SOFTIE 1

Yeonwoo simply killed everything in his sight.

The overflowing power and the uncontrollable impulse for destruction consumed him. Magic beasts lunged to kill him, but the moment they touched the electrical currents flowing around his body, they were electrocuted and shrieked.

The uncontainable power erupted toward the magic beasts. It was not something Yeonwoo intended, but a rampage of his ability.

“Kkieeek!”

“Kyaaaak!”

The screams of monsters tearing through the air pierced his ears sharply. It was like the sound of scraping metal and so loud it felt as if bombs were exploding right next to him.

It’s noisy, so noisy.

His senses had become hypersensitive due to the rampage of his ability. All the side effects he had experienced over time were manifesting at once.

Tears streamed down because his eyes stung so painfully, and it was so loud he felt like tearing his ears off. Bits of flesh and blood were faintly smeared on the tips of Yeonwoo’s fingernails.

Because the noise was so loud, he scratched at his ears haphazardly, and as the current flowed along his skin causing a stinging sensation, he scratched his entire body. Due to the excessive use of his ability, the earrings that restricted his powers shot currents into his brain.

Normally, when using his ability, he had to regulate the amount of energy to affect the contamination level as little as possible, but he was currently in a state of rampage.

He was in no condition to control it, and even if he were to suppress the energy usage, he had already crossed the river of no return.

The currents and the noise tormented him relentlessly.

Irritation gradually rose, and only his brutality intensified. Everything was bothersome, and he wanted to kill everything.

However, he was barely suppressing those emotions. It was because of his resolve: “Let’s die as a human, not as a monster that destroys everything.”

By biting his lips and biting his tongue, he managed to maintain his reason. He had no sense of how much time had passed. However, no human voices could be heard inside the Gate. A thin smile formed on his lips.

I’m glad the others are safe. Since I’ll be gone, at least those guys should be fine.

They were the teammates who would protect this country in his stead.

They won’t be able to accept it at first. But they’ll gradually get used to it. I’m going to die here anyway, so I have to find the better option.

They are all great guys; they were just hidden behind a figure like me.

Ah, this is the limit now.

It felt as if impurities had piled up so much that they even cast a dark shadow over his mucous membranes. A wheezing laugh leaked out from his lungs.

He was already prepared. He had no regrets. He felt his life force draining away.

Just like that, he took one step closer to death.

“Kkuek!”

The magic beast that appeared before Yeonwoo’s eyes became a flat pancake, leaving behind only a death rattle. The blood of the magic beast splattered in all directions, and his vision flickered darkly before being stained red.

The measuring device on Yeonwoo’s wrist beeped noisily, announcing Yeonwoo’s condition once again.

Rampage—the end for an Esper who has not received guiding. The time bomb that could no longer endure had finally exploded.

[An Esper cannot live without a Guide. They are creatures that must live by receiving guiding. But I don’t have one. I waited for over ten years, but one never appeared…. There wasn’t even a Guide with a matching wavelength……]

He blankly killed the approaching magic beasts while reminiscing about the past. Now that it was time to die, his childhood flashed by like a monodrama.

An S-class Esper who awakened after losing his parents in a Gate incident as a child. It was huge news at the time.

In a society where one outstanding Esper saves the country and becomes its national strength, it was only natural. Yeonwoo was a precious treasure that must never be lost.

However, a problem arose. There was no Guide to guide him.

South Korea, unwilling to lose Yeonwoo, matched him with numerous Guides, but not a single one was successful. Realizing the seriousness too late, they even reached out overseas, but there was no Guide with a matching wavelength.

[You are still young. Your Guide simply hasn’t appeared yet. We will keep looking, so you don’t need to worry.]

The people from the Association whispered sweet words to Yeonwoo. They soothed him by saying that if he lived diligently as an Esper, a Guide would eventually appear, but no matter how many people he saved or how many Gates he cleared, a Guide never showed up.

His Guide—the Guide to guide him—did not appear. Eventually, Yeonwoo even reached the point of restricting his abilities. Espers who were jealous of him referred to Yeonwoo as a clumsy, pathetic Esper who couldn’t even handle his own power properly.

The goose that lays golden eggs, the ugly duckling. These two contradictory terms belonged to Yeonwoo.

The contamination level that accumulated the more he fought. A state reaching its limit.

He wanted to refrain from using his abilities as much as possible, but many people cried out his name. As an S-class Esper and a hero who saves people, he had to reveal himself and kill magic beasts.

Still, a few Guides appeared whose matching rate was barely close to 50%. He tried receiving guiding. However, he didn’t feel the pleasant sensation that other Espers talked about at all. His body rejected it as if they weren’t his Guide.

The guiding they performed caused nausea and unpleasantness in Yeonwoo. Some Guides even fainted, unable to handle Yeonwoo’s energy.

The guiding results were also miserable. Yeonwoo’s mood hit rock bottom, and the contamination level only dropped slightly.

The efficiency was too poor. In the end, he survived on minimal guiding and medicine.

There was always a precipice before his eyes. It was a situation where one slight mistake would send him falling into a bottomless pit.

He couldn’t even remember when the measuring device last showed green.

Was it green only when I first received this device?

Minimal guiding and medicine were merely temporary stopgaps; they couldn’t lower the contamination level nor remove the impurities floating inside Yeonwoo’s body.

Eventually, various side effects began to rush in. From the time he began to grow up, side effects were always by Yeonwoo’s side. He looked fine on the outside, but he was no different from a terminally ill patient. he also developed a tolerance for the medicine, and it didn’t work like it used to.

The Association, unable to lose a weapon like Yeonwoo, invested massive costs into research. The researchers seemed to be working hard to develop a new medicine, but an end is bound to come.

In fact, he had endured for a long time.

That was why Yeonwoo was pleased with this situation.

I’ve done enough. I received people’s expectations, received the corresponding compensation, and gave back in kind.

I didn’t intend to give my life, but what can I do? I don’t have a Guide. It’s for the best. Let’s just die. The life of an Esper without a Guide is hell.

No one can understand it without experiencing it. Impurities keep piling up, there is no way for the contamination level to drop, and the side effects of the ability get worse over time.

He couldn’t fall asleep comfortably every day. He couldn’t even remember when he last fell into a peaceful sleep.

Death is a peaceful sleep.

So, before this life ends, let’s kill all the magic beasts one last time and then die.

Let’s do the last thing I can do, hoping that someone like me won’t appear again.

Let’s burn everything called life, everything called a soul, to kill the magic beasts.

These were words he had always repeated to himself, anticipating the rampage that would someday strike. It was the moment when the corners of his mouth went slack and his consciousness was about to be consumed by endless darkness.

“Kkyuu!”

Splat!

Something damp and cool stuck to his face. That thing, which clung so tightly he couldn’t even breathe, cooled down Yeonwoo’s hot head.

A magic beast?

Yeonwoo held his hand out in front of him. It was either roasting it with electricity or flattening it to death.

If he just left it to instinct without thinking, it would handle itself. That was what a rampage was. Yeonwoo tried to kill the unknown magic beast that had attacked him.

[…Huh?]

It was strange. The sound of the noisy machine moved further away.

No, it became quiet. His throbbing head cleared. The electrical currents that had tormented his body as if burning it also disappeared. His ears, which had heard the heartbeats of every living creature, also grew quiet.

Instead, his heart thumped.

Like a newborn baby letting out a cry as it inhales the world’s air, only the sound of his own pulsing heart could be heard. Along with that, his body melted away.