Duncan opened his eyes for the last time, and he was once again back where he started. It was the emergency ward, and the screams and cries of countless victims echoed through the entire space, accompanied by the frantic shuffling of doctors and nurses who were running around trying to save as many lives as they could.And Duncan—he simply stood in the midst of all this, completely lost as to what to do.By now, Duncan realized what had happened… this time was the same as every other time in the illusion. Despite how little Duncan had initially tried to be involved in the development of this illusion, in the end, he couldn’t help getting invested and trying to save Alice. But the results were exactly as Duncan expected… Alice still fell victim to her curse's attempts on her life.This time, things happened completely differently from how they had happened originally.In the original timeline, it took about three months of Duncan and Alice spending time together for her curse to finall

Sigh!After recalling the events of the previous night, Duncan sighed heavily, his chest rising and falling with lingering regrets spurred by his experience.He was used to this. Most times, Duncan’s mornings were spent completely wasted at home. He would finally wake up in a drunken stupor around noon with a splitting headache and no idea what had happened the previous night.It was understandable, though—after all, every night Duncan would spend several hours in an illusion where he was forced to undergo one hellish experience after another, just to wake up with the memory still fresh in his mind.Every single time he woke from an illusion, Duncan’s mind would be filled with new memories of his experience. With pain as the fire and sorrow as the burning hot metal, each memory was like a brand seared directly into his head, making it impossible for him to forget the ordeal he had undergone.Worse yet, as new memories met old ones, they fractured and merged into a twisted mess of disj

Standing outside the large window, Duncan looked into the lonely room, which contained only a single bed where a sole patient lay motionless. His eyes were downcast as he stared at the person inside, noticing the changes time had made on her even from where he stood.Her hair had grown longer, clearly unkempt for a long time, and her skin was decidedly paler and more gaunt than he remembered—evidence that her condition wasn’t improving at all.Duncan stood outside the room for a long time, hesitant to enter as guilt and shame ate away at him. He felt guilty for not visiting even once during the past year and a half, and he was even more ashamed that it had taken a curse giving him nightmares before he finally remembered to come.In truth, Duncan knew why he hadn’t come back here until now—he had given up.When the accident first happened and Alice ended up like this, Duncan had been devastated. In the beginning, he visited her every single day, hoping she would recover and finally wak

Several minutes later, as Duncan was leaving the hospital following his conversation with the nurse, a cell phone rang, indicating someone was trying to reach him.It took a while for Duncan to realize the phone ringing was actually his. He had made it a habit not to carry his cell phone—a recent adjustment after experiencing several frustrating situations where he’d forgotten to put it on mute, and an unexpected call came through right in the middle of a tense moment… whether he was hiding from hostile foes or simply heavily inconvenienced at the time.It was surprising how often this occurred. Even in some secret realms, which inhabited a completely different layer of space entirely, stray calls would sometimes come through. Most of them weren't necessarily intended for Duncan, but were rather the result of the secret realm amplifying the radio signal his cell phone was exposed to, allowing him to pick up rogue frequencies.In any case, the only reason he had carried his phone today

Dum, dum, dum!Several minutes after waking up, Duncan sat in the living room, chewing on a bowl of bland cereal, when a sudden, heavy knocking at his door interrupted him.Pausing, he glanced toward the entryway, wondering to himself: “Who could that be at this time of day? I’m not expecting a delivery or any visitors, so what gives?”Dum, dum, dum!As he thought this, the knocking came again. It sounded a bit louder than before, but otherwise maintained a steady, rhythmic pace.“Maybe if I stay quiet and don’t answer, they’ll think nobody is home and leave on their own.”Duncan was incredibly reluctant to answer. He didn’t know why, but something inside him was screaming not to open that door. If he did, the fragile peace he’d enjoyed for the past two weeks would likely be broken, dragging him back into the exact kind of situation he was trying to avoid.And so, he stayed perfectly still on the couch, silently eating his cereal and hoping the person outside would just give up and le