Chapter 79: The Lair of the Unaffiliated

“An Association lackey.”

The man looked to be about 10 centimeters taller than me.
Feeling intimidated, I immediately tried to run, but my body wouldn’t move, as if he had used an ability.
My energy gun was taken from me first.

The man lowered his face close to my stiffened one and asked.

“How did you find this place?”

“……”

Since my words could change the man’s actions, I couldn’t speak carelessly.

“Looks like a guide.”

Another person had entered the room at some point and pointed to the guide mark on my uniform and said.
The man was slightly shorter than me.

“So why is a guide here?”

“I don’t know either!”

“Guide-ssi, why are you here?”

The tall man who was still binding me asked.
They were both wearing black masks, which was bizarre and strange.

Feeling that they might harm me if I continued to be silent, I answered honestly.

“I was looking for a place to do remote guiding and chose this place.”

“Was the remote guiding from before you?”

“Yes.”

At my words, the two masked men looked at each other and talked.

“It seems he really didn’t know.”

“But we don’t know. Isn’t it strange that he chose this place, even if it was a coincidence?”

At the shorter man’s words, I found myself cutting in.

“I really didn’t know!”

“How can we believe you? You could be lying.”

Compared to the taller man, the shorter man seemed to be very suspicious.

“It doesn’t seem like a lie. Let’s just let him go.”

“No. He’s suspicious, so I think it would be better to take him to the base.”

“To the base?”

“Yeah. If he really didn’t know, we can just let him go and change our hideout.”

“Okay. It’s late, so let’s take him.”

From their words, it seemed they were planning to take me to their base.
I hurriedly shook my head.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Our base.”

“I don’t want to. I don’t know what this place is, but I really came here without knowing.”

From their words, I could tell that this was an important place, but since I had really come here without knowing, I felt wronged.

“It’s dangerous to go out now anyway. We’ll just interrogate you and let you go in the morning.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Ah, and take off the Guiding Watch. It can be tracked.”

The Guiding Watch I was currently wearing was an Association-exclusive item.
I couldn’t understand how these people knew about the watch.
However, since the only Espers and guides who had a hideout in this area were the anti-Awakened group, I guessed that they were anti-Awakened.

“I know the Association well, you see?”

The shorter man said with one corner of his mouth raised.

“Ah, you were from the Association.”

‘From the Association?’

“Yeah.”

In the end, the shorter man took off the Guiding Watch on my wrist and turned it off.

“I’ll give this back to you later.”

And so, I had no choice but to be dragged away by the masked men.
The binding ability was released, but my wrist was still twisted.
I couldn’t help but be surprised that there was a base in such a shabby place with only its framework remaining.

There was a large iron door where I was dragged to by the men.
But when the door opened, a long hallway appeared, not a shabby place.
It seemed a physical-type Esper had connected the spaces.

The hallway was as clean as new.
As I went inside and walked, I felt a pain in my left hand.
When I turned my head slightly to check, there was a wound.
It seemed I had gotten it when my energy gun was taken away.

“What’s wrong?”

The tall man asked as I was looking at my hand.
His informal speech kept bothering me, but since I was a captive, I endured it.

“I’m hurt.”

“You’re a high-maintenance guide. I’ll treat you when we arrive.”

“Can’t you just let me go? I really don’t know anything.”

“Not now that you’ve come here.”

After those words, the men didn’t answer no matter what I said.
The place we arrived at was a spacious room that seemed to be about 30 pyeong.
There were a few people there.

“Who is this?”

Everyone was looking at me with a bewildered face.

“An Association guide. We found him in the hideout building.”

“Why is an Association guide, not a government guide, in our hideout? Didn’t he come because of the gate this time?”

“That’s right. I was guiding because of the gate…”

“Still, it’s suspicious that it was here. Bring Jeongin and Pyeongju.”

At the shorter man’s words, a person named Jeongin came first.
I was bound by the ability again and made to sit on the sofa.

“Why should I help an Association guide?”

“He got hurt because of me.”

The woman called Jeongin looked at me with a dissatisfied face.
It seemed she was a Healer-class Esper.

“I still don’t want to.”

In the end, the woman named Jeongin did not heal me, so the tall man disinfected my wound and put on a regeneration patch.

“Ouch.”

“Endure it even if it hurts.”

I had thought that anti-Awakened would be bad people, but seeing him treat my wound, I felt that they had a conscience.
When I stared at his mask, he smiled and said.

“Guide-ssi, don’t fall for me. I’m already taken.”

“I haven’t fallen for you.”

I was dumbfounded at his words not to fall for him.
The man was definitely not my type.
And I couldn’t even see his face since he was still wearing a mask.

It was then.
Suddenly, the door opened, and another masked man came in, carrying another person.

“Leader!”

“What’s wrong?”

At the word ‘leader’, the tall man who was sitting in front of me stood up.
At that, I realized that the man was the leader of the anti-Awakened.

“We were being chased by the government b*stards, and this happened. He’s in the danger zone.”

The condition of the man who was carried in was not good.
He seemed to be unconscious, and his face and hands, which were visible outside his clothes, were deathly pale, like a corpse.

“Danger zone? Did you guide him?”

“I did. But it keeps going down.”

From their conversation, it seemed he was an Esper, but his guiding level was continuously dropping.

If the level was not stabilized in the danger zone, it would soon drop to the rampage warning zone.
Once in the rampage warning zone, it was difficult for even a guide with a high matching rate to raise the guiding level.

However, I had subdued a rampaging Esper twice, and thinking that I could get out of here on the condition of guiding him, I said cautiously.

“I’ll guide him. But please let me go in return.”

At my words, everyone looked at me.
The gazes on me were burdensome, but being here was more of a pain.

“Who is that person? Why is he here?”

“A guide from the Association. We brought him here because he was in the hideout’s movement section.”

“I have experience with rampaging Espers. I’ll guide him, so please let me go in return.”

At my words, the anti-Awakened looked at me with a half-believing, half-doubting expression.

“Let’s try it first. He could go on a rampage at this rate.”

“You’ll let me go, right?”

I asked to confirm again.

“Guide him first.”

They brought the Esper at risk of rampaging to me.
I had a feeling that they wouldn’t let me go even if I guided him, but right now, a person’s life was more important.

“Release your ability. I have no intention of running away.”

“Okay.”

The leader readily agreed to my request.
My bound body was instantly freed.
It seemed they thought that since this was their hideout and they had the numbers, I wouldn’t be able to run away.

“I will now begin guiding.”

As soon as I was released, I started remote guiding.
As soon as I started guiding, not only the rampaging Esper’s wavelength but also the wavelengths of the other Espers here began to connect with my wavelength one by one.
The Espers began to express their admiration.

“This one’s a real catch. Isn’t he the S-Class guide they say is at the Association?”

I didn’t answer.
If I said anything, I might not be able to get out of here even more.

I focused on guiding as much as possible and tried to calm the rampaging wavelength.
Fortunately, as soon as I did the remote guiding, I could see the Esper’s complexion improve.

“The level is going up little by little.”

“I’ll only guide until he’s in the crisis zone.”

I didn’t want to do contact guiding.
Since they were the group that had kidnapped me, I also didn’t want to help them.

Fortunately, the level smoothly rose to the crisis zone.
As soon as I stopped the remote guiding, a guide who had been on standby by my side took the Esper’s body and continued to guide.

“Guide-ssi, how about you come to our side?”

The leader made a scout offer to me in a curious tone.

“I don’t want to. As promised, please let me go now.”

“Not right now. You can’t go outside because of the government guys.”

“Then you’re saying you’ll let me go in the morning?”

“Yeah. We keep our promises, so don’t worry.”

Still, I couldn’t believe it.
I continued to persuade the leader to let me go and looked for a chance to leave, but as expected, since it was their base, I couldn’t easily escape.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

I was hungry, but I didn’t know what they would put in the food, and I couldn’t let my guard down, so I shook my head.

In the end, I just watched them eat.
Fortunately, since they had released the binding ability, it was okay, but I was still uncomfortable and nervous.

They continued to try to scout me.
To be honest, if it had been the old me, I would have accepted their offer because I wanted to leave the Association.
But now, unlike then, I didn’t want to accept.

Even after two hours had passed since I came here, the Association’s security team had not appeared.

The leader’s words that he would let me go in the morning seemed to be true, but I still couldn’t believe it until I was out of here.

The anti-Awakened group even prepared a bedroom for me.
The inside was surprisingly clean.
But it turned out to be the leader’s room.

“Why should I sleep with you?”

“Because you might run away. And I told you I’m taken, right?”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“Okay. Don’t blame me if you can’t sleep.”

I moved back to the sofa, but I couldn’t sleep at all because the anti-Awakened were shouting and playing poker without any intention of sleeping.

To be honest, I was tired and sleepy, but I was able to stay awake because of their loud noises.

It was when it was getting close to midnight.
I could feel a very faint, familiar wavelength.
I turned my gaze to the door without realizing it.

Unlike me, none of the anti-Awakened seemed to have felt anything strange.

My heart also began to beat with a louder sound as the wavelength got closer.
It was his wavelength, which I had never wanted to feel again.