Guide to the Fallen World - Chapter 34

#34. Discovery

So this is what a guide’s radial guiding feels like.

A powerful shock, enough to shake his vision, swept over Yi Gyeom.

Overwhelming emotion and pleasure, an excitement that surged through his entire body, rapidly seized control of his reason. He felt as if he could do anything, and indeed, the power to make it possible was being granted to him.

It was a tasteless, transparent gem, but its effect was undeniably real.

Above all, this sensation…!

It was so sweet, so thrilling, it made him angry to have only discovered it now.

A little more. I want to savor it just a little longer. I want the real thing.

It was the moment a faint instinct fully awakened within him.

Something he had vaguely longed for but never known. The reality he had lingered seeking, always hidden behind a veil, was finally becoming clear.

I thought I just wanted to have it.

But that wasn’t it.

A Guide… was something one absolutely had to possess.

Now he understood why Noah’s esper had rushed at him, eyes blazing. That bastard had known. He had known what kind of being the Guide was.

“Khk! Khkhkh…”

Disliking even the act of opening his mouth to laugh, Yi Gyeom pressed his lips tightly together and chuckled.

There was no poison. And even if there had been, he probably would’ve swallowed it all without hesitation. Was this what it felt like to kiss a guide?

The mere thought made his breathing rough. Yi Gyeom, having hidden the guiding stone under his tongue, let out a sticky sigh and twisted his waist.

With the last shred of his reason, he knew he shouldn’t be doing this here, so he buried his face in his hands and rubbed it dryly.

Ah. It was hopeless. His body wouldn’t listen to him at all.

“I need to calm down…”

It was troublesome, but he felt good. So good that his head felt like it was spinning out of control.

Ah. This sense of satisfaction. He thought he knew it well enough from the guiding drugs he had tasted until now, but…

It had been a foolish thought. Everything had far exceeded his expectations and assumptions.

Now he understood why espers had once waged wars over guides. Whether the world fell into ruin or not, it hadn’t mattered to them.

[Earth is not an Espers world. Their world is the guide.]

He could finally understand those words, words he had never grasped before.

The reason civilization collapsed, why Earth was swallowed by the gates. Everything he had only comprehended through text now became vividly clear before his eyes.

That day, the guide had said,

[Do you want a war? You must understand what it means to secure me.]

The loathing and rejection contained in that seemingly threatening statement were so clear that he replied he didn’t want war. Feeling like he shouldn’t incur her hostility, he obediently just asked for her name and backed away.

It wasn’t because he had any basis or reason. Suddenly, he became unable to calculate the gains and losses he always kept in mind.

Even knowing it was a foolish choice, he did it because he somehow felt he had to. He unintentionally followed his intuition. And that very intuition had led him to this day.

He could no longer return to the time when he didn’t know her.

So, if the Guide were to ask again, he would now answer differently.

I want war.

***

The coniferous trees that grew densely, filling the entire Sakhalin shelter area, were plant-type monsters.

This colony of plant-type monsters was once famously known as the “Forest of Blades,” but it is now merely a graveyard forest stained by the catastrophe caused by Shelter Shanghai.

Despite its infamy, the espers of Yeouido had now completed their assembly, targeting that very place.

Because beneath that barren land, which drew no one’s attention, the Guide was hiding.

And standing at the very front of them was the leader of Yeouido, Heo Yi Gyeom. In fact, all of this had been carried out under his initiative.

Yi Gyeom first seized control of Shelter Khibarov, located a bit away from Sakhalin, and took down its espers as if it were nothing more than an ordinary shelter battle.

Afterward, he focused considerable effort on stabilizing the public sentiment and internal affairs of Khibarov, which had suddenly lost its leader. Once the shelter was secure, he began gradually bringing in espers from Yeouido, laying the groundwork for the operation.

Since the director’s satellite constantly monitored Sakhalin’s frozen forest from above, any surface infiltration was impossible. Even if they tried using airships or flying monsters, the director’s fleet and the razor-sharp ice forest would crush them all.

And most importantly, the guide was hidden underground.

Therefore, Yi Gyeom constructed a bunker beneath a large food warehouse where dozens of people and supplies moved daily. It was to dig underground towards Sakhalin.

Though he held only a nominal title, as the leader of Yeouido, he couldn’t just throw his espers into a death trap.

The distance was significant, and the digging would take a long time, but if they were to avoid the perilous surface, then underground was the safest route.

And so, Yi Gyeom began a life of living like a mole, something he never expected. The situation of the Yeouido espers who entered Khabarov following him was quite similar.

An underground passage connecting Khabarov and Sakhalin. It sounded simple, but it was all work that required human hands. It would be nice to use explosives to create a path underground, but that was impossible. The Director would likely be surveying the area with seismographs.

If even a small vibration were detected, the Guide would immediately flee, and then the precisely identified location would become useless.

There might not be a second chance.

For this reason, Yi Gyeom took the lead, swallowing guiding drugs dozens of times a day and focusing on clearing the path. There was no noise in the entire process of pushing the soil beneath the ground. Not even vibrations were allowed.

Rocks blocking the way were lifted and moved like pudding with sharpened shovel blades, and soil and sand were quietly moved with earth-based abilities.

Including himself, more than five earth espers from Yeouido had joined the effort to accelerate the progress.

They didn’t need to tunnel all the way to where the guide was located. Only far enough to enter her detection range. From there, they could use movement abilities to close the remaining distance.

And so, after everyone used their earth-based abilities to the point of fainting, they would repeat the process.

All of this work proceeded secretly over about a month.

If they hadn’t periodically gone above ground for the supply of food and medicine, it would have been difficult to even know this much accurately. They couldn’t tell how much time had passed underground. Rather than checking such things, they had to focus on moving even one more grain of sand.

With a tired face, Yi Gyeom held a cigarette between his lips and, out of habit, extended his detection ability toward Sakhalin, murmuring under his breath.

“Truly a natural fortress.”

Yi Gyeom lighting a cigarette meant it was a short break time. Seeing this, the Yeouido espers immediately sprawled out on the ground. Some leaned against the walls, while others lay flat on their backs.

Everyone was exhausted. Even with guiding drugs keeping them going, espers were still human. Each had their own limits in strength, stamina, and mental endurance.

“Captain. How long do we have to keep doing this? Is there even a real Guide?”

Esper Chae Siyoung said irritably. He was furious, but perhaps because he couldn’t ruin the operation, his tone was a low whisper.

“There is. At the end of this.”

“Digging a tunnel without any sound or vibration. I must be crazy. If I had known it would be like this… I would have just raided a drug production facility.”

“Come on. Don’t you know all of Yeouido’s earth espers were assigned to this mission? Just hold out a little longer. I’m sure the captain has a plan.”

“Ugh, I just want to see sunlight again. Breathe some fresh air.”

Yi Gyeom ignored Siyoung’s whining.

“Let’s start again.”

“…Captain. I want to go home.”

From here and there, voices chimed in with “Me too,” “Me too.” However, as Yi Gyeom silently began to use his ability to clear the path, everyone pitched in as if they had never complained. This was because they all trusted, believed in, and followed Yi Gyeom’s judgment as their leader.

Those days continued for a long while.

Their weary movements gradually quickened at a certain point. They didn’t explicitly say it, but everyone knew the end was near.

“…Found it.”

And finally, the one word everyone had been waiting for flowed from Yi Gyeom’s lips.

***

My mom was a lively person. Even as a child, I could see that.

“Jeong Yeowon! Run!”

That shout strongly pushed me forward. The national flags above my head fluttered in the wind, and I ran as if I were flying. Then, the cheers from the playground grew louder and louder. My breath caught in my throat, but I didn’t stop.

And so, I passed through the finish line ribbon that two teachers were holding together.

“Jeong Yeowon! My daughter! My daughter is in first place!”

My dad couldn’t hide his joy as he shouted, and the whole class responded with a loud cheer, “Waaah!” I didn’t realize at the time that the teacher had prompted them. I was young, after all.

In any case, I was a child who ran well. Receiving a first-place stamp on my arm and turning around, I saw my mother, father, and uncle, who had come to cheer me on from the other side of the playground, waving and smiling.

I probably started liking running from that time.

I continued to like running after that. It was easier to improve my ranking in running than to raise my grades while enduring my mother’s nagging.

Until the day I started falling more often, I was always our class’s official relay runner. The last runner in the school sports day relay, that was me, Jeong Yeowon. I was certain of it… I must have been.

But not anymore.

I was diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia.

And I could never run like I used to again.

After that, the autumn sports day when I was about ten years old became the most dazzling memory and a curse of my life.

Actually, running wasn’t even the important issue. My limbs wouldn’t move as I wanted them to right away. My speech became slightly slurred, and I frequently fell and broke something.

Naturally, I stopped going out. I also quit school.

This all happened when I was just seventeen.