When he opened his eyes and checked his surroundings, he was in a hospital room within the Center’s research building.
This was the third time recently. The third time he’d lost consciousness, collapsed, and woken up in a hospital room.
His senses expanded to extremes, making his head feel like it would split apart in agony, and waves of power ran wild inside his body, constricting his heart.
Countless presences beyond the walls dizzied his ears and head, and even the sensation of his collar brushing against his skin was painful, yet the person in question showed no change in expression.
He was simply breathing quietly, enduring the pain, when Do Yura, the nation’s only S-rank Guide, burst through the door.
“Esper Seo Gangwoo! Are you trying to die?”
Do Yura’s expression, asking point-blank if he was trying to die, was filled with irritation and frustration.
Seo Gangwoo answered in his mind, “There aren’t many days left until I die anyway,” but didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t want to give this workplace colleague he knew fairly well the burden of worrying about him.
“Ugh, this is crazy…”
Do Yura let out a sigh at Seo Gangwoo’s lack of response.
Having been near Center 1, Do Yura had rushed over upon receiving word that Seo Gangwoo had collapsed. Having watched him since he awakened as an Esper, she always felt sorry for Seo Gangwoo, who couldn’t receive proper guiding.
They couldn’t be called close, but they’d run into each other coming and going from dungeon gates, and as an S-rank Guide, she was the first person contacted—after his pair—whenever Seo Gangwoo’s condition worsened.
Do Yura, who looked like she was about to start cursing, let out another deep sigh and grabbed his hand to perform guiding.
She guided him for quite a while after that, but with his heightened senses only decreasing slightly, a mere 15% matching rate couldn’t provide proper guiding.
“Is he still acting like that? Have you tried contacting him?”
“……”
Do Yura brought up his pair. At Seo Gangwoo’s lack of response, Do Yura grew even more frustrated and pounded the bed with her fist.
“What are you going to do! Are you kidding me, seriously. Why is his personality like that. Playing with his own life, really.”
She ruffled her hair with her other hand, expressing her anger, but he had nothing to say to her.
Because he’d really decided to quit now.
“Haah… As much as it galls me, try contacting him. It’s already been two months. Esper Seo Gangwoo! You’re really going to be in big trouble at this rate.”
The pair contract had been terminated two months ago, but it had been even longer since they’d last seen each other.
Do Yura looked at Seo Gangwoo, who still kept his mouth shut and wouldn’t answer, then clutched her own head and banged it against the side of the bed repeatedly.
Under excessive stress and self-harming, Seo Gangwoo reached out his hand to stop Do Yura’s head.
“Hey! If you collapse again, I’m really going to drag that bastard here by his hair. Got it? He struts around so much about being an S-rank Esper’s pair, would he really quit? Absolutely not. The higher-ups are so stagnant the water’s gone rotten. Approving a pair dissolution while ignoring all procedures?”
Do Yura raised her head abruptly and vented her anger for a good while. Still, after pouring it all out, she seemed to calm down a bit, settling her huffing breaths and plopping down heavily in a chair.
“Your medication tolerance has built up now too, so it barely has any effect. It’s really dangerous!”
He felt sorry toward the worried Do Yura, but had nothing to say.
His life in terrible pain had no end in sight. Even his mental strength, which could be said to be superior to anyone’s, had reached its limit.
Just then, Do Yura checked the screen of the vibrating phone she pulled from her pocket and hastily stood up from her seat.
“Just try contacting him once. It can’t go on like this. You understand?”
Do Yura implored him once more before opening the door and leaving.
The hospital room left alone was quiet.
Seo Gangwoo, who had been lying still staring only at the ceiling, sat up.
He nearly lost his balance for a moment at the pain ringing through his brain with a zing, but without letting out a single groan, he opened the hospital room door as if nothing was wrong.
Since the room was located in the deepest part of the building, the area was quiet without a single person passing by. His unhesitating steps passed through the long corridor and headed downstairs via the staircase.
Having descended only one floor, the first floor was full of all kinds of screams and groans, as if the quiet space upstairs that had felt peaceful was a lie.
Dozens of mobile beds were occupied without a single empty spot, and even then, with no space available, Espers with pale, haggard faces were sprawled randomly on the floor.
Espers who had lost consciousness covered in blood, Espers lying unable to properly groan from deep injuries that exposed their cheekbones, Espers self-harming their own bodies unable to endure the backlash from using their abilities.
Among the patients in serious condition, research staff and medical teams wearing protective equipment moved busily about with exhausted expressions.
Just then, the outer door opened and another injured person entered.
“Here! Please look at this one first.”
The newly arrived Esper had severe burns covering more than half his face, and his right leg was bent in a grotesque direction.
Most serious was a penetrating wound as if something fairly large had pierced through his body. It was horrific just to look at, and if he’d been an ordinary person, the injury would have caused instant death.
“Kuaaaak. S-save me…”
A healing-type Esper who had been treating another Esper ran over quickly and used their ability. Shattered bones realigned and wounds closed up in an instant.
“Up to here for now, this Esper will be moved to the Class 2 ward.”
Even though treatment wasn’t complete, the healing ability user removed their hands, gave instructions to the medical team, then moved mercilessly to another bed.
Because healing-type Espers were as few and precious as Guides, it was impossible to perfectly treat every Esper brought in with injuries. To extract maximum efficiency, they only provided first-aid treatment to the point where patients wouldn’t die.
After that, several medical team members swarmed the Esper, attached transfusion packs and medication to both arms and legs, checked his condition, then moved him to the ward.
Even facing injuries where it wouldn’t be strange for any one of them to die, as if it were daily routine, no one made a fuss and simply carried out their assigned tasks.
No sooner had Espers who’d received emergency treatment been moved elsewhere by support personnel than those spots were quickly filled with other Espers again.
Just when it seemed a brief lull might continue and everyone was catching their breath.
An emergency alarm sound from an Esper watch came from somewhere.
The danger-level alarm that sounded when the gauge exceeded 80% from ability use was a sound commonly heard in this place where injured people after gate conquests and Espers experiencing backlash from excessive ability use came and went daily.
Medical staff who found the source of the sound and checked the Esper’s watch calmly read the numbers. But that voice soon tinged with panic.
“Gauge at 83% confirmed. Huh? Rising rapidly! 85, 86, 87!”
The heads of people busily examining the injured snapped up.
At that sound, all the medical and research staff who had been working matter-of-factly, and even the Espers groaning in pain, tensed and watched the situation.
Medical staff and researchers alike rushed over there urgently.
“89%, 9, 90%…”
The voice of the medical staff member announcing the gauge status trembled.
Medical staff restrained the Esper who was struggling and about to convulse, collapsing against the relevant bed, using artifacts, then injected substitute guiding medication.
“It’s not stopping!”
“More! Push more in!”
“Guide support request?!”
“We put it in but it’s too late! The numbers are rising too fast!”
“Did you call the disposal team?”
“We called them immediately when we confirmed the gauge rising earlier.”
Healing-type Espers were pouring their abilities in so he could endure even a little, but since it wasn’t from external injuries or illness, the effect was minimal. Side effects from ability backlash could only be treated with a Guide’s guiding.
As the gauge rise didn’t stop, guiding substitute medication far exceeding the appropriate dosage flowed into the Esper’s veins.
“92%!! Risk of rampage entry!”
“Disposal team arriving soon!”
“Take cover!”
Other medical staff, researchers, and support personnel quickly evacuated the injured from other beds. It was an emergency situation, but without falling into chaos, everyone moved in perfect unison according to the manual.
“It stopped! 92%, it stopped at 92%! Confirmed!”
The medical team leader who had remained by the Esper in danger of rampage until the end shouted in an excited voice. The head researcher, who had been standing at a distance, sent a standby signal to the Explosive Esper Disposal team (EED) that had arrived at some point, and examined the waves with the machine analyzer connected to the Esper.
To analyze the movements of the complex and frantically moving waves, they’d need to run a specific program, but there was no time for that now.
The pupils beyond the head researcher’s transparent rimless glasses moved ceaselessly. Just then, very faint but small-sized waves were caught beginning to find a pattern.
“It’s faint, but the waves seem to be stabilizing. Please stand by just a little longer!”
The Explosive Esper Disposal team signaled their understanding while surrounding the Esper and taking positions. The medical team leader, whose entire body was drenched in sweat, felt like his insides were burning up at the gauge that wouldn’t go down easily.
Please.
As if that desperate prayer had been heard, the gauge numbers moved.
“91%! The numbers have dropped!”
The head researcher, who had been analyzing the waves without blinking an eye, also threw both hands up without even thinking to push up his slipping glasses.
“90, 89, continuing to fall. The waves are stabilizing steadily.”
“Phew…”
The drained medical team leader plopped down on an empty bed beside them. It was still too early to feel relieved, but they’d passed the crisis.
If the effect hadn’t appeared before the Explosive Esper Disposal team stepped in, this Esper would have been captured as is and dumped in an empty dungeon gate.
The team leader instructed the medical staff who’d returned with the smooth gauge decline to put in another Guide support request. Even if they couldn’t come right away, it would be fine after the Esper was more stable.
It would have been better if they could have stationed Guides in the Esper emergency room from the start, but this place filled with Espers who were superhuman even in terms of physical abilities alone and had become sensitive from injuries and ability backlash was a very dangerous place for Guides, who were no different from ordinary people.
There was once a time when Espers held all the vested interests and violations of Guide human rights were rampant, but currently it was an era where one Guide was more precious than the lives of a hundred Espers.
