"I’ve arrived at the ground."
"Logically, I should have fallen onto the surface, but right now, I see the shattered main building of the Heavenly Demon Sect."
"I lift my head up and see a crumbling structure with holes in it, having stopped in its collapse. I lower my head again and look around."
"A cold breeze and a faint smell of burning fill the air."
"This is the place where the Heavenly Demon died."
"Maybe I’ll be able to see the Heavenly Demon."
"I can recognize this place immediately, so I walked towards it."
"But there was no Heavenly Demon in the spot. Only a black horizontal line drawn on the ruins where the corpse had once been."
"Looking around, there’s nothing that seems right."
"In the distance, I can see a white castle, and if I go the opposite way, there are houses."
"Since I’ve come to such a strange place, I decided to head over and check it out, but the ruins block my path, as if it’s impossible to go there. I reached out to climb, but I couldn’t grasp any debris."
"It just feels like I’m touching a wall."
"Meaning, I can’t go there."
"In that case, I should head towards the tower."
"I walked forward. Maybe if I keep going, the house I once had in the second world might show up."
"I walked along the strangely organized path."
"Tap, tap."
"I compared my steps to the memories of places I know, and there’s a huge difference. It’s taking an incredibly long time in this form."
"I felt the difference from when I was first arriving during the snowfall, and continued walking."
"Then I found a door, abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Behind the door was definitely a cliff, but when I opened it, I saw a cylindrical space with a faint yellowish light flowing inside."
"It’s the entrance to Kunlun."
"A narrow passage floating in the middle. I was about to go inside but stopped for a moment. I looked back. Far away, I could see a door leading to another place, and all the others were blocked."
"I suddenly realized I wouldn’t be meeting Sooh here."
"Indeed."
"I see."
"I walked forward again. Normally, passing through this door should bring me to Kunlun, but nothing in this space has been normal so far."
"And at the end of the passage, instead of the interior of Kunlun, there was a small door."
"I opened it and was greeted with a strange scene before my eyes."
"Something in the shape of a distorted sphere hung in the air, and in the sky, objects seemed to be sucked into it and then stopped."
"It looked frozen, as if it was a moment cut from the last time I was with the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign."
"I looked around, wondering if anyone would appear. Since there was that moment with the Hyoukesuni, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign might come out again."
"But he didn’t appear."
"Instead, I found a girl sitting on a pavilion that had stopped collapsing, a little way from the sphere."
"She had purple hair, about twice as long as my current self, and was tall. I’d never seen her before, because I was the one who used that body until the very end."
"It’s none other than the Snowfall."
"I walked toward her."
"‘Hello.’" "‘Yes, hello.’"
"She spoke in a tone oddly similar to mine. The rhythm was similar. Or perhaps, am I the one speaking as her?"
"While thinking that, I kept watching her, and she stared back at me blankly. I realized that if we kept silent, no answers would come, so I pointed to the castle far in the distance."
"‘I’m trying to go over there. Do you know the way?’"
"She stood up from her seat."
"And walked into the distorted space of light. She grabbed the air and lifted it. It was as if a cloth with a painting on it was lifted, and a locked door appeared from inside."
"Snowfall looked at me, put her hand into her chest, and pulled it out. In her hand was a key."
"Carrying the key, Snowfall approached me. She extended her arm, took mine, and pulled it in front of her, placing the key in the palm of my hand and gently guiding my fingers to turn it."
"I held the key in my hand."
"People I meet here are always strange. They act as if they’re not people I know. There’s no light, no warmth. This is likely just an illusion."
"Daegon and the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign made me feel uneasy, but since they were both transcendental beings, maybe there’s something different about them."
"Maybe the memories are just too immense."
"While thinking that, Snowfall suddenly hugged me tightly with her wide arms."
"There was nothing but cold, no warmth, but I felt the soft touch of her chest as it pressed against me before it separated."
"After that, Snowfall patted my shoulder twice, without looking back, passed me, and disappeared somewhere."
"Once I passed through a wall I couldn’t cross, she vanished as if she was never there."
"I looked at the key. There were engraved words on it. The word written was ‘Warmth’."
"Now, I have three keys. One has the word erased, one says ‘Anger’, and the other says ‘Warmth’."
"Should I try inserting them in order?"
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"The key with the erased word doesn’t fit into the hole. There’s clearly a space for it, but it feels like the key isn’t meant for here."
"So, I pushed the key labeled ‘Anger’ in."
"With a click, it opened immediately. I can’t take the key out anymore. It’s completely stuck to the lock, as if it was attached from the beginning."
"Isn’t this supposed to be the key to move on? When I first received the key from Teesha, I think she said it was for crossing a wall, but the key labeled ‘Despair’ is not for a wall. It’s for starting a train."
"Is it because it’s an illusion, so there are no rules? Or maybe I’ve done something wrong. I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out if I keep walking to wherever I can go."
"I opened the door and went inside."
"Inside, there was the platform where I first arrived."
"The direction of the railway is different, though. The tracks I passed when coming here from the first world are gone, and there are tracks leading into a tunnel in the cliff."
"I got on the steam locomotive again."
"This time, no one greeted me. It seems like I have to open the door and go into the engine room to turn the key."
"By the way, what about the passenger car? Earlier, Eunjae stopped me, so I didn’t have a chance to think about it."
"I grabbed the door to the passenger car and turned it. But it wouldn’t move. Maybe if I put in the key, it might turn, so I checked, but there’s no keyhole."
"Is it just an object that I can’t interact with?"
"Reluctantly, I opened the door to the engine room."
"Nothing has changed here. It’s exactly the same as before."
"The difference is that the key that should have been inserted is gone, and the lock is locked again."
"I pushed in the nameless key. But it’s blocked. The key that went in was the ‘Warmth’ key."
"There’s a silly sound like a car starting, and the train began to move again."
"I still feel no inertia. It immediately enters the cave, and before long, light emerges."
"And the place where the locomotive stopped is inside the collapsed temple."
"It’s the place where I was summoned."
"Originally, there was only a cylindrical wall, but strangely, a platform and steam locomotive have appeared. There’s a lot of coal inside, so it looks like a steam locomotive, but there’s no sound, not even any steam. I don’t know if it’s really a steam locomotive."
"Maybe it’s because no one I know has ever ridden a steam locomotive in the memories I have. If this is a dream-like world, then it might be able to show what it doesn’t know."
"When the train completely stopped, I entered the passenger car with a door that leads to the platform. I tried opening it just in case, and it opened easily."
"There’s no one in the passenger car. Just a bunch of chairs. I looked around to see if there was anything, but there was nothing. And if I open the back door, I see the railway that the train just passed."
"There’s nothing to see."
"I got off the train. Outside, sunlight shines through a circular hole in the ceiling, and in between, there’s a giant shadow."
"A 7.5-meter tall mermaid is looking down at me. And it reaches out its hand and lowers me in front of it."
"With the mermaid’s neutral face, it doesn’t seem to have any thoughts. But it seems to have the intention of making me ride it. So, when I stepped onto its palm, it lifted me up."
"Come to think of it, Victoria had helped me get out. After I stepped off her hand, the mermaid no longer looked at me. Instead, it sat down, curling up like a baby, holding its knees."
"I left it behind and walked forward."
"Originally, after going down the hill and walking along the coast for a long time, I would have reached the port, but as soon as I went down the hill, the port was in front of me. And it’s a strangely compressed port. Only the place to board a ship is there."
"It must be telling me to wait for the ship."
"So, I stood at the port and waited for the ship, and I saw one coming straight toward me."
"It used to come from the side, but I thought it was strange. As I watched, the ship didn’t slow down and came straight toward the platform where I stood."
"Is it going to crash into me?"
"The ship’s bow crashed into the platform where I was standing. But instead of me getting hit, the ship crumpled and twisted. Then, a door inside the ship appeared in front of me."
"Who’s the director here?"
"While it crumpled and the door twisted, when I pulled it, it opened without issue."
"I thought I was going to Vern City, but surprisingly, the royal palace appeared. And there was the room where Aurora had been lying."
"And indeed, Aurora is lying on the large bed inside."
"Now, Aurora is probably going to wake up and say something."
"Thinking that, I walked toward Aurora."
"But Aurora didn’t wake up. I shook her just in case, but she didn’t wake up. She’s breathing, but like everyone I’ve seen here, there’s no light, no warmth."
"I looked around."
"Up until now, all the doors had been facing the castle. If the castle isn’t visible, it means I’m inside it. So I looked out the window."
"I found the castle in the distance, visible outside the window."
"And according to the only rule I’ve seen so far, there was a door. I walked up to it «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» and opened it easily."
"I looked at Aurora once and then went inside."
"It’s Victoria’s bedroom. On the bed, like Aurora, Victoria is peacefully sleeping. The blanket is thrown far away, and the surroundings are messy."
"I absentmindedly started cleaning around and covered her with the blanket."
"The castle I had seen until now is visible through the window. In that case, I guess I should head this way."
"I opened the window, and instead of the royal academy I had seen earlier, I saw a high castle wall."
"It’s not the kingdom’s wall. It’s a bizarre, pitch-black wall."
"It’s like the darkest paint, with no sense of dimension."
"And beyond the wall, I see a white castle."
"In front of that castle wall."
"A girl is standing there, holding a long skull staff, smiling like she’s about to cry."
"It’s Hyoukesuni."
"She’s standing with the castle wall behind her, glaring at me."