By Zephyria 
The people who had been standing on the sand like they were flattened by a pancake turner collapsed and tumbled to the ground.
“This power…!”
Ban No-ah’s face turned pale.
On the other hand, my face shone brightly with joy.
“Hyeon Jae-ha!”
As I shouted Jae-ha’s name, he appeared over the sand dune.
“Ga-hyeon.”
Jae-ha recognized my location and immediately used telekinesis to come to my side.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Are you safe? Are there any signs of Brainwashing?”
As I thoroughly checked Jae-ha’s well-being, he waved his hand, saying he was really okay.
“I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine. There are no signs of Brainwashing either.”
“…Then why are you so late?”
“Ah, that’s….”
The smile disappeared from Jae-ha’s face.
His gaze turned to Ban No-ah.
Ban No-ah flinched at the sharp gaze like a blade, but then screamed as if having a seizure.
“Can’t you take that insolent gaze away?!”
“I was blown into a corner of the Dungeon because of that bastard.”
“…You weren’t buried alive, were you?”
“Of course not. It seems like the plan was just to Brainwash my comrades and blow me away with a joint attack. It was dangerous because they detonated a bomb-like thing that nullified my abilities for a very short time, though I don’t know where they got it.”
There was such a dangerous item?
I looked at Jae-ha with my mouth wide open in surprise, but he just laughed, telling me to rest assured.
“Fortunately, it only affected me for a few seconds. That’s probably why I was just blown away.”
“……Okay. It’s a great relief that you didn’t die.”
I glared at Ban No-ah as I spoke.
Ban No-ah gritted his teeth as if he was resentful.
It seemed like he was trying to Brainwash Hyeon Jae-ha, but when that didn’t work, he tried to kill him.
‘He schemed to use a trick, even using the ability-nullifying item as a trump card, but in the end, Jae-ha didn’t die and flew all the way here….’
It was a good thing for me.
Even if I had the ‘Resurrection’ ability, I could still die someday unless the ability itself was infinite.
Potato visibly sighed in relief and rejoiced.
[ Phew, I’m relieved now. I almost thought you were going to die again. ]
‘It’s a relief I didn’t die.’
[ Is that all you have to say…! Hmph! ]
Potato’s eyes welled up with tears.
‘What. Are you crying?’
[ N, no, I’m not! ]
Potato lowered his head so I couldn’t see his expression and went deep into my pocket.
Jae-ha tilted his head and asked me as I tried to rummage through my pocket.
“What’s wrong?”
“Huh? Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
It’s still not visible to other Ability Users besides me….
Potato’s existence was still a mystery.
Even though it gained self-awareness and separated after I died, the ability was activated normally when I was Resurrected into Yeon Yu-jin’s body.
‘…Come to think of it, what would happen to Potato if I died again?’
Would it completely separate from me and live as an independent entity?
If not… would it disappear with me like other abilities?
It was an answer I couldn’t know until I died.
‘Either way, it’s a bleak choice, but if possible, I’d rather have Potato run far, far away so it doesn’t fall into Ban No-ah’s clutches.’
As I was lost in useless thoughts, Jae-ha called me in a low voice.
“Ga-hyeon.”
“Eek?!”
I was so surprised that I almost fell, but Jae-ha firmly supported my waist and caught me.
“Why are you so surprised? What were you thinking that you couldn’t even hear me calling you?”
“Oh…. No, it’s nothing. Sorry.”
Jae-ha looked at my tattered clothes with a distressed expression as I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
“…These are all marks from being hurt, right?”
“Y, yeah.”
‘Resurrection’ could restore a broken body, but it couldn’t restore the clothes or shoes I was wearing.
Since it was an ability that only worked on the body, I unintentionally became a person wearing clothes with holes all over them like a beggar.
‘I’ve become half-naked.’
I had a lot of experience like this in my past life, so I was confident that I wouldn’t be embarrassed even if I was naked….
But it didn’t seem like Jae-ha was okay with it.
He examined my ruined clothes, then suddenly blushed and held out the jacket he was wearing.
“…Put this on quickly.”
“Huh? Even if I do, it’ll just become old clothes again if I get attacked.”
“…I’m not okay with it. Hurry.”
Jae-ha’s ears were red as he even turned his back.
‘Oh, dear.’
Jae-ha must have been embarrassed when he saw my ragged body and clothes.
It was because my skin was exposed in a way that made it seem like parts that shouldn’t be seen were about to be visible.
Yeon Yu-jin’s skin was fair, so it stood out even more because of the stark contrast with the dark-colored clothes I was wearing.
My skin also turned bright red.
‘E, eh, geez. What is this.’
I could have been not embarrassed at all.
‘It’s because Hyeon Jae-ha is embarrassed that I feel self-conscious about my appearance now.’
I wondered why he always took care of my clothes after battles with monsters in my past life.
There was a reason for this.
‘He… likes me.’
As soon as I thought that, my head felt like it was on fire.
While I couldn’t even make eye contact with Jae-ha, Ban No-ah was trembling with anger.
“Hyeon Jae-ha, Hyeon Jae-ha, Hyeon Jae-ha…!”
Even if Ban No-ah pulled the strings of manipulation with all his might to make people stand up, it was useless in the face of Jae-ha’s telekinesis.
Snap. Snap.
“……This!”
The strings of manipulation that Ban No-ah was wielding threateningly eventually broke because they couldn’t withstand the force of the telekinesis pressing down.
Then, the comrades who were being manipulated by the strings slumped onto the sand like dolls with cut strings.
The moment there was no one standing anymore, Jae-ha cast a cold gaze at Ban No-ah.
“I thought you knew that such petty tricks don’t work in front of me.”
As Jae-ha murmured in a cool, subdued voice, Ban No-ah even took a few steps back.
He had thrown away his relaxed demeanor and was constantly uneasy ever since Jae-ha appeared.
“Petty tricks? Don’t make me laugh! Do you even know how hard it was to get this Brainwashing ability?”
“Do I need to know? It’s just an ability you got by wearing a mask and pretending to help others, acting like a tongue in someone’s mouth, and then backstabbing them with a core you stole from someone else when they were off guard.”
“Ugh. Ee, eek…!”
‘Judging by the fact that he can’t retort, it must be true.’
It was obvious.
There was no way someone who stole abilities from others and made them their own would have obtained them through a fair fight.
‘Judging by the assumption that he made the ability core into that earring, he must have also needed to kill the Ability User and bury them secretly without being noticed.’
If so, it was only possible if the person he was trying to steal the ability from was at least unconscious or unable to fight.
It would be difficult to subdue them if they were in their right mind, and it would be easy to ruin things because it would only cause a commotion.
Hyeon Jae-ha coldly spat out words at Ban No-ah, who was trembling and unable to say anything.
“It’s your defeat, Ban No-ah.”
“…….”
“Just surrender quietly now.”
“…Surrender? Me?”
“Yes. Because you can never beat me.”
Even if he stole and wore countless abilities from others, it was not enough to beat Jae-ha, who was the strongest Esper and had even achieved Second Awakening.
It was evident just from the fact that Jae-ha used telekinesis extensively to free all the comrades who were being manipulated.
‘He’s an ally I can trust because he’s a comrade.’
There was no limit to Jae-ha’s telekinesis. There was no limit to the weight he could lift, and his application was freely available, so his control was also overwhelming.
Moreover, Jae-ha’s condition was at its best because I had previously lowered his Corruption Level significantly with Guiding.
‘No one will be able to beat Jae-ha right now.’
So, surrender was the only option for Ban No-ah.
But he shouted with resentment in his eyes full of rejection.
“Surrender? I wouldn’t have dragged you here if I was going to lose pathetically here with something like that.”
“What….”
“The Management Bureau will be here soon too, Ban No-ah. There’s nothing to gain for you even if you stall for time. There are also employees who said they will definitely find you, who rummaged through the depths of the Management Bureau and left.”
I spoke, thinking of Director Shin Yun-hui, but it didn’t work on Ban No-ah.
He grinned in a very unpleasant way.
“Then I’ll just get out of here, and you guys can just stay in this Dungeon.”
“What?”
“Slowly wither away and die in a Dungeon that’s closed from the inside and outside and will never open. Hyeon Jae-ha, An Ga-hyeon.”
Ban No-ah took out a red marble from his pocket.
It was unusually large and thick compared to the other ability marbles.
At the same time as it flashed with an ominous purple light, a monster appeared through the sand.