episode_0069

As time passed, the car stopped. I looked around and it seemed like I was in a corner.

Looks like we’ve arrived.

I waited for a moment for Yusera to get out first. Only after she got out of the car did I open the car door and get out.

“Where is this?”

Somewhere like a closed building.

It’s a place I wouldn’t normally go, but it looks like there’s a hidden piece nearby.

‘No, if you think about it, how many fucking hidden pieces are there in this world?’

There are already a few that I know of, but I’m sure there are more.

Wow, crazy.

What a wonderful worldview this is,

“Now follow me.”

“Okay.”

He walked inside the building called Yuseo and I followed him in.

Looking inside, as expected, the surroundings were quite dirty and messy. It was such an unpleasant sight that anyone would want to get out right away.

When I first came in, it was difficult to walk properly because it was dark inside, but once I got used to the darkness, it soon became easy to move around.

A moist smell vibrates through the tip of my nose.

I felt like stress was building up little by little that I didn’t know existed.

“Hey, how long do you have to walk?”

I said that with a slightly disgruntled tone.

“Please wait a moment. It will arrive soon.”

“……Okay, I understand.”

As I continued walking, I could see that Yusera had stopped. I also stopped and turned my head to follow Yusera’s gaze for a moment.

There was nothing there, of course. Just a wall.

Perhaps, it seemed that the gate would open only if a certain action was taken, or something like that. So I decided to wait for a while until Yusera took that action.

“Take my hand.”

At that moment, she asked me to hold her hand. I was momentarily skeptical, but I could easily guess that it was probably a specific action to go in together. So I held her hand without any complaints.

When Yusera closed her eyes, a strange energy suddenly began to emanate from her. It was clearly something that used mana, and I, not knowing why she was doing such a thing, just stood still.

“Close your eyes too.”

At those words, I had no choice but to close my eyes.

Then, I felt like I was experiencing sensations that I had never felt before. It was strangely creepy and I wanted to erase that feeling right away.

Not much time passed. After a few seconds, I quickly began to feel even more strange. That’s why I found myself frowning without realizing it.

“Just trust me and follow me.”

As soon as he finished saying the words, he started walking forward.

As I was holding her hand, I couldn’t help but follow her and ended up being dragged along slightly.

To be honest, I wanted to shout at him to walk slowly, but for some reason I kept my mouth shut. For some reason, I had the feeling that I couldn’t walk forward unless I kept going at this speed.

So I had no choice but to just follow along.

‘Wasn’t there a wall in front of it originally?’

When that thought occurred to me, I felt strange. It was as if I was walking through a place that didn’t exist.

I wanted to pluck out my eyes out of curiosity, but I had a strong feeling that doing so would ruin everything, so I decided to just ignore it.

Thud thud.

The sound of footsteps.

But are those really my footsteps, or Yusera’s footsteps, or maybe it’s the footsteps of an unknown person?

It was a fact completely unknown to me, who couldn’t see anything.

No, before that, I began to question whether the sound I perceived as footsteps was really footsteps.

‘It sounds strangely out of place.’

Yes, it sounded incongruous, like the sound of someone walking through the grass.

When I realized that, I somehow had the feeling that the sound was something imitating the sound of footsteps.

For some reason, I find it strange.

‘I suddenly feel like gouging out my eyes.’

I’m not scared.

However, I was deeply curious as to what that sound was.

“Don’t open your eyes yet.”

Then suddenly, Yoo Seo-ra spoke to me from the side.

No, is that the right sound? Is that the right voice?

But somehow, it doesn’t seem like it’s Yoo Seora.

“… … .”

A sense of survival.

A feeling that if I didn’t follow this, it would be dangerous engulfed my whole body. Then a simple question arose.

‘If you think about it.’

Is it really necessary for me to say such things to you?

At that moment, I was able to open my eyes.

Then, what appeared in my sight was a black monster.

My mouth was torn.

His eyes were bulging out, squinting.

And as if it were a given, the brain was also sticking out.

“ and bald.”

I quickly turned my head to see what I was holding.

There was something in the shape of a hand wriggling violently. And then, as if it realized that I had seen it with my own eyes, it melted and disappeared.

“Ah, shit! You filthy!”

I immediately shook the sticky slime off my hands and looked back at the horrific monster from before.

“Is the hair loss so severe that the rest of the hair has fallen out?”

After saying that in a dejected tone, he immediately took out the gun on his waist.

“Where did that guy go?”

I’m just wondering if I’m under some kind of hypnosis right now.

Yeah, you know, there’s something like that that you only see in creative works.

Is this some kind of dream world or something?

I open my eyes and think that maybe Yusera is looking at me.

“Then how do we get out of here?”

Thud thud.

The monster in front continues to imitate footsteps as before.

“Don’t bother me!”

My head isn’t working!

I suddenly got angry and looked around.

It was a very dark place.

There was nothing but darkness, and I felt like I would forget I was there at any moment.

“This is fucking crazy.”

Fortunately, there were what appeared to be human corpses scattered around. That made it easy to guess where I was.

“No, there are hidden peace places like this too.”

The place I went to back then might actually have been Hyeja.

When I see things like that, I feel like throwing up.

I’m going crazy.

Just now, Yoo Seo-ra told me to trust only her.

“What do you want me to believe? No, is that what Yu Seo-ra said really true? In fact, wasn’t I fooled from the beginning?”

It was a moment when many thoughts kept coming to me.

That huge monster from earlier suddenly thrust its face right in front of me. I was so startled for a moment that I fell backwards.

“Wow, this is driving me crazy.”

Thud thud.

“So stop making those footsteps! You piece of shit!”

Thud thud.

“You really aren’t listening to me.”

I immediately stood up and picked up the gun again, this time aiming at the guy.

“You fucking died.”

bang!

I quickly pulled the trigger and aimed for what looked to anyone like the brain, but strangely enough, it didn’t seem to hit anything.

It looked as if he had passed through.

“I knew this would happen. So what should I do now?”

I guessed for a moment and then decided to try to guess again.

“This time, I’ll pour out some mana.”

I drew up the mana flowing from deep within and poured it into the bullet. Then I gritted my teeth harder than I had ever gritted my teeth before and pulled the trigger.

bang!!

The bullet flew so fast that I couldn’t see it and hit the guy.

But still, the guy seemed unfazed.

“Then what do I do now? Are you telling me to run away?”

That’s too fucked up.

I ignored the monster for a moment and placed my hand on the floor.

The sensation was very mushy.

It felt like mud, and even negative thoughts came to me out of the blue.

‘Yeah, somehow the corpse comes to mind.’

I feel uncomfortable.

But I couldn’t do nothing, so I used my mana to examine the floor in more detail.

Woohoo!

‘First of all, it’s not like the floor is open or anything like that.’

I touched it with anticipation, but as expected, I couldn’t feel anything.

“No, then what the fuck do you want me to do now!!”

There is no way at all.

I felt like I couldn’t get out of here.

I feel extremely annoyed.

“Okay. If we keep doing this, we’re going to get screwed.”

I looked straight at the monster and opened my mouth.

“, please stop making that noise and let’s talk. Do you know how to talk? Just pretend you don’t know. I’ll fucking take care of you somehow. ”

Time flies.

A tingling, crashing sound began to be heard from the monster’s body.

My body twisted grotesquely, one of my eyes burst out, and black liquid started to pour out. Anyone would be unable to bear the unpleasant sensation and would run away. However, I decided to keep holding on.

“What can we call a conversation? What do you have to ask me?”

A person was walking inside it.

He was obviously a man. He was obviously the same age as me. He was obviously me.

A being is walking towards me in the form of ‘me’.

“Then what can I do here?”

“You speak a bit harshly. Can’t you speak more gently?”

“Damn, that’s just how I am.”

“Hey, don’t lie.”

A guy who looked like Kim Seo-jin approached me.

“First of all, where am I?”

“It’s exactly as you guessed. It’s the world of imagination.”

As expected, this wasn’t the real world.

That’s why no matter how hard I searched, there was no way out, and that’s why I kept having this strange feeling.

“Then, how do we get out of here?”

“It’s simple. When you die, it’s over.”

“Aha, I guess I’ll just die.”

I nodded and answered.

“Should I kill you?”

I chuckled at those words and opened my mouth.

“Fuck you! How can I trust you!”

“Then do you believe in yourself?”

At those words, I instantly shut my mouth.

“What the hell is that?”

“No, can you really believe in yourself? Do you really think that the reason you opened your eyes was purely of your own free will? Even what you are saying right now? This is the world of the mind. You can manipulate something like that?”

I was speechless for a moment.

It was only natural to wonder if my actions here were really of my own free will.

Maybe I really am just being manipulated.

With that thought in mind, I quickly opened my mouth.

“If that’s really the case, then what do you want from me?”

If you think about it, isn’t it strange?

What on earth does that guy want that he’s leaving me like this? I could consider myself insignificant, but there was still something about that that made me feel uneasy.

“Well, that’s true.”

The guy came towards me with a smirk. I felt a sense of self-loathing that I didn’t know existed because he said that to me in front of my face.

I frowned slightly and waited for the guy to say next.

“Actually this is a test.”

“Test?”

“Yes, originally, each person would take different tests. Most of them are battles with oneself.”

It’s a fight with yourself.

Certainly, a fight in a place like this would be the most suitable.

“Then what does it mean that Yusera is holding my hand?”

“If you do that, the two of you can team up and fight together. Of course, there’s also the problem of the two of you fighting each other.”

So that’s why you told me to believe in myself.

I can understand it to some extent. But I still feel uneasy.

“But then what is this situation now? It’s strange.”

“That’s right. It’s weird. I didn’t want this situation either.”

As he said that, he raised both his hands and clapped them. Then, the place that had been black suddenly transformed into a white temple.

Kang!

At that moment, the sound of iron clashing with iron could be heard from somewhere. When I reflexively turned my head to the sound, there was Yusera fighting with another Yusera.

“If it were you, I would have made you deal with them like those two. But strangely, it didn’t work out for you. It was as if you were being interfered with by something.”

I looked at the guy’s expression again and he was smiling faintly.

“So, feeling reluctant, I tried to use the old method.”

“What was it before?”

Not understanding what he meant, I had no choice but to ask again.

“Yeah, in the past, I would use that person’s trauma to attack their mind. But if you do that, the person will just get ruined and commit suicide or fall into a coma right after waking up. That’s why I stopped.”

The guy suddenly approached me. Feeling threatened for a moment, I took a step back and picked up the gun again.

“My original goal was to keep people from dying in stage 1. If they die, it’s meaningless. Right?”

“… … .”

“But I saw a creepy guy, so I thought it would be better to kill him. So I used it.”

I opened my mouth after a moment of searching for words.

“But that doesn’t work either, right?”

“That’s right. It didn’t work again. So I decided to do it boldly. I’m going to make her fall into my arms and kill her.”

“But it didn’t work again.”

“Yeah. Strangely, it didn’t go as I wanted. This time, I felt like I was being interfered with. So I decided to lure you in slowly, slowly. Come into my arms. ”

But I’m still alive, which means I failed again.

“Yes, it failed as you expected. This time, it wasn’t meddling, but you woke up of your own free will.”

I studied the bastard’s expression for a moment.

The guy was still smiling, but he looked somewhat annoyed. I could tell that even more because it was my face.

“So, what do you think we should do now? At this moment when everything has failed.”

“I don’t know.”

“The answer is very simple. Just leave it alone and it will kill you in the next step.”

When I heard that, a chill ran down my spine.

That was definitely a declaration of war.

He’s definitely going to kill me.

“See you at stage 2. I’ll pour all my strength into it.”

As time passed, Yusera could see that the fight was over. Beneath her, she could see a woman who looked exactly the same as her lying down.

It seemed like the victory was on the real side.

Clang!

With that sound of shattering glass, the strange barrier burst. I just stood there and watched it unfold.