeong or Kim Hyun-joong—I was done. So why were they all acting like I was some kind of solution?
I nudged Seong-gyeong off to the side. He looked at me, startled.
“Go get Guiding from Guide Kim Yong-ha. You just got lucky this time. Like Esper Kim Hyun-joong said, I don’t have the ability to support someone like you. You heard it yourself—I’m just a D-Rank. Still, thanks for helping me in the dungeon. I’ll be going now.”
I gave a polite nod, turned on my heel, and walked away.
“W-Wait! Seol-bin!”
His voice called after me, desperate—but I didn’t look back. I picked up my pace and put as much distance between us as I could.
Now that the protagonist had finally made his entrance, all I needed to do was quietly go back to work at the Guide Center. Follow the flow of the original story, wait it out, and hopefully return to my real body.
That would be ideal.
So now… I just had to be ready to be abandoned.
The day the dungeon breaches the Guide Center—that’s my expiration date, right?
But what if I die and still don’t go back? That’d just be a pointless, pathetic death.
The thought suddenly made me pause.
Should I really go along with the original timeline and let myself die? Or… should I try to survive first and figure things out later?
Well… I still have time.
Guess I can afford to think it over a bit longer.
“Hyung! Hyung!”
…That voice. It sounded way too familiar.
“Seol-bin hyung!”
I turned toward the sound—and saw a familiar figure crouched on a rock in the distance, waving wildly.
Kang Biso?
What the hell was he doing here? Was he even supposed to be in this dungeon? I couldn’t remember reading about this part.
I was thrown off for a second, but… it was a face I recognized. A face I was genuinely glad to see. So I headed toward him.
“Hyuuung~!”
The moment our eyes met, Kang Biso threw himself into my arms and hugged me tight, rubbing his face against my shoulder like a needy kitten. He clung to me for so long I eventually had to tap his shoulder just to breathe. He finally looked up, eyes wet and shining.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was?”
“Ah…”
“Are you hurt? Are you okay? Look at your face—you’ve gone all pale. You must’ve been through hell, right?”
The way he looked me over, fussing and checking for injuries, was… unfamiliar.
Had anyone ever worried about me like this before?
“If you’d stayed with me, I would’ve protected you. You wanted to stay with me too, right? Didn’t you?”
His face leaned in, smiling so sweetly it made my heart twist. His voice was thick with sugar—soft, sticky, and laced with something dangerously clingy. It tickled my ears and made my head buzz.
I stared at him for a moment…
Then slowly raised my hand—and shoved his face away.
“Ugh!”
“You’re too close. Back up.”
“Huh…?”
Kang Biso tilted his head like he couldn’t believe what just happened, then looked at me with genuine confusion.
What was that look supposed to mean?
“Hyung… You’re not sleepy right now?”
