PARADOX 8

Twenty hours ago.

A man was lying in a dark bedroom where not a single ray of light entered.

‘Save me!’

‘Why did you come so late! If you had only come a little sooner!’

‘You could have saved them!’

The man, Gu Jeyi, slowly opened his eyes.

He gave up the effort to fall asleep and stood up.

Although the room was pitch black, there was no hesitation in his steps as he walked out, avoiding the clutter scattered on the floor.

Not all Espers possess superior night vision. The prejudice that ‘Espers have better physical abilities than ordinary people’ was a common misunderstanding among civilians. In reality, that was merely a characteristic of Strengthening-type ability users. Aside from them, particularly in the case of Mental-type Espers, physical abilities were not much different from ordinary people.

Gu Jeyi was a multi-ability user—said to be the only one in the world—and possessed various types of abilities, including Strengthening-type. With just one exception: the Mental-type. For some reason, everyone of that lineage tended to be gloomy or devious, so Gu Jeyi didn’t feel much affinity for them.

Coming out into the living room, Gu Jeyi checked his watch.

84%. It wasn’t significantly different from yesterday.

A body as heavy as water-soaked cotton. A headache that felt like a localized ice pick stabbing into his brain. Senses sharpened to a point of unnecessary irritation. He was used to this level of physical condition by now.

The problem was sleep.

‘It hurts! Save me!’

‘If you had gone, that person wouldn’t have died.’

‘Give me back my son!’

Gu Jeyi shook his head.

Usually, after pushing his body to the limit through exhaustion, he was at least able to sleep a little. However, since a couple of months ago, even that wasn’t working properly.

“Whew.”

With a low sigh, Gu Jeyi looked for the pill bottle containing sleeping pills. He thought he’d left it somewhere after taking some yesterday, but he couldn’t remember clearly.

Now even his memory was acting up.

After searching the house for a long while, he found the bottle under a pile of clothes. The problem was that there were only 3 pills left; he must have finished them at some point.

Having no choice, he tossed those into his mouth. His mouth felt dry and chalky since he took them without water, but that was all. It had been a long time since he had been able to taste anything.

He headed back to the bedroom.

And three hours later.

“I can’t sleep.”

Gu Jeyi sat across from his dedicated physician stationed at the Center.

“Hmm, are you taking the medicine I prescribed last time?”

“It has no effect.”

“…It seems you’ve developed an immunity again. How long has it been since you’ve slept?”

“A week? No, maybe a month.”

“A month?”

The physician’s face grew serious.

No matter how much of an S-rank Esper he was, sleep was an absolute necessity as long as he was human. Especially since Gu Jeyi was already in an unstable state due to not receiving proper guiding. Sleep deprivation was no different from lighting the fuse on a bomb that could explode at any moment.

“It can’t be helped. First, let’s get you some sleep quickly. I’ll give you something strong.”

The medication to be used on Gu Jeyi was at a level that could no longer be called a mere sleeping pill. Although the doctor knew it was bad for the body, it was an unavoidable choice as he couldn’t let him continue without sleep.

“How would you like to proceed? Will you go home? Or a hotel?”

“No. Is the guiding room vacant?”

He didn’t want to let others into his home, and since a hotel would inevitably expose him to the eyes of others, there was no other choice.

The reality was that if a photo of him looking pale or tired was taken, articles worrying about his condition would immediately pour out.

Esper Gu Jeyi, Concerns Pour in Over Haggard Face… Is He in Poor Condition?

Hadn’t such articles popped up just recently?

The Center seemed to have handled it, but there was no need to instill anxiety in people.

As Gu Jeyi entered the guiding room and lay on the bed, the physician placed a device resembling an oxygen mask over his face.

“Now, take a deep breath.”

Gu Jeyi took a deep breath as instructed. Smoke with an unpleasant scent entered through his respiratory system.

His consciousness became hazy as if he were intoxicated, and the voices that had been ringing in his head began to gradually subside.

‘Ah, finally…’

His consciousness slowly sank below the abyss.

Gu Jeyi closed his eyes.

How much time had passed?

Gu Jeyi’s tightly closed eyelids flickered. It was because of an unpleasant sensation, as if someone was fumbling with him without permission.

He weighed the desire not to wake up against the desire to get rid of this unpleasantness.

Just as he was about to lean toward the former.

‘Ugh.’

Suddenly, his stomach began to churn.

“Huh? No, this is something wrong…”

A faint voice could be heard. At first, he thought it was a hallucination, but he soon realized it wasn’t.

Gu Jeyi opened his eyes with difficulty. And he discovered a familiar Guide mounted on top of his body.

It was an A-rank Guide with a 10% matching rate whom he had seen a few times before.

‘Why is he here?’

However, he couldn’t question it further.

Gu Jeyi reflexively pushed the Guide away and sat up. His head was dizzy, perhaps because the medicine was still in effect. Gu Jeyi shook his head while holding his forehead.

“You, what are you doing here…”

“Mister, Mister Gu Jeyi. I can fix this. Please just open your heart a little.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

To climb onto a sleeping Esper without permission and then ask him to open his heart. It was nonsense.

‘Was he always this kind of person?’

His personality had been arrogant, but he didn’t seem like the type of person to act recklessly in this way.

No, one could never know. How could one know the inner thoughts of a person they only see briefly during guiding?

Humans were capable of slandering others behind their backs even while wearing a smiling face. He had seen countless humans full of lies and deception.

The nausea grew worse.

“For now… leave.”

“Why are you rejecting me? You need guiding too!”

The Guide shrieked. His head throbbed, causing a moment of vertigo.

“Ugh.”

When Gu Jeyi staggered, the Guide took advantage of the gap and lunged at him.

The moment the Guide’s lips touched his skin, his vision went black as if a power button had been pressed.

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

A warning sound loud enough to hurt his ears jolted Gu Jeyi’s mind awake.

Gu Jeyi checked his condition. He felt as if what was circulating in his veins wasn’t blood, but boiling mercury.

The Esper energy, which had always felt like a part of his body, was running wild. It threw a tantrum, threatening to break him first if he didn’t let it go immediately. The more he tried to suppress it, the more a pain that could only be described as horrific rushed in.

It was an intensity that even Gu Jeyi, who was accustomed to enduring pain, could not guarantee how much longer he could withstand.

And so, Gu Jeyi realized.

That the end had finally come.

“Esper Gu Jeyi!”

Then, he heard that voice.

At the same time, his vision, which had been stained pitch black, returned all at once.

The first thing he saw was a red light illuminating the surroundings.

Under that light, a man he had never seen before shouted.

“Please don’t use your ability. I’m trying to help you!”

He didn’t know who it was, but it was absurd.

Help? No one could help him.

If there was anything Gu Jeyi regretted, it was not realizing that fact sooner.

He had waited so long for someone to save him.

To the point where the waiting, the expectation, and the hope became hideous.

Gu Jeyi rolled his tongue and took out the pill hidden inside his molars. It was easy because he had practiced it a few times. He had prepared it in advance because he knew this day would come eventually. The timing was earlier than expected, but it didn’t matter.

Why hadn’t he known in the past? That the only one who could liberate him from this endless pain was himself.

What Gu Jeyi was waiting for was no longer someone to redeem him. It was a moment like this, where he could end everything refreshingly without any lingering regret or self-reproach.

“…!”

However, the moment he tried to swallow the pill, a brute force grabbed his jaw and forced it open.

While he was caught off guard by the unexpected situation, a finger slid into his open mouth.

‘This crazy…’

Gu Jeyi clenched his teeth to keep from losing it.

Even though it must have been painful, the man pushed his finger in even deeper and finally seized the pill.

The moment he realized the medicine had been taken away, anger rose to the top of his head.

He wanted to shatter the man in front of him into pieces.

“Esper Gu Jeyi, you don’t need to do this. I can help.”

This liar who said he could help him.

“I am…”

The liar…

“A Guide!”

He saw an illusion of his vision being stained pure white.

As if facing too much light all at once.

However, unlike the usual feeling of seeing a strong light, it didn’t make his eyes ache or feel like his nerves were burning up.

It was warm and gentle.

As the light permeated his body, the energy that had been running wild without knowing its place became as docile as a dog recognizing its master.

The noise that had been ringing incessantly in his head grew smaller and smaller.

And then, a tranquil silence arrived.

“…”

In the peace he encountered for the first time since his awakening, Gu Jeyi looked down at the Guide who had fainted in his arms.