Ho-eun pressed the tip of his staff to Wonsin’s neck and spoke in a soft, almost gentle tone.
“Don’t worry. Ever seen a hero of justice kill a kid?”
That warm, sunlit smile on Ho-eun’s face struck Wonsin with absolute terror.
—CLACK.
Fastening the ability orb onto Wonsin’s wrist, Ho-eun grabbed him and hurled him toward the wall where Choi Seon-yul lay.
“Ghk—what the hell? How can a civilian have this kind of strength…?”
Catching the flung Wonsin, Choi Seon-yul looked up at the ceiling.
“Damn it… If only my ability had worked!”
Wonsin was growing increasingly bitter. He’d never heard of a guide who couldn’t be controlled by abilities and wielded Esper powers like it was second nature.
Ho-eun ignored the Tiger members’ whining and rushed straight over to Do In-ho.
“In-ho, are you okay?”
“I’m… recovering.”
As he wiped the blood off In-ho’s chin, Ho-eun quickly grabbed his hand.
Guiding flowed rapidly through their joined hands. It felt much like when the staff had been drawing guiding earlier.
“So this was your plan all along?”
“I trusted you.”
“What?”
“Choi Seon-yul’s ability is dangerous. If even one hit had landed on you, you’d have gone down. That’s why I figured I should take the role of the shield, and you should handle the attack.”
Ho-eun remembered how the power surrounding the staff hadn’t faded even after In-ho had collapsed.
In fact, the moment he was grabbed by Seon-yul, the staff had surged with even more power, almost as if to say now’s the time—like it was signaling him to strike.
“And what if I’d messed up and failed the attack?”
“No. That wouldn’t happen.”
In-ho glanced briefly at the wall where Seon-yul and Wonsin lay, then turned his gaze back to Ho-eun.
His rough yet gentle hand brushed Ho-eun’s cheek. The blood-smeared pale face wiped clean, In-ho’s hand came away stained red.
“I want to get you a real, proper ability tool soon.”
“…Just shut up and focus on receiving guiding.”
In-ho felt a sense of relief that he had been the one injured. He’d protected Ho-eun with his own ability. Ho-eun wasn’t hurt. That brought him deep satisfaction—until he noticed the shift in Ho-eun’s expression.
His face froze cold for a moment, then quickly returned to normal. Wasn’t he glad he wasn’t hurt? Looking closer, In-ho saw that Ho-eun’s fingers were trembling.
The act of attacking Seon-yul seemed to be gnawing away at Ho-eun.
In-ho whispered words of comfort over and over, thanking him for not killing.
“……”
Ho-eun held In-ho until his guiding level was stable. Once it passed 50%, he stood up.
In-ho, who had been reluctantly suppressing a disappointed expression, got up as well and stood beside Ho-eun in front of Seon-yul and Wonsin.
“Let’s take them upstairs. There should be a place to hold them there.”
“Right. Come to think of it, there are a bunch of people upstairs who got caught by Wonsin’s ability.”
In-ho dragged Seon-yul. Ho-eun yanked Wonsin along by the ability orb and walked out of the warehouse.
***
Outside the warehouse was a prison sealed by electric currents. Inside, a group of civilians were locked up together.
“You little shit. Wanna get your ass kicked now, or get beat harder for trying to run?”
A familiar voice made Ho-eun turn his head instinctively.
There stood Bae Yeon-woo, beating down a tattooed man with a collapsible baton.
“AAACK! OKAY, OKAY, I GET IT, STOP!!”
The man gave up running and was immediately tied up by Nam Woon-soo, who stood nearby with rope.
“What the hell is going on here…”
Ho-eun blinked in confusion at the chaotic scene in front of him.
So that’s why no one had come down—they were all busy. Yeah. Clearly not in a situation where they could just “come down.”
“Looks like Han Yeo-ul’s parents are over there.”
Following Do In-ho’s pointing finger, Ho-eun saw them inside the civilians’ prison.
Do In-ho tossed Seon-yul into an empty cell. Ho-eun dragged Wonsin over and plopped him beside Seon-yul.
“Hey, kid, hand me a sand wedge.”
“Here it is, sir.”
Just as Ho-eun was about to greet another familiar voice, In-ho quietly pulled him away from the area where the Tigers were being held.
Kang Him-chan had appeared out of nowhere and was standing in front of a golf bag. He pulled out a club and handed it to Eom Tae-seok.
Eom Tae-seok lowered it to the ground and took his stance.
—CRACKLE
A glowing, rectangular patch of artificial grass made of electricity formed on the floor. A golf ball appeared on top of it.
With a light swing, Eom Tae-seok tapped the ball. It floated briefly through the air and rolled forward—straight to where Seon-yul lay—before stopping against his foot.
—BZZZAP!
The ball discharged its built-up current and formed an electric prison. Kang Him-chan clapped and shouted, “Nice shot!”
“…Wow.”
Ho-eun could only gape in awe. He tugged on In-ho’s sleeve.
“Did you see that? What was that? Is that an ability tool too?”
The answer came from someone else.
“It’s called an electric prison.”
“Assistant Manager Bae!”
Still tapping his baton against someone’s neck, Bae Yeon-woo glanced Ho-eun up and down.
“That blood—someone else’s, I assume?”
“…Huh?”
Ho-eun gave a confused look, but Do In-ho rubbed away the blood on his cheek with his fingers.
“Ah… yeah. It’s not mine.”
“Good. I was worried sending In-ho alone.”
Bae Yeon-woo turned his attention away from Ho-eun and looked at the two captured Tigers in the electric prison. He stifled a laugh rising from his throat.
“Finally got you.”
He gazed at Choi Seon-yul, who was screaming and kicking inside the cage.
His mask had been knocked off during the fight, revealing his bare face.
“So this is what Choi Seon-yul looks like. Huh…”
It must’ve been his first time seeing the face beneath the mask. Bae Yeon-woo couldn’t tear his eyes away, staring like a kid at the zoo for the first time, gawking at the animals in the cage.
“What the fuck are you staring at, you bastard! Enjoying the show?!”
“Yeah. You’ve got a foul mouth, too. But if your surname’s Choi, then there’s a brother, right?”
“Last I heard, he went after Han Yeo-ul, but he hasn’t come back. What about Paul?”
“Not sure if he caught the radio call, but we lost contact midway. Seems like Han Yeo-ul is safe, though.”
“Think Paul’s okay?”
“He’ll be fine.”
The once music-filled hideout had now devolved into chaos for a whole different reason. People screamed—some from seeing unfamiliar abilities, others trying to escape the electric prison.
Ho-eun glanced around in confusion until Bae Yeon-woo began explaining the situation.
“After we got the radio about running into anti-government forces, we evacuated the first-floor bar. But then Park Ki-hyun caught on and made a run for it, so we had to round up the civilians in the basement too.”
An electric prison had been formed around the entire bar area. Park Ki-hyun was locked inside, restrained by ability-restricting cuffs.
“Most of those guys are weak, so we’ll just hand them over to the cops. But look at ’em—most have parents with power. Who knows how this’ll end. World’s gone to shit. Brats acting out just ’cause their mommies and daddies got connections.”
“What about the ones on Basement Level 2? Are they getting reported too?”
“Of course. It’s illegal gambling.”
Unlike Basement Level 1, where everyone had been rounded up in electric cages, Basement Level 2 still had both civilians and gang members freely moving around.
“Let’s lock up the rest of the stragglers and wrap this up before those anti-gov bastards call in reinforcements.”
As Bae Yeon-woo gave orders, Ho-eun spotted someone who hadn’t yet been locked up—a man crouched quietly in a corner.
“Kwon Ho-eun. You gather the civilians and take them to Department Head Eom Tae-seok. The rest of you—hey, that bastard’s trying to run! Don’t let any of those Dragon guys escape!!”
Before finishing his sentence, Bae Yeon-woo rushed off, and the entire PR team scattered in all directions.
“Um…”
The man, who hadn’t been wearing glasses while gaming earlier, now had thick black frames on.
“P-please… I’m innocent. This is my first time here…”
Ho-eun licked his dry lips.
He didn’t know why it bothered him so much that the guy had said he was a fan. The man couldn’t possibly recognize him—Ho-eun was currently disguised using an ability tool.
“Are you really here for the first time?”
Ho-eun crouched to meet his eyes.
“Yes… I-I only came because a business contact I’m close to brought me here. Ah—no, wait. I should’ve left once I noticed something was off, but…”
Mid-sentence, the man grabbed Ho-eun’s arm as if begging for mercy, then quickly let go. Ho-eun winced—the spot where the man had touched throbbed with pain.
“Kwon Ho-eun?”
“…Yes?”
“You’re Guide Kwon Ho-eun, right?!”
The man, having pulled something from his pocket, suddenly grabbed Ho-eun’s arm again.
“Huh?? Wh—how do you even know that…?”
Flustered, Ho-eun stumbled over his words. The man pushed up his glasses with a grin.
“Oh, of course I recognized you! I smelled the same scent from last time…”
“Scent…?”
“Anyway, I can’t believe you’re here, in a place this dangerous! Are you here to arrest the anti-government guys? Like in that commercial—shooting them down with a gun? Wait—is that the Tiger guy screaming his lungs out over there?”
Apparently not waiting for answers, the man rattled on non-stop, no sign of the trembling from earlier.
“Um, let’s calm down a little. So… why are you here? Sorry, but I think I still have to ask you to step into that cage.”
“C-cage?! But I didn’t do anything wrong! I just came here with someone interested in ability tools. I love games. One second I was gaming, and the next, there was chaos upstairs, and now all this… I had no idea the anti-gov were involved!”
“…Ah.”
“If I were a reporter, this would’ve been front-page news! Oh, right—but my phone’s got no signal, so I couldn’t even upload it.”
He pulled out his phone, showing the “No Service” screen.
“??”
The background image on the screen was… Ho-eun, in his Hunter outfit, staring off blankly.
“Isn’t… this me?”
Ho-eun didn’t remember making that expression—cheeks puffed, hip cocked—but it must’ve been taken during a shoot.
“Ah, sorry. It was just so cute… I couldn’t resist, fan moment and all…”
“Aha…”
After a beat of awkward silence, Ho-eun grabbed the man’s hand and helped him stand.
“When the police get here, just explain everything like you did to me. Looks like they’re separating civilians from gang members, so you should be safer inside the prison.”
“But, but those people have scary eyes too! Can’t you protect me, Guide Kwon Ho-eun?”
“No.”
That wasn’t Ho-eun who answered.
“Ah. The guy from the game earlier.”
Eyebrows furrowed in a clear V-shape, the man’s voice turned from pleading to flat as soon as Do In-ho appeared.
“Do In-ho. Esper.”
“Ahh… In-ho. Right. Sure.”
“Please step into the cage. We could drag you there by force, but we’re giving you a choice.”
“In-ho, don’t be so scary. You’ll freak him out.”
“Wahh. You see?! Ho-eun! I’m so scared!!”
The man made a move as if to throw himself into Ho-eun’s arms, but In-ho calmly pushed a palm into his chest.
“Grown men shouldn’t go around clinging to people. Move along.”
It looked like the bad blood between them from the game session still hadn’t gone away.
