# Chapter 8
It was a perfect hit.
Ice chunks shaped like spearheads poured relentlessly onto the back of the unregistered Esper who had barely avoided the attack by hanging from the cave ceiling.
Admiring his masterpiece, Yeo Dowoon hummed a tune while taking aim at the ice net. The moment was approaching to drag that fresh fish and throw it in front of Kwon Jeonghoo.
Retirement, retirement, retirement. Wonderful retirement.
He planned to leave behind all the necessities he had carefully accumulated at the Esper base for ten years for his unlucky successor. In truth, it would be too much to take everything anyway.
Whatever, might as well go on a massive shopping spree instead.
“…This son of a bitch!”
But just before capturing the fish he’d nearly caught, he had to change the direction of his attack while looking back at the tunnel where he had hidden Cha Haseong.
The ice net immediately expanded into a flat tent shape to catch the collapsing cave wall.
CRASH! The unregistered Esper, who had succeeded in attacking the cave wall like a mouse even with ice lodged in his waist, landed triumphantly.
Drip, drip…
Despite the pool of blood at his feet, he merely pulled out the ice spear embedded in his abdomen as if it were nothing.
As clots of congealed blood fell with a splat, Dowoon seized the moment to use his ability once more.
Perhaps due to the anger clouding his vision, a desire welled up to kill the fish right here if he couldn’t catch it.
After all, that bastard isn’t even a civilian.
“Damn it!”
BOOM! But the timing was horrendously bad. The rock layer forming the cliff shook and shed blackish fragments.
At the same time, a high-pitched KWEEEK filled every corner of the cave. The sound of wing flaps, incomparably more dramatic than that of the baby monster, battered his ears.
No. This wasn’t the sound of wing flaps but of wings destroying the cave. The mother monster, sensing her offspring’s death, was expressing her hostility and malice.
“Captain. Can you hear me?”
To make matters worse, the connection with Kwon Jeonghoo had been completely cut off.
He was probably trying to prevent the mother from barging into the dungeon by disrupting the monster’s consciousness after disconnecting their mental link.
Dowoon gritted his teeth and endured the sensation of his blood vessels expanding.
That bastard must be a physical type. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to join in the mother’s rampage by shaking the rock layers!
If it weren’t for Cha Haseong, Dowoon could have easily gotten his hands on the expensive fish that would help his retirement. If he got bored, he could have even kept it in a tank and played with it a few times.
But now Dowoon had the enormous penalty of Cha Haseong’s presence, and the dungeon was on the verge of total destruction due to the mother’s attack.
“Hahaha…!”
The unregistered Esper who had suddenly appeared and blown up the baby monster was helping the mother with all his might, as if he couldn’t miss this precious opportunity.
His vulgar laughter—”hahaha”—was bizarre and jarring. Dowoon was irritated.
“Nothing’s going right, seriously.”
The ice barrier he had created boasted enough durability to withstand simultaneous attacks from five or six monsters, but its particles were small and compact, which meant it also had limitations.
If trapped for a long time, the oxygen concentration would become scarce.
So if the cave collapsed now, his fiancé Cha Haseong would lose consciousness before he could withstand the search time and process.
“Damn it.”
Cursing briefly, Dowoon spun around and poured abilities beyond his limit toward the dungeon entrance where Cha Haseong was isolated.
“Kugh…!”
Blood with a metallic taste spurted from his nostrils, eardrums, and mouth. Since this wasn’t an unfamiliar symptom, Dowoon silently focused on his task.
Leaving the unregistered Esper who could solve his unsolvable retirement problem to either escape or not, he began coating everything with ice solely to conclude the situation.
Fuck, of course.
If he had to choose between retirement and Cha Haseong, Dowoon would embrace Haseong’s name without a second thought.
From the beginning, his retirement was a decision made to wash away his explosive feelings for Haseong, and his resignation was submitted to completely erase his futile desires.
But to abandon Cha Haseong? That was impossible even if the world turned upside down.
“Hah…”
Zzzzt, zzzzzt! Intense sparks flew in his head.
Perhaps because it was a dangerous attempt that would frost even the ability user himself, his swollen blood vessels cooled down, and now his breathing rate was noticeably decreasing.
Still, the result seemed quite successful, as Kwon Jeonghoo’s mental link reconnected with a crackle.
-You never listen to your superior even if it kills you, Yeo Dowoon! Release your ability and breathe!
‘I’d like to, but…’
The first part to freeze was the warm flesh inside his mouth. After pondering the reason, he thought it might be a divine message to stop running his mouth about whether he’d caught his prey or not.
Dowoon proudly took in the spectacle of the dungeon interior being covered in white, like a day in the ice age. Ah, the view is gorgeous enough to die for.
So if this were the final scene he’d witness before death, he could depart with utmost satisfaction.
-The mother and the dungeon are all frozen so stop now, kid! At this rate, even your heartbeat will…!
His eyelids cooled, and his pupils became cloudy. His heart throbbed more dully than anything he had ever experienced. This must be exactly how brave warriors who froze guarding the snow fields felt.
‘Will I freeze to death, or suffocate?’
Even for a genius with a 0.02% rampage probability, there are glaringly obvious flaws in his abilities.
‘Since it’s come to this, I’d prefer to die quickly.’
That is, even he couldn’t predict when and where he would be consumed by his own abilities.
***
Would Cha Haseong be safe? The barrier inside was warm and comfortable like an igloo, so he should be fine.
Did that son of a whore actually escape the dungeon?
With good timing, he would have been caught in a glorious explosion right before fleeing, but Dowoon couldn’t say for certain what the outcome was.
“…I’m cold.”
Dowoon, with thick needles stuck all over his pale arms and wrists, sniffled and asked:
“Captain, you didn’t turn on the air conditioner, did you?”
“No. The heater is on.”
“…You must be extremely hot then. I’m freezing to death, so please turn it off.”
“I said the heater is on.”
“This isn’t the Siberian plains, what is this? What is this?”
Looking at his state, he was truly a childish fool who didn’t act his age.
But Kwon Jeonghoo pitied him. He found the broken body still suffering from aftereffects and the hollowed, sunken eyes beneath particularly pitiful.
“Why are you avoiding Guiding?”
Sitting on a hospital room chair, chewing on a cigarette filter, he asked in a cracked voice.
Shortly after the explosion, when Dowoon was rescued in a state as rigid as a Permian fossil, Cha Haseong had clung to him on his own and performed contact Guiding.
Thawing his momentarily stopped heart, loosening his constricted chest, reviving his blood vessels.
But as soon as Dowoon regained consciousness, he firmly pushed him away and refused.
‘I don’t want it, leave me alone!’
As his resistance intensified, naturally, his uncontrolled abilities began to open, threatening to freeze the surroundings again.
So Cha Haseong had no choice but to reluctantly surrender. He was currently in an endless waiting period, awaiting Dowoon’s call.
“I’ll get it from Woomin-hyung.”
The situation didn’t particularly change even after Dowoon stabilized. At this curt response, Jeonghoo spat out his cigarette butt and took several heavy breaths in succession.
It was simply incredible to watch him being stubborn even when he looked like a corpse.
Having observed Dowoon’s recovery while watching over his hospital room for days, Jeonghoo asked in a voice coarser than usual:
“Are you embarrassed?”
“I’m not a child.”
“Right. You’re not a child, Dowoon.”
Disheveled hair and chapped lips.
Dowoon stared at Jeonghoo, who was sitting in a similar disheveled state, and nodded his chin. But he still wouldn’t give a definite answer about receiving Guiding from Cha Haseong.
“You know, hyung.”
It wasn’t because he was ashamed of returning with such a failure after leaving confidently, nor was it because of his obsession with wanting to show only his reliable side to Cha Haseong.
“I still tremble when I receive Guiding. I get excited.”
Though he spoke plainly, it didn’t appear very natural. Dowoon, who alleviated some of the tingling in his solar plexus by clenching and unclenching his fist, said while randomly crumpling his hospital gown:
“They say it’s natural for Espers, but it’s not normal to want to kiss and hug someone every time you receive Guiding.”
“…”
“Don’t tell me you feel this way too, Captain?”
When Jeonghoo immediately frowned, Dowoon relaxed his tense shoulders as if relieved.
“I left a mark on that bastard who ran away. I’ll find him somehow.”
