The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 336: Annoyance Multiplied

Chapter 336: Annoyance Multiplied

Once the decision had been made, it didn’t take long before it was implemented. Even if there were people who were opposed to gathering all the high-rankers into one team, the situation was urgent, and the only other alternative was to rely on the help from the Guilds, which was something the Association didn’t want to do. It was already bad enough that they required the Guilds’ help to handle the dungeon breaks. If they couldn’t even handle the inspections, then wouldn’t that be saying that the Association was useless? Not to mention, in order to receive any help from the Guilds, the government would have to offer them some benefits in return...

So, only three days later, Lane found himself back at the site of the recent dungeon break in the company of Ethan and Clara... And a few other people, but they weren’t all that important. Aside from him and Ethan, from the rest of Damien’s team only the A-rank Guide, Lucy, made the cut. As for the rest, they were carrying on with Damien’s team’s old schedule under Hallie’s lead.

Branwick had transformed to the point that it was almost unrecognizable. The deeper they went, the more it was in ruin, all the houses and the other buildings destroyed. It was the result of high-rankers fighting the monsters without any restrictions - since there were no low-rankers around, the Espers hunting the monsters down didn’t hold back at all, causing the wide-scale destruction. Even if the Association were able to clear it all up and prevent the spread of Manaforming, it would still be difficult to restore it to how it used to be...

But the worst part was the scent. The scent of death and decay was hanging heavily in the air, making everyone gag in disgust.

It was summer, after all, and the weather was hot in the capital. The past few days were particularly so, with clear skies and no rainfall. Even the nights were warm. And in this hot weather, any corpses and carcasses would naturally start to decay and smell faster...

And there were plenty of them scattered around the streets. Corpses of the civilians, as well as the few Awakened who had fallen during the dungeon break suppression efforts, as well as the countless carcasses of monsters, not only the panther-like ones, but also a few other types that had crawled out of the gate. Although a few days had passed, they were yet to be cleared up...

After all, because of the parasite monster, no civilians or low-rankers could enter. As for the high-rankers, they were naturally too busy to deal with the corpse removal. Thus, the corpses were left to rot, waiting until the area was deemed safe to enter...

That’s what the Association was currently trying to assess. The new A-rank team established in the Capital was walking around with the Mana fluctuation measuring devices, looking for any monsters lurking in hiding, or any parasites still remaining active in the rotting flesh. The task itself was very simple...

But what made it difficult was the environment.

"Ugh..." Lane gagged, holding his hand over his mouth and pinching his nose. "How are we supposed to work here?"

"If you can’t even stand that much, you should probably quit," Clara said. Even though her face was also green, and she looked as if she might faint at any moment. "The job of a Field Agent is not for the faint-hearted."

Lane threw her a dark glare.

He wasn’t faint-hearted, okay? The sight of the piles of rotting corpses didn’t move him at all. It was just that he had a functional sense of smell!

"What do you expect of him?" Ethan scoffed. "He’s a pampered child from a rich family. Of course he’s going to complain!"

Lane’s eyes twitched, throwing another glare, this time directed at Ethan. Yes, he might have been from a rich family, but he was most certainly not pampered! And Ethan should have been well aware of it. Even if he didn’t know all that was going on in the Allen family, he should have been able to guess that much from how Lane’s life had been when they were still teens!

Before he could say anything to defend himself, though, Clara already spoke up again.

"Oh?" she lifted her brows, glancing at Ethan. "You sound like you know him?"

"I do. I’ve known him since we were teens... I used to be his Guide," Ethan smirked.

"His Guide?" Clara’s brows furrowed. "You mean he had already worked as an Esper before?"

"Yes, as a part of the Allen Guild..."

"But didn’t he just obtain his license?"

"Ah, right. You’re younger, so you might not know. Back when the Guilds were first created, there was no need for anyone to pass the license tests, as long as they were registered as Espers, they could go on raids," Ethan explained. "Otherwise, how could he possibly get the license so easily?"

"Right? It took him a whole month to pass!"

"A whole month?" Ethan covered his mouth, his eyes widening as if he were shocked. "That’s even worse than I thought! But then again... He has never been a good student. He even dropped out of high school for no reason at all!"

Clara’s mocking smile faltered a bit at the mention of dropping out, but she soon recovered. After all, the point was that Lane had quit for no reason. It wasn’t like her brother, who had to quit just so that he could pick up more jobs and help their mother support their household!

So, she let out a derisive laugh, and agreed, "Of course he would. Why make anything out of yourself, when you can rely on daddy’s money, right?"

The two of them cackled, having come to a mutual understanding, while Lane’s face gradually became darker and darker. He didn’t mind getting mocked, but...

He could already feel a headache coming. He knew from the start that his time on the same team with those two nuisances wouldn’t be nice... However, it seemed that if you put one nuisance together with another one, the annoyance they cause would be multiplied!

He silently reached out to his spatial bag, and pulled out his high-quality, custom-made face mask.