Distorted World: Studio Apartment (9)
I talked things over with Error and sorted out the timeline.
First, in the real world, Cham Yeoul had taken her own life.
Next, a Distortion Phenomenon had occurred, and a Distorted World had been created.
After that, we had been born. Error and I — Distortion Entities, the both of us.
"I'm not imagining this, right? I really am a Distortion Entity?"
Yeeah。
We'rre frieends。
Which meant...
I had never existed in the real world at all. The moment I opened my eyes in a woman's body — from the very beginning — I had already been inside the Distorted World.
The view outside the window? That scenery had been a Distortion Phenomenon too. Watching YouTube Shorts, browsing the internet, streaming? All of that had been possible as well. For reasons I still didn't understand, internet communication worked inside this Distorted World.
"..."
I was a little confused. Not enough to be shaken, though. I certainly didn't panic. Strangely enough, some instinctive part of me had already accepted it.
Doesn't feel like a lie. Normally you'd distrust it, or deny it outright... but hearing I'm a Distortion Entity, I just... kind of buy it. No resistance at all.
I put another question to Error, perfectly calm.
"If I'm a copied Distortion Entity, then everything I had on me at the start should have been copies too, right? The ID, fine — but the smartphone feels like the original, not a copy."
Cham Yeoul's YouTube account was still intact. I could log into banking apps under Cham Yeoul's name. Hell, the manager from the place she'd worked part-time had even called this phone first. Given all of that, it was hard to believe the smartphone was a copy. I said as much.
Perfeectly possiblle。
Perfeect copiess are possiblle too。
"..."
Well... fair enough. Common sense was never going to apply to a Distortion Phenomenon.
Ah。
Butt ，your belonginngs arre the originaals。
lolol
"Huh? The originals?"
Yeeah。
The originaals came heere too。
According to Error, the studio apartment itself had not been transported wholesale into the Distorted World — but Cham Yeoul, and some of her belongings, had been sent across. In other words, the originals had come here.
So why did I have Cham Yeoul's original possessions? I got an explanation for that, too. Apparently Cham Yeoul's corpse and her belongings had simply been scattered into different spaces.
The real-world studio apartment itself wasn't moved, so the one inside the drawer earlier was obviously a copied space — but the corpse in there was probably the original.
Mm-hmm. I nodded with a look that said I understood.
"But if the corpse and the original belongings came through, that means things that aren't people can fall into Distorted Worlds too..."
Yeeah。
"So the information I looked up earlier was wrong? I should search again and get it straight."
Info knownn in the reaal worlld？
I'll seaarch for you。
It's fasteer that way。
"Oh. I'd appreciate that."
So internet searches were possible too. It wasn't just that Error could enter the stream. Nice — saved me the trouble of looking it up myself.
Done。
"Already? That was fast."
I'll make a summaary and put it on your phoone。
Text surfaced across the smartphone screen. Unlike the chat, the sentences Error had uploaded as a summary were perfectly intact. This kid might actually be committing to a bit.
What is a Distortion Phenomenon?
It refers to incidents in which people are swept up and transferred during the creation of a Distorted World.
That, however, is only the representative definition. Supernatural events occurring inside Distorted Worlds, superhuman powers wielded by Distortion Entities, and all other scientifically inexplicable occurrences are collectively called Distortion Phenomena.
Furthermore, it is not only people who get swept up. Contrary to the representative definition, non-human things also get pulled in and fall into Distorted Worlds. This includes living creatures other than humans, as well as inanimate objects.
Additional Notes!
What kinds of things cross over into Distorted Worlds?
It is random. Nothing is fixed.
1. Everything — including inanimate objects — or the space itself crosses over.
2. Only living things cross over.
3. Some living things are spared, and only a few cross over.
4. All inanimate objects cross over.
5. Some inanimate objects cross over.
Hasn't everyone, at some point in their life, had something vanish as if it had simply evaporated? That might have been a Distortion Phenomenon! (Excerpted from the UrPretty blog)
6. Nothing crosses over at all.
This refers to cases where a Distorted World is created using a specific location as its motif, but nothing whatsoever is transferred into it.
After I finished the summary, I sat on the floor and talked with Error about all sorts of things. The more we talked, the fainter the possibility became that Error's story — and the reenacted past — were lies.
"So I guess ordinary Distortion Entities like me exist too."
Ordinerry？
"Well, not the looks, obviously. I mean physical ability."
¿？
"Why do you keep throwing question marks at me? My body is basically a perfectly ordinary human's. Same anatomy, I sleep, I eat, I get hungry."
As for being unnervingly calm, well... you didn't need to be a Distortion Entity for that.
Analysiss compleete。
You only have the urggess。
"Huh? Only the urges? What is that supposed to mean?"
I'll pull up an explanaation。
Reead this。
Text surfaced across the smartphone once more.
─ Does not need to sleep.
─ Does not need to eat.
─ Possesses only the urges.
─ Furthermore, On Yeoul's body does not age, and its self-regeneration is excellent. However, this is not super-regeneration.
"Is this for real?"
Yeeah。
A hollow laugh slipped out of me. Human only on the surface — underneath, a complete monster. A monster that merely impersonated a human...
......Ah.
No. No, that wasn't right. I needed to correct my phrasing. Come to think of it, what kind of monster looked like this? The proper way to think of it was as a divine being with a blessed body.
Ugly means monster. Pretty means goddess. That's just how it is.
I finished the thought, then turned my head and took in Cham Yeoul. The hologram of her lay spread-eagled on the mattress. Any moment now she would finish making her terrible decision and kill herself again. I stared at her face, then let out a long sigh.
"Haa. Anyway, finding out I'm a copied fake feels... weird. Not that I have any real aversion to it."
You'rre not faake。
Even if there wass a separaate originaal, you'rre the reaal one now。
You were distorrtted and became perfeect。
It sounded a little like comfort, and a little like something Error genuinely meant.
Distorted into perfection, huh...
In a way, that was true. The Cham Yeoul I was looking at now — less beautiful than me, and yet still overwhelmingly lovely compared to any other living thing. But I couldn't call her perfect. Close to perfect, yes, and yet something felt missing. As I'd said before, that last one percent was a shame. I would have felt the same standing over the original corpse, if I'd gotten a closer look.
I, on the other hand, was perfect. The missing one percent had been filled in. A hundred percent. Copied, then distorted, and from that process a beauty no one could deny had been born. This was probably a realm no human being could ever reach.
The originaal belonginngs transfeerring to where you arre is becausse faate recogniized you as the reaal On Yeoul。
What was this kid even saying. I told you long sentences are hard to read.
Mm. Roughly summarized: fate had acknowledged me as the real On Yeoul, and that was why the original belongings had dropped near me. That was the claim, anyway.
That's a bit much. The original belongings ending up near me was probably just coincidence.
Well. Either way. After talking with Error a while longer, I decided to fully accept that I was a Distortion Entity. As I'd said more than once, I felt no resistance. And maybe this was for the best. It wasn't as if my soul had swapped with Cham Yeoul's, and it wasn't as if I had forcibly possessed her and stolen her body. If I had taken someone else's body, the unease would probably never have gone away.
Ah. For the record, not every question had been answered. I didn't have Cham Yeoul's memories. I only had the memories of when I had been a man. So had there truly been a world in which someone called me had lived as a man? And had that man's soul possessed this Distortion Entity's body?
Or... were those memories nothing more than something the Distortion Phenomenon had fabricated? Had Cham Yeoul's own memories been distorted and injected into this body?
That question remained unanswered. Thinking about it got me nowhere. I didn't bother asking Error, either. It was a question, sure, but honestly I didn't care which was true. Knowing wouldn't change anything. All I had to do was live as who I was now.
I'm getting worn out. Thinking this hard is exhausting.
I decided to stop with the profound thoughts. The can't-be-bothered feeling was starting to roll in.
"Still, toward the end I really tried to live—"
I was done here. Time to get out of this hologram studio.
"Today I really don't want to do anything—"
I didn't leave immediately. I had to wait first. The path Error had pointed me toward was under the mattress, and to cross over I would have to lift it — except in this space, I couldn't touch a thing.
"Time to go. If I can just endure a moment of pain—"
So what was I supposed to do? I'd already heard the method from Error. At a certain moment, I would become able to touch the mattress.
"People—"
The hologram of Cham Yeoul rose from the mattress and drifted forward in a loose, swaying walk. This was the opening. The instant she left the mattress empty.
"Oh. I really can touch it now."
I could interact with the mattress. I moved it aside at a leisurely pace. And in the middle of that, my eyes met Cham Yeoul's. She had been reaching for the rope, then stopped, snapping her head around a full hundred and eighty degrees to stare straight at me.
"......"
I'd already been told about this, too. Touching the mattress counted as interfering with the reenactment. A Secondary Distortion would trigger, and the endlessly repeating reenactment would break.
Also.
"Where are you going?"
The hologram would become aware of me.
Cham Yeoul's hologram twisted grotesquely from head to toe and came toward me. I didn't need to worry about it. It wasn't dangerous, Error had said. Ignore it. It could perceive me, but it couldn't touch me.
The hologram's arm stretched out of all natural proportion and punched through my body. Naturally, I felt nothing. There had been no physical contact. Something without substance had simply passed through me.
Then again, looking at it like this, maybe it wasn't entirely harmless. A scaredy-cat could die of a heart attack.
Anyway. I finished moving the mattress aside at my leisure.
"I'm going home, you crazy bitch."
And I dropped down into the studio apartment below.