The surroundings were already in ruins. The allied nations’ Espers who had gathered under the banner of the elite were now either cold corpses or had been reduced to ash and scattered without even a trace of their original forms.
Only two remained. The man ranked No. 1 in the world’s overall Esper rankings, said to possess enough power on his own to overwhelm the military strength of an entire nation, and Lee Seunghyun, who had spent his entire life chasing after him.
“Haah, you… fucking monster…….”
A blood-laced groan squeezed its way through Lee Seunghyun’s lips. His remaining mana was already scraping the bottom, and at the ends of the circuits he was forcibly wringing dry, the warning signs of mana overload surged into searing pain.
Seunghyun raised his blurred gaze and looked to the side. Even Han Taeyun, humanity’s one and only EX-Rank and the absolute powerhouse who reigned above everyone else, seemed to be in much the same condition. His usual overwhelming presence was nowhere to be seen, and he too endured the backlash of mana on the verge of going berserk as he severed one of the boss monster’s arms.
Screeeech!
The enraged boss monster’s red eyes blazed as it tore through the air with its enormous claws. A fatal strike aimed directly at Taeyun’s heart. He couldn’t dodge it. If humanity’s final bastion died, this Gate would erupt in an uncontrollable explosion, and the world outside would meet its end just like that.
At that moment, two thoughts flashed through Lee Seunghyun’s mind like lightning.
First, the strange sense of superiority that if he saved Han Taeyun now and died in his place, then despite never having managed to defeat him until now, at least in the final moment, he would be remembered as the winner.
Second, the practical judgment that, much as he hated to admit it, if this world on the brink of destruction was ever going to be rebuilt, that bastard’s power was far more desperately needed than his own.
“Han Taeyun, watch carefully.”
Seunghyun squeezed out the last of his strength and moved his shadow. He shoved Han Taeyun far away and threw himself in front of the monster. As Taeyun momentarily lost his balance from the force that sent him flying, Seunghyun blocked the boss’s path.
Baaang-!
Along with the heavy impact, the ‘core’ inside Seunghyun’s chest—the lifeline of an Esper—began to convulse. He deliberately overloaded the core that was already faintly cracked. Dazzling white radiance swirled around Seunghyun’s body.
“Hyung, what are you…!”
‘I’m not saving you because you’re stronger than me. If I die and you live, then I’m the one who wins in the end.’
A bloodstained smile spread across Seunghyun’s lips. The mana on the verge of going berserk erupted from his core and struck the boss monster directly in the face.
“Survive… and prove that you were worth more than me.”
“No! Hyung!”
As a colossal explosion swallowed the Gate, Taeyun screamed in despair. In the final moment of his life, as his body crumbled into white fragments, Lee Seunghyun finally looked down at Taeyun and closed his eyes.
***
“Ah, ngh…!”
A piercing ringing tore through his eardrums and drilled straight into his brain. Perhaps the flash from the explosion still lingered as an afterimage, because every time he opened his eyes, black spots swarmed across his vision. He had definitely self-destructed his core. The last thing he remembered was the agony of every cell in his body burning away, yet strangely enough, what he felt now wasn’t scorching pain but a headache that seemed ready to split his skull apart.
“What the hell…. Fuck, wasn’t I dead?”
A hoarse voice burst from between his lips. Seunghyun instinctively grabbed his head and forced himself upright. But the sensation beneath his fingertips was unfamiliar. It wasn’t the rough, cold stone floor of a Gate, but smooth, expensive marble.
Was this a dream? Or was the afterlife some luxurious penthouse like this?
Looking around, he saw open medicine bottles scattered across the floor. Cardiac stimulants made specifically for ability users and high-dose sleeping pills. They were poisons potent enough to fry an ordinary person’s brain before their heart even had a chance to stop.
“Ugh…….”
The heavy effects of the drugs twisted his stomach. With his insides burning as though they were melting and a disgusting chemical aftertaste lingering on the tip of his tongue, Seunghyun barely managed to support his staggering body against the wall as he headed for the kitchen.
Every single piece of furniture was absurdly luxurious, but Seunghyun paid no attention whatsoever to the lavish penthouse. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed the first bottle of water his hand found.
Gulp, gulp―
As the cold water went down, the bitter taste of medicine rose back up his throat. Perhaps because this body had been pushed all the way to death’s doorstep, even moving a single finger felt like lifting a thousand pounds.
“……?”
Only then did he notice that the hand holding the water bottle was long and slender. Smooth, pale skin without a single callus. It was unmistakably not his own rough hand.
“I’m losing my fucking mind. What the hell is this now?”
Goosebumps rose across his skin. Seunghyun shook the water from his hand, searched through the apartment, and rushed into the bathroom. The moment he stood in front of the mirror, he even forgot to breathe.
“Ha…….”
An unfamiliar man stood inside the mirror. Fine, sharp features, a stranger so ridiculously delicate and smooth that he looked as though not a single speck of battlefield dust had ever touched him, staring blankly back at Seunghyun.
Seunghyun slapped himself hard across the cheek. Smack! The pain was vivid. And the pathetic, frail-looking face in the mirror turned red in exactly the same place, wearing the same bewildered expression.
“What… is this? That’s me?”
He roughly swept his hair back, and soft strands wound between his slender fingers. Gone was the overwhelming presence of a man who had occupied one of the highest positions in the world’s overall Esper rankings, along with the solid muscles forged through relentless training.
Seunghyun instinctively tried to draw up his mana. But he couldn’t feel the destructive S-Rank vortex that had once raged through him like a storm. In its place was something lukewarm and gently rippling, a strange fluctuation unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life.
“……And what the hell is wrong with my mana?”
Seunghyun bolted out of the bathroom. Wet footprints scattered messily across the luxurious marble floor, but he couldn’t have cared less. This situation was far too vivid to be a dream and far too bizarre to be reality.
He searched the living room table and drawers, then barged through every door he could see and rummaged through everything in sight. Even when the drugs made his legs give out and forced him to crawl pathetically across the marble floor, he didn’t care. At last, he found a latest-model smartphone wedged beside the bed. When he brought the screen up to his face, the lock smoothly released with the message ‘Facial Recognition Successful.’ It was definitive proof that the unfamiliar face in the mirror belonged to the owner of this device.
Seunghyun’s eyes widened in shock when he checked the date at the top of the screen.
“……Five years?”
It was exactly five years after the day he had died inside the Gate. 2026. The world had not ended, and time had continued flowing with complete indifference.
With trembling fingers, Seunghyun began going through the text messages and messenger history.
The message windows were filled with filth too disgusting to even say aloud.
[Hey, you fucking slut. If you’re going to guide, you should offer up your body too.]
[There’s a whole line of guys waiting to fuck you. Crawl your ass over to the Ability Bureau tomorrow.]
[Who the fuck does a Guide think he is, playing hard to get? If you don’t want to die, do what you’re told.]
“Ha, fuck…….”
Only now did he understand what the medicine bottles were for. The owner of this body hadn’t swallowed all those pills in order to live.
He had taken them to die.
Seunghyun tossed the phone onto the bed and sat down beside it. He roughly raked his fingers through his hair and scrubbed both hands over his face. He had finished assessing the situation. Lee Seunghyun, the No. 2 ranked Esper, was dead, and five years later, he had awakened in the body of some unknown Guide. And not just any Guide, but one who had been driven so far into a corner by treatment worse than an animal’s that he had chosen suicide.
“Did the Gate core distort dimensions when it exploded? Or did the mana wave knock only my soul out……?”
All kinds of hypotheses collided inside his head. There was a strong possibility that the massive energy generated when he self-destructed his core at the final moment had reacted with the singularity inside the Gate. It seemed the soul transfer that had only ever existed in theory had actually occurred.
Seunghyun let out a hollow laugh. The peaceful world he had sacrificed his life to protect had apparently been no different from hell for the owner of this body. For someone who had spent his entire life as one of the strong, this ridiculously weak body—and the reality of being treated as someone else’s plaything—didn’t feel real at all.
“Han Taeyun, that bastard must be living like a fucking king.”
His rival was probably being hailed as a hero while comfortably holding onto the No. 1 ranking. Suppressing the irritation rising from the pit of his stomach, Seunghyun pressed a hand against his throbbing head.
Out of instinct, Seunghyun reached into the empty air and summoned the system window out of habit. Every ability user possessed a personal inventory. His had been a treasure vault filled with legendary weapons and top-grade potions he had collected while traveling across the world.
[Exclusive Storage has been activated.]
A translucent system window appeared before his eyes. But Seunghyun’s brow immediately twisted into an ugly frown.
“……What the hell is this? No fucking way. Where did all my equipment go?”
No matter how hard he looked, there was no sign of ‘Black Thunder,’ the S-Rank greatsword that had cut battlefield monsters down in a single strike, nor the dungeon armor that had maximized his mana resistance. Instead, their places were occupied by bizarre items he had never seen before in his life.
[Item List]
Strawberry-Flavored Mana Supplement (Guide Exclusive) x20
Emergency Portable Medical Kit x5
Emergency Recovery Potion (A-Rank or Higher) x10
Guide Perfume (Lavender Scent) x3
Self-Defense Stun Gun x1
Self-Defense Pepper Spray x1
“Strawberry-flavored…… mana supplement?”