MCLE | Chapter 17

Zero Nine took a step back and sat down on the low table. Placing his hands on Hexion’s knees, he slowly—almost licking with his gaze—took in the sight of his naked body. As if admiring a piece of art.

Hexion found this gaze even more ticklish than when Zero Nine had touched him with his hands and lips. The way his eyes roamed over the movement of his hips, which were slightly exposed as Hexion twisted his body uncomfortably, made his mouth feel dry for some reason.

Ah, he’s learned well. Seems like he’s picked up how to tease someone too.

Hexion rested his arm, still draped in the robe, on the armrest of the couch and tilted his head slightly, meeting his gaze with a smile. His toes slowly brushed against Zero Nine’s calf. His feet, clad in socks and sock garters, had nothing else on them. The pale foot slid up the inside of his calf before tapping lightly against the inside of his knee.

And in that moment, Zero Nine abruptly stood up from his seat. A shadow fell over his face, making his expression hard to read. He dragged his slippers noisily as he hurriedly retreated to his room.

Thud.

The sound of the door closing echoed, leaving Hexion alone on the living room couch—still naked. He ran a hand through his hair.

Right, he’s still young.

Hexion thought about how Zero Nine would hate it if he knew. He pulled his robe back on, his body still ambiguously aroused.

A little patience is fine. It’s kind of funny to be left hanging like this, all by himself.

٠ ࣪⭑𓂃

The next morning, Hexion was busy from the get-go. The espers who had complaints were all the ones who had refused to follow yesterday’s assembly order. The ones who had returned from deployment seemed more compliant after witnessing Hexion’s methods firsthand, but those who hadn’t seen it for themselves struggled to accept the fact that their guiding priority had been pushed to the very bottom.

Hexion sat on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the 62nd floor, sipping his coffee. Zero Nine sat next to him, his face still drowsy from sleep.

Ding.

The elevator stopped at the 62nd floor, and—of course—the person who stepped out with heavy, stomping footsteps was an esper.

Ah, how many was this already this morning? Right. The sixth one. Hexion was getting tired of this. So—

“No, why the hell am I at the bottom—?”

“Zero Nine.”

“You want me to slam them into the elevator and send them back down?”

“No.”

Hexion took a leisurely sip of his coffee and set the cup down.

“Throw them out the window.”

Zero Nine had only been out of the lab for a few days. Sure, he had spent part of his teenage years in society, but after that, he had been abducted by A Country and lived solely in an underground lab. His grasp of common sense was… lacking. So, without hesitation, he followed Hexion’s words.

“Wha—what the hell?!”

The esper was lifted off the ground and sent flying.

Crash! The floor-to-ceiling window shattered as the esper was thrown out of the 62nd floor. A scream echoed as they plummeted. Hexion, however, simply continued savoring his coffee.

Zero Nine, slightly puzzled, asked, “Is this okay?”

“They won’t die.”

“Well, yeah, I figured.”

No esper would die just from falling from the 62nd floor.

And as they saw one esper get thrown out the window while another had been slammed into an elevator and sent down bleeding, the other espers had a collective thought.

Let’s just pretend to behave for now.

Especially after watching someone get personally escorted all the way to the first floor—via the scenic route through a shattered window—there were no more espers showing up to complain.

Hexion smirked.

“Well then, shall we get to work?”

“Work?”

“We’ll need time to fix the window anyway.”

Hexion raised his watch and reported the broken window to the management office before checking the anomalous entity appearance locations for the day.

It was still early morning, but three separate signals had already appeared nearby. Beep, beep. Two of them had already been engaged by other espers, leaving just one left.

Beep. Hexion selected it, and a red circle appeared on the map, marking the danger zone. Next to it, Zero Nine’s name popped up. Hexion tapped his watch a few times to assess the entity.

Ah. No wonder this one was still left.

[Large-Scale Anomalous Entity Detected]
[213m, Estimated Grade 3. Location: A Protected Zone Forest]

Hexion and Zero Nine took the elevator down to the 5th floor. There was no need to walk or take a vehicle to A Protected Zone. After all, at least one Teleportation esper was stationed in every major sector to respond to entity appearances.

But—

“…Who the hell are you two, fuck?”

“Oh.”

A familiar face.

It was Jasper.

The esper’s full-body fractures had apparently healed quickly, as expected. The moment he spotted Hexion and Zero Nine, his face twisted into a deep scowl. Jasper tapped at his watch, checking the mission details. The moment he saw Zero Nine’s name assigned to the large-scale entity, his brows furrowed even more.

“You’re taking on a large-scale anomalous entity—just the two of you? Are you out of your damn minds?”

Hexion just shrugged.

Zero Nine, having only ever seen small experimental entities in the lab, had no way of knowing if this was reckless or not.

Surprisingly, despite everything he had been through, Jasper showed some generosity.

“I’ll send another esper with you. Don’t be stupid.”

“Leave it,” Hexion replied.

“Seriously? I’m trying to help—”

“Actually.”

Hexion suddenly seemed to have a better idea. He reached out and grabbed Jasper by the collar.

“How about a field trip?”

“A field—what?! You do realize I have work to do here?”

“Ten minutes.”

“…What?”

“We’ll take care of it in ten minutes. Or less.”

“Are you—are you actually insane? Or just completely ignorant? Weren’t you on the battlefield before?”

“The one who’s ignorant—”

Hexion smirked.

“—is you.”

Hexion reached out toward Zero Nine. Still held by the collar, Jasper looked at him in disbelief. But there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in those ash-gray eyes. Jasper swallowed hard.

Truth be told, he was a little curious.

The first-generation esper. The so-called catastrophe. Just what kind of power did he possess to earn that title?

Jasper knew that his combat ability wasn’t particularly high among espers. But that also meant he was at least average. And yet, Zero Nine—the catastrophe—had utterly overwhelmed him.

In the end, Jasper let out a rough laugh and grabbed onto Hexion’s wrist, the one holding his collar.

“Don’t regret this.”

And with that, the three of them disappeared from the room.

The blink of an eye later, they arrived in the middle of a vast forest. Since it was a protected zone, it had never been developed. It was pure luck that the large-scale anomalous entity had appeared in a place like this. If it had shown up in the middle of the city, the damage to both property and lives would have been catastrophic.

Hexion scanned the surroundings. There was no one nearby—no chance of anyone getting caught in Zero Nine’s ability.

He knew that Zero Nine always looked somewhat indifferent when using his power. That made sense—he never even unleashed 0.001% of his full output. At that level, it was hard to tell whether he was actually doing anything.

Zero Nine took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh forest air as he looked around. It was a clear, sprawling forest. Even before he had been taken to the underground lab, he had lived in the city. He had never seen a forest this large before.

Then, Jasper lowered his body slightly.

“There it is.”

There was no way to miss a large-scale anomalous entity.

After all, it was over 200 meters tall.

Hexion pulled his hand out of his coat pocket and pointed toward the grotesque creature. Zero Nine’s gaze naturally followed.

The entity, towering over the forest, resembled a chameleon. But instead of reptilian eyes, hundreds of human eyeballs wriggled in their sockets. Its exposed skeletal frame was covered in protrusions, from which thousands of human hands jutted out, clawing at the air with razor-sharp nails. Its raw, red body looked as if its skin had been peeled away, leaving only glistening muscle. Blood and pus oozed down its grotesque form.

With slow, earth-shaking thuds, it moved—seemingly unaware of their presence.

“You can handle it, right?”

Zero Nine didn’t respond. He simply kept staring at the creature, thinking.

How much power should I use?

He reached deep inside himself and pulled forth just a little strength.

Stronger than the other espers he had seen so far.

Ah, this one… might last a bit longer.

Like a child who had been forced to sit still in perfect posture suddenly stretching, Zero Nine’s power unfurled.

Jasper felt it immediately.

Zero Nine was drawing out his ability.

But still—

The massive entity continued its slow, weighty steps.

“…There’s no way a single person can take down a large-scale anomalous entity on their own.”

Jasper muttered, unable to shake the disbelief in his voice.