But before the thought could form, there was a sound of something piercing through skin—thump.
“What do you mean, what should you do? Why are you acting so stupid today? It’s fucking annoying… Kang Haeyong, what would you even do? You’re just a bait. Why, are you going to steal someone else’s ability and shoot it? Who would let you steal it? Shut up and just be a good bait.”
Before Yoon Minjoon could even finish speaking, Haeyong realized that something had pierced through his abdomen.
Then, Lee Seungmin, who was standing next to Yoon Minjoon, clicked his tongue, grabbed the edge of Haeyong’s clothes, and used his ability.
Unlike before when he had told him to close his eyes, he used the ability without a single word.
Along with the pain of his abdomen being pierced, Haeyong felt a nausea that shook his internal organs.
He felt like retching, but no one cared about him.
They arrived at a space so large he wondered if such a place could exist inside a cave.
As soon as they arrived, Lee Seungmin dropped Haeyong right in the center.
As soon as his buttocks hit the damp floor of the cave, Haeyong frowned at the pain in his abdomen.
The thing piercing his abdomen was something hard, like a stone.
The difference from a stone was that it was sharp, as if it had been carved.
“What is this…!”
He tried to demand an explanation from Lee Seungmin, but the man quickly moved away from him.
At that moment, he heard the sound of a beast growling and snarling.
It came from all directions… several eyes flashed in the pitch-black darkness.
And Haeyong could realize that those were not beasts, but monsters.
“Ah…!”
Why couldn’t he remember?
Kang Haeyong’s role in this team was, as Yoon Minjoon said, bait.
Bait to lure the monsters inside the gate…
An Esper’s blood is infused with their energy and wavelength, making it perfect bait for monsters.
Monsters eat ordinary people too, but what they like most are those with special abilities, like Espers or Guides.
The novel stated that when they caught them, they would swallow everything without leaving a single bone fragment behind.
“Huff!”
Haeyong let out a ragged breath.
Naturally, he couldn’t help but be shocked as he could clearly see not just one, but several monsters with hideous forms he had never seen before aiming for him.
His limbs trembled.
But it seemed this wasn’t an impact felt solely by Haeyong’s mind.
An impact even greater than the mental shock he received covered his body.
This was likely… Kang Haeyong’s physical body reacting.
“Are you scared? Fuck, I’m not killing you. Why do you make such a fuss every time, a damn fuss—”
Boom—! Bang!
Grrrr! Screeech! Gyaaa!
Yoon Minjoon, who had been far away, was suddenly nearby and sneered at Haeyong.
Hearing Yoon Minjoon’s sneer, Haeyong glared at him with a surge of anger.
But Yoon Minjoon wasn’t even interested in Haeyong.
With eyes sparkling like a child playing with toys, he focused only on firing a specially made gun at the monsters.
Even in the midst of this, Haeyong frowned at his abdomen, where he felt pain and blood was pouring out.
Lee Seungmin and Choi Juhoon were nowhere to be seen.
Yoon Minjoon was facing many monsters alone.
Haeyong tried to pull out the sharp stone stuck in his abdomen.
His palms became ragged in the process, but that didn’t matter.
The stone stuck in his abdomen would not come out, as if it had originally been one body with Haeyong.
“Aaargh!”
A monster approached right in front of his eyes.
When Haeyong screamed, Yoon Minjoon said in a casual voice, “Ah, my mistake.”
The moment the monster opened its huge mouth wide to swallow Haeyong, there was a bang.
The monster was blown to pieces right before Haeyong’s eyes.
Fragments of the shattered monster rained down on Haeyong’s body.
A stench so strong he wondered if such a smell could exist in the world covered him.
“Ah, you got dirty.”
Yoon Minjoon shook his head at the sight of Haeyong covered in monster fragments and body fluids.
He muttered about whether the smell of blood would be masked by the monster’s scent, then approached and sniffed.
Haeyong was in a complete state of panic and could not properly understand the meaning of Yoon Minjoon’s actions.
Yoon Minjoon tilted his head and then snapped his fingers.
“Aaargh! Ah, it hurts…”
“Of course it hurts. But you won’t die. You’ve done well until now, but you’re making such a big deal out of it today. Hey, you said you wanted us to let you do this since it’s the only thing you’re capable of. Then keep your mouth shut. I don’t want to hear you squealing like a pig. My ears already hurt.”
A sharp stone of similar size pierced his left thigh this time.
Seeing Haeyong struggling in pain, Yoon Minjoon frowned.
It seemed like he wanted to gag Haeyong if he could.
He tried to pull the stone out, but it wouldn’t come out, just like the one in his abdomen.
Haeyong’s vision was blurred by the tears welling up, but the pain was so vivid.
This couldn’t be a dream.
He had never had or heard of a dream where pain was felt so vividly.
Haeyong could know for sure that this was not a dream.
He didn’t want to find out in this way.
Haeyong had no way to stop the painful moans that kept escaping through his teeth.
Yoon Minjoon shook his head and finished what he was doing.
“There’s so many of them. Like cockroaches…”
Yoon Minjoon continued to fire while spitting out curses at the monsters coming for Haeyong’s blood.
The special gun that could fire with infused abilities did not require separate bullets.
When Yoon Minjoon, who can use earth, holds the gun and uses his ability, stone or earth is condensed into the shape of a bullet.
An Esper’s ability acted as a fatal weakness for monsters, and through repeated training, he became able to accurately target and destroy the monster’s core.
Being able to destroy a monster’s core in one shot was only possible because Yoon Minjoon was an S-class Esper.
Of course, that didn’t matter to Haeyong right now.
He only wanted to escape this pain quickly.
He thought he might die if he lost this much blood.
However, although he felt pain, he didn’t feel dizzy or like he was going to die.
It seemed to be because Kang Haeyong was an Esper.
Haeyong thought he should use his ability too, but he couldn’t use it unless he had contact with another Esper at least once.
That was the reason Kang Haeyong was treated like this in the novel.
He kept taking ragged breaths. Just because he didn’t die didn’t mean there was no pain.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
He even felt wronged about why he had to be treated like this.
But there was nowhere to complain about the unfairness.
The Kang Haeyong who tried desperately to stay in this team even after being treated like this was no longer here.
He didn’t know why he had to suffer like this instead of Kang Haeyong.
He gnashed his teeth.
It wasn’t that he didn’t feel resentment toward Kang Haeyong.
But Haeyong’s resentment was directed at Yoon Minjoon in front of him.
‘It doesn’t have to be this way…!’
Even though they could catch monsters in a normal way, they were using Kang Haeyong as bait because it was too much trouble to go catch them one by one.
No matter how much Kang Haeyong said he would do anything, this kind of treatment was excessive.
If Yoon Minjoon just made contact once, he would surely be able to use an ability similar to his.
Of course, there was a cooldown.
Haeyong didn’t know how long it was.
Even so, he was sure it would be much better than this method.
