* * *
“Taewon, fall back. Don’t engage anymore.”
“Then hurry the fuck up and kill those pieces of shit. Ah, damn it, my head’s splitting…”
Han Jihyuk shot Taewon a glance as he frowned, then moved away, heading toward the clustered monsters.
Shin Heesung did the same, briefly checking on Taewon before diving back into battle.
Left alone outside the gate, Taewon gritted out a low curse, his mind involuntarily drifting to Go Yeonwoo—his guide, the bastard currently waiting in the bunker.
“Fucking hell… Yeonwoo, Yeonwoo…”
Taewon muttered the name under his breath, his face flushed with thirst as he panted.
In his wavering vision, Yeonwoo’s flawless, pale face flickered like a mirage before vanishing—a common hallucination for espers nearing berserk.
“Here we go again, damn it…”
His entire body screamed at him to go to his guide, now.
Ever since his berserk level had hit dangerous levels, he’d wanted to run to Yeonwoo.
The urge hadn’t let up.
Even though he hated him, the thought of that beautiful face twisting in pleasure because of him drove Taewon insane.
Those defiant eyes?
Shove his cock deep into that cheap ass, and they’d turn filthy in seconds.
“Ah, fuck, this is bullshit.”
The more he imagined it, the worse it got.
His craving for guidance grew, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Yeonwoo.
The thirst was maddening, his esper instincts taking over.
Taewon exhaled sharply, closing his eyes for a second—
Then his senses flared.
He rolled aside just in time, barely avoiding the attack.
Cursing, he looked up to see a newly formed monster standing right in front of him, born from the merging corpses.
This area had been clear just moments ago.
When the hell had it gotten here?
“Fuck… You piece of shit….”
Kang Taewon glanced around, but Han Jihyuk and Shin Heesung were already far away.
There were a few other espers nearby, but their ranks were pitiful.
In other words, he had no choice but to face that monster alone.
“Graaaah!”
As the monster charged at him with its mouth gaping, Kang Taewon’s eyes flared red, and he unleashed his power.
At the same time, the ringing in his ears intensified, and a vivid hallucination bloomed before his eyes once again.
Go Yeonwoo’s sinfully erotic face, flushed and moaning in pleasure as he was filled from behind, bit down hard on Taewon’s cock, lost in bliss.
Go Yeonwoo’s sweet voice kept echoing in Kang Taewon’s ears.
Over and over again.
‘Ahh, Kang Taewon, ngh, ahh!’
‘More, give me more, ngh… hnnn…’
‘Ahh—it’s too big—haah, ahh!’
As if the damn hallucination wasn’t enough, now he was hearing things too.
“Haa… fuck…”
Kang Taewon dealt with the monster that kept charging him, exhaling roughly.
This one seemed to have immunity to fire as well.
Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t have been such a struggle, but everything right now was complete and utter shit.
Of course, it wasn’t like he had no way of dealing with it just because their attributes didn’t match.
The real issue was that he had to overexert his powers.
Crackle!
Rising into the air, Kang Taewon summoned a cascade of flames.
Sparks began to fly as the flames collided and burst outward.
“Just fucking die already, you monster bastard!”
He shouted furiously and hurled a blazing fire arrow at the flames where the sparks had begun to ignite.
Boom!
The fireball exploded like a bomb, erupting with a deafening blast.
A powerful gust and a storm of dirt swept the area, reducing everything nearby to ash.
“Huff… huff.”
Thick, dark smoke blanketed the surroundings, making it hard to see.
Kang Taewon hunched over, gasping for air, his clenched fist trembling visibly.
“This fucked-up feeling… damn, it’s been a while.”
He muttered bitterly.
Ever since he’d found Woo Jiyoo, moments like this had become rare.
No matter how many gates he cleared, his guiding depletion never got this bad.
It was only natural—he had Woo Jiyoo.
“If it weren’t for that bastard, Woo Jiyoo would still be—ugh…!”
He grimaced, his temples tightening with pain as the ringing in his ears worsened.
The pain in his brain grew stronger, too.
It was no longer a needle—it felt like his whole head was being hammered, his mind starting to slip.
With shaking hands, Kang Taewon checked the overload level on his device.
[Overload Level: 95%]
“Ha…”
The fact that the battle just now had pushed it this high pissed him off to no end.
Grinding his teeth, Kang Taewon exploded with fury.
“…Fuck. Fuck!”
The side effects of his powers made it impossible to control his emotions.
A destructive urge surged up inside him—he wanted to burn everything to the ground.
His eyes blazing, Kang Taewon scanned the area.
The black smoke had cleared.
The monster’s corpse was scattered in pieces across the ground.
Not just the monster—some espers nearby, who hadn’t been able to dodge in time, were now lying injured, moaning in pain.
“Should I just kill them all?”
He muttered in a chilling voice.
The other espers, sensing that something was seriously wrong, began to back away from him in fear.
His overload level was past 95%.
Once an esper gets close to 100%, they lose all sense of reason and attack without distinguishing friend from foe.
If it kept rising, the Center might issue a kill order.
He wasn’t about to die like a damn dog.
He hadn’t clawed his way through life just to go out like that.
He needed guiding—right now.
To do that…
With his mind now completely consumed by Go Yeonwoo, Kang Taewon scanned the area, searching for the teleport portal.
He had to get home, find Go Yeonwoo, and devour him—lock him inside his body and never let go.
Then maybe this fucking nightmare would end.
An esper on the verge of rampage sees only their guide—no one else.
In Taewon’s eyes, every esper around him seemed to be clinging to a copy of Go Yeonwoo.
Even knowing it was a hallucination, he couldn’t stand it.
He couldn’t hand over even an illusion of Go Yeonwoo to someone else.
Like a madman, he began to destroy everything around him.
Kang Taewon’s brain, overwhelmed by the esper instinct, was no longer capable of rational thought.
He couldn’t even remember that just moments ago, he had been looking for the portal.
“L-Let go—ugh!”
An esper caught in his gaze was instantly snatched into his grasp.
Taewon’s fingers wrapped tightly around the esper’s throat, veins bulging from the strain.
The esper thrashed wildly, lifted off the ground, choking.
“Worms like you… all deserve to fucking die.”
His eyes dead and wild, Taewon squeezed harder.
The esper’s struggling weakened, his body going limp.
Just as the esper’s breath was about to fade—
BOOM!
An invisible force wrapped tightly around Kang Taewon and yanked him away.
He crashed to the ground, now restrained, and let out a deranged scream.
“Let me go, fuck! Let go! I’ll kill you all, you worthless bugs!”
“Kang Taewon.”
The one who had restrained him was none other than Han Jihyuk.
He stood over him coldly, watching Taewon writhe and ignite flames around himself.
Behind Jihyuk stood Lee Dohoon and Shin Heesung.
* * *
Finally some ploy