The Strongest Sentinel Wants to Be His Hard-Luck Guide's Dog - Chapter 2

I awakened late.

Most people developed sentinel or guide abilities during puberty. They could then form partnerships and fight the aberrations that came through the portals.

I hadn’t awakened until I was twenty-two, and even then, I was only an F-rank—the lowest possible rank.

I went straight from an ordinary university to the Central Tower, where I received systematic training for sentinels and guides. After that, I provided guidance to sentinels who took part in clearing aberrations and closing portals.

But because I was older and low-ranked, life here had not been kind to me.

I got all the dirty, exhausting support work.

There were always too many sentinels using their powers, and they were always irritable. There were always too few guides to soothe them, and we were always treated like punching bags.

The concentration of guide pheromones in my body was nearly undetectable, so my guidance barely worked. The lower-ranked sentinels loved taking their frustration out on me.

In two years, I had not known a single peaceful day.

Given the choice, I would rather have remained an ordinary person.

Then I would never have learned that the sentinels who sheltered us were scarcely different from beasts.

I would still have worshiped them.

Instead, they now invaded my sleep and turned every good dream into a nightmare.

And now, to top it all off, a worthless guide like me had violated the strongest sentinel on the entire Blue Planet.

Just how carefully did I have to tiptoe through life to stay alive?

By the time Qiao Gui shook me awake, evening had fallen.

The Central Tower was bustling again.

“Ying Yuan, everyone else ran. Why didn’t you?” Qiao Gui demanded. “Are you an idiot?!”

Qiao Gui was a C-rank guide, and we shared a guidance room. He was the only person here who treated me like a human being.

He had been out on a field assignment when the alarm sounded.

I smiled bitterly and pointed at my leg.

“It was broken. I couldn’t run, so I gave up.”

Qiao Gui clenched his fist. With a dark expression, he snapped my bone back into place in one sharp motion.

“Those bastards do a little work, then openly use ‘going berserk’ as an excuse to abuse guides.”

“Ying Yuan, you should learn Muay Thai too. Beat the shit out of them.”

If that actually worked, would Qiao Gui have become so practiced at treating injuries?

Most sentinels awakened offensive abilities. A small number developed support abilities. But every one of them possessed physical capabilities pushed to the limit and five senses enhanced to their extremes.

No matter how hard a guide trained, we couldn’t overpower them.

Unless they were bound as tightly as You Ran had been. Then I might have a chance at revenge.

But the second they regained their freedom, I would be the one who suffered.

That reminded me that I had just offended the strongest sentinel in the world.

I shuddered.

“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “I’ll listen to you.”

“Thanks, Qiao Gui. My foot feels much better.”

Qiao Gui knew his suggestion was a fantasy too, and it left him looking miserable.

“If only we could find someone powerful to back us up.”

“But high-ranked sentinels look down on people like us.”

I didn’t want to talk about something that could never happen, so I changed the subject.

“Why is it so noisy outside?”

Qiao Gui found a bottle of medicine for bruises and poor circulation and tossed it to me.

“I heard the berserk index of the guy upstairs dropped back to the safety threshold. Apparently, some mysterious guide helped him.”

“An S-rank guide once spent an entire day guiding You Ran and only lowered his index by two point five percent. Anyone who could drop it by almost fifty percent that quickly would have to be at least SS-rank.”

Qiao Gui grinned with malicious delight.

“And it would’ve required Level Three mucosal guidance. Which means the mysterious guide took advantage of him while he couldn’t move and slept with him.”

“No guide that powerful has ever appeared on the Blue Planet. The Central Tower is desperate to find this mystery person. I hope they don’t. If that guide gets caught, the tower will work them to death.”

Guidance was divided into levels.

Level One was shallow, non-contact guidance, used when a sentinel’s emotional overload was mild.

Level Two was skin-contact guidance, used when the overload had not yet passed the danger threshold.

Level Three was deep, mucosal guidance. It included kissing and sexual union and was used after a sentinel’s overload crossed the threshold.

But guides were guaranteed the most basic human rights, so Level Three guidance was always voluntary.

I had never done it before.

This time hadn’t been voluntary either. It had been an accident.

It sounded a little like the bonding heat our instructors had taught us about. But bonding heat generally only occurred between a sentinel and guide of comparable ranks with extremely high compatibility.

You Ran and I were as far apart as heaven and earth.

There was no way we could experience anything like that.

I pressed my lips together, frightened despite myself.

SS-rank guide, my ass. It was more likely that every machine had malfunctioned at once.

Maybe You Ran had never gone berserk at all.

Maybe I was the one who had.

“Could they find the guide?” I asked.

Qiao Gui shrugged.

“You Ran’s power wavelength is so fucking strong it knocked out all the tower’s surveillance systems. And he was unconscious the whole time. They’d need a miracle to find anyone.”

I let out a breath of relief.

I hadn’t eaten all day, and my stomach growled.

Qiao Gui sighed and helped me toward the door.

“The cafeteria isn’t open yet. I’ll take you outside and get you something to eat.”