# Chapter 65
“Hmm… what’s this?”
Won Jungyeom tilted his head toward Jiwon and Suhyun as he spoke.
“What is it?”
When Jiwon asked, confused by the sudden question, Won Jungyeom let out a dry laugh.
“What do you mean, what? The atmosphere between you two….”
He was about to teasingly say it was strangely intimate, but instead just smiled and closed his mouth.
Jokes were good for lightening the mood, but there’s a time and place for everything. The two were acting as if they were alone in this space, being quite emotional, and not even realizing what was strange about it. Making such jokes would only make the atmosphere awkward.
“Well then, since it seems we’ve decided, shall we have a meeting?”
Won Jungyeom said with a good-natured smile.
“What kind of meeting?”
“A Riska countermeasures meeting, of course.”
“With you, Esper-nim?”
“Why? You want to do it alone? Huh? What’s this? ‘B-class Espers who were controlled by Riska should stay out,’ is that it?”
“Ah, why are you twisting my words again?”
Jiwon shook his head with a flustered expression. Won Jungyeom snickered.
“More heads are better, right? You two will handle the actual resolution, but we can at least have a meeting together.”
“Well… that’s true.”
Though he wondered if he’d be of any help, since his memories of being under Riska’s control were hazy.
“Actually, I don’t even know when I started being controlled. I suddenly said I didn’t want to go in, right?”
Jiwon and Suhyun nodded simultaneously. The two stood neatly near Won Jungyeom.
“What time was it?”
“Around 8 PM.”
“So after sunset then?”
“Yes.”
Won Jungyeom nodded.
“That’s strange.”
“In what way?”
“My last memory was when the sun was still up.”
“…When the sun was still up?”
“Yeah. Even before sunset.”
They had thought it was from when he suddenly started saying strange things.
Jiwon looked at Suhyun as if asking if he knew anything about this. Suhyun shook his head.
“Since I haven’t developed dementia yet, shouldn’t we assume that the blank period in my memory was when I was under Riska’s control?”
Though he mixed in a bit of humor, neither of them could laugh naturally. Suhyun spoke with his brows furrowed.
“You became quiet from a certain point.”
“…That’s right. I thought it was because you were nervous.”
“Hey, that’s harsh. Guide Jiwon, do you still not know me? Do I look like someone who keeps quiet when nervous?”
Jiwon paused and then shook his head. He was the type who would try to lighten the mood by talking about various things.
“I guess Guide Jiwon was more nervous. Unlike you to not notice such things.”
He had been overwhelmed by excessive anxiety. The discomfort of being surrounded by sea, the fear stemming from uncertainty about whether Won Jungyeom and Suhyun would be alright.
“Then are you saying Riska took over Esper-nim’s mind and observed us for hours?”
“That’s right. It’s kind of creepy, but there’s no other reason why my memories would disappear.”
“But there’s no reason to just observe, either. If what Esper-nim Won says is true, why would it do that?”
Riska’s intelligence was clearly different from ordinary monsters. If it had already taken control of Won Jungyeom’s mind and then simply waited, there must have been a reason.
“Haha, even I don’t know that far.”
Jiwon, who had been somewhat tense, sighed at Won Jungyeom’s deflating response.
“Let’s think about that now. Why it quietly pretended to be me for hours.”
It probably wasn’t for a surprise attack. Jiwon and Suhyun hadn’t noticed the change in Won Jungyeom. Yet Riska chose to openly reveal its presence instead of launching a surprise attack.
Why did it do that? What did it gain from doing so?
“…Could it have been trying to read information?”
When Jiwon couldn’t find a suitable answer, Suhyun offered his opinion.
“Information?”
“It used Esper-nim Won Jungyeom’s ability exactly the same way. Perhaps it needed time to read information and learn.”
“…You’re saying I was controlled and my ability was used?”
“Yes. Used exactly the same way.”
Won Jungyeom’s eyes wavered at the mention of his ability being used. He had heard about the attack, but apparently hadn’t known his ability had been exploited.
“Rather than information…”
Meanwhile, getting a hint from Suhyun’s words, Jiwon spoke up.
“Couldn’t it have been reading memories? There’s no set way to use abilities, right? You figure it out yourself. Like guiding.”
Espers and Guides don’t have instructions for using their abilities. They have to find the feeling themselves. That’s why it was all the more surprising that Suhyun had used his ability at the moment of awakening.
“If memories are shared, it would be much quicker to figure out how to use the abilities.”
“That assumption itself is too creepy.”
“Now that I think about it, it even imitated Esper-nim Won Jungyeom’s way of speaking. So even if it was quiet, we couldn’t feel any sense of incongruity.”
“…Riska said it was evolving. Perhaps their evolution method is to acquire and use the information from the bodies they control.”
“That’s… not a hopeful piece of news.”
Won Jungyeom gave a bitter smile. Jiwon agreed.
At first, it made Espers who entered the dungeon use their abilities without realizing their wavelengths were being disrupted, causing them to go berserk.
Then when Guides were sent in, it made them kill the Guides, and when they tried not to enter the dungeon at all, it pulled Espers into the dungeon.
And now it was controlling Espers outside the dungeon to attack their surroundings.
From inside the dungeon to the outside. Riska’s territory was expanding at an alarming rate.
“So… Team Leader Jo Wooyeon, what do you think of this opinion?”
Jiwon, who had been swallowing a sigh, quickly turned his head at Won Jungyeom’s words. Jo Wooyeon was leaning against the doorway, though no one had noticed when he had arrived.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s a credible hypothesis.”
Jo Wooyeon responded naturally, as if he had been there from the beginning.
“We’ll need to prepare countermeasures based on that opinion.”
Suhyun also seemed to have already noticed Jo Wooyeon’s arrival.
“Now that Team Leader Jo is here too, it feels more official. Like an emergency response committee, that kind of feeling?”
Won Jungyeom giggled as Jo Wooyeon approached. Jo Wooyeon, on the other hand, gave a bitter smile.
“I suppose so.”
South Korea was the only country in the world confronting the Riska dungeon. However, only a few people, including S-class ability users Suhyun and Jiwon, were striving to find countermeasures.
There was the research institute that interpreted the clues the two brought back, and a few people like Jo Wooyeon and Won Jungyeom who contemplated how to deal with the situation based on that information.
The executives who could be considered the core of the Association merely nodded at the results produced by a small number of people running themselves ragged, and only handled the announcements.
“At least they’re not opposing every suggestion, right?”
They didn’t even expect a team like an emergency response committee to be formed. From the beginning, there was no chance of creating a team composed solely of ability users.
‘I wonder how long they’re going to fear ability users…’
Just as his mind was becoming clouded with useless thoughts, Suhyun patted Jiwon’s shoulder.
“I didn’t get to mention this earlier, but there’s something puzzling.”
All three pairs of eyes turned to Suhyun at once.
“When I attacked the dungeon entrance, Esper-nim Won Jungyeom, or rather Riska, was in pain.”
“…You attacked the dungeon entrance?”
“Yes. I judged that if it was emitting wavelengths through the entrance to control Espers, an attack directed at the entrance might interfere with Riska’s wavelength.”
“Ah.”
Jiwon exclaimed. Despite being present in that situation, he had been so preoccupied with watching over Won Jungyeom that he hadn’t properly remembered.
“That’s right. Every time Esper-nim Suhyun attacked the entrance, Esper-nim Jungyeom was in pain.”
When dungeons first appeared, ability users had tried attacking dungeon entrances first.
They believed that if they destroyed the entrance, the connection to the dungeon would disappear, eliminating the need to go inside.
But no matter how powerful the Esper, the entrance remained unscathed.
“The entrance didn’t show even a small crack. But I believe it had an impact on Riska, which was using its power through the entrance.”
“…Could Riska be the dungeon entrance itself?”
Jo Wooyeon murmured with a confused expression.
“I think the entrance is just a medium. Isn’t it expanding its territory from that center?”
“Expanding its territory?”
“Starting from inside the dungeon, and now to the outside.”
A chilling atmosphere descended.
“So it means they’re getting stronger.”
Jo Wooyeon answered slowly. Suhyun nodded.
“Well, then it’s simpler than I thought!”
It was then that Won Jungyeom, who had been quietly listening, raised his head with a laugh.
“What’s simple?”
“Huh? The attacks on the entrance are effective, right? The attack won’t kill it, but it weakens its power to control Espers, doesn’t it?”
“Hmm….”
Suhyun had developed an immunity to Riska’s mental control. But if Riska was evolving, there was no knowing when he might be controlled again.
But if, as Won Jungyeom was suggesting now, they could attack the entrance to weaken its power to control Espers, there was definitely a chance.
“Okay, here’s a question!”
“……”
“What would happen if I went to the Riska dungeon again, and Esper Suhyun and I attacked the entrance?”
Everyone fell silent. They understood Won Jungyeom’s intention, but couldn’t easily agree to gambling on an uncertain assumption.
