Sweeping Aside

Fires burning across various parts of the town went out at the exact same time, as if by prior arrangement.

The entire process was brief and utterly silent.

The light sources vanished abruptly.

A hint of warmth still lingered in the night air.

This was the heat left behind by the preceding blaze.

Yet at this moment, the captain who had found the basement inside the dilapidated building felt not the slightest trace of warmth.

There was only a bone-chilling cold that penetrated to the marrow.

He had witnessed the extinguishing of the fire with his own eyes, a visually stunning spectacle to him.

And, a hundred subordinates had rushed into the dilapidated building before him without making a single sound.

"What on earth... is going on here..."

The captain turned his head mechanically, looking toward the pitch-black entrance of the dilapidated building.

That bottomless darkness resembled a giant, devouring abyss.

Unfathomable, common-sense-defying scenes unfolding right before his eyes surged through his body as waves of biting cold.

Scalp tingling, body freezing.

This was the captain's visceral sensation at that moment.

He knew this was a psychological terror brought on by long-absent fear.

He just stared blankly at the dark entrance of the dilapidated building.

In a daze, he felt as though that dark entrance was a vortex, sucking his consciousness in.

He wanted to go inside to check the situation, yet lacked the courage to take a single step.

Simultaneously, perhaps due to deepening fear, the coldness both inside and outside his body grew increasingly pronounced, to the point where it felt as if even his blood were beginning to freeze.

Overwhelmed with panic, the captain suddenly thought that instead of going in to check, he could just shout from the outside and see if he could get a