Illusory Memories
—Kyaaah! A woman's scream pierced the air.
—Fuck! You fucking bastards! Yeji!
—Get lost, you shits! Hyungnim! Hyuuung! Give it up! It's too late, you know that!
—Let go! Let me go, you fucking dogs! Yeji! Yeji! Men's curses echoed alongside.
—Screeech! Tires skidded to a halt.
—Thud! Something crashed.
Rustling on the bed, I opened my eyes and thought, 'So this is how it works.'
March 3rd. Memories of the day of ruin.
Did the seventh remnant, the one that interferes with the human mind, show past memories like this?
But.
'Is this really the seventh remnant's power?'
I let out a sigh.
Truth be told, it didn't matter whose power it was.
'Whether seventh or ninth...'
It was dangerous either way.
As I thought that, my vision blurred.
No, the world was blurring.
Time could never be turned back, after all.
'...If I could go back, would it even be good?'
Besides, I didn't even want to go back.
...And with that, the world spun once around.
I opened my eyes.
There I was, sitting at the familiar computer in my hometown home.
"Junyoung-ah!"
A familiar voice called out. One I hadn't heard in quite a while—actually, a long time.
"Take this photo out for me. Mom took it outside."
Mom stood beside me, showing me a KakaoTalk photo as she spoke.
Mom. The woman whose hobbies were photography and drawing.
Was this memory from a few years ago, that spring day when she took photos with Dad in front of the cherry blossoms?
What had I said back then?
I remembered grumbling a bit.
'Yeah. I was annoyed because of remote work.'
The memory resurfaced. That was when I was working, right in the middle of remote work due to COVID, snapping at Mom.
'I regretted it later and took her out for something tasty.'
So, since this was a dream, maybe I should do the opposite.
I closed Excel and the Doosan program, opened KakaoTalk, and said, "Got it. But you're pretty; the flowers are meh."
Mom's face lit up with a big smile.
"Right? Mom doesn't like flowers much either, but we took it together with Dad."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, your dad hates getting his photo taken."
That was true. Whenever Dad went out, he always left the family behind and went far away.
"Send it over first. On Kakao."
"Already did."
It showed in the photo: Mom beaming brightly. Dad looking annoyed beside her.
But Dad's face held affection beneath the annoyance.
'Yeah, that's how it was.'
I sighed, gazing at their faces after so long.
Dad, always charging toward his goals.
Mom, always looking around at her surroundings.
I was their child.
Staring at the photo, I said to Mom, "It came out nice."
"Right? It's the first time Mom and Dad took one like this. Hurry up and print it."
Her urging voice.
I grumbled needlessly, because I missed her.
"This printer's from Yuseong Corp; it's slow."
"It's slow 'cause it's old."
"Wait. Just wait."
"Aww."
Whirr... The sluggish printer hummed to life.
I was your son, inheriting exactly half of each of your personalities.
Advancing forward but always looking back.
Not charging solely toward a goal like Dad, nor constantly scanning the surroundings like Mom.
That's why, even as I searched for you both, I always took care of the people around me.
From Jeong Suhyun to Kim Yunjin, Kim Jungshik, and the rest.
But still.
"Mom."
"Yeah?"
"I'm waiting."
"What're you saying? Hurry and print it."
"Just... yeah."
Whirr... The photo emerged from the printer: Mom and Dad smiling in front of the cherry blossoms.
"What? Don't talk like your dad."
"Yeah."
This time, I wanted to be a bit more like Dad than Mom.
Discarding everything for the sole purpose, charging ahead.
But I was neither Mom nor Dad.
That's why.
'I'll get it all.'
The people, and my parents too.
Crunch.
"Junyoung-ah?"
I clenched my fist tight.
Anger surged toward that remnant bastard showing me this, making my resolve waver needlessly.
Since it was all fake anyway, I planned to smash it all.
'Hah.'
But then.
As if sensing my intent, like before, the world warped again.
Mom's shocked face looking at me was the last thing I saw before my vision went dark.
Blink.
'Back?'
I blinked.
The familiar sight returned: Hanamart. And the humidity.
My body was fine.
Just.
'What a mess.'
I sighed, eyeing the countless hanging bodies visible from outside.
Victims of the seventh—or ninth?
'Seventh or ninth.'
Yeah. While confirming that, I locked eyes with something and saw the hallucination.
'What was it.'
Something pulled a trick, but I wasn't sure.
Then.
From the far end of the third floor above, a face and hand poked out.
A long hand. A grotesquely shaped face.
'...That.'
A body four times human size. A face four times human size.
The problem: the whites of its eyes were entirely red, and its mouth torn to the ears.
"......"
"......"
I stared it down briefly.
But it seemed to lack attack power, just gazing at me before slinking away stealthily.
Probably the seventh remnant.
"Ice Spear."
But I had no intention of letting it go.
My Ice Spear manifested instantly, bursting its head.
Splatter!
Splash!
Exploding head.
And.
Thud!
The massive body plummeted to the first floor below.
I sighed, looking at it.
'...Big.'
I'd roughly expected it, but this confirmed it as the seventh remnant.
That explained the hallucination I'd seen.
'No combat ability, just mind interference.'
The seventh remnant. A domain monster.
Like Bae Sungkwan before, it imposed restrictions on human minds.
Something activated inside, turning people violent under its influence.
A monster that, through continued hallucinations, altered the human psyche somehow.
'Sigh.'
But knowing that gained me nothing.
The ninth had fled into the seventh's domain, and I'd lost time chasing it.
'Fortunately, traces remain.'
I checked behind me, tracing the remnant's path.
Even if it headed to other remnants, I could just smash them like this seventh one.
I had to follow anyway.
'This area's the urban Mirae Department Store.'
Tsk.
Recharge mana and go slow? Or rush?
'But...'
Then, my gaze drifted to the monster's corpse.
'Come to think of it.'
At the previous Mirae Children's Hospital, it had disguised itself as human corpses.
So, maybe I could disguise using its corpse too.
'Suspicion debuff wastes mana, though.'
I didn't get why it died in one hit.
Mind interference didn't mean zero combat ability.
"Ice Spear."
Thud!
Splatter!
So I stabbed an Ice Spear into its corpse.
The remnant's body twitched like it was alive for a moment.
Then.
Wriggle.
The monster's corpse writhed.
And.
Crunch... crunch...
Flesh filled the corpse, forming a massive shape.
The huge lump I'd seen at Mirae Apartments before.
'There it is.'
No, disguising as a corpse twice?
It made sense. No one would expect the same trick two or three times in a row.
'Clever.'
The massive lump floated above the mart, dripping black blood as it stared at me.
And.
...!?$@@$!?
It spoke to me.
But I couldn't understand a word.
!!!!!!
Then it absorbed the figures on the third floor—crunch crunch—filling itself with flesh.
"...Ice Spear."
Splatter!
But I didn't let it be.
Ice Spear exploded, shattering the swelling flesh.
Splash!
Splat!
Flesh chunks fell from the lump, black blood bursting.
Splatter!
Black blood sprayed all the way to me.
Drenched in it, I summoned an ice shield.
The ice shield dropped onto the floating flesh lump from above.
Crack crack crack!
Thud!
But the flesh didn't move, frantically filling itself.
I squeezed out my remaining mana, summoning more ice shields.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The flesh orb neither moved nor fled like before.
But I didn't stop.
No matter what it was, it was something I had to eliminate.
Boom!
The final ice shield embedded.
How much time passed?
Crack.
The flesh orb cracked with a sound, precisely bisected.
What appeared inside... countless human-shaped things.
Aaah!
Aaah!
They screamed in agony from within.
But they weren't human.
Their faces were blank, faceless—like the ones I knew.
Which meant this massive thing was definitely the ninth remnant I'd been tracking.
'...Tough bastard.'
But it wasn't dead yet.
Even bleeding black blood, the faceless human forms writhed.
'No idea why it's not fleeing.'
I just kept stabbing it with Ice Spears.
And when my mana was nearly depleted, raising my pickaxe.
[Defeated the Ninth Ruin Remnant.]
[Acquired the Ninth Ruin's Oracle.]
But.
Aaah!
Aaah!
No time to check the status window.
'Fucking...'
From everywhere in Saseoldong, identical flesh orbs I'd killed rose into the sky.
Human screams echoed from all directions.
'Yeah.'
Of course.
I scanned the surroundings.
The area with the fewest flesh orbs.
I quickly used Frost Blink.