Sister of the Ranking 1st (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15

A scream rang out from within the blazing fire.

…Where is this? No, whose memory is this?

The desperate, agonized voice turned to ash before it could even reach me, scattering into the sky.

Ah, this is…

[This is the timeline separator]

“Oh dear, I only meant to watch.”

At the moment when death alone stood vividly clear, a voice reached my ears.

It was pitch black—gentle yet sinister, dark, and as bottomless as an abyss.

Gathering my scattered wits and lifting my gaze, I saw someone standing before me.

A man humming a tune, his hand gripping the flaming blade of a spear.

“However much I wanted you to awaken, this seems far too harsh a method, doesn’t it?”

he said, his raven-black hair fluttering in the wind.

An old leather cloak. An outlandish outfit. A voice as gloomy as his black hair.

When he casually pushed the spear away, Callie stepped back, eyes wide with shock.

“Who…?”

A whisper, thin as wind, escaped my lips. The question remained unfinished. The man, his eyes as black as his hair, gently supported my body and let out an indistinct hum.

“You—how… How did you get here…!”

Callie, grounding the spear’s tip into the earth, gritted her teeth and called out to the man. He glanced at her.

His face, caught between boyhood and manhood, still held a trace of youth yet carried an inexplicable maturity.

His gaze fixed on me—yet his black eyes, devoid of even a single speck of light, seemed to look through me at something else entirely.

Just as my mind began to dissolve into that abyssal gaze, something flew toward us.

“Oh dear.”

He pulled me close and effortlessly dodged the incoming projectile, his voice tinged with mild annoyance.

“Hey, Park Ha Young! Come over here right now!”

Before he could even draw her full attention, Callie, already on one knee, shouted furiously. Her voice, warning of danger, sounded oddly out of place.

Just who is this man? What could he possibly be for her to react like that?

The man, wearing an expression of boredom, lifted me up and crossed several paces with a single step.

“For a moment, I thought I’d humor your ridiculous little game—this ‘Ranker Alliance,’ your ‘last desperate stand to prevent annihilation’… Do whatever you like. But this? This is unacceptable.”

His index finger twitched. From his body poured black smoke, a dense, soot-like aura that enveloped the surroundings.

“And right now, it’s not me who’s dangerous to Shin Ah—it’s you.”

The smoke vanished. The man who had been beside me now stood with his foot firmly planted on Callie’s head.

Her expression twisted into a chaotic mix of rage, resignation, crushed pride, injustice, and fear—so absurd it was almost comical. She was terrified. Callie Brian, the peerless War God with nothing to fear, was genuinely afraid of this man.

“What made you choose such a foolish path?”

*Thwack.* A crisp impact sound—something I never thought I’d hear in reality—rang out brightly. In that instant, Callie slipped away and swiftly wiped the blood gushing from her nose.

“Why would you willingly create your own worst enemy?”

Yet his voice remained calm and composed as he flicked his finger once more.

Simultaneously, Callie’s body shot backward and slammed into the wall with a thunderous crash. Through the rising cloud of dust and smoke, Callie finally rose to her feet, her expression now blank.

“Shin A Ya.”

But as if even that didn’t warrant his attention, he called my name with an almost cruel tenderness.

“Do you want to awaken?”

The moment I met his black eyes directly, I could do nothing—not even as he slowly approached me.

Breathing became difficult.

Every word he spoke sent chills crawling down my spine.

This man was a vast, bottomless abyss—either bearing the sins of the world upon his shoulders or personifying the very end of it.

It was my instinct screaming at me: *Run. If you don’t, you’ll…*

“Hah… hhh… hhhk… hahh…”

“Oh.”

Unable to meet his eyes any longer, I lowered my head, gasping for breath—and heard a brief sigh. The oppressive presence pressing down on me lessened slightly.

“Sorry. I lost control.”

“…Looks like you’ve forgotten this side!”

With a mere tilt of his head to dodge another projectile, the man grabbed the middle of the spear and hurled the War God aside again—his motion flashing across my vision.

“How tiresome. Be quiet for a moment.”

With just a flick of his finger, he could shroud the world in darkness and erase a person’s very presence.

Now, his expression softened once more into gentleness. I barely managed to speak.

“…Who are you?”

I felt suffocated by that unbearable emotion.

*Run. If you don’t run, you’ll reach a point of no return.* Yet amidst that relentless alarm bell ringing in my instincts, one emotion remained undeniable.

Longing? No—it wasn’t something so simple. I didn’t understand why I felt this way toward him, or why he looked at me with that expression.

“You’re asking me who I am to you? What should I say…? I’ve imagined countless answers for this moment, yet now that it’s here, I don’t know how to respond.”

“Stop joking around and give me a straight answer! You… you—who are you?”

“What should I do? If you hadn’t become so curious, I might have pretended not to know. Or… maybe I’m just a little angry.”

“……”

“So, Shin A Ya—do you want to awaken?”

My name isn’t Shin Ah. I wanted to say it, but my lips wouldn’t move.

I just wanted to lose consciousness. I didn’t want to think anymore. Too much had happened today—meeting Lee Hyun, nearly dying at the hands of the War God, and now this… this unknown being doing *this* to me…

“All right. Let’s do it this way.”

As if finally remembering something, he tapped his clenched fist against his open palm and grinned, eyes wide.

[System:: Unauthorized access attempt detected.] [Error!] [System:: Entering the forest of Winter.] [Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error! Error!] [System:: Terminating unauthorized…]

Fragments I’d seen before—holograms glitching like malfunctioning screens, spinning wildly before my eyes, every surrounding sound dissolving into tinnitus.

Yet even as everything unraveled—

“Please send my regards to Shin Woo hyung.”

—a clear, gentle voice settled softly upon me.

And that was the end.

[This is the timeline separator]

Little me once asked, “Who are you?” And he answered:

‘You already know who I am.’

His low, resonant voice carried an indescribable depth of longing.

[This is the timeline separator]

Chirp, chirp-chirp-chirp.

Oroloook. Orolololong.

Beep. Bibibibeep.

White noise, the kind you’d only hear deep within a forest, crackled randomly all around. Trees and grass—just like in a forest—surrounded me, and sunlight filtering through the leaves settled gently atop my head.

Trees, grass, stones, soil, the scent of greenery. More trees, trees, trees, trees. I looked around—nothing else existed here.

Yes, this was a forest.

Calmly, I sat on a flat stone and assessed my current situation.

I’d just been living my life honestly, and suddenly rumors exploded about Cheon Shin Woo and me dating. My mental state shattered. So I met up with an old friend. But that friend, just by existing, gnawed away at my sanity.

I stepped away briefly to splash some water on my face—and got kidnapped. My kidnapper? None other than War God Callie, ranked 7th in the world. The world’s 7th-ranked Callie threatened me. Then, claiming she’d “awaken” me, she tried to kill me.

And then some unknown entity shoved me through a gate.

Alright, summary complete.

“Summary complete, my foooooot—! How is this even a remotely plausible situation?!”

If gods truly exist, they shouldn’t treat me like this. I’ve worked so hard! Yet all that effort led to nothing but one disaster after another—that’s just wrong.

How could not one, not two, but *three* catastrophes happen back-to-back?!

“Ugh, seriously… Where even *is* this place…?”

My head throbbed faintly, but my mind was clear—probably thanks to having passed out like falling asleep.

I observed the unfamiliar shapes of the trees and grass, breathing in the rich herbal scent.

This is a gate. A gate shaped like a forest.

…A gate breaking open is, by definition, a catastrophe. Sync events, erosion, system breaches—they’re all called disasters. Natural calamities. Phenomena beyond human comprehension or control.

Yet that man triggered a sync. It was only a guess—but I was certain he had.

—An intruder has come. The forest is unsettled. What should we do?

—Let’s tell! Let’s tell! We’ll inform Thorn Tree!

—Chase them out! Chase them out! Before the intruder scatters the forest!

—No, no! It’s been so long since we’ve seen a human. Can’t we play together? Let’s turn them into a pretty, pretty flower! They’ll surely be happy!

And ever since earlier, tinnitus had been ringing in my ears—not mosquito buzzes, but voices speaking human words.

—This human?

—Smells like longing.

—Don’t chase this one away. Don’t tease them either!

—Yeah, yeah!

Their laughter rang out like that of innocent children.

—Hey, what’ve you been doing this whole time?

—Can you hear us?

—Impossible! Humans can’t possibly hear our speech!

Yes, yes. I hear you. Perfectly clearly. I was already debating whether I should pretend not to hear them.

If this wasn’t hallucination or tinnitus, then these were monsters. Any second, they might turn violent and try to kill me.

My task was clear.

‘I have to survive.’

Until someone comes to rescue me, I must endure and stay alive, no matter what.

“But seriously—!”

Amidst it all, useless thoughts flooded my mind—specifically, anger.

If War God Callie hadn’t kidnapped me, I’d be home right now, having finished my beer, happily singing “lululalala” as I collapsed into bed! That woman tried to slit my throat and didn’t even properly apologize!

Damn it—Baek I Hyun must be worried sick about me right now! Of all the Rankers to run into, it had to be *her*—what a mess this has become!