Out of Guide 86

“I guess it’s time to prepare to receive guests.”

With a lighter heart, I cleaned my room.

I chose my room instead of the living room as the place to terminate the contract because I didn’t want the other guides to see it happening. Though nothing would change if they saw it, if not seeing it was better, there was no need to show them.

Time quickly approached 11 o’clock, and Jo Hail arrived. Joo Seolhyeon and I had already come out to the living room, so we were able to greet him right away.

“After terminating the contract, you cannot enter into a new contract with the terminated guide for six months. If you agree to this condition, please sign the document.”

Even if it was forever instead of six months, I would never form a guide contract with him again.

I signed as soon as Jo Hail finished speaking, and after confirming the stamped contract, he handed it to Joo Seolhyeon.

“The contract has been terminated. I hereby declare that from this moment forward, there is no legal binding between you two.”

Since the Esper was unilaterally terminating the contract, Joo Seolhyeon’s signature wasn’t necessary. Joo Seolhyeon, who had been difficult all morning, surprisingly accepted the document without resistance and asked Jo Hail:

“Is it over?”

“Yes, it’s over.”

The contract crumpled in his hand. He abruptly stood up, gave a slight nod, and quickly left the room.

“Mr. Joo Seolhyeon seems to be in a hurry.”

Jo Hail smiled kindly as he packed his bag, either pretending not to know or genuinely oblivious.

“Well, I should be going now.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“You too, Jeongjae.”

As I stood up to see him off, I thought I should let him know how the conversation with the guides about his previous advice had gone.

“By the way, I’ve spoken with all the guides whose matching rates have changed. They all want to maintain the current contracts.”

“So they don’t mind when the imprinting happens?”

“That’s right.”

Jo Hail nodded calmly at my answer.

“I see.”

“You don’t seem very surprised.”

“I am surprised. But since the increase in matching rate itself reflects how guides feel about an Esper, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.”

Jo Hail rummaged through his briefcase and pulled out a booklet.

“I’m glad I brought this just in case.”

At first, I thought it was an educational booklet for teenagers because of its cute illustrations and colorful design, but it had a bold 19+ rating at the top.

‘Methods for Handling Ten Situations That May Occur During Guiding?’

The title, which sounded more like an academic paper, didn’t match the cover and was hard to grasp at a glance.

“What is this?”

I accepted it since he offered it, but something felt off.

“This isn’t typically given out as these situations aren’t common, so I don’t recommend it to others, but I thought you might need it. It turned out to be surprisingly thorough. And feel free to contact me anytime you need my help.”

I had hoped for an explanation about the booklet, but he just made vague comments and left before I could stop him. I returned to my room, placed the booklet on the table, and expanded my sensing ability. I was trying to locate Joo Seolhyeon by reading the surrounding waves, but he hadn’t gone far—he was quietly packing his things in his room.

“Let’s take a look at this.”

Since Joo Seolhyeon was staying in his room, I didn’t need to move around, so I opened the booklet on the table.

— Table of Contents

— 1. Is Excessive Guiding Dangerous?

— 2. I’m Pregnant, What Should I Do?

— 3. Is This Love?

— 4. First Time Imprinting.

— 5. Does Position Affect Guiding?

— 6. I Can’t Remember.

— 7. How to Handle Forced Guiding?

— 8. My Guide Has Gone Berserk.

— 9. Changes in Matching Rate, Is It Okay?

— 10. It Hurts Too Much. Should I Stop?

I began to understand what Jo Hail meant when he said it was surprisingly thorough. I initially planned to look only at the sections relevant to me, but then thought it might be good to read the entire thing from start to finish, so I comfortably turned to the next page.

I had expected the booklet to be easy to read, but as soon as I turned past the table of contents, I had to rub my eyes at the tiny text.

How can there be so many words and not a single illustration?

It wasn’t just this section—the rest of the content was the same.

“I guess I’ll just read the parts I need.”

I read the book carefully while checking if Joo Seolhyeon was still in his room.

“So excessive Guiding isn’t dangerous, but if you don’t want imprinting, it’s the first thing to avoid. Jo Hail already mentioned this, so I knew about it. Continuously receiving intense stimulation reduces satisfaction with regular Guiding. However, there’s little difference in the effectiveness of Guiding.”

The information about excessive Guiding was what I already knew, or could have guessed, so I skimmed through it quickly.

“Pregnancy doesn’t apply to me, so I’ll skip that.”

I was flipping through the pages rapidly when a photo at the end made me pause.

“Both are men?”

Wondering if I had accidentally skipped to another chapter, I slowly turned back, but the title “I’m Pregnant, What Should I Do?” remained firmly in place.

‘I’m not really curious about this.’

I had confirmed that I hadn’t seen wrong, but I didn’t particularly want to look into it. I skipped ahead in chunks to Chapter 4, “First Time Imprinting.”

The definition of imprinting itself seemed like grasping at clouds, so I was concerned that the rest would continue in this vague manner, but fortunately, it didn’t.

<Imprinting doesn’t happen overnight. There is a preparation phase and a stabilization phase. During the preparation phase, the Esper remembers the guide’s unique wavelength and visualizes it as something familiar. Then they bring it into their mental world. This can be considered the beginning of imprinting, as the Esper starts sending imprinting signals to their guide from this point. These signals are typically very weak but become much stronger during Guiding. This is why excessive Guiding increases the probability of imprinting. When both wavelengths match at 100%, it’s described as imprinting.

(Omitted)

Research on the mental world constructed by Espers is still actively ongoing. Theoretically, the number of imprints an Esper can form is determined by their rank, but there have been no cases of a single Esper imprinting with more than one person so far.>

I was deeply focused when I sensed Joo Seolhyeon leaving his room, which brought me back to reality. Looking at the clock, I saw it was already nearly 12 o’clock.

“Oh! I need to leave too.”

I was no longer in a position to worry about Joo Seolhyeon. I slung the bag I had prepared earlier over my shoulder and put on the artifact bracelet I had brought from Serubi’s dungeon—it probably wouldn’t help in combat, but just in case.

When I went outside, I saw Joo Seolhyeon’s back as he was heading somewhere.

‘It must be a coincidence. Why is he going in the same direction I planned to?’

I had no intention of following him, but our paths overlapped, creating a scene where I was tailing him. I tried to maintain a certain distance, thinking that running into him would only create awkwardness, but when we boarded the same subway line, the distance naturally decreased. Fortunately, the subway was crowded, so Joo Seolhyeon didn’t seem to notice that I was in the same space.

I thought he would get off somewhere between Area A and the amusement park, as it was quite a distance. But he never got off, and eventually, we disembarked at the same station.

‘Does Joo Seolhyeon also have business at Seoul Amusement Park?’

Even thinking back to the past, I couldn’t find an answer. At that time, I was alone at home, and Joo Seolhyeon was out, so it wouldn’t have been strange if he had gone to the amusement park.

‘I should call first to let them know I’ve arrived…’

As I entered the amusement park entrance and was about to call the Center Director, I realized there was no need.

“You’ve arrived.”

The Center Director had spotted me first and approached. Wearing comfortable clothes contrary to his formal appearance at the reception hall where I last saw him, he was frowning as if something had happened before meeting me. Sensing that the atmosphere was unusual from the start, I bowed to the Center Director.

“Hello.”

“Let’s go in.”

Seoul Amusement Park was built around an artificial reservoir in the outskirts of Seoul, so the grounds were quite extensive. Watching the Center Director walk without hesitation, I could tell that he had already identified where the dungeon would open.

“There are a lot of people.”

I looked around while following him. Perhaps because it was the last day of the rose festival, the amusement park was full of visitors.

“Is this your first time at an amusement park?”

“No. I came a few times on field trips when I was young.”

Thinking about it, it would have been natural for families to visit, but our family had never been to an amusement park together. My mother preferred to rest at home or spend time on personal research when she wasn’t working, and while my father was quite playful, we never ventured far from home.

“I see. It’s my first time.”

I looked at the Center Director with disbelief.

All gates opening in the metropolitan area were under the Center Director’s jurisdiction, and it was also his role to assign missions to Espers and direct operations when dungeons opened. If a dungeon had opened here in my previous life, it meant he would have visited the amusement park at least once. However, I didn’t want to dwell on that fact, so I just nodded.