Chapter 144

“Don’t. I said don’t……”

The eloquence that usually flowed so smoothly from his tongue was long gone. His tongue felt stiff, as though if he misspoke, his words would slur into a mess.

No. Don’t give up. Let’s sort this out. Aiden forced his mind to work. He pushed it as hard as it could go.

The boss could likely possess people. Thinking back to the mention of the “psychic class,” it was possible he could only possess psychic-type espers. After all, even Sasha, the esper who had collapsed unconscious earlier, was a psychic from America.

“Right now, what kind of game are you playing with Jaeha?”

“That’s a secret.”

“……”

And that was the problem. There was no other information to go on.

Horribly, there was nothing Aiden could do either—because he was a Guide. He had often thought of being a Guide as convenient, handy, even privileged, but never had he felt so powerless because of it. Now was that time.

Aiden was speechless.

“Let’s take stock.”

It was the team leader who stepped forward. Unlike Aiden, he felt only mild goodwill toward Jaeha without any deeper ties, and as the general leader responsible for the seventy or so people who had entered this place, the weight of command demanded calm. He spoke evenly.

“For Esper Song Jaeha, there are three outcomes, correct? He wins the game, he dies, or you are forcibly expelled. Those three, is that all?”

“Mm. Well, this body’s my favorite among you lot right now, so I’d say so.”

“……And your condition for victory is—”

“I told you earlier.”

The monster heaved an exaggerated sigh, boredom flaring across his face. He slouched lazily, lifting one hand in dispirited fashion to point upward. Everyone glanced at the giant scoreboard glowing across the sky.

[0 days 22 hours 32 minutes 52 seconds]

< Past Team: 26/52 │ Future Team: 44/49 │ Monster’s Team: 1/101 >

“One of those three teams gets wiped out, or the timer hits zero.”

“……”

“So if I want to win here, I’d have to wipe out one of the other two teams on my own—”

He made a show of kneading his own shoulder, whining that the thought alone was exhausting.

“Or, I just drag things out. Less than a day left, huh?”

“……Why even tell us this? If you had just hidden quietly inside that body until the time ran out, you would have achieved victory.”

Even at the team leader’s suspicious tone, the monster tilted Jaeha’s head innocently, smiling as though eager to explain.

“Because it’s fun. I’m retiring from creating gates now, so I’d at least like to go out without regrets.”

Creating gates? Everyone furrowed their brows, but there was no time to dwell on it.

“……”

“So do your best. Hm? You’ve almost cleared it already.”

He clapped Jaeha’s hands together again. Knowing full well how many comrades the espers had lost, it was nothing but mockery.

“Then you mean, you don’t mind losing?”

“It’s like retiring from the Olympics and not getting a gold medal in your last run. Does anyone die because of that?”

“……”

Those who immediately grasped his metaphor scowled darkly. For them, the stakes here were life and death—whereas for him, it was little more than a sport. It was grotesque, offensive.

“……We need time. Let us discuss among ourselves.”

“Do whatever you like~. I’ll just keep playing with Song Jaeha.”

Damn it. As the monster sprawled comfortably on the rooftop ledge, arms folded behind Jaeha’s head like a pillow, Aiden ground his teeth furiously. The team leader called people over for a meeting, but Aiden was the last to join, eyes locked murderously on the creature to the end.

It looked ridiculous, like something out of a children’s cartoon—holding a strategy meeting right in front of an enemy—but nobody found it funny. Every person was deadly serious.

“……We need to decide.”

“What if we just… wait? Song Jaeha might be doing well inside, right?”

“Do you truly trust that boss?”

“So far the gate’s system has been honest. If the rules reflect his nature, then what he says is probably true.”

“Even so……”

Everyone’s eyes flickered discreetly toward the two men most deeply tied to Jaeha. The first was obvious: Aiden, whose bristling frustration had been clear since the start. The other was Jaeha’s father.

Neither spoke. Both kept their mouths tight, faces grim.

“……”

“For now… we’ll wait.”

At last the team leader sighed out a conclusion.

“But we cannot just wait until the end. First…”

[0 days 22 hours 28 minutes 35 seconds]

“We’ll give it until there are 10 hours remaining. During that time, we’ll prepare our strategy.”

“And if Esper Song Jaeha hasn’t managed to win by then……”

“Then we must consider ways to forcibly expel the boss from his body. And if that still fails, once the clock hits 5 hours remaining……”

The team leader’s voice faltered. Everyone knew what would come next, but the weight of command demanded he state it outright.

“—then we’ll also have to consider… eliminating Esper Song Jaeha.”

“Team Leader—!”

“I’m sorry, Guide Song Juhyuk. This gate is too dangerous. A Break must never be allowed here. We have to clear it. No objections will be entertained.”

“……”

Juhyuk, on the verge of arguing, clamped his mouth shut, running a hand over his face with a dry groan.

Meanwhile, Aiden was thinking.

“……”

Kill him.

How many of us are there? How many espers? If I put all the espers to sleep with guiding, and we slaughter the Past Team… if one team is annihilated, the gate’s door will open, and the boss will have no choice but to release Jaeha……

“……”

“…Anyway, thank you for not doing that.”

The memory of something Jaeha had once said struck him suddenly, as though to restrain him. Still, Aiden brushed it aside. What was the point of twisting his nature into goodness, pretending to be virtuous—for Jaeha’s sake—even reshaping his humanity? None of it mattered if Jaeha wasn’t there. A Break? Let it happen.

“……Guide Ye Aiden. Are you alright?”

Yes. Let’s kill them all. Maybe I can’t manage it in this body, but if I had a gun, at least I could take out the Guides and civilians……

“Guide Ye Aiden.”

“……Yes.”

Aiden snapped out of it belatedly. Jaeha’s father—Guide Song Juhyuk—was in front of him, kneeling, gently shaking him by the shoulder.

“……”

Blinking dully, Aiden looked at him. He had once thought the man resembled Jaeha only when he smiled. But now, wrinkling his brow with anxious worry, he looked uncannily the same.

“It’ll be alright. Jaeha won’t die. We’ll find a way.”

“……”

“So please, compose yourself now.”

“……”

What filled this man with such conviction? Aiden parted his lips as if to respond, then shut them, dropping his eyes aside.

“……”

Perhaps thinking Aiden just needed more time, the man patted his shoulder reassuringly before standing. He turned toward the other espers, speaking, likely to strategize on ways to force the boss out of Jaeha’s body.

“……”

Aiden rolled his eyes sideways. The boss was still sprawled there, humming carelessly with a cheerful grin.

How he wished that were really Jaeha.

“……”

Yet in truth, Jaeha had never once smiled so serenely, so comfortably, lying down at ease. Realizing this made Aiden’s insides twist and blister with pain.

Aiden thought again. Fine. Massacring an entire team could be an option, but if there was another, more efficient method, that had to take priority—not because of ethics or morality, but simply because he couldn’t do it alone.

Another method. What else could there be? He darted glances at the scoreboard, checked the dwindling time, scanned the room in agitation.

And then suddenly—

“……”

“……”

Their eyes met.

Baek Beomwoo.

It was almost effortless to catch each other’s gaze—he had been watching Aiden from the start. Leaning against the doorway to the rooftop, arms crossed, he looked on with idle amusement, as though Aiden was no more than a zoo animal on display. An ugly urge flared in Aiden’s chest: to kill him. If Jaeha’s life weren’t truly at risk, he might already have tried.

But before he could act, the man’s lips moved.

Aiden couldn’t hear at this distance, but he could read it:

‘Want me to give it?’

The shape of the words was undeniable. What it meant, though—that was another matter.

Give?

Give what?

Aiden frowned, face screwing up. Give what? He was a prisoner, stripped of resources, without a single proper tool……

Had the boss possessed this man’s body instead, things would be far simpler. Killing him would have been no problem—after all, he was already a criminal responsible for numerous disappearances and deaths. No one would have opposed it.

In fact, what exactly had that drug cost so many lives for? The only thing clearer was that trying to uncover the reason why his own brother had helped him would have been easier. To strip away the title of S-rank Guide from Aiden—that was surely why he’d created the Ability Nullifier.

“……”

Wait.

That thought stopped Aiden short.

‘Ability Nullifier’?

“This body interests me. And you’re not even a psychic-type, are you?”

The boss’s skill was clear: he could almost certainly possess the body of psychic espers. If not, then at least it was evident he favored them.

But what if…… Jaeha were no longer a psychic esper?

Would that force the boss to be “expelled against his will”?

Was that why Baek Beomwoo had asked, almost charitably, whether Aiden wanted it?

“……”

Honestly—if Aiden was being honest—he was tempted. A little.

But Aiden……