* * *
Score Evaluation Result: ★☆☆
1-Star Clear Reward: Matching Rate +0.04%!
“Does this even make sense?”
Seo Jaewon stared at the screen with a feeling of misery.
A single star sparkled on the pink screen as if it were mocking him.
Why…! Just why!
He turned his gaze away.
Sitting before him was Joo Youngha, with a night view like a jewelry box spread out behind him.
Joo Youngha was looking at him with his usual blank face.
When their eyes met, his clear champagne-colored eyes curved into a bright smile.
‘No, let’s stay calm. I can just start over from the beginning….’
“Are you angry again?”
Looking at Joo Youngha’s innocent face made Jaewon feel a surge of frustration for no reason.
This jerk doesn’t even know how I feel!
Jaewon wiped his mouth and stood up abruptly.
Joo Youngha’s gaze followed him.
“Jaewon, where are you going?”
“To the bathroom! Don’t follow me.”
As Jaewon walked away, Joo Youngha’s gaze stayed fixed on his back.
Perhaps he had gained some social awareness, as he didn’t seem to be following.
Fortunately, the bathroom was empty.
Jaewon washed his face with cold water first.
As expected of an expensive restaurant, even the night view through the bathroom glass was spectacular.
He stared at the sparkling lights in the distance and took a long time to steady his breathing.
Once he felt a little calm… no, actually not calm at all, Jaewon spoke into the air.
“You’re watching right now, aren’t you? Let’s talk.”
You can retry the quest. Would you like to try again?
The system message ignored his request and simply shook the quest window in front of his eyes.
It was as if it were urging him to stop playing around and just do the quest.
“No, retry or whatever, what exactly is the success criteria?”
This was already the third time he finished a quest with only one star.
He had been confident when retrying, but so far, he had failed miserably.
At first, he thought it would be easy.
Aren’t Espers usually crazy about getting some guiding?
The problem was that guiding used up physical strength.
Jaewon still tended to think of his stamina as being the same as when he was an Esper.
Because of that, he overlooked the fact that the quest duration was a full four hours.
He had called Joo Youngha over, sat across from him, and held his hand.
After about two and a half hours, his vision went dark.
When he woke up, one star was twinkling in front of him.
Furthermore, it didn’t even seem like Joo Youngha truly liked it.
He accepted the guiding readily enough, but he seemed strangely indifferent.
He would aimlessly roll his eyes or stare out the window….
Didn’t he used to stare at Jaewon’s face to a burdensome degree?
Usually, this would never happen.
Aside from his pride being hurt, Jaewon felt lost because he couldn’t think of any other way to make Joo Youngha happy besides guiding.
When asked if there was anything he wanted to eat, he said no.
He said there was nothing he wanted to do, either.
Moreover, nothing came to Jaewon’s mind that made him think, ‘Joo Youngha definitely likes this!’
……In conclusion, it was a time where he realized he surprisingly knew very little about Joo Youngha.
So he finally decided to ask the person himself, but:
「Things I like? Not really anything.」
「……How can a person be like that? Isn’t there anything you want to do?」
「Being with Jaewon?」
It was always like this. And yet he acted so uninterested during the actual time…!
Anyway, since he said he wanted to be together, Jaewon prepared today’s course based on that request.
No, actually, it was closer to an act of desperation, like someone who forgot a password and was just typing in random numbers.
Even then, it wasn’t very creative.
He just took him for a walk in a place with flowing water and fresh air, fed him strawberry cake (which the guy seemed to like at least a little), and bought him expensive pasta.
Throughout all of it, Joo Youngha was smiling beautifully.
That’s why Jaewon thought it would work this time!
‘I thought we were close again. Just me, again.’
He had been arrogant, thinking the guy followed him around like a goldfish’s shadow.
What are you thinking, Joo Youngha?
More importantly…. What are you thinking, you fruit-fly-like jerk?
!TIP! System messages are not fruit flies 🙁 !
‘I knew you were reading my thoughts!’
Jaewon clenched his fists and glared at the system message flickering at the edge of his vision.
This was actually for the best. It was about time to settle things anyway.
Honestly, there is nothing more exhausting than performing a mission without a clear purpose.
He didn’t want to do that anymore.
“What is the point of all this?”
At those words, the message window popped up again as if to emphasize its point.
It was a sentence he had seen more than ten times by now.
“That’s the reward for three stars! I mean besides that, the more fundamental reason.”
Raising the matching rate?
Fine.
But that wasn’t the goal of all this.
Keeping Joo Youngha alive?
That was just Jaewon’s personal goal.
The one giving these quests must have an intention, but he didn’t know what it was.
He only guessed it had something to do with Joo Youngha.
There was a possibility that the one behind it was Joo Youngha himself, but he couldn’t be sure of that yet either.
When he questioned him last time, the guy seemed to know something, but since then, he had been acting totally innocent.
But one thing was certain: ‘this thing’ needed Jaewon’s help.
He didn’t know what it was, but it wanted Jaewon.
That must be why it turned him into a Guide and sent him back to the past.
If so, that meant there was room for Jaewon to demand something in return.
In that case…. It wouldn’t hurt to act a bit difficult.
“Ah, then forget it. Let’s quit.”
At Jaewon’s words, the pink message window floated there for a moment before fading away.
It might have been his imagination, but he felt like it was troubled.
Would you like to move on to the next quest?
[YES / NO]
As expected, there was a next quest.
Jaewon thought that to himself, but he carefully controlled his expression and spoke.
“No, I’m done. The matching rate seems fine right now anyway. It’s not like he’ll die just because I take the guiding slow.”
He would die, he’d definitely die…. For guiding, fast and strong was the best.
However, Jaewon crossed his arms and shrugged as if it were nothing.
It was a good thing no one else was in the bathroom.
Look at that, now it’s trying to bargain by raising the matching rate.
Do you think that’ll work?
Regardless, thanks to this, it was confirmed that the system was listening to Jaewon’s words.
It was time to see if they could communicate.
“No, forget the matching rate, there’s no trust here, trust. You don’t even tell me the conditions to complete a quest properly, and I’m the only one working my butt off while walking on eggshells?”
The message window remained silent.
It was very uncomfortable to negotiate with an invisible opponent since he couldn’t read their reaction.
But if he hesitated now, he would be looked down upon forever.
“I don’t know what it is, but you need my help, right? Then tell me more accurately what I need to do. Tell me why I have to do this, too. Shouldn’t we share the goal so we can cooperate better?”
It was called a negotiation, but it was practically a threat.
A brief silence followed.
‘Is it a failure?’
Jaewon clicked his tongue inwardly.
Fine…. If my bluff was called, there’s nothing I can do.
Then maybe I really have no choice but to break through this quest somehow.
It’s sickening and annoying, but….
‘Ding!’
That was when a new message appeared before his eyes.
To prepare for the upcoming ■■■ and complete Joo Youngha, the Guide’s active support is required.
“……!”
It was an answer to his question.
Jaewon forced himself not to frown and organized his thoughts.
Prepare for what?
He needed a bit more information before he got shaken up.
‘What is that noise?’
Part of the word was crushed as if it were censored, making it unreadable.
He felt like he might be able to see it if he strained his eyes, but it was as if his brain couldn’t process it.
What exactly was coming, and what did “completion” mean precisely….
There was no decisive information.
“What’s the hidden part?”
!TIP! Some content may be censored depending on the viewer’s security clearance.
“Security clearance?”
He had never even heard that such a thing existed.
“Then is there some kind of… organization? Are there other people involved besides me?”
!TIP!
Some content may be censored depending on the viewer’s security clearance.
No matter how many times he asked, that was all he got.
It gave him no further explanation.
His mind became complicated.
‘It’s basically the same as saying nothing.’
No, technically, the information value wasn’t zero.
It was just extremely vague and limited.
If he inferred from the readable words….
Joo Youngha is needed for something that will happen in the future.
A Guide is needed to help him.
It was confirmation that he had indeed returned to the past as a Guide because of Joo Youngha.
He felt strange once again.
Jaewon looked at the system window blankly, feeling a bit troubled.
‘I just wanted to be at peace.’
What Jaewon wanted wasn’t something so grand.
He just wanted to live better than in his last life.
He was tired of being crushed by criticism and contempt during the day, and at night, dwelling on dungeons littered with the corpses of his comrades or the scene of life fading from Joo Youngha’s glass-like eyes.
He didn’t want to see Joo Youngha killing his comrades like it was nothing, nor did he want to see him die so pointlessly ever again.
As he stared at the system message in silence for a long time, a new pale pink message window opened with a chiming sound.
It seemed to have decided that some persuasion was necessary.
!TIP!
The existence of a Guide is a great source of stability for an Esper.
Support Joo Youngha’s growth for the sake of ■■.
Well, that was the answer.
Whether there was a quest or not, or whatever this thing’s purpose was, what Jaewon intended to do did not change.
He had no choice but to do what he had been doing since his return and what he had decided to do in the future.
You can retry the quest. Would you like to try again?
[YES / NO]
……If only he could actually clear this damn quest.
“Fine, I’ll do it. If I fail next time too, I’m really quitting.”
Hardly had Jaewon raised his hand when the YES button flashed.
And before the pop-up window disappeared, for a very brief moment, a new sentence flashed by.
* * *
