Zero Point

#004

“Unless there’s an order to keep them alive, I render the enemy thoroughly incapacitated, regardless of whether they live or die. That’s the method I was taught.”

From the police station to various places and finally to the Ability User Management Bureau, Lee Eunseok repeated this consistent statement, adding that at the end.

If Eunseok had been an ordinary person, he would have faced considerable trouble for excessive self-defense. However, since it was an attempted kidnapping by a foreign country that even mobilized ability users, Eunseok was able to be freed after several days of tedious and repetitive statements.

Nevertheless, Eunseok was strongly advised to relocate his residence. To be precise, he was forced to change his residence immediately as a condition for his freedom.

Even if it hadn’t been forced, he had no intention of returning to a place that had been exposed to the enemy. The problem was money. The government, seemingly hoping for Eunseok to become penniless and crawl back to them as soon as possible, provided no support for his relocation.

With several months left on his studio apartment contract, his deposit was still tied up. The remaining balance in his account was far from enough to cover a deposit for a new studio. In the end, Eunseok chose a motel in a suitable neighborhood and signed a monthly contract. In his current situation, moving residences once a month was appropriate.

He discarded his broken phone along with the SIM card. The bullet-ridden laptop met the same fate. Thinking that getting new ones would only subject him to more unnecessary contacts, he planned to live as a disconnected person for the time being.

Eunseok lay on the motel bed, quietly staring at the ceiling. While just lying there breathing was quite boring, it wasn’t particularly challenging for Eunseok, who had performed countless stakeouts during missions.

If it had been 10 years ago, or even just 7 or 8 years ago, Eunseok would have been forcibly assigned to the Ability User Management Bureau, regardless of the law. There was certainly a time when they frantically prevented domestic ability users from being taken abroad and treated them like slaves. Fortunately, after numerous big and small issues and considerable sacrifices, it had become a relatively good era for ability users.

If he had manifested as an Esper, he might have willingly crawled into the Ability User Management Bureau. He would have gladly fought mutated organisms or monstrous creatures pouring out of gate breaks. But to be merely a Guide? It was a job without fun, fulfillment, or meaning.

‘At this rate, I might really have to work as a day laborer at construction sites.’

Eunseok, feeling like a bird whose wings had been suddenly clipped and fallen from the sky to the ground, sighed and fumbled around the bed. He randomly pressed the remote control that came to hand. He wanted to shake off this sense of futility and helplessness with any kind of noise.

The first thing that came on was the news. After watching for a while, there was no mention of the kidnapping attempt from a few days ago. It was either to prevent excessive conflict between countries or they had been silenced by China.

Instead of continuing to watch the news, Eunseok changed the channel. Each time he flipped through the channels, faces and scenes rapidly changed.

After changing channels several times, his finger, which had been mechanically pressing the channel button, suddenly paused.

His upper body, sprawled on the bed, unconsciously leaned forward. In the TV, the only thing flickering brightly in the darkness, was that man. That human weapon packaged in a suit.

If he had been an enemy, he would have made Eunseok’s throat go dry. The man wore a somewhat bored expression with a mechanical smile. With a large photo of the man in the center, two anchors, male and female, were busily moving their lips.

[Mr. Choi Hanseo, the guild master of the White Tiger Guild, considered Korea’s top guild, officially visited the Ability User Management Bureau this morning.]

[Choi Hanseo is also well known as the second son of Choi Taebum, the chairman of the White Tiger Group. Of course, he’s even more famous as an S-class Esper and guild master.]

[As far as I know, Guild Master Choi Hanseo has never visited the Ability User Management Bureau since joining the Hunter Association after his mandatory service period ended. Is there a reason for this public visit to the Ability User Management Bureau today?]

Eunseok observed the face of the man, Choi Hanseo, fixed in the center of the screen. Things he hadn’t noticed before, being focused on the man’s physique at the time, now caught his eye.

Choi Hanseo was still in an immaculate suit. Everything from his neatly groomed hair was ordered to near perfection. The slight smile, seemingly conscious of the camera, conveyed both leisurely composure and boredom. And the features wearing that smile were as perfect as his attire.

Eunseok unconsciously imagined a confrontation with Choi Hanseo. Being an Esper, he would have special abilities, but even setting that aside, his physique alone was threatening.

Of course, physique alone wasn’t a big problem. Befitting his identity as an intelligence agent, the Special Task Force didn’t cultivate large body sizes or unnecessary muscles. Even without those, the Special Task Force, trained in special lethal martial arts, could easily cover a difference of two or three weight classes with skill.

However… this man was different.

Eunseok instinctively felt this the moment he saw the man. The thought ‘I can’t win’ didn’t exist in Eunseok’s dictionary. But the thought ‘It would be damn hard to win’ did cross his mind. That was the most Eunseok could think.

Ding dong-.

While the anchors were spewing out all sorts of information about Choi Hanseo, suddenly the monotonous doorbell sound unique to motels rang out.

Eunseok gripped the TV remote as if it were a military knife.

Ding dong-.

The doorbell sound rang again.

Eunseok got up from the bed and walked silently to the motel entrance, just a few steps away.

The motel’s steel door had a peephole to see outside. When he put his eye to it, he saw a young woman in her early 30s, dressed in neat trousers and a suit jacket, with long hair neatly tied back.

“Who is it?”

Eunseok asked in an indifferent voice.

“Hello, Mr. Lee Eunseok. I’m Lee Eunju, secretary to Mr. Choi Hanseo, the guild master of the White Tiger Guild.”

The woman answered in a voice tinged with professional kindness, then, as if to prove it, she took out a small piece of paper from her pocket and held it up to the peephole.

White Tiger Guild.

Below the boldly printed letters, the name Lee Eunju, Head of Secretariat, and contact information were visible.

“Not interested.”

Eunseok said, still in an indifferent voice. The woman smiled as if she had expected this, then suddenly bent down.

‘An Esper?’

Eunseok tensed his body slightly in wariness. But making his tension seem unnecessary, a white envelope was smoothly pushed under the door gap.

Having finished her business, the woman stood up again, straightened her clothes, gave a slight bow, and turned away without lingering. Eunseok only bent down to pick up the white envelope after the sound of the woman’s footsteps had completely disappeared from the corridor.

Normally, he would have ignored it, thinking it was just a flyer or business card. But the image of Choi Hanseo he had seen a few days ago and the man’s bored smile on TV just now piqued his interest. Eunseok returned to the bed, lay down, and put the remote control on the bed. Then he picked up the envelope and examined it from various angles.

The envelope was thin enough to contain barely one folded sheet of paper.

Should I take it out? Or not?

Eunseok briefly contemplated while staring at the envelope. But the contemplation didn’t last long. Choi Hanseo had already succeeded in capturing Eunseok’s interest with his brief appearance, and just imagining a confrontation with him made Eunseok feel as if adrenaline was pumping through his veins.

If it was of the same vein as the numerous contacts he had received since being confirmed as a Guide, it would be disappointing… but if this was a duel challenge or a letter of challenge, it would be very exciting.

For the first time in a very long while, Eunseok felt like he was opening a Christmas gift box as he inserted his fingers into the envelope and pulled out the thin paper. Would it be a disappointing gift? Or a pleasing one?

Eunseok put down the envelope and unfolded the A4 paper that was, as expected, neatly folded. In the process, a business card, similar to the one the woman had shown earlier, fell onto his chest.

The fully unfolded gift… wasn’t the duel challenge or letter of challenge he had hoped for. But it certainly succeeded in lifting the corners of Eunseok’s mouth.

[Do you have the courage to enter a gate with me?]

The handwriting, as neat and perfect as the man’s appearance, was asking Eunseok.

The moment Eunseok saw Choi Hanseo’s proposal, he had a premonition. It seemed that the leisurely days of vaguely longing for adrenaline were about to end.