A Village That Shouldn’t Exist

The official notice from the Association stated that they wanted us to investigate a supernatural phenomenon presumed to be S-rank.

When I muttered emptily about losing my vacation, Won-gyeong apologized with a guilty expression.

Won-gyeong, who had been shy around us for the first few days, now seemed to have shed most of that awkwardness and spoke to us in a more familiar manner.

I shook my head to tell Won-gyeong it was fine and lowered my gaze.

The details of the anomaly we were assigned to handle were displayed on the terminal screen.

“But what does it even mean that a village just appeared?”

Maybe because it was an S-rank assignment, the document was full of terms that made absolutely no sense to me.

Jeong Iheon had his own terminal, yet he was still peering at mine from beside me, so I handed it over to him.

Jeong Iheon carefully examined the screen I passed him.

Recalling what Hyeon Jaeyul had told me earlier about Association missions, I spoke up.

“I know that most rift-related missions involve rescuing people who got swept up at the location, but—”

“That’s right.”

Jeong Iheon replied lazily without looking away from the screen.

“Jaeyul hardly ever gets assigned supernatural phenomenon missions either, so we didn’t really get an explanation beforehand. What exactly are they asking us to do?”

“Hmm….”

Jeong Iheon scrolled down the terminal screen, then looked up, as if he’d finished reading everything.

“Noeul and I get missions fairly often too, not as much as Won-gyeong, but this one is definitely unusual.”

“So a village just appearing isn’t something common.”

“Not at all.”

According to the terminal, the mission was to investigate and eliminate a suddenly manifested “village.”

Seeing me stare at it with a completely baffled expression, Won-gyeong, who was the most experienced with this kind of assignment, explained.

“Low-grade supernatural phenomenon missions usually involve dealing with entities people casually call ghosts.

In this case, it’s easier to think of it as that, just on a much larger scale.”

“So the village itself is a ghost?”

“More or less. To explain it properly, it’s a phenomenon where anomalous energy has accumulated and concentrated in a single area—”

“Hey, don’t bother explaining all that. Just summarize what we need to do and let’s go.”

Ju Noeul cut Won-gyeong off with an annoyed look as he tried to go into more detail.

Carelessly setting the brand-new terminal he’d received that morning onto the table with a thud, he propped his chin on his hand, looking bored.

Regardless of his temperament, his light, soft cream-colored hair fell loosely over his forehead, giving off a relaxed, easygoing atmosphere.

Every time I looked at his face, I thought the same thing.

Ju Noeul’s coloring was far too gentle for his personality.

I tore my gaze away from his irritably furrowed face, framed by cream-colored hair and caramel-light brown eyes, and looked back at Won-gyeong.

Meeting my eyes, Won-gyeong smiled softly and spoke.

“What we need to do is simple. Figure out what era the village reflects, what rules it operates under, and then seal it.”

“That really sounds simple to you?”

I asked back, unconvinced.

There was no way an S-rank mission would be that straightforward.

Despite my suspicious stare, Won-gyeong nodded with a smile.

“With Noeul helping, sealing an anomaly about the size of a village isn’t that difficult.

The annoying part is having to check the inside before sealing it.”

After hearing that, I voiced the question that had been bothering me the most.

“Then… does that mean Jeong Iheon and I aren’t even necessary for this mission?”

I could understand why Hyeon Jaeyul might be needed, in case brute force was required, but there didn’t seem to be any reason for Jeong Iheon’s or my abilities.

‘Jeong Iheon’s ability only works when he’s dreaming, and mine is memory manipulation.’

I still hadn’t recovered my memories, so I didn’t even properly know how to use my ability.

When I voiced my confusion, Ju Noeul replied curtly.

“The notice says you’re participating. They’re probably hoping your ability or memories will come back while handling the mission.”

As he finished speaking, he tilted his eyes toward the floating system window hovering slightly off to my side.

As if to say that thing might be related too.

I guess that makes sense.

It was annoying, but I wanted that as well.

If I couldn’t remember anything about this world, what was I supposed to do next?

I glanced at the system window, which was still frozen on the main scenario I’d talked about with Ju Noeul earlier.

As I sneakily checked it, I noticed Hyeon Jaeyul staring straight at me.

He slowly shifted his gaze to where Ju Noeul and I had been looking, then back to me.

As if trying to see the system window that only Ju Noeul and I could see, he stared at that spot for a long time.

Finding nothing, his eyes sank into something dull and heavy.

That gaze felt different from usual, and I froze for a moment.

Then his eyes returned to their usual, almost vacant lack of focus.

‘…What was that?’

For an instant, Hyeon Jaeyul felt like a massive snake.

The way his lowered gaze moved slowly… it sent a chill down my spine.

‘It disappeared so quickly that maybe I just imagined it….’

When I checked again, Hyeon Jaeyul’s eyes looked completely normal.

Maybe I really had seen it wrong.

I brushed off the unease I’d felt just moments ago.

The village was located four hours away by car.

Because it had appeared in a place where no one originally lived, the Association must not have felt much urgency about dealing with it, until they spotted us loafing around and enthusiastically handed us the mission.

Even though there was a driver assigned to the vehicle, Ju Noeul had deliberately pushed him aside and taken the wheel himself.

He stepped out of the driver’s seat with a refreshingly bright expression.

It was the first genuinely cheerful look I’d ever seen on his face since meeting him.

While his face, which was usually perpetually scowling, had relaxed completely, my own expression had turned deathly pale in contrast.

Because he’d maintained consistent speeding from start to finish, we arrived earlier than expected, but the ride itself was atrocious.

He drove with absolutely no consideration for his passengers.

He must have gotten cursed out by other drivers nonstop.

I didn’t hear the insults directly since he’d already sped far ahead by the time anyone could shout them, but I’d heard more than enough horns.

As I tried to calm my churning stomach and stared at Ju Noeul, Jeong Iheon, who had somehow ended up right beside me again, leaned in and whispered.

“He’s into motorsports. He races as a hobby sometimes. Guess he was frustrated in the simulation since there weren’t any cars he could use.”

I could understand it being a hobby, but I really wished he’d show some restraint when he had passengers.

‘At least warn people to take motion sickness meds.’

When I glared at Ju Noeul with watery, nausea-blurred eyes, he noticed and shot me an arrogant look, as if asking whether I had a problem.

I should ask the Association for a different car on the way back.

I thought that, already exhausted before the mission even started.

Despite being practically shoved into arriving at the village, my mood wasn’t bad.

Aside from the motion sickness, that is.

From the outside, the village shimmered as if heat haze were rising from it.

I didn’t know how it would look once inside, but even from here, it was clearly a supernatural phenomenon.

It was a residential complex made up of multiple identical houses.

“Let’s go in.”

Starting with Won-gyeong, we entered the housing complex.

Just in case we got separated like in a rift, I grabbed Hyeon Jaeyul’s arm tightly as we went in.

The others entered without any contact, as if being separated didn’t matter to them.

As soon as we passed through the shimmering haze, I realized my choice had been the right one.

“I can’t see anyone else. Looks like we were all sent to different locations.”

“It doesn’t seem that big, but yeah. No sign of them.”

From the moment we entered, Hyeon Jaeyul had pulled me into his arms protectively.

It felt like he’d sensed something I couldn’t.

Only after repeatedly confirming that we were fully inside did he finally let me go.

Once free of his embrace, I could properly look around.

From the outside, it had looked like a clean residential area, but inside, there were no traces of people anywhere.

Vines crawled densely over the walls of the houses, garden trees were left untrimmed, and weeds had grown tall across the yards.

The overall atmosphere was desolate.

Likewise, an inexplicable chill seeped up from the unmaintained roads.

It felt like something was crawling up along my ankles.

With Won-gyeong absent and no instructions forthcoming, I stood frozen in the road—

when the system window suddenly reactivated and appeared before me.

[Main Scenario ‘3 – Pursuit’ is now in progress.]

[You have arrived at a familiar village. You may be able to find something you have lost.]

[To proceed with the main scenario, act together with at least one target. The recommended companion is ‘Hyeon Jaeyul’.]

After glancing at the reactivated system, I looked up at Hyeon Jaeyul, who was scanning our surroundings.

Coincidentally, I was already with him.

‘But this village doesn’t feel familiar at all. Why is it calling it a familiar village?’

I dismissed the system’s nonsense, just like when it spewed emotional-sounding phrases at random.

It claimed an unfamiliar village was familiar.

The system felt like something I’d created myself, yet there were moments when it made no sense at all.

No, honestly, there were a lot of those moments.

Sometimes I wondered if this wasn’t a system I’d created on my own in the first place.

“Doya.”

“Hm?”

While I was lost in thought about the system, something changed within the housing complex.

Hyeon Jaeyul pulled me back into his arms and called my name.