Qi Wu touched the door.
A voice came from behind it.
The voice did not sound like it came from a living creature.
Instead, it sounded like... an echo from the depths of the void.
"An interesting little bug..."
"Come in."
Qi Wu pushed with both hands, opening the door.
Beyond the door lay a gray-white expanse.
Endless gray-white, without a single point of reference.
A figure stood at its very center.
The figure was roughly three meters tall and humanoid, yet lacked the features a human should have.
Its face was a smooth plane.
No eyes, no nose, no mouth.
Only... a mouth.
A mouth that stretched across its entire face.
At that moment, the mouth was spread wide in something not quite a smile.
"Little bug..."
That voice emerged from the mouth.
"You are the first human to seek me out willingly."
Qi Wu stepped into the gray-white expanse.
Behind him, the metal door slammed shut.
He stood amid the endless gray-white, facing the three-meter-tall figure.
Qi Wu removed his sunglasses, revealing his mismatched eyes.
His left eye was azure blue, his right dark red.
He looked at "Hopelessness," the corner of his mouth curling upward.
"Hey."
He spoke.
"I hear you control despair?"
Hopelessness's mouth spread even wider.
The smile was eerie and terrifying.
"Yes, little bug."
"Would you like to try it?"
Qi Wu gave a defiant growl:
"Bring it on!"
The instant his words fell-
The gray-white world abruptly changed color.
The endless gray-white began to twist.
It twisted into... countless faces.
Countless despairing faces.
Every face was weeping.
Every face was wailing.
Every face was using its last ounce of strength to utter the same words:
"There's no hope..."
"There's no hope..."
Those voices merged into a torrent that poured into Qi Wu's mind.