A woman sat in the middle of a lush forest, her white dress spread across the grass around her.
"Is that... me?"
Seo Elena stared at the woman. What was she doing all alone in the middle of such a vast, grassy field?
"Diana, look at this. I think I understand how time manipulation works within a certain radius." She said aloud, but there was no one there besides her.
The woman who looked exactly like Elena called out the name Diana, her attention fixed on a small daffodil growing beside her.
As Elena watched, the flower began to wilt. Its yellow petals shriveled, and its leaves withered as though years had passed in the span of a few seconds.
Then, just as quickly, it came back to life.
The stem straightened, and the petals unfurled, revealing a bright yellow bloom. But the flower didn't stop there. It continued to reverse through its life cycle, the petals closing and the stem shrinking until only a tiny green sprout remained.
『 The Shiniest Gem 』
Hm, as I thought, you're a smart child. Alright, keep it up before those bastards get here.
Seo Elena stared at the words displayed on the blue screen hovering in front of her. She was the only one who could see it. After all, she was watching another version of herself.
The more she read their conversation, the more familiar it felt. There was something strangely recognizable about the way the blue screen spoke to her other self.
It sounded just like the Diana she knew.
It couldn't be...?
Seo Elena quickly shook the absurd thought from her head. Yet, the more she watched, the harder it became to dismiss the possibility. Her conviction that this was merely an illusion began to waver.
Was this really just an illusion?
"Jinhyuk-ssi, you said this was a memory dungeon, right?"
Han Jinhyuk nodded. "It is. The system never lies, Elena."
Elena fell silent.
What she was seeing couldn't possibly be real.
For one thing, the world around her looked nothing like Earth. There were two enormous moons in the sky, and in the distance stood a gigantic tree that seemed too large to belong in this world.
Something like that wouldn't go unnoticed. If it existed on Earth, the place would be swarming with tourists. Yet there was no one here except Elena.
As much as she wanted to dismiss everything as an illusion casted by the dungeon, a part of her was beginning to consider another possibility: What if this really was her past?
She had memories of going to preschool and high school, of growing up just like any other child. But whenever she tried to recall the faces of the people who had raised her, her mind drew a blank.
She knew she'd had guardians. She could remember their presence, their place in her life, but their faces remained frustratingly blurry.
"If what you said is true, then why can't I remember any of this?"
Seeing the troubled expression on her face, Han Jinhyuk answered honestly.
"I don't know. Just like you I don't remember anything. It's a possibility that something must've happened to the two of us."
Elena frowned.
"What, you mean it's just the two of us? What about the others in these memories? Have they forgotten everything, too?"
Jinhyuk fell quiet.
Then, he suddenly recalled something Minwoo had once said about plot twists in dramas.
Every story had one. Sometimes, the people who seemed like enemies turned out to be lovers. Other times, the truth was something no one could have imagined.
Could his own life have a plot twist like that? What if he and Elena had once been enemies who fell in love?
No, that's ridiculous. He couldn't even remember his own past, so how was he supposed to know?
Still, at this point, he couldn't rule anything out.
As the scene unfolded, both Han Jinhyuk and Seo Elena were surprised by how peaceful everything was. They watched this version of Elena go about her daily life, learning new things and occasionally sitting on the grass to stare into the air.
At first, Han Jinhyuk assumed she was looking at her system screen. Perhaps she had a very chatty constellation that kept her staring into the system.
However, minutes turned into hours, and hours stretched into days.
Who in their right mind would stare at their screen for days on end?
"Still no sign of anything different?" Seo Elena asked.
She was beginning to grow anxious. The flow of time in each memory felt strange, and she was starting to lose track of how long they had been there.
Their sense of time had become so distorted that they had even adjusted their schedules to match the memories. Even then, getting any proper rest was difficult. They couldn't afford to let their guard down when they were still searching for a way out.
"There might be certain conditions we have to meet before an exit appears," Han Jinhyuk explained. "Remember when we watched my memories? We couldn't find an exit no matter what we did. It wasn't until I regressed that one finally appeared."
His gaze shifted to the surroundings.
"I think we have to survive whatever trial the memory puts us through. Until the memory reaches its conclusion, the exit won't open."
His explanation made things much easier to understand.
As an ordinary civilian who couldn't do much on her own and had to rely on Han Jinhyuk, Elena felt a little relieved. At least now, she had some idea of what they were dealing with.
As the two discussed possible ways to escape, the other Seo Elena suddenly stood up.
"They found me."
For the past few days, her voice had been soft and gentle. The sudden change in her tone sent an ominous chill through Han Jinhyuk. Before either of them could react, two monsters descended from the sky. Their skin was blue, almost translucent, giving them an otherworldly appearance.
Han Jinhyuk's eyes widened.
There were several reasons these creatures shocked him.
First, they were powerful. He could tell instinctively that their strength was on an entirely different level.
Second, they were the very creatures that had nearly brought humanity to the brink of destruction. They were the reason he had earned the title of Monarch of Dungeons.
But what shocked him the most was something else entirely.
Strange codes constantly moved across the monsters' bodies, shifting and rearranging themselves. Unlike the codes he could occasionally perceive in the surrounding world, these were moving differently.
And Han Jinhyuk couldn't look away.
"Be careful!"
Jinhyuk raised his voice before grabbing Seo Elena and pulling her a considerable distance away.
"Jinhyuk-ssi?"
A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face as he stared at the figures before them.
"Those things. Why are they appearing in front of us?"
"Jinhyuk-ssi?"
"If this is just a memory, they shouldn't be able to notice us, right?" he muttered, his expression growing tense. "If they can, then we have a serious problem. There's no way I could take on both of them alone."
"Hyuk-ah!"
Seo Elena suddenly raised her voice and slapped both palms against his cheeks.
Han Jinhyuk jolted, his attention snapping back to her as he stared at her in disbelief.
"What did you just call me?"
"W-well, I kept calling out to you, but you weren't responding, so I..." Elena trailed off, her face growing warm. Despite her embarrassment, she couldn't exactly run away when she was already in his arms, being carried by him.
Not that she wanted to run away in the first place.
"Sorry. We should find an exit soon..."
Before he could finish, Jinhyuk abruptly dodged an incoming attack, leaving the other three staring at him in shock.
"What's this? There are two of you?"
The creature tilted its head, its gaze shifting between the past Seo Elena and the current Seo Elena. Its attention lingered on the current Elena for a moment before a smile slowly spread across its face.
"Ah, I see. This is a memory for you two, isn't it?" Its smile widened. "That means this is all in the past now."
Something was wrong.
If this was merely a memory being replayed by the dungeon, then the creature shouldn't have been able to perceive them, much less hold a conversation with them. Yet here it was, reacting to their presence as if they were no different from the people who had stood before it in the past.
Jinhyuk immediately tightened his hold on Elena and leaped away backward even further.
A second later, the spot where they had been standing exploded.
Elena's eyes widened.
『Warning! Due to an unexpected variable, rewards are being adjusted. Please defeat the ██.』
『Failure to comply will result in death.』
"What are you talking about?"
The other version of Seo Elena looked confused. She followed the creature's line of sight, but there was nothing there.
Of course there wasn't. She wasn't supposed to be able to see them.
"Ah, right. You can't see them because you don't understand the system well enough." The creature chuckled. "Since we're just a memory being replayed, why don't I teach you a little something?"
Still bewildered, the other Seo Elena glanced at him.
"Look at that area over there. Haven't you noticed that the ███ are moving faster than they should? And they keep changing, don't they?"
Following its gesture, the other Seo Elena turned her attention to the codes shifting across the designated area.
He was right. Something was different.
The symbols were moving at an abnormal speed, and the symbols flickered and changed constantly, as though the system itself had begun to malfunction.
But why?
If this was merely a memory being replayed, there was no reason for things to behave differently from how they had in the past. And those creatures certainly had no reason to act so erratically.
A troubling thought crossed her mind.
If this is a memory, then what happened in the future?
And if she was still alive in that future... Then what was her future self doing here? She considered all kinds of possibilities, but in the end, closed off her thoughts.
"If we're merely a memory, then why don't you stop attacking them and come after me instead? I was your original target, wasn't I?"
The creatures exchanged glances before nodding in unison, as though they'd reached an agreement. Meanwhile, Han Jinhyuk continued running with Seo Elena in his arms, putting as much distance between them and the creatures as possible.
He didn't stop until he reached the roots of the colossal World Tree. There, nestled between its enormous roots, he finally found an exit.
Jinhyuk stared at it for a moment.
So the exit had been here all along.
He'd assumed that the exit would only appear once they'd completed the scenario. But that didn't necessarily mean they had to wait until the scenario ended. Perhaps they simply needed to explore their surroundings more thoroughly.
It had never occurred to him that the exit could be located anywhere in the world contained within the memory.
However, the more he thought about it, the less certain he became of his assumptions. The conditions were far more confusing than he'd anticipated, and the rules he'd relied on to navigate the dungeon no longer seemed entirely trustworthy.
Jinhyuk let out a quiet breath.
All he could say for certain was that this Nightmare Dungeon was truly living up to its name.