# Chapter 81
“Dr. Yoon!”
The examination room door opened urgently, and an examiner entered with a panicked expression.
“What’s the matter?”
Dr. Yoon, who was checking Geonwoo’s condition, slightly turned his head and asked the anxious-looking man.
“We just received word that wavelengths that shouldn’t be detectable in a C-class Gate are flowing out from the Gate that occurred near the Center!”
“What are you talking about?”
Dr. Yoon frowned as he asked again.
“Are you saying the Gate’s grade has changed?”
“It seems so!”
The news of the grade change in the Gate that Jaehee and Dohyun had entered spread throughout the Center in an instant. The examination room where Geonwoo was located was no exception. The people gathered around Dr. Yoon looked surprised at those words.
“Everyone, focus!”
It was Dr. Yoon who brought everyone’s attention back.
“The team members who entered the Gate are A-class Esper Kang Dohyun and S-class Guide Lee Jaehee. There’s no need to worry.”
Dr. Yoon said this and ordered everyone to focus on the task right in front of them.
“What we need to do is erase the Bond that doesn’t have much left.”
Dr. Yoon nodded to the examiners operating the guiding machine. He gave instructions while alternating his gaze between the guiding machine and Geonwoo.
“Inject the maximum amount of guiding energy into Esper Choi Geonwoo.”
The remaining Bond measurement was less than 3%. This meant there wasn’t much left until the Bond was erased. Just a little more and the Bond connecting him to Jaehee would be erased.
“We need to completely erase the remaining Bond today.”
That would be the way to help Jaehee and Dohyun who were in the Gate. For Dr. Yoon who remained in the examination room, this was the only way to help them.
“It will all be over soon…”
Dr. Yoon looked at Geonwoo lying on the bed and let his words trail off.
Meanwhile, Geonwoo continued dreaming.
-Jaehee hyung!
Having been separated from his hyung for a long time, Geonwoo didn’t want to be apart from him even for a moment. Since there was a distance between the Guide dormitory and the building for undeveloped Espers, he would even secretly ask his hyung to let him stay over every time.
But the problem that occurred afterward made Geonwoo’s heart sink.
-Guide Lee Jaehee!
Inexplicable incidents and accidents continued endlessly around his hyung.
-Hyung!
Because of that, his hyung was always covered in wounds. Geonwoo, who had not yet manifested, couldn’t protect his hyung. The best he could do was to get hurt alongside him to reduce his hyung’s injuries.
It was the same now. As Jaehee passed by, objects on a shelf suddenly fell. Geonwoo, who was watching Jaehee’s surroundings vigilantly, noticed it first and embraced his hyung, shielding him with his own body.
-Huh? Mm… I’m fi-! Geonwoo! Are you okay?
His surprised hyung asked. Seeing Geonwoo hurt instead of himself, his hyung frowned.
-I should have been the one to get hurt…
-How could you say that, hyung.
Geonwoo comforted his hyung and scolded him for what he had just said. It wasn’t as if there was a predetermined fate that someone had to get hurt, and he couldn’t understand his hyung speaking so definitively.
And such days continued. The incidents and accidents truly occurred endlessly, in small but consistent ways. Just when they began to grow larger and feel dangerous, a new incident occurred within the Center.
-A Gate has appeared near the Center?
Everyone looked surprised, and Geonwoo immediately looked at Jaehee.
-The exact grade can only be confirmed when the Gate fully opens, but based on the current approximate measurements, it’s judged to be C-class. Although the grade is low, it has occurred very close to the Center, so it would be best for Esper Kang Dohyun and Guide Lee Jaehee to go.
And so his hyung headed toward the Gate. Geonwoo kept pleading with Jaehee the entire time.
-You have to be careful, hyung!
Since strange things happened around his hyung often, Geonwoo was worried. His hyung reassured him and headed to the Gate.
And Geonwoo’s worry became reality. No, it returned as an even worse nightmare.
-What… happened to hyung?
-Guide Lee Jaehee has fallen in battle at the Gate.
When Geonwoo went out to welcome his hyung, what greeted him was Jaehee’s cold, lifeless body.
-Jaehee… hyung?
His hyung Jaehee who had entered the Gate, who he thought would return safely, who he thought would definitely return even if injured, had returned to the Center dead. As that scene repeated, Geonwoo’s wavelength began to surge.
-Hyung…!
But the dream didn’t end there. It continued endlessly. Like a video rewinding, the dream showed Geonwoo that scene over and over again.
But it was strange. The repeated scenes were not the same.
Jaehee, whose entire body was cold, being carried by an Esper.
Jaehee, who returned to the Center in critical condition and received treatment, but ultimately closed his eyes and breathed his last without waking up.
Jaehee, who came back with numerous injuries, smiled faintly, and slowly died.
The places where he was injured and the timing of his death were all different.
Even when his hyung didn’t enter the Gate due to Geonwoo’s pleading dissuasion, the result was the same. Countless deaths were ultimately waiting for his hyung. Such deaths of his hyung were neatly stacked before Geonwoo’s eyes. Images of his hyung unable to open his eyes were imprinted one by one in his mind. As this happened, Geonwoo’s wavelength level began to rise terrifyingly.
And the last scene he saw was himself inside a massive Gate. Around him was the corpse of a giant monster. A monster of a size he had never seen before.
Moreover, an ominously strong wavelength was flowing out from that corpse. Since it hadn’t been dead for long, the wavelength that had been inside its body was flowing out. The size of the wavelength indicated that the monster before his eyes was an S-class monster.
-…
With such a monster corpse behind him, his dream self was looking down at his own hands. And through his blurry vision, he caught sight of someone. But with tears filling his eyes, the person wasn’t clearly visible.
But then.
-…Geon… woo…
His hyung’s voice, which seemed like it could break at any moment, was heard.
-…Hyung…
And the scene became clear. His dream self was sitting on the ground, screaming. In his arms was Jaehee hyung, who was desperately holding onto his last breath with only a weak guiding energy left.
Geonwoo immediately sought help from those around him. Painfully suppressing the wavelength that was on the verge of going out of control inside his body, he shouted for someone to please save his hyung. But not a single person offered help. No, to be precise, they couldn’t help. Because Lee Jaehee and Choi Geonwoo were “Bonded.”
People were simply looking at another S-class Guide, waiting for the Bond to break with his hyung’s death. To save the only S-class Esper, Choi Geonwoo.
‘This isn’t it either…’
In that moment, the emotions of his dream self and the dreaming Geonwoo became one. An unbearable, endless despair engulfed Geonwoo. His dream self, feeling his hyung dying, was going mad.
-Esper Choi Geonwoo!
The voices of surprised people noisily filled his ears. It couldn’t be helped. Because Geonwoo had caused himself to go out of control in front of people who were waiting for Jaehee’s death.
-Hyung…
Geonwoo couldn’t kill his hyung. So he chose to take his own life. As his breath gradually ceased, he could see his hyung’s face. A face that had turned deathly pale. A small body trying to move somehow to reach him.
-Ne… xt time… I’ll definitely…
Protect you…
His eyes closed, and Jaehee’s figure disappeared.
But that scene repeated. No, all the scenes were mixed up, showing the deaths of Jaehee and himself over and over. As such scenes continued endlessly, his wavelength level began to cross the threshold.
“Dr. Yoon!”
The voices of people surprised by that reading burst out one after another. Everyone urgently checked Geonwoo’s condition. They couldn’t understand the sudden surge in his wavelength.
“This is dangerous!”
The assistant who was checking the readings shouted with a face full of worry.
“If his wavelength continues to rise like this, his heart might stop because he won’t be able to endure it!”
Even his body, which had been suppressing the surge of wavelength, couldn’t suppress it this time.
Beep-beep-beep-!
The warning sound endlessly hit the eardrums, loud enough to be deafening. People tried to save Geonwoo. But his irregular heartbeat gradually faded away.
And.
Beep-beep-beep-!
Beeeeeeeeep…
A long, continuous tone indicating cardiac arrest spread throughout the examination room.
