“Young Master! You’re back? Hurry and wash your hands. I made that spicy braised chicken you like.”
“Wow, spicy braised chicken!”
Yihyun tossed his bag aside and ran to the bathroom. He grinned at the pretty face reflected in the mirror, washed his hands, and sat down at the dining table. The sight of the steaming spicy braised chicken and neatly arranged side dishes naturally drew a sound of admiration from him.
‘Damn, life as a rich young master really is nice.’
In his previous life, Seunghyun had been born into an ordinary family and had been lucky enough to awaken as an S-Rank. But his rise to the top of the Esper rankings had been entirely due to his own abilities. He had neither powerful backing nor special privileges. His parents had died in a Gate accident when he was young, leaving him with nothing but his body and his awakened ability. His annual salary had been astronomical, but he had spent practically every day trapped inside Gates fighting for his life, so he never had any time to spend the money. At most, the delivery food he ordered on his way home from work had been his only luxury.
‘Leaving all that money sitting untouched in my bank account when I died is seriously the biggest regret of my life.’
Yihyun narrowed his eyes in satisfaction as he bit into a chicken leg thoroughly coated in red sauce. Whether Ability Bureau Director Baek Seungho hated him or not, the living expenses deposited into his account and this magnificent home were entirely his to enjoy.
‘In this life, I’m not saving a damn thing. I’m spending it all!’
“Young Master, would you like some more?”
“Yes! This is seriously amazing! Another bowl of rice, please!”
After polishing off two whole bowls of the delicious meal, Yihyun patted his stomach with a satisfied smile.
Then he returned to his room, turned on his phone, and opened an online shopping mall.
‘I’m swimming in money. I can’t live on nothing but that strawberry-flavored syrup.’
Yihyun searched for the legendary mana alchemist ‘Master K,’ whom he had frequently relied on back when he was Lee Seunghyun. She was an Esper who practiced alchemy capable of shaping an Esper’s mana into physical matter. She was notoriously difficult to deal with, but a single drop of medicine she refined was worth as much as a Gate core, so even high-ranking Espers would line up in front of her just to purchase her creations.
But Yihyun’s brow furrowed when he saw the search results.
[Notice (2023.01.01): Master K Alchemy Workshop — All sales of alchemical products discontinued following Master K’s defection to ‘DUST’]
“Ha, every bastard worth a damn really did defect. So they’re going to monopolize alchemy too, huh?”
Yihyun clicked his tongue and searched for the next best option. Fortunately, Master K’s top disciple, who had learned mana material refinement under her, was operating a ‘VIP-Only Alchemy Pharmacy’ near the Ability Bureau. Yihyun checked the number of zeros in Baek Yihyun’s bank account and filled out an order form without hesitation.
The disciple wasn’t capable of creating something from nothing like his master, Master K, but he was trustworthy.
[Items to be Refined: High-Concentration Essence (Mana Supplement) — Mint Chocolate Flavor x50, Blueberry Flavor x50, Coffee Flavor x50]
The insane price of a single bottle was equivalent to an ordinary Guide’s entire monthly salary, but Yihyun didn’t even blink before immediately pressing the payment button.
‘It’s not my money, so who cares? Baek Seungho, I’m going to live the good life on your dime.’
After completing the payment, Yihyun decided to keep going and clicked on the weapons store category. Seeing the dazzling array of magnificent swords and greatswords filling the screen made the blood from his previous life seem to boil again.
Many Espers used dedicated weapons to draw out the maximum efficiency of their abilities. Their forms varied wildly. Some used swords, some used guns, and some—though he couldn’t understand why—used whips.
“An Esper has to use a sword. Should I buy something similar to Black Thunder?”
Yihyun was about to add a hefty steel greatsword to his cart when he suddenly looked down at his slender wrist.
Baek Yihyun’s wrist looked even thinner than the hilt of the greatsword he had wielded in his previous life.
‘……No. If I tried swinging a greatsword with these arms, my wrist would snap before I ever cut off the enemy’s head.’
Facing reality, Yihyun closed the greatsword page without a shred of hesitation.
Instead, he chose a cutting-edge mana pistol with a sleek silver sheen.
[Product Name: Silver Ghost — Wave-Amplification Firearm for Guides
Features: Frame constructed from special Gate-sourced alloy. Fires bullets imbued with the user’s wave energy. Minimal-recoil design enables precise shooting even for users with low physical strength.]
“If I don’t have muscles, I’ll just use tools.”
Yihyun looked at the payment confirmation with satisfaction. He could practically feel the comforting scent of wealth wrapping around his body now.
He grinned, eagerly waiting for the package to arrive.
Now it was about time to put their heads together.
Juwon, who had been summoned to a quiet bar near Yihyun’s home, seemed to have come running the instant his boss called. He sat down across from him, still panting for breath.
Yihyun idly toyed with his beer glass and asked in a low voice.
“Hey, did you bring what I asked for?”
Juwon glanced around before pulling a security envelope from inside his clothes and carefully sliding it across the table.
It contained the roster of the support teams and the command room communications records from the Gehenna Gate incident five years ago—the materials Yihyun had asked him for earlier that day.
Yihyun opened the envelope without hesitation and began going through the documents.
But before long, his hand stopped in the middle of turning a page.
“……What the hell is this?”
More than half of the documents had been covered in solid black ink.
Starting with the support team leader, the affiliations and names of key personnel—even crucial sentences from the communications logs exchanged with the command room at the time—had all been completely ‘Blurred.’
This wasn’t ordinary censorship.
Someone had meticulously carved the information out.
“Boss, even someone with my clearance level can’t access that. No matter how much I dug through the Ability Bureau system, those sections were classified as completely outside the standard clearance hierarchy.”
Yihyun’s eyes narrowed sharply.
He roughly dragged a finger across the blacked-out paper.
“If it’s locked down this hard, the Ability Bureau isn’t the one who blocked it.”
At that moment, a sharp emergency-alert beep burst from the large monitor mounted on one wall of the bar.
[Breaking News: Fierce Battle Underway with Rebel Faction ‘DUST’ in Sector A-03]
The screen showed shaky drone footage remotely filming the restricted zone.
The city was engulfed in gray smoke. In the middle of it, blue mana suddenly flashed—
And then an enormous explosion swallowed the entire screen.
Boom-!
The deafening roar blasted through the speakers as the drone was caught in the shock wave and sent spinning wildly. The feed crackled with static before abruptly cutting out.
A moment later, the broadcast switched back to the anchor in the studio.
“……We have just received this breaking report. The 7th Mobile Unit, directly subordinate to the World Allied Forces’ Allied Government, is currently engaged in combat with DUST in Sector A-03. The Allied Forces’ highly acclaimed ‘Ideological Reinforcement Agents’ have been deployed in this operation. Authorities stated that these agents, who have been educated to place national security above all else, will uphold humanity’s justice without wavering in the face of rebel propaganda.”
The screen briefly showed Espers standing rigidly at attention, staring toward the battlefield with emotionless eyes.
“Not a single quiet day around here.”
“You didn’t go there?”
Yihyun asked while looking at Lee Juwon, an S-Rank combat asset who should have been deployed to the front lines.
Juwon rested his chin on his hand and snorted.
“Why the hell would I go fight there and do them a favor? Those ‘Ideological Reinforcement Agents’…… There are even a few guys from the classes below mine mixed in with them. They call it reinforcement, but really, mental-type Espers pressure the hell out of them until they’re brainwashed into following the Allied Forces’ orders like they’re their own beliefs. On top of that, they make them dependent on high-purity guiding drugs monopolized by the Allied Forces. Now, even if they want to leave, their bodies won’t let them.”
“High-purity guiding drugs? Not guiding ampoules?”
At Yihyun’s question, Juwon answered with a mixture of anger and pity in his voice.
“Don’t even get me started. They came up with the stuff to set themselves apart from those DUST bastards…… I was forced to drink a bottle once, and I nearly died when my heart almost exploded. That shit might as well be a narcotic. You feel like you’re floating, your adrenaline goes completely fucking insane, and your heart starts pounding like it’s trying to tear its way out of your chest. It’s freaky as hell.”
Juwon clicked his tongue.
“But those stupid bastards get high on the drug and start believing they’re genuine apostles of justice. They don’t even realize the people above them are using them like disposable supplies.”
“Juwon. Can you get me some of that? That guiding drug?”
“Why? Don’t even dream about selling me off and sending me over there. You finally came back alive, Boss. Try thinking about living comfortably for once!”
Yihyun’s gaze turned cold as his eyes followed the lingering image of the explosion on the screen.
The guiding waves that had been extorted from him at the research institute.
The blacked-out documents.
The red explosion on the news.
They all seemed to overlap in his mind.
It wasn’t enough that the World Alliance had abandoned them five years ago. Now it was binding the remaining Espers with drugs and brainwashing and using them as tools.
“I’m starting to understand Han Taeyun. If it were me, I’d…… Mmph!”
The instant the name Han Taeyun—the leader of DUST and public enemy number one—left his mouth, Juwon nearly jumped out of his skin and hurriedly clamped a hand over Yihyun’s mouth.
Yihyun scowled and slapped his hand away, but Juwon looked ready to cry as he whispered urgently.
“Boss, don’t say that name so casually outside! You have no idea where they might have spies planted…….”
“Like I give a shit.”
“Boss! You’re Baek Seungho’s son right now!”
At those words, Yihyun let out an irritated sigh.
It was a fact everyone who mattered already knew.
Baek Yihyun was the hidden son of Ability Bureau Director Baek Seungho.
Which meant that the moment someone in this body so much as mentioned Han Taeyun’s name, even simple curiosity could be interpreted as a sign of treason.