As usual, the night brought rain, not a downpour, but enough to send tired workers huddling beneath the eaves of convenience stores, either seeking shelter or buying umbrellas to get home safely.
The air was thick with humidity, and raindrops clung to the store's windows in rivulets, blurring the view of the dimly lit street outside. It was the kind of night Katsuki Honda hated most.
A twenty-year-old college student working the late shift, Katsuki stood behind the counter with a smile—bright and polite, but didn't reach his eyes.
He didn't work here out of kindness or passion. He worked for money. Enough to pay tuition, enough to survive. Compassion didn't pay the bills.
"Will you be paying by card or cash?" he asked, scanning the items quickly and sliding them into a plastic bag.
"Cash," replied the man—middle-aged, with sunken cheeks and dark circles under his eyes. He looked utterly drained.
"Overtime again, Daisuke-san?"
Daisuke let out a heavy sigh, dragging his hand through his disheveled hair. "Yeah. It's the missing persons again. More cases every day… Damn it, why do people just vanish like this?"
Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "Maybe they just ran away? You know, it's kind of trendy lately—changing your identity, starting fresh in another city."
He packed the last of the items as Daisuke counted out the bills and dropped them onto the tray.
"It's possible…" Daisuke leaned in, lowering his voice.
"But this is just like the cases from ten years ago. Seven people disappeared. A few years later, their bodies turned up—completely in ruined state."
Katsuki's eyes widened. "Seriously? You've got a lead again?"
"Shh," Daisuke pressed a finger to his lips.
"Not even the media knows this yet. I'm only telling you because, well… I don't really have anyone else to talk to."
He straightened up and gave Katsuki's shoulder a firm pat. "Anyway, most of the missing people are around your age. So watch yourself. Go straight home after your shift, alright?"
He waved as he left, his silhouette swallowed by the rain outside.
Kojiro chuckled quietly. For him, there was nothing scarier than being broke. Corpses and disappearances? They were terrifying, sure—but poverty was the real horror.
He had grown up with nothing. Money wasn't just important—it was everything.
On the TV mounted near the ceiling, a news anchor spoke in a grim tone:
"Another missing person was discovered today in Shinjuku—inside his own apartment. All valuables were untouched, and there were no signs of forced entry."
"Surveillance footage shows the man returning home during a heavy rainstorm. He was never seen leaving."
"This marks the seventh confirmed disappearance in Tokyo."
"If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Takahashi Hiro, age 23—"
Katsuki sighed and turned his gaze to the street outside.
'What a depressing report,' he thought.
The road was still wet, though the foot traffic had thinned out. Most people had either made it home or found a place to wait out the rain.
A few customers lingered inside the store—some eating at the small counter, others browsing slowly, immersed in their own little worlds.
So busy. So unaware.
None of them seemed to care that people were vanishing right in front of their eyes.
Not realizing…
They might be next.
***
"Ah, shit! Why does the rain always pour harder at the worst times?!" Katsuki cursed, using his backpack to shield his head from the downpour.
When his shift ended, it had only been a light drizzle—but now it had turned into a full-on storm. Soaked and grumbling, he finally reached his small apartment.
No elevator, of course. He climbed the stairs and unlocked the door to Room 203.
The apartment was modest but clean. Just a single bedroom, a toilet, a tiny kitchen near the entrance, and a small living space with a lone PC and two bookshelves pressed against the walls.
As usual, Katsuki went straight to the bathroom for a quick shower. But he didn't dry off to do assignment—he rushed to his PC, not for studies, but for something far more exciting.
"What Daiki-san said… that's gotta be gold!" he muttered with a grin, already typing. "This'll blow up my blog!"
What Daiki didn't know was that Katsuki wasn't just some random part-timer. He was a communication major, focused on journalism. And he hadn't taken the job at the convenience store by accident.
He knew who Daiki was—a detective who sometimes appeared in the news—and Katsuki had made sure to get close.
Most of his money didn't come from the part-time job. It came from his blog, hosted on Platform XX.
After finishing his new post and hitting "Upload," Katsuki stretched and walked to the kitchen to make himself a strong cup of coffee.
He needed it if he wanted to stay awake long enough to tackle the real assignment he'd been putting off.
"Ugh… Ms. Watanabe's assignments are the worst," he groaned, taking a sip of his pitch-black coffee.
It tasted awful. Probably the most bitter thing he'd ever forced down. But hey, it worked!
Just as he returned to the desk to start his schoolwork, a notification popped up—an email from one of his followers.
The subject line read:
"READ THIS WEBNOVEL! They say people who go missing were found reading it!"
Attached was a document titled:
[The Dungeon Master Wannabe.docx]
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Daisuke-san never mentioned anything like this. Has to be a joke."
But curiosity was his weakness. If someone placed a button in front of him labeled "Do Not Press", he would press it without hesitation.
And if a message told him "If you read this, you'll go missing," he would definitely read it—just to prove it wrong.
So he opened the file.
And read.
The night slowly faded into morning. Then morning into noon.
By the time Katsuki finished, his eyes were dry, his brain buzzing—and his heart froze when he looked at the clock.
"Shit! I'm late for class!"
He jumped up, grabbed his bag, and rushed to the door. He threw it open, but froze.
Gone was the view of the familiar city street. In its place stood a wide, bustling market.
A medieval market.
Stone roads, wooden carts, people in cloaks and tunics. The air smelled of baked bread, hay, and animal sweat.
Katsuki blinked. "What the hell…"