Zero Point

#009

The contract clearly stated that he had the right to decide the level and range of contact for guiding. However, Lee Eunseok, having experienced life-and-death situations, knew that when such situations arose, it would be difficult to refuse despite knowing the obvious solution.

After sitting back in his chair and staring blankly into space for a moment, Lee Eunseok suddenly lowered his gaze to the desk. One of the carelessly scattered booklets caught his eye.

[The Reality of Wide-Area Guiding]

It was the book he had tossed aside earlier.

Lee Eunseok picked up the book and opened it. After briefly skimming the beginning, he soon smiled slightly. He had finally found a book he liked.

After reading the last page and closing the book, his concentration wavered and hunger immediately struck.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten anything since having bread and milk in the morning. Checking the smartwatch he had been given and immediately put on, the time was already past 10 PM. Lee Eunseok neatly stacked the scattered books on the desk, pushed them to the corner, and stood up from the chair.

After lightly stretching his body that had been sitting still for a long time, Lee Eunseok checked the employee ID around his neck and headed for the entrance. He put on his combat boots that he had taken off and opened the front door.

“Oh!”

“Ah!”

As soon as he opened the door, a pair of a man and a woman standing in front of it showed startled expressions. The two, who appeared to be in their late twenties, had surprised and awkward expressions in their eyes, but were quickly scanning Lee Eunseok up and down.

“Who are you?”

Lee Eunseok asked, but instead of an answer, he got a question in return.

“You’re Guide Lee Eunseok, right?”

The woman with short hair asked. Her firm, muscular forearms were visible outside her sleeveless shirt. It was the kind of muscle that was difficult to achieve without considerable training.

“Of course it’s Guide Lee Eunseok, he just came out of Lee Eunseok’s room.”

The man muttered, nudging the woman’s side with his elbow. He looked sheepish.

“That’s correct.”

When Lee Eunseok answered slowly, the eyes of both people lit up almost simultaneously.

“The S-class! Lee Eunseok!”

“Wow. They really scouted an S-class guide. As expected of the Guild Master.”

The two exclaimed, continuously scanning Lee Eunseok up and down.

“S-class and even handsome! He looks like an idol!”

“I heard you were from a special forces unit, is that true?”

“I heard you fought and won against the Bureau of Ability Management and even the court. That’s amazing! Incredible!”

“If you’re from special forces, you must be good at fighting too, right? Did you do things like high-altitude parachute training?”

The man and woman fired off questions incessantly.

Lee Eunseok silently listened to the two while observing them. They were wearing smartwatches identical to the one Lee Eunseok had been given, and their employee IDs hanging around their necks clearly showed the information “A-class Esper.”

Click.

As he closed the door behind him, the two stopped their flood of words at the sound. Then, the short-haired woman extended her hand as if to shake hands.

“Nice to meet you, Guide Lee Eunseok. I’m Moon Bora, an A-class hunter from White Tiger Guild’s 1st Combat Team.”

Lee Eunseok briefly looked at Moon Bora’s hand, which he would have shaken without hesitation in the past. According to what he had just read in the booklet, a handshake between an Esper and a Guide was already the beginning of guiding.

“Sis, you shouldn’t carelessly offer your hand to the Guide.”

The man lightly scolded Moon Bora, poking her side again. All the while, he was clearly watching Lee Eunseok’s reaction, checking if he was displeased.

“Oh… I was just curious about what an S-class guide’s guiding would be like. I’m sorry, Guide. I have a personality that can’t resist curiosity.”

Moon Bora laughed heartily as she withdrew her extended hand. After confirming this, the man with a small build finally introduced himself.

“I’m Ji Taeuk, an A-class hunter from the same 1st Combat Team as Bora here. Nice to meet you. We’ve been curious ever since hearing the news that an S-class guide had finally appeared in Korea, so we took the liberty of coming here. We apologize if we’ve caused any inconvenience.”

Ji Taeuk apologized politely.

“It’s fine.”

Lee Eunseok replied briefly.

“By the way, were you heading out somewhere? Would you like to have a coffee with us? The cafe on the first floor here has really good coffee.”

Moon Bora spoke affably. While doing so, she kept glancing at Lee Eunseok’s hand, seemingly eager to shake hands somehow.

“I was about to go to the cafeteria.”

Lee Eunseok honestly stated his destination.

He wasn’t sure how the guild operated, but A-class Espers were probably rare, and being part of the 1st Combat Team meant they were clearly talented individuals. Therefore, the two people in front of him were likely to become Lee Eunseok’s colleagues in the future. There was no harm in having a good relationship.

“You haven’t had dinner yet?”

Moon Bora asked, her eyes widening. When Lee Eunseok nodded, Moon Bora quickly smiled.

“That’s perfect timing. We were just feeling a bit hungry too. Instead of coffee, we can have a meal together.”

She was a woman with good social skills. Ji Taeuk beside her looked at Lee Eunseok with expectant eyes. Lee Eunseok nodded without much hesitation. The two immediately broke into broad smiles.

The cafeteria was on the first basement floor. True to the claim that it operated 24 hours, as soon as the elevator doors opened, the smell of food began to waft out.

“The food here is really delicious. Our guild has top-notch welfare in this regard. They feed us well and then work us like dogs.”

Moon Bora joked. However, the part about working them like dogs didn’t seem to be a joke.

As they entered the cafeteria after swiping their employee IDs, they saw an array of foods laid out buffet-style. The three moved in a line, filling their trays with food. The claim about the food being delicious wasn’t an exaggeration. There was a wide variety of dishes, and none of them looked unappetizing.

“Oh, you eat a lot. As expected of someone from special forces.”

Moon Bora said, giving a thumbs up as she sat across from Lee Eunseok at the table. Then she patted Ji Taeuk’s shoulder beside her.

“You should learn from the Guide. How can you maintain your stamina eating so little? You eat like a bird and don’t exercise, that’s why your stamina is so terrible.”

Ji Taeuk, seemingly used to Moon Bora’s nagging, shrugged his shoulders once and started moving his spoon.

“Our guild has 5 combat teams, and among them, our 1st Combat Team mainly tackles A-class gates and above. Naturally, it’s composed entirely of B-class and above members. Taeuk here is the healer of the 1st Combat Team. His stamina might be terrible, but his skills are top-notch among healing hunters in the country.”

Moon Bora rapidly devoured her heaped food while spouting information in between.

At the mention of a healing hunter, Lee Eunseok looked at Ji Taeuk with newfound interest. He had thought Espers would be specialized in combat, and had never considered the existence of Espers with healing abilities.

“Healing abilities. That’s amazing.”

When Lee Eunseok sincerely expressed admiration, Ji Taeuk paused mid-chew and made an embarrassed expression. He seemed to have a somewhat shy personality.

“Our Taeuk is quite amazing. Inevitably, there are cases where we get injured during fights. Sometimes we strategically sacrifice flesh to gain bone. We fight trusting in our Taeuk.”

As Moon Bora praised him, Ji Taeuk’s face turned slightly red.

“No, I’m… I’m not of any help in combat at all. I should at least be good at healing.”

Ji Taeuk mumbled after swallowing his food, and Moon Bora patted his back firmly.

“Hey, hey, hey. Have some confidence, please. If it weren’t for you, I would have died five or six times already.”

Moon Bora seemed to care for Ji Taeuk quite a bit. Ji Taeuk stirred his soup with his spoon, looking embarrassed.

“By the way, how old are you, Guide? You look very young.”

“I’m twenty-five.”

“Oh, so you enlisted right after graduating high school?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. To be a special forces member with 5 years of experience at just twenty-five is amazing.”

Moon Bora sent an admiring look.

“Ms. Moon Bora, you must have completed more than 5 years of mandatory service as an Esper before joining the guild, so your experience should be more than mine.”

Lee Eunseok said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Health check-ups disguised as ability awakening tests are conducted in the second year of high school for the sake of minors’ human rights. If confirmed as an awakened individual, the third year of high school changes to an ability user education course, and upon graduation, one immediately becomes part of the Bureau of Ability Management under current Korean law. Of course, unlike Guides who need to be discovered through awakening tests, Espers are sometimes found to have awakened at younger ages, but at least until the second year of high school, they can live no differently from ordinary people.

“Ms. Moon Bora? That sounds too formal. I’m twenty-eight, so just call me Noona Bora.”

Moon Bora said with a wink, then added, placing her hand on Ji Taeuk’s shoulder beside her,

“This guy is twenty-six, so you can call him Hyung Taeuk.”

“Ah, no. Hyung? That kind of title is a bit…”

Ji Taeuk waved his hands flustered. Moon Bora looked at him with expectant eyes, as if urging him to call them by those titles. Lee Eunseok, who hadn’t used such familiar titles in the more than five years since graduating high school and enlisting, suddenly felt his throat tighten.

“…I’ll try it gradually.”

When Lee Eunseok spoke quietly, Moon Bora made an overtly disappointed expression. But seeming to have no intention of pushing further, she started moving her spoon again.