“Is there a way?”
“A way?”
“I want to go to the battlefield together with Kang Taejun-ssi. I don’t want to be a hindrance. Right now, as you can see, my stamina is a bit lacking……”
“If you’re F-rank, it’s not ‘a bit’ but very lacking.”
“Anyway.”
Park Shinui bit his lip and retorted to Lee Haneul’s fact-bombing.
“But why do you want to go into dangerous combat? With your level of guiding ability, you don’t need to go to the field. Just mixing bodies a bit on a bed would make the numbers rise quickly……”
“Noona.”
When Park Shinui firmly cut off her words, Lee Haneul shrugged and backed down.
“That said, it’s not like there’s no way at all.”
“There is?”
Park Shinui, who had been dejected, immediately looked at her with eyes full of anticipation.
“If it’s Esper Kang Taejun, he can make it possible as much as you want.”
“Kang Taejun-ssi? How?”
If it’s another suggestion about mixing bodies, it’s better not to hear it. He already knew that physical contact was the surest way to lower Kang Taejun’s contamination level in a short time.
“If Esper Kang Taejun puts his mind to it, he could protect someone like you without a single scratch while fighting. His shield ability alone is unrivaled.”
“……He has that kind of ability?”
He does. In the novel, Kang Taejun had once saved his comrades by wrapping them all in a massive protective barrier when an S-rank gate opened. It was content he already knew, but hearing it confirmed directly from Lee Haneul’s mouth felt different.
“That person is just a god. A god. There’s nothing he can’t do.”
Lee Haneul’s eyes flashed and her voice trembled finely. It was a different kind of excitement from when she’d checked Park Shinui’s numbers. The unique madness of someone obsessed with research and records. He felt a different excitement from the reaction she’d shown when checking his guiding ability. So she’s not a lunatic after all.
“Lunatic? That has a bit of a bad ring to it.”
“……Earlier you said you used up all your energy for today and couldn’t read thoughts anymore.”
“I didn’t use my ability. Your expression was just saying exactly that.”
“What about my expression?”
“What do you mean what? It’s a face where all your emotions can be read transparently. Come to think of it, rumors really can’t be trusted. Who would have known that Park Shinui, who was plastered all over those filthy articles, would actually be such an innocent type? So about that…… I didn’t see the broadcast, but was that image deliberately created?”
“What?”
“Why on earth did you deliberately go with such a trashy concept?”
“Well, the thing is……”
― Code A, Code A, VIP Code A occurrence.
Just then, an indoor broadcast rang out with an ear-splitting siren. ‘Code A’ was the highest emergency level responding to an esper rampage. Moreover, if it was ‘VIP’, there was only one designated target. Kang Taejun. It seemed something serious had happened to him right now.
***
“What’s going on!”
Lee Haneul shouted as she kicked open the research lab door. The elevated mood from discovering an interesting research subject had cooled completely with the emergency alert. VIP Code A. It had been a full three years since this alert had sounded within the center.
“It seems the gate that was classified as B-rank was a shadow gate.”
“A shadow gate?”
A shadow gate referred to the worst kind of mutant dungeon where the energy leaking outside measured low, but once you entered, the internal rank shot up to A-rank or higher.
“Has the actual rank been confirmed?”
“It’s S-rank.”
The moment the word S-rank fell, the playfulness disappeared from Lee Haneul’s face without a trace.
“Casualties.”
“Before Esper Kang Taejun was deployed, Ivory Guild A-rank Song Hajun and Shin Gyeonghun who entered first. Including pair guides Lee Yujeong and Kim Inho, all four are dead. It seems Esper Kang Taejun heard the tragic news and entered alone, then was directly hit by wave disruption.”
Four people. Park Shinui unknowingly stopped breathing.
“Ah…… This is driving me crazy. So, what’s Esper Kang Taejun’s condition right now?”
Lee Haneul’s expression receiving the report was rigid but unwavering. It was the face of someone who had heard such news many times.
“K Group’s attack team made an emergency transfer to the bunker, but the energy waves being emitted are too rough, so lower-rank inspectors can’t even approach.”
“Immediately activate the containment wall and start the energy purification and surveillance isolation protocol. Completely control all civilian access within a 10km radius of the bunker!”
“Understood!”
The researchers scattered in unison. Their movements were unhesitating, as if they’d practiced thousands of times. It was the professionalism that could only be shown by those who existed solely to prevent Kang Taejun’s rampage.
Park Shinui just stood there dumbfounded like a sack of barley in the midst of that noisy order. The place he’d been led into by Lee Haneul’s hand was a location he had memories of seeing in his dreams. A special research lab dedicated to Kang Taejun’s stabilization. One curious thing was that Lee Haneul, whom he’d met for the first time today, seemed to be a person with authority far higher than he’d imagined in this place.
“Current danger level is C! If we don’t immediately administer guide medication, it will soon advance to stage B.”
“If it rises to B, we’ll have to evacuate civilians within a 100km radius of the bunker. Medication is the urgent priority!”
“We can’t! The energy wave readings are too high. In this state, not only is physical approach itself impossible, but the response team’s lives are also in danger.”
“Then, are you saying we should just stand by and watch? Evacuate all the civilians and wait until he naturally recovers?”
The researchers’ gazes focused on Lee Haneul as if by agreement. As the anxiety waiting for her judgment heavily pressed down on the research lab, a sharp telephone ring broke the silence.
A man in a white coat snatched up the receiver.
“Yes, this is VIP researcher Park Changmin…… Yes, Division Chief-nim. Esper Kang Taejun is danger level C, contamination level 95%. Combat? No, at this level, rational judgment is impossible. Even if you say that, there’s nothing we can do. Deployment in his current state is absolutely impossible. I’m hanging up.”
Park Changmin hung up the phone before the other party could finish speaking. Soon the bell rang out again, but he reached under the desk without hesitation and pulled out the phone cord. It was a silent protest that even the time wasted responding to such an absurd request was too precious.
“What was the call about?”
“It’s the Esper Division Chief. The shadow gate confirmed as S-rank has started opening. With Esper Park Minwook at the forefront, eight A-ranks were deployed, but it seems civilian casualties have already occurred. So they need Esper Kang Taejun……”
Park Changmin pushed the phone to one side, dusted off his knees, and stood up.
“What a ridiculous thing to say. They couldn’t even measure the rank properly and let the Ivory Guild have casualties, and now they’re trying to share that responsibility with Esper Kang Taejun. In that state, he can’t even deploy, and even if he himself says he’ll go, we’d have to pack a lunch and follow him around to stop him.”
“I think the same.”
Lee Haneul summarized in a coldly sunken voice.
“Alright. First, cut off the external situation and focus only on Esper Kang Taejun’s stabilization. Postpone escalating the crisis stage, and input stabilizers into the purification device first. Esper Kang Taejun has excellent self-recovery ability, so I’ll observe the progress first and then make a decision.”
At her firm command, the researchers nodded in unison. It was perfect teamwork bound by solid trust in each other. Despite the desperate situation, with Lee Haneul’s single word, the researchers’ rigid shoulders finally relaxed comfortably.
“Noona.”
Park Shinui, who had at some point moved aside to a corner and pressed himself against the wall, carefully called out to Lee Haneul. The air in the research lab was still tense, but the expressions of the researchers who had found a realistic alternative were much calmer than before.
“Haneul noona.”
At Park Shinui’s call, instead of Lee Haneul who should have answered, several nearby researchers glanced over. They had been bothered by the handsome man who seemed to have stepped out of a screen awkwardly standing at the entrance, but the situation had been too urgent to dare ask. But ‘Haneul noona’? The only sibling of Research Director Lee Haneul they knew was her twin, Esper Lee Suchan. Could he be the late-born youngest sibling they’d only heard rumors about? But he didn’t resemble her at all, and above all, that face…… seemed like they’d seen it somewhere before.
“Noona, Haneul noona.”
When Park Shinui raised his voice a bit more, Lee Haneul finally turned her head slowly in an obviously awkward motion. She blinked her eyes and then showed a bright smile at the corners of her mouth.
“Oh my, look at me. I forgot that you, Shinui, were here. Sorry.”
Lee Haneul answered in a cheerful voice that didn’t feel sorry at all. Park Shinui nodded, thinking that the atmosphere had been so urgent that it was understandable.
