novelraw Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Lost?—First Encounter
Lu Li stood where she was, forcing herself to stay calm.
‘Don't panic.’
‘Observe first.’
She looked around, trying to find more irregularities.
The street looked normal. The streetlights were on, the shops were open, pedestrians came and went.
But that man in the grey jacket——
He appeared again.
The 3rd time.
Coming from the same direction, same pace, same posture—even the angle at which he tilted his head down to look at his phone was identical.
Like a low-quality recording with the replay button stuck down.
Lu Li felt a chill creep up her back.
She took out her phone, wanting to send Lin Lu a message.
No signal.
Every bar in the top-right corner of the screen was gone, leaving only a glaring X.
'...As expected.'
She took a deep breath and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
If she couldn't run, then there was only one option: move forward.
She had walked this road countless times—she could walk home with her eyes closed.
Turn left, go straight, turn right again, cut through the small plaza, and there was her building.
Simple enough.
****
But of course, the unexpected happened anyway.
Turn left—normal.
Go straight—normal.
Turn right——
Lu Li stopped.
There was a wall in front of her.
A concrete wall she had never seen before, stretching across where the plaza was supposed to be, cutting off the path ahead.
'This place...is supposed to be the plaza...'
She murmured to herself, reaching out to touch the wall.
Cold, rough, as real as anything could be.
The instant her fingertips made contact with its surface——
The world began to reverse.
The glow of the streetlights turned blinding, then dimmed. Pedestrians began walking backwards, their footsteps strange and mechanical. Fallen leaves lifted from the ground, spiraling back onto their branches. In the distance, the setting sun rose from the west, its light shifting at a visible pace.
Lu Li felt an invisible hand close around her, dragging her entire body backwards.
She wanted to struggle, wanted to grab onto something, but her body refused to obey.
That irresistible force reminded her of that rainy night—the moment she was swallowed by the Black Fog.
The scenery around her flew past in reverse.
Then, everything stopped.
She was standing at the intersection again.
The man in the grey jacket was walking past her.
The 4th time.
'...Back to square one.'
Lu Li looked down at her hands.
A shallow scratch had appeared on the back of her hand, as though something had lightly grazed across it. These scratches seemed to be forming a pattern at regular intervals.
Lu Li roughly estimated that the pattern would take 7 scratches in total to complete—which meant she had 3 attempts left.
****
Attempt continues.
This time she didn't turn right. Instead, she went straight.
A longer route, a different road home.
Straight, straight, straight——
Another wall.
But this time, Lu Li saw something on it.
A few lines of crooked text, carved as though someone had used a fingernail or a stone.
'Can't find it'
'It's not here'
'Can't go back'
'7 times now...I can't go back'
The last line was carved deep, saturated with despair.
She reached out and touched those words.
The world reversed again.
Back to the intersection.
****
5th time.
When the man in the grey jacket walked past, she tried to grab his sleeve.
If this was a rule, then everything here should be a clue.
Her hand passed straight through his body.
Like grasping at a wisp of smoke.
The man didn't react at all. He kept walking forward and disappeared around the corner.
Lu Li stood there, stunned.
It was then that she heard a dog bark.
Very faint, but clear in the quiet street.
She turned her head and saw a dirty little dog crouching beneath a streetlamp, staring in a certain direction.
That was...a dead end.
Lu Li hesitated for a moment, then walked toward it.
The dog saw her and seemed to want to bolt, but looked as if something was keeping it trapped—it could only pace in circles on the spot.
Lu Li moved closer and noticed a trampled flyer on the ground.
Or rather...a lost dog notice?
The paper had yellowed, and the photo on it was blurry, but she could just barely make out that it was the dog in front of her.
Most of the text below was illegible. Only the last line remained:
'...If you see it, please bring it home. It always gets lost...'
Lost.
Was the essence of this Calamity the obsession of someone who had gotten lost?
Following conventional logic——
She should help this dog find its home? Or bring it along as she tried to get out?
"Woof!"
The dog suddenly barked sharply, then ran off in the opposite direction.
Lu Li chased after it on instinct.
Past a corner, past an intersection.
And then——
Another wall ahead.
The dog passed straight through it and vanished.
Lu Li collided with it.
The world reversed.
Back to the intersection.
****
6th time.
Lu Li crouched at the intersection, on the edge of despair.
She had a rough idea of the solution.
The core of this Calamity was the concept of being "lost." To break the loop, the orthodox approach should be to find that "home," or to unravel that obsession.
But...
She didn't know where that home was.
And she was out of time to find clues.
Every attempt burned through her remaining count. Every reset added to her anxiety.
'What do I do...'
Lu Li bit her lip and tasted a faint hint of blood.
The thing inside her was growing more and more restless.
It was annoyed.
It was hungry.
It wanted to eat something.
It felt that this place was boring, cramped, and unbearable.
"Are you frustrated too?" Lu Li asked it in her mind.
No reply.
Only that urge to tear everything around her apart, to devour it all.
Lu Li suddenly froze.
Wait.
‘Tear it apart?’
If she couldn't find a way out...
Then why not just walk out herself?
She wasn't an ordinary person—she could barely even be called a person. She had already swallowed so much bitterness. Surely she was owed a little sweetness by now?
She closed her eyes and focused on the sensation inside her.
'You say...where's the exit?'
She asked inwardly.
The restlessness inside her paused for a moment.
Then, a clear sense of guidance rose from somewhere deep within.
It was telling her—in that direction, something was relatively "thin."
In that direction, a breakthrough was possible.
Lu Li opened her eyes.
She looked toward a narrow alley to her left.
It looked completely ordinary, even a little eerie.
But to her senses, the air in that direction seemed to ripple.
Was that...a weak point?
Or was it...a boundary?
Lu Li stood up.
‘Only 2 attempts left...and there's no better option for now. Worth trying.’
She took a step and walked toward it.
Turn left.
Enter the alley.
The scenery around her began to blur, like a television with a bad signal.
The restlessness inside her intensified.
It was excited.
It could feel it—just ahead was the boundary.
As long as it charged through——
Just then, a wall appeared ahead.
That same damned wall again.
The world began to tremble, as if it was about to reverse once more.
"No..."
Lu Li clenched her teeth, eyes fixed on the wall.
"You are not going back!"
She said to the thing inside her.
"Aren't you hungry?"
"Then...eat it!"
Gurgle.
The thing inside her responded.
And then, it erupted.
CRACK.
An invisible shockwave radiated outward from her body.
Lu Li watched as the seemingly impenetrable concrete wall crumbled under the erosion of the Black Fog...a chunk of it missing.
A piece had vanished, the broken edge clean and even—it almost looked like a bite mark.
It was a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Beyond the gap was not a world running in reverse.
It was a familiar street, familiar streetlights, and the familiar convenience store.
"...Ha."
Lu Li tugged at the corner of her mouth.
Whatever maze or ghost-loop this was.
As long as you ate the wall, every path was open.
Then she crawled through the gap without a second thought.
The moment she passed through, that thick, suffocating pressure vanished instantly.
The sounds of the city flooded back into her ears—car horns, the chatter of passersby.
Lu Li looked back.
The alley was still there, just a little darker than before.
The wall was gone.
The gap was gone.
Everything felt like a hallucination.
"..."Even now, Lu Li still felt an overwhelming sense of unreality, as though nothing that had just happened was real...
BUZZ——
Her phone vibrated once, signal full.
It was a message from Lin Lu.
"Home yet? Anything weird happen on the way?"
"I'm home."
Lu Li deliberated for a long time before finally sending Lin Lu a message, briefly mentioning the strange intersection and the lost dog—but omitting the part where the wall had been "bitten" apart. Once that was done, she walked briskly toward her familiar residential building.
As for the lost dog, the person who couldn't go back, and that loop forever frozen at dusk...
She'd leave those for the professional Hunters to handle.
"Home."
Lu Li patted her stomach, now slightly more settled, and quickened her pace toward home.
Hopefully she could get a decent night's sleep tonight.