* * *
The moment he blinked, the message vanished.
What the hell was that?
Ever since his regression, strange things kept popping up in front of his eyes, and he had no idea what they were.
Some kind of pop-up? Spam?
[This system message is sent for the user’s convenience :)! ]
As if responding to his thoughts, the message changed.
“!”
‘Wait—is it reading my thoughts?’
The timing was uncanny, as if it had peered into his mind.
‘…Who are you?’
Seo Jaewon spoke to the letters hovering in the air.
It felt ridiculous, but he had nothing to lose.
‘Were you the one who sent me back?’
[!TUTORIAL! Try using the ‘Guiding Skill’.]
The system ignored his question entirely and just said its own thing, as if telling him to shut up and just do what it said.
It wasn’t that it couldn’t communicate…
‘It just doesn’t want to talk to me.’
It seemed to be aware of his thoughts, but it was hard to tell.
“Jaewon?”
While he was lost in thought, Joo Youngha called his name.
“Huh? It’s nothing.”
No one else seemed to be able to see the system message—including Joo Youngha.
To others, he probably just looked like he was zoning out.
Staring into space, frozen in the middle of the room…
Yeah. Definitely something to be careful about in public.
“…”
Anyway, whatever this so-called system was, for now he had no choice but to do what it wanted.
‘So, a guiding skill, huh.’
He’d been a Guide for how long now?
And only now it was talking about a “guiding skill”?
Then what the hell had he been doing this whole time…?
Well, to be honest, he hadn’t really been “guiding.”
He’d just been winging it and hoping it worked.
In that sense, it weirdly made sense.
‘So how am I supposed to use it?’
Even if he’d unlocked the skill, he had no idea how to activate it.
Nothing felt different…
Then the system gave him a hint, as if responding to his thoughts again.
[!TIP! Try holding Joo Youngha’s hand and focusing your mind.]
“…”
Still unsure, Jaewon called out to Joo Youngha.
“Youngha.”
“Yeah?”
He held out both his palms toward him.
“Your hands.”
Tilting his head, Youngha obediently placed both of his hands onto Jaewon’s palms.
He looked like a puppy, behaving so gently.
Of course, when it really mattered, he’d never listen.
But when it came to random stuff like this—he was weirdly good at it.
And this “puppy” was stronger than Jaewon and a few centimeters taller, too.
Jaewon was 182 cm, so he wasn’t short by any means.
“Why~?”
Youngha drawled the word as he looked down at him.
His gently upturned eyes were calm and soft.
“Just hold still.”
Ignoring him, Jaewon closed his eyes.
He focused on the feeling of the other’s hands resting on his own.
Having a physical reference point really helped with these kinds of abstract things.
It was something he’d learned through experience as an Esper.
And, honestly?
He had no idea what else he was supposed to focus on.
He could feel a faint warmth from Youngha’s fingertips.
His body temperature had always been on the cooler side.
Not quite human—more like a sun-warmed statue.
Carefully tracing the sensation, Jaewon could tell—without looking—that the fingers were long and smooth.
Less like a fighter Esper, and more like a pianist.
His nails were rounded and smooth like polished pebbles.
Youngha wiggled his fingers a little, probably ticklish.
The feeling against his palms was oddly itchy.
“Hey, quit it.”
Jaewon clicked his tongue, and Youngha’s fidgeting finally stopped.
Then, from the point where their skin touched, something began to tingle.
‘Ah… I think I get it now.’
Jaewon wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of manipulating energy.
After all, the energy Guides purified belonged to Espers in the first place.
Guiding might just be another way of using an Esper’s powers, just… different in method.
With that subtle realization, a heavy, humid energy passed into him, creeping through his bloodstream.
He could feel it, but it wasn’t quite touch—it was something else.
It felt heavy, almost solid.
If he opened his eyes, he imagined he might actually see it, writhing in dark red waves.
And Youngha’s energy… was in terrible shape.
“You held out pretty well, huh…”
Jaewon had experienced energy overloads before.
It happened often during difficult missions.
But now, looking deep inside Youngha with the eyes of a Guide—it was… almost worse than a rampage.
And this was supposedly his normal state?
Because his eyes were closed, all he could hear was Youngha’s soft, almost-laughing breath.
Just receiving a portion of that murky energy made his own breathing feel heavy, like a stone pressing down on his chest.
Still, back when he first held Youngha’s hand, it had just felt hard—a vague sense of strain.
But now, he thought he might actually be able to manipulate the energy.
Jaewon gently pulled the transferred energy deeper into himself.
Drawing it in… smoothing it out…
After working with the energy for a while, it felt like he was getting somewhere.
The tangled threads began to slowly unravel, taking on a cleaner form.
Youngha let out a soft breath of wonder.
“Jaewon… this…”
Then, after a pause, his voice came in a gentle murmur.
“…feels good.”
Jaewon opened his eyes slightly to see Youngha’s lips curved into a soft smile.
Whether or not it felt good, something was definitely changing inside Jaewon too.
The heavy, muddied energy began to melt away.
A faint, delayed sensation spread through him—a spark?
A warmth?
It was like sticking frozen hands into warm air on a winter day.
Ever since awakening his ice ability, he hadn’t felt anything like that. It sparked a strange sense of nostalgia.
That feeling flowed from Jaewon’s fingertips and back into Youngha.
‘So it really does work…’
Before, he hadn’t felt anything like this.
But now he kind of understood how to guide.
He might even beat that 37% mark now.
At that moment, a new quest appeared.
[!TUTORIAL COMPLETE! You have successfully used the Guiding Skill.]
“…!”
Another message followed.
[!QUEST! Guide Joo Youngha. (0/100)
Reward: +5% Matching Rate]
Jaewon gasped.
‘Five percent?’
The researchers had said even gaining 8% in a decade was considered a miracle.
Putting his skepticism aside, his brain immediately did the math.
With his current matching rate, adding 5% would bring it up to 42%.
Still not 50%, but way better than 37%.
And judging by the flow so far, this wasn’t going to be the end of it.
There would definitely be more quests to come.
Jaewon’s eyes locked onto the quest notification lingering at the edge of his vision.
[!QUEST! Guide Joo Youngha. (0/100)]
He didn’t know what the 0/100 was based on, but if he could pull this off—and maybe take on one or two more similar quests after…
“An average matching rate of 50 percent… I could do that, couldn’t I?”
That would be good enough.
He wouldn’t be ashamed to call himself an EX-grade Guide.
With anyone below EX, he could probably show even higher guiding efficiency…
More than anything, it meant he could be Joo Youngha’s exclusive Guide without any shame.
At that moment, a thought flashed through his mind.
In his previous life, Joo Youngha had suddenly snapped and killed everyone.
But this time around… he hadn’t.
The only difference?
Seo Jaewon had beaten the crap out of him.
It was funny, in a way—but still, that counted as contact.
Thinking back to how he’d fainted at the time, that meant… some guiding must’ve happened, even if just a little.
“If that was enough to stop it, then maybe…”
Maybe what happened before—Joo Youngha going berserk—was actually a precursor to a breakdown?
When Espers go into overload without timely guiding, they become unstable in all sorts of ways—physically and mentally.
That kind of instability leads to impulsivity and violence.
They think and do things they normally wouldn’t.
The necklace had been orange back then, too—but color only indicates a range.
If things had been left alone a little longer… it might’ve turned red.
Especially with Joo Youngha, whose energy levels were so massive that even the orange zone was unusually broad.
For most Espers, it would’ve already been surprising he hadn’t lost control yet.
Even the energy Seo Jaewon had just received proved that.
It was so dense and heavy that it made his brows furrow instinctively, the murky current tearing through his veins and crushing his heart.
The pulsing wasn’t even like a conscious movement—it felt more like a seizure.
But Seo Jaewon had been an Esper himself, once—he knew.
There was no way enduring this was easy.
And yet Joo Youngha was just… standing there, looking calm.
“If I could become a proper Guide… and guide him completely…”
If he could grow as a Guide, maybe… he could prevent everything from spiraling out of control again.
Still, there was something that didn’t sit right with him.
“Why is this system pushing me so hard to be Joo Youngha’s Guide?”
Now that he thought about it, he vaguely remembered seeing some kind of message just before he died.
“My regression… becoming a Guide… it all seems connected to this quest.”
But why?
That was the problem.
Weird things happen all the time.
After all, this was a world where people breathed fire and monsters appeared on the streets.
But this wasn’t some freak lightning strike or lottery win.
This whole situation… it felt like someone intended for it to happen.
The quest wanted something from Seo Jaewon.
What?
Surely it wasn’t pity.
No one had given him a second chance out of compassion.
Seo Jaewon wasn’t that lucky.
If anything, the one who seemed divinely blessed was Joo Youngha.
Then… was there something Seo Jaewon had to do as Joo Youngha’s Guide?
“…Whatever the goal is, I guess I have no choice but to go along with it for now.”
It wasn’t a bad deal, at least for the moment.
No—in fact, it was almost suspicious how much it benefited him.
He needed that matching rate. Desperately.
Thinking about his abysmal rate made his head spin.
“No—wait, I’m actually dizzy.”
Something hot and chaotic surged into him, forcing its way down his throat and into his body.
“Ugh—hey…!”
Joo Youngha was force-feeding him energy.
* * *
