We had been walking for a couple of hours, wandering through the shadowy forest on the center of the road laced with creeping fog. The wind passed by me in soft whispers, and I felt the weight of the air against my skin.
It was cold. And calm.
Adam suddenly recalled something from his school days—how he used to gaze out over the palms of grass that swayed across the open field. Back then, leaves would fall lazily in green and brown, carried by the breath of autumn.
There was something about that moment, a stillness that allowed the mind to wander—maybe even go blank.
He sighed as his eyes scanned the forest, thick with bushes. It wasn't just foliage—it was wild, tangled, far from the neat clover-like leaves he once remembered.
But he couldn't recall where that memory came from. And the more he tried, the more his head ached from the effort.
Adam turned to Toho. "So… you're the one who's supposed to guide me on this journey?"
She looked at him, lazily chewing bubble gum. "Yeah?"
Adam frowned. "Do you know anything useful? Like… how to get through this place?"
She gave him a sly look—half-lidded, smirking. Teasing.
I sighed. I still didn't understand why Minori thought it was a good idea to send her to me. Would she get hurt? Would she die?
But I was trusting Minori on this. That this world reset. That once Minori woke up and slept again, everything would be wiped clean. Erased. A cycle reborn. The sky above was a deep, bruised red.
I pulled out the hand map and spotted a sign nearby, its name marked in bold ink:
Fukō na jiko.(Unfortunate Accident.)
"…What is this?"
Suddenly, the sound of an approaching car—blistering fast—pierced the quiet. Tires screamed, brakes howled. A shriek of metal grinding against gravel.
"Look out!" Toho shouted, gripping my shoulder and shoving me hard. I was thrown out of the trees, tumbling down, just in time to see it—
A massive vehicle tore through the clearing, slamming into Toho with violent force. Her body whipped through the air, crashing against the concrete tiles of the road.
A corpse lay on the pavement.
The car had been speeding—maybe 90 kilometers per hour. It veered sideways after hitting a tree, crumpling metal and flinging its passengers across the asphalt. Blood soaked into the gravel, pooling now there were around three bodies on the road. One more was slumped in the driver's seat his hand on the side unmoving.
Adam's eyes went dull—lifeless. Again, he had been powerless. Again, someone had died. Someone he'd just met. Someone a friend had entrusted to him.
On the ground he collapse, numb. The weight was soul-crushing. He was tired—tired of death. He had been killed many times, but as a human being, he still couldn't bear to see someone else die before his eyes.
He pressed his palms to the thick grass beside the road.
Red spider lilies bloomed in the blood-soaked soil, their petals glowing with a faint, eerie luminescence.
Adam steadied his breathing. This world was strange. Surreal. But he told himself—
"It's fine... Everything's fine. They'll come back. They're not really dead."
I stepped toward Toho's body as it began to crumble, her form disintegrating into dust.
"I'm sorry... I'd rather have you with me—useless and annoying—than dead like this."
Her body faded. But the others didn't.
Thankfully, I couldn't see their faces. One of them, a teenager, wore a gray hoodie with a headset dangling around his neck. The other was an elderly woman. Their faces had been carved away—as if by some violent force—each bearing an explicit, grotesque cross where their expressions should've been.
I approached the vehicle. A pair of glasses had been embedded into the trunk of a tree, cracked and bloodstained.
"…Sigh. This again."
I wandered further down the road.
Somewhere above, a harp played faintly in the air—soft and peaceful. But there were no humans in sight. No one left to speak to.
What would I even tell Minori now?
Ugh.
[Adam, calm down... Look at your status screen.]
I glanced at it:
[Countdown: Toho – 1 day remaining]
A tired smile pulled at my lips.
"Wait… is she like a summon character or something? How?"
But I shouldn't be smiling at this. I had just witnessed something… something that would've broken me once.
I'm changing, aren't I?
From this world, a strange plant began to rise—its skin red and fleshy. A mouth formed at the tip, gnashing and drooling, chewing the spider lilies that had blossomed from spilled blood.
Yeah. I hate this world.
Just take me out already.