In a dark void ..
colorless, tasteless ..
an echo reverberated.
An echo of a deep, alien voice—one no human was ever meant to hear.
And then ..
Ethan opened his eyes.
He saw nothing.
There was no ground, no sky.
No light, no shadow.
Only nothingness.
Vast.
Suffocating.
So still that even his breaths collided with the silence itself… and vanished.
Then he realized that he was standing—
or floating.
He couldn't tell.
He wasn't even certain he still possessed a body.
Panic seized Ethan, his mind unable to grasp or contain itself.
At first, he thought this was a dream.
A nightmare.
But dreams did not look like this.
"Where am I…? Am I… dead?"
The thought crept into Ethan's mind as he recalled his sudden collapse.
He had believed it was nothing more than a temporary fainting spell brought on by exhaustion.
His current state made him realize just how naïve that assumption had been.
At first, he believed he was dead.
But death did not feel like this.
Not this dense.
Not this real.
Then ..
the first voice came.
It had no direction.
It came from within him.
From around him.
From every point in the void at once.
It took Ethan an eternity to even begin adjusting to this strange space—
a place that felt like a junction between life and death.
Then .. the second voice arrived.
And that was when Ethan finally saw it.
He lifted his head toward the upper reaches of the void ..
and what he beheld caused his mind to shut down completely.
"Haha… I must've lost my mind."
Ethan showed the first true signs of madness.
What stood before him was a dark entity—
something like a colossal heart, pulsing with grotesque life.
A mass of mutated flesh, from which countless horns protruded.
Horns that released sound waves—
each one reshaping Ethan's soul from scratch.
That entity—
that giant heart—
with a single glance, Ethan understood that what he was seeing was no ordinary being.
It was a creature far beyond the limits of his comprehension.
The horns of the apocalypse erupting from it released the same sound again and again.
And with every wave ..
Ethan died.
And returned to life.
Again.
And again.
Until at last, his soul stabilized into a single form—
one no longer affected by the abyssal call emitted by the colossal heart.
Only then ..
Ethan could finally breathe.
A long, ragged gasp escaped his lips as frigid air filled his lungs.
Tears welled in his eyes.
His limbs went completely numb.
Nothing made sense anymore.
"W–what… what…" Ethan muttered, lips trembling, his mind on the verge of collapse.
"What the hell is happening to me?!"
He wrapped his arms around his head, curling in on himself ..
terrified.
As though his worst nightmare had become a living reality, hunting him relentlessly.
For a moment—
it felt as though the madness would never end.
And Ethan truly believed that it wouldn't.
But then .. the first glimmer of light arrived.
Not as illumination .. but as a voice.
A human voice.
"Raise your head, Ethan. You are safe here."
It was a man.
His voice was familiar—
yet Ethan couldn't immediately place its owner.
Not by sound alone.
Slowly, Ethan lifted his head ..
casting a cautious, searching gaze at this new guest who had joined the nightmare.
What he saw made him doubt his own eyes.
He knew that man.
Unlike the creature above, the man before him was human.
Those narrow eyes.
That neatly styled, traditional haircut.
A face Ethan had seen countless times throughout his life.
There wasn't a gamer alive who didn't recognize him.
"Y–you… Ishizaki?!" Ethan shouted as the most famous game developer appeared before him.
It couldn't be a coincidence.
Ishizaki was the last person Ethan had spoken to before collapsing.
And now—
here he was, standing inside this nightmare.
All of it .. every detail .. made Ethan's subconscious pin the blame squarely on Ishizaki.
From his collapse…
to this impossible situation.
Step by step—
Ethan sprinted forward at full speed, heedless of where his feet landed ..
driven by rage and fear.
He grabbed the man by the collar and exploded:
"Ishizaki, you bastard—what did you do to me?!"
Despite the fury etched across his face, Ethan's hands trembled violently.
Fear still gripped him.
Ishizaki, on the other hand, looked genuinely surprised.
"I came prepared for several possible reactions," Ishizaki said, a wide smile spreading across his face.
"But I must admit… this wasn't one of them."
Above their heads, the heart-like monstrosity continued releasing its catastrophic wail ..
as though this world itself might collapse at any moment.
Ethan tightened his grip on Ishizaki even more.
"What are you talking about?! I just asked you a question, damn it!" he shouted, his voice shaking.
But Ishizaki remained unbothered by Ethan's fury.
"Yes, yes… I'll answer you," he replied calmly.
"But first… let's correct your rude posture."
The instant Ishizaki spoke those words—
an invisible force slammed into Ethan's body, hurling him backward—
sending him crashing back to where he had originally stood.
Ethan gasped, staggered ..
utterly unable to keep up with the madness unfolding around him.
Meanwhile, Ishizaki calmly straightened his collar.
"Yes," he said with satisfaction.
"That's a much more reasonable distance between us.
After all—we are civilized men."
The strange developer looked… perfectly at ease.
But unlike him, that last blow had been a coup de grâce to Ethan's nerves and mental balance.
He never got back up after being thrown aside.
His legs trembled, refusing to obey him, and his heart felt as though it might burst out of his chest.
His face twisted again and again, his eyes growing wet.
Meanwhile, Ishizaki scratched his hair in mild surprise at the sight before him.
"Come on now… don't tell me you're about to burst into tears."
Ishizaki's tone was completely out of place.
He spoke to Ethan as if they were close friends sharing drinks in some old bar.
"If you're going to cry, at least do it somewhere my eyes can't see."
"Shut up…" Ethan stammered, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe properly.
"Please… just end this nightmare already. Kill me—or whatever it takes. Just put an end to all of this."
Ethan begged, while Ishizaki tilted his head, that same infuriating smile still plastered across his face.
"Kill you?"
"And how exactly do you kill someone who's already dead?"
That one mocking reply ..
made Ethan's mind freeze for a moment as the words sank in.
"W–what did you just say?" he asked again.
The developer confirmed it without hesitation.
"You're dead, Ethan. You lost your life the moment you finished the game."
Ishizaki delivered those crushing words in the same casual, sarcastic tone—as if they meant nothing at all.
For a brief moment, silence fell between them.
They did nothing but stare at one another.
With a single glance, Ishizaki understood exactly what Ethan was thinking.
"You think I'm lying, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Ethan snapped.
"If I'm dead, then how am I still here—talking to you, you damn bastard?!"
Ishizaki raised both hands calmly, signaling him to relax.
"Easy, easy. I said I'd explain everything, didn't I?"
He began walking slowly, slipping his left hand into the pocket of his expensive suit.
With his right hand, he raised a single finger toward Ethan.
"First things first .. yes, you are dead. Without a doubt.
And I'm the one responsible for ending your life in the first place."
He spat the claim directly at Ethan.
Ethan's face twisted into a full scowl.
"Huh?!"
"Don't look at me like that," Ishizaki said coolly, continuing to circle him.
"You were going to die soon anyway—your illness would've taken you."
He stopped for a moment and lifted his finger upward.
"This place you're in is what we call the Transit Zone.
You could say it's a non-material realm that exists between life and death."
Then, pointing above them ..
"As for that strange creature up there, it's what's known as an Outer God.
A god from another world."
"You can't understand it.
You can't perceive its true form—because it exists far beyond the limits of your comprehension."
"That's why it appears to you in such a grotesque shape."
Ishizaki slipped both hands into his pockets.
"As for me—I am this god's messenger.
Through me, it conveys its will and thoughts to mortal beings like yourself, Ethan."