Beyond The Control

Chapter 40

Taking it a step further, I took out some orange juice.

“Try this. It’s delicious with orange pulp in it.”

As I opened the cap and held it out, Song Ji-hyeok drank it readily like a baby bird. While eating a sandwich as well, he spoke up.

“I can’t enter the dungeon, right?”

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“It’s not possible tomorrow.”

The reason, of course, was my leg. Even though I didn’t say it, it was still throbbing like being pricked with needles. I was worried about just getting home after work, let alone going to a dungeon.

“I got permission from the team leader to bring you along…”

His mumbled words made me feel guilty. Since becoming mostly a Guide after the contract, my dungeon entries had drastically decreased. The team leader wanted to reduce them even further, while Song Ji-hyeok was desperate to take me along. That way he could receive guiding whenever he wanted.

I was fine either way. I had been more active as an Esper for the money, but now there was no need for that. However, I felt very sorry that I couldn’t accompany him tomorrow when he had likely struggled to get permission.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do it right away when you return instead. I’ll stay in the guiding room all day.”

I should ask the team leader to contact me on the day I return. By then, my ankle should be better than now.

“Please do it right after we eat. I had intense morning training.”

“Alright.”

I agreed readily and continued eating. Whether combat was truly in his nature or not, Song Ji-hyeok not only excelled in actual battles but also had an enormous amount of training at the training center. Even the training instructors armed with ferocity and cold-bloodedness were said to surrender first.

If only that were all. I heard he never refused sparring requests from other Espers and sent several of them packing each day. Of course, it was my job to resolve the unfit energy accumulated from all that.

After the meal, we went down to the guiding room. I was the one who suggested changing locations. Song Ji-hyeok said we should just do it here since my leg was in that state, but team members who had returned after finishing their meals were starting to come in and out of the office. Even though guiding was directly linked to an Esper’s survival, I didn’t want to do it in front of others when it wasn’t an emergency situation.

These days, it’s not even enough to end with just hands.

On the contrary, now it starts with a kiss from the beginning. Today too, as soon as we entered the guiding room, Song Ji-hyeok cupped my nape and overlapped our lips. I also wrapped my arms around his back and naturally started guiding as if it were a matter of course.

I always do my best, but today I put in extra effort to flow my energy into every nook and cranny. It was because I remembered he said he was leaving for a raid tomorrow.

‘Even so, once it’s full, it won’t take any more…’

Knowing this, I still did my best to caress his insides. Song Ji-hyeok wasn’t idle either. He mixed our tongues sloppily as if trying to steal my breath, and his hands caressed various parts of my body. Because of this, when we finished guiding and separated our lips, my mouth was more drenched than usual.

Song Ji-hyeok cupped my face with both hands again and gave me a bird kiss. It was just our lips touching and quickly separating, but somehow it felt more embarrassing and ticklish than kissing with tongues intertwined.

Belatedly wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I said to him.

“Be careful tomorrow.”

“I’ll get one more guiding before I go.”

“…Huh.”

Go ahead and squeeze out every last drop, you rascal.

***

When I arrived at work the next day, Song Ji-hyeok had already left for the raid. Even without him, I wasn’t particularly free. I didn’t neglect to absorb various information and continued to learn the practical work as a Guide in earnest.

And a few hours later, an unexpected full emergency assembly order was issued. There was chaos as a dungeon gate appeared in the middle of the city, only 8km away from the guild.

The dungeon itself was a problem, but the bigger issue was the color surrounding the gate. Data showed that waves close to black color indicated a very high probability of dungeon break, and these were called BK dungeons after the wave color.

BK dungeons with the highest risk level don’t follow the usual auction procedures. As a rule, the closest large guild to its location handles it as soon as it’s discovered. Here, a large guild must have at least 100 Espers and more than 20 A-rank among them, which our guild naturally fulfilled.

“Damn, what is this? Isn’t it going to burst right away?”

“Don’t say such unlucky things.”

The quickly assembled team members were busy muttering while looking at their phones. I was in the office but couldn’t join the field deployment. My position had changed to Guide, and even if I emphasized being a dual awakened one, combat participation was impossible due to my still limping leg.

Instead, I entered infinite standby in the office. With the mouse in hand, I hurriedly opened an internet window. Because a dungeon with break risk had appeared in the heart of Seoul, there were already several breaking news reports.

The scene in the video taken from a helicopter was chaotic without even looking closely. While hundreds of vehicles and people who received evacuation orders were tangled in a mess, not even an ant could be seen in the vast area inside the control line. The contrast was so stark that it felt surreal.

The video transmission was soon cut off, which meant our guild members had arrived at the scene. Thanks to this, there was no way to know the on-site situation anymore. I nervously chewed on my lips while refreshing the page meaninglessly.

With the focus gone, the silence in the office hit me. It’s not unusual for everyone to be away from their desks, but I was especially worried because a dangerous dungeon had appeared in our assigned district.

‘Song Ji-hyeok should be here at times like this… But he’ll be fine since he’s estimated to be A-rank.’

Even excluding the high-ranking Espers who went to other sites, there were at least five A-rank Espers, so there shouldn’t be a big problem. The total number of personnel was not small either, enough to fill a bus.

From our team, all members of Unit 3 were dispatched to the site. Hoping that not a single person would get hurt, I continued to press the F5 button from time to time.

***

Fortunately, the battle ended completely after five days. Just as voices calling for support from other guilds were growing louder due to the location, the black waves surrounding the gate weakened significantly.

When people saw through video that it had completely disappeared, they cheered as if it were their own achievement. I had also been keeping an eye on it through media outlets, so as soon as I saw the subtitle saying the dungeon conquest was successful, I moved to the 3rd floor guiding room.

While the time from the start to the end of the battle was when Espers played active roles, the time right after the end was when work poured in for Guides. Especially on days like this when a large-scale expedition returned, there was literally no time to breathe.

Espers already tend to be aggressive, and there were often cases where they recklessly used up their power, inspired by surrounding comrades who were blasting monsters like madmen. If they were in danger of going berserk, they received guiding from Guides who accompanied them on site. At this time, Espers without pairs were at a disadvantage. Because one Guide had to take care of multiple Espers, it was virtually impossible to receive guiding until completely satisfied.

Such Espers visited the guiding room as soon as they returned. This time, I also responded to their calls. It was an emergency situation, and Song Ji-hyeok was absent.

From the endless list of guiding requests, I sequentially accepted only Espers with a matching rate of 40% or higher. Below that, guiding had almost no effect.

The appearance of Espers visiting the guiding room was all similar. They were breathing heavily like excited beasts, and as soon as the door opened, their unstable energy could be felt. The better Espers followed my instructions without losing their humanity, but a couple of them pulled up my clothes and pressed their lips against me without warning.

Knowing it was due to survival instinct, I tried to accommodate them as much as possible instead of stopping them. At the same time, I focused on guiding them.

‘They’re all serious.’

The insides of the Espers were all in a mess. Especially the fourth Esper who came to me, a nerdy type, was in such bad condition that I thought, ‘Shouldn’t he have received emergency guiding on site?’ What was his name again? Jeon Hyeon-wook, was it?

I quickly sat down the Esper whose face was pale as if he might collapse at any moment. Just as I was about to hold his hand and start guiding, he spoke with lips that had turned white and flaky.

“Is, is it okay to give me guiding?”

“Pardon?”

“I heard you made a p-pair contract with E-Esper Song Ji-hyeok…”

“It’s a temporary pair, so it’s fine. I can guide other Espers too.”

In a crisis situation, it’s human nature to grasp at straws. But why is he so restless with a Guide right in front of him… Ah.

As I looked at him with puzzled eyes, I soon recalled a certain fact. There was a time when Song Ji-hyeok barged in when I was guiding another Esper, and the Esper sitting across from me then was this person.