With a hollow expression, Seunghyun took out one of the Strawberry-Flavored Mana Supplements. The small bottle filled with pink liquid swayed lightly in his palm. His neck stiffened when he saw the words written in the item description: ‘Slightly increases mana recovery speed. Delicious!’
“A self-defense stun gun? I used to crack a monster’s skull open with a flick of my finger, and now I’m supposed to carry around this kind of toy? Are you fucking kidding me?”
It was hopeless. The enhancement potions that had once helped him pierce through his enemies’ hearts were gone, and his inventory was now occupied by snack-like items meant to pamper this frail body.
“So when my body changed, all the ownership data tied to my inventory got wiped too…….”
Seunghyun let out a self-deprecating laugh, twisted off the cap, and downed the contents in one gulp. A sweet, artificial strawberry flavor filled his mouth. Perhaps thanks to the drink, the guiding waves gently rippling inside his body became slightly clearer.
“It does taste good, fuck…….”
Seunghyun threw the empty bottle onto the floor, a cold gleam settling in his eyes. He had no equipment, and his strength wasn’t what it used to be, but that didn’t matter. He was a tenacious bastard who had clawed his way up from the very bottom and seized the No. 1 ranking. Of course, Han Taeyun had taken it from him the moment he appeared, but what mattered was that Seunghyun had once stood at the top.
“If I don’t have any items, I can just take them from someone else. If my body’s weak, I’ll crush them with technique.”
Beep-.
The sound of the door lock broke the silence, followed by the front door being thrown roughly open. Footsteps echoed across the marble floor of the living room as someone approached. Apparently, whoever had entered spotted the medicine scattered across the floor, because a startled “Oh my, oh my,” was soon followed by someone calling for the owner of this body.
“Young Master! Young Master!”
The bedroom door opened, revealing a middle-aged woman. The kindly looking woman went deathly pale the moment she saw Seunghyun inside.
“Young Master! Wh-What are all those medicine bottles, and what happened here! Good heavens, how are you feeling?!”
The woman screamed and rushed toward Seunghyun. Seunghyun instinctively pulled back. Goosebumps rose over his skin when a complete stranger approached him while calling him Young Master. But his mind worked quickly. If the owner of this body had been cornered badly enough to attempt suicide, then it would be better to take advantage of the situation.
‘I took some pretty strong drugs, so she’ll probably believe me if I say they fried my brain a little.’
Seunghyun made his expression as blank and confused as possible before opening his mouth.
“……Um, who are you?”
The woman froze on the spot. She stared at Seunghyun as though her entire world had collapsed, then suddenly burst into tears.
“Oh, Young Master! What in the world…… You don’t recognize me? Your nanny?”
“When I woke up… I couldn’t remember anything. I don’t know where this is or even who I am.”
Seunghyun answered as though driving the final nail in. The woman sank to the floor and began wailing outright.
“Oh, good heavens! Just how much must you have suffered for something like this to happen! My poor Young Master, what am I going to do with you!”
Listening to the woman’s grief-stricken wailing, Seunghyun clicked his tongue inwardly. At least it was now certain that the owner of this body came from a wealthy enough family to be addressed as Young Master. But why had he tried to kill himself instead of taking revenge after receiving messages that humiliating?
Seunghyun watched the crying woman and thought. The excuse of having no memories was perfect, so from now on, he would use this tearful woman to dig up information about this shell one piece at a time.
“Stop crying and explain things to me first. Start with my name.”
The woman sniffled and looked at Seunghyun. His cold, arrogant gaze didn’t suit his delicate, fragile face at all, but in her eyes, he was nothing more than her pitiful Young Master.
The more Seunghyun learned about the identity of this body, the more dumbfounded he became. He had thought this was just some ordinary Guide, only to discover that he was the illegitimate son of the Director of the Ability Bureau. Seunghyun had assumed he had landed in the body of some spoiled rich kid, but underneath the wealth was a miserable life that had festered until it rotted through. The woman tried to phrase it kindly, but apparently, the Director had confined the owner of this body inside this lavish penthouse to hide the stain on his reputation that was his illegitimate son.
“Baek Yihyun…… That’s my name?”
Seunghyun—or rather, Yihyun—repeated the name the woman had tearfully given him as though chewing on every syllable before spitting it out.
“Yes, Young Master Yihyun. No matter how indifferent the Director may be, how could he possibly neglect you like this…….”
The Director of the Ability Bureau from Seunghyun’s memories. That old bastard had an illegitimate son like this? On top of that, they didn’t even share the same surname or look alike.
Just what he would expect from that scheming old man.
“Baek Yihyun, Baek Yihyun.”
Yihyun let out a hollow laugh as he listened to the woman lament. An S-Rank Guide. To Espers, he was the very definition of tempting prey. And with the Director, who should have been protecting him, regarding him as a disgrace and turning a blind eye, there could hardly have been a better plaything for rotten Espers.
First things first, he would fuck up the bastards who had sent those messages.
If he were still Lee Seunghyun before his death, he would have gone straight to them and twisted the necks of the bastards who dared send him shit like that. But now he was trapped in the body of a frail Guide.
Even so, a cold killing intent flickered in Yihyun’s eyes. The soul of the world’s No. 2 ranked Esper, who understood both Esper physiology and the inner workings of the Ability Bureau better than almost anyone, now inhabited this body. Whether it was the Director of the Ability Bureau or the Espers who had harassed him, he was ready to break the bars of this luxurious prison one by one.
“Ma’am, I’m hungry. I need to eat something first. Then I can at least think about who I should kill first.”
“Y-Yes? Kill? Young Master?”
The nanny’s eyes widened in shock. Shit. Yihyun suddenly realized just how murderous the words that had slipped out of his mouth sounded. Right now, he was supposed to be a fragile illegitimate young master who had been driven to attempt suicide.
Yihyun immediately softened his eyes and lowered his gaze to the floor.
“……Ah, did I just say something? My head is so dizzy. I think I was talking about the monsters I saw in a dream.”
“Young Master! Good heavens, even in your dreams you’ve been seeing such horrible things……. What are we going to do?”
The nanny’s face immediately filled with pity as she clasped Yihyun’s thin hand tightly between hers.
‘Well, at least it’s obvious that the nanny is on this body’s side.’
Seunghyun established his first goals as Baek Yihyun. First, he had to get this fucking body into a condition where it could at least function like a normal human being. Then he needed to find out where Han Taeyun was and what the bastard was doing now, get his help, and raid the bastard’s inventory for everything it was worth.
Yihyun sat down in front of the plain rice porridge the nanny had carefully prepared for him. “Young Master, eat slowly.” Ignoring the nanny’s worried voice behind him, Yihyun typed the first name that came to mind into the search bar on his phone.
[Han Taeyun]
Naturally, he expected to see titles like humanity’s savior or leader of the World Alliance attached to the name. But the moment he saw the news headlines flooding the screen, Yihyun’s thoughts ground to a halt.
[One Year After W-08 Disaster Claims 30,000 Lives… Han Taeyun Seizes Complete Control of W Territory]
[The Tyrant Who Dyed Half the World Red—Who Can Stop Han Taeyun?]
[Han Taeyun Changed Completely After the ‘Gehenna Gate’ Five Years Ago—Why Did He Turn His Back on the World?]
“……What?”
The porridge in his mouth dribbled down his chin. He didn’t even think to wipe it away. Amid his paralyzed thoughts, only one question went around and around.
Why the fuck had this bastard done that? His final words to Taeyun five years ago as he self-destructed his core flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern. He had even left him with the dying words, ‘Survive and prove that you were worth more than me.’
That genius, noble bastard who had been ranked No. 1—Seunghyun had saved him so he could save the world, only for him to start destroying it instead.
“Young Master! Are you feeling so sick that you can’t even swallow your porridge?”
The nanny, who had been watching from beside him, pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth before beginning to sob again. Apparently, she had mistaken Yihyun’s stunned silence for his stomach being so thoroughly ruined by the powerful drugs that he couldn’t even eat properly.
But Yihyun’s mind was burning with fury and disbelief.
‘This fucking lunatic? I died because of him, and now I’m stuck suffering in this weak-ass body!’
Han Taeyun’s betrayal went beyond mere treachery. It was as though he had taken the life Yihyun had sacrificed in his place and thrown it straight into the trash. His blood boiled at the realization that the comrades who had died in that Gate five years ago—and his own sacrifice—had all become fertilizer for creating the greatest mass murderer of their age, Han Taeyun.
“Han Taeyun…… you fucking bastard.”
The low, murderous curse slipped from Yihyun’s mouth. The nanny was so startled that she hiccupped, but Yihyun paid no attention and continued reading the articles.
“I’m not letting you get away with this.”
Yihyun slammed his spoon down. His objective had changed. This was no longer merely about avenging the original owner of this body. He had to personally drag down the insane monster he himself had saved.
The attending physician, summoned only after the nanny’s relentless insistence, checked his watch before he even looked at the patient. His attitude was remarkably rude for a member of the Ability Bureau’s senior medical staff, and it was obvious from his expression that he resented having to set foot in this room at all.
“These are the medicines the Young Master took. It looks like he emptied about half of them.”
Without even looking at the medicine bottles the nanny showed him, the physician sneered at Yihyun, who was lying on the bed.
“If you didn’t even have the guts to die, why did you make such a spectacle of taking all these pills? Thanks to you, the Director had to receive a report in the middle of a meeting. What a nuisance.”