Early Morning – Jung Household
Birds chirped. The rice cooker steamed. The TV quietly played morning news about a minor Gate incident in Gyeonggi-do.
To the Jung family, it was just another Tuesday.
But for Ha-Joon, the world had changed again.
He stared at the pendant floating above his desk.
No strings. No tricks.
It hovered calmly, slowly rotating in the air as though caught in invisible gravity.
Last night, he had whispered a thought—and the city's cameras glitched.
Today… he said nothing.
And yet the pendant continued to respond.
> "It's listening again," he thought.
He didn't know if that was comforting—or terrifying.
---
Suwon High – Hallway Between Classes
Baek Seo-Yeon cornered him again, this time with a more serious tone.
> "Something's wrong."
> "When isn't it?" he replied.
> "The girl who was watching you—she vanished."
Ha-Joon blinked slowly.
> "Did she?"
> "You know what I mean."
She looked around, then whispered:
> "I've been contacted by someone from the Hunter Guild. They're watching Suwon."
> "Let them."
> "Ha-Joon," she said seriously, "you can't hide this forever."
He stared down the hallway.
> "I'm not hiding. I'm waiting."
---
Meanwhile – Sahara Desert, Gate #3
The throne was no longer empty.
The figure had formed fully now. Not a person—more like a construct.
Its body was built from bones, ash, and hollow light.
It had no heart. No breath.
But it watched.
And then, deep inside the base of the tower, a door appeared.
Ancient. Circular. Covered in symbols from lost civilizations.
It opened itself.
And from it, a signal began to pulse—softly at first, but spreading across Gate networks, satellite lines, and unregistered frequencies.
A call to something far older than Earth.
---
Suwon – Abandoned Arcade
Ji-Yun stood quietly in the old game center, where no one had visited in years. Dust covered the cabinets, and faded posters hung crooked on the walls.
She reached behind a broken claw machine and pulled out a small cube-shaped device.
> A receiver.
Its screen flickered once, then began to glow faintly red.
She paled.
> "No…"
> "It's already begun."
---
Back at Suwon High – After School
Ha-Joon stood alone in the gym storage room.
He stared at a broken broomstick in his hand. A test.
He focused—not on strength, but intention.
The broom twisted and exploded into dust in his grip without a sound.
He hadn't moved.
He clenched his fist to suppress it—but the pendant on his chest responded.
It glowed.
> "I'm not ready," he muttered.
> "Not yet. Not again."
And then he heard it:
A whisper. Soft and cold.
> "You left the throne empty."
> "It remembers."
---
Later That Evening – Ji-Yun's Rooftop
Ha-Joon found her sitting on the edge, legs dangling into the void.
He sat beside her without a word.
> "You heard it, didn't you?" she said after a while.
> "The whisper?"
He nodded.
> "Then it's begun," she whispered.
"The echo has reached you."
> "What is it?"
> "Not a message," she said.
"A memory trying to come back."
He didn't respond for a long time.
Then finally—
> "Tell me what I was."
She looked at him.
And this time, she answered:
> "You were the one who ended the last universe."
> "And the one who gave birth to this one."
> "You left the throne… so Earth could exist."
---
Meanwhile – Watcher Command Center, Classified Location
The lead operative slammed her hand on the desk.
> "Gate #3 just transmitted a Class-Ω signal."
> "That's impossible."
> "That's pre-Creation code," she said.
"We're dealing with something that existed before mana."
> "What does it mean?"
> "It means Earth wasn't the beginning."
They stared at the signal logs—lines of untranslatable glyphs…
But one translation slowly resolved on-screen:
> "CRIMSON HOST: ECHO ACCEPTED. AWAITING RETURN."
---
Final Scene – Ha-Joon's Dream
The sky was ash.
The world was quiet.
And he stood alone before a throne of stars, holding the broken bodies of friends he no longer recognized.
A war had ended.
A promise had been broken.
And he had said the words again:
> "Erase me. Let me sleep."
He jolted awake in his bed, gasping.
The pendant hovered again.
And this time, it glowed bright red.
---