Chapter 3
It was the year she turned fifteen.
Thwack!
Her eyes flew open with a loud cracking sound.
Goosebumps erupted all over her body, and her muscles tensed at the sudden noise. At the same time, a thudding sound followed. A chilling and ominous premonition ran down her spine. It was as if she already knew something without seeing anything.
No, that can’t be.
Sehyun sensed something with her sharp intuition, but she desperately tried to ignore the unease.
“Sehyun! Don’t come out of there! Just call the authorities and wait! You trust Dad, right?”
A feignedly calm voice came from beyond the door.
Her heart pounded relentlessly as soon as she heard those words.
The moment she realized that the peace she had been enjoying had been shattered, even though no one had told her.
“Dad, Dad!”
Sehyun jumped out of bed and tumbled to the floor. She tried to get up, but her legs were weak and wobbly. Like a newborn fawn, she staggered and barely managed to crawl towards the door.
Meanwhile, Sehyun frantically dialed the Guard Association with trembling hands. She hurriedly told the friendly operator her address and reported the Hole occurrence.
Then, clutching at a lifeline, she pleaded and begged them to come, her voice choked with tears. She said her parents might be in danger, that she would do anything if they saved them.
Sehyun finally grabbed the doorknob and turned it with all her might. The fear of the monsters couldn’t overcome the fear of losing her parents.
Click.
However, contrary to her desperate wish, the doorknob stopped halfway. It wouldn’t turn any further.
“Why…! Why…! Why is this happening! Dad! Dad!”
Sehyun frantically twisted the doorknob, but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t open. At that moment, her father’s words flashed through her mind like a lie.
“Sehyun, it’s unlikely, but if a monster ever appears and you can’t escape, hide immediately! Okay? Dad will protect you! You absolutely must not come out!”
“No, I’m going to Dad. We have to fight together.”
“Hey, you have to hide. Dad is a Guard, but our Sehyun is a civilian.”
“No, no. I’ll stay with Dad and Mom. Let’s run away together. I can’t run away alone.”
…So, her dad, who knew her daughter’s personality well enough to know she would rush out, had hidden her. Beyond this door, so she couldn’t come out. He probably couldn’t get out either.
“…No. No! Dad! Open the door! Please open the door!”
Sehyun experienced helplessness as she heard the sounds of something breaking, sharp, sickening screams she had never heard before in her life, and her father’s voice mixed in between.
A fool who couldn’t even open a door.
An idiot who made her dad fight alone.
“Aaaargh!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Sehyun screamed from inside. Then, as if in response, a voice reached her.
“Sehyun, Dad is a Guard! It’s okay!”
…Lies, you’re just a Support-type Guard.
The words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She just responded inwardly, only screams escaping her lips.
“It’ll be over soon, ugh!”
…Lies. You’ve never even fought before.
“A Guard will be here soon!”
…But Dad.
Why can’t I hear Mom’s voice?
“…Don’t worry, our daughter.”
…Why are you crying if you’re telling me not to worry?
“I’m sorry…”
…For what? What are you sorry for?
As his fading voice trailed off, all sounds disappeared as if it were a lie.
Sensing that everything was over, Sehyun collapsed to her knees and stared blankly ahead. Her dad’s voice was no longer audible.
“…Dad.”
She barely managed to call out with her trembling lips.
“…Mom.”
I’m scared. Someone, please answer me.
“…Why, why.”
No one answers…
The door, blurred by tears, looked like the entrance to a tomb. Sehyun, as the sole mourner, knelt and cried and cried.
And then she collapsed as if fainting.
How much time had passed? Sehyun barely opened her eyes at the loud noise and saw the people who opened her bedroom door. She didn’t need to ask who they were. They were Guards.
The Guard avoided Sehyun’s gaze as she stared at them blankly and said with difficulty, “I don’t know how to tell you this…”
“…What about my parents?”
At Sehyun’s question, the Guard looked away with a troubled expression and glanced at another Guard.
Then the other Guard approached with an annoyed look and stared at Sehyun.
“Student, I’m sorry to say this, but look at the situation. Do you think your parents are alive? We wish they were too, but there are things in this world that you can’t hope for miracles. So just wait here for a moment. We’ll tell you after we’ve sorted things out.”
The Guard gestured for her to come out, but Sehyun stood there, frozen in place.
“Hey, student.”
“…”
Sehyun frowned and looked past the Guard’s shoulder without saying a word. The balcony windows were shattered, and dust fell from the cracked walls, showing how fierce the fight had been. Sehyun’s gaze, which had been taking in everything, inadvertently landed on her bedroom door.
The reason why the door wasn’t broken despite such a fierce battle, and the reason why she couldn’t come out.
The front of the door was blocked by a dense, sticky, cobweb-like substance. It cost a fortune to make just one, and due to its practicality issues, it couldn’t get corporate investment, but they managed to salvage one sample. It was the tool her dad had talked about, saying it would come in handy someday.
He used it on this door…
To save me…
She was staring at the door with a choked feeling when she heard a voice.
“Senior, she must be in a lot of shock right now. We can’t leave this student here. We need to take her to the hospital…”
The Guard Sehyun saw first spoke up courageously to the gruff Guard.
“Tsk, this kid. Who doesn’t know that? Can’t you grasp the situation? Can’t you see something strange? There are traces of humans. Damn it, if we can’t figure out which bastards came here first and caused this mess, we’ll be in trouble later, don’t you get it?”
“But to get her eyewitness testimony, we need to take care of her mental state…”
“Are you trying to slack off from work?”
“No, sir.”
“Yes, you are. How dare a Support-type like you try to slack off? Quickly take pictures here and assess the situation. We need to do that first to release a press release. We can take care of the student after that! If you’re afraid she’ll die, just keep her somewhere visible. Ugh, damn it. There are so many places to take pictures. Why aren’t you hurrying up?”
“Yes, sir!”
After the Guards left, Sehyun lowered her gaze and stared blankly at the floor.
She couldn’t lift her eyes. The scene she had glimpsed was so gruesome and cruel that she couldn’t bear to look at it.
How could a human being, once a whole form, be torn apart like this?
After a long time, Sehyun finally moved hesitantly and slowly reached out towards a lump of flesh that lay sprawled near the door, reduced to a bloody mess.
Squish.
A disgusting sensation spread across her palm, but Sehyun couldn’t pull her hand away. She carefully scooped it up, as if afraid it might fall apart at the slightest touch.
She knew without anyone telling her.
That this was a part of her parents.
Sehyun bit her lip hard.
“Sob, sob, sob.”
But tears still seeped out from between her lips.
If I were a Guard, I wouldn’t have let them fight alone…
If I were a Guard, this wouldn’t have happened…
If I were a Guard, I could have saved them…
Just as she was vomiting out her unshed tears,
Ding.
A translucent blue window appeared in the air.
Will you answer the System’s call?
Accept or Decline
The wish she had made too late was granted too quickly, too futilely.
***
It was a few months after the incident that she first declined the System’s offer.
After the incident, she underwent several rounds of statements and psychological counseling. She had said multiple times that she didn’t need counseling, but the answer was always the same.
“It’s a procedure to increase the credibility of your statement.”
Apart from the time spent on psychological counseling and investigations, Sehyun slept like the dead. A few months later, she belatedly discovered something strange floating in her vision. It was the Guard’s window that had appeared before her on the day her father died.
Sehyun declined without much thought.
What was the point of becoming a Guard when there was no one left to protect, no one left to save?
Even if she took revenge on the monsters, it wouldn’t bring her parents back to life.
But she didn’t know back then. That she would receive the offer once a year from then on.
After declining the blue window offer six times, when the System’s seventh offer appeared in a warning red color, Sehyun stopped responding altogether.
Then, a week later, it naturally disappeared from sight.
Sehyun assumed it was automatically declined due to a timeout.
But who would have thought that she would regret it so madly today?
If only she had decided to become a Guard back then…
Would things have been different now?
“Sigh, it’s fine. It’s fine. Let’s think about it later.”
Sehyun got up and reached out to grab the suitcase she had prepared beforehand.
Thump!
Suddenly, the world shook.
Thump.
The same sound followed. No, it was a little louder. Sehyun ran her hand down the back of her neck, which was covered in goosebumps.
…It can’t be.
Sehyun instinctively denied it. She thought it couldn’t be, even though she hadn’t confirmed what it was yet. No, it shouldn’t be.
It’s different from ten years ago. Nowadays, they could predict fairly accurately where and when a Hole would appear. They said the probability of a Hole appearing earlier than the expected date was extremely low, although it could appear later.
Like fruits, Holes also needed time to ripen.
But contrary to her rational thoughts, her body dashed out the door.
Oh my