Beyond The Control

Chapter 15

“Gasp.”

I inwardly smirked at the sight of the newcomers inhaling sharply in surprise. I knew all too well how their attitudes would soon change.

Soon, Gitae’s hand reappeared, holding something like a black marble.

“You’ve all heard of this, right? This is the boss mob’s core.”

His mischievous grin, unseen until today, was a bonus.

“Mission cleared.”

“Wow, wooow!”

Kang Ha-na was the first to react. Starting with her tremendous roar, everyone hugged each other and jumped around in a circle dance.

Even Song Ji-hyeok was caught up and spinning with them, and I almost burst out laughing.

Gitae allowed the newcomers to fully enjoy this moment of joy. While everyone was busy sharing their heroic tales and impressions with flushed faces, I approached Song Ji-hyeok.

“Good job.”

I offered a high-five, thinking I’d scratch the back of my head if he ignored it. But to my surprise:

“You too… senior.”

I was taken aback by how readily he responded, even though I had initiated it. As we lowered our hands after the loud clap, he continued:

“Can you give me some guiding?”

“…Guiding?”

“Yes.”

His attitude was as confident as someone who had entrusted something to me.

Of course. I wondered why he was so agreeable.

I almost smirked, but quickly changed my mind. This is exactly why Team Leader Joo sent me along, so it’s actually a good thing.

“Give me your hand.”

I lightly grasped his hand as he quickly extended it. It felt a bit awkward doing this outside the guiding room for the first time, but as soon as I held his hand, I naturally focused on guiding.

‘He’s in better shape than I thought.’

I looked at Song Ji-hyeok with fresh eyes. It was his first real combat, so he must have been somewhat nervous, especially when he delivered that intense final blow to the boss mob, but considering that, his condition was quite good. To be honest, he didn’t really need guiding right now… Huh?

Then I noticed something strange. There was a faint, foul smell coming from around his nape.

Suppressing the urge to check immediately, I finished the guiding first. As soon as I let go of his hand, I pulled down the collar of his combat uniform.

As I thought.

Along with a sticky secretion, I could see something blood-red, as if the skin had been corroded. This crazy guy.

“I told you to be careful because it’s toxic! And why didn’t you say anything about being injured?”

“I did tell you.”

“When?”

“I just asked for guiding, didn’t I?”

“Do you think guiding is some kind of cure-all? External wounds need separate treatment.”

Even as I scolded him, my hands moved quickly. I roughly blew away the secretion with wind, then took out an ointment from my waist pack and slathered it on the affected area. It was a special ointment containing antidote components.

Good thing I brought it just in case.

The fortunate thing was that it was a D-class monster, so the poison wasn’t that strong. I only withdrew my hand after seeing the angry red wound, which looked painful just to look at, gradually return to normal.

“If you get hurt, tell your seniors immediately. If you had told me earlier, it would have hurt less.”

“…I thought guiding would make it better.”

“That’s why guiding is…”

“I get it now. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

His nonchalance momentarily left me speechless. Just then, Kang Ha-na timidly raised her hand.

“Um, senior.”

She awkwardly called out to me and extended her left arm. Rolling up her sleeve revealed a wound identical to Song Ji-hyeok’s, just slightly smaller.

“I removed what was on it myself.”

She spoke carefully, seemingly very conscious of my reaction. I’m not that bad of a person.

I promptly applied ointment generously to Kang Ha-na’s arm as well. Watching this, Song Ji-hyeok casually remarked:

“Why aren’t you scolding her?”

“Because she voluntarily reported after hearing what I said to you.”

“…Shouldn’t have spoken up first.”

Don’t pretend to mutter, man. I can hear you clearly.

And so, the newcomers’ first real combat ended successfully. As they say, your feelings are different when entering and leaving the bathroom; the path that felt long and tedious going in seemed quick on the way out. Especially escaping the hot and humid temperature felt like a lifesaver.

The gate was still in the same place. The only difference from before was that the bluish-green wavelength that had surrounded the entrance was now completely gone. This was the result of defeating the boss mob.

“Regroup into formation.”

At Gitae’s words, I moved up from the rear position I had been maintaining and stood right behind him.

“Let’s head out then.”

“Yes!”

These newcomers really seem to have good spirit. Although their appearance was somewhat disheveled, their voices and eyes looked even more vibrant than when they first arrived at the site.

Feeling unnecessarily proud, I wiped under my nose and followed Gitae’s steps out of the gate.

And at that moment.

“They’re coming out!”

“Esper Song Ji-hyeok!”

Click! Click! Click!

A barrage of flashes, like those seen in TV press conferences, poured towards us. Before I could grasp what was happening, loud voices continued to ring out.

“Esper Song Ji-hyeok! Please look this way!”

“Over here too!”

Click. Click. Click.

“Look over here too, please!”

“Could you smile and wave for us?”

As I rolled my eyes in bewilderment, I belatedly recalled what the team leader had told me.

‘The media team will move as soon as we enter.’

‘Give Song Ji-hyeok a heads up at the right timing.’

I quietly turned my head to look at Song Ji-hyeok. He looked quite disheveled too, like an actor dressed up as a handsome beggar.

Amidst the unceasing camera shutter sounds, I couldn’t help but smile.

‘You’ll be immortalized like this forever. What can you do?’

I’m sorry, man…

***

Although I felt genuinely sorry, my apology ultimately became unnecessary. I realized this thanks to Kim Young-joo, who rushed to my desk as soon as I arrived at work the next day.

“Su-hyeon!”

Even after returning from a dungeon raid, the next day’s routine was the same. As I turned on my computer and waited for it to boot up, Kim Young-joo, who arrived a few seconds late, ran to my desk as soon as she saw me. Then she thrust her phone screen in front of me.

“This is you, right?”

“Huh?”

I looked reflexively and was startled. On what was clearly a news article page, Song Ji-hyeok’s face was prominently displayed. Judging by the background, it seemed to be a photo taken right after we exited the dungeon yesterday.

I wasn’t surprised that his photo was in a newspaper article. It was natural for the media to compete to cover the first official schedule and real combat of a noble S-class Esper.

Yet, I was surprised because of his face. Although he had been drenched in sweat with soot-like stains all over, there was no trace of it in the photo. Even with the best filter performance, it couldn’t erase this much, so it must have been carefully retouched by hand.

On the other hand, the rest of us background characters… We were shown in our disheveled state. Lee Seong-min’s face was even cut off halfway.

I was at least shown in full, but that was even more humiliating. I happened to be caught in the moment of opening my eyes, drawing attention in a different way.

‘Come on, that’s too much. If you’re going to do it, do it for everyone else too.’

Meanwhile, Kim Young-joo, looking even more excited, showed me other articles she had captured.

“You look really good in this photo too. I’ll send it to you by text, so you can print it and put it on your desk.”

It was more heartbreaking because she was genuinely happy, not trying to force-feed me. Finally freed after a while, I grasped the computer mouse. I opened a browser window of a portal site I occasionally use and entered a search term.

[Sunrise Guild Newcomer Raid]

The screen instantly changed, and related videos popped up. As I scrolled down slowly, videos with yesterday’s date in the title appeared. Some of them had already reached 18 million views.

Well, should I watch one too?

The first scene showed the gate entrance. As soon as Gitae emerged, tearing through the dark space, there was a competitive shower of camera flashes and questions, just like I heard at the scene yesterday. The sound reached its peak the moment Song Ji-hyeok came out.

‘It was chaos. Well, if I were a reporter, I wouldn’t have missed such a scoop either.’

The fact that it was approaching ten million views already, despite not being a video of his performance, but just coming out of a D-class dungeon, was proof of that. There were even over five thousand comments.

This is truly crazy. I chuckled and clicked on the comment section. As expected, there was a string of comments praising Song Ji-hyeok’s existence and appearance.

But not long after, I paused. A comment clearly mentioning me caught my eye.

Dd: Can’t believe his pair is C-class lololol Must be so frustrating if he dies in battle

↳ Heung: ??? What are you talking about?

↳ Dd: Song Ji-hyeok’s pair guide is C-class lolol

↳ Heung: You must be lying lol

↳ RichKidAtHome: It’s true. My friend who works at Sunrise Guild says it’s already a well-known rumor

↳ WorkerAnt1: For real? Who is it?

↳ RichKidAtHome: Even if I tell you, you wouldn’t know lol

↳ Heung: Wow if it’s true, that’s a life-changing jackpot. So jealous

↳ CoffeeTime: Same here

“Why are you looking at that stuff?”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind me. I turned around to see Gitae standing there with a stern face.