Min-jae didn't stop running.
His grip tightened around Park Ji-hoon's wrist as they pushed through the crowd if it could even be called that anymore. People moved without direction, without purpose, like pieces of a puzzle that no longer knew where they belonged.
"Min-jae! Stop!" Ji-hoon shouted, struggling. "You're scaring me! What's going on?!"
Min-jae didn't answer. Because he didn't know where to begin.
"There's something chasing us that you can't see . The world is forgetting itself and I might be the only one who remembers."
None of it sounded real. Even to him.
They turned sharply into a narrow alley. The noise of the city dulled behind them, replaced by an unnatural silence.
Min-jae finally let go.
Ji-hoon staggered back, breathing heavily. "Have you lost your mind?!"
Min-jae leaned against the wall, trying to steady his breathing. "That thing. It's still following us."
Ji-hoon frowned. "What thing?"
A crack.Min-jae's head snapped up.
The air in front of them distorted like a broken screen struggling to display reality.
And then it appeared again. But it was closer this time.
Its form flickered violently, limbs phasing in and out of existence. Its "face" twisted, as if trying to remember what it was supposed to look like.
Min-jae's chest tightened.
"It found us…"
Ji-hoon glanced around, confused. "Who found"
The creature moved.
Min-jae reacted instantly.
"GET DOWN!"
He tackled Ji-hoon to the ground as something invisible tore through the space where they had been standing.The wall behind thema didn't break.It reversed.
For a brief second, the cracks vanished and then exploded outward.
Ji-hoon froze beneath him.
"…Min-jae," he whispered, voice shaking, "why does it feel like something just passed through us…?"
So he could feel it but just not see it.
Min-jae pushed himself up.His mind raced. He was thinking.Running wasn't working. They couldn't keep escaping forever.
The creature tilted its head again. And then it rushed forward.
Time slowed.Not literally.
But in Min-jae's mind, everything sharpened.Every movement. Every shift in the air.And then , a flash. A memory.
Not his.
A man screaming as the ground beneath him collapsed.
The same creature. No, this creature standing over him.
A final thought:
"Someone. Remember me"
Min-jae gasped. His vision snapped back.The creature was right in front of him.And without thinking he reached out.His hand touched it.Pain exploded in his head. It wasn't physical.It was like overwriting.
Memories flooded in. It was like foreign, fragmented, broken.
Names. Faces. Places he had never seen.
And then there was a silence.
The creature froze. For the first time it stopped moving.
Ji-hoon stared at Min-jae in shock. "What did you just do?!"
Min-jae didn't respond.Because something was wrong.
He looked down at his own hand. It was shaking.Not from fear but from something else.
"Who" he whispered.
His voice trembled.
"Who is Ji-hoon?"
Silence.
Ji-hoon laughed nervously. "Very funny. Stop joking around."
Min-jae slowly turned his head. His eyes was empty and confused. He was earching.
"I…" he said, struggling, "I know that name…"
Ji-hoon's smile faded.
"…Min-jae?"
The creature in front of them began to crumble. Its flickering form stabilizing for a brief moment clearer than before. It was almost human. And then it disappeared.
Min-jae staggered back, clutching his head.Memories slipped through his fingers like sand.Something important.Something precious was gone.
But in its place.Something new remained.
A faint, glowing fragment hovered in front of him like a shard of glass.
No.
It was like a piece of memory itself.
And then a voice was heard.Not from the world. But from within.
[Memory Fragment Acquired]
[Origin: Unknown Individual]
[Skill Extracted: "Trace Step"]
Min-jae froze.
The words burned into his mind was real and undeniable.
Ji-hoon stared at him. "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost…?"
Min-jae didn't answer.
Because he understood now.At least a part of i
To fight them and to survive, he had to take their memories.
But every time he did,he would lose one of his own.
Min-jae clenched his fists.His heart pounded.
Fear crept in. But something else rose with it.
Resolve.
"…We can't stay here," he said.
Ji-hoon blinked. "Finally, something normal"
Min-jae looked at him. He hesitated just for a second.
"…Come with me," he said.
Because even if he didn't fully remember who Ji-hoon was he knew one thing.He couldn't afford to forget him again.
Far above the city
The sky cracked. And something unseen is being watched.
[The Erasure Has Begun]