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“Seriously, why are you doing this to me…?”

To be honest, I wanted to cry.

The appearance of the special treatment room, which I hadn’t seen in a long time, was still as terrifying as ever. The door made of a special alloy looked more than just sturdy; it looked like an impregnable fortress that could never be breached. And right now, inside there, a monster-like Esper—one who could only barely be contained by this fortress—was in the middle of a rampage.

“You know I’m a total softie. I sit at a desk all day, so what kind of muscle strength would I have? Seriously, if I even get grazed, I’m dead.”

I tried to escape somehow by making a fuss, but Director Shin looked at me and also put his hands together, beginning to beg earnestly.

“Save me instead. You know I’m an old-timer who can’t even handle mental infiltration anymore. Huh? I’m retiring in three years. Please, Yihyeon. Mr. Yihyeon.”

So there we were, looking at each other and rubbing our hands together like flies, begging one another.

“Um… are you not going in?”

An employee from the special treatment room security team looked at us and asked. We faced each other with our hands pressed tightly together as if in prayer. Thinking about it, the person who probably wanted to cry the most here was the lowest-ranking security employee, so I quietly lowered my hands. Director Shin must have had the same thought, as he lowered his hands at the same time.

“…I’m going in.”

No matter what, as a Director and a Team Leader, we had our dignity; we couldn’t show ourselves crying in front of the youngest staff member.

“Then please fill out this entry consent form, sign this non-disclosure agreement, and check the industrial accident compensation items once. Do you have any separate insurance?”

Ah, as expected, it really seemed right not to go in.

Everything the security employee asked sounded to my ears like, ‘You’re going to die soon, so have you finished your funeral preparations?’

“As for insurance… I only have the basic stuff. Oh, a friend recommended one recently, so I got a private insurance policy too. A life insurance policy… Should I write that down as well?”

Even when I was filling that out, I had wondered if I really needed to hear about such things just for working in an office. But well, since an old classmate asked, I figured I’d help their performance and signed up for the most expensive insurance… Could it be that they were already looking several steps ahead?

“Then please fill out one more additional confirmation form for the provision of personal information. Since it needs to be checked post-mortem.”

I knew the ‘post’ in post-mortem didn’t literally mean ‘after death’ in this administrative context, but why did it sound like that other meaning to my ears?

“Ah, I don’t have a seal. I can’t use this because I don’t have my seal…”

“You may write your name in block letters.”

Haha, well… you certainly work with a lot of flexibility.

I tried to make pointless excuses to avoid the consent forms that made my heart feel complicated just by looking at them, but in the end, I had no choice but to carve my name into over ten pages of paper.

“Whew… is this enough?”

“Yes, it’s been confirmed. Once the documents are processed, you’ll be registered in the system, so the next time you enter, you won’t need to submit documents—just bring your ID card to the reader.”

“…I see.”

To think I have to come here again. I prayed desperately that his brain would be fixed and his sanity would return in one go so that I would never have to set foot in this place a second time.

Please… please…

The heavy door opened without a sound. I expected a screeching sound, but it was excessively silent, which made it even more eerie.

Feeling the cold air, it seemed they had artificially adjusted the internal temperature to lower the body temperature of the Esper, which would be overheating from the rampage.

“I’ll pull the lever immediately if anything dangerous happens.”

Director Shin said as he grabbed both of my hands. He was a person who called himself an old-timer on the verge of retirement and spent his time drinking red bean tea and playing Old Maid whenever he could, but regarding work, he was a veteran. He was also the only person in this Center I truly trusted and relied on.

And the lever she said she would pull in case of an emergency… was the lever for killing rampaging Espers. it was the ultimate final resort and the worst possible measure, capable of killing an Esper in a single strike.

“I hope that doesn’t happen, but if I raise my left hand to send a signal, then…”

“Trust only me. I’ll make sure nothing happens to Team Leader Seong, no matter what. I don’t want to lose Team Leader Seong like this either.”

Seeing those determined eyes, my fluttering heart seemed to calm down at least a little.

It had been a while, but facing a rampaging Esper wasn’t that unfamiliar. In my rookie days, I had to deal with anti-allied Espers who openly showed hostility toward me. Back then, I handled an Esper with cutting abilities wrongly, and half of my side ended up being sliced off…

“I’m going.”

I grabbed the doorknob solemnly. Opening this door would lead to a long hallway, and at the end of that hallway, the final, final, final door made of the same special alloy I just passed would open.

It would be less scary if Director Shin went with me, but if we did that and two out of the only three S-class mental-type Espers in South Korea died at the same time? That would truly be the worst-case scenario.

“Step out immediately if it’s dangerous. Don’t overdo it.”

I nodded at the voice coming from behind me and finally turned the handle. The space, pitch-black like a vacuum in space, burst with bright light at the presence of a person. Once the door closed, the surroundings became quiet in an instant, and only my breathing and footsteps echoed.

Finally, I stopped in front of that final door and looked at the CCTV mounted in the corner. Director Shin would be checking my status through the monitor connected to that camera. When I nodded toward it to send a signal, a massive door began to open along with a mechanical whirring sound.

It was cool with low lighting, like a morgue. Contrary to the name ‘special treatment room,’ not a hint of life could be felt. Instead, a growling sound, like the breathing of some wild beast, could be heard.

It’s Kang Juha.

I realized it instinctively. An angry energy felt from the right was surging as if it were going to devour me. If it had been an ordinary Esper, they might have collapsed while vomiting.

This is why no one could approach this place.

The precious S-class Guides would have been kept away from the vicinity of the special treatment room altogether. According to the report I received, it wasn’t that he rejected the Guides’ guiding, but rather that a rejection reaction occurred toward the guiding drugs.

That was the reason I was brought in. There was only one thing the Center demanded of me: return Kang Juha to a state where he could be guided.

And they added one warning. Be careful, as Kang Juha had bitten the neck of the A-class Esper who was restraining him and sent him to the intensive care unit.

Recollecting that surely gruesome scene made my own neck feel sore.

“Hello. I didn’t expect to be greeting you like this. If possible, I hoped we’d never have to face each other in our lifetimes… I am Seong Yihyeon, the Information Team Leader of the Information Security Department of the Center’s National Security Bureau. You won’t be able to understand anyway, and you won’t remember either, but I have a duty to notify you.”

I slowly approached the iron cage placed in the middle of the special treatment room.

Kang Juha, completely bound on an operating table inside the cage, was baring his teeth at me. If he didn’t have a muzzle, he looked ready to pounce and tear my whole body to shreds immediately.

The pupils inside his yellow-glowing eyes narrowed to points. He seemed intent on pouring his supernatural abilities onto me at any moment.

“I’m going to lightly approach your mind. It’ll be very painful, but I trust you’ll endure it?”

Whether it was because the interior was cool or because of the current situation, I felt as if goosebumps were breaking out all over my body. I was in such a state of tension that even my hair felt like it was standing on end.

Only after reaching right in front of the cage did Kang Juha’s condition fully come into view.

“….”

Is this person really alive?

Setting aside that his whole body was covered in blood, he was mangled here and there to the point where it was difficult to see it as a living person’s body. Contrary to my worries about dying in a rampage, the current Kang Juha looked like he might die even before a rampage could occur.

Looking at the long scars crossing his shoulders and chest, it seemed like he had been properly tortured somewhere…

“Did you perhaps have contact with the anti-allied forces?”

It was the allied forces who transported him to the Center, but what if he had stayed on the anti-allied side until then? No, was he held captive there? I hadn’t heard this from the Center.

If that were the case, the situation was even worse. Those anti-allied bastards played around filthily with people’s brains.

It would be much easier to reverse if he had been caught in a Gate and attacked by some strange monster inside…

I felt his murderous eyes scanning me. I didn’t know for sure, but those eyes were definitely not the gaze of a human looking at another human.

“…Then, excuse me.”

No matter what he had been through or what state he was in, it was impossible to know without opening up his brain. Closing both eyes, I took a deep breath and released my supernatural ability.

“Ugh…! Uuugh!”

And I had to retch immediately. A splitting headache arrived along with the dry heaving. As I staggered and grabbed the iron cage, Kang Juha thrashed his body violently. The iron chains bound to his body made a terrible sound.

“Fuuuuck… This is driving me crazy.”

My eyes felt hot as if the blood vessels had all burst. Regardless of my will, tears dripped down. Kang Juha was still struggling while looking at me as if he wanted to kill me, and I too glared back at him with bloodshot eyes.

After confronting him for a long while, I finally managed to take a deep breath and pull myself together. Even though I hadn’t done much, I felt the guiding levels in my body being sucked dry.

Ah, and it hasn’t been long since I received guiding.

“Which bastard is it… Ha, exactly which bastard’s hands did he go through for his brain to be melted to this extent?”

He was the first one to reject my infiltration since my rookie days.

Director Shin was right. I was probably the only one in South Korea who could deal with the current Kang Juha. This was not the handiwork of some monster inside a Gate. It was 100 percent a mental-type Esper bastard playing tricks.

“They really put effort into wrecking him…”

I didn’t know whose work this was, but it was certainly done by a human being.

Ha, I can’t stand this.

“Mr. Kang Juha, if I fix you, will you do me a favor? I need to see the face of the bastard who made this.”

It seemed my thirst would only be quenched if I thoroughly searched through Kang Juha’s brain to find the person who cast the brainwashing and beat them up, or if I remodeled the brain and took them in as my junior.

I was already worried because there were no useful people around, but this turned out better than expected. Their personality might be trash, but that’s something I can just educate them on. They must definitely be someone with quite a lot of innate talent, even if it’s clumsy.

Also, catching that bastard would probably… be done by Kang Juha. Snatching them and bringing them in then was a perfect plan.

“Though it seems I’ll have to wash Mr. Kang Juha’s brain thoroughly before that.”