Zero Point

#013

Whoosh-, the energy inside his body spread out like fierce waves in all directions.

“…!”

Moon Bora flinched and then let out a small exclamation, “Ha-“.

Lee Eunseok felt that the energy he was emitting was excessively and unnecessarily dispersing in all directions. Even for an S-class, if he carelessly poured out energy like this, it would be problematic to maintain it for a long time.

Lee Eunseok tried to adjust the amount and direction of energy release like a child still clumsy with their limbs.

He raised and lowered the intensity, focused the direction, and tried to concentrate the energy solely on Moon Bora’s body. The energy obediently followed Lee Eunseok’s will.

“Ha-! I’m feeling amazing right now. Is this really wide-area guiding? You’re not secretly touching my body somewhere, are you?”

Moon Bora muttered, her eyelids fluttering lightly. Instead of answering, Lee Eunseok purified Moon Bora’s clouded internal energy with his own energy, as if filtering it through a fine mesh, following the information he had learned from the book.

“Wow… shit.”

Moon Bora cursed softly, gripping the armrests so tightly that the bones and tendons in her hands stood out. It was hard to tell if she was uncomfortable from being overly exposed to someone else’s energy or if she was feeling too good.

Lee Eunseok’s mouth went dry as he focused on the unfamiliar experience. A slight mental fatigue crept in. But this was an opportunity Moon Bora had created by giving up her allotted guiding time. He didn’t want to waste time due to a little fatigue.

Lee Eunseok guided Moon Bora while adjusting his energy in various ways, as if testing an unfamiliar firearm. The rough and aggressive internal energy of Moon Bora had transformed into a clear and calm sea without a single ripple. No matter how much energy he poured in or struck with, Moon Bora’s energy no longer changed.

This must be the limit.

Lee Eunseok made this judgment and stopped guiding.

“…Noona?”

When he softly called out to Moon Bora, who was sitting with her eyes tightly closed and not moving even though the guiding had stopped, she suddenly relaxed her body and slid down in her chair. Lee Eunseok jumped up in surprise to support her, but Moon Bora finally opened her eyes slightly and weakly waved her hand as if to say it was fine.

“Are you okay?”

Lee Eunseok asked quietly, now worried if he had gone too far. Moon Bora let out a long sigh and nodded.

“You don’t seem okay.”

Lee Eunseok slightly furrowed his brow, looking at Moon Bora sprawled in the chair like a corpse. A tinge of regret welled up, wondering if he had been too excessive in his experimentation, even with permission.

“…It’s not that… It’s because it felt too good… Ah, I feel like I’m high right now. Like I could fly in the sky… Ha… Is this why drug addicts do drugs?”

Moon Bora mumbled incoherently. Indeed, her slightly dilated pupils showed no signs of pain or discomfort.

After sitting blankly for a moment, Moon Bora raised her left arm as if to show something. Instead of a digital clock or notifications, her smartwatch screen displayed large blue numbers.

0%

After confirming that Lee Eunseok had seen her smartwatch, Moon Bora grabbed the armrest to adjust her posture and rubbed her face once. Then, with a more composed expression, she tapped her smartwatch.

“This is a hunter’s smartwatch. Unlike the guide version, hunter smartwatches basically display the rampage index. So… this 0% means the possibility of going berserk is zero.”

“Ah, that’s good. It seems the guiding worked normally.”

Lee Eunseok glanced at the blue 0% number and spoke with a relieved expression. Then he asked,

“How was the guiding? Was there anything uncomfortable or points to modify or improve?”

At that question, Moon Bora blinked for a moment and then rolled her eyes. She seemed to be refining her words before slowly speaking.

“Well… since it’s your first time guiding and you’re still inexperienced… you know that moment when you poured in too much guiding? That was a bit… um…”

“Was it painful or uncomfortable?”

When Lee Eunseok asked, Moon Bora waved her hands as if to say not at all.

“No, no. Absolutely not. It’s just… Ah, it’s kind of crude to express directly to you who were just a civilian. Anyway, it’s a bit…”

“Speak freely. I’m not a conservative person with a strong moral stance.”

“So… it was a bit, no, way too good. It felt like being forcibly grabbed by the collar and dragged to heaven.”

After saying that, Moon Bora suddenly frowned.

“You really need to be careful. Hunters already tend to hit on and stalk good guides when they find one, but if they experience this kind of guiding…”

Whew… Moon Bora let out a long sigh and blurted out,

“They might risk their lives to kidnap you.”

It was clear that Moon Bora was trying to tone down her expression as much as possible. But Lee Eunseok didn’t mind much.

“Anyway, it wasn’t uncomfortable, painful, or bad, right?”

“Right. But… um… anyway, try to be less good at it. Just try to do it more casually. Okay?”

To deliberately do something poorly when you can do it well. As if that would be acceptable in combat.

While thinking this inwardly, Lee Eunseok nodded, knowing it was well-intentioned advice.

Checking the time, about an hour had passed. It seemed Moon Bora had also somewhat recovered from the aftereffects of the guiding.

“We still have a lot of time left. Should we hold hands?”

Remembering his promise to hold hands for 5 minutes, Lee Eunseok extended his hand as if offering a handshake. Moon Bora stared intently at Lee Eunseok’s hand, like an alcoholic on the wagon looking at a bottle of soju, but then shook her head.

“Not today. I hit zero with just wide-area guiding, if I get contact guiding too, I might become completely addicted to you.”

Lee Eunseok’s eyebrow twitched slightly at Moon Bora’s casual use of the phrase “get guiding”. That expression was probably exactly how Moon Bora felt.

Lee Eunseok obediently withdrew his hand. He had already achieved his goal by learning that wide-area guiding alone was sufficient to guide an A-class hunter.

“Eunseok.”

“Yes.”

“You… since wide-area guiding is more than enough, don’t do contact guiding unless it’s absolutely necessary. Don’t do it except in emergencies or time-critical situations.”

“That’s why I asked you to practice in the first place.”

“Right, right. That’s a very wise choice.”

Moon Bora nodded with a serious face.

***

The shy Ji Taeuk, seemingly already briefed by Moon Bora, quietly sat in the chair and placed his hands on the armrests as soon as he entered the guiding room, instead of offering his hand. During the wide-area guiding, he asked various questions about Lee Eunseok’s military life. Of course, due to his status as an intelligence agent, Lee Eunseok could only answer most questions by saying it was classified. Ji Taeuk’s eyes sparkled with admiration every time he heard something was classified.

Lee Eunseok gave occasional answers while performing wide-area guiding with a casual approach as Moon Bora had advised. However, despite this, Ji Taeuk became completely relaxed after just 30 minutes.

When Ji Taeuk’s smartwatch reading changed from yellow to green and then to blue, he was staring blankly into space with slightly parted lips and a flushed face. When Lee Eunseok softly called out to him, he startled, not knowing what to do, and then left the guiding room with unsteady steps, repeatedly mumbling apologies.

With time to spare despite it being work hours, Lee Eunseok returned to his quarters to fetch his laptop and a few guiding textbooks. He then searched for and read sections about Espers’ reactions to guiding.

[Most Espers who receive guiding from high-ranking guides with high compatibility experience mental and physical pleasure. In many cases, this leads to sexual pleasure. Consequently, this can develop into excessive attachment and affection from the Esper towards the guide, so mutual caution is always necessary.]

Only after confirming the book’s content could Lee Eunseok understand Moon Bora’s expression that she couldn’t bring herself to say and Ji Taeuk’s unsteady steps.

As Lee Eunseok was not an Esper, he couldn’t fully grasp the extreme stress and physical pain that Espers reportedly feel when nearing a rampage. As a soldier, Lee Eunseok understood an Esper’s rampage by equating it to the extreme fatigue felt after intense combat combined with the situation of a suicide bomb’s timer on one’s body counting down.

Certainly, if such an extreme situation were resolved, one would feel an unparalleled sense of liberation. However, the fact that it extends beyond mental pleasure to physical and sexual pleasure… Indeed, the ecology of ability users, who could be called human variants, was difficult to comprehend with an ordinary person’s thought process.

Finally, it was time for Choi Hanseo’s guiding session, the last time slot. However, despite the time arriving, the doorbell showed no signs of ringing. For the first 20 minutes or so, Lee Eunseok was slightly tense, wondering when he would arrive, but as the wait grew longer, he began browsing through the books again. Of course, he planned to leave work immediately as soon as Choi Hanseo’s allotted 2 hours ended.

Ding dong-

The bell rang after 1 hour and 40 minutes had already passed.