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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Stepping through the rift, Mina found herself on a familiar Korean street.
The acrid smell of exhaust fumes and the sight of trees lining the sidewalk brought a sense of relief.
She was out of that hellish place.
For a brief moment, she stood there, lost in the sensation of experiencing things she thought she’d never feel again.
The sights, the sounds, the smells…
Ten seconds later, she slapped herself hard across the face.
Slap!
The sound echoed, and passersby stared at her.
“Why am I standing around like an idiot?” she muttered to herself.
“I don’t have time to rest.”
A small notification window appeared before her eyes.
‘4th Class Dimension,’ it read.
She waved it away and started walking, as if she knew exactly where she was going.
She had no clues, no leads.
She was simply following her intuition, or rather, the direction her shadow was pulling her.
If anyone had been observing her closely, they would have noticed the shadow rippling at her feet, moving with a life of its own.
She walked as if heading to work, following a familiar route.
From the bustling crowds of the main street to the quieter residential area.
Weaving through the tightly packed buildings, she arrived at a secluded, run-down structure.
Without hesitation, she descended into the basement.
Knock!
Her slender hand rapped against the metal door blocking her way.
The dull thud echoed down the stairwell.
“Is… this how it works?”
She tilted her head, closed her eyes, and extended her hand.
The shadow at her feet unfurled like a spiderweb, consuming the shadows of the building.
Like a competitive eater cramming food down their throat, the shadow pulsed and expanded.
It stopped growing when it reached four times the size of Mina’s body.
Forming a giant hand, it emerged from behind her and gripped the metal door.
Screech!
The metal groaned and twisted until the hinges snapped.
The screws holding the hinges flew out, heading straight for Mina’s eyes, but the shadow snatched them from the air before they could reach her.
The shadow, having broken down the door, didn’t discard the thick metal.
Perhaps reflecting its master’s tidy nature, it swallowed the door whole.
Mina peered into the darkness beyond and stepped inside.
A damp, unpleasant smell assaulted her senses, making her wrinkle her nose.
Click!
She fumbled for the light switch.
As the dim fluorescent bulb flickered to life, dozens of cockroaches scurried for cover.
The sight made her hesitate for the first time.
“Can you get rid of those?”
She asked the shadow clinging to her.
The shadow extended thorny tendrils in all directions, reaching into every corner.
Mina assumed it had dealt with the cockroaches.
“Ah… don’t absorb them,” she added, remembering the metal door.
The shadow pulsed indignantly, as if its meal had been interrupted.
Mina ignored it.
She resumed her exploration.
The stench grew stronger with each step.
She slowly surveyed the basement and finally reaching the room where the smell seemed to originate.
Creak—
She opened the door.
Two bodies lay inside, a man and a woman, their flesh already decomposing.
The man was bound tightly; the woman lay at his feet.
The man’s face was unfamiliar.
But Mina had a good idea who had once inhabited that body.
It appeared the woman had killed the man, then taken her own life.
“They didn’t go quietly,” she murmured.
Wouldn’t someone slit their wrists if they were committing suicide?
She examined the numerous cuts on the woman’s body, wounds that looked more like self-inflicted torture than a simple suicide.
Mina carefully searched the woman’s pockets, hoping to find some clue, some explanation for this gruesome scene.
All she found was a wallet.
She pulled out the ID card and read the name aloud.
“Lee… Hye-jung?”
The name of the woman who had killed the man she loved.
“I wonder… which number I was when I killed you, In-ho.”
Mina murmured, her gaze sweeping over the horrific scene.
It was a rather strange thought to mark the beginning of her long and arduous journey.
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Ah, this is his first soul-swap when he asked who she was and was killed.