By Zephyria ‘He… as you know, is still a minor, and it’s an important time for him, so he doesn’t have the leeway. He’s not a combat Hunter either.’
‘Ah, I heard he was a high school senior.’
‘Yes. He’ll be taking the college entrance exam soon. He’ll probably be looking at one more question from the college entrance exam prep book instead of going into a Rift.’
The conversation Jung-bin overheard the first day he barged into the Hanover Soup Restaurant came to mind. A high school senior, a minor, and at a sensitive age, so an S-rank Hunter who hadn’t started full-fledged activities. That seemed to be Yoon Ga-eul.
Ga-eul clenched and unclenched her red, frozen hands. A small, glass shard-like thing floated up in her empty palm. The shard shimmered with countless lights like a kaleidoscope.
“I’m a little late, but let me introduce myself. My name is Yoon Ga-eul, I’m a third-year at Saebom Girls’ High School, and I recently Awakened as an S-rank mental Awakened. My ability is…”
Eui-jae watched the shard floating and shining above Yoon Ga-eul’s palm. It seemed like a flash of black light passed by for a moment.
“Seeing Fragments of the world.”
In an instant, a heavy and dense energy, so much that it was hard to breathe, surged and filled the room. The suspicious energy crawled up his legs, his back, and his neck, tightening his breath. Yoon Ga-eul’s young face paled slightly. But after taking a deep breath, she continued to speak firmly.
“Would you believe me if I said there were other worlds besides this one?”
“……”
Eui-jae didn’t answer. Yoon Ga-eul smiled bitterly for some reason.
“I… every time I fall asleep, I glimpse Fragments that have fallen out of other worlds. Regardless of my will. That place is similar to this world we are in, but different. Clearly, the names and faces are the same, but there are many cases where they seem like different people. Watching it… is dizzying and confusing, like this shard.”
Yoon Ga-eul poked the shard with her finger. Clearly, it existed there, but her finger passed through the shard. Instead, her finger was tinged with numerous colors and sparkled. Eui-jae quietly watched the scene. Golden eyes turned to him.
“J.”
“……”
“Doomsday will come to this world soon.”
Doomsday. Eui-jae had a recent memory of hearing that word. The group Lee Sa-young was chasing. Secretive people who released drugs for Awakened and artificially created Awakened. They said they were doing such things to prevent Doomsday.
Ga-eul squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, continuing to speak.
“Everything I saw in my dreams… are shards, fragments, that have fallen out of worlds where Doomsday has already come. Because they failed to prevent Doomsday and were destroyed, the world itself crumbled.”
“That’s not an easy story to believe.”
Eui-jae said in a low voice. Ga-eul nodded as if agreeing.
“Yes, it will be hard for you to believe easily. You might think I’m crazy. I think there’s a reason why J is hiding his identity like this. I didn’t want to come looking for you if I could help it. But… but I have to say it.”
A resolute look settled on Yoon Ga-eul’s young face.
“To put it bluntly. I… want to prevent Doomsday, J.”
“……”
“I don’t want to stand by and watch even though I know Doomsday is coming… I don’t want to lose precious things without being able to do anything.”
Ga-eul held out her hand, sparkling like a kaleidoscope.
“Please look at the Fragment I saw.”
“……”
“…Please.”
…And Eui-jae could never refuse such a hand.
He let out a long sigh and took her cold hand. In an instant, his vision became faint, and he felt like he was being swept away somewhere.
Cha Eui-jae opened his eyes. It’s snowing. No, it’s white ash. White, crumbling ash was piled up, covering the whole world.
The place was strangely quiet and ominous. And familiar. Had he returned to the Incheon Rift?
‘No.’
Until just now, he was at the Hanover Soup Restaurant and held Yoon Ga-eul’s hand. Surely this place was inside the Fragment Yoon Ga-eul saw. Eui-jae ignored the bitter taste of blood from his bitten tongue and raised his head. In the pure white sky, instead of a Black Hole, a pure white vortex was swirling. She said it was a world where Doomsday had come.
Endless white night.
Night does not come at Doomsday.
Thump. Thump. An indescribable sense of unease filled his heart. Eui-jae calmed his breathing and looked around. Intermittently flickering karaoke signs, beauty salons with the lights off, and signboards for cafes. The familiar but unfamiliar things were all covered in white ash and blurred. He moved his feet.
Before he had taken a few steps, he could see someone wearing a padding jacket covered in white ash, rummaging through the ruins. Eui-jae silenced his voice and approached. Then, the person rummaging through the ruins turned around. It was Yoon Ga-eul, who looked a little older, around her early twenties. Tears that had not been wiped away had dried on her chapped face.
Did she see me? No, can she even see me? Eui-jae tensed. But Ga-eul’s gaze passed Eui-jae and went further away. There, a white Monster with thin limbs and no eyes was flapping its wings and wandering the streets.
Kwaang! A loud burst of sound and white dust rose. What was revealed as the dust settled was a Monster suffering, its heart pierced by a giant spear.
Squeak―
A low voice suppressed an unpleasant scream.
“Yoon Ga-eul.”
It was a familiar voice. Of course. Because it was his voice.
Eui-jae also turned his head following Ga-eul. What appeared, tearing through the silence and unease, was a young man wearing a black combat uniform and a black mask. The only black existence in a world where everything was covered in white ash. J swung his spear and slammed the Monster to the ground. The Monster, which had been flailing its limbs, soon stopped moving.
He walked over steadily, but quietly.
Eui-jae swallowed as he watched J getting closer and closer. But despite his tension, he didn’t even see Eui-jae and passed right through him.
J held out his hand to Ga-eul.
“What are you doing here? The base camp is that way.”
“……”
“…Honeybee was worried.”
Yoon Ga-eul clutched the remains of the building and avoided J’s gaze.
“…I’m sorry, I was just going to look around a little more… I guess I came this far.”
“……”
J squatted down in front of Ga-eul and rested his chin on his hand.
“Wasn’t this near your school?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
There was no trace of the school. All that remained was the collapsed and broken ruins and the white ash covering them. Destruction is silent.
“……”
J and Yoon Ga-eul probably knew that there were no survivors around. Since they were both S-rank, their keen senses couldn’t have missed it. But instead of saying it was a useless act, J nodded.
“Let’s take a quick look, then.”
“…Is that okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll take care of the Monsters if they come out, and there might be survivors we haven’t found yet.”
J casually slung the giant spear over his shoulder, as if it wasn’t heavy, and got up from his seat. Turning around, he made a sound and looked back at Ga-eul.
“Oh, right. This is a secret from Sa-young.”
“Yes?”
Eui-jae’s eyes, which had been watching Yoon Ga-eul and his appearance, widened slightly. J raised his index finger to the mouth part of the mask.
“If he knows, he’ll complain again. Secret.”
Ga-eul smiled brightly then.
“Yes! Thank you!”
The bright voice was buried in the clear sound of glass shards colliding. His vision swayed greatly, and the figures of J and Ga-eul became faint. Something was redrawing the scene in front of him in real time. The collapsed street was dyed a deep gray and soon drew a different space.
The place he arrived at this time was a huge library. However, half of the bookshelves were broken or tilted, and the books were scattered on the floor, as if they had forgotten their original purpose.
Perhaps because it was the Fragment Ga-eul saw, Eui-jae was standing near Ga-eul this time as well.
Compared to the street where there was no sign of people or life, there were many more people here. Moreover, there were many injured people. People were busy moving around, treating the injured and clearing the collapsed debris. It seemed that they had come to the base camp that J had mentioned in the scene he had seen earlier.
Ga-eul also moved around inside the library, picking up books and tidying up the surroundings. Eui-jae followed her, looking around, and suddenly faced a jet-black figure standing still, as if isolated from the complex interior.
Disheveled black hair, cool purple eyes, plump lips, and a mole next to them. If there was anything different from his memory, it would be the long sword he was wearing around his waist.
“……”
It’s Lee Sa-young.
He had a slightly more mature impression than the face he knew, but it was definitely Lee Sa-young. Because only that guy has that kind of face and energy. Moreover, the long sword on his waist looked similar to the Basilisk Fang that Eui-jae had picked up in the Incheon Rift.
Eui-jae examined Sa-young as if possessed by something. But the purple eyes were solely…
“…We’re definitely short on medical supplies.”
“We should go to the hospitals in Gyeonggi-do, J. Is that possible?”
“Hmm… well, I have to go.”
…Were fixed on J, who was talking on one side of the camp.