As if reacting to the sudden, random question, Ji Myunghoon’s jaw muscles twitched.
His grit teeth loosened slightly.
“Answer me. If you do, things will get easier.”
“Krrgh…”
“Esper Ji Myunghoon. A baby cow.”
Seo Jaewon put strength into his voice and repeated it persistently.
Ji Myunghoon wheezed for a while as if fighting a battle within himself, then spat out a reply through clenched teeth.
“Cow… cow-brat…”
“Wrong.”
Taking advantage of the moment Seo Jaewon had successfully diverted his attention, a dark shape—accompanied by Hwi Sara’s sharp voice—slammed into Ji Myunghoon’s jaw.
THWACK!
With a loud, heavy impact, Ji Myunghoon was sent flying onto the floor.
“Gah…!”
Ji Myunghoon’s eyes rolled back completely.
He promptly showed the whites of his eyes and stopped moving.
It was a perfect knockout.
Hwi Sara, whose one arm was covered in brown bear fur, approached him.
She flipped Ji Myunghoon over this way and that to check on him, then nodded toward Seo Jaewon.
“I didn’t break his neck. Looks like he’ll wake up on his own in a few hours.”
Seo Jaewon gave her a thumbs up.
“You’re the best, Noona.”
Hwi Sara grinned back, raising her own thumb.
“This is exactly why I’m an Esper.”
It was half a day later when Ji Myunghoon finally regained consciousness.
His face was so swollen from the hit that he looked quite a sight.
In particular, because his nose began to heal instantly due to his S-rank Esper traits, it had set in a crooked shape before anyone had a chance to straighten it.
Seo Jaewon, who had come to hear the report, spoke to Ji Myunghoon as he sat up looking battered.
“I’m glad you weren’t seriously injured.”
“……”
Ji Myunghoon looked at him as if to say, ‘Are you serious?’
But Seo Jaewon was being sincere.
For now, his limbs were intact, so that was enough.
As for his nose, he’d probably break it once or twice more while living as an Esper, so he could just fix it then.
“It could have turned into a much bigger disaster. You were very lucky.”
Ji Myunghoon couldn’t deny those words; he let out a groan and nodded his head.
There aren’t many options left for an Esper showing symptoms of a rampage.
Even if they receive guiding, whether it can resolve the issue in time is a gamble.
Being able to neutralize them with a punch is actually a safer option.
The Esper who got hit might be in pain, but the Guide’s life remains safe.
If even neutralizing them isn’t an option, in the worst-case scenario, they have to be killed.
Once an Esper loses control and starts to rampage, it doesn’t just end with one or two people dying.
“You’re grateful, right?”
Hwi Sara boasted with a triumphant face.
Ji Myunghoon did not look particularly grateful.
Regardless, her contribution was great.
People who can knock out an S-rank Esper in one blow without endangering their life are rare.
It was only possible for a talent like Hwi Sara, who practiced things like partial transformations for fun.
When she went to a kindergarten for promotional activities, she made children cry with her bear face… but she had certainly found a wholesome way to use it now.
Hwi Saul shook his head.
“You ruin a man’s face and then expect a thank you.”
“What’s a little bruise to a grown Esper?”
“Khu-hu…”
However, Ji Myunghoon looked genuinely depressed for some reason.
Perhaps he had a lot of pride in his face…
Whether it was because his sense of human beauty had been numbed by being around Joo Youngha, Seo Jaewon found the emotion difficult to understand.
Feeling a bit awkward, Seo Jaewon offered a rough consolation for now.
“It’s okay. You don’t look much different from before. Anyway, Yoomin, who worked hard with the guiding, has gone to rest… So, shall we hear the report now?”
It was no ordinary event for a perfectly fine S-rank Esper to suddenly reach the brink of a rampage.
Since this was an escape-room dungeon, they might have fallen prey to a hidden rule they didn’t know about.
They had to find the cause so the other Espers wouldn’t fall for the same trick.
At Seo Jaewon’s words, the dejected Ji Myunghoon raised his head again and spoke out.
“Yeah, something huge happened…!”
“Did you find the Core? I’ve been hauling luggage all day because of this mission.”
Hwi Sara grumbled.
Ji Myunghoon became even more excited, spittle flying as he spoke.
“Forget the Core! The crown isn’t there!”
Seo Jaewon narrowed his eyes at the unexpected statement. No crown?
“The crown isn’t there? Then where is the King?”
Cutting Seo Jaewon off, Ji Myunghoon shouted.
“The King is there! He just doesn’t have a head!”
“!”
No head…?
A figure was running down a dark corridor.
Despite having a solid, muscular body that might look slow at a glance, the intruder climbed stairs and leaped over balconies with extraordinary agility.
The shadows didn’t move an inch unless a person came close.
Only when someone approached would they suddenly speak and act like living people.
They were like machines equipped with sensors that reacted to human movement.
They imitated speech well enough, but they were ultimately just part of the dungeon and lacked flexibility.
If you hung around near them for too long, they would attack immediately.
Individually they weren’t strong, but their numbers made them a nuisance in a fight.
‘This is why I hate escape-room dungeons.’
Moreover, it seemed like they were replenished from somewhere as soon as they were defeated; fighting them felt endless.
As a result, having judged that a forced breakthrough was impossible, he had attempted this infiltration.
Thanks to his teammates drawing their attention, the number of shadow people guarding the castle was smaller than usual.
This allowed him to move quickly toward his destination without interference.
‘Indeed, just as Seo Jaewon said…’
The intruder, Ji Myunghoon, marveled to himself.
“They seem to spawn infinitely, but their numbers are actually fixed.”
Seo Jaewon had said that while spreading out a map of the royal castle’s structure.
“Last time, when we counted the numbers without provoking them at this spot, this spot, and this spot… and when Sara noona turned into a bear to lure as many as possible.”
He had calmly explained the rules he discovered with a cold, rational face.
It looked natural for him to lead the operation without being intimidated or hesitating in front of his older teammates.
The others were all listening intently to Seo Jaewon as if that were perfectly normal.
“In both cases, the population of shadow people was almost the same. If you look closely even now.”
Seo Jaewon had suddenly pointed out the window.
Beyond the window, a wide, bright garden and the building across from it were visible.
In the garden, quite a few shadow people were wandering around.
On the other hand…
“The building over there is empty. No one is visible inside the windows.”
“Oh?”
“It’s hard to notice because they tend to gather right in front of our eyes, but in reality, a limited number of them are working hard to create a plausible scene. If you kill them, new ones are just created elsewhere to replace the ones that vanished.”
The Guide, who used to be an S-rank Esper, leaned his hands on the desk.
His strikingly handsome face looked straight at his teammates.
Thick, neat eyebrows, broad shoulders, and slightly upturned corners of his eyes.
His only flaw was that he looked a bit stiff and sharp, but when he grinned, his impression changed to a surprisingly genial one.
“In other words, if we tie these guys up in one place, we can investigate this area quite comfortably.”
His observational skills regarding the world around him, his initiative to verify things quickly, and his resourcefulness and insight to apply those findings to a strategy were far from ordinary.
As a leader, Seo Jaewon was so proficient it was hard to believe he was in his early twenties, and at times, he even possessed a strange aura of experience.
Until recently, Ji Myunghoon had thought of him only as a fairly strong Esper.
Because he was always seen by Joo Youngha’s side, he had only considered him a second-in-command.
He hadn’t expected much in terms of leadership or strategy.
But even after becoming a Guide, Seo Jaewon was performing his role as a leader perfectly.
Honestly, Ji Myunghoon had moved to this team expecting the leader position, but there wasn’t even any room for him to intervene.
And above all…
‘Seo Jaewon is probably the only one who can control Joo Youngha…’
The guy hadn’t even broken a sweat after bringing down an entire floor of a dungeon.
He had even soloed a boss that was on the verge of a Break.
If he had to deal with such a monster, he would refuse even if they offered him the Director’s position instead of the Team Leader’s.
He could understand why several Team 4 leaders had fled after Joo Youngha joined.
Yet Seo Jaewon, despite being just a Guide, didn’t seem afraid at all; even when the guy was radiating a murderous aura, he would smack his back as if it were no big deal.
It was like he was handling a disobedient kindergartener.
‘And then Joo Youngha actually pretends to listen.’
He thought he knew why the Dungeon Management Bureau kept pushing the two of them into the same team.
Ji Myunghoon shook his head and stepped into the corridor where the King’s bedroom was located.
The lavishly decorated corridor was empty, just like the rest of the royal palace.
That appearance felt even more desolate and ominous.
A portrait of the King wearing a crown embedded with the Dungeon Core looked down at him.
It was a painting with neither eyes nor a face, but for some reason, he felt like the gaze was constantly following him.
Ji Myunghoon gripped his dagger tightly, feeling uneasy.
He channeled his energy and concentrated it at his fingertips so he could use his ability at any moment.
‘Quietly, quickly, I’ll end this.’
