Whether it was a simple error or a situation intended by the System, he couldn’t tell.
But the System remained silent no matter what he did.
‘It definitely said ‘Tutorial’…’
The words written in the System window suddenly came back to him.
In a typical game, a tutorial means practice to learn how to operate it.
‘Perhaps the time I Transmigrated before regression was like a practice game?’
He had encountered the novel, but he had no memory of his previous life, so it made some sense if the System had given him time to re-adapt to this world.
Of course, that didn’t mean he liked the method.
“Shall we start training now, Team Leader?”
“Ah, yes, let’s.”
At Juwon’s question, Raon collected his thoughts and nodded.
Juwon and Taehyuk were looking at Raon with sparkling eyes.
It hadn’t been long since Raon had joined them to officially begin training.
‘This is a bit burdensome.’
Raon smiled awkwardly and started the training.
Still, thanks to their adherence to the curriculum during his absence, it seemed they could soon start joint training with the Esper team members.
Raon then recalled the Irregular Gate, the Dark Blue Gate, which was soon to open.
‘The structure inside the Gate was simple, but the monsters had significantly superior abilities.’
In the Dark Blue Gate, monsters burst out randomly in a wide-open field with nothing around.
Before the regression, due to the small number of personnel, Guides were gathered inside, and Espers formed a circle around them to defeat the monsters.
Of course, the ‘Guides’ at that time were only Raon and Hamin.
His past self had tried to push Hamin out to his death, but by chance, Hamin had ducked at that moment, causing his past self to die instead.
‘Ha, what a dark history…’
Perhaps because he recalled the memories of his past life, Raon was no longer scared or afraid of the Dark Blue Gate.
Instead, he felt embarrassed and mortified by the pathetic sight he had made in front of Hamin.
When he thought it was the real Han Raon who had done it, he wasn’t ashamed, but ultimately it was something his past self had done.
During training, Raon bit his lip and desperately suppressed the overwhelming emotions.
He really shouldn’t have recalled the memory.
‘Anyway, I need to create a concrete plan now.’
Since the number of personnel was much greater than before, various tactics would be possible.
Raon first thought of a method for dividing the team.
East, West, South, and North. He decided to divide them into four teams to deal with the swarming monsters.
By distributing the strength evenly, pulling out tired personnel, and backing them up with his Guiding and Dasom’s Healing, they should be able to clear it stably.
“Team Leader, shouldn’t we start overall training soon?”
“Ah.”
Juwon asked Raon for his opinion. He seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Raon.
Thanks to having command authority for this Gate, Raon could also influence the Battle Team’s training methods.
‘But if I act like I know too much, someone might get suspicious.’
The Guide Team members trusted him so much that they just went along with the underwater training, but other Espers wouldn’t be the same.
Excuses like ‘I somehow felt that this Gate would be an open field’ probably wouldn’t work.
‘Well, Espers have good intuition anyway, so we don’t need to be too specific about the integrated training.’
It seemed fine to divide the teams and train them using various tactics roughly.
Raon replied positively to Juwon.
“We should start soon. I’ll need to talk to the Battle Team.”
“Whew, the Irregular Gate will appear soon, won’t it?”
“Hmm, it’s about time when it wouldn’t be strange if it appeared right now.”
At Raon’s words, a look of worry crossed Juwon and Taehyuk’s faces.
He was surprised, as he thought they would be confident with their achievements so far.
“Are you worried?”
“It’s not that, but some Espers have been a bit lately…”
“Espers?”
Raon tilted his head at Juwon’s words.
Taehyuk held his arm, as if to restrain him.
“Is something going on lately?”
“Well…”
Juwon and Taehyuk exchanged glances for a moment at Raon’s question.
And this time, Taehyuk answered.
“The number of Espers, including Team Leader Seo Dojin, who refuse Guide Guiding has slightly increased.”
“What did you say?”
Raon frowned at the words.
He wondered what this could possibly mean.
“I knew Team Leader Seo Dojin was doing that, but other Espers too?”
“Yes.”
“Why on earth…”
Raon’s face twisted further, completely unable to understand.
Then Juwon added to the explanation from the side.
“I heard that Espers who don’t match well with regular Guides’ waves are refusing Guiding and secretly taking drugs, and they seem to have gotten addicted.”
“Ha, they’re doing all sorts of things.”
Raon shook his head dismissively.
Refusing Guiding for such a reason, when the number of Guides wasn’t even lacking like before the regression.
“It seems that after receiving the Team Leader’s Guiding inside the Gate, they feel reluctant to receive it from other Guides when they come out.”
“Hmm.”
‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
Raon had never anticipated that his Guiding inside the Gate would have such a negative effect.
Were they like cats who tasted high-quality churu inside the Gate and now refused their regular food?
What discerning palates they had.
“Even so, that’s an unacceptable excuse. Aren’t the higher-ups taking any action?”
“Well, since Team Leader Seo Dojin is taking the drugs first…”
“Haa…”
Indeed, a polluted upstream makes for a polluted downstream.
Raon raised his hand to rub his throbbing forehead.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t Hanmyung also producing Guiding drugs?’
A piece of information flashed across his mind.
Although it wasn’t one of their most successful subsidiaries, he knew that Hanmyung definitely had a pharmaceutical company and supplied products to the Center.
‘No, is that too far-fetched a thought…’
Raon quietly shook his head alone.
Even so, Hanmyung wouldn’t have tampered with the drugs Espers consume.
‘Anyway, I’ll have to talk to the Center Director.’
He should observe the situation during the joint training and then discuss countermeasures with Seokhyeon.
There might not be time to clean up the problem caused by the Espers taking Guiding drugs before the Irregular Gate appears.
Raon secretly bit his lip, feeling anxious.
“Um, Team Leader.”
“Yes?”
The next day, Raon turned his head at the voice calling him.
Hamin was standing there.
Raon tilted his head as he looked at him.
“Is something the matter?”
“Well…”
Hamin seemed to have something to say.
He asked in a cautious tone.
“Did something happen with Siwoo, perhaps?”
“Ah.”
Raon let out a low sigh, looking at Hamin’s clear eyes.
No one else had noticed that his relationship with Siwoo had become strange.
Since Siwoo’s attitude wasn’t significantly different from before, even Raon sometimes felt like the confession had never happened.
But Hamin seemed to have noticed faster than anyone else for some reason.
Perhaps it was because of his wind ability that he was good at reading the atmosphere around him.
“It’s nothing major, so you don’t need to worry about it. It won’t affect training.”
“But…”
Raon answered calmly, but Hamin didn’t back down for some reason.
He raised his head and asked again with a worried look.
“Are you okay, Team Leader?”
“…!”
Raon’s heart sank at Hamin’s question.
In truth, he was not okay at all.
He still regretted his answer that day.
If he had known that the System wouldn’t force the original position even if it returned, he wouldn’t have spoken to Siwoo that way.
“It’s all because of my mistake. I am fine.”
But that was also just an excuse.
In the end, it was his own choice to speak harshly without considering Siwoo’s feelings.
So, he had to take responsibility for that action.
‘If I can resolve all these issues and survive, I must apologize.’
If he were to return to the world he was reborn into, he definitely wanted to apologize to Siwoo before that.
If he were given the chance.
“Team Leader, I…”
“…?”
Hamin took one step closer to Raon.
Raon looked at him, now closer, with curiosity.
And at that moment.
“Hyung.”
“…!”
A heavy voice cut through the space between the two of them.
Raon flinched and turned his head.
“We need to start training now.”
“Ah… right.”
It seemed the training preparations were finished; the people gathered in the teams Raon had set were looking at them.
Siwoo, who had come to relay the message, had a particularly cold look in his eyes today.
“Let’s talk later, Esper Hamin.”
“Ah…”
Raon quickly turned around after speaking to Hamin.
He just wanted to get away from the spot immediately, finding Siwoo’s cold attitude difficult to bear.
Hamin looked at Raon’s retreating back with regret.
Then, he felt a gaze and turned his head, meeting Siwoo’s dark black eyes.
“…”
“…”
The two stared at each other for a while without a word.
Siwoo, clenching both fists, slightly twisted his face and immediately turned away.
