– Have you heard? The guide specimen at the First Research Facility has mutated.
– There too? But they have the Base guide with them. We’re intentionally trying to create mutations, but shouldn’t they be able to control it by adjusting the GP levels of the Base guide they regularly administer?
– They tried, but it seems the higher-ups actually prefer the mutated form.
– What kind of mutation makes them like it so much?
– It’s said to be capable of guiding at the level of an Imprint. Even the Espers respond much better to this guiding than to regular guiding.
– An Imprint-level guide without actually imprinting? No wonder the higher-ups are pleased. They’re obsessed with efficiency.
– The problem is that it causes immediate addiction, but they’ll probably figure out how to control that with more experiments. Either way, this will affect us too.
– I’m sure it will. If the higher-ups like an experiment, it always ends up here.
At that time, Han-gyeom, weakly sprawled on the experiment table due to harsh experiments, could see a dark smile at the end of the two people’s conversation.
– You’re lucky, Number 0. We’ll be able to add a new experiment soon.
As the man said, it wasn’t long before Han-gyeom was subjected to an even more brutal experiment. His mind and body were pushed to their limits to achieve guiding efficiency comparable to an Imprint. He was forced to consume endless amounts of strangely bitter medicine that made him want to vomit, and he guided countless people until he was so dizzy he couldn’t stand.
When he struggled to even breathe due to the excessive guiding, he would suddenly find himself dragged by the hair back to the experiment table. There, he would be tightly restrained on the hard table, and thick needles connected to long hoses would be inserted into his neck, arms, sides, and legs.
As he gazed blankly at the hoses, he could see a red substance flowing into him, which he instantly recognized as someone’s refined GP. This was another cruel desire to mutate him, much like the three daily doses of condensed GP pills he was forced to swallow.
Normally, a guide cannot accept another guide’s GP. Even if guiding is attempted, nothing happens, and even if it does, the GP is expelled before it can fully absorb. However, the researchers forcefully made the subjects accept guiding by refining other people’s GP and gradually adjusting the subjects’ bodies over a long period.
Han-gyeom silently endured this, knowing that his body was being destroyed from the inside out due to the researchers’ prolonged adjustments. He had no choice if he wanted to survive. At that time, Cha Han-gyeom was too young to think about death.
That day, too, Cha Han-gyeom could only think about how painful it was as he helplessly offered his body for experimentation. Every time he received someone else’s GP, he experienced severe dizziness and excruciating pain as his body contorted. The GP supplied through the hoses was particularly vicious, causing several times more pain than before, as if it was filled with sharp edges.
As time passed, Han-gyeom couldn’t help but resonate with the intense sensation. The pain spread by the infused GP of others felt like the screams of someone crying out for help.
‘You must be suffering too.’
He felt an unavoidable sense of camaraderie with the mutant guide from another research facility, followed by a deep sympathy. That guide must be in the same situation, strapped to an experiment table every day, enduring unwanted experiments, and feeling despair in the face of an uncertain future.
Unlike his body, which was rapidly deteriorating from being forced to accept someone else’s GP, a noticeable change occurred. Only Han-gyeom and Song Yeon-woo realized this change.
In the Fourth Ability Analysis Research Facility, the cold policy was that anyone who lost their value as an experiment subject would be disposed of. So, Han-gyeom and Song Yeon-woo imprinted on each other. Knowing that a guide who could only guide one person would be seen as worthless by the researchers, they deliberately chose to be disposed of together.
Han-gyeom knew how Song Yeon-woo felt about him. Therefore, it wasn’t difficult to manipulate him with sweet words and induce the imprint. At that time, Song Yeon-woo, like other Esper experiment subjects, had no proper information about guides and was even excited about the imprint, thinking it was like becoming lovers.
The imprint was successful, but something was strange. Although they had imprinted as ability users, supposedly becoming unique to each other, Han-gyeom could still guide anyone as before. The red pattern that served as proof of the imprint also remained invisible unless intentionally revealed through resonance.
The ability to guide anyone despite having an imprinted partner was a mutation that only became apparent after the imprint. None of the researchers at the facility noticed it; only the imprinted partner, Song Yeon-woo, knew.
Han-gyeom suspected that the GP infused through the hoses over a long period had caused this mutation. Since that GP had mutated him to perform imprint-level guiding, it must have affected his guiding abilities related to imprinting.
If the GP that once flowed into him was the same as the red energy now dominating Song Jae-woo’s body, then the other person must be from a different ability analysis research facility. The ability to elicit reactions similar to imprinting without actually imprinting and to subtly dominate an Esper’s mind through addiction could only come from such a source.
Especially since the owners of the GP that Han-gyeom had been supplied with were all said to be from the First Ability Analysis Research Facility. Although the Base guide was completely transferred to the Esper Association headquarters when the First Research Facility was closed, there was no information about the mutated guide.
Whether dead or alive, entangled in something and missing, or having disappeared voluntarily, the mutated guide had vanished just like the other missing Espers from that facility.
Those who disappear usually go into hiding, and this is especially true for guides who can pass as ordinary people as long as they don’t perform guiding.
Therefore, Han-gyeom was convinced that the guide who had contacted Song Jae-woo must be the mutated guide from the First Ability Analysis Research Facility.
Han-gyeom’s eyes flickered as he thought of the faceless mutated guide.
‘If I said I wasn’t glad to feel a sense of camaraderie, it would be a lie.’
Everyone in the Fourth Ability Analysis Research Facility, except for himself, had died. The other ability analysis research facilities had been shut down one by one at regular intervals, with his Fourth Research Facility being the last ‘shadow’ to close.
The thought that another experiment subject, another guide, had survived the dark experiments filled him with excitement. An indescribable sense of camaraderie welled up within him, knowing they could share and empathize with each other’s painful past. How could he not be thrilled?
However, Han-gyeom had to first acknowledge a chilling sensation that overpowered his excitement.
Song Jae-woo was still dominated by the false imprint. He could not accept guiding from anyone other than the guide who had planted the false imprint, and if this continued, he would suffer withdrawal symptoms from the addiction.
Han-gyeom knew that the imprint of a mutated guide did not last long, but he didn’t know how many days it would persist. He had heard that the stronger the imprint planted by the mutated guide, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms would be. Rumors spoke of imprinted individuals driven nearly mad, and even Espers with a strong will to live attempting suicide due to the intense aftereffects.
The thought that Song Jae-woo might suffer the same fate made Han-gyeom’s vision go dark. An inexpressible despair made his breath ragged and his head pound.
There was nothing he could do. It was because of him that Song Jae-woo was being tormented by this strange imprint, yet all Han-gyeom could do was watch him with concern. This realization brought an overwhelming sense of helplessness and emptiness.
‘If only I could do something for Jae-woo……..’
His mind quickly spiraled into chaos. If only Song Jae-woo had been truly imprinted, it wouldn’t be this frightening.
“Han-gyeom, are you alright?”
As Han-gyeom turned pale and began to feel dizzy, lost in thought, Ah-young rushed to support him. But Han-gyeom seemed not to hear Ah-young’s voice, his eyes fluttering closed as he gasped for breath.
He felt like he was about to have another seizure. His throat was already starting to tingle. In his confusion, Han-gyeom’s gaze fell upon the clear ice apple on the side table.
There was no time to think. It was pure instinct. Han-gyeom found himself reaching out with both hands towards the ghostly apple that resembled him, as if asking for someone to take his hand.
