November 26th, 2023
“She’s… As you know, she’s still a minor, and she can’t afford to be at such a critical age. She’s not a fighter hunter.”
“Oh, did you say she was in his third year of high school?”
“Yes, she’s taking the college entrance exam soon. She’ll see one more special lecture text for the CSAT when she’s about to go into the rift.”
On the first day Jung-bin broke into the hangover soup restaurant, an overheard conversation came to mind. A high school senior, a minor, and a S-class hunter who did not start his career in earnest because he was in a very sensitive period. It was Yoon Autumn.
Autumn clenched and unclenched her reddened hands. A small shard of glass appeared in her palm. The shard glittered with a kaleidoscope of light.
“It’s a little late but let me introduce myself. My name is Yoon Autumn, I’m a senior at Saebom Girls’ High School, and I recently woke up as an S-level Spiritual Awakening. My abilities are….”
I looked at the glowing fragment floating in her palm. For a moment, blackness seemed to flicker and then disappear.
“You’re looking at the world’s convenience.”
Suddenly, an aura so heavy and dense that it was hard to breathe filled the room. It crawled up her legs, up her back, up the nape of her neck, and squeezed her breath away. Yun Autumn’s pale face paled slightly. But she took a deep breath and spoke steadily.
“If there was a world other than this, would you believe it?”
“……”
I did not answer. Yoon Autumn smiled bitterly for some reason.
“I… every time I fall asleep, I catch a glimpse of the other world. Regardless of my will. It looks like the world we’re in, but it’s different. I’m sure they have the same name and face, but there are many cases where they look like different people. When I’m watching… It’s as dizzy and chaotic as this piece.”
Yoon Autumn poked a piece with her finger. Her finger passed through the pieces, even though they were certainly there. Instead, her finger was colored with many colors and glistened. I was quietly watching the scene. The golden eyes turned on me.
“J.”
“…….”
“The end will come soon in this world.”
The apocalypse. I remembered hearing the word recently. A group pursued by Lee Sa-young. Secret people who release drugs for awakeners, and artificially create awakeners. They said they were doing it to prevent the apocalypse.
Autumn closed her eyes tightly and opened and continued.
“All the things I saw in my dreams… they were fragments, shards from a world that had already come to an end. The world itself was shattered because they couldn’t stop the apocalypse.”
“That’s not an easy story to believe.”
I said in a low voice. Autumn also shook her head as if she agreed.
“Yes, you won’t believe it easily. I might look like a crazy kid. I think there’s a reason why J is hiding his identity like this. I didn’t want to come either. But… but I have no choice but to say.”
Autumn’s youthful face showed a determined look.
“I’ll tell you straight up, I… I want to stop the apocalypse, J.”
“……”
“I know the end will come, but I just sat on the sidelines… I don’t want to lose the things I care about without being able to do anything about it.”
Autumn held out her hand, glittering like a kaleidoscope.
“Please take a look at what I saw.”
“……”
“…please.”
…And I could never refuse a hand like this.
After a long sigh, I took the cold hand. For a moment, my eyes became distant, and I felt like I was being swept away somewhere.
I opened my eyes. It’s snowing. No, it’s white ash. White shattering ash was piling up and covering the whole world.
The place was strangely still and ominous. And familiar.
Have I returned to the Incheon rift?
‘No, it’s not.’
Until just before, I was at a haejang-guk house and held Autumn’s hand. This must be the place that Yoon Autumn saw. I looked up, ignoring the fishy taste of blood from my tongue. Instead of black holes, white swirls were swirling in the white sky. A fragment of a world where the apocalypse has come and perished. A familiar space.
Endless white nights.
In the apocalypse, there is no night.
Thud. Thud. An indescribable anxiety filled my heart. I took a breath and looked around. The intermittently flickering sign for a karaoke bar, the unlit hair salon, the café. Familiar and unfamiliar, all blurred by the white ash. I took a step.
Within a few steps, I could see someone rummaging through the ruins in a padded coat full of white ash. I approached with silence. At that time, the man who was searching through the ruins looked back. It was Yoon Autumn, who seems to be in her early 20s after getting a little older. In any case, there were dried tears on the face that had not been cleaned.
Did she see me? No, can she sees me? I was nervous. However, Autumn’s gaze passed me and turned further away. There were thin-limbed, blind white monsters roaming the streets, flapping their wings.
Kuaang! White dust rose with a huge burst. The dust settled, revealing a monster in agony with a giant spear piercing its heart.
Kiiiiieeeenngggg-
A low voice stifled the unpleasant scream.
“Yoon Autumn.”
It was strangely altered and had a voice that could not be measured by age. But at the same time, I was used to it. Of course. It was my voice that I always heard when I was J.
I also turned my head to follow Autumn. It was a young man in a black combat suit and a black mask who emerged from silence and anxiety. The only black being in the world when everything covered in white ash. J swung a spear and hit the monster to the floor. The monster, who was swinging his arms and legs, soon stopped moving.
He walked without hesitation, but quietly.
I swallowed my saliva when I saw J getting closer and closer. But to make it even more tense, he didn’t even see me, he passed right through me.
J reached out for Autumn.
“What are you doing here? The base camp is over there.”
“…Honeybee is worried about you.”
Yoon Autumn avoided J’s gaze, clutching the debris of the building.
“…I’m sorry, I was just going to look around a little longer… I guess I’ve come all the way here.”
“…..”
J squatted down in front of Autumn and clenched his chin.
“Did you say this was near your school?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
There was no sign of the school. All that’s left is a collapsed and broken ruin and white ash covering it. The destruction is still.
“….”
J and Yoon Autumn should know that there are no survivors around; they’re both S-rank, so their keen senses shouldn’t have missed it. But instead of telling them it was useless, J nodded.
“Let’s take a quick look, then.”
“…Can I do that?”
“Yes. I can handle it when the monster comes out, and there might be survivors we haven’t found yet.”
J got up from his seat with a huge spear over his shoulder as if it was not heavy. Turning around, he looked back at Autumn.
“By the way, it’s a secret to Sa-young.”
“What?”
My eyes, which I saw for the first time, opened a little wide. J put his index finger on the mask’s mouth.
“If he knows, he’ll throw another tantrum. Secret.”
Only then did Autumn smile broadly.
“Yes! Thank you!”
The bright voice was drowned out by the hollow sound of shattering glass. The front of my eyes was wide, and the appearance of J and Autumn became distant. Something was overlaying the landscape in front of me in real time. The collapsed streets turned a dark grey, and then another space appeared.
The place where I arrived this time was a huge library. However, half of the bookshelves were broken or tilted, and the books seemed to have forgotten their original use because they were poured on the floor.
Since this was Autumn’s first time in the library, I stood near her again.
Compared to the street where there was no sign of popularity or life, there were a lot more people here. In addition, there were many injuries. People were busy walking around, treating the injured and clearing the rubble. I think I’m in a place called Base Camp that J mentioned in the scene I saw earlier.
Autumn moved around the library, picked up books, and organized the surroundings. I followed her and looked around, and suddenly faced In-young, the Sacraman, who stood still as if separated from the complex interior.
Disheveled black hair, cool violet eyes, full lips and a mole next to them. A black leather coat that came to his knees and black gloves. A longsword at his waist, if memory serves.
“…..”
It’s Lee Sa-young.
The face was a little more mature than the one I knew, but it was unmistakable. And the longsword at his waist looked like the fangs of a basilisk that I had picked up in the Incheon Rift.
I looked at the projection as if I was possessed by something. But the purple eyes…
“…there is definitely a shortage of medicines.”
“I think we should visit the hospital in Gyeonggi-do, J. Is that possible?”
“Mmm… Well, I’ll go.”
I reached for J, who was talking to one of the campers.
November 26th, 2023
“She’s… As you know, she’s still a minor, and she can’t afford to be at such a critical age. She’s not a fighter hunter.”
“Oh, did you say she was in his third year of high school?”
“Yes, she’s taking the college entrance exam soon. She’ll see one more special lecture text for the CSAT when she’s about to go into the rift.”
On the first day Jung-bin broke into the hangover soup restaurant, an overheard conversation came to mind. A high school senior, a minor, and a S-class hunter who did not start his career in earnest because he was in a very sensitive period. It was Yoon Autumn.
Autumn clenched and unclenched her reddened hands. A small shard of glass appeared in her palm. The shard glittered with a kaleidoscope of light.
“It’s a little late but let me introduce myself. My name is Yoon Autumn, I’m a senior at Saebom Girls’ High School, and I recently woke up as an S-level Spiritual Awakening. My abilities are….”
I looked at the glowing fragment floating in her palm. For a moment, blackness seemed to flicker and then disappear.
“You’re looking at the world’s convenience.”
Suddenly, an aura so heavy and dense that it was hard to breathe filled the room. It crawled up her legs, up her back, up the nape of her neck, and squeezed her breath away. Yun Autumn’s pale face paled slightly. But she took a deep breath and spoke steadily.
“If there was a world other than this, would you believe it?”
“……”
I did not answer. Yoon Autumn smiled bitterly for some reason.
“I… every time I fall asleep, I catch a glimpse of the other world. Regardless of my will. It looks like the world we’re in, but it’s different. I’m sure they have the same name and face, but there are many cases where they look like different people. When I’m watching… It’s as dizzy and chaotic as this piece.”
Yoon Autumn poked a piece with her finger. Her finger passed through the pieces, even though they were certainly there. Instead, her finger was colored with many colors and glistened. I was quietly watching the scene. The golden eyes turned on me.
“J.”
“…….”
“The end will come soon in this world.”
The apocalypse. I remembered hearing the word recently. A group pursued by Lee Sa-young. Secret people who release drugs for awakeners, and artificially create awakeners. They said they were doing it to prevent the apocalypse.
Autumn closed her eyes tightly and opened and continued.
“All the things I saw in my dreams… they were fragments, shards from a world that had already come to an end. The world itself was shattered because they couldn’t stop the apocalypse.”
“That’s not an easy story to believe.”
I said in a low voice. Autumn also shook her head as if she agreed.
“Yes, you won’t believe it easily. I might look like a crazy kid. I think there’s a reason why J is hiding his identity like this. I didn’t want to come either. But… but I have no choice but to say.”
Autumn’s youthful face showed a determined look.
“I’ll tell you straight up, I… I want to stop the apocalypse, J.”
“……”
“I know the end will come, but I just sat on the sidelines… I don’t want to lose the things I care about without being able to do anything about it.”
Autumn held out her hand, glittering like a kaleidoscope.
“Please take a look at what I saw.”
“……”
“…please.”
…And I could never refuse a hand like this.
After a long sigh, I took the cold hand. For a moment, my eyes became distant, and I felt like I was being swept away somewhere.
I opened my eyes. It’s snowing. No, it’s white ash. White shattering ash was piling up and covering the whole world.
The place was strangely still and ominous. And familiar.
Have I returned to the Incheon rift?
‘No, it’s not.’
Until just before, I was at a haejang-guk house and held Autumn’s hand. This must be the place that Yoon Autumn saw. I looked up, ignoring the fishy taste of blood from my tongue. Instead of black holes, white swirls were swirling in the white sky. A fragment of a world where the apocalypse has come and perished. A familiar space.
Endless white nights.
In the apocalypse, there is no night.
Thud. Thud. An indescribable anxiety filled my heart. I took a breath and looked around. The intermittently flickering sign for a karaoke bar, the unlit hair salon, the café. Familiar and unfamiliar, all blurred by the white ash. I took a step.
Within a few steps, I could see someone rummaging through the ruins in a padded coat full of white ash. I approached with silence. At that time, the man who was searching through the ruins looked back. It was Yoon Autumn, who seems to be in her early 20s after getting a little older. In any case, there were dried tears on the face that had not been cleaned.
Did she see me? No, can she sees me? I was nervous. However, Autumn’s gaze passed me and turned further away. There were thin-limbed, blind white monsters roaming the streets, flapping their wings.
Kuaang! White dust rose with a huge burst. The dust settled, revealing a monster in agony with a giant spear piercing its heart.
Kiiiiieeeenngggg-
A low voice stifled the unpleasant scream.
“Yoon Autumn.”
It was strangely altered and had a voice that could not be measured by age. But at the same time, I was used to it. Of course. It was my voice that I always heard when I was J.
I also turned my head to follow Autumn. It was a young man in a black combat suit and a black mask who emerged from silence and anxiety. The only black being in the world when everything covered in white ash. J swung a spear and hit the monster to the floor. The monster, who was swinging his arms and legs, soon stopped moving.
He walked without hesitation, but quietly.
I swallowed my saliva when I saw J getting closer and closer. But to make it even more tense, he didn’t even see me, he passed right through me.
J reached out for Autumn.
“What are you doing here? The base camp is over there.”
“…Honeybee is worried about you.”
Yoon Autumn avoided J’s gaze, clutching the debris of the building.
“…I’m sorry, I was just going to look around a little longer… I guess I’ve come all the way here.”
“…..”
J squatted down in front of Autumn and clenched his chin.
“Did you say this was near your school?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
There was no sign of the school. All that’s left is a collapsed and broken ruin and white ash covering it. The destruction is still.
“….”
J and Yoon Autumn should know that there are no survivors around; they’re both S-rank, so their keen senses shouldn’t have missed it. But instead of telling them it was useless, J nodded.
“Let’s take a quick look, then.”
“…Can I do that?”
“Yes. I can handle it when the monster comes out, and there might be survivors we haven’t found yet.”
J got up from his seat with a huge spear over his shoulder as if it was not heavy. Turning around, he looked back at Autumn.
“By the way, it’s a secret to Sa-young.”
“What?”
My eyes, which I saw for the first time, opened a little wide. J put his index finger on the mask’s mouth.
“If he knows, he’ll throw another tantrum. Secret.”
Only then did Autumn smile broadly.
“Yes! Thank you!”
The bright voice was drowned out by the hollow sound of shattering glass. The front of my eyes was wide, and the appearance of J and Autumn became distant. Something was overlaying the landscape in front of me in real time. The collapsed streets turned a dark grey, and then another space appeared.
The place where I arrived this time was a huge library. However, half of the bookshelves were broken or tilted, and the books seemed to have forgotten their original use because they were poured on the floor.
Since this was Autumn’s first time in the library, I stood near her again.
Compared to the street where there was no sign of popularity or life, there were a lot more people here. In addition, there were many injuries. People were busy walking around, treating the injured and clearing the rubble. I think I’m in a place called Base Camp that J mentioned in the scene I saw earlier.
Autumn moved around the library, picked up books, and organized the surroundings. I followed her and looked around, and suddenly faced In-young, the Sacraman, who stood still as if separated from the complex interior.
Disheveled black hair, cool violet eyes, full lips and a mole next to them. A black leather coat that came to his knees and black gloves. A longsword at his waist, if memory serves.
“…..”
It’s Lee Sa-young.
The face was a little more mature than the one I knew, but it was unmistakable. And the longsword at his waist looked like the fangs of a basilisk that I had picked up in the Incheon Rift.
I looked at the projection as if I was possessed by something. But the purple eyes…
“…there is definitely a shortage of medicines.”
“I think we should visit the hospital in Gyeonggi-do, J. Is that possible?”
“Mmm… Well, I’ll go.”
I reached for J, who was talking to one of the campers.
