Episode 5
Time flowed with truly frightening speed.
The guide special recruitment exploded with applications to the point the servers crashed the moment document submissions opened. It was enough to shake the entire country.
Online spaces were also thrown into continuous chaos. Communities and all sorts of social media were flooded with posts asking who on earth the Esper 'E.go' was, trying to dig up his identity. Espers in this world seemed to possess a presence similar to celebrities or famous streamers in the real world.
“Alright. Today, I’ll challenge myself to the rooftop!”
In the meantime, Goeun’s stamina had improved significantly. Since the novel lacked detailed descriptions, there was no way to know what kind of life Lee Goeun had usually led.
In the early days of her possession, Goeun couldn’t even support her legs, like a newborn baby giraffe. So she often tumbled down clumsily when getting out of bed, which meant Naeun’s eyes never dried of tears.
How could a human body deteriorate to this extent? Was it even possible to have no leg muscles? she had wondered, but it was indeed possible. ‘Lee Goeun’ had had no time to walk. The days she opened her eyes were extremely few, and even when she did, there was no need to move.
“Huff, huff. If I were my old self, instead of panting at stairs like these, I would have been climbing Buramsan and making the whole mountain resound.”
Still, this was tremendous progress. Going down to the first floor and coming back up to the second had been so difficult she was on the verge of passing out, yet now she had become capable of climbing all the way to the rooftop.
As her stamina increased, her appetite naturally grew as well, and with the food supporting her, she gained quite a bit of weight. Before, she had been nothing but skin and bones, indistinguishable from a fish skeleton.
“But I still probably can’t… do a takedown.”
Given that sweat was pouring down like rain despite merely climbing stairs, that remained a distant future.
“Finally, rooftop conquest complete!”
Goeun, having arrived at the hospital rooftop, stretched both arms high and shouted loudly. Looking at the cloudless blue sky, she felt pride swell within her, while simultaneously, the tremendous heat welcomed her.
“I must be crazy. Climbing all the way up here in this heat, with this frail body.”
Because habits from before her possession remained in her body, she itched to move if she stayed still. She had at least woken at dawn to avoid the heat and come out in the morning, but perhaps because it was July, the weather was sweltering.
“The document screening results are already out. So now only the second-round matching test remains?”
When Goeun said she would skip the interview and proceed straight to the matching test, Naeun desperately dissuaded her, saying a child whose body hadn’t fully recovered yet shouldn’t overexert herself.
Of course, Naeun’s words had merit. Considering Goeun’s physical condition, it would be better to test after filtering candidates a bit more, but Goeun couldn’t shake her anxious feelings.
She felt she needed to gather as many people as possible to find her pair guide among them. It was already difficult enough to find male guides; reducing the pool of candidates would do Goeun no good.
“There are quite a few people taking the matching test. Well, unless they were criminals, they pretty much passed.”
Criminals were the very first to be excluded. Even then, male guides weren’t eliminated unless there was a substantial reason. It was an unavoidable decision given how rare male guides were.
The ratio of female to male guides was roughly 9.9:0.1. Therefore, for female guides, considering even the matching rate with blood relative Naeun had been low, all those below A-rank were eliminated in the document screening. Even so, the number of interview applicants was quite large.
“It’ll be over quickly, no big deal. Surely I can find at least one pair guide among them.”
Goeun laughed heartily at her own words.
* * *
She couldn’t find one.
She conducted matching tests from morning till evening for a week with several hundred people, yet not a single person exceeded thirty percent.
There had been only three of those precious male guides in total, and the matching rates with them had all been terrible without exception.
Afterwards, Yeorye and Naeun visited Goeun’s hospital room together to discuss countermeasures, but a heavy silence lingered for quite some time.
“Goeun, I think we should expand the scope overseas……”
“The documents of the first-round eliminated candidates—you haven’t discarded them yet, right?”
“First-round eliminated candidates?”
Yeorye had been about to suggest expanding the scope overseas, thinking her granddaughter would be disheartened. Goeun, who had been contemplating something with her eyes closed, opened her mouth.
“Yes. May I see the documents of the first-round eliminated candidates as well? And if possible, I’d like you to reach out to them too.”
At Goeun’s words, Yeorye and Naeun exchanged glances silently. After an unspoken conversation, Naeun nodded.
“Goeun, rather than the first-round eliminated candidates, how about expanding the scope overseas like Grandmother suggested?”
Naeun spoke in a gentle voice as if consoling her. At Naeun’s words, Goeun’s pupils trembled slightly.
“I heard there are quite a few male guides in America. Of course, it’s only slightly better than domestic numbers, but……”
“You need not worry about money, so I will do everything as you wish, Goeun.”
Certainly, if she turned her gaze overseas as Naeun suggested, she might find a guide more easily. But Goeun hesitated slightly at Naeun’s proposal.
It had taken about two months just to get to the matching test despite recruiting domestically. But if it was overseas…... She didn’t know if Goeun’s body could hold out that long.
“…Then let’s proceed with both simultaneously.”
If she couldn’t find one among the document-failed candidates, the only remaining method was overseas, as Naeun said. Having exercised all her life, the prospect of a foreign guide who couldn’t communicate was a bit burdensome for Goeun, but.
Yeorye said she understood, handed Goeun the first-round eliminated candidates’ documents, and rose first. Soon after, upon hearing that a D-rank Gate had burst nearby, Naeun hurriedly hugged Goeun tightly and rushed away.
Left alone again, Goeun carefully examined the first-round eliminated candidates’ documents that Yeorye had brought, one by one.
“Have they no conscience? Committing such heinous crimes and then applying for the Seongun Guide special recruitment?”
Each time she flipped through the documents, Goeun laughed hollowly, too dumbfounded to even be angry.
These were criminals who should be isolated from society. It seemed the special recruitment notice had drawn in even those dreaming of a jackpot in life with a guiding skill they might or might not possess.
As she continued flipping through the documents, Goeun tilted her head slightly.
“Why was this person eliminated?”
Everyone else had clear disqualifying reasons. But the person in the document held in Goeun’s hand had no criminal record, nor any other particular reason.
“Seo I-jae.”
Twenty-three years old. A university student enrolled in a nearby engineering college.
“Rank F.”
The only notable point was that his rank was F.
Had he been eliminated in the document screening because of his rank? But as Goeun remembered, there had been no small number of F-rank participants in the matching tests. Of course, unlike Seo I-jae, they had clear disqualifying reasons.
Only after flipping one more sheet did she learn the reason.
“Absent from the matching test?”
This meant he hadn’t failed the first round due to some disqualifying reason. Had he not even applied for the test because his rank was F?
“Well, if he’s F-rank, it’s understandable he’d give up.”
No matter how much guide-making one received, there was a limit to how much an F-rank could raise their rank.
Just as with Espers, a guide’s guiding ability could not grow overwhelmingly beyond their basic capabilities. One could only grow within the stats they possessed.
Nevertheless, Goeun examined Seo I-jae’s documents meticulously. Because there was a chance, however slim, that she might end up clinging to this F-rank who had missed the matching test as her last resort.
* * *
“…I shouldn’t have thought so lightly.”
Goeun, blankly watching the scenery passing quickly outside the window, muttered softly.
Two weeks had passed since examining the first-round eliminated candidates’ documents and contacting all of them. And the result was ‘as expected.’ No one showed a high matching rate with Goeun. How could this be?
‘Is it because she’s a character fated to die, so there’s absolutely no way to survive?’
According to the novel’s development, Goeun would die in four months. Two months had already passed since her possession. Goeun thought it was fortunate that she had adapted to this world to some extent, yet she often lost sleep at night due to the anxiety that constantly washed over her.
Each time, she tried to quell her mind through exercise, but that too was temporary. The fear of death, which she had never felt before in her life, was far greater than she had imagined. Especially whenever she occasionally felt something bubbling and boiling inside her, it felt as though she was living each day carrying a time bomb.
“To think that my last hope… would be Seo I-jae.”
Of course, as Naeun had suggested earlier, they had posted overseas guide recruitment notices as well. But since they had only just begun recruiting, it would be quite some time before meaningful results came in. Honestly, Goeun wasn’t even sure if she had the stamina to go to America right now.
Goeun fiddled with the edge of the documents she was holding. She had touched them throughout the entire trip, so the corners were already worn and frayed.
“Driver, how much longer until we arrive?”
“We’ll be arriving shortly.”
She had found out which school and department Seo I-jae attended, but since the school was so large, she decided to try finding his house first. Since it happened to be the weekend, she figured there was a higher chance of meeting him at home than at school.
Of course, she wasn’t visiting Seo I-jae’s house unannounced. Goeun was someone who knew proper manners.
She had already tried calling, but perhaps because he lived so busily, she hadn’t succeeded in reaching him even once. More often than not, she only heard an automated message saying the phone was turned off. If this was the case, why did he even carry a phone? Goeun ultimately couldn’t hold it in and exploded on her eleventh call attempt.
She had little expectation since he was F-rank, yet at the same time, thinking that he was the last guide candidate she would meet in Korea made her feel truly conflicted. It would feel even more futile if the matching rate was terrible despite all the effort she had put in.
‘Don’t get your hopes up. No, he’s my last hope. No, he’s F-rank. Don’t expect anything……. But he’s the last guide I’ll meet in the country.’
“Miss, the alley is too narrow for the car to enter from here on. What should we do?”
She had somewhat expected this from the entrance of the neighborhood where Seo I-jae lived. The car wouldn’t be able to reach right in front of the house.
The alleys were extremely narrow, and the houses were packed tightly together. It was a scenery Goeun knew all too well. A neighborhood of similar circumstances to the one she had lived in before her possession.