[Those who have just seen the future of the world's destruction. Gather in the chat room below.]
[Platform: Decide.]
[Title: Witness.]
[Password: 0307.]
[I shall broadcast it once again.]
[Those who have just seen the future of the world's destruction. Gather in the chat room below.]
[Platform: Decide.]
[Title: Witness.]
[Password: 0307.]
"......"
The boy blankly opened his eyes.
He had medium-length hair and an androgynous look that fit the image of the nerdy type girls often talked about.
His languid eyes made him seem like the sort who lived absorbed in a world of his own, while his gentle expression made him seem like the sort who could laugh off just about anything.
The boy slowly sat up in his small, seven-pyeong studio apartment.
First, he reached out, pulled back the curtains, and opened the window.
The wall of the building right next door came into view.
Hardly any sunlight could enter, but it was at least a window through which he could somehow air out the room.
The boy sat back down on his bedding.
He turned on his phone.
The date was March 7.
The time was 11:11 a.m.
"......"
The boy blankly began downloading the Decide app onto his phone.
It was described as the chat app used by more people than any other in the world.
The boy launched the downloaded app.
He entered his username and password.
A message appeared saying they were incorrect.
"I should have a username here......"
The boy changed his password and entered it again.
A message appeared saying that his account would be locked if he got the password wrong three more times.
"Did it require numbers, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and special characters......?"
Only then did he manage to log in.
"This is why I......"
Remembering why he did not use this app, the boy lay back down on his bedding.
"I mean, it is a little strange to look for a chat room because of something I heard in a dream......"
He muttered to himself as though he wanted someone to understand what he was doing.
"Oh?"
There really was a chat room titled Witness.
There were four people in it.
The boy tapped the room, and a message appeared asking him to enter a password.
He entered the password he had heard in his dream.
"0, 3, 0, 7."
He entered the chat room.
"What is this?"
The boy moved his fingers with an incredulous smile.
[Hello.]
The boy greeted the chat room.
[Si Haseol? Are you Korean?]
Someone whose profile picture showed stylish hands straightening the tie of a black suit replied.
[Yes, yes. I am Korean.]
[We decided to use English as the common language now, so you should use English too.]
[I am not very good at English. Should I leave if I get in the way?]
[No, then we will proceed in Korean for now.]
[All right.]
Still lying on his bedding, the boy continued typing into the chat.
[But what are we proceeding with? What do people do in this chat room?]
[Didn't you come in after hearing the voice?]
Someone with a cute magical-girl illustration as their profile picture asked him in return.
[I did. I had a dream and came in, but strangely enough, I got the password right too.]
[Ah, should I just leave if I am making you uncomfortable?]
After leaving that message, the boy prepared to leave the chat room.
[No, wait a moment.]
The magical girl stopped him.
[What is your occupation?]
[I......]
The boy typed haltingly until he finished his message.
[I graduated from high school a year ago.]
"Nngh."
The young man lowered his head as if embarrassed.
[A year ago? What are you doing now?]
[I am looking for a job.]
[Does that mean you are unemployed?]
[That is right?]
[Hmm. Are you concealing your true identity?]
[What? I laid it all out.]
The young man typed in bewilderment.
[I revealed it to the point of embarrassment.]
"Agh, why am I typing this in the first chat room I joined?"
Embarrassed, the young man repeatedly kicked at the bedding with his feet.
[Ah~, I get it.]
[Even though we can guess from your profiles, you are talking like that because you want us to speak honestly first.]
Someone with a profile picture of a bat giving a thumbs-up said.
"......It does not seem like they understand at all."
The young man closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again in embarrassment.
[Then I will go first.]
The speaker's profile picture was the sort of keyring one might buy on a middle-school field trip, with a sword coiled by a snake.
[I am Myun. I am the Fairy King.]
[?]
The young man briefly sent a question mark.
[I am Shura Klissen, a werewolf known as the King of the Moon.]
The person with the suit profile picture said.
[??]
This time, the young man sent more question marks.
[My name is Eska Flynn. I am a human known as the King of Mages.]
The person with the magical-girl profile picture spoke.
[???]
The question marks the young man sent kept increasing.
[I am Bisan. I am a vampire known as the King of the Night.]
[????]
The young man sent even more question marks.
[Um, is it my turn?]
He typed into the chat awkwardly.
[I am Si Haseol, a human, and unemployed.]
[?????]
[?]
[???]
[......?]
Even more question marks streamed up the chat window.
[Ah, do I have to stay in character too?]
[Is this a chat room where people play like that?]
[Please explain. Ahahaha.]
[Haha.]
[......]
Haseol awkwardly typed into the chat window, then stopped.
[Hey. Where do you live?]
Shura, the person with the suit profile picture who had called himself a werewolf, asked.
[You live in Korea, right? Tell me your address.]
[What? Why do you need my address?]
[Whoever is closest to Korea, go meet this guy.]
[I will go myself.]
Eska, who used the magical-girl profile picture and was said to be the King of Mages, replied.
[You are coming to meet me?]
[Me?]
[Why?]
[Ah~, you do not need to tell me your address. I will find you myself.]
[What?]
Haseol stared at the chat room for a moment.
"......"
Then he left the chat room.
He naturally deleted the Decide app and tossed his phone aside.
SHRRRK.
As if he had aired out the room enough, he shut the window.
SWISH.
He drew the curtains.
Haseol rapidly reversed the movements he had made upon waking that morning.
"It is because I did not sleep enough."
Muttering to himself, he slipped beneath the covers.
Even so, it was too strange.
He had entered the app just as he had heard in the dream, only to find that chat room there and that the password was correct.
People assuming strange concepts while they talked was believable enough.
What he could not understand most was the process by which he had entered that chat room.
"I am thinking too much to fall asleeep."
Haseol kicked his feet beneath the covers.
Then he picked up his phone again and checked the screen.
11:15 a.m.
Maybe he had simply slept too much.
Haseol picked up his phone......
DING-DONG.
"Eek?!"
Startled, he dropped it as if throwing it away.
"Who is it?"
Holding a hand to his pounding chest, he asked.
"Eska Flynn. The King of Mages."
She was using a solemn tone despite having a girl's voice.
"What?"
Haseol simply asked blankly.
"Who did you say you were?"
"I said Eska Flynn, the King of Mages."
It was the person he had been talking with in the chat room until just moments ago.
"Could it be that you have an app that finds people nearby, and you are determined to prank me? Are you filming this so you can upload my reaction online?"
"Huh?"
"My reaction video would not be popular even if you uploaded it. I am a colorless, odorless human being living a bland, dry life."
"What are you saying? You sound like a herbivore before it gets eaten by a carnivore."
Eska said with a chuckle.
"You are not filming this to upload it, are you?"
"I thought as much, but you......"
Eska said that, and then.
SWOOOSH.
She passed through the door.
The door remained perfectly intact in its place.
"Huh?"
A girl appeared inside the room.
She had pink hair down to her waist, slightly protruding canines, upturned eyes, and an alluring tear mole.
Her vividly colored short puffer jacket and skirt, along with the large hairpin tucked into her hair, were striking.
"Are you someone with no connection whatsoever to supernatural abilities?"
Haseol's eyes were opened so wide that they looked as though they might split.
"What? Supernatural abilities? You mean the kind that appear in urban fantasy?"
Eska smiled faintly at Haseol's question.
"I see. You do not know that magic and supernatural abilities exist in reality. It seems that you have lived a life entirely unconnected to that side of things. Is that correct?"
"Ah, yes. I think that is right."
"Then I must first make you recognize that magic exists in this world."
Having said that, Eska strode toward Haseol.
"As it has always been."
She placed a hand on Haseol's shoulder.
"The easiest way to experience magic."
The next moment.
Haseol was floating in the sky.
"Is it not flight?"
Eska was smiling faintly.
"It is not flight, it is falling?!"
Haseol clung to Eska's arm as though hanging from it.
They were falling from the sky.
Down toward the clouds below.
WHOOOOOSH!
The sound of the wind battered his ears, and Haseol's hair whipped about like mad.
"Aaaaaaah?!"
They plunged through the clouds.
"Ahhh."
As he fell, Haseol suddenly became calm.
"Um, you know."
Then he spoke to Eska.
His hair was still whipping about like mad as they continued to fall.
"Speak."
"You are going to save me, right?"
He wore an expression of having attained enlightenment.
Or rather, it was closer to an expression of resignation.
"You do not seem likely to deny that magic exists any longer."
FWOOOSH.
Eska and Haseol stopped in the sky.
The two stood on their feet as if there were an invisible floor in the sky.
"Now, are you ready to hear what I have to say?"
Eska asked.
"Yes, yes."
With a smile as if to say that Eska should say everything she wanted to say, Haseol nodded.
"I sent a message so that only those who had seen the future of the world's destruction could hear it."
"I did hear the message."
"Then it is certain that you saw the same future as us."
"But was what I saw really the future of the world's destruction?"
Tilting his head to the side, Haseol continued.
"Something like domes spread out across different parts of the Earth, and inside them......"
Haseol was about to continue when he furrowed his brow.
"It does seem as though a tremendous number of people died."
"That was carried out on a worldwide scale."
"I think it was."
"Do you remember what came next?"
"I think it ended after I saw the dome-like thing envelop the entire Earth."
"It was the same as what we saw."
Eska nodded.
"But can we be sure that what I saw was the future? It could have just been a pointless dream."
"A pointless dream that you, I, and the other three all had at the same time?"
"Ah."
"I am the King of Mages, and the others are a vampire, a werewolf, and a fairy—beings who stand at the pinnacle of their respective races."
"It would be hard to dismiss it as a coincidence."
Haseol nodded as if he understood.
"Is it certainly the future?"
"It is not the past, at least."
"I suppose not."
"Then even if it is not a definite prophecy of the future, we should regard it as something close to a warning."
"If it is a warning......does that mean we are supposed to stop it before humanity is destroyed?"
"That is how I understand it."
"Hmm."
Haseol looked down from the sky.
"Um, you said you were Eska, right?"
"That is right."
"You are the King of Mages, and since you can use magic like this, I can understand why it makes sense to tell you about something like that."
"Mm."
"Why did they tell me?"
"Who knows?"
"I graduated from high school a year ago. I worked because I wanted to earn at least my college tuition, then had my wages withheld, and wasted a year doing nothing but sending out résumés as an unemployed person."
"Even so, is there not a reason the future was shown to you?"
"There could be a reason, but......Nnnngh."
Haseol tilted his head to the side as though troubled.
Eska watched Haseol, then slowly turned her head.
"Leave that concern until later. It seems the future we saw is beginning now."
At Eska's words, Haseol looked in the direction she was facing.
At one spot in the city.
White light was rising from the ground.
The white light was forming a dome as it enveloped the city.
"White?"
"What I saw was black."
"Me too. Then should we not first stop it from changing color?"
"How?"
"You do not know either, Eska? You are a mage."
"One cannot know something one has never experienced."
"Hmm......Then......"
"The living things inside will not die the moment the white dome forms. There should be enough time to observe it and look into it."
"I hope so."
Haseol blankly watched the dome gradually take shape.
"But......"
Then he looked at Eska.
"When are you going to let me down from the sky?"
"Ah~, right."
Eska met Haseol's eyes as though she had forgotten.
"Before that, I have one question."
"Yes."
"Where should I let you down?"
"Obviously......"
"I intend to go examine that dome now. What will you do?"
Eska asked.
"Will you return to your home to finish the sleep you could not enjoy because of the nightmare? Or will you come with us to protect the future of the world?"
No, she was demanding a choice.
Haseol looked away from Eska's eyes and let out a faint sigh.
"Let us go together for now."
Haseol said with a resigned smile.