Chapter 17

Nain knew well from experiencing it several times just how tedious the matching test procedure was. And honestly, if it weren't for having his blood drawn multiple times, he might have been willing to cooperate a few more times.

Was this man simply not participating in tests just because it was bothersome? Or was there another reason...

Nain looked at Ash glaring straight at him from the photo and tapped on the desk.

'But why are Guides so necessary?'

The Espers Nain had seen so far were capricious and self-centered, but they all looked healthy to the point of overflowing with energy. Perhaps because of that, it was hard for him to believe that the 'rampage' of Espers he had simply read about in documents was so dangerous.

'I guess Espers aren't just unconditionally powerful.'

People who were more powerful than any mages but couldn't live without depending on Guides.

Perhaps because of that, some Espers showed quite blind attitudes toward Guides. Seeing an Esper stick to a Guide like gum even in the cafeteria, desperately seeking affection, Nain felt his attitude was a bit excessive. Perhaps because he was completely an outsider, Nain still couldn't grasp what kind of existence Guides were to Espers.

While slowly scanning down the screen with his eyes, another decent photo appeared in the preview, so Nain clicked on that post.

-Title: A-grade Esper who's actually worse than C-grade in terms of cost-effectiveness

(Photo)

-Source NNC article photo

Ash. ㅇㅇ

(Photo of pink pills)

This is called a guiding pill, emergency medication in pill form that Espers take when guiding is insufficient. It's also called rampage suppressant.

If you want to know the evidence for why Ash is cost-effectiveness trash, start reading from here.

It's related to the guiding pills I attached above.

When guiding pills first came out, you could buy them with just an awakener registration card. Even ordinary people could get guiding pills with just forged registration cards.

(Photo of a city engulfed in flames)

The above photo is from an Esper rampage accident scene before guiding pills were widespread. It was the largest scale among rampage accidents, so the scene looked like that.

Most of the bunkers that are now in every neighborhood were built at that time. If you don't believe me, look up the construction dates of bunkers near your houses lol You'll get goosebumps because I'm right ㅜ

Back then, when rampage alerts went off, they evacuated people first and bought time. But there were serious cases where just buying time and waiting it out wasn't enough, right? In such cases, they even deployed snipers for assassination operations.

(Source: Documentary called <Kill the Esper>. Based on true story and 2 hours full-time, but worth watching ㅇㅇ)

To summarize the documentary's theme in one line: 'One Esper is as dangerous as dozens of time bombs.'

Even bombs just stay put after being installed, but Espers have egos so they move around randomly lol

Literally mobile time bombs. So when one rampaging Esper appears, you can think of that entire city being paralyzed.

(News article title capture)

But after the aforementioned guiding pills appeared, the danger was reduced somewhat.

While this drug delayed rampage, they could deploy Guides to help.

Now, looking at this so far, guiding pills seem like purely positive drugs, right?

To cut to the conclusion: they're not.

They're good when used properly, but from other perspectives, you can't say they're only good.

(Photo of teenagers sprawled on the street)

These kids are like this because of 'Lucid,' a component in guiding pills.

Lucid slows down Esper rampage while causing hallucinations in ordinary people. It's literally a pseudo-drug.

Of course, guiding pills were only prescribed to people with awakener registration cards. But since they're emergency medication, people in urgent situations need to be able to get them right away, right? So you could buy them anywhere with just ID without a doctor's prescription. They were even available at convenience stores...

But this was exactly the loophole.

Actually, back then they didn't check registration cards properly either. Because of that, getting drugs became super easy. Especially teenage addicts multiplied tremendously at this time, leaving no empty spaces in rehabilitation centers ㄷㄷ

Now let me return to the original story. What does the guiding pill have to do with Ash?

(Ash photo)

Ash is an individual Esper who doesn't belong to a team and works alone.

There's no problem if you belong to a team. Esper teams have at least two dedicated Guides attached lol There's almost no rampage risk.

But Ash is an individual Esper so he has no affiliated team and no pair Guide (a Guide in exclusive contract form who marks only one Esper).

ㅇㅋㅇㅋ Actually, there's no problem up to here.

There are tons of Espers without pair Guides at the center too lol What these Espers do is visit public guiding rooms affiliated with each center branch. After receiving guiding there, they can live normal lives, right?

But Ash is...

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Yeah...^^

As everyone knows ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He just doesn't receive guiding.

No, he doesn't receive guiding and doesn't take matching tests either... According to an official from a certain center-affiliated Esper, when guiding falls below a certain level, there's no part of the body that doesn't hurt. But he absolutely refuses to receive guiding even while enduring that pain.

Maybe he even enjoys it ㄷㄷ

Experts say if you do a thorough examination on Ash, his health would be completely wrecked, but even I, who'm not an expert, know that much ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Who didn't know?

Just looking at how he's the only one coughing up blood and getting carried away after entering gates, isn't the answer obvious ㅠㅠ

(Ash photo)

-Source HNN article photo

Look at his complexion, thought he was a corpse...;;

The secret to how this guy who doesn't receive proper guiding has survived so far is thanks to guiding pills.

But as I said earlier, this is emergency medication, right? It temporarily stabilizes rampage but the packaging says to avoid long-term use.

To add one more thing here: Ash is the only crazy case worldwide who has been taking guiding pills long-term.

There's no precedent.

So nobody knows the side effects...

Even C-grade Espers can blow away an entire block when they rampage, but he's A-grade? ㅠㅠ It wouldn't be strange if this really causes a major incident someday.

Most of the guiding pills prescribed by the center go to Ash, and those aren't cheap either, it's really tax waste;;

So let me ask again.

Among all Espers in history, who seems like the most cost-effectiveness trash Esper?

[Comments]

-Too long, give me a summary

⤷Says it's Ash because he doesn't receive guiding

⤷Thanks

-Why is it that every time there's news about him, it's always negative stories?

-I think this is my first time seeing an Esper who survives on drugs lol

-So he was a druggie ㄷㄷ

-There's talk that the Lucid in guiding pills works on Espers but the ingredient is definitely a drug so they couldn't even do proper clinical trials... I heard somewhere that pharmaceutical companies paid money to pass the review ㄷㄷ

⤷ㄷㄷ

-My friend went traveling the day before yesterday and saw Ash there

⤷? Isn't it matching test period right now, is that okay?

⤷⤷Don't know about that, anyway he took photos together, stole his snacks, and gave autographs too, seems nicer than rumors?

-If everything in the main post is true, it's serious...;; Then doesn't that mean Ash is really living with constant rampage risk?

⤷The center is incompetent, releasing such things into society lol

-Someone regulate this

-Only feel sorry for people at the same branch ㅠㅠ

-When he entered an emission-type gate last July, the formed team had two Guides. But while other Espers received guiding from Guides and were fine, only Ash couldn't receive guiding and came out half-dead... lol Maybe it's not that Ash refuses but that the Guides don't give him guiding? lol Public Guides protested not to assign Ash to their departments at the beginning of this year. Reasonable suspicion agree? I think it might be his personality problem ㅠ

-Usually at that grade level, you'd have a team or at least a pair as basic, why doesn't he still have a dedicated Guide...

⤷Because beautiful men are public property~ Someone shouldn't monopolize them, right? ㄷㄷ

⤷⤷This is right ㄷㄷ

⤷⤷Agree ㄷㄷ

⤷⤷?

⤷⤷Cockroach-like things are swarming in again after marking coordinates, muddying the comments ㅠ Go to fan hub lol

⤷⤷Anyone would think there are fifty million supportive comments? Just three comments and you're talking about cockroaches swarming lol What bullshit, you idiotic sunfish bastard

⤷⤷Why are you fighting again; fight moderately, you fighting cocks

-Now that I think about it, there are S-grade Espers but I never understood why everyone sucks up to A-grade scrub Ash this much lol And he's not even a combat-type Esper, why do they shove him into gates?

⤷That's what I'm fucking curious about too. One of the world's 4 great mysteries by my standards;;

⤷That's what I'm saying lol He doesn't have the ability but they shove him into gates so he always comes out coughing blood with a half-dead face lol

-There was talk that he's the center director's son? They say he acts really cheap at the center too

⤷This is excessive hate lol He was famous as an orphan since he was a minor, in various ways ㅎ

⤷⤷You're the most excessive one lol