‘He was unconscious for three days……?’
Yihyun couldn’t even remember the last time he had collapsed from being sick.
Back when he was Lee Seunghyun, after awakening as an Esper, he had never even caught something as common as a cold. He might have broken bones while getting tossed around inside Gates, but he had never developed a high fever just from overexerting himself. Naturally, lying there like a corpse for three days was something that could never have happened to him in his previous life.
‘Right. I knew this body was made of glass, but I still pushed it way too hard.’
His soul might belong to the vicious bastard who had once ranked second in the world, but his current body was a fragile sunfish that bruised at the slightest touch and got winded from the smallest exertion. If he kept abusing it out of habit from his previous life, forget accomplishing his grand ambitions—he might end up dropping dead overnight.
Yihyun let out a quiet sigh.
‘……I really need to take it easy from now on.’
-Knock, knock.
There was a knock, and the door slowly opened as his nanny poked her head inside. When she saw that Yihyun was awake, her eyes immediately welled up with tears again, making him press a hand to his forehead. Why was everyone around him so damn prone to crying?
“Young Master. I think you should eat something.”
“Yes. All right.”
Unable to withstand the look in his nanny’s eyes, Yihyun nodded. Once she closed the door and left, Yihyun drank from the glass of water beside him. His throat was still scratchy, irritating him every time he spoke. Then he finally voiced the question he had been wanting to ask all this time.
“Juwon. What happened with the detention block?”
“Ah, fuck! Seriously! Ugh….”
At Yihyun’s blunt question, Juwon clenched both fists and trembled as though he was about to lose his mind.
“That’s what you’re curious about right now? After you nearly died? Get some more rest!”
With Juwon supporting him, Yihyun made his way into the living room and sat down at the dining table. The moment he did, his delicate brows furrowed.
The difference between what had been set out for them was painfully obvious.
In front of Juwon was an extravagant spread of beef and radish soup, fluffy white rice, japchae, and even braised short ribs. In contrast, all Yihyun had was a bowl of bland white rice porridge so watery it was practically thin gruel, along with some finely shredded soy-braised beef.
Yihyun started to pick up his spoon, then stopped. He openly glanced at Juwon’s meal across from him and muttered,
“……I want rice too.”
“No, you can’t.”
His nanny, who normally gave in to practically anything Yihyun said, was firm this time. With a stern expression, she forcibly placed the spoon in Yihyun’s hand and declared,
“Young Master, you couldn’t even swallow a proper sip of water for three days. You need to start with something soft. If you eat greasy food right away, you’ll upset your stomach. Hurry up and finish your porridge first.”
Faced with his nanny’s firmness, Yihyun had no choice but to shut his mouth.
“Eat plenty, Juwon.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Apparently, the two of them had grown close while relying on each other during the time Yihyun had been unconscious. His nanny patted Juwon’s broad shoulder and left the kitchen, whereupon Yihyun’s chopsticks immediately headed toward Juwon’s side dishes.
Clang―!
The chopsticks reaching for a short rib were blocked by Juwon’s ability. Yihyun looked at him in bewilderment, but Juwon’s expression turned stern.
“Hyung. Didn’t you hear what she just said?”
At those words, Yihyun unconsciously withdrew his chopsticks. With nowhere else for them to go, he put the tips between his lips, the corners of his eyes drooping miserably. How had he fallen so far that he even had to watch what he ate? His own situation was downright pitiful.
“Hey. Is it good?”
“Yes. Her cooking is incredible.”
Even when Yihyun deliberately stared daggers at him, Juwon pretended not to notice and kept stuffing his mouth with japchae.
Yihyun resigned himself to his fate and took a spoonful of porridge.
Only when the warmth slid down into his stomach did he finally feel a little strength returning to his body.
“Hyung. Lately, because of that Ghost bastard, I’ve been eating nothing but chicken, pizza, and hamburgers every damn day. I thought I was going to die from how greasy my stomach felt. That’s fine for a day or two, but now I finally feel alive again.”
At the mention of Ghost, Yihyun’s expression hardened.
“What happened with the Ability Bureau?”
Realizing his mistake when Yihyun brought up the Ability Bureau again, Juwon smacked his lips before continuing.
“……About three or four hours after we got out of the underground detention block, they more or less finished putting out the fire, and the security team agents went down to the isolation cell on the deepest underground level. But the S-Rank restraint device they’d locked him in had been severed, and Ghost had vanished without a trace, so the entire Ability Bureau went completely insane.”
Juwon quietly lowered his voice.
“Obviously, they immediately issued a highest-level wanted notice. Right now, everyone from the Ability Bureau’s search teams to the security teams is scouring every corner with their eyes practically on fire. There’s even a bounty on that bastard’s head.”
Yihyun slowly swallowed his white porridge as he listened to Juwon’s explanation. It was exactly the kind of shitshow he had expected.
“They won’t find him, right?”
Yihyun asked calmly without stopping his spoon. No matter how much of a genius hacker Ghost was, their opponent was still the Ability Bureau, backed by the World Allied Forces. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that their search net had tightened over the past three days.
Juwon firmly shook his head.
“You don’t need to worry. That night, I deliberately drove around all over the place, then circled through alleys without surveillance cameras several times before going to my house. Any private CCTV cameras along the route were either shut down in real time by that Ghost bastard or manipulated to play looped footage. No matter how capable those Ability Bureau bastards are, finding him won’t be easy.”
“Still, don’t let your guard down.”
Having completely emptied his bowl of porridge, Yihyun rose from the dining chair.
The corners of his lips slowly curled upward when he spotted the stack of delivery boxes piled in one corner of the living room.
‘They’re finally here.’
These were the spoils he had boldly splurged on with Baek Seungho’s money. Excited, Yihyun found a box cutter and sliced cleanly through the tape sealing a heavy box.
After removing the rustling packing material, he saw rows of glass bottles about the size of his thumb packed tightly inside an elegant paulownia wood case.
Yihyun picked up one bottle of highly concentrated mana supplement. Refreshing blueberry, bitter coffee, and even the divisive, cool and tingly mint chocolate flavor. Every time another bottle disappeared into his inventory, he felt like he was getting richer.
‘……If I’d known I was going to go through that much shit, I would’ve ordered every flavor.’
Looking through his inventory, Yihyun smacked his lips with belated regret. Juwon, who was still at the table mixing his rice into the sauce from the braised short ribs, watched Yihyun scurry around like a squirrel hoarding acorns and asked,
“Hyung, what’s all that?”
“My lifeline.”
Yihyun answered casually as he reached for the second, smaller box. This was the item he had been looking forward to the most.
He tore away the sealed foam, revealing the Guide firearm known as ‘Silver Ghost,’ its smooth silver surface gleaming as though it had captured moonlight.
Without hesitation, Yihyun picked up the gun and wrapped his hand around it.
‘It really is light.’
They said it was made from a special Gate-sourced alloy, and it practically felt like he was holding a feather. The grip was excellent too.
The instant the cold, smooth metal touched his skin, the sensations from his days roaming the battlefield shot thrillingly up his spine.
The sight of him sulking and complaining over bland white porridge just moments ago had long since vanished.
Instinctively hooking his index finger over the trigger, Yihyun spun the gun once before catching it neatly in his hand.
Click―.
Yihyun aimed the unloaded gun into empty space and narrowed one eye. His sights aligned without the slightest tremor.
“Whoa……. Hyung, you’ve still got your old form.”
Juwon, who had watched the entire thing unfold right in front of him, couldn’t suppress his admiration. His appearance was unmistakably that of the Guide Baek Yihyun, but the practiced skill with which he handled a gun belonged entirely to Lee Seunghyun, who had spent years rolling around battlefields.
“Let’s go. Juwon, contact Guide Seo Minji.”
“Yes……. No, wait, absolutely not. You need to rest for a while.”
Thanks to his nanny and Juwon continuing to fuss over him relentlessly, Yihyun ultimately wasn’t allowed to leave the house until another three days had passed.
Juwon’s car pulled up at the entrance of the apartment building. A cold wind blew, tousling Yihyun’s soft hair.
Just as he swept his hair back, a youthful face suddenly popped out through the front passenger window.
“Pretty boy, I heard you were sick? Your face has gotten so thin.”
Yihyun immediately reached out and shoved Ghost’s head back inside the car.
“You little shit, do you have any idea how many people are watching around here?”
“That’s mean. I was worried about you.”
“I never asked you to worry about me. And didn’t I tell you to watch your mouth? You brat.”
Ghost, who had been knocked backward, straightened himself and glared at Yihyun as he climbed into the car. His previously skeletal face had already filled out with soft, fair cheeks, making him look like an ordinary high school student.
“Wow… fuck. You don’t even look that much older than me, so why do you act like such an old fart?”
Yihyun was so dumbfounded that he let out a disbelieving laugh.
“How old are you?”
“I might look younger than you, but I’m plenty old enough.”
Yihyun narrowed his eyes at Ghost’s coy evasiveness and pressed him.
“So how old are you?”
“…Ah, I don’t know. I’m tired, so I’m going to sleep. And I have a name. Stop calling me brat. Call me Ho Yeonwoo.”
Apparently unwilling to reveal his age, Ghost suddenly leaned back against the passenger seat and pretended to sleep. Ignoring Ghost’s ridiculous behavior, Yihyun rolled down the rear window.
Cold air brushed across his cheek.