Chapter 337: Orb of Wishes (1)
A girl lay collapsed in a faint darkness.
Tired-looking eyes, worn school uniform, and neatly trimmed short hair.
In that darkness, the short-haired girl’s eyelids fluttered.
The girl opened her eyes and looked around.
“This dream again.”
She had been having the same dream repeatedly.
A dream that repeated over and over, as if she wished to set foot in this world again and again.
A world where the sun had disappeared.
Instead, a massive ring of light illuminated the world.
Beneath that halo, huge buildings with a religious feel, like temples or cathedrals, soared into the sky as if to pierce it.
“Haa.”
As the short-haired girl sighed, the sticky air that filled this space entered her lungs.
In this strange space, the girl always met a man.
[Young lady, you’ve come again today.]
A deep voice resonated, cutting through the darkness.
The short-haired girl looked at the owner of that voice.
A face much younger than the voice suggested, but his eyes carried the weight of many years.
[The festival to achieve wishes, to seize desires, will begin soon.]
He continued speaking.
[Today, you must make your decision.]
The short-haired girl’s heart began to race.
She knew.
That this moment would determine her fate.
The man slowly extended his hand towards the girl.
On his palm rested a small orb.
Smaller than a candy, it glowed faintly in the darkness.
[This is the key to your wish.]
His voice resonated deeply.
[The choice is yours.]
The short-haired girl’s gaze fixed on that small orb.
Swirling with colors like a captured galaxy, it was indescribably beautiful.
But at the same time, a strange unease welled up in a corner of her heart.
The words the suspicious man had spoken when they first met still seemed to echo in her ears.
‘[The reward of this festival can even resurrect the dead.]‘
‘It’s unsettling.’
The girl bit her lip.
Such things couldn’t be given without a price.
But deep in her heart, an intense desire stirred.
That desperate wish that kept her trapped in this dream.
The man had said that only those who truly wanted to achieve something could come to this place.
In other words, her very presence in this dream was proof of that desire.
[Are you still hesitating?]
The man’s voice resonated once more, cutting through the darkness.
His eyes held understanding, sympathy, and something even deeper.
[Then all the more reason to take this orb. See for yourself with your own eyes.]
The short-haired girl’s hand began to move slowly, very slowly.
In that moment, as if time had stopped, countless thoughts whirled through her mind.
Was this truly the right choice?
But her hand was already reaching for the orb.
The moment her fingertips touched the orb, the world began to spin.
She was gradually drifting away from the dream.
A strange space detached from the world.
Oddly, it looked like a giant funnel, drawing things in like an antlion’s pit.
Breaking the heavy silence of the hospital room, the girl’s eyelids slowly opened.
Under the fluorescent lights, familiar white walls and medical equipment came into view.
It was her sister’s hospital room, where she had been staying for months.
The short-haired girl slowly raised her head to look at the bed.
There lay her sister, still motionless.
It had been months since she was suddenly hospitalized for cognitive impairment.
Time had passed with doctors unable to find the cause.
Realizing she had fallen asleep hunched over by the bed, the girl slowly sat up.
At that moment, she felt something cold in her palm.
The girl opened her hand in surprise.
There was a small, round orb.
It looked exactly like the orb she had seen in her dream.
As if proving that dream wasn’t just a simple dream.
The short-haired girl clutched the orb tightly as she looked at her sister.
‘Sis. There might be a way. I’ll go and see for myself.’
Faint dawn light began to seep through the window.
It was light heralding the start of a new day, but to the girl, it meant something more.
It felt like the light of hope that everything could change now.
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