Chapter 5: A Naked Man

I first heard Yeong-u’s name through rumors.

The problematic new Guide who had become a celebrity just half a year after entering the Center.

Yeong-u was the subject of those rumors.

‘He got fired?’

When I asked with a dumbfounded look, Jeong-ho Hyung shook his head and burst out laughing, saying it wasn’t that easy to get fired.

‘The point is he almost got fired.’

Aran-noona, exhaling cigarette smoke, chimed in.

Aran-noona acted like she wasn’t interested in other people’s business, but she was always the first to know the latest news.

The hot topic these days was ‘the problematic new Guide’.

‘What’s his name?’

‘Why, Team Leader? Interested?’

Jeong-ho Hyung, who had been chuckling to himself, asked me in return.

Since I became a team leader at an early age, most of my team members were older than me.

Except for the youngest, Seung-jun.

‘Be careful. You might get bitten too, Team Leader.’

Jeong-ho Hyung stubbed out his short cigarette in the ashtray and pointed to his crotch.

The hot-topic Guide was said to go around biting the most sensitive spots of Espers he didn’t like during guiding.

Almost to the point of castration.

It was a spicy story, but an unbelievable rumor.

‘Isn’t that dangerous?’

I checked the time and got up to wrap up our smoke break.

My serious reaction seemed to deflate Jeong-ho Hyung, who snickered, asking what could be dangerous about a Guide.

‘No, I mean, isn’t that Guide in a dangerous situation?’

How was that a rumor to laugh about?

The problematic Guide, despite being new to the Center, was performing high-level guiding, and if he got displeased in the process, he would attack the Esper’s vitals and run.

‘I think he needs counseling.’

Just hearing about it, it was a very dangerous behavior.

I wondered if he had no colleagues or superiors to stop him.

I’d also heard that some new Guides, lacking knowledge about guiding, sometimes thought mucosal guiding was essential.

‘You should meet him once.’

Aran-noona, who had followed my lead and put out her cigarette, said indifferently.

‘He’s an outcast, they say. Among the Guides.’

My interest in the new Guide grew even more at Aran-noona’s words, as she only relayed rumors that had been fact-checked.

An image formed in my mind of a young Guide, without a single friend in this unfamiliar Center, giving away his guiding to dangerous Espers.

‘What was his name again?’

Maybe I should meet him at least once.

Smack.

The disgusted gazes of my team members landed on me as I ended the call with a kiss to my phone.

“I ought to tear that mouth of his off.”

“Does the Team Leader’s phone only hang up when it makes a kissing sound?”

Gyu-tae’s complaint followed Aran-noona’s murderous threat.

Even though I do it every day, they never fail to show their revulsion.

Their intense reactions were so funny that I deliberately puckered my lips and winked.

At that, Seung-jun, who had just returned from inspecting a Gate, thrust his tool at me.

“Do you want to f*cking die?”

“I can’t. My Yeong-u would scold me.”

When I said I couldn’t die because my lover would scold me, curses rained down from all around, wishing me a long and sickly life.

The sight of me having a loving phone call with my partner first thing in the morning must have been quite the eyesore.

But I had no intention of stopping.

Talking to Yeong-u was the joy of my work.

“The estimated level is.”

Putting my phone, now on silent, into my pocket, I asked Seung-jun for the Gate’s danger level.

Area 1, where we had come at the request of the Attack division, was filled with a murderous atmosphere today due to the sudden increase in Gates.

Even at this very moment, Gate vortexes could be seen forming in the air everywhere.

Due to the recent rapid proliferation of Gates, the Center’s emergency alerts had become a daily routine.

“The passage hasn’t opened yet, so it’s not that high. I think we can handle it ourselves without the Elimination Team.”

“Shall we begin?”

Ignoring Gyu-tae, who had picked up his tools following Seung-jun’s lead, I watched the 3-meter-diameter Gate quietly.

As Seung-jun said, the passage hadn’t opened yet, so the Gate entrance was quiet, with no monster wavelength being felt.

On the surface, it didn’t seem necessary to call the Elimination Team.

“Aran-noona, freeze the entrance. You two, stand by.”

“We’ll just go in ourselves.”

Seung-jun held up a small Gate measurement terminal that fit in one hand and pointed to Gyu-tae and himself.

He tried to push Gyu-tae, the new maknae, to the front, saying there was no need for the team leader to step in.

Gyu-tae, though lacking in some areas, was a good kid and the latest to join our team.

He was a junior I had cherished, so I scouted him, but I sometimes regret it.

“We will handle it properly!”

“Yeah, stand by.”

Without another word, I waved Seung-jun and Gyu-tae off and approached the dark Gate entrance.

A yellow light blinked on the screen of the measurement terminal in Seung-jun’s hand.

Code Yellow, huh.

“Let’s move to the next neighborhood within five minutes.”

By next neighborhood, I meant a Gate that had appeared in a section 2km away.

Thanks to the monsters being quiet during the day, we could handle Gates with relative ease without the help of the Elimination Team before sunset.

At night, we had to deal with monsters bursting out without even a chance to gauge the danger level and eliminate the increasing number of Gates, so we had to move as quickly as possible.

Still, it was better than the past when there were unregistered individuals.

Thanks to our competent Director, the unregistered individuals who once roamed civilian areas causing numerous incidents had been rooted out.

It was much easier to slaughter monsters than to deal with those bastards.

For now, at least.

“It would’ve been tiring if it had opened….”

I walked down the long, tunnel-like Gate entrance, searching for the core.

In Gates from which no monsters emerged, the core, their weak point, was hidden deep inside.

Seeing how spacious the interior was for such a small opening, it was a Gate that would have hit Code Red, the highest danger level, if the passage had opened.

As expected, you can’t trust machines.

A person’s intuition is more accurate than a machine.

Especially for an Esper with developed senses, their intuition is bound to be even sharper.

“……”

I paused my search for the Gate’s core and looked around the long, cylindrical structure with no end in sight.

What is this… this unsettling feeling.

Lately, whenever I was at a Gate elimination site, a subtle energy had been scratching at my insides.

It was a very ambiguous feeling that only I could sense, so I was keeping an eye on it for now.

I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire in an already chaotic atmosphere.

I wanted to find a clear clue to bring this strange, unsettling feeling to the surface, or if possible, deal with it first without needing to inform others.

–Team Leader.

“Yeah, what?”

–Not yet?

Tae Seung-jun’s impertinent voice came through the in-ear.

“It hasn’t been five minutes, you punk.”

–If you’re the Team Leader, you should clear it in three minutes. Or retire.

“Alright, let’s do it together.”

Perhaps thanks to Seung-jun’s cute prodding, I quickly found the core embedded in the ceiling.

Dark, sinew-like stems were tangled around the round, eyeball-like core.

Those stems, squirming like living creatures, would spread a poison that could melt an Esper’s skin the moment they detected an external attack.

The Gate Elimination Team, which used Attack-type abilities, didn’t need to search for the core and just blew up the entire Gate.

However, since our Barrier division was in the position of preventing explosions, attacking with tools was our best option.

–1 minute and 30 seconds left.

“Plenty of time.”

I lightly wrapped my body in a barrier, took out a dagger, and teleported in front of the core.

Using a gun would have been easier, but I decided to save my bullets in case of an unforeseen situation.

“Something’s strange….”

–What is?

Brushing off the muddy poison sprayed on my barrier, I plunged the dagger into the core, which was the size of my torso.

The stems that made up the Gate’s internal framework started to spew poison from all directions and attack.

I swatted the stems away with my barrier as if chasing away flies and focused on the core.

As I shoved my arm deep into the hard core, steam rose from the mushy liquid inside the shell.

Seeing my barrier-wrapped arm heat up, it was a temperature that would have melted my flesh if it had touched it.

I pushed my arm in far enough, twisted the dagger, and split the core in half.

The core, which had been swelling like a balloon about to burst, split exactly in half, and the writhing stems instantly shriveled and fell to the floor one by one.

–What’s so strange?

“It’s just strange.”

I narrowed my eyes in dissatisfaction as I watched the long tunnel rapidly collapsing.

Even though I had eliminated the core without any problems, my body and mind didn’t feel refreshed.

–Need backup?

“No.”

Checking the tight schedule, I pushed aside the lingering uneasiness and turned toward the entrance.

There were many Gates to deal with today, so I decided to shelve the ambiguous sense of foreboding for now.

As I dealt with the next Gate, and then the one after that, the unsettling feeling grew progressively larger.

Ah, I didn’t get to talk to Yeong-u.

“Cough.”

As I inhaled, the sensation of cold air piercing my throat made me burst into a cough.

I was momentarily stunned by the feeling of having swallowed a razor blade, but the moment I tried to move my limbs, an even greater pain came, and I screamed internally.

I couldn’t even make a sound with my sore throat.

My muffled ears were even ringing with tinnitus.

Tears welled up as the pain intensified with my returning consciousness.

The only thing that came into my blurry focus was an unfamiliar ceiling.

I was definitely sleeping at home.

“Chul-soo—.”

Through the terrible tinnitus, someone spoke to me.

Clinging to the unfamiliar voice like a lifeline, I begged for help.

Internally, of course.

“Chul-soo Hyung!”

Hyung?

An equally unfamiliar face entered my vision, which had been filled only with the empty ceiling.

I don’t think I look like a Hyung, but he keeps calling me Hyung and looks even more surprised than I am.

“I-It’s okay! I’m, I’m your Yeong-u, I’m here!”

Hearing the name, I’m even more clueless.

No, but that person right now.

“S….”

Is he completely naked?

“Hic, Hyung…. I, I love you too, Hyung!”

My whispered plea for help was drowned out by the pervert’s cries.

The pervert, not even wearing underwear, hugged me and cried, then shouted for a doctor at the top of his lungs.

Since I couldn’t even remember getting hurt, I became confused about which hospital I was admitted to.