Night deepened.
Inside the abandoned apartment, time lost its meaning. Seung-ho didn't know how long he had been sitting there—minutes or hours—only that the silence had grown heavier, pressing against his thoughts.
Every shadow in the room felt aware.
Not alive.But waiting.
His phone lay dead beside him. No messages. No missed calls. It was as if the world he belonged to had quietly moved on.
Good, he thought bitterly. Let it.
A faint vibration rippled through his chest.
Not pain.
Resonance.
The system stirred.
[Mental Stabilization Check] Status: In Progress…
Seung-ho's jaw tightened. "So this is what you want? For me to break?"
The room dimmed further, shadows stretching unnaturally along the walls. His heartbeat slowed—not from calm, but from focus.
Memories surfaced without warning.
The alley.The boot on his hand.The moment his life had almost ended.
He didn't push them away.
He accepted them.
"…I'm not human anymore," he whispered.
The vibration intensified.
[Mental Stabilization: Partial] Condition Met.
A sharp chill ran through his spine.
[Skill Unlocked] Shadow Step – Active Rank: E Cooldown: 30 seconds
Seung-ho inhaled sharply.
Unlocked.
He stared at the shadow beneath the broken table. It felt different now—connected, like an extension of his body rather than its absence.
Slowly, deliberately, he stood.
"If this kills me…" he murmured, "…then at least it's on my terms."
He stepped forward.
"Shadow Step."
The world collapsed inward.
There was no sensation of speed. No sense of movement. Only the violent compression of existence, as if reality folded him into nothing—
Then released him.
Seung-ho stumbled, catching himself against a cold metal surface.
His vision swam.
When it cleared, he froze.
He was no longer inside the building.
He stood in a narrow alley several blocks away—the same alley where everything had begun. The cracked wall. The rusted pipes. The lingering stench of old blood.
His blood.
"…It worked."
His knees nearly gave out, nausea crashing over him. He retched, dry and shaking, gripping the wall as the world spun.
[Warning] Spatial Displacement Stress Detected. Cooldown Increased: Temporary
"So there's a cost," he gasped. "Figures."
As his breathing steadied, something else surfaced.
A sensation.
Not fear.
Awareness.
He could feel the alley now. The depth of shadows. The blind corners. The places where light didn't reach.
His gaze snapped to the mouth of the alley.
A man stood there.
Watching.
Seung-ho's heart slammed.
But the system remained silent.
No alert.
No warning.
The man's eyes were dull, unfocused. A drunk. Or worse—someone broken by the city.
Seung-ho realized, with creeping horror, that he could see something else.
A faint, flickering outline around the man's chest.
Like a candle nearing its end.
[Passive Detection: Unregistered] Soul Integrity: Critical
Seung-ho recoiled. "I can see… that?"
The implication hit him like a blade.
The system wasn't just giving him power.
It was teaching him who was close to death.
The man coughed violently, collapsing to his knees.
Seung-ho's pulse roared in his ears.
Is this a target?Or just someone dying?
No instruction appeared.
No order.
For the first time, the system left the choice to him.
His hands trembled.
Somewhere beyond reality, seven authorities watched in silence.
Not to intervene.
But to see what he would do.
Seung-ho took a single step forward.
And crossed the line.