The school was still a ways off when Echo finally broke the silence.
"So," he said, hands shoved in his pockets, "not gonna lie, I keep waiting for one of you to say something so I know I didn't just imagine all of that."
"You didn't imagine it," Jin said.
"Yeah, I know. That's the problem."
Areum walked with her arms crossed tight against her chest, like she was holding something in rather than out. "It's not even the wall thing that's getting to me," she said. "I mean, that was unsettling, sure. But that's not what I can't stop thinking about."
Haneul glanced at her. "What is, then?"
"That there's other worlds," she said. "Real ones. Not just Earth having its own myths, actual other places, with their own gods and monsters and whatever else, and the system is just going through all of them like it's shopping."
Daehyun exhaled slowly. "And apparently it's not even going all out on us yet. Like we're the appetizer it hasn't gotten around to eating."
