As Gi-Gyu stood up, El asked in confusion, “Master! What do you mean?!”

With a blank face, he turned toward her and ordered, “Stop it.”

“Pardon?” El seemed confused.

Gi-Gyu shouted again, “I said stop this prank already!”

His loud voice echoed inside the hospital room, but El only gazed at him.

After a short silence, Gi-Gyu finally asked, “What are you?”

Suddenly…

Crack.

Everything around him crumbled down except El and the bed he was sitting on. Now, he could only see darkness and El’s uncaring eyes.

“I thought you were slow, but I suppose I got it wrong. You have pretty good instincts,” a voice suggested. Just like their surroundings, “El” cracked like a glass cup. The place where El stood was now occupied by…

A human-like dark figure stood before a shocked Gi-Gyu. Although its form looked human, it didn’t have eyes, nose, or lips. And despite being pitch black, it was somehow distinguishable from the equally dark space around them.

“What are you?” Gi-Gyu asked again.

“I am”—the dark figure opened its long mouth, showing dozens of teeth and a slithering forked tongue—“you.”

And then, Gi-Gyu lost consciousness.

***

“Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu! Please wake up!”

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