#Intro
I died and came back to life, and something about the world felt strange.
No, what had gotten strange… wasn’t the world.
‘I, I… from the day I received the message, I’ve been getting daily skin massages and diligently taking vitamins for my companion. I’ve even been taking great care of my nails. Oh, and last night I did a hair treatment before bed!’
‘Uh… yes. You look very radiant and pretty.’
‘Oh, what a relief! I’ve been waiting for the moment I’d meet my destiny.’
‘Hmm, I don’t know about all that. Want a black card? If not, how about the deed to a piece of land in a safe zone where no Gates have appeared for over 20 years? I can give you anything you want. Wealth, fame, hmm… and even the handsome me. How about it?’
‘I refu—’
‘I don’t need a dowry or anything like that. Just bring yourself.’
‘Please, just listen to me….’
‘I took a vacation for this meeting. To get this vacation, I worked overtime starting from the day I received the quest… that is, two months ago. Although I didn’t get paid for the overtime, seeing you, Guide-nim, makes all my fatigue melt away. Is this what Guiding... is like?"
‘…W-Would you like to hold my hand once more?’
‘It’s alright. I cannot trouble you any further, Guide-nim.’
‘Can you even fight alongside me? You look like you’d just roll over and be helpless if you fell once.’
‘No, I may not look it, but I’m stur—’
‘Approach prohibited within a one-meter radius. Skinship is allowed up to a hug. Nothing more than that!’
‘…If I can’t approach within a meter, how am I supposed to hug you?’
These were the S-Class Espers I had only seen on the news before I died.
[SYSTEM]
[Your ‘Guide’ has appeared to save the world! (*￣3￣)╭]
[The Guide stabilizes your abilities as an Esper and enhances your powers!]
[The moment your eyes meet, you will be able to recognize your ‘Guide’!]
[<QUEST> Generated!]
[Find your destined ‘Guide’ to save the world! ヾ(•ω•`)o]
[SYSTEM]
[Having died and woken up, you have become the world’s only ‘Guide’!]
[As a 'Guide,' you must now work with S-class Espers to prevent the world's destruction! ✪ω✪*]
[<QUEST> Generated!]
[…Error detected! Failed to load <QUEST> due to a SYSTEM error. （；´д｀）]
[Rebooting SYSTEM….]
[…■□■□■]
#1
The chirping of birds could be heard. A pleasant smile naturally formed on his face as he felt the warm sunlight shining down. His body felt strangely refreshed and light, just like on a day with a 10 AM lecture when you wake up at 11 AM….
Wonwoo, with a bad feeling, shot up before he could even properly open his eyes.
“…What the?”
It was strange. No, the word strange couldn’t begin to describe the situation Wonwoo found himself in.
“Why am I here?”
Still heavy with sleep, Wonwoo began to touch his face, starting from his cheeks to his ears, forehead, the crown of his head, and the nape of his neck. After slapping and patting his face for a while, he finally stopped moving only after confirming he had all ten of his fingers by folding them one by one.
“Alive, I’m… alive? No, was I not dead? Is this a dream?”
Just then, his phone alarm went off.
At the cheerful sound signaling his wake-up time, Wonwoo habitually turned it off. The alarm clock icon disappeared, and Wonwoo’s eyes widened as he saw the date on the home screen.
“The 2nd? Not the 8th?”
In his last memory, he was on his way to the columbarium where his parents were enshrined, in observance of Parents’ Day.
The transportation options were limited, so he took the subway towards the Express Bus Terminal. The train he was on, running diligently, crashed into a sudden Gate that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the tracks and was destroyed.
Everything happened so suddenly. Before Wonwoo could even grasp the situation, he was sucked into the Gate along with the wreckage and lost consciousness. And when he opened his eyes, it was now.
“Uh… dream, a dream?”
Wonwoo grabbed his head with both hands as if to tear his hair out. No matter how he thought about it, the situation made no sense. A Gate that could demolish an entire Seoul subway train—not just one or two people—was on a scale you’d only see in a disaster movie.
Right, it’s a dream. If it weren’t a dream, I wouldn’t be able to tear at my hair like this. I wouldn’t be able to breathe either.
After tormenting his hair for a long while, Wonwoo decided to dismiss the whole situation as a ‘dream.’
Even though this was an era with ‘Gates,’ doors connecting to other dimensions, and ‘Espers,’ who used superpowers so casually. Even though it was a time when monsters pouring out of Gates devastate the country and Espers with superior physical abilities and superpowers fought them off, things that appeared nonchalantly on the news.
Even so, the idea of going back to the past was just too absurd.
But Wonwoo’s rationalizing thoughts were short-lived. An alarm sounded from his phone.
-Bbirong bbirong!
And it was a sound Wonwoo had never heard before.
'What’s that sound? It’s not a TotoTalk messenger notification, nor is it a text message sound.'
The strange sound, similar to a disaster alert but with a cheerful-feeling hum mixed in, made Wonwoo pick up the phone he had tossed away while tearing his hair out.
When he turned on the screen, a message, like one from TotoTalk messenger, appeared repeatedly.
[‘SYSTEM’ has requested access permission to your phone.]
[Do you accept?]
[…■□■□■]
[Forced connection proceeding under the authority of ‘SYSTEM’.]
It wasn’t a text or a messenger screen, but an unknown notification that abruptly demanded permission.
Before Wonwoo could even wonder if it was a hack, the message indicating something was being installed quickly finished its task and disappeared.
[Run 'SYSTEM' Talk?]
[Talk will run automatically by the authority of ‘SYSTEM’!]
[(￣o￣) . z Z Connecting!]
[Please wait a moment!]
[Calculating time remaining until connection….]
He pressed the power button and tapped the screen everywhere, but the phone remained unresponsive.
His phone, which he had bought not long ago and was still pristine without a single scratch on the screen, was acting up in a way he’d never seen before. Wonwoo’s already chaotic mind grew even more complicated.
And then, as if reading his mind, a new message popped up.
-Bbirong bbirong!
[GUIDE for you, who must be confused by the sudden appearance of ‘SYSTEM’! ヾ(^▽^*)))]
[While waiting for the connection, how about drinking some lukewarm water and calm your breath?]
[And watching this morning’s news to start your day is also a good choice! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧]
“What the hell is this saying….”
But no matter what he did, the phone wouldn't respond. When a message appeared stating that there were 10 minutes left until connection, Wonwoo realized he had no other choice and got up. Just as the message said, he took a bottle of water from the fridge and turned on the TV.
He felt strangely uneasy doing as the message told him, but it was better than staring at that crazy message. Besides, he had to check if today’s date was really the 8th. It was unlikely, but his phone might be broken.
As if on cue, the opening music signaling the start of the news began to play.
-Good morning, everyone. This is the May 2nd Morning News.
“The 2nd… It’s really the 2nd. What, did I really travel to the past? Time travel, or something?”
But nothing answered Wonwoo’s question.
-First, we bring you news about a Gate. A Gate has appeared on the Dangsan Railway Bridge. This means it appeared over the Han River. This Gate, designated as Seoul’s 124th Gate, fortunately disappeared without any casualties. The Bureau headquarters has announced that in response to this Gate’s appearance….
'The Dangsan Railway Bridge? That Han River bridge between Hapjeong and Dangsan stations?' Lost in thought, Wonwoo didn’t properly hear the anchor’s words.
The appearance of a Gate causes various damages, so news is received through disaster messages. If a Gate appeared nearby, one had to evacuate as quickly as possible, so Wonwoo was the type to pay close attention to Gate messages.
But in Wonwoo’s memory, May 2nd had been a peaceful day. There were no disaster alerts, and with no particular plans, he had spent the entire day at home.
But a Gate had appeared? Was he not time-slipping from the 8th to the 2nd?
Feeling his mind getting complicated again, Wonwoo groaned, and rubbed his face roughly.
However, Wonwoo soon remembered that the Gates he had been notified about via disaster alerts before he returned to the past… only went up to number 123. The number was very memorable, so he remembered it clearly.
And he recalled the moment the Gate that swallowed him and the subway train had appeared.
The shimmering Han River with its impressive shimmering sunlight and the National Assembly Building visible in the distance… the beautiful scenery of the Han River one could see when passing between Dangsan and Hapjeong stations.
-While many citizens are anxious about the Gate that appeared on the railway tracks, the Bureau headquarters has stated that they plan to conduct a large-scale search using Gate wave detectors to confirm if any residual Gate energy remains.
Even though he had drunk a lot of water, his mouth felt parched. He had already messed up his hair once, but faced with so much sudden information, Wonwoo’s mind was in turmoil, and he began to tousle his hair again in frustration.
“What is going on! No way, it can’t be. So, that Gate on the news is….”
-Bbirong bbirong!
-Bbirong bbirong!
The alarm, mixed with a hum, started ringing multiple times as if to mock him.
-Bbirong bbirong!
-Bbirong bbirong!
Finally, as if scolding Wonwoo for not checking it immediately, the alarm began to emit a strange vibration.
Startled, Wonwoo reflexively spat out the water he had just taken a sip of. He wiped his drenched chin with the back of his hand and picked up his phone.
[GUIDE for you, who must be flustered for having ‘returned to the past’! ヾ(^▽^*)))]
[You’ve crossed a period of 6 days—short if you think it’s short, long if you think it’s long! Have you noticed something strange? <(◔◡◔)>]
The cheerful emoticon seemed to be making fun of the disoriented Wonwoo. Before he could get angry and say, “You think that’s something to say right now?”, a new message appeared.
[Having died and woken up. You have become the world’s only ‘Guide’!]
“Died and… woken up?”
The message confirmed a thought he was only beginning to suspect. Wonwoo touched the screen to look at the previous message again.
[GUIDE for you, who must be flustered for having ‘returned to the past’! ヾ(^▽^*)))]
Returned to the past, died and woken up.
…That was the situation the phone message was showing him.
Normally, Wonwoo would have scoffed and dismissed it as nonsense, but the previous situations didn't allow for that.
The giant Gate that had swallowed him, that being his last memory, and waking up to find time had gone back from the 8th to the 2nd. And….
His own phone, which was continuously displaying messages on an unfamiliar screen.
[As a ‘Guide,’ you must now work with S-Class Espers to prevent the world's destruction! ✪ω✪*]
[What is a ‘Guide’?]
[Don’t worry! ‘SYSTEM’ will kindly and gently explain what a ‘Guide’ is! (ง •_•)ง]
So, he had… died, come back to life, and become something called a ‘Guide.’
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