This S-Class Esper is Not an Obsessive Maniac

21.

Finally, that day has come.

The day when Ryu Ho-yeon had to enter an S-class dungeon as the main striker without Park Woo-jun watching over him or the reliable Kim Jun-young by his side had finally arrived.

Though Ryu Ho-yeon was touched by Ryu Ho-yeon’s thoughtfulness when they met in front of the department—still considering him just a young brother—Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk didn’t try to share the difficult burden unnecessarily. If it had truly been a matter of life and death, things might have been different, but for these two who had fought countless battles together for nearly twenty years, handling an S-class dungeon wasn’t a deadly challenge. Considerably tiring, yes, but manageable.

But when do things ever go according to plan? On exactly the third day after the two entered an S-class dungeon somewhere in southern Gyeonggi Province, the shockwaves of another S-class dungeon were detected in the Yeongdong region. The forecasted creation date for the Yeongdong region’s S-class dungeon was exactly one week later. Even if Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk were lucky enough to return before then, it would be impossible for them to enter again without recovery time. So what could be done? With Park Woo-jun also away, Ryu Ho-yeon was the only one left to handle the second S-class dungeon.

The Field Deployment Department provided abundant backup personnel, including the remaining A-class Espers and capable healers. Even so, this didn’t significantly lighten Ryu Ho-yeon’s burden of being fully responsible for the combat, but it was better than nothing.

After Ryu Ho-yeon’s S-class deployment was decided, the A-class missions that had been piling up were reassigned to other Espers. Ryu Ho-yeon and Choi Jae-won focused on preparing for the S-class dungeon in different ways. Ryu Ho-yeon was completely immersed in the workshop, practicing creating various weapons he had never made before, while Choi Jae-won built up his stamina and received guiding training. Since a Guide’s higher basic stamina also improved the recovery speed of depleted guiding, physical training was essential for survival in extreme situations and to avoid holding Ryu Ho-yeon back.

Spending all day getting injected with untested drugs and monitoring the results while suppressing waves of nausea, then proceeding with physical training was absolutely grueling, but by the time he headed home, Choi Jae-won entered the workshop looking pristine without showing any signs of struggle. He didn’t want to let Ryu Ho-yeon know he was still undergoing guiding-related experiments. If he was going to tell him, it would be later, after proper research results emerged. If Ryu Ho-yeon knew who was conducting the experiments, he would immediately demand they be stopped.

“Can you do this? It’s okay, Ryu Ho-yeon. You can do it.”

Facing the gate, Ryu Ho-yeon calmed his breathing and asked and answered himself. This was a trace of his solitary life, having always comforted himself alone without showing weakness to others when nervous or struggling.

Choi Jae-won, waiting for entry with other Guides a little distance away from the combat Espers, felt a pang of sympathy watching him. Though he himself wasn’t the type to voice his troubles to others either, he somehow became hopelessly emotional when it came to Ryu Ho-yeon. This was the typical behavior of a foolish person drowning in unrequited love.

“Current time 07:54. Representative Ryu Ho-yeon plus 28 others. Beginning entry.”

With Ryu Ho-yeon’s quiet announcement, the group slowly started to advance. Toward the gaping black hole, as if falling, without a moment’s hesitation.

“Hyung, wake up. Hyung!!”

Seeing the pale white face with closed eyes sent chills down his spine. Whether or not aware of the observer’s desperate feelings, Ryu Ho-yeon’s expression was peaceful, as if in deep sleep. As if he would never wake up.

Unbearably anxious and impatient, Choi Jae-won again grabbed the seams of the tattered combat uniform and shook it. The medical staff quickly intervened, “Guide, you shouldn’t do this. Please calm down.”

The first S-class dungeon where Ryu Ho-yeon served as the main striker went relatively smoothly thanks to thorough preparations, though it became difficult toward the end when the guiding ran low. The second one was also fine. Even Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk, who had been anxiously waiting for them to exit the gate, seemed quite relieved after seeing Ryu Ho-yeon walk out on his own. They even joked, partly in truth, that they could now retire.

But what followed—the third, fourth, and now the fifth—all ended up like this. Though they managed to escape through the exit gate thanks to the efforts of other A-class Espers who entered with them, Ryu Ho-yeon himself was fighting for his life.

“Yes, doctor. Currently the patient shows no response to external stimuli. Consciousness level has dropped from stupor to semi-coma.”

The medical staff who pushed Choi Jae-won away examined Ryu Ho-yeon’s condition carefully, pinching the inside of his forearm after pulling down his combat uniform and checking pupillary reflexes by lifting his eyelids. Then they immediately called another doctor waiting at the Center’s ward to report their observations in detail.

“I’ll administer the substitute full drop and check his status at 5-minute intervals. We still have about 30 minutes until we reach the Center. Yes, yes.”

Choi Jae-won couldn’t understand all the medical staff’s explanations about vitals and consciousness levels. He only gathered that Ryu Ho-yeon’s condition was quite serious. Yet neither the medical staff accompanying them in the transport vehicle nor the other doctors waiting at the Center seemed that desperate. This made Choi Jae-won, who was essentially serving as the guardian, even more anxious.

Though the situation was clearly serious, they seemed to think it was much better than cases involving natural or physical enhancement Espers who lost control when their guiding levels dropped. Even in the worst-case scenario, a special-type Esper like Ryu Ho-yeon wouldn’t burn everything around him or destroy everything he touched—he would simply suffer alone, lose consciousness, and perhaps depart forever as if falling into eternal sleep.

It would have been better if the first and second dungeons had failed. Then Ryu Ho-yeon wouldn’t have pushed himself so recklessly.

The appropriate guiding level required for an Esper to maintain normal daily life was 65 percent, while the recommended maintenance level inside dungeons was in the 40 percent range. Below 30 percent guiding level in the body meant risk of runaway power, below 25 percent were warning signs of runaway, and below that… it was entirely a matter of how far the Esper’s mental strength could hold out.

Most Espers living with their paired Guides didn’t need to consciously work hard to maintain that level. That’s why they carefully examined compatibility rates to match pairs of the same rank.

However, as mentioned several times before, the gap between Ryu Ho-yeon and Choi Jae-won’s innate ranks was too great, and this gap prevented Ryu Ho-yeon from belonging to “most” Espers.

Even after sleeping with Choi Jae-won, when his guiding felt completely full, it barely reached 65 percent. That was after Choi Jae-won had scraped together and transferred every bit of guiding he could draw up.

If everyday life was like this, what about inside dungeons? It wasn’t that there was no problem—Ryu Ho-yeon had simply grown accustomed to guiding deficiency. In reality, even when clearing A-class dungeons, Ryu Ho-yeon’s internal guiding level fluctuated within the 30 percent range.

A-class dungeons were fine because they could be cleared quickly. But S-class was different for a reason. Ryu Ho-yeon silently led the battles without showing any signs of guiding deficiency as his levels dropped from 37 percent to 35 percent, then from 35 percent to 32 percent, and eventually to 29 percent.

Choi Jae-won also tried his best to support Ryu Ho-yeon until his guiding was completely depleted, but there was nothing he could do when he had absolutely no guiding left to transfer no matter how hard he tried. All he could do was inject the substitute he had brought and plead for Ryu Ho-yeon to retreat. And by this point, as everyone probably expected, Ryu Ho-yeon was particularly talented at easily ignoring others’ pleas.

This was the result every time. He had collapsed when entering S-class dungeons with Park Woo-jun too, but that was simply due to excessive physical exertion. The level of crisis now was fundamentally different.

“Guide. Would you like to lie down here and get an IV drip too? Your complexion is really…”

“No. I’m fine. Please focus on his condition.”

“Well, alright then. Please let me know if you start feeling unwell.”

In the patient transport vehicle rapidly returning to the Central Branch, Choi Jae-won spent the entire journey staring intently at the IV inserted into the pale hand. This wasn’t going to work. He resolved to strongly request that they increase the intensity of the experiments, regardless of whether it would harm his body.