After the blonde woman introduced herself as Sophia and stepped outside the door…
I was still lost in thought, pondering something intensely.
To be exact, I was repeatedly chewing on the word Dimension Gate.
Well, can you blame me? It’s called a Dimension Gate after all.
They wouldn’t just slap that name on something like a highway toll booth, right?
If that were actually the case, my first concern would be whether I could even adapt to the sensibilities of this era!
So it makes sense to interpret the term Dimension Gate similarly to what I already know.
It literally means a gate that crosses dimensions.
With the tech level of my hometown, I couldn’t have even dreamt of something like this.
Seeing something like that jump out in a casual conversation made it clear that this was definitely not the world I longed for,
So I began to piece together where I was, and when, based on the information I gathered from earlier exchanges.
First off, if it’s a different dimension that looks similar on the outside… well, there might be a possibility, but let’s rule that out for now.
Basically, there were no other dimensions where my hometown and language overlapped.
Not that I had mastered the languages of all dimensions, which is a bit of a silly thought…
But as far as I knew, languages had never overlapped unless there was communication between dimensions.
Now, to suddenly encounter a dimension where race, language, clothing, and appearance were all perfectly similar?
I’d rather believe that I was part of some Truman Show or hidden camera prank all along.
So let’s exclude that possibility for now.
Secondly, what if this was all just a dream and I was hallucinating after going insane from wandering dimensions for so long?
Well… even that feels too desperate, so let’s toss that idea out too.
I can’t say it’s impossible, but I haven’t deteriorated to the state where I’d easily accept that as a possibility…
Pull yourself together. You’ve repeated to yourself thousands of times that negative thoughts are a plague!
Thirdly, what if this was indeed my hometown dimension, but I was now in a time when humanity had already developed the technology to create Dimension Gates?
And sadly, I think this is the answer that comes closest to reality.
That would mean everyone I knew probably passed away ages ago…
Well, at least it was a relief to know I wasn’t brought back to a dimension that had been destroyed.
I should probably cross off “meeting old friends and joking about military service” from my bucket list.
It’s not like that was going to happen anyway.
Let’s end our speculating here.
Well, actually, there is one more possibility.
The reason I won’t voice it aloud is that, to be honest, it’s such a ridiculous assumption.
The hypothesis being that in my hometown, an alternate reality exists on the darker side of society, and the Dimension Gates are just information known to those involved there…
No, don’t laugh.
I already told you it was a ridiculous assumption.
Yeah, I know. It has way too many hopeful elements in it.
But doesn’t everyone have moments like that? Imagining they won the lottery before sleeping, or picturing themselves flying?
Countless objections and counterarguments could be raised, but you don’t even think about those when you let your imagination run wild.
Essentially, my hypothesis this time was just an extension of that.
…My head hurts.
I pressed my palm against my throbbing forehead.
What made my head ache was the sheer complexity of the situation.
My hometown had advanced technologically enough to cross dimensions, I had no idea how much time had passed, and I still didn’t know what group I was dealing with.
I tried to gather information to deduce what kind of place I was in, only to end up making my head spin even more.
Just returning home and suddenly having to think, when I usually didn’t even use my brain, felt like a death sentence already.
For now, I still planned to keep escaping as a last resort.
Knowing their technological level, I didn’t think I could escape easily, and even if I succeeded, the future looked annoyingly troublesome at best.
If anything, asking to be released verbally seems like a better option, rather than smashing through the walls like some savage—definitely wouldn’t leave a good impression on these people.
Of course, that’s not the only last resort, but it was a method that should work for the time being.
After all, if they’ve locked me up in a place like this, it means they don’t see me as an equal entity, right?
I have no idea what dimension this Dimension Gate is connected to, but they’ve captured me, a seemingly ordinary girl.
The way they’re treating me feels less like they’re handling an ordinary person and more akin to treating a critically endangered species with extreme caution.
Well, they set up a Barrier Wall right in the middle, so they’re probably not just looking at me as I am.
I brushed my palm across the invisible wall.
It looked sturdy, so I assumed it must have some higher-level technology I didn’t know about.
Definitely not something that should be installed against an ordinary girl.
And that meant they didn’t see me as just a human girl.
Well, it’s not unbreakable, but it’s still something.
At least, I could take solace in the fact that this wall wasn’t too hard by my standards.
That meant they didn’t know much about me.
On the flip side, it also meant I could pretend to be harmless and weak.
If I could play my cards right, there was a chance they’d take me somewhere freer instead of keeping me here, or worse, sending me off to some kind of shelter.
They wouldn’t throw me into a meat grinder under the guise of disposal, right?
No way would the morality of this era drop that low—
While I was contemplating my future actions…
All of a sudden, without warning, complete darkness enveloped the area.
…Huh?
There wasn’t a crash of light bulbs breaking, nor did the lights flicker before going dark.
Of course, there wasn’t anything like the light bulbs I was familiar with, and honestly, who knows if they still even used bulbs here?
But anyway, the lights simply went out in this room without any sound or sign—
Is this a power outage? For a mysterious group, their facility management seems pretty shoddy.
I frowned slightly and expressed my doubts about the current situation,
Only to later nod to myself, thinking that could be possible.
Thinking of this place as a mystery group was merely due to my lack of information; in reality, it might not even be that impressive of a group.
Perhaps they were simply sheltering dimensional stray individuals, and this Barrier Wall could just be installed for basic safety reasons.
If their tech had indeed developed to such a degree, it’d be no surprise if even a basic safety wall was built at this level.
You know how in ancient times, even simple kitchen knives required a significant amount of effort and quality materials to make a good sword?
In this case, I would be the ancient person, and this Barrier Wall would be the knife.
If I remember correctly, I never saw anyone criticizing a missing power supply at an orphan center or anything.
Still, shouldn’t they at least have some emergency lights?
Looking at the ceiling, all I saw was darkness.
No faint light whatsoever, just complete darkness.
I didn’t know if building codes of this era required emergency lights for buildings above a certain scale,
But if they designed a completely sealed-off room, it seemed normal to at least install emergency lights.
This was more of a common sense issue than a legal one.
…?
At that moment, something strange caught my eye.
Well, caught might not be the right term.
Considering the pitch blackness, nothing should be visible at all.
But I could definitely see something.
In a place where nothing should be visible, something was indeed clear to my eyes.
It was a ‘color.’
A color painted black, dark as pitch.
The kind of color that was nearly indistinguishable from the inky darkness surrounding it.
In reality, in this absolutely dark space, both should be the same.
But I know.
Those are two things with a clear distinction.
A room with walls painted black and a room where simply the lights are turned off are completely different.
I have a means of clearly distinguishing the two.
A thud echoed around.
Whether that was genuinely a sound or just my intuition was a little unclear.
But one thing was perfectly clear: I was no longer alone in this room.
It was approaching me in a shape I couldn’t tell if it was walking or crawling.
I couldn’t gauge what it looked like,
It spiraled around the ceiling, walls, and floor,
And slowly began to get closer to me.
Something was approaching.
Whether it was a mouth or a face.
It expelled a silent breath upon my nape and opened its mouth wide.
Crack,—some entity opened wide and dashed toward me at great speed—
— SQUASH!
