Day One (1)

Rustle, rustle. A click. Then a rattle, a rattle, a rattle... and a snap.

BRRRRRRRING!!

...Ugh. Brrrring...

"...Oh, come on!"

I dragged myself over to the alarm clock screaming its lungs out on my desk and, with what little strength I had, mashed the stop button.

Ugh... I get into my room and the one thing I actually manage to do is set an alarm... Haaah.

I checked the clock. Six-thirty in the morning.

I was going to lose my mind.

Eyes still gummed half-shut with sleep, I scowled and glanced toward the sliding door that joined my room to my sister's. She'd poked nothing but her head through, and she was grinning at me, sweet as anything.

"You're up?"

Infuriating. Absolutely infuriating!

"..."

"Shower before you leave this morning. You went to bed without washing yesterday, didn't you?"

"...Fine..."

Crawl back into bed just because I'd woken up early, and violence would be exercised upon me all over again. Better to shower and knock the sleep out of myself.

I showered, changed into my uniform, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and it was already seven. The moment I stepped into the kitchen, Mom shot her eyebrows up in exaggerated shock.

"Oh my? Son, what's gotten into you, up so early today?"

"My sister launched a terror attack."

She must have caught how sullen I looked, because she let out a little laugh and popped a bite of freshly made geotjeori — sharp, quick-pickled greens — into my mouth.

"Good?"

"Yeah. Spicy and tangy. Wakes the appetite right up."

"Hehe. Your father says it's delicious no matter what I feed him, so asking my son is a hundred times better."

"Ahem!"

From the living room, where he'd been reading the paper, Dad's cough drifted in — as if he'd heard every word.

Dad probably said it tasted good because it actually did, though.

Anyway, I ate another breakfast steeped in Mom's care, and with a little time left over I dropped onto the living-room sofa. Mom and Dad, already buttoned into their suits, headed out ahead of me.

"Son~. We're off first, all right?"

"Have a good day."

"And you study hard at school!"

Mom really never let up.

With the two of them gone to work and my sister already out the door earlier, I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone in the house, and the place felt strangely hollow.

It was only 7:50... Maybe I'd leave a little early today. Taking the long way around was fine.

Walking my usual route to school, I caught the voices of a boy and a girl ahead of me — first-years from our school.

"Suhyeon. Did you watch the news yesterday?"

"Huh? I watched the news, yeah. Did something happen?"

"Mm. They said Phase World deaths through this March are at four million. Hearing that... it scared me a little."

"Scared of what? People die like that and the population still doesn't drop. If anything, it keeps inching up."

Right. Over two hundred and sixteen years the total dead had passed two billion, and we were still sitting on a population of six billion. That was the part that amazed me.

"But... we never know when we might get summoned. When I lie down at night that thought keeps coming back, and I'm scared..."

"Whenever you're scared, just call. I'll pick up."

...They were a couple?! Single heaven, couple hell!! Brats with the blood still wet on their heads, and they're already playing at romance!!

Tch.

I reached the school, and somehow... the place felt wrong today.

"...?"

Something was off, and I couldn't tell what. On top of that, my uniform felt tight again. I'd had it remade for third year and cut a little roomy, and yet...

No way. Have I put on weight again?!

Ugh. M-maybe I ought to eat less. Skip meals, though, and I only seemed to gain more. And if I left food unfinished, Mom would absolutely start in with "Does the food Mom made not taste good? Sob..." and cry. I could see it already.

The thought soured my face, so I smoothed it out as I stepped into the classroom. The last thing I wanted was to sit there wearing some weird expression and draw attention.

Second period was about to start when my chest began to churn. Had something from breakfast gone bad...? It didn't feel like simple indigestion.

I sighed, thinking I'd stop by the nurse's office for medicine once the period ended — and in that instant.

The back of the boy sitting in front of me rippled and swayed.

...Huh? Rippled?

Empty air began to undulate, the way a surface does when something drops into water. Startled, I whipped my head around — and it was as if ripples were spreading outward with me at their center...

In that moment, the Phase World coverage I'd seen yesterday seized my mind whole.

My heart shuddered at the sudden disaster. I tried to bolt upright, but the chair, the desk — neither would budge, as if nailed to the floor.

I couldn't stand. I couldn't get out. While I thrashed in terror, the wavering around me swelled, and the scenery began to stretch, hauled toward a single point as if someone were pulling it taut.

Through the rippling air I caught my classmates, eyes wide with shock, staring this way.

I was about to scream, sunk in panic, when every light and every edge of the world around me drew out toward one point, stretching thin...

And the world sank into darkness.

"Ugh... my head..."

I fought to hold onto my dizzy, fogged mind and looked around. Brown earth, weeds sprouting in patches, and massive trees spearing up into the sky filled my vision.

"This is... a forest?"

The dizziness was already gone, and fear came rushing in with excitement riding its heels. Honestly, the fear was a little bigger than the excitement.

I... I'd really been forcibly summoned to the Phase World...

I swallowed hard, forcing a brain that felt ready to seize into motion, and scanned my surroundings.

I strained to drag up what I'd learned in Aberrant Biology and Otherworld Survival, clutching at my chest as it started to pound, trying to steady my breath. The way my clothes clung and wound a little around my arms and legs felt like a nuisance.

The uniform had been custom-tailored when I had it remade, so the first time I put it on it had sat easy and natural... Don't tell me my body was already changing just from stepping into the Phase World?

"No, no! This is not the time!"

This was no moment to fuss over clothes. S-survival came first... The most important things were to watch out for Aberrants and secure a safe place — somewhere easy to hide, like up in a tree. That's what they'd drilled into us, right?

I swallowed and looked for a tree that would be easy to climb...

Grrrrrr.

"...Son of a... bitch..."

R-right there in front of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me. A dog... a mangy thing the size of a large breed, with a snout that went on forever. A wolf. That was a Long-snouted Lean Wolf, wasn't it? It stepped out from behind a big tree, looked at me, and growled.

I stumbled backward — and the thing started walking toward me, closer and closer...

"AAAAH!!"

...It broke into a sudden charge, so I spun around and drove both legs like I'd lost my mind!

"S-somebody save meee!!"

"Ghk— huff. Haah. Hyaaah!"

M-my heart's going to stop! Aaaah!

The thing chasing me to death, dead set on eating me, was supposed to be nothing more than a small skinny wolf with a slightly long snout — a Lowest-Rank Variant, nothing special, or so the book had it. And yet!

"This is so fucking scaaared!!"

Half out of my mind, wheezing and shrieking as I ran like a lunatic, I felt like I was about to come apart entirely.

Whether my heart burst or I got eaten, I was dead either way — but I wanted to live even a little longer, so I pumped my legs like a maniac.

Lack of oxygen should have been dulling my head, and yet somehow my brain felt like it was spinning faster than usual.

Riding that accelerated feeling, I tried to call up everything I knew about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the bastard dog chasing me to death.

It was a Long-snouted Lean Wolf, the kind in the state-designated textbook for Otherworld Biology. Shoulder height around fifty centimeters. About a meter from the tip of the snout to the hind legs. Tail roughly forty centimeters. It looked like a gaunt wolf, except the snout alone ran about one and a half times longer than a normal wolf's.

But that wasn't the problem.

Why was it so fast?! This was nothing like what the book taught!!

Keong-keong! Awoooorororot!!

"AAAAAH!!!!"

The dog ranked at the very bottom of the Aberrant list was supposed to be so pathetic — stamina, endurance, even its burst of speed — that if you ignored the snout, you'd wonder whether it even counted as an Aberrant at all.

"Then why is it chasing me this wellllll!!"

Chrrrr-heeheeheek!

They said an ordinary adult man, assuming he had a club as thick as his forearm, could beat the thing to death. They said it was skinny, and that its running speed was something an ordinary adult man could pull away from at a full sprint!!

They said its endurance was so poor it fell short of an ordinary adult man's!!

They said an ordinary adult man could escape anytime he liked, or climb a tree and get clear of it!!!

"Then why is it so faaaaast!!"

I could feel spit running along my lips and dripping off my chin.

My tear ducts were getting worked over — tears streaming, snot streaming — and between my heart slamming itself sore and my lungs seizing up, I could barely breathe. The world in front of my eyes wouldn't stop shaking.

Chwihi-riririk!!

The thing's cry rang out as if to tell me to quit running and get eaten quietly, and it was scary enough to make me cry.

W-was just running really going to be enough?

I racked my spinning brain for some way to deal with it, but all that circled in my head were the words of that damned butterball of a teacher.

Back in class, the teacher who'd explained this bastard dog — a bigger pig than I was — had said:

"At this level, even I could take one down, so don't be scared. Pick up anything that can serve as a weapon and fight. Show them your back and beasts only get bolder, and then they're harder to handle."

I'd believed that was the truth, and I loathed myself for being stupid enough that I wanted to punch my past self. Right now I felt like I could grab that teacher by the collar and shake him until his teeth rattled.

He could take something like that down?! With a body that poured sweat and started wheezing if he moved an inch?! Now that I was actually facing it, I was shaking so hard I couldn't even think about standing my ground — and he was going to beat this bastard dog to death barehanded, with that fat body of his?!

Think about it. Even a medium-sized dog, never mind a large one, makes a person's knees go weak when it comes barking and charging. And this thing was large-breed sized! Lift its head and that skull would come up to my chest!! If it so much as jumped, that snout would casually crunch straight through my head!

...That's what I wanted to spit right into that teacher's face.

"Haah, huff! Hek! Hhehk!"

Chwiriri-rerel!!

Whatever my head was thinking, my body had slipped its control. I pumped my legs like mad, dodging trees that rushed up at me, crashing through the occasional thicket and leaping over it.

My body didn't feel like my body. Normally, try me at a hundred-meter dash and I'd fold and stop moving...

If I had a few minutes — even one single minute of breathing room...! If I had even a little room, I could climb one of the trees around me and shake this bastard dog...

Even now, the breath it was spilling seemed to tickle the nape of my neck. I didn't have the strength to spare for a look back. Just running felt like it would kill me.

My heart felt ready to burst, and I couldn't swallow, so froth spilled down my lips in a stream. Sweat off my forehead ran into my eyes and stung, but the thought that one slip and my life ended right here made me endure it with everything I had.

Chwiriri-hihek. Hiriri-hihehek, hek! Hek.

But listening to the sound coming from behind, that dog was panting too. It seemed just as close to its limit as I was.

"Pffk—ghk, hurgh, kuh!"

The thought that it and I had the exact same pathetic, bottom-tier stamina made a lunatic laugh try to crawl out of me.

Anyway, it was a little different from the book — but once I realized that bastard dog had stamina every bit as garbage as mine, a little courage stirred. Not that I had so much as an eyelash's worth of desire to fight a mad dog like that.

Come to think of it, wasn't it already impressive that I hadn't just locked up in panic and started stammering?!

But my legs were slowly slipping free of my brain's control, the strength draining out of them. Keep on like this and they'd tangle on their own and I'd face-plant.

I had no idea how wide or deep this forest was, and there was no guarantee this easy running ground would hold. On top of that, there was no way the only Aberrant out to eat me was the bastard dog on my heels.

So right now, somehow, I had to think of something that would turn this around.

But how was I supposed to handle a wolf sporting teeth that vicious? My only weapons were bare fists and two legs, and in raw violence that bastard dog had me beat. It had sharp teeth in its snout and claws on its feet, and I had no weapon at all!

If I was going to fight, shouldn't I at least have one decent wooden club? Going barehanded against something like that was way too harsh a penalty! I was confident I'd lose all one hundred times out of a hundred!

Those bastards they called heroes in the firsthand accounts at least had the stamina, the build, the muscle — so of course they'd had the nerve to go toe-to-toe with monsters.

I thought back over the ability-user accounts I'd secretly read during class, but in a situation like this, running for my life, anything resembling sound judgment...

"Wasn't in there!!"