The smoke still lingered in the air, curling like dark fingers above the cracked asphalt.
Lynn's boots pressed against the uneven ground, the faint echo of burning rubble snapping beneath his feet.
Every sound felt like it echoed through the hollow city.
The kid stood a few paces away, arms folded, faint grin never faltering.
There was a strange confidence in that small frame unnerving, almost inhuman.
"What?"
The kid's voice cut through the silence, calm, playful, almost amused.
"Don't tell me you really expected me to get perished off with your one-shot spell, right?
Where's the fun in that?"
His head tilted, and his eyes that reflected no fear, no warmth,stared right through Lynn.
The space between them throbbed with quiet energy.
Lynn didn't move.
Neither did he blink.
The smoke, the darkness, even the faint whistle of the wind seemed to surrender to the frozen moment.
"I just forgot the fact that this place was yours to begin with"
Lynn murmured, lowering his weapon slightly, realizing the magnitude of where he stood.
"It's not mine, exactly."
The kid's grin widened, soft and playful. "I'm just a born resident here like you are now. The only difference is, I'm a permanent one."
Lynn exhaled, his breath misting faintly.
"You better show me your whole skill set,Lynn.
If you want a permanent residence here too." the kid continued, voice lilting.
Lynn's eyes hardened.
"I'm going to destroy this place with you along with it, so don't mind if I do."
The kid laughed faintly, that chilling, childlike cruelty returning.
"Why so serious, Lynn?
Whether it's in your world or mine, fights for territory are quite a common thing. But here…"
His voice lowered, cold as the air around them. "…the only difference is, the one with the most tricks wins."
"Most tricks, huh?.
You sure are a cunning piece of work."
"Yes, I am," the kid said lightly. "So, shall we start for real now, Lynn man?"
Then he snapped his fingers.
The world folded.
What followed wasn't light,it was inversion. Reality convulsed like a collapsing wave.
Darkness split apart and rearranged itself.
The moon shattered into fragments of daylight, scattering into the firmament above and within a heartbeat, night became day.
Lynn raised an arm against the glare, the shockwave humming against his skin.
The city around them moved like a mirage reassembling itself: blackened buildings straightened into glass towers; scorched streets smoothed into perfect grids.
Everyhing reappeared, chrome gleaming, reflections rippling like a dream pretending to be real.
The smell of ash vanished, replaced by sterile air too clean, too hollow.
The transformation carried a disturbing serenity.
Lynn's boots still touched the same cracked spot, yet everything around him was new.
The city was alive again,reborn.
Except it wasn't.
There was a silence here too sharp to belong to living beings.
"It's empty" the kid said, stepping forward, hands in pockets.
"It's just us."
"Here are the rules, Lynn boy. I'm going to walk around this place. The moment you catch me, the game's over."
"And…?"
"And I'm going to throw at you everything that comes to my mind. If you can overcome it, I'll admit you're strong, Lynn.
If you can—that is."
Lynn cracked his knuckles, smirking. "Fine. Bring it. I don't mind showing off."
The kid chuckled, stepping back on the polished pavement.
"Don't underestimate someone's imagination power.
Okay… let's start, shall we?"
Before Lynn could reply, he heard it
a faint, distant sound. Footsteps.
Soft at first. Then multiplying.
One pair became dozens.
Dozens became hundreds.
The sound rippled through the streets like a rising tide of heartbeat.
Buildings that had just reformed began to stir. Doors opened.
Figures stepped out.
People.
From coffee shops, markets, apartments.
Men in suits, women in dresses, children clutching toy weapons, musclebound men with arms like pillars.
A city's worth of lives, reborn and walking toward him with empty faces.
Within seconds, the street overflowed a restless ocean of unblinking eyes and silent motion.
Lynn tensed. The air smelled of ozone and synthetic life.
These weren't real people,just echoes, projections of the kid's imagination, weaponized.
"What? Want a countdown before the beatdown?" the boy teased.
"You are clearly from a sick mind, kid."
"Glad you figured that out."
The kid swayed his head playfully. "Relax, magic man.
They're just manifestations like me. People who existed once, maybe still now.
But here, you can hit back real hard
even if they're children or women. Because they won't care either."
Lynn's smile was faint but sharp.
"Glad to hear that, brat."
"This isn't a game anymore, Lynn."
The kid's voice echoed strangely, splitting and reforming from every direction.
"You better show things worthy of someone from a magic world. And I'm here to make sure you won't gain anything even if you do."
The boy's grin turned feral.
The crowd froze in perfect sync, their heads twitching once as if sharing one mind.
Then they moved.
People started to run toward Lynn with all kinds of weapons-rods, nunchucks, bare fists, even shards of broken glass.
"So here… we… go."
The kid clapped once.
The stillness shattered.
They surged forward like a tidal wave of flesh.
The first wave—ten, maybe twenty rushed in, a human flood. Crowbars swinging, glass shattering, small hands gripping knives. The ground trembled under their collective step.
Lynn didn't hesitate.
One breath—he was gone.
He blurred into motion, flickering like smoke between attackers.
Fists swung through empty air.
Blades cut nothing but echoes.
He spun midair, kicking off a man's shoulder, twisting over the crowd, landing on a streetlight. The pole bent under the pressure.
From there, he scanned the streets.
The kid was gone.
Then—he spotted him.
Up high. On the tenth floor of a tower, leaning lazily against the edge, lollipop between his teeth.
Watching like a king of this world.
"I have enough time in hand, kid"
Lynn said aloud, voice steady.
"Enjoy your last moments."
"I'm waiting, Lynnnnyyy," the boy sang, voice rippling through the air like laughter scratching glass.
Lynn's gaze dropped. The crowd didn't stop.
Their faces blurred, their eyes flat and mirror-dead.
He muttered, "Alright… let's play."
The pole beneath him snapped under pressure.
Lynn landed in the middle of the horde, surrounded, but calm.
He wasn't worried,not even slightly.
If this world was someone's mind, or dream, or purgatory, it didn't matter. Because here, for the first time, he could feel it.
Mana.
It pulsed through the veins of this fake world like a living storm and it was all his to take.
No one gives second chances for free, but this one… this one felt like a gift.
Win, and get back home.
Or perish.
The horde surged.
Lynn smiled. "Me? Losing?"
The crowd hit like an avalanche.
He weaved through every strike dodging rods, blades, and bullets as if time itself slowed for him.
"Too much crowd" he muttered.
He raised his hand—swift, precise.
"Mana Burst."
The world collapsed.
The entire street folded like paper, crushed by invisible force.
Shockwaves erupted outward, smashing through buildings, shattering glass into a rain of crystal shards.
A thunderclap roared through the hollow city as concrete caved like sand.
Wind rippled outward a sonic quake that shattered the sky's silence.
For a second, there was nothing left but dust and humming power.
From above, the kid's laughter broke through, faint and amused.
"Hey, come on. Using the same move again is kinda boring, you know."
He sat at the edge of the building, unaffected, legs dangling, still sucking on that lollipop.
"What? Does it matter?"
Lynn appeared behind him,one meter away like a ghost stepping through light.
The rooftop cracked beneath the mana pressure.
The kid didn't turn. He didn't even blink.
"You're not good at fighting crowds, I guess."
"Why should I fight mindlessly when I can end things this fast?" Lynn's tone was calm,almost casual.
He lifted a hand toward the kid.
"Sorry kid, your done"
"Okay, one spell man," the kid said, smirking. "Deal with this."
A split second later—
BOOM!
A missile hit the rooftop, exactly at where Lynn stood.
The explosion bloomed like the wrath of a sun. Flames and debris tore through the tower, and the shockwave ripped the sky apart.
The kid still didn't look back.
"We are just starting" he said softly, smiling into the roaring fire.
"Maybe I should raise the difficulty a little."