Chapter 2
Suddenly, I looked down at my hand.
My hand, well.
It’s pretty.
Lee Ha-min was eating when he lifted his head as if he wanted to say something, but perhaps remembering to just eat quietly, he lowered his head again and continued his meal.
Then he raised his head again, looked at me, and smiled to himself.
He was pleased that he too, like others, was sitting across from someone and having a meal together.
After all, that was one of Lee Ha-min’s simple dreams.
When Noona read novels to me, I thought it was nonsense, but now that I’m here, it actually makes sense.
If that’s his dream, what could I possibly do about it?
If that’s the case, I should just acknowledge it.
“Lee Ha-min.”
“Yes?”
The guy looked at me with his big eyes, his cheeks bulging with food.
“From now on, let’s eat together.”
“…Yes?”
His eyes seemed to be getting moist. Could this guy possibly be…
Crying?
Lee Ha-min couldn’t chew his food, nor could he speak, and just had an overwhelmed expression.
“When it’s mealtime, I’ll be here, so you come here too. I’ll save you a seat.”
Lee Ha-min couldn’t answer and just stared at me blankly before nodding.
His soft hair flowed gently against his delicate face.
“When it’s mealtime, I’ll be here, so you come here too. Lee Ha-min, I’ll save you a seat. Hehehehe.”
Some thug-like person next to us mocked.
I could knock him out with a simple chop, no problem.
But then the whole center would be focused on me.
This time I really need to be careful and get home safely.
“Don’t mind what he said.”
“Okay. I’m fine, but because of me, you… Are you really okay eating with me?”
If you’re going to ask like that, either show you’re happy or don’t. With such a touched expression, what am I supposed to say?
The Esper looked around when he saw that we weren’t paying him any attention.
Other people seemed to be encouraging him with their eyes, hoping something would happen.
“Oh! Eunwoo. Your tray is dented?”
At that moment, Lee Ha-min, who had been quietly eating, looked down at his tray and exclaimed in surprise.
“Wow… Eunwoo, you’re a physical enhancement type, right? You must have put some force while holding the tray earlier. Even so, to bend a stainless steel tray like paper, wow…!! If you gripped someone’s hand with force, you could break bones.”
“That’s right.”
I said while looking at the Esper who was standing beside us, waiting for an opportunity.
It’s hard to say definitively which Esper ability is better.
The efficiency and strategy for killing monsters vary depending on how each ability is used.
However, in normal daily life, physical enhancement types have the advantage.
Unless someone’s trying to kill you, you can’t reduce someone to ashes or blow them away with wind just because of a minor argument, can you?
For lightly countering and then retreating, I thought there was nothing better than being a physical enhancement type.
The Esper next to us, as if suddenly feeling hungry, quietly returned to his seat.
Lee Ha-min stuffed his mouth with food again and rubbed the dented tray with his finger, looking at it with admiration.
He looked just like a hamster would when given a toy.
“I wish I could keep this as a memento.”
“This belongs to the center. Later, I’ll dent something more suitable for you.”
“Really?”
While Lee Ha-min was looking at me with touched eyes, the siren went off.
The short, staccato sound is the assembly order for deployment.
“Eunwoo, do you have to go too?”
When I stood up along with the other Espers, Lee Ha-min asked with a tense face.
His tension was evident as he swallowed dry saliva while speaking.
“Of course. I have to go. It means a dungeon has appeared.”
As I was speaking, I smirked, realizing he probably wasn’t asking because he didn’t know.
“Be careful.”
“Let’s eat dinner together too. Come here for dinner as well.”
I couldn’t guarantee that I’d be able to clear the dungeon and return safely by dinnertime, but I wanted to make him believe it would happen.
After saying that, I quickly moved.
The other Espers had already almost left the cafeteria.
When the siren sounds, Espers must go to their designated spots.
A dungeon has appeared somewhere, and when the center’s command post receives the news, they assemble Espers of the type suitable for the dungeon. Meanwhile, the team leader waits and selects appropriate people from those who gather.
I’m a physical enhancement type, and my rank isn’t high.
Before, not many people wanted to take me along, but after accidentally showing my skills a few times, everyone rushed to have me on their team for a while.
So, I deliberately pretended to struggle in dungeons, and now more people think of me as just an ordinary D-rank Esper again.
Having maxed out my stats in the martial arts game world, and with those abilities carrying over, I believed that if I were to use my full skills, I could eliminate all the monsters in a dungeon by myself without leading this large group.
However, living in the martial arts game world taught me something.
There’s nothing good about showing off like that.
If people know I’m exceptional, they’ll increasingly rely on me, and when difficulties arise, they’ll try to hide behind me.
No matter how strong I am, I only have one life, but people don’t seem to think about that.
No, maybe they do think about it but still expect me to sacrifice my life.
Among those leading the teams, there were S-rank Espers, and they had already formed their teams and departed.
I was late to be selected by Team Leader 8 and got in the car.
Teams are formed on a rotating basis, and the center designates the team leader, so today’s Team 8 is only valid for this mission.
The Espers’ ranks and the number of members are stable, so I had a feeling I could successfully pull off a salary heist this time too without revealing my presence.
“How many dungeons have appeared this time?”
After being selected by Team Leader 8 and getting in the car, a B-rank Esper who joined me asked the team leader.
“Thirteen. The dangerous ones are being handled by the high-ranking Espers, so let’s just focus on what we’ve been assigned.”
All worlds operate similarly.
People who do difficult jobs are valued accordingly.
That’s why S-rank Espers receive people’s respect and envy.
I’ve already lived that life and concluded it’s all meaningless.
We arrived at the scene in less than twenty minutes.
People had already evacuated, and those who had gone ahead from the center were guarding the dungeon, then switched with us.
Most of them were teleportation ability users who serve as scouts when signs are detected.
From then on, we were deployed into the dungeon according to established procedures and dealt with monsters using our respective abilities.
A fire ability user shot flames, but the monster dodged the attack several times and went on a rampage.
That’s how it is with low-rank Espers’ abilities.
They can handle easy monsters, but when faced with an ambiguous opponent, they become clumsy.
After battling for almost three hours, we were able to clear the place.
There were several critical moments when I thought I might have to step in, but fortunately, the other Espers showed quick reflexes each time, so it ended without me having to do that.
When we returned to the center, Espers who had gone to other dungeons were also coming back one after another.
What people were most interested in was whether the three S-rank Espers, known as the center’s treasures, had returned safely.
And once that fact was confirmed, the next point of interest was who had finished and returned first.
People often made bets on such occasions, and the three of them almost evenly took first place.
Some said Byun Tae-young was the most overwhelming among them, but with countless variables at work in the field, no one could predict what would happen.
When Espers are confident that the conquest won’t be difficult, they sometimes show off their quirkiness by torturing the monsters and wasting time instead of killing them at once.
Byun Tae-young, the world’s number one ranked fire ability user, had once reduced a dungeon to ashes with a single gesture, but instead of ending it like that, his specialty was driving monsters like prey and killing them by draining their blood.
While it wasn’t hard to imagine the abilities of fire user Byun Tae-young or telekinesis user Kyun In, I was curious about how Shim Woo-jin killed monsters.
His ability is so special, and globally, Shim Woo-jin is the only one with such an ability.
Sensory transposition ability, was it?
It seemed like he used sound to do something, but most people who had conquered dungeons with him couldn’t explain exactly what had happened.
“There don’t seem to be any casualties, right?”
“Since the high-risk dungeons were assigned to the S-rank Espers. We also had sufficient personnel.”
Although Espers had strong individual tendencies, they still had some sense of camaraderie as members of the center, so they were concerned about others’ well-being.
When an Esper dies during a mission, the center’s atmosphere becomes deeply depressed, but fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any casualties this time.
Espers who had used their abilities extensively during the battle each sought out Guides.
The Espers’ unstable wavelengths were strong enough for me to feel, so the Guides were likely to have a hard time.
Most of the Guides were already out, and Lee Ha-min was among them.
Today, Lee Ha-min was expected to perform Guiding for three people.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
