The Severed Landscape Beyond the Village (2)

The scenery outside the village was severed. The road—no, space itself.

Like black flesh sliced by a razor-sharp blade, the space right in front of the car was cleanly cut off.

I reached out and touched it lightly, but it felt like an invisible barrier blocked me; I couldn't push my hand any further.

"Mom, what is that? Why's it all black up ahead?"

"Uh, y-yeah, Mom doesn't know either. It just... suddenly appeared."

A pitch-black segmented space.

Black-sliced... chunks of space-flesh.

I felt a bizarre compulsion to peer deeper into that void.

"It's dark...?"

Really?

Is that inside really just pure, empty blackness?

The more I focused my eyes, the clearer things became. The black space twisted grotesquely, like a festering wound.

Beyond the boundary shrouded in thick fog of foreboding and chaos, the void appeared hazy—like the face of a corpse buried in a dust pit.

Gulp...

I wanted to see it closer.

This wasn't the same as my parents' Altered Common Sense "gluttony" at all. It wasn't some external force puppeteering me; it was pure instinct, a gut feeling that uncovering what lay there would hold massive significance for my journey ahead.

I pressed my forehead hard against the severed transparent wall and widened my eyes.

Just a few centimeters closer, and I could see it clearly: the space inside resembled the gaping wound of a dead creature, exposing bizarre shapes.

"Fuck..."

Wriggle—wriggle—

Grotesque flesh undulated. A horrific liquid of dark red blood and mucus flowed through it.

Faintly visible, unidentified organ-like tissues sprawled across the floor, writhing as if each had a will of its own. The unnatural twitching of things that couldn't possibly be alive was utterly ominous.

Yet I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Some kind of information was injecting itself into my mind from the sight.

'God... God's... husk...'

What the hell does that mean...?

Forcing strength into my blurring vision, I refocused on the nauseating scene.

An endless expanse of black space carpeted with flesh and entrails. Along the edges, it writhed like living tissue, swelling and then sagging silently, sliding in repetition—a human-skin rug.

A foul stench wafted in.

The distant, muffled sound of flesh slapping against flesh seemed to echo.

The stench clawed into my nostrils and burrowed into my brain. Each molecule carried like a parasite, burrowing into my cells, implanting something grotesque.

But not yet. I still couldn't look away.

More... I need to see more.

A fierce certainty gripped me: this scene I was witnessing was limited information, something I'd never get even if I came back to the exact same spot next time around.

'Chaos... crawling... chaos...?'

Another fragment seeped in, and a creeping headache began.

Unfamiliar words scrambled my mind at random.

At the same time, the vision faded out and faded in, revealing a new scene.

All of them screamed the same thing.

People.

Those things were people.

'The Altered Common Sense abominations were originally people...?'

I couldn't judge exactly what I was seeing, but it felt like I was peering into the past—the day Altered Common Sense first invaded.

A little closer... just a bit more, and I'd grasp exactly what happened. But time wasn't on my side.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Grrruuuh..."

"Hahk...! Hahk...!"

The final piece of information stabbed violently into my brainstem.

...This boundary separating our village from the outside wasn't an obstacle to keep me from escaping.

No—this was a ward.

A barrier isolating the village from the external world, preserving at least a semblance of reality.

Without this spatial severance, our village would have long since become that same hellscape.

But why? Who?

Who isolated this village from the crawling chaos...?

In an instant, the headache became unbearable.

"Grraaahhh, gaaaaahhh...!"

It felt like my skull had been cracked open, my brain yanked out, pulverized in a mortar, and the mush jammed back inside.

As I trembled uncontrollably, losing my grip on consciousness, Su-hee and Jia rushed over, grabbed my arms, and laid me on the ground.

"O-Oppa! Wh-what's wrong! What's happening!!"

"Yuhan! Snap out of it! What's going on!?"

"Kehhk! Guhhekk!"

Shiver-shiver-shiver

Couldn't they... see it?

Did they only see a black void?

Couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they sense what lurked beyond that black curtain?

"Grrruuuh..."

I blacked out right there.

"Uuu... uhuuk... hwaaaang... Oppa... Oppa, wake up... uuuh..."

My head throbbed.

"Ugh... J-Jia, my head hurts—don't yell..."

"Heek!? O-Oppa!! Ah, ah...! Hic...! Hic...! U-uh... y-yes... I'll be q-quiet... hnk..."

I opened my eyes and looked around at an unfamiliar ceiling.

Not a hospital—looked like a regular home...

Makes sense in this fucked-up world; proper hospitals might not even exist anymore.

Who knows? Walk into one, and it could be dark corridors filled with grotesque nurses in miniskirts swinging syringes and scissors.

"Haa... aigoo, my head..."

"Hnk... Oppa... d-does it hurt...?"

Her constant hiccuping was annoying, so I just pulled her into a hug.

"Hoet!?"

That should stop the crying.

Damn, my head's killing me, so why do I have to comfort this girl?

"Jia, give me a Suggestion like 'You don't feel pain.' I'll allow this one as an exception."

"Y-yes, okaaay... haaaut... Oppa won't feel any pain nowww..."

The headache vanished in an instant.

What a convenient power.

"Good girl. Such a good job~"

"Ehet! Huhi♡ Love your voice, Oppa...♡"

She was still shuddering occasionally, but at least the crying stopped. Time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to ask what happened.

"Jia, where are we? What went down?"

"Uuum... sooo... Oppa stood staring at that weird black space for a while, then started shaking and collapsed..."

"That's it?"

"Y-yeah... Mom wanted to go to the hospital, but I stopped her. Too many things there even I couldn't handle..."

Figured as much.

Even in a normal world, hospitals are hotbeds of ghost stories. In this insane one? Forget it.

"So where's here? Mom's place?"

"Yup! Mom brought you to her mansion. Our house has those three weird things, after all..."

So what was Su-hee doing now?

As I wondered about Su-hee, the door opened.

"Oh! Yuhan... ahem, son awake?"

She held a damp cloth—probably for my forehead.

"I'm fine now. Thanks, Mom."

"Of course. You can rely on Mom more."

That wasn't an invitation to play family; it was her asking what I saw that made me collapse.

"...I still don't fully get it. But let's head back to school first. What I saw at the Village Boundary, those bizarre entities from my dream, and the worship ritual in the classroom—they all feel connected."

Jia and Su-hee tilted their heads.

Makes sense; they couldn't share my intuitive hunch.

Anyway, no more headache—time to return to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠school.

"We're students now, so no problem wandering the school after hours with Mom, right?"

"Hmm... yeah. Doesn't violate any school rules."

Perfect.

"Mom, let's head to school right now then."