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Boom!
Geonho and Jihan simultaneously struck the black man’s neck and abdomen. The man, slammed into the ground, let out a small groan and grabbed Geonho’s hand that was gripping his neck.
Jihan left the man to Geonho and rushed to Siwoo. He asked if Siwoo was okay, but Siwoo just stared at the man held by Geonho.
“You… what are you…?”
The man blocked Geonho’s fist and spoke in a suppressed voice. His previously casual expression disappeared, replaced by confusion. Even as his neck was being squeezed, he looked at Geonho, who had broken through his barrier, with surprised eyes.
Until now, no one had broken his S-class barrier. Except for just one person.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Geonho, his eyes flashing with anger, wrapped his arm around the man’s thin leg, attempting to break it. Even without using psychokinesis, he skillfully subdued the man. No one in the center could beat Geonho in hand-to-hand combat.
Crack! With the sound of breaking bone, the man, finally coming to his senses, belatedly used his ability. Surprised by Geonho, who was overpowering him with strength alone, he hadn’t managed to dodge in time.
The body Geonho had been firmly holding turned to smoke and disappeared. As if he had somewhat expected this, Geonho muttered curses and struck the empty ground.
Multi-ability users weren’t easy to kill. They were like rats, using all sorts of abilities to escape.
“Don’t go!”
Suddenly, Siwoo shouted towards the empty space. Geonho and Jihan narrowed their eyes as they watched Siwoo calling out to the man who had kidnapped him. They wondered if that black bastard had enchanted Siwoo with his ability.
“I know you can hear me! Don’t go, come out!”
However, his clear focus didn’t seem like someone under the influence of an ability. He appeared to be searching for that man with a sound mind.
“I won’t hit you, so don’t be afraid and come out!”
“Who’s afraid?!”
With an angry shout, the man who had been hiding inside the wall revealed himself. Well, just his face.
Geonho immediately rushed towards him. Startled by the quick movement, the man retreated into the wall before his face could be smashed.
“Kang Geonho, stay still!”
Siwoo stopped the excited Geonho. With a firm gesture beckoning him over, Geonho followed Siwoo’s words, though he continued glaring at the wall.
“Don’t attack for now.”
Siwoo grabbed Geonho’s hand, signaling that he was fine, and cautioned him. Geonho made a displeased face, while Jihan looked on with curious eyes. He wondered why Siwoo, who was usually the most cautious, wanted to talk with the person who had kidnapped him.
“These two didn’t bully me.”
Siwoo continued speaking towards the wall. He was trying to clear up the misunderstanding that the man hiding somewhere in the wall might have.
“If it’s not bullying, then what is it? Are you a pervert too?”
A mocking voice echoed from the wall. Geonho, furrowing his brow at the incomprehensible conversation, struck the wall with a ‘thud!’
“Such a foul-mouthed brat.”
A clicking tongue sound came through the cracks of the damaged wall. Even more enraged, Geonho tried to completely destroy the wall. Siwoo pressed down on his shoulder, making him sit, and gave a warning ‘tsk.’ Geonho obediently relaxed his muscles and sat right next to Siwoo.
The man watching this scene from inside the wall tilted his head. He too was greatly confused by the unexpected situation.
“…You’re really saying they didn’t force you?”
Siwoo, thinking that the conversation was finally getting somewhere, nodded his head vigorously.
“Yeah, they didn’t.”
“You’re saying it’s not bullying when two guys poke at one guy until he passes out?”
Geonho and Jihan blinked simultaneously. They seemed to be grasping the context of the conversation. Siwoo, swallowing his embarrassment, said that was correct.
“Did they blackmail you or something?”
However, the man remained suspicious until the end. Geonho’s fierce expression and rough attitude prevented him from letting go of his doubts. Even Jihan, standing quietly, didn’t give off a particularly trustworthy impression.
“No, that’s not it. I said I’d do it first.”
“You’re sure you knew what you were getting into?”
Frustrated by the man’s stubborn attitude, Siwoo gritted his teeth. When he retorted that he knew exactly what he was doing, the man clicked his tongue again and raised his voice as if scolding him.
“Wake up! Those guys might be acting nice in front of you now, but they’re all just animals in heat!”
“Don’t talk like that!”
Siwoo raised his voice to match the man’s. At this, the man laughed as if dumbfounded.
“You’re young and don’t know any better! Even after you passed out, those two had no intention of stopping and they—”
“You’re right. We admit it.”
Jihan quickly cut off the man’s words, raising both hands. It was a gesture of surrender.
“We did push too hard. We’re deeply reflecting on our actions.”
He deliberately spoke more politely. At first glance, the man seemed to be around their age, but Jihan sensed he was much older. Just looking at the man’s way of speaking and the items filling this cozy cave, he could piece together the situation.
“Don’t act like you’ve got your head on straight. Perverts trying to fool someone.”
“Hey! Are you going to keep calling them perverts?!”
Unable to hold back anymore, Siwoo pointed accusingly at the wall. He was angry that the man was looking down on Jihan and calling him a pervert, even though he had stepped forward to help.
“It was guiding! You’re an esper too, why can’t you understand?!”
After Siwoo’s outburst, silence fell. The man had either disappeared or suddenly stopped making noise.
As Siwoo, who had been breathing heavily, bit his lip with a look of realization, the man spoke again.
“…You said it was guiding?”
The man, who had been at a loss for words, asked again. The next words made all three of them tilt their heads sideways.
“Espers do guiding with each other?”
Was that where the misunderstanding started? Siwoo sighed and explained calmly.
“I’m a guide. That’s why I was guiding these two. It wasn’t anything perverted.”
If he didn’t know Siwoo was a guide… Right, it was understandable to misinterpret. Especially since they were doing that in a gate, of all places. They couldn’t complain if they were mistaken for horny lunatics.
“Why… would a guide enter a gate?”
Along with a voice full of bewilderment, a fake hand shot out of thin air. Immediately, Geonho and Jihan, who had surrounded Siwoo, eyed the man’s black hand warily.
“You’re lying, right? You’re a barrier user.”
The man pointed at the barrier surrounding Siwoo’s body with his fake hand. Judging by how it was maintained even inside the gate, he was clearly quite a strong barrier user. These guys were trying to fool someone.
“It’s because he’s carrying a barrier stone,” Jihan explained in Siwoo’s place. The man, finally revealing himself, glared at the three with his amethyst-like purple eyes.
“Barrier stone?”
“Yes.”
Jihan quickly scanned the man up and down, while Geonho just clenched his fist with a face full of curses. He looked ready to pounce at any moment if Siwoo didn’t stop him.
“What’s that?”
The man didn’t know what a barrier stone was. He also looked at the esper combat uniforms Geonho and Jihan were wearing with quite curious eyes.
The design was different from the worn-out combat uniform the man was wearing. Unlike the sleek outfits of Geonho and Jihan, the man’s combat uniform looked clunky, focused solely on protecting the body.
“Excuse me, but what year were you dispatched?”
Jihan asked the man with a suitably gentle smile. The cozy cave was filled with signs of long-term living. The neatly arranged items revealed the owner’s mindset of saving space.
The man seemed to have completely settled down here. Inside this gate where the only living things passing through were monsters.
“Don’t know. Can’t remember.”
The man answered indifferently, secretly creating another hand to poke Siwoo’s back. As expected, a solid barrier was wrapped around his body.
Geonho, who had grabbed the man’s hand and crushed the bones, gritted his teeth and looked at Siwoo. His eyes asked if they really had to stay still. Siwoo roughly patted Geonho while continuing to watch the man.
“Then, what about the name of the guild you belonged to?”
Jihan continued the conversation. The man shrugged his shoulders, skipping the answer. He didn’t seem to remember the guild name either. The same response came when asked about his age.
“You don’t know your name either?”
This time Siwoo asked. The man met Siwoo’s eyes, raised his chin, and crossed his arms. And he gave the same answer again.
“That’s right, I don’t know.”
“What do you know then?”
Geonho clicked his tongue and spoke mockingly. At this, the man let out a dry laugh and looked at the three in turn.
“You’ll all end up like this too. Among the three of you, I think you’ll forget the fastest.”
A new fake hand appeared and pointed at Geonho. Before Geonho could get angry, Siwoo blocked him with his body. Then he faced the man for a moment.
Not remembering his guild name, age, and even his own name. Did he forget everything while living inside the gate?
“Do you live here alone?”
“As you can see.”
“Then what about guiding?”
That was a question Jihan was about to ask too. It seemed like he had been living here alone for quite a while. He wondered how he had managed his wavelength during that time.
Even for an esper with a stable wavelength, periodic guiding was necessary. At the very least, they needed to manage their wavelength with guiding medication and machines regularly to avoid the risk of going berserk.
However, there was no guiding machine here. Even if there were drugs, they would last a year at most.
“Guiding isn’t necessary here.”
Just as Jihan was reaching his own conclusion with his sharp intuition, the man said what he had anticipated.
“There’s no need to eat, and you don’t age either.”
The man’s expression was utterly calm as he relayed this surprising information. For him, it was already a fact he was tired of, so he spoke of it matter-of-factly. Then, after carefully looking Siwoo up and down, he let out a quiet sigh.
“To think they’d even throw a guide into the gate. Looks like the center is still full of trash.”
A bitter expression crossed the man’s black face. Seeing this, Siwoo immediately clarified.
“The center didn’t send me. I got sucked in.”
“…You got sucked in?”
The man’s frozen expression contorted at the following explanation.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
