City of Backstreet Nymphs

41 – 041 – Oinoi and the Little Stationery # 5

041 – Oinoi and the Little Stationery # 5

If there is a set that remembers the past, would it feel like this?

We went through many trials and errors to repeat what happened 10 years ago.

The weather when the sun goes down slowly.

The spring day of the new semester.

“Did I stand on the left? Were you on the left?”

“I was on the left. I remember. I was standing in front of this then. Your hair was full at that time.”

“You bastard!”

People searched for old memories.

After going through trial and error like that, it really felt like I was going back to the past, and I felt like I was going back to when I was 17 instead of 27.

“It feels awkward holding hands like this.”

Older sister Lee Seon-ah and younger sister Lee Jin-ah.

Two sisters who resemble her were holding hands, but Lee Jin-ah’s left hand was empty. Her wife must have been holding Lee Jin-ah’s left hand-.

I don’t know if it would be better to fill that spot with a substitute or leave it empty.

“Okay, let’s start anyway. Q-.”

I shouted like a movie director.

Then, the people in the neighborhood started to move like reenactment actors, and of course they laughed one by one out of awkwardness, or creaked like a mechanical device that needed to be oiled.

Speaking of the result, it was, of course, a failure.

There were no cracks.

To be honest, there were many variables.

It would be next to impossible to recreate the exact same situation.

But with no money, this was all we could do, and after several trials and errors, we were able to act as lively as we did back then.

However, no matter how many times I tried, the cracks did not open.

“… ….”

At first, I could see the faces of the people who were full of one or two hopes, but now they were gradually spreading to something like fatigue and disappointment.

It was the same for Lee Jin-ah and Lee Seon-ah.

The older sister Seonah Lee smoked her cigarette with her weary expression on her face, and Jinah Lee, too, sat with her buttocks on the step of her sidewalk block, frowning at her.

Tired in many ways.

Then Oinoi said.

“Everyone is working hard… ! This Oi Noi also wants to meet her nymph sister soon… ! This oi-noi also wants to get involved in this reenactment… !”

Oinoi interfering with the reenactment?

Ten years ago, Oinoi didn’t exist.

However, after several failures, we were a little tired and felt like “How about trying something new?”.

Shut-.

Finally, Oi Noi took the place of her missing wife.

Ohinoi, Jinah Lee, and Seonah Lee.

As the three held hands like this, the picture was very strange.

However, Oinoi seemed to be in a good mood.

“I Oi Noi, walking while holding someone else’s hand like this reminds me of the time she walked in the woods with her sisters… ! While walking together holding her hand, she found raspberries and ran frantically to pick them… When she came to her senses, she looked back and saw that her sisters were nowhere to be seen… !”

Oinoira picking raspberries.

Somehow, I imagined it quite well.

Oinoi continued.

“That’s why she wandered all alone and found something strange… ! Now Oinoi knew it was a crack, but she didn’t know then… She had fallen into a crack… !”

That’s right.

I felt like I knew how Oinoi fell into the rift.

Oi Noi, who came out of the anomalous rift like that, was rummaging through his garbage cans shivering in the cold winter when he met me.

“So this Oinoi knows better than anyone about wanting to meet someone again…. I just hope that today’s work will go well… !”

Did Oinoi’s feelings come through?

Even the attitudes of the exhausted people seemed to spark a bit.

Soon the stationery store owner also said.

“Yes, we gathered anyway. Let’s do it until it’s done! If today doesn’t work, we can get together and try again next time. If our story spreads widely, maybe companies will support us, right?”

It’s a constructive and practical motivation.

With that feeling, we started the last reenactment before the sun went down.

The street in front of the stationery store where everyone wants to go home.

At that time, the world was peaceful.

A street where the lazy sunset is reflected.

A world that was peaceful enough to be boring, without monsters, cracks, or nymphs.

But then, for some reason, I instinctively sensed that something “Great” Was about to happen.

Just like now.

Ohhhhh—.

“Dangerous!”

Yes.

At that time, I instinctively spit out those words.

Paper weave-.

That was the moment.

Strange sparks flew in the streets where nothing had changed no matter how many times I tried.

Other people may not know, but I knew the portent.

“It is an irregular crack… ! Everyone be careful… ! As promised, we must keep as much distance as possible… ! Get off… !”

Kwajik, kwajikjik, damn-.

There was a sound like a watermelon being split.

It also sounded like the sound of a thick, old giant tree cracking.

When he turned his head, the space above Oinoi’s head was distorted.

A crack appeared above Oinoi’s head.

Indeed, now that I think about it, I remembered that there were cracks on the body of a certain woman even then.

“hehehe… ! This oi-noi, something sucks it in as if pulling it… !”

A man-sized rift formed before I knew it.

Oinoi began to be sucked into it.

And Lee Jin-ah, who held Cucumber Noi’s hand, and Lee Seon-ah, who held her hand, could not stand the strong force and were being sucked into it.

“About that time… different… ! Turn it off! Don’t miss… ! It’s different from back then… !”

Lee Jin-ah pulled Oinoi with her unique superhuman strength.

Then, after embracing Oinoi, he distanced himself from the crack like a rugby player advancing while clinging on to a bunch of people.

I was also different from back then.

According to the law of responding to an anomalous rift that is suddenly born, I hugged everyone nearby and evacuated quickly.

Wow-!

The crack finally stabilized with the sound of a frozen iceberg breaking apart.

The rift absorbs people only at the unstable stage of birth.

Stabilized rifts did not suck in people and just existed there.

“It looks real, right?”

“What happened?”

“That, it’s the same as back then!”

People panicked.

It was just like back then.

Of course, there were other points as well.

“Kkong-kwang-ah, ang-ang-ah. Are you ready?”

!

-Zuji… !

I was different.

At that time, I went into the crack without knowing anything, but now I was a 10-year veteran Awakener, even if I was a D-class for 10 years.

The 27-year-old me should at least do this and that better than the 17-year-old me.

“I don’t know if it will disappear soon. It enters quickly without any formalities.”

I approached the rift with Kyeongkongi and Angangi on my left and right shoulders, respectively. Seeing me like that, Lee Jin-ah, who evacuated people, said.

“Isn’t it too dangerous? You never know what might be inside.”

“I am not sure if this rift will be the same as that rift back then – or if there is something lurking inside. But a rift is what it was originally for me.”

Compared to the days of the 1st generation, when I had to trust bullets and enter the cracks without any magical equipment, now I was like a fully armed tank.

Soon, Lee Jin-ah stepped forward.

“I want to go too.”

“Are you okay?”

“This is my mother. Originally, that’s what I have to do.”

Lee Jin-ah seemed to have made up her mind.

However, the owner of the moving center, who was watching this from a distance, seemed very embarrassed.

“Jinah!”

Lee Jin-ah stands still.

Soon the boss added.

“Isn’t it too dangerous? It’s too dangerous! If you go into the rift and can’t get out, I can’t handle that! You, you don’t have much crack experience!”

“Dad. Are you okay. I was actually lying to my dad. I’ve been getting into a lot of cracks and I’m better at risky things than you think.”

“… ….”

The boss looked shocked.

Shut-.

Soon, Lee Jin-ah entered the crack without me having time to stop him.

Are M generation hunters fearless?

For reference, Generation M meant the generation of magical awakeners.

Anyway.

“Boss, I will definitely bring everyone out this time.”

I made a promise to people.

At that time, Oinoi came towards me dodo-do.

“This oinoi will also enter… ! Maybe she has nymph sisters… ! That she might be able to figure out a way to get back home… !”

Indeed-.

Oi Noi seemed to have made up her mind.

Am I the only one who has to make up my mind?

After-.

It was a rift that I had been in and out of several times already, but I felt like I was back in those days and I made up my mind.

Don’t be careless.

Now, he must return to Hail-do, a rift explorer who was called the hope of mankind, not Hail-do, who was a D-class hunter for his 10,000 years.

Pair-.

I slapped both cheeks with the palm of my hand and then chanted an incantation to calm myself down.

“Okay, Codename Second. At 17:32, enter the anomalous rift that appeared in front of the top stationery store.”

Zuuung-.

I felt my body twisting in an instant.

# # #

“It’s cold.”

It was the first sensation I felt.

A biting cold hit my body.

When I came to my senses, I was thrown into a space where a terrible snowstorm raged.

– Kleureung… !

Kungkong wrapped his body around my neck as if he didn’t like the cold. My coldness got a little better, probably because it was wrapped around me like a scarf.

“hehehe… ! It is very cold… ! This oi-noi, you entered the wrong place… ! He wants to go outside soon… ! There can be no nymph sisters in such a cold place… !”

I once climbed a snowy mountain in the cold winter to smash open a crack near the Civilian Control Line in Gangwon-do, and it was as cold as that time.

From noble mtl dot com

The feeling of temperature is 30 to 40 degrees below zero.

To Oinoi, the cold seemed very painful.

“This oinoi is a nymph born in the summer when the hot sun burns like honey-colored hair… ! That’s why it’s so weak against the nymph-repellent cold… !”

Oinoi, who had been motivated until just now, had disappeared. Seeing Oinoi wanting to go outside, I had to say sorry.

“If this place is like a crack in my memory, this is the type where the exit and entrance are in different places. There will be an exit if you go a little further.”

And I couldn’t head straight to the exit.

It was a place from the past that I came back to after a long time.

“I need to find my wife.”

I had to find a wife who might be somewhere here.

Fortunately, the world has changed a lot in the meantime.

Cheack-.

I pulled the equipment that looked like a flare from my waist and turned it around.

Chaaa-.

Then the flares spewed out dazzling fire and radiated warmth.

“Ah, it’s warm like a campfire… !”

“Right? It’s a flare made from birch trees obtained from a rift. Not only is it bright, but it also emits hot temperatures to maintain body temperature. It’s been 10 years. It means that the world also prepared for a rift.”

So where is Lee Jin-ah?

When I turned my head, I saw a human figure in the distance.

It was Lee Jin-ah.

“Hey, what if I just move freely?”

“I was trying to find her mother. There was no one It’s just snow-covered ice all over. Same as back then It seems to be in the same place, but I can’t see my mother.”

It seems that he could not stand his boiling heart and explored his surroundings.

“No matter how much it is, what if you just move without a strategy? This is why women also have to undergo basic training in Nonsan. People need to plan and move efficiently. Just like this—”

Shuk─.

I took out a radar from my waistband.

Biological reaction detector.

It was something unimaginable 10 years ago.

Although it is an old military model that I bought for 10 million won five years ago, it is so strong that it will work well in such a cold environment.

In exchange for added precision, the newer models quickly break down in these extreme environments.

“I wish I had something like this back then.”

Tak-.

When I turned on the device, the radar screen flashed.

Beep beep, beep beep-.

A radar that begins to pick up vital signs, including us.

It detects the “Magic waves” Emitted by living creatures and expresses them as dots.

“The five dots here are us. Kung-kung-i, Ang-ang-i, Oh-inoi, me, Lee Jin-ah, you.”

The five dots near the center were us.

Then—.

“What are the dots all around here?”

It was a radar that searched for a radius of 50 meters around us.

Beep beep, beep beep-.

I got a little goosebumps when I saw more than 30 dots. Lee Jin-ah said, “Isn’t the radar broken? We are the only ones here,” He said.

If I hadn’t experienced it 10 years ago, I would have thought so too.

But now I know what this means.

“The radar displays a radius of 50 meters on the X and Y axes. And the same goes for the Z axis. Underground, 50 meters above ground. There is nothing on the ground—”

Suk-.

I got down on my knees and tried to clear the snow from the floor with the palm of my hand.

Then I saw something strange frozen under the blue frozen floor.

“What is this?”

Chiik, hwareureuk, Chiik, hwareuk-.

I used the flares I had and looked at the floor while melting the snow around me.

When the snow in a radius of 20 meters melted and the cold floor was exposed, I had no choice but to change my thoughts.

“This rift was not simply a rift in a harsh environment. This, like Sejong’s fixed crack, was a crack with an artificial building..”

There was a thick wall of ice under my feet, and a huge frozen structure stood still further below it.

Unable to measure its size was enough to give chills to the nape of my neck.

“There’s something alive under our feet.”

“Ah… ! This oi-noi, he knows this place… !”