THE SILENCE AFTER THE FIRST CHALLENGE IS DECEPTIVE. The torches burn evenly, their pale flames steady now instead of leaning hungrily toward me. The water around the platform is calm, dark as obsidian. If not for the sweat running down my spine and the ache in my arms, I could almost believe nothing had happened at all.
But the System's words linger like a weight in my chest: Quest Progress: 1/3 Challenges Complete.
One reflection down. Two more to go. And if the first tried to break me with a sparring coach and a therapist rolled into one, then the next was going to dig deeper.
Foras hovers close, arms crossed, his one big eye fixed on the mirror. His usual chirping sarcasm is nowhere to be found, which worries me more than the creepy silence.
"You think the next one's going to be worse?" I ask. My voice sounds too loud in the cavernous chamber.
He doesn't even glance at me. "Hyung. I don't think it'll get any better."
Encouraging.
I step cautiously toward the mirror. The surface ripples faintly, as though some invisible hand skimmed it from the inside. This time it doesn't show my reflection at all. Instead, the glassy sheen opens onto another corridor: narrower, darker, lined with water flowing in rivulets along the stone floor. Faint light filters down from above through grates, broken by the shadows of something moving just out of sight. I can't quite make it.
The System's voice curls through my head, silk and static. Cold like the bitter winter.
"Second Reflection Challenge Initiated."
"Do not forget."
I mutter, "Do not forget what exactly?"
No answer, of course. The next time I get the chance, I plan to have a very deep conversation with The System regarding how I am not a pushover and how as a proficient cellphone gamer, rules are everything. She can't just expect me to throw in here and survive with just some cryptic whispers. It would be great if I could touch her though. Would be easier to strangle her that way.
Foras hovers lower, whispering, "That sounds like memory work. How good are you at school?"
I wince at the thought of me wasting away time at the back of class and turning in horrible test sheets. "Quite good… I think," I say, then draw in a slow breath and step forward. Man I should have trained my brain while I was at it.
The world folds, like reality twisting itself into a paper crane. Without waiting for me to get some composure, I am fold with it, like a scene out of a cartoon. For a second, panic engulfs me as I see—feel myself getting folded with it. 3D compressed to 2D but before I can scream, it unfolds again. And just like that, I'm standing ankle-deep in water.
The corridor is narrower than it looked from the mirror, its walls slick with condensation and marked with faint spiral carvings that catch the torchlight. Water flows steadily along the floor, draining toward some unseen depth ahead. The air is heavy with damp stone, the metallic tang of mineral water, and something faintly sweet, like wilted flowers that have been left in a vase too long.
Every sound is amplified. My boots slosh. Drops fall from the ceiling in sharp, echoing plinks. Far away, something groans — stone shifting under pressure, or maybe just the building itself remembering it's ancient.
I keep moving, shoulders brushing the walls when the path tightens. The light comes not from torches now but from faint phosphorescent growths lining the cracks, casting a bluish glow that makes the water shimmer like quicksilver.
And then I hear them. Voices.
At first, it's like muffled echoes, words spoken in another room. Then, suddenly, one cuts through clear as a knife.
"…You're late again, Rudra."
I freeze.
That voice—
No. It can't be.
The corridor bends sharply. As I round the turn, the space widens into a small chamber, barely furnished. A single hanging lamp sways overhead, casting golden light that doesn't belong in this damp place. The smell shifts instantly. Gone is the mineral tang, replaced by coffee and fried dough, the homely scent of the roadside near our dorm. The road where Shin Woo, Hanna and I shared a meal. It feels like an eternity since then. Pretty sure it has been an eternity.
And sitting there, elbows propped on the table, is Shin Woo.
In the Whole. Alive. Smiling faintly, like nothing had ever gone wrong.
My throat goes dry.
I glance at Foras, but he's hovering back at the edge of the chamber, his expression unreadable. "Don't look at me, hyung. This is a reflection."
I force my feet forward, the water rippling around my boots, until I reach the table. I sit across from him like I have a hundred times before.
"You've been avoiding me," Shin Woo says, tilting his head. I know none of this is real but I can't pick out which part of him is fake. The eyes, the hair, the face, the warmth… everything felt real. Eerily so.
"I've been busy," I reply automatically, the excuse old and brittle on my tongue.
"With what?"
The question is simple. Too simple. And yet my mind goes blank, like someone wiped the slate clean. I can't answer. His smile fades. His gaze sharpens, pinning me in place.
"You said you'd be there. But you weren't."
The words whip me and I flinch. How stupid of me. No matter how real the game made it look, this wasn't Shin Woo. He would never lash out on me. Not like this. Not ever.
Just as the realisation creeps in my head, the water at the chamber's edges quivers, shivers, rises a little higher around my legs.
"I couldn't—" I begin, but he cuts me off.
"You forgot."
The words slam into me harder than any strike. They reverberate around the chamber, turning into echoes layered on echoes until I can't tell if they're still his voice or the System's.
Forgot.
Forgot.
Forgot.
The water climbs to my knees, icy cold, almost like a million fingers reaching and gripping me, rooting me into place.
Without waiting for my answer, Shin Woo— the creature stands. So do I. But when its reflection stirs in the water, it doesn't move with it. It hesitates, then lunges forward, claws where fingers should be, its face stretching into something monstrous beneath the familiar.
The System hisses inside my skull:
"Do not forget. Do not deny."
The water surges.
The thing that looks like Shin Woo attacks with inhuman speed, claws raking the air. I stagger back, shoulder slamming into the slick wall. Stone dust shakes loose, falling into the water. Foras darts upward, shouting, "Break it fast, hyung! Before the water rises any higher!"
I don't question why he says that, or how he knows that. There is barely any time to react let alone talk.
I shove off the wall and swing, knuckles connecting with its jaw. For a heartbeat, I see Shin Woo's face then it glitches, twisting, hollow eyes boring into me. The impact feels wrong, too solid, like punching through packed ice. My hand stings with cold instead of heat.
It lashes back. I duck, water splashing as its claws scrape long white marks across the stone. Shards of ice bloom in the gouges, spreading like veins.
"This isn't real," I mutter, circling. "You're not him."
The creature only tilts its head, and for a terrifying second it smiles like Shin Woo used to — soft, lopsided, a smile I'd sworn I would never see again unless I get out of this terrible world.
I falter. That half-second is all it needs.
It slams into me, driving me back into the rising water. The cold bites instantly, flooding my boots, soaking through my clothes. My breath hitches as the chill climbs my spine. Its claws dig into my shoulders.
"Do not forget," the System whispers, an icy cold reminder.
The creature hisses in my ear: "You left me."
Rage cuts through the fear. I grab its wrists, forcing them away, and twist, using its momentum to throw it down. It crashes into the water with a splash that freezes on impact, a thin sheet of ice spiderwebbing outward.
I'm shivering, but I don't let up. I slam my knee into its chest, the sound more crack than thud, and the Shin Woo façade flickers violently. Beneath the illusion, it is hollow, eyes black glass, mouth stretched too wide and skin marbled with frost. In short, an utterly disgusting monstrosity.
On a normal day, just the sight of it would scare the heck out of me but the adrenaline is too much for me to feel anything else. The creature surges again, knocking me back. I hit the water hard, cold slamming into my lungs as if I'd been plunged into winter itself. Panic claws at me, but I force myself to kick upward, breaking through the icy surface just in time to see it looming above.
No more hesitation.
I lunge forward, grab its head, and shove it beneath the water. It thrashes, the ice splintering, the chamber shaking as though the whole Temple resists. My arms burn, my lungs ache, but I press down, forcing the truth out.
"I didn't forget you," I snarl. "I never would. But this? I'm so sick of all these mind games!"
The creature lets out a sound halfway between a scream and a shattering mirror. The water erupts in a blinding spray, shards of ice bursting into glittering mist.
And then… silence.
When the mist settles, the chamber is dry again. The café smell is gone. Only damp stone remains. The System's voice cuts through the stillness.
"Second Reflection Challenge Complete."
"1 Challenge Remaining."
I'm back on the platform, standing before the great mirror. Foras hovers close, unusually subdued.
"You okay?"
"No," I say, voice rough. "But I will be."
I press a trembling hand to my chest, still feeling the phantom chill of the water. My reflection in the mirror looks back at me, pale, exhausted, but still me. For now.
One more challenge.
Then what?
t o b e c o n t i n u e d