“Would you get mad if I said I saw everything from the start?”
“No. It’s better than getting involved and being taken hostage.”
“Hey, even so, I wouldn’t just get taken hostage by anyone!”
As Yoon Jeong-ho frowned, Seo Won instructed Lim Du-hyuk, who had been contacted, to clean up the chaotic atmosphere at the scene.
At first, Lim Du-hyuk uncharacteristically expressed his panic when Cha Han-gyeom disappeared, but he seemed relieved after hearing that it was a precautionary clone.
He even expressed his disappointment, saying that Seo Won should have at least given him a small hint. It wasn’t just because Seo Won had given him the mission, but because he was genuinely worried that Cha Han-gyeom had disappeared, feeling his heart drop.
-Understood. Don’t worry about cleaning up the scene. I’ll send personnel to your location soon……..
-There’s a problem!
A security guard’s voice suddenly interrupted Lim Du-hyuk’s conversation. Lim Du-hyuk’s voice faded for a moment, then he began talking with the security guard who approached him shouting.
Seo Won felt a sudden wave of anxiety.
As he waited with a stern expression, he heard Lim Du-hyuk’s urgent voice.
-There’s something I need to report urgently.
“Tell me, quickly.”
Urged by an unusually hesitant feeling, Du-hyuk spoke in a troubled tone. Soon, Seo Won’s brow furrowed deeply.
***
“Woo-chan, are you okay?”
In the middle of an old cathedral, young men rushed towards Kang Woo-chan as he appeared, rising to the surface like floating on water. But they hesitated, stopping in their tracks. Seeing Kang Woo-chan with an angry expression, without even a small smile, was so rare that they were at a loss for what to do, shuffling their feet.
Following him were the young man with the blue flame and the muscular man who had gone out with Kang Woo-chan.
The muscular man, who had been trapped in a cylindrical ice block, was freed thanks to a falling cube and could move freely. However, the young man with the blue flame was different. Since his clothes were frozen, he was moved while still stiff.
Struggling to extinguish the blue flame that couldn’t even melt the ice in his clothes, the young man shouted to the others who were hesitating and concerned about Kang Woo-chan, “Someone, break this ice for me!”
Only then did a few people approach him, noticing the young man’s condition.
The rest were worriedly looking at Kang Woo-chan, who was sitting on the floor with an angry expression.
Next to Kang Woo-chan, the floor rippled again. Just as it had for Kang Woo-chan, the muscular man, and the young man with the blue flame, the floor rippled like water and expelled a short-haired woman, Ji-hye, who was bleeding profusely.
“Ji-hye, you’re bleeding……!”
“Oh my god, what happened?!”
Ji-hye tried to reassure the others with a faint smile, but her face was already pale and covered in a cold sweat. Blood was flowing from her shoulder, soaking her entire arm.
Ji-hye recalled the recent event and swallowed hard.
What Seo Won had thrown was a sharp spear made of ice. The ice spear, condensed with a significant amount of ESP, not only froze everything it touched instantly but also shattered the area.
The sensation of flesh and bone being pierced, the painful frostbite, and the agony of the ‘disintegration of the frozen part’ were utterly excruciating.
‘I was lucky. If I had reacted a moment later, my neck would have been severed. I wasn’t trying to dodge; I was lifting my body to throw a flashbang high, which saved me.’
Two women approached Ji-hye, who was shivering, and supported her. Their faces were filled with worry and anger.
“Was it his doing?”
“That bastard….! We should have all gone and killed him!”
Ji-hye leaned on them, her expression dark.
Although not as much as ‘that person,’ everyone in the room, including these women, harbored hostility towards Seo Won.
It wasn’t because he was an unregistered Ability User, nor because he was wealthy or close to the Esper Association.
It was because of one thing: his ‘research.’
That’s why Ji-hye also wanted to unleash all her hostility towards Seo Won, whether on the cruise or when she went to pick up Kang Woo-chan and his group. But Seo Won’s immense and immeasurable power made it far from easy.
Despite this, Kang Woo-chan showed even more hostility, gritting his teeth.
“There’s one more reason to kill Seo Won.”
After they had moved, Kang Woo-chan, who had been silent, stood up. Those around him rushed to support him as he staggered from the pain in his arm, which had been twisted and pinned down by Seo Won.
They helped Kang Woo-chan sit on an old cathedral chair and looked at him seriously.
“That guy, he imprinted with Han-gyeom.”
“What?!”
“That’s impossible!”
Everyone was shocked by Kang Woo-chan’s words. The muscular man and the young man with the blue flame, who had seen Kang Woo-chan’s anger towards Seo Won at the scene, looked down, unable to hide their bitterness.
“Is that true?!”
Despite the attempts of the women supporting her to hold her back, Ji-hye stepped forward towards Kang Woo-chan, her face a picture of shock.
“Imprinting is possible?! Song Jae-woo said he was being held captive! There’s no way imprinting could be that easy……”
“It’s not easy. But that doesn’t mean an emotionless imprint is impossible,” Kang Woo-chan replied coldly.
Everyone fell silent at his words.
Imprinting was known to require a deep emotional exchange between an Esper and a guide. However, there were cases where imprinting was forced for mutual benefit, although this still required consent from both parties.
According to what they had heard from Song Jae-woo, Cha Han-gyeom was being held captive in a mansion. Even though there was a contract, the parts they knew suggested that Seo Won was exploiting Cha Han-gyeom for money. Given that Seo Won had kidnapped Cha Han-gyeom just because he liked his guiding, it was doubtful that he was treating him well.
Those around Kang Woo-chan felt a deep sympathy for Cha Han-gyeom and a growing hostility towards Seo Won, as if it were their own personal matter.
“Because of that bastard…….”
“What did Han-gyeom ever do wrong….”
“Cha Han-gyeom wasn’t born to guide people like him……..”
“That bastard! Next time I see him, I’ll kill him!”
As they openly expressed their raw emotions, Kang Woo-chan slowly smiled, his usual calm demeanor returning. The tense atmosphere around him softened.
“Don’t worry. Even if they are imprinted, the fact that Han-gyeom is our ‘brother’ hasn’t changed. In fact, this might work in our favor.”
Everyone stared at Kang Woo-chan, hanging on his every word.
“Seo Won has greater abilities than we thought. He also has the intelligence to use them effectively. In other words, he’s going to be very difficult to kill.”
“Well……..”
“Yeah….”
Even the men who had been boasting about killing Seo Won now looked sheepish and fell silent.
This was understandable, as the muscular man and the young man with the blue flame who had accompanied Kang Woo-chan were both A-rank Espers by the Association’s standards. Kang Woo-chan himself was a ‘mutant’ who could hold his own against any Esper.
The fact that all of them had been completely overpowered by Seo Won was a sobering reminder of his strength.
Kang Woo-chan’s smile deepened as he looked at their discomfort.
“But no matter how powerful an Esper is, without ‘guiding,’ they will eventually go berserk.”
Those around Kang Woo-chan began to understand, letting out soft gasps of realization.
If an Esper receives the best guiding from just one person, taking that person away would leave the Esper alone and unable to receive guiding from anyone else.
‘It’s actually better this way,’ Kang Woo-chan thought.
Even though the imprint meant Cha Han-gyeom could no longer guide other Espers, and bringing him back would make him no different from an ordinary person, it didn’t matter. The fact that Cha Han-gyeom was his ‘brother,’ sharing a unique bond, remained unchanged.
Kang Woo-chan cooled his boiling emotions and took out his phone. A text message had just arrived from an Esper with the ability of ‘Clairvoyance,’ whom he had ordered to surveil the hotel from a distance a few minutes earlier.
As he read the message, Kang Woo-chan’s eyes narrowed.
[Target 1]
[Clone]
It seemed that Seo Won had indeed brought a clone of Cha Han-gyeom, just as he had suspected.
‘I had my doubts about the information he gave, but it was true.’
Kang Woo-chan glared at his phone, thinking of the man who should be at Seo Won’s mansion by now. This message would have been sent to him as well, and he would be moving according to the instructions given.
‘I just need to get my hands on Cha Han-gyeom,’ Kang Woo-chan thought, his eyes gleaming with a faint, obsessive madness.
‘Once I have him……’
Already, Kang Woo-chan’s mind was filled with images of the mansion’s layout and interior map, provided by his accomplice.
