The air was heavy.Every sound seemed sharper than it should've been — the buzz of a broken streetlight, the hum of the glowing system text still hovering faintly between us.
[Scenario 2: The Stranger's Promise — Active][Objective: Protect your Promise from external interference.]
External interference.That meant attackers.And if the story was still following the same pattern, they'd appear soon.
In Heaven Falls Twice, this was where the "testers" arrived — people who looked normal but weren't human. The system used them to break promises, to test the strength of every survivor's word. If your bond cracked, you died.
I remembered every detail.Where they spawned.What they said.How they attacked.And how Do-hyun survived — by sacrificing his partner and tricking the system into accepting it.
Except this time, I wasn't the partner destined to die.
The first distortion hit like thunder. The air rippled, and three figures stepped out of the alley — too clean, too symmetrical, smiles that didn't move their eyes.
The testers.
Do-hyun's gaze sharpened. He didn't tense or panic — his hand drifted toward the metal pipe at his belt with slow, mechanical precision, as if he were calculating the most efficient way to kill.There was no fear in his eyes. Only analysis.
I didn't move. I already knew how to kill them.
"Don't," I said quietly. "They adapt to direct attacks."
His head tilted slightly, the way a wolf sizes up a stranger. "How do you know that?"
"Just trust me," I muttered. "Move left when I say."
He gave me a single, almost imperceptible nod.No argument. No emotion.Just silent compliance — but his eyes stayed locked on me like he was cataloging every twitch I made.
The testers tilted their heads in unison and began walking toward us, each step echoing like broken glass.
[Warning: Your Promise is under threat.]
I gripped the mirror shard still in my pocket from the first scenario — the one thing that had kept me alive.It wasn't supposed to have any purpose after Scenario 1, but I knew better.In the novel, Do-hyun never kept his mirror.He'd dropped it.But if you didn't drop it—
"Now!" I shouted.
I hurled the shard at the ground. It shattered again, but this time the system flickered. The reflections of the testers appeared in the fragments — distorted, looping endlessly.
[Interference detected.][Error… Error…]
The testers convulsed, caught in a reflection loop, their forms warping until they collapsed into static dust.
Do-hyun didn't flinch. He just watched them disappear, jaw tight, the faintest trace of cold amusement curling at the corner of his mouth.
"You knew that would work," he said flatly.
I exhaled slowly, pretending to be surprised. "Lucky guess."
His eyes lingered on me a second longer than they needed to."I don't believe in luck."
We took shelter inside an overturned bus, the glow of the system messages still faintly visible outside.
Do-hyun sat opposite me, cleaning the blood from his knuckles with a torn piece of cloth. His movements were neat. Efficient. Clinical.
"You move like someone who's done this before," he said finally — not curious, not accusing, just… observing.
"I read a lot," I said.
A low, humorless sound escaped him. "That so?"He looked up, gaze cold and unreadable. "You knew the exact timing of the attack. You knew their weakness. You even told me when to move." His tone didn't rise, didn't waver. "You're either psychic, or you're lying."
I didn't look at him. The truth wasn't something I could explain — that I'd seen every version of him die and survive across 3,186 chapters. That I'd spent years memorizing his every decision.
"Maybe I'm just better at surviving than you think," I said.
Do-hyun leaned back, pipe resting across his knees. His eyes flicked toward the cracked bus window, where faint lines of glowing text rippled through the night sky.
[Story divergence: 0.14%.]
"It only started increasing after you showed up," he said quietly. "So tell me, Han Jiho — what exactly are you?"
There was no anger in his voice. Just calculation.Like he was dissecting me piece by piece to see what I really was.
I didn't answer.Because the truth was — I didn't know anymore.
Every time I acted according to the novel, the world reacted like it wasn't supposed to.Every correction I made created another deviation.The story wasn't repeating.It was rewriting itself around me.
Outside, thunder rolled. The next scenario wasn't far off.
Do-hyun glanced at me again, eyes narrowing slightly. "If you're hiding something," he said softly, "I'll know."
He didn't sound like he was threatening me.He sounded like he was stating a fact.
[Scenario 2 Progress: 74%.][Warning: Story divergence approaching threshold 1%.]
I closed my eyes and whispered under my breath."So the story remembers me too."