Beep. Beep-beep. Whirrr.
The guiding machines that were putting Yeohyeon through hell didn’t stop.
“Yeohyeon.”
She strode forward without hesitation. As Yeongwon rushed up, Yeohyeon’s eyes opened. He sat up, then clicked and dragged a low wall that had been far away closer in front of her to stop her.
“Move this.”
“It’s fine for now.”
“Who said that?”
Even if you’re okay, I might not be. Yeongwon didn’t bother explaining that.
Thunk.
She kicked the low wall away and, in two steps, got right up to Yeohyeon’s face.
Beep. Beep-beep.
Even then, the machines kept running. The 29 machines she’d seen before looked like child’s play — now, by eye, there were over fifty. Some of them had weirder designs, too.
“My hand—” someone began.
Yeongwon moved fast. But before she could touch Yeohyeon, a deafening sound tore through the air.
Bang!
“Ugh…!”
A shockwave shoved Yeongwon backward in an instant.
Thud.
Still, thanks to Yeohyeon reacting quickly, she was caught on something soft and was able to stand up immediately.
The gate wouldn’t give them a chance to guide.
Rumble.
Crash!
The crack expanded again.
Creak.
With an eerie sound, the sky and ground split in strange ways. Buildings stuck to the earth fell, and human screams and wails grew louder.
The second shock had begun.
“Ugh…”
Yeongwon clutched her dizzy head.
“Get to a safe place.”
Her face tightened. Her eyes went to Yeohyeon.
‘Oh…’
In one blink, Yeongwon saw the world turned upside down.
‘Just a moment ago…’
All those machines were smashed. Half of them were buried in the ground. The barracks she’d been in were half gone, the rest fallen into a deep sinkhole at her feet.
And then
Eeeeek
The monster that had come through the gate was as grotesque as its name implied.
Squeaking joints, enormous size, asymmetric movements, and above all, raw savagery.
Crash. Boom.
“Don’t get hurt. For now, do exactly as I say.”
“Okay.”
There’s a time for uncompromising, direct action — this wasn’t it. In an emergency, whining about wanting to guide was useless.
“Can you clean this up fast?”
Yeohyeon didn’t answer verbally. He answered with action.
BOOM!
This time it wasn’t the gate or the monster shaking the world — it was the force radiating from Yeohyeon.
He cleared the chaos in an instant.
‘Balance-breaking munchkin…’
He telekinetically righted collapsing buildings and erected new barricades against the energy bursting from the torn dimension.
No sweat.
‘When did he get this strong…’
At the same time, he moved Yeongwon to a safer spot. His powerful telekinesis relocated her at incredible speed, but all she felt was a moment of warm, gentle pull.
Across the cracked earth, Yeongwon saw only Yeohyeon’s back.
Creak.
The monster lunged at Yeohyeon and
Crash!
Before the attack even landed, the monster was shredded.
‘He just melts them.’
The attack he used to protect Yeongwon was wildly destructive compared to the gentle pull he’d used on her.
With gaze and willpower alone, he shook physical laws and crushed space.
Whoosh.
Multiple monsters vanished without a trace.
Even a monster hundreds of meters wide was like paper to Kim Yeohyeon. She’d known that in theory, but seeing it was different.
Boom!
Of course, he couldn’t stop all collateral damage alone.
“Argh!”
There were too many civilians, and the rescue scene was chaotic.
A site of collapse and screams.
Yeohyeon never wavered, but the more Yeongwon watched his back, the heavier she felt.
No matter how strong, an esper without a guide is unstable.
It was obvious he was walking that dangerous line.
Crash!
Cracks thumped and monsters poured out endlessly, and Yeohyeon kept destroying them.
So right now, his vessel must be draining.
Rumble.
Department-store towers and billions in assets melted into sticky, unidentifiable goo.
Still, thanks to his barricade, no one was crushed under the rubble.
“Get back!”
When things looked like they were settling down a little, Yeongwon tried to call Yeohyeon again.
He turned.
“There’s a dedicated guide for this esper here!”
“Quick!”
Please, hurry.
She waited for him like she had waited for the homeowner’s return at the Ilsan Gate.
“What are you so scared of?”
His vessel probably still had room. Yeongwon wasn’t blind to his thoughts.
They didn’t know their match rate. They were likely blind to it — 50% or lower was a real possibility. Any elementary school kid would know that front guiding probably wasn’t suitable.
But she didn’t care.
“Kim Yeohyeon! The actual story hasn’t even started!”
Stop taking up page space in the opening and just get over here.
Yeongwon muttered inward complaints as he parted his lips slowly.
“I don’t want you to suffer needlessly…”
His low voice cut through even from far away. It sounded nice, but Yeongwon chewed off the end of the sentence cleanly.
“Why the hell should your pain matter to me!”
Thud. Rumble.
She was certain.
This was it.
‘Prologue—this scene was around here.’
Everything matched the novel’s opening.
“I know you hate human guidance. But you must be the exception for me from now on.”
“If you hate it because of the guide’s pain, you don’t need to worry about me. Don’t take unnecessary risks because of my pain.”
Shim Yeongwon.
The title the World Tree gave her: Dictator of Chance.
Whether it means “an accidental dictator” or “the one who dictates chance,” either way, Shim Yeongwon was a dictator here.
Like that name, she would bend the set path and rule this scene.
“Kim Yeohyeon. My dedicated esper.”
He knew his senses were sharp. No need to shout to be heard.
“I don’t bluff.”
“So take me as I am.”
In the recorded beginning, Yeongwon hadn’t been by his side. Now she was.
“You need me. That matters more than your taste, more than my pain.”
“You have to believe that.”
And so the prologue was rewritten by the dictator.
‘So flashy… so dramatic…’
‘My bias is such a tease!’
Yeongwon accepted the in-ear — a two-way radio for dedicated esper-guide use.
Anyway, it meant he accepted front guiding.
“You”
“I’ll accept guiding after my vessel empties a bit more.”
“You’re already pretty empty…”
“Judgment’s mine.”
Yeohyeon stepped forward when Yeongwon called, but he projected a defensive barrier — she couldn’t reach him even when she stretched out her hand.
“The in-ear stays connected even inside the gate.”
Beep.
The device confirmed pairing.
And then
Bang!
Another explosion sounded. Yeohyeon frowned and looked toward it.
Yeongwon realized the timing was off again.
Sigh.
“Be right back.”
He nodded and turned his body away.
Swish.
Yeongwon adjusted the receiver in her left ear and watched his retreating back.
Beep
“Hurry back.”
Static.
Even if the audio quality was poor, his voice got through.
Thud. Thud.
Creak
Crash!
‘This…’
Then Yeongwon felt time stretch endlessly while standing in the middle of an eight-lane road.
She hated that feeling.
It crept over her.
‘Am I… doomed?’
Her belief that she could face anything unflinchingly might have been arrogant.
Crash.
Helicopter propellers, brakes screeching from rescue vehicles — every sound felt loud.
Yeongwon froze, staring at the melting masses before her.
Creak. Creak.
Huge monsters’ joints squeaked. It reminded her of scenes where human joints were snapped.
‘Shim Yeongwon. Shim Yeongwon.’
‘…Draw the picture they asked you to.’
Memories she’d wanted to forget flashed back.
Even at the Center and before she’d arrived there, flashes of the past came often. But the moments that resurfaced now weren’t the ones she thought she’d truly erased.
Thud. Thud.
A monster larger than a department store sank a bent limb into the ground and melted the earth.
Crash.
“Screeeeam!”
A shout came from behind. Her chest tightened.
She felt sick.
A scream that had been heard once echoed again.
Cries to save the children first.
Selfish anger from those who begged not to be left here — “I’m a noble power, don’t leave me behind.”
In desperate moments, people often stirred disgust as much as compassion.
Same-world feelings.
Scenes she’d passed replayed like an illusion.
“Shim Yeongwon!”
“Yeongwon!”
She felt for her throat.
Her smooth, scar-free neck told her: this body was not the body of that Shim Yeongwon.
She needed to stay calm, but her heart beat heavy and cold.
‘Stop.’
‘Stop it.’
Her body grew weaker.
This body hadn’t been toughened in the other world.
‘Don’t remember.’
Cold sweat. Her head grew foggy.
“Sir.”
“Guide.”
She was called.
“Guide Shim Yeongwon.”
Bang!
She snapped her head up.
An impeccably outfitted esper stood before her.
A wall of a man. Her own esper was calling her.
She came to herself late.
“I won’t be all kindness.”
“As you decided, it’s your own choice.”
Yeongwon tried to steady her voice to reply.
But before she could say anything.
Snap.
Whoosh.
‘Ah…’
She was airborne in an instant.
In his arms, she shot upward.
“Ah…”
Defying physics, they rose hundreds of meters above the ground.
They stopped, suspended in the empty sky.
