The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 219: New Path

"...Are you sure you want to do this?" was the first thing Ava asked after Lane finished telling her all the details about his deal with the Allens, his last conversation with his grandmother, and the idea that sparked in his brain thanks to the things that she had said.

"Well..." Lane paused, playing with his straw, and rolling it between his fingers. He looked around the living room - his new living room, in his new apartment... It was a nice place, but... "What else am I supposed to do? Stay here the whole day, watch TV and play games? I mean, it would be fine for a while, but I’d get bored of it eventually!"

"I can still go out, sure... Go to clubs once I’m eighteen, or travel... But my options feel kind of limited, you know?" he added. Truth be told, a while ago he might have been okay with such an arrangement, but things were a bit different now. "And I don’t want my power to go to waste. I would like to make something out of it... And perhaps help grandma with her goals. It would be nice to watch the Allens go down..."

"If they go down, you will lose your source of income," Ava pointed out, but Lane only waved his hand dismissively.

"I’ll be able to do whatever I want then, so why should I worry? High-ranking Espers get paid a lot, and it’ll only keep getting better, or so I’ve heard!"

Now that Lane was no longer a weak F-ranker who struggled to stay alive, dungeon raids were kind of fun, especially when there was no one around and he didn’t have to hide his power. He totally wouldn’t mind doing it for a living. It was even more exciting than becoming a pro athlete!

"And besides," he added, sipping on his super sweet strawberry milk tea, "I don’t know whether it will work out yet. I will just pick someone who doesn’t have much left to live anyway, like someone suffering from an incurable disease for example, to minimize the harm..."

Ava stared at Lane in silence for a moment, her brows lifted. "People with incurable diseases might also live through their remaining days, you know. It’s not like those people in dungeons who are about to die."

"Tsk, I know that, of course!" Lane clicked his tongue, leaning back against the couch with a bitter expression on his face. "But what else am I supposed to do? I can’t do much if I can only stay in a body for a few minutes, or even if I had a few hours. And I can’t possess dead bodies!"

Not that he hadn’t tried. But the connection between him and the possessed body was broken the moment the person died, and couldn’t be established again. Lane could only possess humans, not inanimate objects such as corpses.

"That’s... true," Ava reluctantly admitted. She observed Lane carefully for a while longer, before she slowly said, "I understand where you are coming from. And I will support you no matter what... But I still think you should think it over. Because once you take that step, you might not be able to take it back. To turn back."

Lane remained silent, just playing with his straw. Yes, of course, he was aware that it was a... big decision. And a wrong thing to do. He wouldn’t just be ’stealing from the dead’ ’things that they did no longer need’, as he could justify his plundering abilities during dungeons raids. Now, he would be stealing identities from living people... and taking their lives before their time. Wasn’t that practically murder? Killing others to achieve his goals.

However... Sacrifices had to be made sometimes to achieve his goals. He had to learn to elbow others out of his way, right? Put himself first. That was what his grandmother had said. Although Lane wasn’t quite sure if she had meant anything as extreme as that...

He didn’t have any other way, now did he? Otherwise, what? Was he supposed to just rot in this fancy apartment, until he was old and gray? Or just wait around, hoping his grandmother would save him once again, fully freeing him from all the constraints this time?

No, it wouldn’t do. He was about to turn sixteen, he couldn’t keep on acting like a helpless kid. It was time to grow up, and fully take control of his own life!

And so, he hired a few private detectives, looking for suitable candidates for his plans. He ended up picking a 31-year-old man, single, with no kids. Parents alive, but their relationship was distant at best - despite living only two hours away, they hadn’t met in years. Two older siblings, who contrary to him, were close with the parents. In other words, a family outcast, quite like Lane.

And with only up to six months left to live.

He didn’t seem particularly interested in using his remaining time either. He quit his job, and holed himself up at home, living off his savings. He didn’t even step out of his apartment, always ordering everything.

Surely, Lane wouldn’t have to feel guilty about ’borrowing’ his body, when he could use it much better, right?

And so he possessed the man... Only to die two weeks later. From overusing his abilities.

It turned out civilians’ bodies weren’t capable of enduring much ability usage. Certainly not those as weak as the man Lane had possessed.

Thus, Lane took a break to think things over. He got his car license, and after getting some tips from his grandmother - who contacted him briefly, only to disappear again shortly after - he made a trip to one of the newly created Forbidden Zones, one that contained a city within. There, he experimented with his ability for a while... And returned with improved knowledge and understanding, as well as fresh determination. He changed his desired target profile quite a bit, focusing on illegal Awakened next... And armed with a newly obtained Mana Scan, he searched the streets at night, looking for people to possess.

And soon he had found a suitable target. A thief using his cloaking ability to steal...