"She's... As you know, she's 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 her third year of high school?"
"Yes, she's about to take the college entrance exam. She'll see a 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, she rembered an overheard conversation. A high school senior, a minor, and an 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 introduce myself. My na is Yoon Autumn, I'm a senior at Saebom Girls' High School, and I recently awakened as an S-level Spiritual Awakening. My abilities are ...."
I looked at the glowing fragnt floating in her palm. For a mont, the blackness seed to flicker and then disappear.
"You are looking at the comfort of the world."
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 her neck, choking her breath. Yun Autumn's pale face grew slightly pale. But she took a deep breath and spoke calmly.
"If there were another world, would you believe in it?"
"......"
I did not answer. Yoon Autumn smiled bitterly for so reason.
"I... every ti 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 sa na and face, but there are many cases where they look like different people. When I look... it's as dizzying 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 dyed with many colors and glittered. I silently watched the scene. The golden eyes turned to .
"J."
"......."
"The end of this world will co soon."
The Apocalypse. I rembered hearing that word recently. A group pursued by Lee Sa-young. Secret people releasing drugs to awakeners and artificially creating awakeners. They said they were doing it to prevent the apocalypse.
Autumn closed her eyes tightly, then opened them and continued.
"All the things I saw in my dreams... they were fragnts, shards of a world that had already ended. 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 find it easy to believe. I may look like a crazy kid. I think there's a reason why J is hiding his identity like this. I didn't want to co either. But... but I have no choice but to say so."
Autumn's youthful face showed a look of determination.
"I'll tell you straight, I... I want to stop the apocalypse, J."
"......"
"I know the end is coming, but I've just been sitting on the sidelines... I don't want to lose the things that matter to without being able to do anything about it."
Autumn held out her hand, glittering like a kaleidoscope.
"Please look at what I saw."
"......"
"Please."
And I could never refuse a hand like that.
After a long sigh I took the cold hand. For a mont, my eyes went far away and I felt like I was being carried away sowhere.
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 quiet and ominous. And familiar.
Had I returned to the Incheon Rift?
No, I haven't.
I was in a Haejang-guk house holding Autumn's hand until just before. This must be the place Yoon Autumn saw. I looked up, ignoring the fishy taste of blood on my tongue. Instead of black holes, there were white swirls in the white sky. A fragnt of a world where the apocalypse had co and gone. A familiar space.
Endless white nights.
There is no night in the apocalypse.
A thud. A thud. An indescribable fear filled my heart. I took a deep breath and looked around. The intermittently flickering sign for a karaoke bar, the unlit hair salon, the cafe. Familiar and unfamiliar, all blurred by the white ash. I took a step.
Within a few steps I could see soone rummaging through the ruins in a padded coat full of white ash. I approached in silence. At that mont, the man who was rummaging through the ruins looked back. It was Yoon Autumn, who seems to be in her early 20s after aging a bit. Anyway, there were dried tears on her face that had not been cleaned.
Did she see ? No, can she see ? I was nervous. But Autumn's gaze passed by and turned further away. There were thin-limbed, blind white monsters roaming the streets, flapping their wings.
Kuaang! White dust rose with a huge bang. The dust settled to reveal a monster in agony with a huge spear piercing its heart.
Kiiiiieeeenngggg-
A deep voice stifled the unpleasant scream.
"Yoon Autumn."
She was strangely changed and had a voice that could not be asured by age. But at the sa ti, I was used to it. Of course I was. It was my voice I used to hear when I was J.
I also turned my head to follow Autumn. It was a young man in a black suit and a black mask, erging from silence and fear. The only black being in the world when everything was covered in white ash. J swung a spear and knocked the monster to the ground. The monster, swinging its arms and legs, soon stopped moving.
It walked without hesitation, but silently.
I swallowed my saliva as I saw J coming closer and closer. But to make it even more exciting, he didn't even see , he walked right through .
J reached out for Autumn.
"What are you doing here? 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 just wanted to look around a bit more... I guess I ca all the way here."
"....."
J crouched 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, covered in white ash. The destruction is still.
"...."
J and Yoon Autumn should have known there were no survivors; they're both S-rank, so their keen senses shouldn't have missed it. But instead of telling them that it was useless, J nodded.
"Let's take a quick look then."
"Can I do that?"
"Yes. I can handle it if the monster cos out and there might be survivors we haven't found yet."
J got up from his seat with a huge spear slung over his shoulder as if it were not heavy. He turned and looked back at Autumn.
"By the way, it's a secret for Sa-young."
"What?"
My eyes, which I saw for the first ti, opened a little. 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 widened, and the appearance of J and Autumn beca distant. Sothing was superimposing the landscape before in real ti. The collapsed streets turned dark gray, and then another room appeared.
The place I arrived at this ti was a huge library. However, half of the bookshelves were broken or tilted, and the books seed to have forgotten their original use as they were poured onto the floor.
Since this was Autumn's first ti in the library, I stood next to her again.
Compared to the street, where there was no sign of popularity or life, there were many more people here. There were also many injured people. People were busy running around, treating the injured and clearing the debris. I think I'm in a place called Base Camp, which J ntioned in the scene I saw earlier.
Autumn was moving around the library, picking up books and tidying up. I followed her and looked around and suddenly saw In-young, the Sacraman, standing still as if separated from the complex interior.
Disheveled black hair, cool violet eyes, full lips and a mole beside them. A black leather coat that ca up to his knees and black gloves. A long sword at his waist, if I rember correctly.
"....."
It's Lee Sa-young.
The face was a bit more mature than the one I knew, but it was unmistakable. And the long sword at his waist looked like the fangs of a basilisk I had picked up in the Incheon Rift.
I stared at the projection as if possessed by sothing. But the purple eyes...
"...there is definitely a shortage of dicine."
"I think we should visit the hospital in Gyeonggi-do, J. Is that possible?"
"Mmm... Well, I'll go."
I grabbed J who was talking to one of the campers.
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