# Chapter 36
Until he heard the word “Nox,” Raon had considered it largely unrelated to him. But the moment he heard the name Nox from their lips, Raon irritably ran his fingers through his hair and searched for his phone. Was it a dungeon where he said he was going briefly? If a request for cooperation had come from the Center, they would have somehow found and contacted him. But his phone hadn’t rung last night. At least not in his memory.
“Isn’t this all because Nox moved to the civilian center? When he was with NCSC, he would be deployed even before incidents happened, avoiding these dangerous situations, but these days he’s not even seen at S-grade dungeons… What would have happened if Nox hadn’t been deployed or was even more delayed? Everyone’s talking like this because it’s been resolved, but what if something had gone wrong!”
A suddenly appeared dungeon and an Esper who could stop it, a Guide who protects the Esper. All of these were variables that occurred in an unexpected situation, and somehow Nox had become the center of their heated discussion. So now they were saying it was because Nox had transferred to the Center and couldn’t be deployed immediately when necessary.
If it had been NCSC, as they said, he would have been deployed immediately. After all, they viewed Nox not as a person but as a convenient tool measured by standards like efficiency and effectiveness, just as Hyukjin had said.
The criticism aimed at Nox was now spreading to the MK Center as well. They were saying that MK was intentionally hiding Nox and conducting experiments.
“Where did this go now?”
After searching for a while, Raon found his phone lying turned off on the vanity table in front of the bathroom. While waiting for it to power on, Raon headed back to the living room TV.
As soon as it turned on, Raon was startled by the series of vibrations and alerts coming in. At the same time, Jay contacted him.
“Where’s Jaehwi?”
Immediately pressing the call button, Raon checked on Jaehwi first.
[Please open the door first.]
“You can just open it yourself and come in. Why are you asking me to open the door? Did you lose your key card?”
Heading to the entrance, Raon flung the door open, ended the call, and checked his missed messages. All the missed communications were from Jay.
“Did the NCSC request go directly to Jaehwi? If they had asked me, I would have definitely rejected it. This stupid bastard left without properly telling me. So where is Jaehwi now? Is he returning?”
Though it seemed he hadn’t heard properly due to being half-asleep, Raon sipped some hot coffee while mentioning Jaehwi and kept his eyes on their nonsensical talk.
“Get a recording of that broadcast now, and have the company lawyer review it. Not just about MK, but also about Nox. We need to make an example of what happens when people wag their tongues carelessly. Search the internet for any excessive speculation or rumors and bundle it all together to deal with it at once.”
Jay wasn’t immediately answering his questions, but as Raon continued talking while taking milk from the refrigerator, he paused and glanced at the door. Only after seeing Jay dressed neatly as usual did Raon pour milk into his coffee cup.
“I think you need to go right now.”
“Where?”
The dark brown coffee gradually changed to a light brown as it mixed with the milk.
“They say there’s a problem with Nox.”
The coffee cup overflowed, and white milk spread across the table.
“So where is he?”
“…He’s in the underground isolation room at the MK Center branch near the site.”
Only then did Raon notice that there were two more people behind Jay. One was an Esper with teleportation abilities, and the other was Aiden.
His headache worsened when he saw Aiden, who seemed to have not fully recovered from both alcohol and sleep. Was the situation so urgent that they needed to borrow an Esper’s teleportation ability rather than using an airplane or helicopter?
Before Raon could hear more of the situation report from Jay, he heard, “Excuse me for a moment.” Someone placed their hand on Raon’s shoulder without permission, and then there was silence.
Covering his lower face with his hand due to the dizziness accompanied by nausea, Raon couldn’t open his closed eyes right away. Knowing that it was Jay who firmly held him before he could stagger and fall, Raon relaxed his body and leaned against him.
“Are you alright?”
Raon slowly inhaled and exhaled while waiting for the dizziness to subside. The reason teleportation abilities weren’t used, despite being able to move hundreds to thousands of kilometers in the blink of an eye, was because of these aftereffects. Though they said Espers who used teleportation abilities weren’t affected, people who were transported this way had to suffer from this unpleasant sensation for at least a day.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Raon pressed his forehead with his hand, opened his eyes, and moved away from Jay’s embrace.
“Take care of Aiden.”
Guided by a Center branch employee to the underground isolation room, Raon kept slowly clenching and unclenching his fist as his fingertips felt numb. Why hadn’t Jay come into the room to wake him up after constantly contacting him? If it was such an urgent matter, instead of waiting for his permission, they should have sent Aiden to the branch first.
He had nothing to check or ask. All possible responses were floating simultaneously in his head.
Raon, who had his eyes closed as it was difficult to even look at the elevator buttons going down for a long time, only opened them when he heard the arrival sound. The cool temperature indicated that this place was quite far from the ground. The underground floor, designed solely for security and safety rather than clean interior decoration, was desolation itself. The space, consisting only of walls and doors without windows, was illuminated by fluorescent lights.
After passing through the increasingly thick third security door, Raon stood in front of the final door, which had a complicated procedure just to open.
“Where is this place?”
Aiden, who had been clinging to Jay almost desperately while complaining of dry heaves and dizziness, now seemed to properly grasp the seriousness of the situation.
“Are you Mr. Kang Raon, Head of the MK Center Management Team?”
Raon handed over his Guide ID, which he had kept in his wallet but never taken out. They already knew who he was, but this was the final verification procedure. The person who received his ID hesitated for a moment, but Raon’s ID was quickly returned to his hand.
“Mr. Aiden Jung, G0613S?”
“Here.”
Aiden also handed over his Guide ID, which every Guide was required to carry at all times.
“This way, please.”
“Jay, wait here. There’s a high possibility we’ll move to the main center depending on Jaehwi’s condition, so contact Hyukjin and find the optimal method for transfer at any time.”
Raon gave orders to Jay, who had tried to follow but was stopped, and silently watched Aiden, who was staggering toward his side.
“Curious?”
“Yes.”
“Most Esper and Guide management centers have isolation rooms underground. As you can guess from the word ‘isolation’, it’s close to a space where Espers on the verge of outbreak are confined. It’s a space designed to minimize damage from Esper outbreaks.”
“Team Leader!”
“Everything you’re about to see and hear is confidential. If you think Guiding will be difficult after the situation report, it’s okay to give up. In cases where Guiding can’t solve the problem, there’s only one choice. To relieve the pain as quickly as possible.”
In the dry and cold space, Raon’s tightly locked voice along with the footsteps of the three people echoed through the space. As they entered the situation room, several researchers greeted them, but Raon silently looked at the dark space.
“…”
As the dark space brightened, Raon could clearly feel Aiden’s surprise as he gasped.
It wasn’t the first time seeing an Esper outbreak. No matter how well-managed or supported to maintain the best condition, not all outbreaks could be prevented. But even Raon had never seen such a quiet and terrifying outbreak before.
Jaehwi, still in his combat uniform, was floating in an empty space. His body was completely covered in black, and the only visible skin was his hands and face, but his hands were already covered in dark red blood, and his face wasn’t clearly visible.
A black fog-like substance that rippled around Jaehwi’s entire body kept covering his face. Through the mirage-like black fog, Jaehwi’s face, glimpsed briefly, looked as peaceful as if he were asleep.
“Report the situation.”
“…We don’t know.”
At the hesitant researcher’s response, Raon sighed deeply. Since they couldn’t attach any devices, there was no way to know. If it were a fire attribute, the space containing the Esper would be engulfed in flames; if it were water, there would be water; if it were wind, there would typically be wind.
In those cases, they could at least gauge the situation by the heat, amount of water, or strength of wind, but the space where Jaehwi was located was quiet.
“Just before he was moved here?”
“He was deployed in a situation where a dungeon outbreak was expected, and as soon as Nox entered, all Espers inside the dungeon retreated. His last words when he came out after an hour of deployment were to send him to the underground isolation room. He walked in on his own, and he’s been in that state ever since.”
Not forcibly isolated, but walked in on his own? As soon as Raon entered, he unfolded his arms and pressed the microphone button.
