In a village south of Alina City. Specifically within a small hut built under the shades of three tall acacia trees.
The singing of cicadas from the outside temporarily stopped as faint sounds of footsteps coming from a single person graced the night. Through the thick grey clouds, the waning moon had hidden itself from the world thus no amount of moonlight peeked through the slightly open window of the only room of the hut.
It was the devil's hour.
In folklore, this time frame was also called the witching hour.
There had been numerous ghost talks and stories rumored to always happen within this span of time, in between 3:00 am to 3:59 am. It was the time of the night associated with supernatural events. In stories, this would be when witches, demons, and ghosts were thought to appear and to be at their most powerful.
Of course, many science believers vetoed this idea and labeled it as some sort of hoax passed down by witch hunters around the year
'Is she going to alter her memory after this?' he mused just before his pupils dilated after he heard her say,"...Kill them."The tone of her voice was the same. Not with the one he usually heard from her. But with the one from the memories. Cold. Unfeeling. Unnatural. It was so different from what he'd been used to so even though he had taken a glimpse of this in that vision, it still made his eyes narrowed in displeasure. It was not the unfamiliarity which made him dislike it, but something which he couldn't yet explain.While the man spectating outside reacted like that, the women within the hut quietened down, dumbfounded to hear a voice not belonging to any of them. None of them reacted until the unseen being's voice gently made way into their ears again, sending shivers up their spines."...I'm giving you all a chance," it suddenly said, slowly. Each word stressed, which within everyone's imagination had turned into something similar to a devil's w
Was she already succumbing to darkness? Falling into a muddy quagmire which would permanently entrap her underneath in this lifetime?These were the questions Agatha asked herself when she accepted the last mission for level 2 that the system had issued her.When she closed her eyes, the system's voice seemed to echo in her mind.While feeling cold all over, she watched as the last man fell dead on the floor after being stabbed in the heart repeatedly by a short-haired girl. The system then asked her if she wanted to erase the memories or leave impressions that it was alright because they're bad people and were scums of the society.To this question, she only shook her head and stayed silent.Whether to remind her of her crime or her vow, she refused its offer and decided to keep the memories and everything that came along with them. She wouldn't erase anything, to always remind herself of how in order to not die by the system's ruthless and unseen
An endless blanket of darkness.Spine-chilling silence which was sometimes broken by the cries of the cicadas and other midnight insects.And sounds of a car engine moderately speeding along a ragged, uneven dirt road.Were it not for the stretch of black in front, it would have been apparent to the passengers of this luxurious grey car that they were already near the foot of a mountain. There were no houses nearby. Through the limited illumination ahead, foliage, rocks, and trees were the normal scenery around, never the best, and was even quite spooky because it was currently the witching hours.The driver was singing along an old tune from the stereo. He was seemingly relaxed on the outside. However, his eyes were actually darting everywhere the car's headlight could reach. Inwardly, questions were endlessly pouring in his brain, most were about why a man usually staying in his presidential suite-like office or gigantic Baroque-style mans
"Sir, I am not allowed to go in. This is as far as I can escort you."The master waved at the masked man who opened the door to the room and then went in by himself. Behind him, the door closed audibly. But oddly, the middle-aged man did not appear concern as though him being sealed inside the unfamiliar and suspicious room was not in any way worrying. Nonchalance remained on his face, even after he saw the kind of place the person he drove here for was keeping."You look as crazy as always."The bearded man sitting comfortably on the sole chair in the place boringly replied, "Not always. Only after my wife died."The master looked around for anywhere to sit on, but found nothing. The place only had rows of shelves on the side housing large transparent jars filled with all sorts of organs, in which one of the specimens was interestingly a black colored large intestine. There was also a bookshelf full of thick books about anatomy and biology near the other
Conrad stared at his friend who had been reduced into a madman after his wife died. Fred used to be a high man, someone who could stand next to him. No, actually, he was way above him. As a very high-level host, he could even conquer countries and empires and declare himself a Great Emperor. And he was not stupidly making claims.However, because of love, this great man chose to retreat from the world and hide into a normal husband's disguise. And then when his beloved passed away, he chose to also retreat from the non-hosts' world, rotting away in this abandoned mental hospital. The magnate was quite sad that his friend ended up like this just because a woman he dearly loved was killed. Honestly, he couldn't understand how someone could be so deeply invested in a person not related to him by blood.He studied the doctor's tired face and then shook his head, not liking the thoughts swimming in his mind.It was when Fred unemotionally asked, "So, are you now usin
More than good decisions, people are more prone to commit mistakes throughout their lives. And Eithan did just one of them today.This happened after he advised Irene Middleton and the police about the bomber lurking around the mall.The folly of a youth who has yet to discover that most of the time, age equates knowledge and experience.He stupidly assumed that by throwing away his sim card, no one would be able to lead the message back to him. He didn't know that the network's records could be hacked, and even if the possibility crossed his mind, he assumed that there would be nothing to worry about because all he did was tipped off the police.Also, unlike the other hosts who knew they could use the system to mask delete their records or traces, Eithan knew none of it. His system AI was ultimately like its brethren with a nasty little hobby of letting their hosts discover the system's functions by themselves.Hence, he didn't know that he could
A couple of moments later, he had confirmed that he knew the person. It was someone he met once in Alina City. To be exact, at the police station there. However, unlike in his current situation where he was interrogated just because the group of people here found or created the least bit connection between him and a criminal, in Alina City Police Station he met this person through Misty, the egotistical muse of that station, and in there he was one of the acting detectives, forced to contribute ideas by that annoying woman.'What is he doing here?' he asked himself as he watched the cold-faced man approached the middle-aged officer together with the beer-bellied officer whom he assumed was one of the higher-ups.After their greetings and salutations, the two oldest men in the room talked for a while through whispers until a minute later when the fellow who came in together with Misty's brother stopped talking and the other officer turned to him in surprise.The
'What an accursed day,' he complained to himself with a face that seemed as dark as the bottom of a pot. The sun outside the station could not drive away the ominous clouds floating above his head.Truthfully, he was not yet outside of the police station. He stopped at the lobby and those rays of light which could not really alleviate his gloomy mood were merely refracted through the glass window. But actually, putting his mood dampened by all the unpleasant experiences he had within that room aside, there was another reason he said his Friday was cursed.'...What the hell is this?'Two people called out his name, and both stared at each other promptly after. However, their staring contest only lasted for two seconds and their attention went back to him.Eithan chose to turn around and faced Baron, ignoring the other. He nodded at the man in acknowledgment. After all, even though the officer did not help him much, Baron did try his best to put good words