A green tracking array formed beneath Jin Yi-rang’s feet. Given the side effects of using the ability, the array should have appeared faint or unstable. But instead, its intricate patterns grew more refined—like embroidery etched into the ground.
Hyun Je-ha, Ha Ri-ra, and Samoa all held their breath, waiting in silence for the array to complete.
Jin Yi-rang’s smirk vanished. He bit his lip, his face twisting into frustration. Watching the tracking array take shape in such fluid, elegant lines only made his rage boil further.
“Relentless, aren’t you?”
Hyun Je-ha let out a quiet scoff, murmuring not to Jin Yi-rang, but to the true culprit hiding behind him.
“You’re one to talk.”
“I should’ve killed Hyun Je-ha first, not Ahn Ga-hyun. Or better yet, sent both of you off to the afterlife together.”
At the killer’s taunt, Ha Ri-ra and Samoa visibly bristled.
“That bastard!”
“Fucking psycho. Cough. He’s got a death wish.”
Hyun Je-ha, however, remained unshaken.
His gaze was calm, but unyielding as he stared directly at Jin Yi-rang.
“If you’re trying to buy time, forget it. Everyone here—myself included—has a bone-deep grudge against you. Even if you try to abandon Jin Yi-rang and escape via teleportation, we’ll just track you again.”
Despite shivering like someone trapped in a freezer, Samoa nodded weakly.
“If I use my ability again, I’ll probably be out of commission for the rest of the week—but who cares? Cough. This is the perfect chance to take that bastard down.”
“You heard that, didn’t you?”
Hyun Je-ha pointed at Samoa with a bright smile. Jin Yi-rang’s face crumpled with frustration.
“You irritating pests.”
“Right back at you. We’re both in the same boat now.”
Just then, the tracking array completed.
Jin Yi-rang’s body suddenly sagged, and a guttural, beastlike groan escaped from his mouth.
“Ugh… aah…”
He lifted the red orb in one trembling hand. Though he hadn’t activated any power yet, the orb glowed with a yellow light.
Crack. Crackle.
Hairline fractures spread across the surface of the blood-red orb.
Hyun Je-ha, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Jin Yi-rang, caught the change immediately.
“Ha Ri-ra. Samoa.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Cough, yes, sir.”
“Evacuate. Now.”
“…What?”
“But the tracking—”
“Go!”
Without another word, he used his telekinesis to fling Ha Ri-ra, Samoa, and the other nearby team members far from the abandoned factory, shouting as he did.
“Everyone get as far from here as possible! Shield yourselves! Jin Yi-rang’s about to self-destruct!”
At his command, the Baekho Unit instantly scattered.
CRACKLE—Zzzzt!
Moments later, the red orb shattered completely.
With the vessel destroyed, the sealed ability inside could no longer be contained. The unstable power surged out in every direction, uncontrolled and feral.
It was a full-blown ability meltdown.
A blinding flash engulfed the entire factory.
“KYAAAAAGH!”
The wrathful lightning first consumed Jin Yi-rang, who stood closest to it. He was incinerated on the spot, not even a bone left behind. Even Jin Eutteum’s nearby corpse was reduced to dust and blown away.
Hyun Je-ha wrapped himself in a shield of telekinesis, forming multiple layers of protective barriers around his entire body. Thanks to the spherical defense, the sudden blast of lightning couldn’t touch him.
So he’s decided to erase all evidence since he failed to achieve his goal.
Grinding his teeth, Hyun Je-ha scanned the blazing lightstorm until he spotted it—the faint green flicker of Samoa’s tracking array.
Despite being ordered to retreat, she must’ve refused to abandon the array and had stayed behind to finish it.
Then, Ha Ri-ra’s voice rang out from outside the factory.
“Captain! Samoa’s got the culprit’s exact location!”
At that, Hyun Je-ha immediately shot out of the crumbling building, wrapped in light.
Outside, he spotted Samoa and Ha Ri-ra. Samoa looked deathly pale, like she might collapse at any moment, but she gave a shaky thumbs-up.
“Let’s move. Now.”
Using his telekinesis, Hyun Je-ha sliced through the air, surging forward at top speed.
The enemy’s teleportation ability couldn’t be tracked after ten seconds—meaning speed was everything.
Counting silently in his head, he prayed desperately.
Please… not this time. Don’t let him slip away again.
The chill of the night air bit at his cheeks like frost.
***
They arrived just barely within ten seconds. But the spot the tracking array had marked was nothing more than a silent, empty forest. Not even the faintest trace of human presence remained.
Samoa immediately activated her tracking again, but what she found made her expression stiffen.
“This can’t be… There’s more than one teleportation trace.”
“How many?”
“Over ten. And that’s not all… He didn’t come alone. Looks like multiple people were brought near the factory from the start. Then he scattered them all to different locations.”
If X had moved alone, there should’ve been just one trace.
But no—over ten distinct teleportation trails made it clear. It was a deliberate smokescreen.
“X… planned for failure from the beginning.”
“Goddammit.”
Hyun Je-ha cursed under his breath.
Samoa was already at her limit. Asking her to track all ten-plus trails would be suicide. She could go into meltdown herself.
Still, she prepared to force her ability to activate all at once.
“I can’t… Cough… stop here.”
As she projected multiple tracking arrays simultaneously, a clump of blood burst from her lips.
Ha Ri-ra let out a horrified scream.
“Moa!”
Hyun Je-ha’s face hardened.
“Stop it, Samoa. Right now. You’ll die if you keep going.”
“But I…”
“Ahn Ga-hyun wouldn’t want us to sacrifice one of our own to chase down a lead.”
He used his telekinesis to collapse the soil where the arrays had begun to form.
Ten-plus craters opened up at once. The arrays flickered and vanished. Samoa collapsed to the side, coughing up more blood.
Even then, she looked up with regret.
“If it was just me dying, it would’ve been worth the cost…”
Samoa had once lost her own partner Guide. She understood Hyun Je-ha’s grief deeply—she sympathized with it.
“The sacrifice of the few for the good of the many is sometimes necessary. I could still complete the tracking—”
“I said stop, Samoa. The teleport traces are gone now anyway. And if I let you die, I’d never be able to face Ga-hyun again. If I go back and report that we sacrificed you in the name of the mission… he might never forgive me.”
At that, Samoa blinked in confusion, momentarily forgetting her pain.
…Ahn Ga-hyun? But didn’t he die twenty years ago?
Even if their captain was still obsessed with his dead Guide, what he’d just said didn’t add up.
It sounded like he was assuming Ga-hyun was still alive.
He didn’t just slip up or confuse him with the new Guide he’d taken interest in—he’d clearly said Ahn Ga-hyun.
Ha Ri-ra, too, stared wide-eyed as if she’d reached the same realization.
They wanted to ask what he meant. But the backlash from overexerting her ability finally hit, and Samoa lost consciousness.
Hyun Je-ha caught her with telekinesis and returned to the team.
The cursed pillar of light still hadn’t faded. In fact, it looked like it was expanding.
Hyun Je-ha gave the order to retreat.
“People are going to notice that thing. And if the culprit called the police before fleeing, this place will be swarming soon. We need to get out. Now.”
The Baekho Unit nodded and scattered, some using their own powers, others flying with Hyun Je-ha’s telekinesis.
Even as he soared through the air, Hyun Je-ha’s thoughts were tangled and uneasy.
…What if X is still watching Yeon Yu-jin?
X only went after Espers, or Guides with extremely rare traits. Yeon Yu-jin had neither—he shouldn’t have been a target.
Yet the fact that X had sought him out still gnawed at Hyun Je-ha.
Yes, Yeon Yu-jin had been officially classified as C-rank that day. But what if the culprit wasn’t convinced?
First, I need to see Ga-hyun. Now.
The mere idea of X going after Ga-hyun again made his blood run cold.
Without Ga-hyun, I have nothing.
He never wanted to taste that guilt and fear of being the lone survivor again.
***
Late that night, an unexpected message arrived.
He had just finished washing up, ready to collapse into bed, when his phone buzzed.
[Je-ha: You okay? No one came looking for you, did they?]
…What the hell is this?
