The Nowhere

Everything was white… as far as my eye could see.

That was the first thing I noticed after I opened my eyes. I had no idea how I ended up here.

This place felt warm. Comfortable, even. But too quiet.
So quiet, I could hear my own heartbeat echoing in my chest.

Am I dreaming?

That was the first question that came to mind. There was no way this could be the real world.
And yet… everything felt disturbingly real.

I tried pinching my cheek, but that’s when I noticed something utterly terrifying.

I was floating.

Even though everything around me was white, I could feel it—there was no ground beneath me. And as someone with a fear of heights, this was no dream. It was a nightmare.

The more I realized I couldn’t see any bottom, the more intense my fear became.
My breathing quickened. Sweat dripped down my face.
My heartbeat pounded louder. Panic surged.

I tried to calm myself down, clenching my arms tightly around my chest, avoiding the urge to look behind me.
I shut my eyes, desperately trying to block out the fear.

Damn it… what is this place?

In the middle of my rising panic, I suddenly heard a voice…
Someone was calling out to me.

“Hey,”

The voice echoed throughout the space.

I cracked my eyes open, scanning for the source.
But no one was there.

Then the voice continued, “Seek a party called Golden Arrow. And then follow them.”

Golden Arrow?
What is that?
A party?
Wait… is this some kind of fantasy world?

“Hey, who are you? Why am I here?” I called out, my voice still trembling.

My question echoed through the space, but no response came.

The voice wasn’t ignoring me. It was simply gone.

Suddenly, the warmth around me intensified.
Too warm—almost painfully real.

And then, this place immediately turned black.

I realized I could no longer feel my body. Yet the fear remained. All I could feel was that lingering, creeping dread, gnawing at me from the inside.

Then, all at once—
I could feel my body again.

My body felt weightless in that place—until everything collapsed.
I jolted upright, gasping, my body soaked in sweat.
My heart was racing. I was awake, but the fear hadn’t left me.

I found myself sitting on a cold, solid floor. One hand clutched my chest, trying to calm the violent thudding inside. The panic still gripped me. Sweat clung to my skin, sticky and real. But the sound of my heartbeat… it was no longer as deafening as before.

I tried to calm myself.

It’s okay. I can see the floor. I’m sitting on the floor. I can feel it with my hands. There’s no need to panic. I’m fine. I’m okay.

I repeated those words to myself, over and over, trying to settle my nerves.

Little by little, my body began to relax.

At the same time, I slowly looked around, trying to grasp where I was.

I was inside what looked like an old stone structure. The floor beneath me was ceramic tile.
Vines crawled along the cracked walls. Some parts of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing shafts of sunlight to spill through. One of those sunbeams landed directly on me. That explained the warmth.

I carefully rose to my feet, focusing on my legs, which were still trembling slightly.
Once I managed to stand upright, I noticed something.

I’m standing on a podium. In front of me is a wide entrance, flanked on both sides by rows of long benches.

Is this… a church?

This place looked like an abandoned church, its design resembling something from the 16th century. It was built from stone, but not particularly large.

Am I in Europe?

I stepped down using a small set of stairs at the edge of the platform.
Then I sat on one of the benches, leaning forward slightly, hands clasped tightly together between my knees.

And there I sat in silence, trying to make sense of everything.

How did I end up here? What exactly was that dream? And, where… am I?

As far as I could remember, before I ended up in that white place, I was just on my way home from the minimarket.
I’d gone out to buy groceries for myself and my little sister. We lived together in a small rented house—just the two of us, ever since... well, something happened. That’s not important right now.

I was riding my scooter.

Then—
Hmm?
My mind wandered.

Yeah... I guess I zoned out while riding my scooter. I wasn’t paying attention.
But what was I even thinking about?

Somewhere in the blur of my thoughts, I vaguely heard—a car horn?

Wait...

Did I get hit?

My body tensed. I straightened my posture—
as if I’d just seen a ghost.

A heavy disbelief settled in my chest.

If I were hit by a car, I would be in a hospital.

So where... where the hell am I?

“Is this... the afterlife?” I muttered under my breath, eyes wide, unable to accept what I was seeing.

I can’t be dead!
I clung to that thought, forcing it into my head—but everything around me screamed the opposite.

“Oi.”

A voice called out from behind me.

That voice shattered my train of thought—my head turned instinctively toward where it came fromIt came from a man—standing tall like a soldier near the front entrance.

His outfit was strange.

No—

Actually, it was kind of cool.
He looked like a cosplayer straight out of a sci-fi convention.

He wore metallic armour across his chest, and the same kind of plating wrapped around his arms. Strapped to his right hip was what looked like a pistol, though it was nothing like any firearm I’d ever seen.
On his left side hung a white sword—it didn’t look especially sharp, but right down the centre of its blade was a thick, glowing cyan line, as if someone had taken a highlighter and sliced the sword with it.

As I looked at his face, I realized—he looked young. Short white hair, cut in what seemed like a long trim style. Younger than me, probably in his early twenties.
It actually suited him quite well.

“HKPDS—007?” he said suddenly.

What?
What kind of language was that?

I’d never heard anything so random.
There was no intonation, no pauses—just flat, mechanical syllables.

He seemed to notice the confused look on my face after what he had just said. Without a word, he reached into his right pocket and started rummaging around, as if searching for something. Once he found whatever it was, he casually tossed it toward me with one hand.

I instinctively shot up from the bench, catching it with both of my hands.

It was a small headset-like device, meant to hook over both ears, with a tiny microphone on one side.
I stared at it, uncertain.

The man repeatedly pointed to his own ears, urging me to wear it.

I slipped it on. For a moment, there was only silence—then, out of nowhere, a quick, piercing, high-pitched buzz screamed into my skull. The pain was so sharp, I almost dropped to the floor. My ears rang violently, but I fought to stay on my feet.

“Hey? Hey? Can you hear me?” said a voice—this time, through the headset.

For some reason, I felt relieved.
My ears weren’t injured, despite the horrible screech just moments earlier.

The man walked over and grabbed both of my shoulders, steadying me.

Then he gently sat me back down on the bench.
He gave me a moment to catch my breath, then sat beside me.

“You feeling better now?” he asked.

Holding my still-throbbing head, I turned to him and muttered, “Y-Yeah. I think so.”

“Good. That buzzing is normal if you haven’t used an Earcript in a while.”

As he spoke, I realized his mouth wasn’t syncing at all with the voice I was hearing.
Is this some kind of translator?

“Earcript?” I asked, pointing to the device on my ear. “Is that what this thing’s called?”

“Huh? You’ve never heard of an Earcript?”

He looked genuinely baffled, like I’d just asked him what fire was. It felt like this thing was something everyone here should know about.

Should I tell him I’m not from... wherever here is?

"Are you from a region that doesn’t use Earcripts?” the man asked, not giving me a moment to think.
“But… no, everyone should already know about Earcript,” he muttered to himself.

“Hey—” He suddenly grew serious.
“Are you—”

BOOM!!!

A loud explosion cut him off. It came from nearby, outside of this building.

We both instinctively turned toward the direction of the sound.

Not long after that, a second man burst through the front doors—
He was wearing the same kind of gear as the one beside me.
He looked panicked, exhausted.
One hand gripped the doorframe, the other braced against his knee, gasping for breath.

“What happened?” asked the man beside me, voice tense.

Between ragged breaths, he replied, “Paul… stepped on a TD.”

“What type spawned?” he shot back, not wasting a second.

“Gargantuar…”
The man’s eyes flicked over to me.
“Also—who’s this guy?”

“We’ll deal with that later. We need to get out of here now. Alert the others. Abort the mission.”

“Yeah, figured that much. See you back at HQ.”

The man at the door bolted back outside, leaving the two of us alone.

They’d been talking like I wasn’t even there. But I hadn’t said a word—not out of fear, but because I genuinely had no idea what they were saying.

TD? Gargantuar? Earcript?
None of it made any sense to me.

The man beside me turned toward me again.
“I don’t know who you are, but if you want to survive, you should probably start warming up.”

Right after saying that, he began hopping lightly and rotating his shoulders, like he was doing some quick warm-up drills.

Still completely lost, I asked, “What’s going on?”

“Save your questions—” He cracked his neck.

“Because we’re about to play a little game of tag... And trust me, you don't want to lose."