By Zephyria 
Hyeon Jae-ha wasn’t flustered by the sudden attack.
He had already seen X use his Ability with the red bead.
Rather, he had been waiting for this moment.
“That’s right. You had to come out like that.”
Hyeon Jae-ha’s eyes shone with a bright blue light.
The telekinesis flowing from him formed a massive, invisible wall, so densely packed that there was no room for the raging lightning to penetrate.
The red bead that Jin-irang received from X originally contained Jin Eu-tteum’s power.
Although Jin Eu-tteum was a strong Esper, he was only an A-Class Esper, one rank below Hyeon Jae-ha, who was an S-Class Esper. Hyeon Jae-ha’s telekinesis was a superior power, stronger than Jin Eu-tteum’s lightning.
Even if they weren’t opposing attributes, the difference in power was significant, so the lightning lost its way in front of the telekinetic wall, wandering aimlessly.
Fsssk.
Unable to strike its target, the lightning hovered in the air, eventually dissipating.
“…Huh?”
A dumbfounded exclamation escaped Jin-irang’s lips.
“T-This can’t be happening…”
The original owner of the lightning was Jin Eu-tteum. The very same Jin Eu-tteum whom Jin-irang envied so much and was always busy belittling out of inferiority.
Jin-irang had secretly believed that if he could just get his hands on the powerful lightning Ability, there would be no one he couldn’t defeat.
S-Class Espers were rare and operated on a completely different level, so he had excluded them from his calculations. In reality, encountering S-Class Espers in the modern era was extremely difficult.
The possibility of an S-Class Esper, with eyes bloodshot from seeking revenge, tracing Jin Eu-tteum’s path and running into him like this was something no one had even considered.
Jin-irang, completely unaware of this, was bewildered.
“No way. I, I can do it again. Again!”
He firmly believed that Jin Eu-tteum’s lightning Ability was the only way to deal with the strange man before him.
Thanks to the complete Brainwashing, his dull mind was slow to grasp the situation.
If Jin-irang had been even slightly more clear-headed, he would have realized that the strange man was an even stronger Esper than Jin Eu-tteum, whom he had regarded as an insurmountable figure… Unfortunately, he was consumed by the obsession to kill and eliminate the man immediately.
Clutching the bright red bead, Jin-irang unleashed the stolen Ability at Hyeon Jae-ha once more, filled with animosity and rage.
“G-Get out of here! Die! Die, I said!”
The red bead glowed yellow. An even more powerful current than before flashed and lunged at Hyeon Jae-ha as if to devour him.
However, the transparent telekinetic barrier nullified all of the attacks.
“……”
Hyeon Jae-ha simply stood there, watching the pathetic sight before him.
A dense aura of killing intent emanated from Hyeon Jae-ha, who was silently watching Jin-irang with his arms crossed.
Hyeon Jae-ha, his laughter completely gone, wore a frighteningly cold expression.
It made Jin-irang’s spine tingle.
It was as if he was a Grim Reaper, ready to nonchalantly sever his neck at any moment.
“Wh-Why… Why isn’t this working…!”
Even the Brainwashed Jin-irang was starting to sense that something was wrong.
‘I, I have to run.’
Even then, Hyeon Jae-ha’s telekinesis was easily suppressing Jin-irang.
Jin-irang struggled and squirmed to escape from its grasp, but to no avail. It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered using the red bead to unleash lightning, but he stopped himself, fearing that he would be harmed instead.
Hyeon Jae-ha’s telekinesis wasn’t the kind that could be overcome with brute force. Jin-irang didn’t know that, and he desperately tried to escape the situation, but he failed.
“Why, why isn’t it working!”
“……”
“What are you! You monster! You’re trying to kill me!”
“……”
“Police, call the police! This man is trying to kill me!”
The mysterious handsome man who had bestowed the red bead upon Jin-irang had said this: That the bead was indeed a crystallized form of Jin Eu-tteum’s Ability, but there was no evidence to prove that he had stolen his Ability, so he could rest assured.
That he could confidently live his life as an A-Class Esper.
“Th-That’s right. That’s what he said. Why do I have to suffer like this!”
Pressed down by Hyeon Jae-ha’s killing intent, Jin-irang’s Brainwashing was slightly undone, and he babbled incoherently.
Hyeon Jae-ha scanned Jin-irang’s solo farce with indifferent eyes.
At first, he had been secretly pleased that he had found the culprit X, but as time went on, he increasingly leaned towards the idea that Jin-irang wasn’t the culprit.
‘He’s too… pathetic and stupid to be X, who acted so meticulously.’
Is he even the real X?
‘This feels like a fake.’
As Hyeon Jae-ha glared at Jin-irang with contempt, the man raised his voice even louder.
“Y-You’re the same as Jin Eu-tteum, aren’t you? You were just lucky enough to be born with a great Ability… and you look down on people and ignore them as if you’re something special.”
“……”
“You’re all the same! Those high-ranking Espers…! Every single one of you is so unlucky, ack!”
Jin-irang, who had been ranting on his own, suddenly felt a pain as if his brain was being kneaded.
The Brainwashing was pulling him back to carry out his orders, as he was trying to deviate from his assigned role.
Unable to even scream, Jin-irang, forced to obey the command, coughed and fell silent.
Soon, he straightened his back, grinned, and opened his mouth.
“Ah. Sorry. Was I too loud? It’s just that I was so happy to see someone after so long. I wanted to make it fun, but it seems like you’re bored.”
‘What is this?’
Hyeon Jae-ha felt a strange sense of unease from Jin-irang.
His turbid eyes were the same, but his manner of speaking had changed as if he were a different person.
Jin-irang, who no longer hunched his shoulders and straightened them, spat out the words.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? You wanted to meet me, didn’t you? Hyeon Jae-ha.”
Hyeon Jae-ha twitched his lips at Jin-irang’s voice calling his name.
“Are you readily admitting that you’re the culprit who killed Ga-hyeon 20 years ago and ran away?”
“Of course. Of course, I am.”
“Why? You didn’t seem like the type to confess so easily. You had a list of Ability Users with no connections besides Ga-hyeon? Knowing that there were people chasing the culprit, you made it impossible to trace your movements… and now you’re admitting your guilt?”
So anticlimactic and sloppy?
Hyeon Jae-ha’s eyes blazed blue.
His killing intent soared several times higher than before, but Jin-irang didn’t even seem to notice, acting arrogantly.
“Is there any reason why I shouldn’t? I’m just tired of being on the run. Isn’t it better for you if I get caught?”
“Ha…”
“Here. It’s all my doing, so why don’t you just kill me now? That’ll get rid of your old grudge.”
Jin-irang smiled and gestured as if slitting his own throat.
Hyeon Jae-ha stared at the scene for a moment before bursting into laughter.
“Puhuhu… Pwahahahaha!”
Jin-irang was taken aback by Hyeon Jae-ha’s hearty laughter.
“Why, why are you laughing? I’m telling you to kill me!”
Hyeon Jae-ha ignored Jin-irang’s words and laughed madly for a long time before turning serious.
“How amusing.”
“Yes. You’re finally looking at me without ignoring me…”
“Confessing so readily, my foot. The real culprit must be controlling a Brainwashed Esper to make him look like the culprit.”
“……!”
Jin-irang’s expression froze. Hyeon Jae-ha’s expression wasn’t much different.
“If you were going to try to deceive me, you should have set up a plausible substitute, not this idiot. Ha Ri-ra!”
At Hyeon Jae-ha’s call, Ha Ri-ra, who had been waiting, broke through the wall of the abandoned factory and entered.
He was carrying the pale Samoa steadily on his back.
“You called, Captain!”
“The Brainwashing Ability on Jin-irang. Samoa should be able to see it, right?”
At Hyeon Jae-ha’s question, Samoa coughed and answered.
“Of course. Cough. Aren’t the Brainwashing strings visible to all of our White Tiger Unit members? Tracking them is easy. Even if it’s not me.”
The White Tiger Unit members from the front lines, who had rolled around in the worst environments, were experts in mental Abilities.
Among the Dungeon monsters, there were those who used hypnosis, Brainwashing, and illusions.
Since they fought without artifacts that blocked mental attacks, the White Tiger Unit members had gained a kind of resistance skill.
A mental attack detection skill.
For the White Tiger Unit members, who always had that skill activated, distinguishing someone under the influence of a mental Ability was a piece of cake.
Hyeon Jae-ha ordered Samoa.
“Samoa. The real culprit seems to be hiding nearby, so track him down. Can you do it?”
“I won’t be able to get up for a week because I’ll be sick, but. I’ll be able to do it.”
“Then do it.”
Samoa unleashed his Tracking ability. The medium was Jin-irang, who was tied to this place.