To My Flower-Like S-Class Guide 160

Chapter 160:

“And I’m in much better condition than when I overloaded before. I told you, my Matching Rate with Baek Joo-won is 100%. And my overload level has been at 0% for the past few days, so I can definitely handle a Rank 1 dungeon.”

She couldn’t bring Baek Joo-won into the dungeon, but she could leave him outside the gate and receive Guiding whenever necessary.

“So you’ve already decided to go.”

“No, I’ll talk to Baek Joo-won first.”

“Has Baek Joo-won ever been able to change your mind?”

“…”

Seo Jae-yi avoided his gaze, not answering.

Kim Yoo-sung sighed deeply.

Everything depended on Baek Joo-won now. He hoped Baek Joo-won would beg her not to go.

If Baek Joo-won, who held a special place in her heart, pleaded with her with tears in his eyes, she wouldn’t be able to ignore him.

Kim Yoo-sung desperately hoped that would happen.

---

But his hopes were dashed.

“America? Sure, let’s go.”

Baek Joo-won, waiting for her in Seo Jae-yi’s dedicated room at Haeil Guild headquarters, readily agreed when she told him about the possibility of going to the US.

Seo Jae-yi was honestly surprised by his easy agreement.

“We’re not going there for sightseeing. We’re going to subjugate a Rank 1 dungeon. Are you sure?”

“Would you not go if I told you not to?”

Seo Jae-yi was speechless. Baek Joo-won continued, seeing her hesitation,

“You would have already told Kim Yoo-sung if you weren’t planning on going. You think I don’t know you?”

“I still thought you would try to stop me. It’s a Rank 1 dungeon.”

She could now easily handle Rank 2 dungeons in her current condition.

She had been suffering from Guiding deficiency during the Incheon dungeon incident, and she had overloaded during the Gapyeong incident because she had faced the boss monster alone.

But a Rank 1 dungeon was different. Even Seo Jae-yi, with her eleven years of experience as an S-rank Esper, had never subjugated a Rank 1 dungeon.

It was the worst possible hell, where even S-rank Espers’ survival wasn’t guaranteed.

In fact, a Rank 1 dungeon had been the site of a previous S-rank Esper’s overload.

She had expected Baek Joo-won, who was always concerned about her safety, to try and stop her, so she was a bit surprised that he wasn’t.

“Are you disappointed that I’m not worried about you?”

Baek Joo-won smiled, pulling her close and kissing her cheek, his touch gentle and affectionate.

“How can I be disappointed when you’re like this?”

He was expressing his love for her with his entire being; how could she possibly feel disappointed?

Seo Jae-yi smiled and turned her head, kissing him on the lips.

“Then why aren’t you trying to stop me?”

“I would have if it were any other dungeon. But it’s a fire-attribute dungeon, and the primary monsters are dragons, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why it’s okay.”

What did he mean? Dragons were among the most destructive monsters, terrifying calamities.

And he was saying it was okay because they were dragons?

“Dragons are delicious.”

Baek Joo-won licked his lips, his expression far more eager than when Seo Jae-yi had given him a dungeon boss’s magic stone.

“There’s no better meal than a dragon’s magic stone, filled with its essence.”

Seo Jae-yi was taken aback, seeing him treat dragons as mere prey.

His way of thinking was completely different from a human’s. It was a stark reminder that despite his human disguise, he was still a monster at his core.

“Okay, I’ll kill a dragon and bring you its magic stone, since you want it so much.”

Seo Jae-yi declared resolutely.

How could she refuse her boyfriend’s request for a dragon’s magic stone? She would kill a dragon and give it to him as a gift.

“I’ll be looking forward to it. Ah, take Airok with you. He’s a dragon too, so he should be helpful.”

“Huh? Isn’t it a bit… much to take a child to a Rank 1 dungeon…?”

Seo Jae-yi hesitated.

She knew Airok had regained his power, but he was still weaker than her. She was worried about taking him to such a dangerous place.

“And your dungeon is Rank 3, right? Aren’t the dragons in a Rank 1 dungeon stronger?”

A dungeon’s rank increased with the strength of the monsters within.

But the forest dungeon where Baek Joo-won and Airok resided was only Rank 3.

Seo Jae-yi could easily subjugate it alone now.

“Are you looking down on me because I’m a Rank 3 dungeon master?”

Baek Joo-won glared at her, as if offended. Seo Jae-yi quickly shook her head.

“That’s not what I meant!”

“But it’s true that a Rank 3 is no match for a Rank 1.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Baek Joo-won snorted as she readily agreed.

“My dungeon opened while Airok was sealed. If it were re-evaluated now, it would be higher than Rank 3.”

Now that she thought about it, Airok had said he had been sealed in his egg for a very long time. He would have still been in his egg when the dungeon’s rank was evaluated.

“And I have regenerative abilities and the power to influence Espers. Do you think those humans, with their machines that can’t even tell the difference between a monster and a human, can accurately measure my power?”

Baek Joo-won chuckled derisively.

“Don’t blindly trust those numbers. There must be other monsters with abilities like mine.”

“That’s… unsettling.”

Baek Joo-won and Airok were her allies, but other monsters weren’t.

As someone who had to protect people from dungeons and monsters, it was a disturbing thought.

“Anyway, take Airok with you. He’ll be helpful. And he’ll be happy to have a chance to… let loose.”

Seo Jae-yi couldn’t refuse.

“But you’re not entering the dungeon, are you? It would be a disaster if those Rank 1 monsters went berserk because of you.”

“Hmm, well…”

Baek Joo-won’s response was noncommittal. He didn’t seem as insistent on entering as usual.

“What? Is something bothering you?”

“The dragons in a Rank 1 dungeon won’t lose control just by seeing me, so don’t worry about me entering. But I’ll be entering a bit later.”

“Huh? Why?”

She hadn’t particularly wanted him to enter the dungeon, but she was curious why he would be entering later, instead of with her.

Seo Jae-yi tilted her head, and Baek Joo-won grinned, whispering his plan in her ear.

Her expression changed with every word.

---

【Title: Did you guys hear Firestarter is going to the US?!】

【Haeil just made an official announcement… A Rank 1 dungeon emerged in the US, and their S-rank Fire Esper died (RIP), so they requested Firestarter’s assistance…

I mean, Firestarter is incredibly powerful, and she has a highly compatible S-rank Guide, so her survival rate is high, but still… Isn’t it a bit much to send her to a Rank 1 dungeon so soon after her overload and recovery…?

Especially with the whole human experimentation scandal going on… I honestly don’t want her to go… What if she gets hurt? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ】

【Comments】
—I came here as soon as I saw the news… A Rank 1 dungeon? That’s insane…
—No! A Rank 1 dungeon?! We have to protect our Firestarter! ㅠ0ㅠ!!
—Firestarter must have agreed to go… The Haeil Guild Leader is very protective of her; he wouldn’t have sent her willingly. But Firestarter is stubborn…
└ True. We all know how stubborn she is, just look at the Bean Mountain legend of Taesan Guild.
└ But why did Firestarter agree to go? No one would blame her if she refused, considering her current situation… I hope she doesn’t get hurt… It would be devastating. ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

“…America.”

A run-down PC room, where customers were scarce, and the owner was indifferent to them.

A middle-aged man, his face obscured by a baseball cap pulled low, sat hunched over in an inconspicuous corner.

He looked disheveled, his unshaven face and the hands hovering over the keyboard grimy, as if he hadn’t bathed in days.

But most of the patrons in this PC room looked similar, so no one paid him any attention.

While others pounded on their keyboards, cursing and yelling, the man stared intently at his monitor.

News of Seo Jae-yi’s impending departure for the US to assist with a Rank 1 dungeon subjugation had spread like wildfire.

Many expressed concerns, as she was scheduled to leave soon, before a potential dungeon break.

But the man’s face, as he scrolled through the worried comments, was devoid of any such concern.

‘She’s going because of Mac Grayson.’

Seo Jae-yi and Mac Grayson’s friendship.

He knew about it, a fact unknown to most.

The US would be desperate to prevent a dungeon break, even if it meant deploying Grayson.

And Seo Jae-yi wouldn’t abandon her friend.

He had known Seo Jae-yi for a long time; he could easily predict her actions.

“Being too kind isn’t always a good thing.”

Too many people didn’t realize that their kindness could be their downfall.

And this time, he would be the one to exploit her kindness.

“America… America…”

He believed this was his last chance to control Seo Jae-yi.

If he missed this opportunity, he would never get another, and he would eventually be caught in the ever-tightening net of the investigation.

So he had to go to the US, to the dungeon Seo Jae-yi was about to enter.

It wouldn’t be easy to fly to the US with the authorities searching for him, but there were always other ways. He would find a way, no matter what.

He would go there and obtain what he needed to control Seo Jae-yi, to control her lifeline.

‘I don’t need to risk meeting Seo Jae-yi directly. I just need to obtain Baek Joo-won’s Guide Factor. Then I can control her.’

Seo Jae-yi’s face, Korea’s strongest Esper, the Esper with the most beautiful ability, appeared on his monitor, as if in response to his dark desires.

The man, Park Jung-soo, stared at her face, memorizing every detail, until it was seared into his mind.