Chapter 75: Hyper State
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Dillan stood frozen.
The blue System windows...
Were gone.
Not hidden.
Not dismissed.
Gone.
For the first time since the World Gate Protocol had appeared on Earth...
The System had vanished completely.
"...What...?"
His voice echoed across the ruined playground.
The little girl stood several meters away.
She smiled.
A peaceful...
Almost relieved smile.
"...Now..."
She whispered.
"...No one can interrupt us."
Dillan took an instinctive step backward.
His foot landed in something warm.
He looked down.
Blood.
The rainwater covering the playground had become a shallow crimson lake.
Ripples spread around his feet.
Every ripple reflected...
Not his own face.
But hers.
Hundreds of reflections.
Hundreds of smiling girls looking back at him.
His breathing quickened.
"No..."
He stumbled away.
The reflections followed.
No matter where he stepped...
Her face waited beneath the surface.
Far away...
Children began laughing.
One voice.
Then another.
Soon...
Dozens.
Hundreds.
The laughter surrounded him from every direction.
Yet...
There wasn’t a single child in sight.
Only empty swings.
Moving gently.
Creeeak...
Creeeak...
Creeeak...
The sound drilled into his mind.
The little girl slowly began walking toward him.
Still smiling.
Still patient.
She never hurried.
She didn’t need to.
Every step she took...
The distance between them seemed to shrink twice as fast.
"...Stay away..."
Dillan whispered.
She tilted her head.
"...Why?"
"...Because..."
He couldn’t answer.
He didn’t know why.
Only that every instinct inside him screamed...
Run.
He turned.
And ran.
The playground stretched endlessly.
The gate ahead never became closer.
No matter how fast he ran...
It remained the same distance away.
His breathing grew ragged.
His legs burned.
Behind him...
Soft footsteps.
Steady.
Unchanging.
She wasn’t chasing him.
She was walking.
Yet...
She never fell behind.
"...Please..."
He gasped.
"...Leave me alone..."
Silence.
Then...
A quiet answer.
"...I can’t."
He risked one glance over his shoulder.
She was right behind him.
Close enough to touch.
Her glowing crimson eyes shone with impossible affection.
Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks.
"...I already lost you once."
The words struck him harder than any blade.
Lost...
Once?
Before he could think...
She reached toward his hand.
The moment her fingertips brushed his skin...
The dream exploded.
Dillan bolted upright.
His scream echoed through the apartment.
The voice recorder beside his bed clattered onto the floor.
His breathing was completely out of control.
His chest hurt.
His hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
The clock.
3:17 A.M.
Again.
Always...
3:17.
"...No..."
He grabbed the recorder immediately.
Pressed play.
Static.
Several seconds passed.
Then...
His own voice.
"...Don’t..."
Silence.
"...Please..."
More static.
"...I don’t remember..."
The recording crackled violently.
Another voice answered.
Soft.
Gentle.
"...I know."
Dillan froze.
The recorder slipped from his fingers.
"...No..."
He replayed it.
Again.
The same conversation.
His own terrified voice.
And hers.
Recorded.
In the real world.
Morning arrived beneath heavy clouds.
Rain quietly tapped against the headquarters windows.
Nobody spoke during breakfast.
Nobody needed to.
Dillan looked exhausted.
Even Commander Yuna stopped pretending everything was normal.
She entered the dining room carrying a folder.
"Dillan."
He looked up.
"We’re suspending your field duties."
"...What?"
"Temporarily."
"I’m fine."
"No."
She placed the folder in front of him.
"You nearly walked into a moving truck this morning."
Silence.
"I..."
"You don’t remember."
His expression slowly changed.
"...No."
Dana lowered her eyes.
"...I pulled you back."
The room fell silent.
Dillan searched his memory.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
It was as though an entire piece of his morning had been erased.
Later...
Inside the research laboratory...
Dr. Yeon studied Dillan’s brainwave scans.
Rows of monitors displayed abnormal neural activity.
She frowned.
"...This shouldn’t exist."
Mira stood beside her.
"What is it?"
Yeon enlarged one section of the scan.
"These spikes..."
"...What about them?"
"They don’t match dreaming."
Silence.
"They match..."
She hesitated.
"...Two consciousnesses."
Mira looked at her.
"...Explain."
Yeon slowly shook her head.
"I can’t."
"...Because it isn’t possible."
Across headquarters...
Lyra stood alone inside the Resonance Chamber once more.
The invisible membrane pulsed.
Faster.
More violently than before.
She slowly placed her palm against it.
A second hand appeared.
Not physically.
An outline.
Pressed gently against the opposite side of the membrane.
Like someone...
Was touching her hand from the other side.
Lyra’s pupils narrowed.
"...You’ve reached the Field."
The outline slowly disappeared.
Leaving behind...
A single crimson ripple.
That night...
Dillan refused to enter his bedroom.
He sat in the living room instead.
Lights on.
Television playing quietly.
The notebook rested unopened on the table.
The white lily had already begun to wilt.
Its once-perfect petals slowly darkened at the edges.
He stared at it.
"...Who are you?"
No answer.
Only silence.
His eyelids grew heavier.
He fought them.
Minute after minute.
Eventually...
Darkness won.
This time...
He opened his eyes inside an old neighborhood.
Small houses.
Narrow streets.
Children riding bicycles.
The scent of summer filled the air.
Everything looked...
Familiar.
Painfully familiar.
"...I’ve..."
He frowned.
"...Been here before."
A little girl laughed somewhere nearby.
The sound instantly made his heart ache.
He turned toward it.
Two children stood beneath a large tree.
A young boy.
And...
A little girl with long dark-red hair.
They were laughing together.
Holding hands.
The scene blurred before he could see their faces.
His chest tightened.
"...Who..."
The little girl slowly turned.
For the first time...
He saw more than before.
A soft smile.
A small nose.
Pale skin.
Then...
Just as her eyes came into view...
The world violently shook.
Blue cracks spread across the sky.
The System forced itself back into existence.
[■■ CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT ■■]
[ONEIRIC MALFORMATION HAS ENTERED HYPER STATE.]
[HOST CONSCIOUSNESS AT CRITICAL RISK.]
[WAKE UP.]
[WAKE UP, DILLAN.]
[WAKE UP.]
Every notification flashed red.
The dream trembled.
The little girl’s smile slowly faded.
For the first time...
She looked directly at the System.
Then...
Very quietly...
She spoke.
"...Just a little longer."
The red alerts shattered into fragments of light.
The entire dream collapsed into darkness.
And somewhere...
Far beyond Dillan’s sight...
A young woman slowly opened her glowing crimson eyes.
She smiled.
"...Almost..."
The dream refused to end.
Darkness swallowed everything.
No sky.
No ground.
No sound.
Only the violent flashing of crimson warning windows.
[■■ CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT ■■]
[ONEIRIC MALFORMATION HAS ENTERED HYPER STATE.]
[HOST CONSCIOUSNESS DESTABILIZING.]
[HOST VITAL SIGNS FALLING.]
For the first time...
The notifications weren’t calm.
They were frantic.
New windows continued forcing themselves into existence.
One after another.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
They covered the darkness like shattered pieces of blue glass.
[WAKE UP.]
[WAKE UP.]
[WAKE UP, DILLAN.]
The words echoed repeatedly.
Almost...
Like panic.
Dillan looked around.
"...Where am I?"
No answer.
Then...
A heartbeat.
Thump.
Another.
Thump.
The sound didn’t come from his chest.
It came from somewhere ahead.
A faint crimson light slowly appeared within the darkness.
One heartbeat.
One pulse.
Growing brighter.
Growing closer.
Until...
She stepped into the light.
Long crimson hair.
White dress.
Bare feet.
The same peaceful smile.
Only now...
More of her face could finally be seen.
Her lips.
Her nose.
The gentle curve of her cheeks.
Everything...
Except her eyes.
They remained hidden beneath strands of hair.
"...You..."
Dillan whispered.
She smiled warmly.
"...I’m happy."
"...You’re finally looking at me."
Another System notification erupted between them.
[FORCED AWAKENING INITIATED.]
The girl sighed.
"...You’re always interrupting."
She slowly reached toward the floating window.
Her fingertips brushed the edge.
The notification cracked.
Then...
Shattered.
Like fragile glass.
Dillan’s eyes widened.
"...You..."
"...Can touch the System?"
She tilted her head.
"...System?"
A small laugh escaped her lips.
"...Is that what you call it?"
The darkness trembled.
Another heartbeat echoed.
Closer now.
The crimson glow surrounding her became stronger.
"...I don’t understand..."
Dillan stepped backward.
"...Who are you?"
She lowered her head.
For several long seconds...
She said nothing.
Then...
"...I’m..."
The dream violently shook.
A deafening alarm interrupted her.
[WARNING.]
[HOST HEART RATE EXCEEDING SAFE PARAMETERS.]
[EMERGENCY WAKE PROTOCOL ENGAGED.]
The notifications glitched uncontrollably.
Words disappeared.
Returned.
Corrupted.
Then...
The largest window yet appeared directly before Dillan.
Bright crimson.
Unlike anything he had ever seen.
[WAKE UP, DILLAN!]
Everything exploded into white light.
"DILLAN!"
His eyes flew open.
He couldn’t breathe.
His chest burned.
Someone was shaking his shoulders.
"Dillan!"
Dana.
She stood beside his bed.
Her face pale.
Eyes filled with fear.
"...You’re awake..."
She let out a trembling breath.
"...Thank God..."
He blinked.
"...Dana...?"
"You weren’t breathing."
Silence.
"What?"
"You stopped breathing."
The room spun.
Commander Yuna stood near the doorway.
Sera already had one hand resting against Dillan’s wrist.
Healing energy flowed gently through her fingertips.
"...His pulse is stabilizing."
Dr. Yeon lowered a medical scanner.
"...Forty-seven seconds."
Dillan frowned.
"...What?"
"You had no heartbeat."
The room became silent.
"...That’s impossible."
Yeon slowly shook her head.
"...I wish it was."
One hour earlier...
Lyra had been standing outside Dillan’s room.
As she had every night this week.
Then...
The Resonance Field screamed.
Not with sound.
With feeling.
Every particle within the invisible membrane shook violently.
Lyra’s silver eyes widened.
"...No..."
Without hesitation...
She burst through Dillan’s bedroom door.
He wasn’t moving.
His breathing had stopped.
The air around him shimmered unnaturally.
Almost...
Like another reality was overlapping the room.
Lyra immediately reached toward him.
The moment her hand touched his shoulder...
A violent crimson ripple exploded outward.
She was thrown backward several steps.
Commander Yuna caught her before she fell.
"...What happened?"
Lyra stared at Dillan.
"...Someone..."
Her voice was barely audible.
"...Won’t let him wake up."
Present.
Dillan sat silently on the edge of his bed.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody knew what to say.
Dr. Yeon finally broke the silence.
"We’ve completed every scan."
"And?"
Commander Yuna asked.
"...Nothing."
"...Nothing?"
"His body is perfectly healthy."
She looked toward Dillan.
"...Whatever nearly killed you..."
"...Didn’t happen to your body."
Silence.
"...It happened to your mind."
Later that afternoon...
Mira entered the surveillance archive.
She replayed the footage from Dillan’s bedroom.
This time...
There was no static.
Everything looked normal.
Dillan sleeping.
Lyra standing outside.
Until...
2:58 A.M.
The video froze.
One frame.
Just one.
A young woman stood beside Dillan’s bed.
Looking down at him.
Long crimson hair.
White dress.
One hand gently touching his cheek.
The next frame...
She was gone.
Mira’s heart skipped.
"...No..."
She enlarged the image.
The resolution blurred immediately.
Only one detail remained perfectly clear.
Her eyes.
Soft.
Crimson.
Overflowing with impossible love.
Mira slowly leaned back in her chair.
"...Who are you...?"
Far beyond Seoul...
A young woman stood beneath the shade of an old cherry blossom tree.
She held a faded childhood photograph close to her heart.
Her thumb gently brushed over the smiling boy in the picture.
She closed her eyes.
"...Just one more dream..."
A peaceful smile spread across her lips.
"...Then you’ll remember me."
High above the world...
Hidden beyond the reach of ordinary perception...
Something ancient stirred.
It watched the thread connecting two sleeping souls.
And for the first time...
It whispered a single word.
"...Impossible."