Half a year had already passed since the incident when the sky split open and everyone thought the world was ending—the event commonly known as the “Day of Beginning.”
It went without saying, but the world was no longer the same as before.
Along with phenomena people called urban legends, bizarre things began to appear, and countless people died in vain.
However.
If someone were to ask, “So did Earth end?” the answer would be no.
Even amid the chaos, people created a new order, and adapted to reality faster than expected.
“I heard another one showed up last night?”
“Yeah, was it the ‘Black Shadow’ urban legend? If you see a silhouette outside your window, you’re never supposed to look at it, but some curious person just had to…”
“Tsk, tsk. They weren’t even an Awakened, so what kind of guts did they think they had?”
To the point that people talked about urban legends on their commute to and from work.
Urban legends.
They were real disasters, and people began studying them in order to survive.
As a result, they discovered that urban legends followed certain rules.
Although countless lives had been ground away before those rules were uncovered, as long as you followed the rules properly, you could survive the same urban legend.
People shared information with one another, and the government established an organization called the “Urban Legend Countermeasures Headquarters” to begin analyzing urban legends systematically.
For example.
[Black Shadow Urban Legend: Do not perceive its appearance for more than 10 seconds.]
[The Man on the Phone: A call that comes at 4:44:44 a.m. Never answer it.]
People now spent their daily lives memorizing the distributed rules.
There were so many rules about urban legends that an ordinary person would have a hard time memorizing them, but they weren’t particularly difficult for me.
Because I had known those rules from before.
“…No matter how many times I think about it, this is seriously absurd. A novel I read for two years became reality.”
Sure, I liked urban legends, but even so, this isn’t it, Author-chan!
That kind of thing is only good when you’re reading it as a story!
You’re supposed to be safely under the blankets going, “Heheh, that’s scary. But I’m glad it’s not real!” and that’s the end of it!
“I never wanted to become a character in the story.”
But that didn’t mean I could just sit around complaining.
—PleaseTakeALookㅠㅠ: Please bring the stories of the urban legends to an end.
The author asked me to bring the story to an end.
Meaning, only by ending the stories of these damned things that had crossed over into reality could we finally return to the ordinary past.
The problem was that I had no idea where to even begin or how to solve it.
If someone knew my situation, they would probably say, “Wait, didn’t you read the novel? And you said you can counter them, right? Then just counter them all and go back to your ordinary daily life.” Something like that.
Of course, I thought so too at first.
Over the past half year, I had heard of countless urban legend incidents, and among them, there definitely were ones that had appeared in the novel.
The problem, however…
Was that urban legends had started forming in the real world too. That was the biggest problem.
The rule that urban legends were created from gathered unfortunate emotions had begun to apply in the real world as well.
If I carelessly approached some newbie(?) urban legend without even knowing its rules, it would be sayonara to this life.
That’s why I couldn’t go unrivaled in reality and was just lying low. And honestly, it’s scary!
Reading about it in text and experiencing an urban legend right in front of your eyes as “actual reality” that slaps 3D, 4D, and augmented reality in the face are on completely different levels!
“Sigh. What a life.”
Bzzzz.
A vibration rang out while I was in the middle of lamenting my circumstances.
“Fine, what is it this time?”
It seemed the urban legend disaster alert that had come every single day since that incident had arrived.
==========
[Urban Legend Countermeasures Headquarters Alert]
Today’s sunset is at 18:47. Citizens, please refrain from going outside as much as possible after sunset and always keep your surroundings brightly lit.
Do not wander around recklessly at night, and even if you hear strange sounds, never respond.
Please always familiarize yourselves with the following points and safely conclude your day today.
(1) Be active during the day as much as possible, and do not wander around carelessly at night. Urban legends mainly appear and grow stronger at night.
(2) Information on all urban legends that have occurred thus far has been organized into a file and attached, so please read and familiarize yourself with it at all times.
(3) Those who have countered an urban legend and obtained its power to “Awaken” must report to Headquarters.
(4) Those who have witnessed the recently confirmed existence known as “Phantom” must inform the Urban Legend Countermeasures Headquarters and nearby guilds.
■ Attachment: Urban Legend Case Collection (Latest)
===================
“Yesterday it was ‘Urban Legend Case Collection (ReallyFinalfinal),’ but it changed again.”
“The newly added content is… confirmation of the existence of urban legend domains, the Netherworld (冥界)… red writing appearing… special caution required…”
As I continued reading through the newly updated information, the time caught my eye.
18:15.
‘I’m screwed. I need to get home fast.’
It was now only natural to hurry home before the sun set.
But in my case, there was another major reason besides that.
* * *
Half a year ago, on the Day of Beginning.
The city was being swallowed by chaos.
Endless screams and tearing sounds, ominous black energy.
The urban legends from the novel were actually appearing and devouring people in real time.
“Haa… haa.”
The building had shaken, so I had rushed outside, but outside was just as dangerous.
Just a few hours ago, it had definitely been an ordinary day.
“…What the hell is going on?!”
The urban legends and disasters from the novel I had been reading were appearing with physical bodies.
Faced with a reality I could neither understand nor believe, I couldn’t think properly.
“F-first, I need somewhere to hide—”
As I looked around, searching for a place to hide.
Bang!
“Aaaagh! Fuck, that scared me!!”
With a sudden impact, the streetlamp beside me shattered with a tremendous crash.
And before I even had time to collect myself.
Step.
Step.
Along with the sound of glass shards falling, I felt something approaching from behind.
“Ha… don’t tell me that’s…”
The moment my eyes met “it,” I knew immediately.
That thing was fucking 200% an urban legend!
Its form resembled a human, but it had no face.
Tilting its head this way and that, it spoke to me in a chilling voice.
[I lost my face. Could you lend me yours?]
An existence with the silhouette of a middle-aged man, asking to borrow my face.
This guy was definitely the “Faceless Man” urban legend I had read about in the novel.
No questions asked. This urban legend, which appeared without any warning and stole faces, was infamous, but its rules weren’t complicated.
‘The Faceless Man only moves at the moment when the darkness is at its deepest.’
If I didn’t want my face stolen by this thing, all I had to do was stick as close as possible to the faint streetlamp light remaining on the road!
…Or so I thought.
Crackle!
“Ah, stop screwing me over already!!”
The last remaining streetlamp broke, and complete darkness covered me.
‘Fuck…! I’m dead now…!!’
Thump—
Thump, thump—
The moment I thought I was going to die.
My heart pounded loudly, and a tingling sensation spread through my entire body.
“Urgh…?! Wh-what is this?!”
Saaaaa—
A cold energy seeped through my blood vessels, and my fingertips slowly began losing sensation.
My pupils trembled, and an unfathomable darkness covered my entire vision.
A bizarre sensation, as if my very existence were gradually twisting.
‘What the hell is happening?’
When the changes slowly began to subside, my reflection appeared faintly in the glass window on the street.
“…Who are you?”
Pale white skin.
Hair dyed black.
A man with eyes as pitch-black as the abyss stood there.
‘…I don’t know what’s going on, but for now I need to fucking run… Huh?’
[…?]
Even though thick darkness lay over the area, the urban legend did not attack and simply stood there.
It stared intently in my direction, twisting its head this way and that.
As if it were observing me.
[…]
Sssss—
The Faceless Man stared at me silently for about thirty seconds, then disappeared like smoke.
“…Huh??”
It ran away?
The urban legend that was supposed to be the hunter had simply disappeared, even with prey like me right in front of it?
What the hell happened?
“…Hiss. Does it have something to do with my appearance changing?”
I rubbed my eyes and looked again and again at my reflection in the glass window.
But no matter how generously I thought about it, I absolutely did not look like an ordinary human.
“…For now, let’s go home.”
* * *
As soon as I arrived home, I headed to the bathroom.
‘…Why did I suddenly end up looking like this?’
I swept back my disheveled hair and tried to organize my thoughts.
‘Urban legends appeared in reality.’
‘And I changed as well.’
‘Do I change like this when I encounter urban legends?’
‘Do I become like this when it gets dark?’
“Seriously, don’t screw with me.”
I was so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh escaped me on its own.
If it was true that I became like this when the sun went down, then from now on I could never go out at night.
“Guess even going to the convenience store for a late-night snack will be hard now.”
Saaaaa——
I deliberately tried thinking of something ordinary, but the black energy still continued to coil around me.
As if trying to protect me.
I had never seen a phenomenon like this in the novel either… What on earth was it?
‘For now, I’ll have to observe the changes in myself more.’
Moving blindly without knowing anything was dangerous.
Besides, I didn’t remember everything about this world.
It was a novel I had read consistently for two years, but I hadn’t memorized every single detail.
New urban legends might have formed as the ones from the novel crossed into reality, and there was a high possibility that the information I knew alone would not be enough.
“Haa, I don’t know anymore.”
Flop.
With a sigh, I threw myself onto the bed.
I was tired, but sleep did not come easily.
Maybe it was because this was my first night after the change had come over me.
“…For now, things will work out after I sleep and wake up.”
I quietly closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
Hoping that by tomorrow morning, I would have returned to being “ordinary Yun Sihyeon.”