DPGR 51

“W–what the? Hey, Baek Dojin! That’s Baek Dojin, right?”

“Hello? Hey! Baek Dojin the Esper just showed up here! Hurry!”

The faces of the people who had recognized dojin visibly brightened. It was a stark contrast to the tragedy unfolding in the distance.

Amid the commotion, jiho clasped his trembling hands tightly to keep himself steady.

His eyes stayed locked on dojin’s figure, now no more than a dot in the distance.

By the time dojin had ordered the nearby fishing boats to move out and started searching for those swept into the vortex himself, jiho—pale and restless—was shifting anxiously in place.

Why, why is this happening all of a sudden…?

No matter how hard he racked his memory, jiho couldn’t recall ever hearing about a dungeon incident like this before.

Even if it was a small-scale gate, if three fishing boats had been dragged in and there were casualties, it should’ve been all over the news.

Crack—

Just then, the space next to jiho split open with a faint sound. His eyes flew wide.

Is a dungeon opening here too?

As that thought raced through his mind, a hand suddenly burst out of the crack.

“……!”

Startled, jiho choked back a scream.

The hand flailed briefly, then forced the narrow fissure open wider.

When jiho saw who came out through the gap, his jaw dropped.

“W–what?”

“Gasp! Guide Jiho!”

—Why are you coming out of there?

It was kijoon—the (self-proclaimed) comic relief of Alpha Team.

“I heard the captain was here, but I didn’t know you were too, Guide Jiho!”

Right behind him came sehun, jihye, yulchan, and a group of unfamiliar faces, all spilling out in a cluster.

With them was a large, fluffy fox: Heendungi.

“Wh–whoa! Heendungi, wait—!”

The instant he spotted jiho, Heendungi—who’d been dangling at Yulchan’s side—started wriggling and thrashing to break free.

The fox, easily the size of a large dog at over 20 kilograms, was too much for Yulchan to handle.

“Ah!”

Thud-thud-thud!

Breaking loose from Yulchan’s arms, Heendungi pinned his ears back and scrambled over to Jiho, letting out pitiful whines.

Yulchan scrambled after him, trying to catch the fox, but it was no use.

“S–sorry! I was supposed to leave him behind, but he wouldn’t let go….”

He’d been summoned by the Center in the middle of checking on the fox’s condition.

Being a spatial manipulation esper, he was already busy—locating his teammates, guiding the Center’s investigation and support units, opening “paths”—and on top of that, Heendubgi had clung to his coat like his life depended on it.

So, in the end, he’d had no choice but to tuck the fox under his arm and bring him along, Tulchan explained with a miserable face.

—It’s… mm, it’s fine.

Jiho patted Heendubgi’s neck as the fox clung to him and licked his face nonstop.

His face was soaked with slobber, but somehow, the wild anxiety in his chest eased a little.

“Guide Jiho! Where’s Captain Baek?”

Jihye approached, leading the unfamiliar newcomers and calling out.

Jiho flinched at the sight of the new faces, but quickly pointed to the middle of the sea, mouthing the words:

—Over there.

“Wha—! Captain Baek! The investigation team’s here!”

Dojin, who’d been floating above the ocean mid-rescue, froze.

He seemed to be looking their way.

After a short hesitation, he reluctantly turned away from the swirling black vortex and slowly made his way over.

Meanwhile, staff in jackets marked [Field Recovery Team] began to push back the civilians filming with their phones.

“It’s dangerous—step back!”

“Please follow the evacuation order!”

“Hey! You can’t go in there!”

But the crowd, already in a frenzy, wasn’t easy to control.

The moment they saw dojin flying in, the excitement escalated.

“Captain Baek!”

“Whoa! What’s that behind him? Are those civilians?”

“Three small fishing boats were caught in it. We managed to pull out everyone we could see, but as you can see…”

Dojin finally landed, but he wasn’t alone. Floating behind him were three limp bodies.

As soon as he set them down, several recovery staff rushed in to administer emergency treatment.

“There might still be more people inside.”

“First, we need to scan the dungeon. Captain, we’ll need you to escort the investigators.”

“Got it.”

Everyone present was moving, doing what they could.

Everyone except jiho, who stood alone, unmoving.

Wheeeeng—

Heendungi let out a long, low cry as he leaned into jiho. He must’ve sensed jiho’s unease.

Jiho kept mouthing I’m fine, I’m fine, but it didn’t stop the wild, uneven pounding of his heart.

Then came news that made it pound even harder.

One of the investigators who had flown up with Dojin returned and shouted:

“B-rank! It’s a small-class gate!”

“The grade’s not too high.”

“But it’s underwater, so we can’t use terrain scanners. Compatibility between terrain and espers is crucial too… this’ll be tricky.”

A B-rank gate in the Incheon sea. Small-scale, and underwater—making terrain analysis difficult.

All of it matched exactly with the gate that, in the previous timeline, had severely injured Yulchan.

Thump—thump—thump—

Jiho’s heartbeat grew heavier and faster. His head filled with a chaotic whirl of thoughts.

The same gate? But the timing doesn’t match. Why…

The gate that had injured Yulchan wasn’t supposed to appear until next summer.

If this was really the same gate, then it had arrived six months too early.

“Alpha Team will take the lead.”

While jiho was caught in his own confusion, Dojin had consulted quickly with the team and now stepped forward to inform the Center staff of their decision.

The staff, their faces previously grim, immediately brightened at dojin’s words.

The position of Guide Director was still vacant.

Without a Director, the entire Guide wing was unstable.

And with unpaired guides in short supply, matching had become more difficult—making espers reluctant to take on dungeons missions.

Team Alpha’s offer to enter the gate first had the Center practically falling to their knees in gratitude.

“T-thank you! Then we’ll begin right awa—“

“Yes. Just give us a moment to prepare.”

At Dojin’s signal, Yulchan quickly opened a subspace portal. Anticipating the need, he had already gathered and stored temporary weapons for the team in his subspace.

The team immediately shrugged off their bulky jumpers and began arming themselves. The weapons weren’t their usual ones, so they didn’t feel quite right in their hands—but they were still usable.

Clack—

Dojin checked his gun and gave a few swings of a sharp-ended spear through the air to get a feel for it. Jiho watched from the side, fear filling his eyes.

It’s just like before.

Currently, only Team Alpha was entering the gate. With how rushed everything had been, neither Jihye nor Yulchan’s Pair Guides had made it to the scene.

Still, the team seemed unconcerned. It was just a small-scale B-rank gate—they believed they could handle it even without their guides.

That, too, had mirrored the events before Jiho’s regression.

He didn’t know why, but the guides from Team Alpha had also been absent from the gate raid back then. If Sena, Yulchan’s Pair Guide, had been present, she could’ve boosted his recovery rate through guiding, and he might have walked away unscathed.

But now Sena isn’t here either.

That meant they needed a contingency plan.

Unable to stand back any longer, Jiho walked up to Dojin and grabbed the hem of his coat tightly.

“Hmm..”

“Guide Jiho?”

—I want to go too.

He mouthed the words, and a troubled look crossed Dojin’s face.

Jiho couldn’t even shoot properly, or use basic self-defense techniques—there was no way Dojin could bring him into such a dangerous gate.

“It’s dangerous in there. I won’t be able to protect you completely with monsters around. You should stay here.”

His voice was warm, but firm. Yet Jiho’s desperation ran deeper than that.

“Nnngh!”

He thought of the notebook and pencil bag he’d left behind in the car, and forced himself to mouth the words again.

—Geonwoo and Sena aren’t here. So I have to go in instead.

“You’re saying you want to guide inside the gate?”

Jiho nodded quickly.

His plan was to guide Yulchan if things went south, but Dojin misunderstood and assumed Jiho meant he would guide him, prompting a quiet sigh.

“You know my guiding compatibility stats. I won’t be needing much guiding. We can do it after the gate is cleared.”

—No!

“It’s too dangerous.”

–I’ll be fine. I have Heendungi.

A brief standoff followed. Watching from the side, Kijoon hesitated, then timidly sided with Jiho.

“Guide Jiho seems really serious. Maybe it’s okay to let him—“

“Choi Kijoon.”

The single warning from Dojin made Kijoon clam up immediately. Sehun stepped in to smooth things over and try to talk Dojin down.

“Captain. Let’s at least hear Guide Jiho out a bit more. Guide Jiho, you really want to go in?”

—Yes!

Jiho nodded eagerly. He simply repeated the words he’d already mouthed to Dojin, but Sehun took them seriously.

“Captain. It’s a small-scale B-rank gate.”

“It’s still dangerous.”

“But think about the long term.”

‘‘…?’’

“Most of the gates assigned to us are either large-scale or A-rank and above. We rarely get something this low-level.”

“That’s… true.”

“Which means this might actually be the best possible environment for Guide Jiho to get real gate experience. He’s going to have to go in eventually, right? Why not start now?”

Jiho hadn’t expected Sehun to take his side, and looked up at him with wide, shining eyes. Sehun, a little overwhelmed by the look, focused instead on watching Dojin’s reaction.

Just then, a Center employee’s voice broke through the tension, nervous and strained.