Reborn as an A-Rank Guide: Trapped By The Crazy Sentinels

The moment Arden knocked and stepped inside, his pupils dilated in pure shock.

Bunny had transformed her guidance room into something warm and almost aggressively pretty. Pink curtains. Pink carpet. Even the slippers she had prepared for the sentinels were pink.

On top of that, the sofa was buried under a mountain of cute plush toys and throw pillows. String lights shaped like stars and delicate wind chimes covered the walls. A small music box on the side table turned slowly, tinkling out a soft melody.

Compared to his own pure prison-chic bedroom, this place was an entirely different universe of comfort.

”Change your shoes please.”

The guide had already given the order. Arden stared at the pair of pink slippers for a long second before reluctantly slipping them on.

He sat down among the pile of stuffed animals, looking distinctly out of place.

”Here. Put this on.”

Arden eyed the electric collar she held out—complete with a little bow—and made a face.

”Do I have to?”

”Yes.”

The tough guy was forced to wear a pink collar, becoming just another prop in the guide’s little playtime.

Bunny sat opposite him, took his hand, and slipped into his spiritual sea.

It was an endless stretch of grassland. Wind carried the wild scent of the plains mixed with the sweet freshness of grass. Under the orange-red glow of a setting sun, low waves of grass rippled across the open land. Scattered acacia trees stood with their broad, umbrella-like canopies. Beneath one of them, a lean and powerful jaguar was strolling slowly toward her.

The contamination in Arden’s spiritual sea was not severe—at least the sky wasn’t a heavy gray.

The big cat flopped down at her feet with easy familiarity and began licking her palm with its rough, barbed tongue. Bunny spent a while scratching its head before getting to work.

Arden’s instability level was relatively low—only 79 percent—so clearing the pollutants didn’t take her much time.

She was growing more skilled with every session.

The problem was that the big cat was extremely clingy, constantly rubbing against her and interrupting her concentration. Once she had brought his instability down to 50 percent, she withdrew from his spiritual sea.

The moment she opened her eyes, a pair of intensely heated golden cat pupils stared back at her.

Arden carried partial Latin heritage. His brow ridge was sharp, the sockets of his eyes slightly deep-set, his jawline clean and strong. Thick, naturally curly black hair only added to the wild, untamed look.

A striking mixed-blood beauty with bold features.

The heat in his gaze made her a little uncomfortable. She released his hand. ”Your guidance is finished.”

Arden was buzzing with energy. His mind had never felt this loose and pleasant before.

On top of that, he had a mild streak of masochism. The way Bunny had pulled the pollutants out hadn’t been particularly gentle, but that sharp edge of pain was addictive to him.

He showed no intention of leaving. Instead, he leaned back against the sofa, sprawling with deliberate laziness.

”Doesn’t the guide want to do anything else to me?”

He’d heard that guides liked using little whips on their sentinels. And that they also liked doing... this, and then that...

Bunny looked confused. ”What am I supposed to do to you?”

Arden propped his chin on one hand. ”Whatever you feel like doing, of course.”

The short leather jacket he wore today was stylish and sharp. Underneath it, a black tank top stretched tightly across his muscles, and someone had deliberately cut a few holes right over the abs.

Realization hit her all at once. Her expression darkened. ”Sorry. I don’t have that kind of hobby.”

Arden ignored the refusal. ”Then why don’t you try it on me? Stun baton, little whip, handcuffs... I’m fine with all of it.”

Bunny grabbed his arm and hauled him upright with effort. ”No trials. Get out. Now.”

He was pure chaos. Who even made requests like this? She’d never heard of anything so twisted!

”Please, Miss Bunny. Just give me what I want. Hurt me a little, okay? I like it when you make it hurt.”

Bunny was ready to scream. ”Are you leaving or not?!”

Instead of moving, Arden shrugged off his jacket and flopped back onto the sofa like a shameless rogue, hands folded behind his head. His voice turned deliberately lazy and teasing.

”Miss Bunny can do whatever she wants to me.”

”I don’t want to do anything to you!”

Bunny’s voice rose in an exasperated roar. In her agitation, she accidentally brushed the switch in her hand.

A sharp crackle of electricity surged through the collar. The sudden sting at his neck forced a low, pained grunt from Arden’s throat.

Her expression changed at once. She thought she had truly hurt him. ”Are you okay?”

Arden lifted his head. Those leopard eyes burned with a strange, excited light. The pain just now had been intense—and incredibly good.

”Yeah... just like that. Keep going.”

Bunny shot him a flat look, dropped the restraint gear, and walked out.

Wasting time on a sentinel whose brain clearly wasn’t wired normally was pointless.

”If you want to stay here, stay.”

Arden stared blankly after her as a faint breeze of her scent drifted past. He genuinely could not understand what he had done to make the guide angry.

All he had asked was for her to hit him a little.

Hitting was affection, scolding was love—the harder the strike, the deeper the feeling.

Arden carried a congenital genetic flaw: the nerve endings responsible for pain were unusually dull. Pain that other people felt sharply registered as almost nothing to him, or only the lightest of sensations. Over time, that absence had twisted into a pathological craving for pain itself.

He sat for a long while staring at the mountain of cute plush toys on the sofa, then picked up a cotton doll that vaguely resembled Bunny.

Pink hair, green eyes, and a roundish face.

Clutching the doll, Arden went looking for Rain. Even though the sentinels rarely talked much among themselves, most of them still had one relatively close friend.

Xander and Tyr shared a deep bond. Orion and Illai were a pair. Brandon and San stuck together. Cyrus, true to form, kept entirely to himself.

San and Astin were half-brothers who shared a mother, yet their relationship was rigid and explosive—ready to detonate at the slightest spark. The reasons were complicated and seemed tied to the family they had both come from.

After searching for a while, Arden finally found Rain in the game room.

Games in this era had reached a level of full immersion and holography. Once the crystal chip was connected, brainwaves synchronized and the player was pulled completely into the virtual world.

In a future where electronic information technology was so advanced, that was one of the least remarkable features.

Rain himself was not particularly fond of games. He had been born with complete achromatopsia—color blindness so total that from the day he opened his eyes, the world had consisted only of black, white, and gray. Even inside a virtual environment linked directly to brainwaves, he still could not see the colors the programmers had designed. He played, it seemed, only to experience things he had never been able to touch in reality.

Rain. Flowers. Grass. Rainbows...

The cruel irony was that Rain’s eyes themselves were strikingly beautiful—heterochromatic, one blue and one yellow, like a Persian cat. God had given him those vivid irises, then ruthlessly stripped every color from the world they looked upon.

Arden dropped into the seat beside him, looking thoroughly dejected. Rain removed the crystal chip and handed him a can of drink, teasing lightly.

”What happened? Didn’t get to spend more time with the guide?”

Arden cracked the can open. ”I get the feeling she doesn’t like me very much.”

Rain knew exactly what Arden was like. ”If you don’t rein it in a little, of course you’re going to scare her off.”

Arden still couldn’t understand. ”Why does she dislike everything the other guides seem to enjoy?”

Even the mermaid vice-captain’s attempts at seduction had failed. What exactly did Bunny like?

From the side, San rolled his chair over. He had been eavesdropping the whole time.

”If you ask me, our guide isn’t a normal woman at all.”

Arden and Rain both turned to look at him. ”What makes you say that?”

San pulled off his headphones and spoke with complete seriousness.

”I was this close to stripping completely in front of her, and she didn’t react even a little.”

Was that normal for a woman? Definitely not.