Chapter 338: Orb of Wishes (2)
Sunlight poured down on Sinchon Station Plaza.
A girl took a seat among the rows of chairs lined up there.
She was a girl whose short-cropped hair accentuated her features.
While the sight of people bustling about under the hot sun seemed peaceful, the girl’s heart was not.
The short-haired girl had come to Seodaemun-gu following the words of a suspicious man she met in a dream.
The man’s words that a ‘festival’ would soon begin kept echoing in her mind.
But no matter how much she looked around, she couldn’t see anything special.
There were no signs of the ‘Object’ she was searching for.
“Haah…”
A sigh escaped her lips out of frustration.
At that moment, she suddenly recalled the rules of the ‘festival’ the man in her dream had told her.
‘If you eat or possess an orb, you can participate in the festival.’
‘If you take all of someone else’s orbs, you’re the winner of the festival.’
‘You must not tell others about the festival.’
They were simple rules that were easy to remember.
But with just those rules, it wasn’t clear what she was supposed to do.
Just as she was about to get up from her seat, the short-haired girl’s phone began to ring.
When she checked, it was a familiar number she’d been seeing often lately.
It was the detective in charge of the recent ‘Cognitive Ability Loss Incident’.
“Hello? Detective?”
As the girl answered the phone like that, a slightly flustered voice came through.
[Ah, good thing you could answer. I wanted to ask you about some investigation results we just uncovered. Do you have a moment?]
“Yes, that’s fine.”
[It seems your sister visited Seongbuk-gu about 3 months ago. Have you heard anything about why?]
Just as the girl was about to answer the detective’s question, all sounds began to feel increasingly distant.
[Some victims have records of visiting Seongbuk-gu at different times, you see.]
[You don’t know? Well, if you remember anything, please let me know.]
Moreover, even though the girl hadn’t said anything, the detective was speaking as if he had heard a response.
And when the call ended, an alien landscape greeted the girl.
A sky filled with a checkerboard pattern.
A fog that devoured all sunlight, making it impossible to see even a foot ahead.
As if the fog swallowed sound as well as light, her hearing grew increasingly muffled.
In that moment, the short-haired girl instinctively knew.
That the ‘festival’ had begun.
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