"Ren…," Yuzu called softly, his voice nearly swallowed by the noise of the first floor's main street.
He watched Ren's silhouette fade into the crowd of players, step by step, further and further away.
A strange feeling, sharp and hollow at the same time, rose in his chest.
The others remained silent, staring after him.
No one spoke a word.
For some reason, all of them felt it, the same unshakable sense that the distance between them and Ren, though only a few steps apart just moments ago, had suddenly stretched into something suffocatingly far.
"What… what is he planning to do?" Meiri asked, her voice trembling slightly, fingers gripping the hem of her shirt.
Rowa let out a breath, then ran a hand through his neatly combed hair, completely messing it up.
"Damn it… how could I forget," he muttered, his voice sinking low with regret.
"You know something?" Hina frowned, tension written clearly in her eyes.
Rowa nodded slowly, gaze fixed in the direction Ren had vanished. "We've barely known each other, but a few days ago, when I asked Ren to come with me to buy ingredients… he always stopped halfway there."
He hesitated before continuing, "Sometimes he'd visit those temporary shelters. Talking with kids. Leaving food or little supplies for them. I think… he was close to them."
The air grew heavier. A cold gust swept between the worn buildings, rattling loose signboards together with a hollow clack.
"So you mean…" Yuzu whispered, "…he went back because of those kids?"
Rowa stayed silent.
He didn't confirm it, but the look in his eyes, filled with guilt and quiet understanding, was all the answer they needed.
"I should go find him," Yuzu said softly, but with a steady firmness. And before anyone could react, he stepped out into the street.
Normally, Hina would have stopped him would have warned him against doing anything reckless.
But this time… she stood still, watching her brother's back grow smaller. A knot of worry tightened in her chest, but she exhaled slowly, forcing it down.
"Be careful," she finally said, a short sentence, sounding equal parts warning… and trust.
Yuzu turned back, offering a faint smile, gentle, rare on his usually calm face. "I'm not a kid anymore. I know what's right and what's not. Don't worry, I'm only going to find Ren."
Then he turned again, merging into the hurried crowd.
His footsteps faded, leaving only the wind brushing through the half-open door, carrying with it an indescribable emptiness.
Meiri let out a small sigh, while Hina remained still, eyes fixed on that same doorway, the place where two of them had left, one after another, with none of them knowing what awaited them next.
Ren followed the road leading toward the old church, the place players had built as a shelter for the children in this world.
The dim evening light stretched across the stone path, casting his shadow long across the worn steps.
Ren wasn't sure what he was feeling. Worry? Anger? Or just a quiet, shapeless unease spreading through his chest.
There were no clear lines between any of it, everything blurred together into a single, silent void.
And yet, within that stillness… Ren felt a strange calm. Calm like the sea before a storm. And he knew what he had to do.
Even before he reached the church, he saw someone standing outside. A girl with long brown hair tied low, green eyes behind rimless oval glasses.
Sasha.
"Sasha," Ren called softly.
She startled, turning around. When she recognized him, the tension in her face didn't ease.
"Ren…" her voice trembled slightly.
"Where's Lily?" Ren asked, stepping closer.
Among the volunteers who watched over the children, Ren knew only Lily and Sasha, always here, always smiling even when food or medicine ran low.
"Lily…" Sasha hesitated, clutching the edge of her shirt. "She went to look for the kids. But it's been over an hour… and she still hasn't come back."
She lifted her head, eyes pleading. "Ren… something's wrong."
Ren nodded faintly, as if he had already expected it.
His gaze shifted toward the church doorway, the remaining children huddled together in silence.
The room, once filled with laughter, now echoed only with the wind slipping through the tall window panes, leaving behind a chilling emptiness.
"Besides Lily… how many kids are missing?" Ren asked, his voice low and even, but his stare was so focused that Sasha froze for a heartbeat.
"Three at first," she answered, lips trembling. "Ryan, Dia, and Gita… one boy, two girls. Lily went to look for them, but… she hasn't returned."
Her voice shrank, as if saying it aloud made the reality too real.
Ren leaned slightly forward. "When were the kids last seen? And when did Lily leave?"
"They help the merchants run deliveries or do little errands around town," Sasha said, pressing her fingers to her temple, trying to recall, "Someone said they saw them yesterday evening near the West Market. Lily went to look right after dinner, when she noticed they hadn't come back."
Ren frowned.
He had already suspected something from Rowa's earlier story, but he still couldn't understand how missing merchants and missing children were connected.
He folded his arms, gaze dropping to the cold stone floor.
Trying to piece the fragments together.
No matter how he turned them over, nothing lined up clearly.
Eventually, he exhaled and looked back at Sasha.
"Either way… I'll check the market. My friend mentioned an abandoned warehouse there, maybe there's a lead."
He had taken only a few steps before something occurred to him.
He stopped.
"Right. Sasha... you friended the kids and Lily in the game, right?"
Sasha blinked. "Yes… why?"
"Open your friend list."
Without hesitation, she obeyed. The system window shimmered into view, the familiar names glowing pale blue.
Ren nodded lightly, his shoulders easing, just a little. "Good. That means they're safe. Don't worry too much."
Sasha bit her lip, relief softening her eyes, though the fear remained beneath it.
Ren glanced at her briefly but said nothing more.
He knew well, if any of those names ever turned gray… it meant that person had fallen from this world forever.
Ren briefly considered giving Sasha a message-scroll...maybe they could try sending something to Lily.
But then he shook his head.
They'd been missing for this long without leaving even a single line. The chances were high that they didn't have any such item… or worse, they weren't in any state to use it.
"Looks like I'll have to go see for myself," he muttered, turning away from the church.
The light from the doorway cast half of Ren's face in brightness, the other half swallowed by shadow, like he was caught between reason and a gnawing instinct he couldn't shake.
In the end, he quickened his pace toward the marketplace, where the abandoned warehouse Rowa mentioned waited in silence.
Ren didn't know the exact location, only that it lay somewhere around the market, in that tangle of alleys like a maze, where the row of stalls was thinner than usual.
"What...no way… how can this even happen!?"
A shout burst from a half-empty stall nearby, making Ren stop mid-step.
A young player stood frozen in the middle of the street, face drained of color.
"Hey, what's wrong?" a few players approached, curious.
"The NPC who gave me my quest disappeared!" the young man almost yelled. "How am I supposed to turn in my quest now!?"
Ren stood quietly to the side, eyes narrowing just slightly. An NPC gone… then the kids… then Lily.
The fragments in his head started forming connections, but the picture was still smeared, as if someone had deliberately covered the most important part.
"All three NPCs who gave me quests are gone! Three of them! They were still here yesterday!"
Around him, several players stopped to listen.
"All missing? Are you sure it's not just a display bug?"
"No! I went to the spot myself, it's empty! Door locked, no response."
He ruffled his hair, frustration spilling out. "I heard before they vanished, some group blocked the entrance and told everyone not to take quests from those NPCs.
And today ALS chased them off...but who even knows what that was about…"
Ren frowned.
Quest-giving NPCs… disappearing?
Ren left the market, his footsteps steady but heavy on the stone pavement.
He quietly followed the narrow path behind the row of stalls, where the evening light barely reached.
The air here was damp and cold, laced with the smell of rust and wet earth.
The further he walked, the more the noise of the market faded, swallowed by the shadowed alleyways until only the wind remained, whistling through gaps in the old walls and frayed sheets of cloth.
Then a silhouette emerged between the buildings.
A warehouse, abandoned, most likely the one Rowa had meant.
Wooden planks were nailed over the door, though one panel had snapped, leaving a dark gap just wide enough for a person to slip through.
Ren bent down, resting one hand on his sword out of instinct.
He didn't see signs of monsters, but the dirt around the entrance was speckled with footprints. Ren used the newly improved [Tracking] skill to make out the faint trails, about a day old.
They were faded and clearly wiped over, as if someone feared being followed by anyone with [Tracking].
But after training under Viscount Yofilis, Ren had pushed the skill's mastery high enough.
The ones who left these tracks must have been confident others wouldn't find them.What they didn't expect was a bored Clearer from the frontlines dropping back down here to investigate.
Ren crept closer to the door, tilting his head to listen.
Inside, there was no clear sound, only the soft drip of water and a faint metallic echo.
He pushed the door with a light shove. The hinge screeched sharply.
A surge of cold air spilled out, carrying the smell of damp and a faint burnt stench, like something had been scorched not long ago.
Inside were broken crates, torn sacks with flour scattered across the floor, and in the corner, a strange mark on the stone.
A circle.
A burn mark. Ren recognized it instantly, a leftover trace of teleportation.
He crouched down, touching the surface. "Teleportation? Then someone moved out of here… but where?"
Before he could think further, a soft sound came from behind. Light footsteps, stopping just a few meters away.