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Chapter 1: The World Is Not Fair
The world is not fair.
Your country, your family, your parents, your appearance—so many things are decided the moment you are born.
Perhaps some of those can be improved through hard work or good fortune.
But there was one thing that could never be changed, no matter how desperately you struggled.
Core.
In movies or anime, it might be called a “superpower” or an “ability.”
Awakeners who possessed a Core displayed extraordinary talent in countless fields—artistic sense, athletic ability, the five senses, memory, and more.
To educate such individuals, a special institution had been established:
National Gaon Special School.
“Did you hear? The son from Apartment 302 got accepted into Gaon this time.”
“I bet his mother is over the moon… They say once you graduate from there, your future is completely set.”
“No matter what career they choose afterward, they’ll earn enough for three generations to live comfortably. Sigh… If only our daughter had a Core, we could’ve at least submitted an application.”
From elementary school all the way through high school, it was a continuous educational program.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that more than half of South Korea’s Awakeners had graduated from there.
…With the exception of one person.
“Miss Jiwoo, are you listening?”
In the spacious living room bathed in sunlight,
a woman sitting beside a glass table glanced at the girl next to her.
Long dark blue-black hair reaching down to her waist.
Calm, water-colored eyes.
A teenage girl whose composed demeanor seemed strangely mature for her age.
Seol Jiwoo.
Sixteen years old.
An Awakener.
The owner of this enormous mansion.
Someone who, under normal circumstances, should have been attending an Awakener school.
The woman beside her, Yoon Soyoung, was her private tutor.
“Let’s stop with math for today… Did you finish the homework I assigned yesterday?”
“I did.”
Jiwoo turned her head.
She seemed to be searching through her bag—
but then stopped.
“Ah… I must’ve left it in my room.”
The moment she lightly flicked a finger toward the room—
Float.
A textbook rose into the air,
glided through the open doorway,
and flew all the way into the living room.
Like a living bird, it gently landed in Jiwoo’s outstretched hand.
Magic?
A trick?
Neither.
It was Jiwoo’s Core—
Telekinesis.
“Miss… I told you countless times not to use your Core for everyday things whenever possible.”
“Ah, sorry. It just happened without thinking.”
She apologized,
but honestly, it couldn’t be helped.
Being able to pick things up without moving was incredibly convenient.
How was she supposed to stop using it?
As though she had read Jiwoo’s thoughts, Soyoung let out a quiet sigh.
At that very moment—
“Earlier this morning at approximately 7:00 a.m., an unidentified anomaly was detected within the Abyss located near the Blue House.”
“…!”
The voice of a news anchor echoed from the enormous television covering an entire wall.
Both Jiwoo and Soyoung instinctively turned toward it.
“Our monitoring equipment has detected irregular vibrations and subtle fluctuations in pressure.”
“The government has already dispatched emergency personnel into the Abyss—”
The Abyss.
A mysterious hole that had appeared throughout countries across the modern world.
Without warning,
its sudden appearance completely changed human history.
Monsters fit only for fantasy films.
Unknown viruses that modern medicine could not cure.
Every imaginable disaster poured forth from the Abyss.
It was around that same time that people capable of using Cores—
the Awakeners—
began to appear.
Among the Awakeners who graduated from the Special School,
those whose Cores were particularly suited for the task became responsible for purifying the Abyss.
They were known as the Purifiers.
Elite Awakeners who stood on the front lines to eliminate humanity’s greatest threats.
Thanks to them,
humanity had somehow managed to coexist with the Abyss until now.
However…
it was also true that incidents where the Abyss overflowed had become increasingly frequent.
“What terrible times we live in…”
Soyoung murmured while staring at the television with a grim expression.
“Soyoung unni.”
“Yes, Miss?”
“JiHyo will be okay… right?”
At that name,
Soyoung’s gaze finally left the television.
Jiwoo’s profile looked unusually gloomy as she continued watching the news.
JiHyo.
Jiwoo’s identical twin sister.
Unlike Jiwoo, who received homeschooling at home,
JiHyo lived a completely different life.
After all,
she was properly enrolled at National Gaon Special School as an Awakener.
Why was Jiwoo suddenly worried about her?
Because South Korea contained only three known Abysses.
One near the Blue House.
One on Jeju Island.
And…
National Gaon Special School.
The very school JiHyo attended had an Abyss of its own.
“Oh, come on. Nothing’s going to happen. That’s a school filled with the nation’s most talented Awakener students. There’s no need to worry.”
“…You’re right?”
“Of course. Summer break starts next week, so Miss JiHyo will be coming home then anyway.”
At those words,
Jiwoo’s expression brightened slightly.
That’s right.
Next week was already the time her sister would return home.
Outside of vacations, it’s almost impossible to see her.
The twin attending the Special School.
The twin receiving homeschooling.
Although they had been born on the exact same day,
there was a reason their lives had taken completely different paths.
Unlike her healthy younger sister,
Jiwoo had been placed in an incubator the moment her umbilical cord was cut.
She had even been declared terminally ill before twenty-four hours had passed after her birth.
The reason—
her Core was far too unstable.
It would frequently go berserk,
triggering violent seizures.
Had she simply been born an ordinary person,
things might have been different.
But as an Awakener,
her body simply couldn’t withstand the power of her own Core.
Combined with certain complicated family circumstances…
Jiwoo had ultimately been unable to enroll in the Special School,
instead spending her entire life confined at home.
But she was okay with that.
JiHyo always came to visit during every school vacation.
…I can’t wait.
That movie they had talked about during last summer vacation had finally been released on streaming.
She’d ask JiHyo to watch it together.
She’d even bring out the snacks she’d been saving so they could enjoy them together.
And so,
Jiwoo waited.
And waited.
…
But no matter how long she waited,
JiHyo never came.
Somehow,
she had a terrible feeling.
And terrible feelings almost always came true.
“…An accident?”
Her heart sank.
Soyoung, who had finally returned to the mansion after quite some time,
hadn’t come for a lesson.
She had come bearing the worst possible news.
“Well… It seems Miss JiHyo was involved in an accident during practical training at school.”
JiHyo’s Core was Regeneration.
Thanks to it,
even serious injuries healed rapidly.
Broken bones would mend completely within only a few days.
For someone like her…
to be injured in an accident…
That meant it had been severe enough that even her regenerative abilities couldn’t keep up.
And it had happened at school.
“Tell me exactly what happened. What kind of accident?”
“I think… it would be better if you saw it yourself rather than hearing it from me.”
Soyoung handed her something.
A red memory card.
No manufacturer.
No storage capacity printed on its surface.
Jiwoo immediately understood that this wasn’t an ordinary memory card.
“It contains a copy of Miss JiHyo’s memories.”
Soyoung’s Core—
Psychometry.
The power to read a person’s memories through physical contact.
It also allowed her to record those memories onto devices like this.
“I secretly made it after touching Miss JiHyo while she was being transferred back to the main house. Please… calm yourself first, then watch it when you’re ready.”
“…”
Jiwoo carried the memory card into her room.
More than anything,
she wanted to leave this place immediately and go to the main house where JiHyo was.
But…
“Live quietly like a dead mouse. Never show your face before me again.”
The chairman of Seolhwa Pharmaceutical.
And Jiwoo and JiHyo’s paternal grandfather.
As long as that man remained at the main house,
Jiwoo couldn’t go see JiHyo.
In fact,
she couldn’t even take a single step outside this mansion.
…JiHyo is hurt, and I can’t do anything.
A wave of helpless anger surged through her.
Yet there was nothing she could do.
Jiwoo spent the entire day curled up in her room,
neither eating nor sleeping.
Only the following evening,
after finally making up her mind,
did she pick up the memory card.
At least I can watch this.
It was the only thing she could do.
The room was pitch black.
As soon as she inserted the memory card into the reader,
the pale blue glow of her laptop illuminated the darkness.
The quiet hum of the cooling fan filled the room.
The first thing that appeared was a completely black screen.
…What is this?
She had expected to experience JiHyo’s memories from a first-person perspective.
Instead,
it resembled blurry CCTV footage.
The memories themselves appeared heavily damaged.
She looked more closely.
Within a dark place where not a single ray of light reached,
someone with disheveled hair was sitting on the ground,
crying.
There was no mistaking her.
It was her twin sister,
JiHyo.
But…
Why was she crying in such a dark place?
Where was this?
A storage room?
A restroom?
Or…
the Abyss?
A terrible feeling crept over her.
A trembling breath escaped Jiwoo’s lips.
Then—
Static crackled across the screen.
The scene abruptly changed.
“KYAAAAAH…!”
Along with the terrified scream of her twin sister, JiHyo.
