Chapter 116: Answer

The Crow looked Yi Jun up and down and let out a low laugh.

Asking to be eaten without a trace?

“Alright. I won’t leave a single drop of blood.”

The Crow caressed Yi Jun’s pale cheek and said they should be together forever.

Yi Jun, who didn’t push his hand away and simply met his gaze, had another nosebleed.

“I told you to ask if you have any questions.”

The Crow clicked his tongue lightly and removed his hand from Yi Jun’s face.

It seemed he was overexerting his mind-type ability to read his thoughts.

What did he think he could do with a body that couldn’t even regenerate a severed wrist?

“You ask to be eaten, so why use your ability? What are you curious about?”

“How old are you?”

The Crow’s laughter burst out again at Yi Jun for asking for such useless information.

Of all the countless Espers he had seen, this one was the most unpredictable character.

“What’s your real name?”

“You’re really strange. What are you going to do with that information?”

Wiping away tears that had welled up from laughing, the Crow grinned as if he’d heard a joke.

Following the Crow’s somewhat exaggerated laughter, Yi Jun also smiled faintly.

He wanted the Crow to swallow him up quickly.

Before his consciousness faded.

“You don’t know either.”

Yi Jun, tilting his head with a worldly, mischievous smile, hit a nerve with the Crow, who still wouldn’t answer.

“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you? Your original name, body, and even your memories.”

Yi Jun gained certainty from the slow disappearance of the Crow’s smile.

He could picture his musty life, having lived by absorbing others like a wanderer looking for an empty house because only his soul remained.

“You’ve forgotten because it’s been too long.”

“You talk a bit too much.”

The Crow, having lost all trace of his smile, roughly grabbed the back of Yi Jun’s head.

He had planned to eat him after he had fully healed and was healthy.

But since he was clamoring to be killed like this, he decided to finish him off first.

“You can chatter all you want inside my stomach. There will be plenty of people in there to listen.”

The Crow licked his sharp canine teeth with the tip of his tongue, baring them.

He buried his nose in the white, bruised neck, savoring the scent of young flesh that smelled faintly of milk, and listened for the world outside where the gate would open.

Just as the Crow had wished, the strong Espers gathered in droves were decorating the table for a magnificent feast.

“Yi Jun.”

‘If I can dominate their minds, no one will be able to interfere with me anymore.’

“Thank you for being born.”

The Crow, having finished his personal pre-meal greeting, smiled gently.

At that moment, Yi Jun’s curved eyes widened into circles.

“Say that again.”

The Crow willingly granted Yi Jun’s last request.

“I’ll enjoy the meal,” his whispering lips twitched.

His leisurely face was making a rather cute expression.

All from a single phrase, “Thank you for being born.”

“….”

The Crow, who had been observing his fine-looking prey for a moment, suddenly lowered his gaze and sharpened all five of his senses.

Aram was in danger.

An ominous feeling struck his spine, signaling Aram’s death.

A vein popped on the Crow’s forehead as he sensed her danger.

Was there an Esper at the Center capable of handling Aram?

***

The moment his blood on Aram’s hand seeped into her skin, Tae Hwan knew instinctively.

‘So it’s blood. The catalyst that triggers the rampage.’

“Let me go. Or I’ll kill you.”

As if to prove her point, Aram gave Tae Hwan a taste of the rampage’s pain as a warning.

A rush of blood surged up from his esophagus, and Tae Hwan’s brow furrowed.

It was an impact that would have made a normal Esper lose consciousness.

However, Tae Hwan instead emitted an even stronger aura, grabbed Aram’s neck with his bare hands, and crushed the hand he had been so desperately searching for.

Now that he knew about the rampage ability, there was no reason to avoid it.

“Do it.”

Tae Hwan, who had begun to slowly crush the bones in Aram’s hand, wore a savage smile.

Even as blood poured from every orifice of his body, he didn’t let out even a faint groan.

His face was nonchalant, like someone accustomed to pain.

On top of that, he was even provoking Aram, the rampage ability user.

“I said, do it.”

Ji Oh, still buried in the ground, hurled every curse imaginable at Tae Hwan in his mind for his crazy actions.

‘Is that bastard trying to get us all killed?’

“If I go on a rampage, you die too. Every single bastard here.”

Tae Hwan used his psychokinesis to drag out an unregistered Esper who was hiding behind a building and threw Aram’s warning right back at her.

The unregistered Esper, dragged out in an instant, screamed Aram’s name and struggled violently to break free from the psychokinesis.

“Jinhyuk…”

Hearing the captured Jinhyuk’s voice, Aram’s face went pale and she began to struggle.

They seemed to be quite fond of each other.

Confirming this, Tae Hwan immediately broke the joints of the unregistered Esper called Jinhyuk.

“Ah… ah…!”

Aram, who hadn’t flinched even when her eyeballs and wrists were pulled out, finally reacted.

As Jinhyuk’s screams grew louder, Aram’s mouth opened in tandem.

“Where’s the Crow?”

Tae Hwan didn’t kill Aram right away, instead tormenting her until he could get some useful information out of her.

By beating Jinhyuk instead of Aram, who seemed insensitive to pain.

“Are you not close with the bastard who opens the gates?”

Cursing that they should stick together to make them easier to catch, Tae Hwan grimaced at a throbbing headache.

He was only human, and the wavelength destabilized by the pain was instilling even greater fear in the surrounding Espers.

Aram felt the illusion that the air was burning from the fluctuating S-class wavelength.

She felt a suffocating terror from Tae Hwan, who was gripping her neck tightly so she couldn’t escape being caught in the rampage.

“Answer.”

She couldn’t make a peep under his oppressive presence.

Tae Hwan was terrifying.

No matter how rare her ability, Aram was just a young Esper swayed by threats.

She wailed at the sound of Jinhyuk’s fading breath and ended up fainting on her own.

“Ha.”

‘And I haven’t even gotten any information yet.’

Tae Hwan, who had nudged the faces of the unconscious Aram and Jinhyuk with his foot, spat out the foreign object in his throat onto the ground.

Seeing that it was a rather thick clot of blood, he narrowed his eyes, wondering if a ruptured organ had popped out.

He couldn’t see properly because blood was flowing from his eyes as well.

“Lee Tae Hwan, you crazy bastard! I told you not to touch Aram! Are your ears blocked?!”

Finally freed from Tae Hwan’s psychokinesis, Ji Oh gathered the twin brothers and yelled curses at the man who had lost all sense of fear.

He didn’t stop talking even as he quickly pulled out restraint ties and bound the twins.

In any case, they had caught Aram, so there wasn’t a huge problem, but still.

“Answer me, you son of a b*tch!”

Ji Oh, who had also tied up Jinhyuk with restraint ties, glared at Tae Hwan, who didn’t react even after being cursed at.

Tae Hwan just rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh.

‘Shit. I can’t see.’

“How’s Tae Hwan’s condition?”

Team Leader Baek asked, appearing from thin air.

She was maintaining a minimum safe distance, monitoring Tae Hwan and Aram’s situation.

Even now, she had sent a clone instead of her main body as a precaution against any unforeseen danger.

“Esper Lee Tae Hwan. Report your status.”

Team Leader Baek scanned Tae Hwan with a sharp gaze.

His condition was obvious even without a report.

So much so that Ji Oh, who had only then noticed Tae Hwan covered in blood, shut his mouth.

He had been so focused on dealing with the unregistered Espers that he had only later discovered Lee Tae Hwan was bleeding profusely.

His appearance was so ghastly it was hard to believe he was standing on his own two feet.

‘To think he took down the unregistered Espers in that state. f*cking psycho.’

Team Leader Baek, who had increased her number of clones, first placed a restraint on Aram but did not move her from the spot.

Since Tae Hwan seemed to know how to handle her properly, she decided to keep them close.

By now, she expected his dedicated guide would arrive, having checked Tae Hwan’s heightened wavelength readings.

If not, she would call for one.

“What. Did you come alone?”

Footsteps arrived, perfectly matching Team Leader Baek’s prediction, but there was only one set.

Seung Ho had left Bodam with Team Leader Kim and had come to survey the scene first.

To see if it was a situation Bodam could come to.

“Blegh. Ptoo.”

Tae Hwan, who coolly vomited out the blood that kept rising in his throat, looked for water.

Although he was standing upright, his balance was off, so it seemed he was holding on by sheer willpower.

Even his breathing was unstable.

“Just bring him. It’ll be a pain if his readings get any higher.”

“He’s not one to rampage easily.”

“Aren’t you going to catch the Crow? Ji Oh, you go get the guide.”

“Stay put.”

Seung Ho, cutting off Team Leader Baek’s command, instructed Ji Oh.

Ji Oh had no intention of going anyway.

If Yoon Bodam saw Lee Tae Hwan’s horrendous state, he would surely shower him with mucosal guiding.

That’s why he didn’t go.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

Before the rarely, genuinely furious Team Leader Baek could open her mouth, Seung Ho’s phone rang.

It was a call from Team Leader Kim.

“What is it.”

– How is it? Can we come?

“No.”

Team Leader Kim, who let out a low sigh at Seung Ho’s unhesitating reply, asked if it was really bad.

Seung Ho, delaying his answer for a moment, listened to Bodam’s voice coming through between Team Leader Kim’s words.

His voice was trembling with anxiety.

– The Guide-nim’s watch is going off like crazy.

Seung Ho recalled Bodam’s watch, which had been blaring loudly even when he was with him, and stared at Tae Hwan.

The warning sound indicating a high wavelength reading also rang from Tae Hwan’s wrist.

It wouldn’t affect an Esper’s wrist, but Bodam, with his slender frame, might have his broken.

In fact, it was one of the injuries guides often suffered.

“Cough.”

Tae Hwan, who couldn’t breathe properly, bent his upper body and was trying to recover his damaged vision first.

His regeneration was slow due to the impatience filling him at the thought of catching the Crow.

– Is Lee Tae Hwan okay? Let me talk to him!

Seung Ho’s expression hardened even more at Bodam’s voice, which was on the verge of tears.

He finally said to Team Leader Kim.

“Come in one minute.”

Hanging up, Seung Ho immediately walked toward Tae Hwan.

Tae Hwan, reading Seung Ho’s wavelength, let his guard down at the approaching hand, only to be grabbed by the collar and pulled up.

Then.

“What,”

Before he could even finish asking, his mouth was covered.