Chapter 1: The Strange Person

Chapter 1: The Strange One

You’ve transmigrated.

A soul transmigration.

Perhaps because the infant brain was not yet fully developed but had to bear your consciousness prematurely, you didn’t exhibit genius-level intelligence. Instead, your mind remained foggy and unclear, even duller than a normal child.

Then, one day when you were five, you suddenly became much clearer.

"Honey, Mom's going out. Don’t open the door for anyone while you’re home alone, okay?"

Your mother spoke to you.

She was slender and graceful, always wearing a white dress, with long, silky black hair and a serene, gentle face.

As usual during your foggy days, you nodded.

And so, your mother left you home alone, without a second thought.

She was always so trusting.

You thought she was incredibly oblivious, because she often forgot to prepare food for you, as if she believed you didn’t need to eat.

Luckily, even in your dazed state, you knew enough to say you were hungry.

Otherwise, you would have starved to death long ago.

Since your transmigration, you had never seen your father. In your five blurry years of memories, there was no impression of Mom bringing men home.

To be precise, in these five years, your mother had never brought anyone home.

No men, no women, no family or friends.

"Help… help!"

"Save me! Please, someone save me!"

Suddenly, a girl’s desperate, blood-curdling screams rang out from outside. She was pleading for help.

Her voice was filled with despair, stirring a sense of pity in anyone who heard it.

The girl’s voice grew clearer—she was heading toward your door.

"Help!"

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

She was pounding on your door, frantically screaming for help.

"Is anyone there? Please, is anyone home? Save me…"

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

"Open the door! I’m begging you…"

You sat nervously on the living room couch, eyes wide, glued to the door.

You didn’t know what to do.

You were only five, and could barely reach the doorknob.

"Ahh!"

The girl outside suddenly let out a terrified scream. Something must've happened to her—perhaps she had already been harmed.

Unable to resist, you jumped off the couch and ran barefoot to the door, pressing your ear against it to listen closely.

"Please, save me… they’re catching up…"

The girl had heard your footsteps and suddenly cried out from the other side.

After that earlier scream, you'd figured she was done for.

Confused but desperate to help, you considered that if she was alone out there, perhaps letting her in wouldn’t be so bad.

So, as her pleas continued, you laboriously dragged a chair over, climbed onto it, and looked through the peephole—

An eye stared back at you from the other side of the peephole.

Its pupil filled the entire peephole, bulging and bloodshot.

"SAVE ME!!!"

The shock made you slip and tumble off the chair.

It hurt like hell.

"SAVE ME!!!!"

"PLEASE, SAVE ME!!!!!"

The girl’s voice outside grew louder, more frantic, more unhinged, echoing endlessly through the hallway.

You lay frozen on the floor, heart hammering in your chest.

You dialed the police on the landline, but since you didn’t know your mother’s number, you had no way to reach her.

Normally, you would have felt guilty and uneasy, constantly worrying about what danger the girl was in. But her screams and pleas lasted for over half an hour before finally fading—that was truly a long time.

*Click…*

The sound of the door unlocking.

You spun around to see your mother in her white dress stepping inside.

Without you noticing, it had gotten dark.

"Mommy…" you called out.

"Sweetie~"

She paused, then suddenly dropped her smile, tilting her head slightly so her hair cast shadows on her face, making her look grim.

"Did someone knock today?"

"It was a big sister… she was screaming for help, for what felt like forever," you answered truthfully.

"That's my good girl, not opening the door for her~"

She praised you with a smile.

Aside from being incredibly oblivious, she had always treated you well, patient and kind even when you were slow.

"She won’t come back again."

Your mother suddenly dropped this bombshell.