Ryu continued forward, his eyes was locked on the moving dust grain.

  It’s movement was slow, almost imperceptible. If he hadn’t been watching closely, and if he hadn’t been listening to the world itself, he would have missed it entirely.

  Yet here it was.

  He didn’t start moving immediatly, he had to wait first and watch for further movement. For any pattern in the disturbance.

  For now, nothing else shifted. The dust did not scatter, and the erased ground did not expand. The world returned to its unnatural stillness.

  But now, he understood that since something had already responded to him, then it could do so again.

  And so, he had to test the boundary… again.

  Ryu retrieved another stone and tossed it toward the erased zone.

  The moment it crossed the boundary, it vanished.

  Exactly as expected.

  And that also confirmed something, that whatever force was acting here had not changed.

  So what exactly caused the dust to move?

  He picked up a second stone and threw it to the same spot as before.

  It vanished as well.

  There was no anticipated reaction.

  And so, the dust remained still.

  So the disturbance had not been triggd by the stone. But then by what?

  ‘This probably leaves one explanation.’

  It had reacted to him.

  Ryu’s fingers flexed slightly.

  He stepped forward. A step after another. He was slowly crossing the exact point where he had stood before.

  But he did not step into the erased zone. He was only near it.

  And this time, as he stood at its edge, he watched. He waited.

  And then—

  As he listened to the world, another grain of dust moved.

  It wasn’t just a residual effect, there wasn’t anything like that here. But this was a reaction. It was subtle, faint, but also unmistakeable.

  It was responding to his presence.

  It was watching.

  Ryu did not immediately react, he had to continue observing.

  He had already confirmed that motion itself was being manipulated here— the motion-draining zones, the erased ground and the stored energy.

  But this was something different.

  It was a clear deliberate changer.

  A world didn’t move on it’s own, that much was obvious.And so, something had caused this.

  He arrived to two conclusions.

  The first was that this was triggered by proximity, the closer he got, the more the world adjusted, reacting to his presence.

  The second was that there was something controlling these changes.

  But as always, to confrim these conclusions, he needed to test further.

  And so, he turned slightly and took one step to the right.

  The dust did not move.

  He then stepped left.

  Nothing.

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  Only when he returned to his previous position— exactly where had stood before—did another grain shift.

  Ryu then exhaled slowly.

  This clearly wasn’t random, it was predefined.

  Ryu stepped forward again.

  And of course, the changes continued with him.

  Each time he moved the environment subtly shifted. The dust on the ground adjusted slightly, the adjustment was not enough to be visible fro ma distance, but enough for him to track the alteration.

  It wasn’t a straight line, either. But the movement followed a precise direction, as if he were aligning with something.

  He wasn’t creating a path.

  The path was quite literally there. (could be “already there”)

  And now, he was following it.

  Then, for the first time, he finally saw something new.

  Far ahead of him there was a shimmer that was barely visible against the horizon.

  The shimmer wasn’t light reflecting off a surface, and it wasn’t heat distortion either. It was something else. It was a presence that hadn’t existed moments ago.

  Ryu stopped moving. His eyes narrowed focusing his vision, scanning the distance.

  Whatever it was, it was directly in line with the path the world had been adjusting toward.

  That wasn’t a coincidence, of course.

  He started walking again. This time he had a purpose.

  The path, the shimmer, the erased zones—they were clearly connected. The question was how?

  That was what he would find out.

  But first, he had to deal with a peculiar sensation.

  That sensation of course, was the sensation of his being cut off.

  The moment he took another step forward, his vision blacked out. Instantly.

  One moment he saw the endles expanse of terrain ahead, the shimmer in the distance, and the shifting dust at his feet. But then, there was nothing.

  No sensation of his own body.

  For a fraction of a second, he simply wasn’t there.

  Then—

  His vision snapped back into place, sending him tumbling forward.

  The world had returned, exactly as it had been before. The same cracked terrain, the same unnatural stillness. And the same same shimmer, waiting for him in the distance.

  He didn’t get up just yet. And he didn’t breathe either.

  His mind had to process every detail of what the hell just happened.

  He hadn’t been attacked. There was no physical force acting on him.

  But for a split moment, he simply ceased to exist.

  After standing up, Ryu lifted his foot slightly to reverse the last step he had taken.

  Nothing happened. His vision remained clear.

  He took a very slow step forward again.

  Blackness.

  And then, just as before, he instantly returned.

  ‘It only happens when I cross a certain point.’

  That was the first fact. It wasn’t a clear gradual effect, it was binary. On or off.

  And so with that conclusion, he grabbed a trusty stone fragment, and rolled it in his fingers. He already knew what would happen, but he just needed confirmation.

  He tossed the stone forward.

  It disappeared. But it did not return. This one detail caused him to narrow his eyes.

  The erased ground had removed objects from existence. The motion-draining field had restricted energy from being used. But this was not like the erased ground.

  It wasn’t being physically erased. This was erasing perception itself.

  And so, he crouched down, running his fingers through the dust at his feet. Still there. Still behaving as expected. He was clearly still on solid ground.

  Which meant that his body had not moved other than him stumbling.

  Only his awareness had been severed.

  That also meant—

  If something attacked him while inside this zone, he wouldn’t even know.

  Well, if something did attack him outside the zone, he’d probably die instantly as well, if it was merciful. But he didn’t pay it much attention.

  ‘Not death. But.. just absence. Okay but can someone actually tell me where the fuck am I?’

  Ryu frowned. He had stayed at the boundary for several moments, running through his conclusions again.

  If he remained inside the effect for longer, would the world return to him? Or would he remain lost, permanently cut off from reality?

  And of course, there was only one way to know.

  Ryu smirked and after exhaling, he stepped forward.

  Blackness.

  This time, he did not move back or stumble forward. He stood in place, waiting.

  One. Two. Three.

  Nothing had changed.

  Then—

  The world slammed back into place. It was instant.

  Ryu’s breath left him in a slow exhale.

  ‘So the effect has a time limit, huh.’

  That was a new observation. Because every anomaly so far has been static. The motion-draining zones remained consistent. And the erased ground worked the same way every time.

  But this was temporary, dynamic.

  And taht meant that it was being maintained. Why? Because if it had a limit, then that meant it had a source. And if there was a source, then it could be stopped.

  Of course these were ambitious thoughts.

  Ryu stepped back once more, watching the ground beneath his feet, the shimmer still far in the distance. The world had revealed something to him again.

  Before trying to continue going to the shimmer, he had another pattern to test.

  He took another step forward. And then, everything vanished.

  He held the position. One. Two. Three. Four.

  Then, the world returned.

  ‘Four seconds. It increased.’

  He repeated the test.

  Stepping back. Moving forward again.

  This time, it lasted five.

  The more he entered the field, the longer it held him.

  ‘Is it adjusting to me?’

  Ryu wasn’t unsettled. Not in a way a normal person might be. He wasn’t afraid of the phenomenon itself.

  But he was afraid of the implications of it.

  That demanded caution of the highest order, as if he wasn’t cautious enough.

  He had already reached the conclusion that there was something intelligent reacting to him. And so far, it hadn’t chosen to fully erase him. Testing him back.

  If he was correct, then he simply had no choice but to test it back. Test it further.

  The shimmer was unaffected by anything that happened, of course it would remain unaffected. Or rather, untouched by the erasure.

  But if it was simply outside these rules, then either it was another anomaly. Or the source.

  And this time, he did not hesitate.

  He stepped forward into the field again—

  And let the world disappear.