“I’m really getting old now. So damn old.”
Tae-hwan let out a dramatic groan as he collapsed onto the floor. Once considered a top ace within the Center, Tae-hwan was now clearly outmatched by his younger, still-active colleagues.
“Of course you are. This is a full-on combat squad, and we’re pretty much civilian-grade now, aren’t we?”
“Why the hell doesn’t your nagging age like the rest of you?”
Hee-soo scolded him while providing guiding, earning a grumble from Tae-hwan. But despite all his whining, the instincts he’d reawakened in just a day weren’t that rusty.
He may have stumbled around at first, but after getting slammed into the ground a few times, something must have snapped—he started moving with a renewed fire in his eyes, as if he refused to be outdone by the younger generation.
“You’re gonna make me feel guilty if you say that.”
Min-cheol, who’d just been knocked flat by Tae-hwan’s force earlier, scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grimace.
“You smacked your head pretty hard back there. You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Min-hyeon was right there and healed me right away.”
“Still, don’t go shaking your head too much. You never know…”
Min-hyeon, who had been nervously flinching every time someone went flying next to the combat espers, seemed to be getting used to things. Now, whenever anyone got injured, he immediately rushed in to heal them—quite the contrast from the way he’d trembled and wanted to run away when he first joined the team.
“I mean, if you’ve got S-rank and A-rank Guides backing you up, no point in holding back your abilities.”
Min-hyeon scratched the back of his head again, flustered.
“Healing-type Espers are incredibly rare. It’s a relief we’ve got one at the Central Center.”
“Did the Center not have any healing-types before?”
“No, it’s not that we never had them, but…”
Hee-soo hesitated mid-sentence. The sudden pause piqued the Espers’ curiosity even more.
“Oh, come on. Don’t stop there.”
“I just wasn’t sure if I should bring it up…”
“Now that you’ve started, you’re just making us more curious!”
The juniors, oblivious to where this might be heading, pushed her to continue. Eventually, Hee-soo gave in and spoke.
“They did appear from time to time… but since healing abilities aren’t useful in combat, healers were the ones most at risk inside Gates. So…”
She trailed off, and the silence that followed was even more chilling. The unspoken possibilities had the Espers falling quiet. Did she mean they quit early? Or that they never made it back out of the Gate?
“……”
The implications sent the color draining from Min-hyeon’s face. Hee-soo rubbed her forehead, clearly regretting saying anything.
“I didn’t mean to scare anyone. Things are way more structured now. We don’t just throw people into Gates unprepared like we used to.”
“Y-yeah… okay…”
“What’s the Esper fatality rate these days?”
“Maybe one a year? That’s way lower than back in our day. There were times we had to rely on foreign support because we didn’t even have enough people.”
The “comforting” words from the veterans only made Min-hyeon turn even paler. He looked like he might faint if left alone. Hyeon-seo quickly jumped in to change the subject.
“So, only Rion’s left now?”
“Yeah.”
Tae-hwan was going down the line, testing compatibility with each of the younger Espers. With Hyeon-seo finished, only Rion remained.
“Isn’t this kind of unfair? I already played all my cards, and I’m just some old guy who retired ten years ago. Meanwhile, my last opponent is the face of the entire Center.”
“I’ll take it easy on you.”
“That almost makes it worse…”
Tae-hwan stood up. Once the compatibility test was done, they’d need to rearrange the teams and move into the next training phase. There was no time to slack off.
Since the Center Director had personally confirmed the early warning signs, the prediction was likely accurate. The Gate would manifest within a week, and if it followed the pattern, the Gate would open four to seven days after appearing.
And with it being an S-rank Gate, they’d need to be stationed nearby even before it opened. That meant training time was dangerously limited.
“Let’s wrap this up fast and get into the real training.”
“Yes, sir. Starting now.”
Since it was just a test for compatibility, Rion didn’t go all out. He moved through attacks and defenses with controlled precision—but even so, Tae-hwan was completely overwhelmed.
Bang—Bang—
Just dodging the invisible pressure bullets Rion sent flying with compressed air was a challenge. Less than five minutes in, Tae-hwan collapsed to the ground.
“Okay, okay. I surrender. Now I get why they call you the Center’s poster boy. We’re both S-rank, but the gap’s ridiculous.”
“You’re a close-range type and I’m a long-range type, so our compatibility’s pretty bad to begin with.”
“Sure, rub it in. Might as well throw a retirement ceremony while you’re at it.”
Tae-hwan grumbled as he wiped sweat from his forehead. He was drenched, while Rion looked like he hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“There you go again, acting like you’re some weak old man. Even these guys, who get dragged into Gates nearly every week, can’t last more than five minutes against him.”
“It’s not because we’re weak, okay…”
The juniors grumbled at Rion’s half-hearted attempt at consolation.
With Rion, the final test of Tae-hwan’s compatibility rounds was complete.
Before diving into the next phase of training, the entire raid team gathered in a circle in the middle of the training ground to discuss their individual abilities and which combinations would produce the strongest synergy.
“Sunbae Kang Rion’s got no weaknesses, I swear. None.”
“That’s not true.”
As the focus shifted to Rion, Tae-hwan cracked a joke while Rion immediately refuted it.
“Why not? You’ve got amazing control, incredible power, and your telekinesis is super versatile.”
“That may be true, but since most of my battles are aerial, I totally lose it in places with no open sky. I’m a mess in tight spaces—like narrow dungeons or dense forests.”
“And he’s got a temper. Once he gets fired up, he charges in blind.”
“Shut it.”
Rion gave Joo-chan, who’d chimed in from beside him, a light smack on the back.
“I can deal with anything in my line of sight, but I’m not great at simultaneous activation…”
“Ahh… So you’ve been slacking off on training? Not surprising. When missions pile up, it’s easy to fall behind. Or maybe they just don’t emphasize that kind of training anymore?”
“No, they do. Rion hyung just complains it feels like dog training and refuses to do it.”
Rion avoided Tae-hwan’s gaze with an awkward smile.
“That’s how you end up getting hurt. Doesn’t matter how strong you are—a Gate’s full of unpredictable crap.”
Already been through that mess, though…
Rion’s expression hardened as he recalled the terrifying experience at the snowfield Gate.
“Still, I’ve been working on it during this training.”
“Yeah. He swore up and down he’d train it alongside everything else this time.”
Hyeon-seo and Su-jin backed him up, patting his back reassuringly. Rion nodded.
“I’ve gotta work harder. It’s an S-rank Gate. I’ll stay sharp—twice, three times sharper than usual.”
“Good. That’s how it should be.”
There was no time to be held back by past regrets. As they continued training, the Espers exchanged thoughts about each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and how best to move forward.
Time flew by while they poured themselves into the work.
***
[Public stirred by first S-rank Gate in 21 years. Flights sell out nationwide]
[S-rank Gate appears in Incheon city center… Esper Central Center says “We’re fully prepared.”]
[‘Strongest Esper in history’ Kang Rion—Can he save Korea from disaster?]
[For the first time in 21 years, an S-rank Gate has emerged in the heart of Incheon, a city neighboring Seoul. The Esper Central Center, having predicted the event in advance, has formed a special operations team to tackle the Gate. At the center of this team is none other than Kang Rion, hailed as the strongest Esper in history…]
“We’re just background characters at this point.”
As expected, the S-rank Gate had manifested that morning.
The appearance of a Gate in Incheon, a city right next to Seoul, had practically turned South Korea upside down. Citizens in the capital area were terrified, and the media rushed to cover every angle of the story.
“Come on, we’re not just extras. Look—they’re introducing us too.”
[A-rank fire-type Esper Lee Joo-chan, B-rank healing-type Esper Kim Min-hyeon…]
“See? You got a shoutout too, didn’t you?”
During a break for lunch, the Espers and Guides caught sight of themselves on the news playing on the restaurant’s TV, and paused mid-bite to watch.
[The Guides in the assault team were carefully selected as well. It’s confirmed that S-rank Guide Lee Yu-won, the official pair of S-rank Esper Kang Rion, is also part of the team…]
“Damn, Yu-won looks good on camera. Doesn’t even feel like a news segment—more like a drama.”
Only Rion and Yu-won continued eating as if nothing was happening, not even sparing a glance at the screen.
