Chapter 2 - Wonderland-1 (1/2)

Chapter 2: Chapter 1 Wonderland-1

It was a lovely two-story building. It was a happy home where a five-year-old girl lived with her father, mother, and puppy. However, at the moment, they were trapped in a nightmare.

”Please, I beg you, spare the child…”

A hand dyed red grasped SoYoon's ankle. She froze, forlornly staring down at the hand.

The short moment of hesitation must have bothered them, as the man standing with SoYoon angrily said, ”What are you waiting for?”

SoYoon brought down the knife she had lifted above her head. A small head drenched in blood rolled and stopped in front of the father.

”Emily! Emily! You devils! God's wrath will fall upon you!”

”You are the ones receiving God's wrath. You must not have learned from your mother that you shouldn't go sticking your nose in other people's business. Did you, reporter man?”

Another person alongside SoYoon stepped forward and handed over some documents. After perusing and discussing its contents, they turned to SoYoon.

”Finish it.”

The young father's agonizing screams echoed throughout the house.

SoYoon, not bothered by the blood splattered on her face, waited for the man's next instructions. The man scowled and said, ”Hey, someone move this to the bathroom. They said if we get blood on the sheets again, they will charge us a cleaning fee.”

”Who did?”

”The accountant, Holly. She's a mere newbie, but she sure has a lot to say…”

SoYoon headed to the bathroom belonging to the family she had just killed. As she washed up, the bathroom door remained wide open with a person standing guard over her. Although his gaze—scanning her naked body up and down—was unwelcome, she didn't pay him much attention. She showered mechanically and changed into the new suit that had been hanging on the bathroom door handle. As she finished, the guard approached her and slapped handcuffs around her wrists.

”Put it on,” said the guard.

The guard pulled at the chains attached to SoYoon's handcuffs.

SoYoon followed without resistance, passing the horrific scene she had caused. As she walked toward the door, her eyes locked with a pair of lifeless green eyes. She felt no guilt.

As SoYoon was dragged into the car by the guard, she sat, staring blankly at the moving scenery outside the window. The view and her reflection took turns flashing across the black window. She focused her attention on the white-haired reflection.

She remembered the moment she opened her eyes, nine years ago. The moment she had believed that she had survived—that she had been taken to the hospital in time. That was what she had naively assumed. However, the reality that she had fallen into was more outrageous than anything she could have ever imagined.

She had opened her eyes not on Earth but in another world altogether. On top of that, she had awoken in her 18-year-old body. Later, she found out that she had been the 137th person to have traveled here.

It was a strange place. Everyone around SoYoon was Caucasian, but the only language she heard was Korean. It would have been better if she couldn't understand them. At the time, SoYoon could do nothing but lie in bed and listen to the future plans that the people of this world had chosen for her.

Without a choice in the matter, she became the government's experimentation subject. The things that had happened afterward were hellish. The researchers had sliced her skin and ground her bones. To test the speed of recovery, SoYoon's body had been repeatedly broken down, and SoYoon had to continuously endure the painful side effects of the drugs they had forced upon her.

Due to the drugs, SoYoon's voice had lowered, and her once brown hair had been bleached white. Over and over again, experimentation, surgery, research, dissection, reattachment, and finally, what they called feedback, which incorporated other subjects in a battle royale. SoYoon, who had been forced to endure this grotesque repetition, suddenly became engrossed in the fact that she was not the first to relocate to this realm.

”What happened to the others before me?”

It was a question that was blurted out by a subject who had previously lost the will to talk. The researcher in charge of her had grabbed her chart and recorded the question. Without hesitation, the researcher had answered, ”Unable to handle the experimentation any longer, they died.”

”…All of them?” asked the patient.

”All of them,” the researcher repeated.

”Why?” asked the patient.

”It was a bit extreme,” replied the researcher. ”Back then, the researchers didn't know where to draw the line at 'enough.' Dimension movers were rare, so we can't help that they didn't know. Count yourself lucky. The analyses of previous failures are what have allowed you to stay alive. You will probably be an unprecedented success.”

”Then…” said the patient.

SoYoon's voice had cracked. Although she could have predicted the answer to her question, she had asked anyway in hopes that one might find an oasis in a waterless desert.