Without a moment to think whose voice it was, Wonwoo instinctively ducked his body. In doing so, he twisted his ankle and nearly fell backward.
Catching his breath for a moment, Wonwoo flinched as a chill suddenly washed over his back. Shivering at the sensation of a sharp piece of ice passing by, Wonwoo raised his head at the sound of something cracking. He then saw the leg of the monster, which had seemed ready to pounce on him, completely frozen.
“Hah, hah..."
The leg, so massive it would have taken several grown men lying down end-to-end to match its size, had been frozen in an instant. It looked like a bizarrely shaped iceberg broken off from a glacier.
Although it was the monster's leg that was frozen, Wonwoo felt as if his entire body was freezing up in this strange and sudden situation.
“Are you alright?”
The same voice that had shouted at him to get down was heard once more. Feeling the chill that had permeated him moments ago slowly subsiding, Wonwoo struggled to his feet.
'It’s not that I didn’t want to evacuate, it's that I was trying to meet you...'
Wonwoo barely managed to swallow the words that rose to the tip of his tongue, along with a sense of relief at being alive.
“Hurry and evacua….”
Yonghyun was also unable to finish his sentence. Whatever the circumstances, he had been about to tell the man, who had failed to evacuate and was nearly attacked by the monster, to run away quickly.
But the moment the man, who had been crouched down, stood up and looked at him, Yonghyun could only shut his mouth.
It was because the sharp chill that had been directed not only at the enemy but also at him had vanished in an instant.
The ability itself had not disappeared. What had disappeared was…
“Is, is this… by any chance. Are you.”
It was the penalty he received in exchange for the strength of an S-class.
“Are you a Guide?”
“Uh… pardon?”
***
Yonghyun recalled the message he had received from the ‘Absolute Power.’
[As an Esper, you will be able to recognize at a glance the Guide who will stabilize and enhance your abilities.]
At the time, Yonghyun couldn't have guessed what it meant to recognize a Guide at a glance. No, it would be more accurate to say that even if he had guessed, there were too many possibilities to sort through.
He had worried and worried whether he would know upon meeting them within a certain distance, or the moment they made physical contact, or if there were other possibilities.
But the moment his eyes met Wonwoo’s, Yonghyun realized all that worry had been for nothing.
Yonghyun knew that the man in front of him was a ‘Guide.’ Just as it was difficult to explain to non-Espers what the ‘Absolute Power’ was, this intuition was also instinctual.
[We wish for peace in your work and your sleep.]
Peace. The moment he saw Wonwoo, Yonghyun felt peace.
The moment their eyes met, his surroundings became quiet. As if wearing noise-canceling earphones, he was in a silent state where he could hear nothing but his own heartbeat.
Yonghyun’s ability was ‘Freezing,’ which could freeze any existence he perceived. Befitting his S-class rank, he could freeze almost anything in the world, but the side effects were severe.
Like an antibiotic flowing through his veins and stinging his entire body, every time he used his ability, he had to feel ice crystals shattering, breaking, and seeping into his body. He had to endure the pain of sharp crystal fragments flowing through his blood vessels at every moment.
But the moment he faced Wonwoo, that pain disappeared. It felt as if all the ice crystals flowing through his veins had melted away and vanished. As the pain that had tormented him for so long disappeared in an instant, Yonghyun couldn’t quite swallow his sense of bewilderment.
“A Guide, that… right. So….”
Wonwoo was just as flustered by the sudden situation.
From the moment he was told he had to meet an Esper and perform Guiding, and after receiving the system's <QUEST>, he had thought, ‘Right, I have to meet an S-class Esper!’ But just thinking about it and actually meeting one like this were two different matters.
On top of that, if Yonghyun hadn't appeared, Wonwoo would have been crushed by the monster’s leg or caught and thrown to his death. Even now, his hands trembled and he felt his breath catch in his throat when he thought of that massive, bizarrely shaped leg that had been about to charge at him.
Therefore, quest or not, he was currently in a state where it was difficult to even grasp the situation properly. To hear the word ‘Guide’ from someone other than the system in such a state, it was inevitable that he would stammer.
“Th-th….”
And so, the moment his eyes met Yonghyun’s, Wonwoo couldn’t even think of offering the polite greeting he had been planning for so long, instead bowing his head and avoiding his gaze.
He felt that if he kept looking into those eyes, instead of a polite and courteous greeting, he might blurt out something ridiculous like, ‘That’s right, I’m your vitality drink!’ That's why Wonwoo decided it was better to keep his mouth shut.
Furthermore, the atmosphere and aura emanating from Yonghyun were anything but ordinary. Yonghyun was an Esper, and among them, the highest-ranking S-class. It was only natural to feel unfamiliar and scared, as he had just used his ability.
Wonwoo had only ever seen Yonghyun through the media, and when he saw him giving interviews at patriotic events or on the news, he had once thought that if the word ‘righteousness’ were a person, it would look like him. But facing him in person like this, the sense of pressure was considerable.
His tall height, which required Wonwoo to look up to see him properly, and a physique that made a moderately sized small car look like a toy car. A neat three-piece suit that looked ready for a public function at any moment and a hairstyle slicked back cleanly made his impression even more rigid.
Looking at Yonghyun, Wonwoo was reminded of a military dog that tears into the enemy with a sharp gaze.
'In the interview clips I saw while researching, he seemed like the most righteous and kind person in the world.' Wonwoo felt the sense of inner closeness he had built up while looking into Yonghyun slowly dissipate.
But whether he knew Wonwoo’s feelings or not, Yonghyun carefully opened his mouth to speak to Wonwoo.
“Excuse me, if it’s not too much to ask….”
But before Yonghyun could finish his sentence, the monster’s sharp roar once again bore down on the two of them.
-Kreeeeeeeeak!!!
Along with the rough, sharp roar, the ground beneath Yonghyun and Wonwoo’s feet shook as if an earthquake had struck. At the peak of this heightened anxiety, a monster resembling a black octopus emerged from the Han River beyond the leg.
A sharp glint flowed from its sunken eyes, which were deeply shadowed, and fixed on Wonwoo.
The monster placed its legs one by one onto the railway bridge as if to crush it. Each time, the bridge shook and a nauseating stench like rotting fish wafted out.
The kraken, having thus revealed itself above the water, boasted a size so immense that it couldn't be captured in Wonwoo's field of vision all at once. It was so large that the heavily dented train car looked like a toy block.
Only then did Wonwoo realize that the leg he had faced was just the tip of the iceberg.
“W-well, since one leg was cut off earlier, it has seven now. It’s a good thing that monster isn’t a squid. It would have had more legs then…. Haha, haha.”
'They say you only talk nonsense when you're terrified, and that's exactly me right now….'
Barely managing to shut his mouth, Wonwoo glanced at Yonghyun. His expression was grave, whether because of Wonwoo's absurd comment, the fully revealed monster, or because of the ‘Guide.’
“Guide-nim.”
“Ah, yes. Yes?”
Yonghyun realized that in order to have a proper conversation with the ‘Guide’ who had suddenly appeared as the Absolute Power had foretold, he first had to defeat the monster in front of him and close the gate.
However, the gate that must be beneath his feet right now was an A-class fusion type. For now, only that monster was visible, but it was a dangerous situation where he didn’t know what kind of monster might appear at any moment.
“There is much I want to say, and much I want to ask… but first.”
Yonghyun clenched his gloved fists tightly. Simultaneously, the surrounding air began to freeze, and Yonghyun's breathing quickened.
“It seems that will only be possible after I take care of that monster and resolve the gate. So, would you be willing to wait for a moment?”
In that situation, all Wonwoo could do was nod his head. The moment Yonghyun kicked off the ground and charged toward the monster.
-Bbirong bbirong!
That familiar humming alarm sounded.
[<QUEST> Re-generated!]
[‘Resolve the A-class Gate that has suddenly appeared!’]
[As user ‘Wonwoo’ has met S-class Esper ‘Shin Yonghyun,’ the corresponding <QUEST> will be updated.]
[■□■□■□…….]
[<QUEST> Updated!]
[‘Resolve the A-rank Gate that has suddenly appeared!’]
[The appearing A-class Gate is a special type, and it is a Gate that cannot be captured by ordinary methods.（；´д｀）]
[Therefore, user ‘Wonwoo’s’ participation in the QUEST through Guiding is strongly recommended! (‵ㅅ′)]
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