Chapter 30: Gate

“Took me a while to find you.”

Kang Yi Jun said with a bright smile, gripping the Teleport Esper’s arm roughly.

The Teleport Esper, clearly suppressed by Yi Jun’s smiling aura, breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at Team Leader Han.

Only a Barrier Esper could handle a Mind-type on the verge of losing control.

Of all days, to get blacklisted on a Tuesday, even more hellish than the f*cking Monday.

The Esper cursed his wretched week and just waited for Kang Yi Jun to release his hand.

Today, Esper Kang Yi Jun’s smiling face had an exceptionally sharp edge.

“Aargh!!”

The Teleport Esper screamed as Yi Jun suddenly squeezed the arm he was holding.

He struggled, feeling his arm being squeezed almost to the breaking point.

“Kang Yi Jun. Let go.”

Seung Ho warned Yi Jun.

Team Leader Kim, who was about to teleport away, noticed Kang Yi Jun’s action and first held his ground.

He shielded the small body behind his back to prevent him from confronting Bodam.

“I can’t let go. He’s a hostage.”

Yi Jun, giving a fresh smile, dangled the arm he was holding.

The Esper, groaning in pain, slumped to the ground.

Judging by his inability to exert proper strength, Yi Jun seemed to have used mental manipulation.

“I told you not to use your ability on people.”

“I didn’t use it on a person, I used it on an Esper.”

Yi Jun, with a wide grin, held the Teleport Esper’s arm and playfully stretched it.

When he erased the screaming Esper’s senses, the Esper’s face turned blank, and he slowly blinked his eyes.

Yi Jun, satisfied that the ear-splitting screams had subsided, continued his conversation with Seung Ho.

“My watch is acting weird. It looks like an error.”

Seung Ho, standing his ground, didn’t look at the watch Yi Jun held out.

“My connection with Brother Bodam is cut. Why?”

He tilted his head as if genuinely curious and repeatedly read the alert message on his watch.

It was a message he had already read countless times.

Exclusive Guide Connection Terminated.

“Is he dead?”

Yi Jun, who had raised his head from looking at his wrist, looked at Team Leader Kim and asked.

He was disappointed not to see the guide hiding like a mouse behind him.

“He quit.”

Seung Ho, sweeping back his rain-soaked hair, replied plainly.

He watched the Esper dangling from Yi Jun’s hand with an unchangingly calm gaze.

It was impossible to pull the person Yi Jun was touching away with a barrier or psychokinesis.

As long as there was physical contact, he couldn’t release the mental manipulation.

Things were getting troublesome.

“Quit what?”

Yi Jun, who had spread his palm to shield his eyes from the rain and placed it over his eyebrows, asked again with wide eyes.

He was calmly pretending not to know something he clearly knew.

His gray eyes stared through Team Leader Kim’s body as if to penetrate it.

Yoon Bodam was beyond him.

“Don’t escalate this.”

Seung Ho, who stood between them, spoke in a low voice.

Kang Yi Jun was not one to comply readily.

“Then give me my guide.”

Seung Ho, ignoring Yi Jun’s words, turned his back.

He spoke towards Team Leader Kim, who stood behind him with his arms crossed, overtly showing his leisure.

His words were directed at the guide standing behind him.

“If you’re done saying what you need to say, go.”

“Are you done?”

Team Leader Kim, turning his head back, leaned his face close to Bodam’s brown hair and asked.

It seemed they were conversing with their eyes, as Bodam’s voice was not heard.

Yi Jun, watching them quietly, tilted his head with a question mark.

“Hey, Mister Barrier.”

Team Leader Kim, who was nearing thirty and thus instinctively reacted to the word ‘Mister,’ made eye contact with Yi Jun.

“Mister what?”

He was still at an age where he preferred to be called ‘Hyung.’

Putting aside his annoyance, Team Leader Kim, who had learned the composure of an adult early on, smiled.

He had accumulated many complaints from cleaning up after the reckless Attack Espers.

Barrier users and Attack Team members generally didn’t get along well.

Even when they met in the field, they would reveal their animosity and pick fights.

“Greasy Mister. Don’t touch Brother Bodam.”

“Is that a warning, or a request? If it’s a request, I’ll consider it.”

“Let’s say it’s a request, then.”

Yi Jun shrugged and curved his eyes into a smile.

Team Leader Kim, who smiled just as brightly, continued the conversation.

“Who makes a request like that?”

“My hyung is weak. If he gets too wet, he’ll collapse.”

“Why are you saying that with such a smile? It’s making me cringe, Mister.”

“Ah—that’s no fun.”

Yi Jun, rolling his eyes towards the pouring sky, moved his hand.

The sensation of his whole body getting wet and the incessant sound of rain quickly calmed his mood.

The torrential rain continued to drench the entire ground without stopping.

Yi Jun’s neat eyebrows twitched hysterically.

“Ugh…”

The Teleport Esper, whose pupils were unfocused, groaned.

Yi Jun grabbed him by the neck instead of the arm and lifted him.

He let him stand, placing his feet on the ground as if holding a doll his own height.

“Twenty-five-year-old Teleport Esper Choi Woo Shik. He broke up with his girlfriend of three years the day before yesterday. How sad.”

He lifted the Esper by the scruff of his neck and recited his personal information.

It was a nasty game he often played.

A bad habit of loudly reading other people’s inner thoughts and situations.

“Since he’s pitiful, should I kill him here?”

He raised his voice so that Bodam, who was hiding behind the Barrier Esper and not showing himself, could hear clearly.

He knew that if Brother Bodam, who was subtly hot-headed, wouldn’t stand idly by.

“Oh, twenty-five is the same age as Brother Bodam’s younger sister, right?”

Brother Bodam disliked talking about his family.

Every time it came up, he would huff and puff and his eyes would redden.

He wanted to see that pale face.

So much that he would rarely curse.

Just then, a monster twice Bodam’s height appeared from the Gate.

It wasn’t surprisingly large for a monster.

Team Leader Kim, who had been watching the Gate while exchanging pointless conversation with Yi Jun, turned around and faced Bodam.

He had been waiting for the Gate to open.

“Guide, tell me if it’s too hard.”

Team Leader Kim, who had blocked out the noise from outside the barrier, checked on Bodam.

The guide’s expression was stiff, looking at the horde of monsters pouring out of the open Gate.

“I’ll hug you for a moment.”

If confronting Kang Yi Jun, the Esper Yoon Bodam was most wary of, it would be best to avoid him, but Team Leader Kim preferred to escalate the problem to extract a quick solution.

The bigger the problem, the more he could punish the Esper who would inevitably break rules.

“Stick close.”

Team Leader Kim aimed for Kang Yi Jun Esper’s long-term confinement.

“Barrier unit, forward.”

Seung Ho commanded towards the barracks.

He made the gesture of clenching his fist and raising his arm, the practical training signal for the Barrier Team.

He had begun the scheduled field training for new recruits.

Team Leader Kim shook his head at his old colleague’s consistent attitude of strictly adhering to the schedule even in such a situation, and further strengthened the barrier.

The sound of monsters, who couldn’t make noise as they had no mouths, running on the muddy ground echoed fully.

Much larger movements than expected were appearing from the Gate, which had been chosen at an appropriate level for new recruit training.

Yi Jun, who had taken control of the monsters’ minds with just a small glance, began to gather more hordes.

With a bright smile on his face, he was tightly gripping their gooey brains and controlling the monsters’ limbs.

The rapidly increasing monstrous horde, as if enchanted, charged towards Team Leader Kim’s barrier.

The immense weight, enough to shake the ground, pressed down on the barrier.

Yi Jun wished the barrier would break.

He wanted to tear apart the formless transparent shield.

He wanted the white face hidden inside to be caught in his hands.

Just then, Bodam, who had been clinging to the Barrier Esper, revealed himself.

He was clinging tightly to the Esper’s back, who had turned away, and was peeking out his pale head.

Then he was horrified to see a monster with no nose or mouth, only gigantic eyeballs.

Yi Jun chuckled at Bodam’s expression, gasping with his small mouth.

Brother Bodam was timid but also curious.

Anyway, he was a guide with many flaws.

His face was pretty, but he was short, physically weak, and his luck was terribly bad.

‘Since he met me, that says it all.’

“Hyung. Come here.”

Yi Jun, whose thoughts were unreadable due to the barrier, mumbled in a rather desperate voice.

His voice was muffled by the sound of dozens of monsters running.

Soon, Brother Bodam, who was frozen with his mouth open, was obscured by the monster’s body and no longer visible.

Rumble.

The monsters, pushed together in one spot to the point where the ground sank, piled up, forming a tower.

The sturdy, dome-shaped barrier was completely obscured.

After that, organized chaos began.

Under Seung Ho’s command, the A-class new recruits who came out of the barracks were divided into teams around the barrier unit and suppressed the monsters.

Clumsy flames and psychokinesis clashed, and there was even a situation where attacks, reflected by mismatched barrier abilities, bounced back.

The grim Espers on the other side briefly caught their breath and watched the fresh Espers.

It was a mess that reminded them of old times.

At least the monsters were decreasing thanks to Team Leader Han.

“Don’t just randomly put up barriers, use your head.”

Team Leader Han Seung Ho, who focused solely on his own work more than anyone else, was concentrating on training the new recruits.

He removed his barrier and instructed each of them to survive on their own.

He didn’t even glance at some of the new recruits screaming and running away.

“The target of the barrier isn’t this right now.”

Seung Ho, who shattered the barrier of a new recruit whose arm was almost pierced by a giant scythe-shaped monster’s hand, said.

They were fighting in groups of five, centered around a Barrier Esper.

When Seung Ho broke the barrier, the sharp hands of the monsters rushed in.

The terrified new recruits barely managed to dodge attacks and struggled to defend themselves.

They needed to be able to protect themselves even without a barrier user.

This level of monster was too much.

“You guys, focus on the Mind-type Esper.”

Seung Ho gathered the attention of the barrier users and pointed at Kang Yi Jun, who stood idly far away.

“Even if your arm is torn off, your mind shouldn’t be taken. Prioritize situational awareness.”

“Yes, yes, understood!”

Yi Jun, not satisfied with just controlling monsters, tried to penetrate the new recruits’ minds.

Seung Ho, who had already placed a thin barrier on him, was assessing the extent of Yi Jun’s ability flow.

He didn’t completely subdue him, as it was an opportunity for the new recruits to experience a mind-type Esper.

The current situation, with him having received guiding and even pleasant rain pouring down, was advantageous for Seung Ho.

He let Kang Yi Jun run wild.

“How long are you going to keep this up?”

When about half of the monsters were cleared, Seung Ho approached Yi Jun and asked.

Judging by the way he was tightly gripping the unconscious Teleport Esper, he didn’t seem to intend to stop yet.

Yi Jun’s crimes, controlling monsters with the aim of coercion and even using mind-type abilities on other Espers, were too numerous.

“Until I get sick of it.”

Yi Jun, with slightly lowered eyelids, replied in a languid voice.

He was sending monsters from the Gate, as they emerged, towards Bodam, who was presumably trembling in fear within the narrow barrier.

It was quite unexpected that he was still holding out. The barrier user’s ability was better than expected.

“Ha….”

A sigh-like laugh escaped Yi Jun’s slightly parted lips.

Through the gaps in the monsters, he could see Brother Bodam, nestled in the Barrier Esper’s embrace.

He was completely huddled, burying his head in the unfamiliar Esper’s chest.

Thick arms pulled his thin body, wrapping him more snugly.

It wasn’t the scene he wanted.