I co from a world called Terra. It was once a thriving civilization, but by the ti of my birth, it had beco a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Unlike this world, Terra had no magic—only science, developed to such an extent that we nearly destroyed our own planet.
I was the founder and CEO of the Misra Corporation, a leading force in scientific advancent. My company pioneered research in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space colonization, all in a desperate bid to save what remained of our ho. But one day, sothing beyond even our most advanced understanding occurred—a great Glitch.
For a brief mont, we saw other worlds overlapping with ours, as if reality itself had fractured. Just for a few seconds, countless creatures and foreign viruses poured into Terra. We had always assud we were alone, that our universe was the only one in existence. That day shattered our beliefs.
Misra Corporation assembled the best scientific minds to study this anomaly. We worked tirelessly to understand the strange beings and the unfamiliar physics governing them. In the midst of our research, we discovered sothing extraordinary—a small, shimring Door. Unlike any natural phenonon we had ever encountered, this Door seed to lead to another world.
At first, we only observed, taking readings and running remote experints. But as always, curiosity got the better of us. We wanted to step through, to see firsthand what lay beyond. That was our mistake.
An accident occurred during one of our experints. The Door destabilized, and in an instant, several of us were pulled inside. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in this village.
At first, I thought it was a dream, so cruel trick of the mind. But everything felt too real—the dirt beneath my fingers, the wind against my skin, the strange people speaking a language I sohow understood. This was no illusion. It was a new world, and I had no way back.
Days turned into weeks, and I began to accept my new reality. That was when I stumbled upon sothing unusual—a fruit unlike anything I had ever seen. The mont I consud it, mories flooded my mind. I rembered everything—Terra, my company, the Glitch, the Door. But that was not all I realized.
I had died. Many tis.
This village was not normal. Whenever soone perished here, they did not remain dead. The village revived them, bringing them back as if nothing had happened. But there was a price—a hidden cost that no one knows Each ti a person was brought back, a piece of their soul was taken, absorbed by the village itself. I can felt it only after regaining my mories.
I spent years trying to understand how it worked. I experinted, observed, and tested theories in secret. I found others—outsiders like myself—who had sohow found their way here. Everyone are from completely different worlds. I tried to restore their mories, to help them rember who they truly were.
At first, it seed possible. So of them regained fragnts of their past. But then sothing horrifying happened.
Their mories were wiped away—completely erased as if they had never rembered in the first place.
No matter how many tis I tried, it always ended the sa way. The village did not tolerate its secrets being exposed. If a person rembered their past and spoke of it to another villager—one of those bound by the village’s will—the village would react. Their mories would be forcibly erased, leaving them once again trapped in ignorance.
I only managed to escape this fate because I was careful. I never revealed my knowledge to anyone until I was certain they had already regained their mories on their own. That was the only loophole I discovered—the village only interfered when mories were shared.
For the longest ti, I thought I was alone in this. That no one else could break free from the village’s grasp. But then you people arrived.
I never expected Mathilda, Tyler and Catherine to progress so far without my help. You started rembering everything. You resisted the village’s control naturally—sothing I had never seen before.
Maybe it’s you people. Maybe, after all this ti, I have finally found the ones who can break free from this prison.
According to the Outsiders, We are trapped in a dinsion called the Abyss.
In this village, We never grow old, never change. We remain exactly as we were when we first arrived, trapped in an eternal cycle.
No matter how many years pass, our bodies stay the sa. A child remains a child. An elder remains an elder.
But it’s not immortality. It is stagnation.
The people here do not question it. They do not worry about the years slipping by. Their mories are refreshed constantly, wiping away any traces of the past. They wake up every day believing they are living normal lives, repeating the sa routines without realizing they have done them countless tis before.
A never-ending loop. A cycle with no beginning and no end.
The villagers—these children, these elders—they must have fallen into the Abyss when it was devouring their worlds.
I have heard from the other outsiders. They spoke of the Abyss as sothing beyond comprehension, a realm that connects to multiple dinsions. So believe it is a void between worlds, swallowing fragnts of reality and trapping them in different floors.
My analysis is that This village is not just a place—it is sothing like a Domain. It feeds on us, on our souls, on our very existence. We are nothing more than fuel for its endless cycle of death and rebirth.
But I believe there is a way out.
The village steals our mories, but it does not destroy them. If we can find a way to retrieve what has been lost, to reclaim the pieces of ourselves that have been taken, we might just be able to break free.
I have spent countless years trying and failing. At first, I fought with everything I had, searching for a way to break free. I tried countless experints, uncovered countless secrets, and even helped others regain their mories. But in the end, it was all for nothing. The village always won.
So, I gave up.
Perhaps this village is not an illusion at all, but an altered reality. And we are nothing more than remnants, caught in its grasp.
The will to resist slowly faded, replaced by an overwhelming sense of futility. No matter what I did, the village erased everything, leaving to start over again and again. I stopped fighting. I stopped searching for answers. I resigned myself to this endless cycle, accepting that escape was impossible.
But then, sothing changed.
One day, I saw a boy drowning in the river. Normally, that wouldn’t have been unusual—people died all the ti in this village, only to be revived monts later. But this ti was different. He didn’t disappear. He didn’t reset like the others. He wasn’t bound by the village’s rules.
That boy was you, Tyler.
If it had been before, I would have imdiately tried to restore your mories. But by then, I had already given up on resisting. So instead, I simply dragged you to the shore and left you there.
I thought nothing would change. You are just new outsider just like Mathilda and Catherine. Just additional soul feast for the Village. I assud you would be absorbed into the village just like everyone else.
Then Catherine found you.
That was the mont everything started to shift. First you were called as Outsiders. There are records of outsiders, but they are just records from Fake mories. This is the first ti Village just assud a person identity as an outsider.
Maybe because there is additional soul inside you.
Tyler nodded it was probably Mana influence, because of Mana he has so sort of resistance against Soul attacks.
Misra paused, looking at Tyler and the girls, as if gauging their reactions. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips—one filled with sothing she had long since abandoned. Hope.
And for the first ti in years, she allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, this ti would be different.
Misra had finished explaining everything she knew about the village and its mysteries. Tyler and the girls sat in stunned silence, the weight of her words sinking in.
If what she said was true, then they weren’t just trapped in a strange illusion. This village wasn’t just so bizarre prison—it was a living entity, feeding on their very existence. And if they didn’t find a way out soon, they would eventually beco just another part of it.
But Tyler wasn’t one to give up. He had never been the type to simply accept his fate. And now that he knew the truth, he was more determined than ever. He has his Copper Pot and Abnormal luck.
He exchanged glances with Mathilda and Astrid, who both nodded in silent agreent. They weren’t going to let this village win.
No matter what it took, they were going to escape.
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