Chapter 39

Not long after, the three people and the Cait-sith arrived at the top of the waterfall.

There stood Baek Chan-kyung and Park Inhyung. As soon as Baek Chan-kyung saw Haon, he rushed over.

“Mr. Haon, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry, it’s because of me…”

“No, it’s okay. Really.”

Baek Chan-kyung apologized again, his eyes filled with genuine remorse. It was understandable, considering Baek Chan-kyung had already put Haon in danger twice. Although it wasn’t intentional, the result was the same.

Haon was well aware of this fact. That’s why he pretended to be okay. He knew Baek Chan-kyung was already blaming himself and feeling sorry enough.

“Let’s go quickly.”

Haon’s words were meant to change the subject, but they also needed to move quickly in reality. They had delayed time because of the recent incident. Monsters could still be coming out of the gate, and the team outside might be getting exhausted from battling the monsters.

“By the way, what about the Unkillable?”

His curiosity was quickly dispelled as the Unkillable’s body came into view not far away. Its neck was completely twisted. It seemed like it had just pretended to drown earlier.

After making Haon’s group mistakenly believe the Unkillable was dead and letting their guard down, it had launched a sudden counterattack. As a result, the dam broke, and Haon and Kim Jeongwon were swept away by the currents. While Haon and Kim Jeongwon were struggling in the waterfall, it seems that Cha Yugeon had managed to use his telekinesis to deal with the Unkillable.

“When Mr. Park Haon disappeared, Mr. Cha Yugeon immediately took care of the monster. He quickly snapped its neck with telekinesis.”

Park Inhyung provided information without being asked. Thanks to her, Haon could confirm that his thoughts were correct. Though he wasn’t sure, it seemed like the Unkillable was weakened from ingesting water, making it easier to break its neck.

“Oh, right. Guiding.”

Haon took a few steps before stopping. He had forgotten about guiding Cha Yugeon due to being swept away by the currents earlier. Haon reached out to Cha Yugeon.

“Uh, Cha Yugeon…”

Cha Yugeon grabbed Haon’s hand and pulled him into a hug. Haon struggled to assess the situation for a few seconds while in his embrace. Then, he belatedly realized that he was in Cha Yugeon’s arms and looked up at him.

“Meow!”

As the Cait-sith, who had nestled between Haon and Cha Yugeon, complained irritably, it leaped down to the ground.

“What’s wrong?”

“…I overdid it. I should have just killed it quickly, but instead I used too much power trying to hold the Unkillable.”

Cha Yugeon hesitated for a moment, then spoke confidently. Haon felt something was off, but he didn’t think Cha Yugeon was lying. Given how Cha Yugeon had exerted his telekinetic abilities to the point of exhaustion and used them even more to deal with the Unkillable, it was clear he had pushed himself too far.

Haon was grateful that Cha Yugeon hadn’t gone berserk. Taking a deep breath, Haon focused on guiding Cha Yugeon properly.

Let it flow, flow.

Perhaps his earnestness had an effect, as he felt something stirring within him. That energy transferred to Cha Yugeon. The guiding seemed to be more effective because he didn’t just hold his hand, but even hugged him.

To increase the effectiveness of guiding, should physical contact be intensified? Haon sighed quietly to himself, realizing he had been unintentionally irritable before. Then, he suddenly spoke.

“…Done?”

“No, a little more.”

“More?”

“Yeah, more.”

Although Haon thought he had guide him enough, Cha Yugeon disagreed. Haon’s confidence wavered. He had done his best and poured all his guiding power into him, yet it seemed insufficient. Haon refocused his mind.

“Is it done now?”

“…No.”

“Oh, how much more do you need?”

Cha Yugeon’s insistence that it still wasn’t enough made Haon lose his patience. Cha Yugeon seemed to hesitate for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“Maybe it’s because the instantaneous resonance isn’t enough.”

“Ah…”

That darn instantaneous resonance.

Haon muttered inwardly. It seemed that increasing the intensity of skinship was the only way to overcome this situation. Haon despaired once again at the importance of skinship. If they returned to the center, he would definitely have to do something with Cha Yugeon.

After Cha Yugeon moved away, Haon was still lost in thought about what to do and how to do it.

“Park Haon, Park Haon.”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, we should go. Let’s go.”

Haon, who regained his composure upon hearing Cha Yugeon’s call, felt embarrassed and awkwardly wiped his nose with the back of his hand. The Cait-sith silently followed behind Haon.

“Mr. Park Haon, what’s that…?”

“Oh, it’s a monster called Cait-sith, and it’s following me,” Haon answered Park Inhyung’s question. Then Park Inhyung looked at Cait-sith with eyes shining with curiosity. Only then did Haon realize the problem with the Cait-sith. While it was okay to bring it along since it followed, he didn’t know if pets were allowed at the center.

“What if they say no…”

“What?”

“I mean the Cait-sith.”

Cha Yugeon glanced at the Cait-sith upon hearing Haon’s murmuring. The Cait-sith, seemingly knowing they were talking about it, meowed softly while looking at Haon.

“Just insist on raising it to Director Han.”

“…That’s something you can do.”

“If it’s not allowed, I’ll take care of it.”

“Yeah, I feel reassured.”

Haon’s words were incredulous, but Cha Yugeon seemed sincere. Haon’s thoughts conflicted between pretending to believe him and questioning whether it would make a difference if he did.

However, he leaned towards trusting him since he wasn’t confident in persuading Director Han as well as Cha Yugeon. Amidst his inner conflict, Haon’s group ventured deeper into the gate. Although monsters occasionally appeared, they were no match for the two S-class Espers.

Dealing with the Long-tailed Blue Dragon sitting on the rift core wasn’t much of a concern either. The dragon was a high-level monster.

But Cha Yugeon used telekinesis to restrain the dragon, and Baek Chan-kyung finished it off with water pressure.

It took exactly three minutes to deal with it.

“It’s like cooking a cup of ramen.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind.”

Haon stuttered in response to Cha Yugeon’s question. Without asking further, Cha Yugeon strode towards the vacant rift core.

Finding the rift core in the gate was challenging, but actually destroying it was easy. Cha Yugeon bent a nearby thick tree with telekinesis. He seemed to be planning to destroy the rift core by hitting it with the sharpened end of the tree.

As Haon had thought, Cha Yugeon lifted the tree up high with telekinesis, then swiftly brought it down with tremendous force.

Crack!

The sharp end of the tree struck the rift core, and several large cracks appeared inside the gate. Cha Yugeon repeated the same action a few more times. Eventually, the gate turned black, then gradually brightened.

“It’s done.”

The vast forest that had been spread out just moments ago vanished without a trace, revealing the appearance of Gangnam’s urban center. Along with it, the cries of monsters greeted them.

“Wasn’t it taking too long? I thought you were in trouble and might have died. Monsters kept coming endlessly, you know?”

Won Jaehyuk complained with a tired face, facing Cha Yugeon. Other Espers seemed to have a lot to say too, but they refrained from questioning an S-class Esper and instead nodded sympathetically at Won Jaehyuk.

“Do you think I was playing inside something? We came out as quickly as possible.”

“How would I know if you were playing or working?”

“How do I know whether you were tired or not?”

Cha Yugeon responded without blinking an eye to Won Jaehyuk’s complaint. Won Jaehyuk turned his head with nothing to say and grumbled. The Espers who were cheering for Won Jaehyuk frowned as if they knew that would happen.

Cha Yugeon looked around and muttered.

“We just need to clean up here then.”

“Hurry up and clean them all up. I’m exhausted and want to go back soon.”

Won Jaehyuk seemed to have forgotten his grumbling earlier and his face lit up.

“I thought so. I wanted to finish quickly too. I have a reason to finish quickly.”

Cha Yugeon had a reason to finish quickly?

Haon tilted his head at Cha Yugeon’s words. Cha Yugeon, as if he had no time to explain, immediately created several huge pillars of fire. The pillars swallowed up the remaining monsters in an instant.