The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 93

Again?!

Why does this gate love destroying the ground so much?

And this time it was on a much bigger scale.

The ground collapsed right under my feet, so there was no way to avoid it.

“Yoon Hyeya!”

Dogyeong’s hand barely brushed my arm.

When I looked back quickly, his face had turned pale as he tried to chase after me.

But just before he could jump in after me, thick fog suddenly covered the forest.

[ ‘■ying ■■■’s ■orest’ and ‘■loud ■uried ■ort■ess’ have been ■nteg■■ted. ]

The Voice of the World appeared before my eyes.

Shinra had the device for vision sharing, so maybe he was nearby.

But unlike the two previous integrated gates I had experienced, no other information appeared.

Most of the text was also broken.

Even so, while staring at the message, I quickly figured out what the “cloud” part meant.

Clouds.

Because I was currently falling through them.

“AAAAAH!”

A loud scream burst out of me.

For about twenty seconds, all I saw were clouds.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but breathing felt difficult too.

After I passed through the cloud layer, the sky opened up.

Below me were floating islands—pieces of forest and city tangled together.

And under those islands were more clouds.

The moment I saw that, I realized something.

This place is looping.

The space above and below was connected like a ring.

The same space kept repeating.

At least I didn’t have to worry about crashing into the ground.

But I wouldn’t last long.

I could already feel pressure building in my body.

The only lucky thing was that Cha Eunhwi had teleportation and Lee Shinra had barrier abilities.

If Eunhwi suddenly caught me while I was falling this fast, we’d both get badly hurt.

But if Shinra put up a barrier, there would be no impact.

Even if I got injured, his healing ability could fix it right away.

Eunhwi was smart.

If he met Dogyeong and heard what happened, he’d realize what situation I was in.

Just in case, I used radial guiding to signal my position.

Next time, I’m bringing a parachute!

Yes, I even thought something like that.

Right then, something vibrated inside my jacket.

A call?

So the “special device” phone really could get signal even in a situation like this.

But pulling it out now would be dangerous, so I just slipped my hand in and pressed the button.

The wind was so loud that I could barely hear anything.

Still, it sounded like someone calling my name.

I took a deep breath and shouted as loud as I could.

“I’m falling from the sky!”

Since I was guiding too, it wouldn’t be hard for them to sense me.

I heard faint words like careful, danger, wait.

At some point, the call seemed to disconnect.

During that time, I had already looped from below back to above again.

Honestly, it felt like I was dying.

If my physical ability hadn’t improved, I would’ve passed out already.

There was pressure on my body.

And also an overwhelming sense of weakness.

Breathing was strangely inconsistent—sometimes hard, sometimes easy.

The air was cold, draining my stamina.

My eyes and throat stung badly.

The worst part was the falling speed.

Sometimes it slowed down suddenly.

Sometimes it sped up.

Sometimes it paused for a moment and then accelerated again.

There wasn’t even a pattern.

Unlike the first drop, the second loop took almost ten minutes.

…If I fall one more time, I’ll have to deal with it myself.

If I lost consciousness, I couldn’t guide anymore.

Then they wouldn’t be able to track my position.

So if my mind started fading, I’d have to land on one of those islands no matter what.

A few minutes later, I passed the broken islands again.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself.

Next time I moved upward, I planned to quickly pick an island and land on it.

But right when my body lifted again and clouds covered my vision—

another message appeared.

[ ‘Forest of the Lying ■■■’ and ‘Cloud ■idden Fortress’ ■lear ■omplete. ]

[ ■nfo■■ation ■pdat■■ ]

 

‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡
Cl■■r Time — 01:■■:1■ (Ne■ ■ec■rd)
Total De■■hs — ■
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡

 

The broken message window floated in front of me.

At the same time, a crack opened in the space below me.

It seemed they decided defeating the named monster was faster than searching for me.

I have to go in.

If I exited the gate like this with so much speed, I could get badly injured.

But if I missed it and kept falling until the gate closed—

that would be the end.

I refuse to live in a place like this!

Just imagining it made cold sweat run down my back.

Afraid my body might drift away, I clenched my teeth and tensed my entire body.

All I had to do was touch it.

When the crack came close, I stretched my hand toward the broken space.

Not long after I felt my body being pulled in—

“GWEEEEEEK!”

I landed on something.

And that something screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

I had expected to feel a crushing weight and exhaustion when hitting the ground.

But my body was completely fine.

Just a little dizzy.

However, my confusion grew the moment I looked around.

“…What is this place?”

We entered the Forest of the Lying Fairies through Zone B.

So the place outside the gate should also be Zone B.

For eight years, I had seen that view hundreds of times.

I could picture it even with my eyes closed.

But the scene before me now was clearly wrong.

The sky was still blue.

But the headquarters building beneath it looked half-destroyed, as if an explosion had happened.

The protective devices placed around the gates were also gone.

The ground was torn apart.

Strange plants were growing everywhere.

“….”

Did I end up in another gate?

After all, the strange phenomenon of gate integration had already happened.

Maybe there was another gate next to the gate.

But even so, this place was definitely the ESP Association.

After standing there blankly for several minutes, I felt something moving under me.

Startled, I jumped up quickly.

The creature I had landed on—screaming like a pig—was an orc.

Green skin.

Thick limbs.

A pig-like face.

The moment I realized there was a monster outside a gate, a terrifying thought came to mind.

My heart felt like it might jump out of my chest.

First, I calmly pulled out my baton and struck the back of the orc’s head.

“Guhk….”

With a cracking sound, the orc stopped moving.

Passing out and dreaming while falling from the sky… probably not.

The situation felt unreal.

But strangely, my mind was very calm.

This wasn’t a dream.

Not a hallucination.

I wasn’t going crazy.

After letting out a sigh, I looked at the spot where the crack had been.

If the gate was cleared, everyone should be here.

But no one was there.

The entire zone was empty.

Thinking of Dogyeong’s pale face and the voice I heard on the phone made anxiety rise again.

Right, my phone!

I hurriedly pulled it out of my pocket.

But there was no signal.

The date and time hadn’t changed either.

As I stared again at the place where the crack had been, a terrible thought slowly formed.

They didn’t stay inside the gate trying to save me… did they?

Unlike the Recovered Strange Paradise gate, this one didn’t forcibly eject people.

My anxiety grew stronger.

But I shook my head.

They probably escaped before me, saw the state of headquarters, and went to check what happened.

That must be it.

No— it had to be.

For now, I decided to leave Zone B and look around elsewhere.

I put my phone back in my pocket and started walking quickly.