“Should we try moving?” The Chinese man asked.

It was the first thing someone said in almost a minute after the smoke figures appeared. Maybe we all hoped they would disappear again. But now, almost 60 seconds later, that hope had diminished to the point of talking. However, moving was an entirely different matter, hence, the question.

The three spies were still held up in place. George Kruger had turned his head to me. God knows why he trusted me so much. 

Jacob slowly moved one foot forward. Only a bit. Nothing too noticeable. Phee also took a chance and changed his stance and placed his arms akimbo. 

“You are ridiculous,” said the child. He raised one of his dark eyebrows while looking at the still adults. His eyes rested on me for a moment, then he again changed his stance. He did two jumping jacks. 

“See? Nothing happened. Don’t be scaredy-cats. It’s painful to see.”

“The child is right. I’ve embarrassed myself,” said the middle-aged woman and relaxed her posture.

I did as well. The others followed.

When all let loose, the light became dimmer.

“Keu-rak-rak-rak!”

The rumbling in the stone made two spies shrug together. On the wall on the opposite side of the path that led us here, a hidden door appeared from the stone. Dust swept up, and a few smaller stones tumbled on the floor. Sunlight shone from the small gap into the now dark room.

After that, the figures changed again. Their features became more refined, looking like actual human images. One of them looked an awful lot like the Chinese programmer with his suit. Just dipped in black paint.

The one next to it was smaller. Childlike and provoking, it had its hands on its hips. It reminded me of Nanuq Thiel. 

“This one is me,” I said, pointing at the black, fuming incarnation next to the little teenager's reflection. The figure mimicked my gesture. 

Nanuq Thiel nodded to her image, which responded with a nod respectively, “Then this is me. I can tell, it’s the smallest.” She then raised both her eyebrows, closed her eyes and nodded, as if she said something extremely smart.

Meanwhile, the others had also found their counterpart among the fuming incarnations. 

We found out quickly that the figures mimicked every action we did except walking. They didn’t even move their feet an inch, even if their legs and body bent in any direction.

From the previous experience with the voice, everyone was cautious and wouldn’t move toward the unknown. Only after testing around for minutes, they became restless. The door was right there, so why not risk it?

“I will try to go out. Watch my back, okay?” Jacob ultimately said. 

But the dark-haired woman shook her head. “No, let me try first. I almost died earlier. It’s better for me to…” She couldn’t say that it was better for her to die. Earlier, she was saved by George Kruger and Jacob. Now she wanted to give them back.

The nerd-boxer with broken glasses Jacob wanted to protest, but when he saw the determination in her eyes, he took a step back. 

The woman walked out of the first circle. The floor flickered when she walked over the line. Then she crossed the next ring. 

George Kruger whispered, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

The woman wanted to use the two meters wide gap between the black figures to escape. She did not want to touch the eerie figures at all. Therefore, she sped up and ran towards the door, aiming precisely between George Kruger’s and Jacob’s black image. Just when she almost reached the last line, the figures on both sides raised their arms and obstructed her way. She stumbled, trying to stop, but it was already too late. She shot through the black figures' arms, which caused them to turn back to smoke.

The hazy strands of smoke followed the impact’s movement. Then thicker, if not for the billows coming from it, almost liquid-looking slime poured out. It trapped the body of the woman after it separated from the smoke incarnations and covered her fully in an opaque paste of this thick, dripping smoke. She only twitched a few times before she lay still. Then her image of smoke on the other side of the room evaporated into thin air, and the other incarnations floated closer together to close the gap. 

In the mosaic, the people surrounding me gasped for air. I was filled with excitement. When the woman collapsed, I remembered something the cheerful voice said, ‘{Don’t destroy yourself, but don’t be afraid~ of yourself~}’. Could it have been referring to the situation right now?

“That… didn’t work out so well, didn’t it, huh,” Nanuq Thiel recovered the fastest.

“Thank god, I didn’t go- I mean-”

Jacob was interrupted by a female voice, “We know what you mean.” This was the first time one of the spies said anything. Even her voice was ordinary, “But now, I assume we are stuck. What should we do now?”

I thought, ‘Don’t be afraid of yourself.’ As long as we don’t destroy them, the smoke incarnations would probably be harmless!

To prove my theory, I walked towards the door and crossed the first and second circle on the floor. Again, they flickered in the blue light when I passed them. Maybe this was the signal the figures acted on. When I reached the outer circle, the smoke incarnations raised their arms like before.

“Eonni?”

“Anya?”

George Kruger and Nanuq Thiel almost talked at the same moment.

“I’m just testing something. Don’t come here.”

“What are you testing?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I tried stepping over the lines without touching them, but it didn't help. They still flickered. 

‘So, this will not work. Maybe that will…’

I walked one full round between the second and outer circle. Every time I passed a figure and went out of their reach, they got back to mimicking their respective original and the next incarnation raised its arms. 

After a full round, I arrived at my personal smoke copy. This one did also raise its arms but instead of sideways blocking the path to the dark room, both arms were facing toward me, like it was trying to grab me. ‘Looks like a zombie,’ I thought. I took a few steps back. The arms followed my body’s position to the left and right and only fell to the hips of the figure again when I went out of reach. Lest that part was the same as the rest. Escaping without touching the smoke was impossible.

‘{Don’t be afraid of yourself!}’ the cheeky voice echoed in my head. ‘Maybe…’ I went back to my mirrored image, who raised their arms when I approached. I did the same. Our fingertips touched only slightly. Smoke poured out from the tips and swirled around my hands. Exactly like on the woman before.

‘Fuck!’ I thought. Would I die now, too? 

“Eonni?”

“Anya!” “Anya Yu!” Both George Kruger and Phee shouted. I heard them running in my direction.

“Stop! Are you tired of living?! The smoke is already around her. There is nothing we can do!” Nanuq Thiel yelled at the two idiots.

I didn’t want to die. Sadly, this was my end. ‘Kind of pathetic,’ I thought and chuckled, ‘Kind of fitting. And not too bad after all this happened. It was exciting. That was a good ending. I just wish I wouldn’t wear this boring-ass gray blazer.’

This was the last thing I thought before it went black around me.

*

I blinked. I was not dead. ‘I think.’ I wasn’t quite sure.

I was on a field. A moss field, to be precise. Very soft moss. Felt… artificial. Maybe not moss. Maybe it was some sort of fabric. A carpet. A very soft, fuzzy, green carpet. Yeah, yeah, that sounded right.

‘Again a plain,’ I thought, disappointed. ‘Is that the afterlife?’ A plain that stretched even wider than the stone tile one. ‘I can’t even see the end.’

I haven't had time to adapt to the environment yet when it changed again. I recognized the tower and stone floor from an hour ago. The memories came back. I remembered Arno Holmann and Gwan Shinil, my sleazy superior with no respect for anyone. He saved our lives with his clumsiness. I gave him that. He also had survived the meteor and then joined the other group. I wondered if the other group had made it. I shook my head.

Why would I think about that guy? I sneered.

‘Even if I’m not dead, I’m certainly brain-dead if I start worrying about Gwan Shinil.’

A familiar scene happened next. Out of thin air, people started appearing one after another. They still didn’t move, but I recognized a few of them. The old lady from the bus, the thin man on the phone, and Thomas Donau, the guy who I turned to stone with a piece of paper. I saw myself appear as well.

Was there any reason to show this to me in death? Or was I not dead? But what was this here, then? It was so strange.

There was no sound, even after the people started coming to life. It was like a weird theater play or a silent movie. People started running around. They repeated what happened only 40 minutes ago.

Honestly, I felt left out. Nobody could see me. Nobody could hear me.

I walked to my other self. She stood next to George Kruger and talked to him. I couldn’t hear what they talked about, though. It was still silent. Then the Politician was once again reduced to ashes. Gwan Shinil was offering the money and then kissed the floor. Thomas Donau, again, kicked open the skull of that woman. Disgusted, I turned my head around before that happened this time.

When the chaos erupted, I wandered aimlessly. It was interesting to see them react to the fear from… well, death. At the same time, I was anxious. I hadn’t realized that much earlier, because everything happened so fast. Now I had the leisure to look around. Humans were incredibly cruel when it came to their survival.

Soon the other Yu Anya, George Kruger, and Arno Holmann came back from the fog. However, their reactions puzzled me. I remember, giving Arno Holmann the piece of paper and then going around with George Kruger to recruit people. Now they were arguing! 

Was this not a repeat of earlier? Was there some difference? Shit, I should have paid more attention to the details. Maybe some sort of secret or trial was hidden here.

After they argued, the three people separated. George Kruger clenched his fists when he saw Thomas Donau’s group push the other group over the edge, but compared to before, he turned around with a frown, while not doing anything. He gave up on the people and was clearly angry about it. But what could he do alone?

Arno Holmann also went to look at the fight. He went closer than George Kruger and was about to go to the field again, when a man in a red shirt with a bull on ran the few steps to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Arno Holmann turned around, and then they started talking, discussing something. In the end, they shook hands and Arno Holmann went with him to Thomas Donau. It seemed like Arno Holmann joined his group. 

He was instructed to help them push off the other group. The man in the blue shirt and white cap struggled immensely. His face flushed and could compete with a tomato because it was so red from the exertion. The others were the same. The ripe tomato plant containing two rival teams fought tug-of-war reverse, all trying to push all the others off first.

Thomas Donau’s group was obviously winning the war. Without any screams, more and more people fell off the edge. Arno Holmann pushed with all his might as well. An old man with dyed blonde hair shoved a little girl from behind him to the side before one of his feet lost its footing, and he fell to his certain death. The girl was familiar. It was the little girl, who stuck to Arno Holmann when I last saw him.

Now, they were on opposite sides. But Arno Holmann didn’t hesitate. With a small push, she slipped over the edge and fell. Her small hands tried to hold her body on the edge, but they slipped and disappeared.

My alter ego had gone back to the statues. Maybe she will discover the letter now? But she didn’t. Because she already had found it. She pulled out the brown sheet of parchment from her backpack.

‘What does that mean?’ She thought. Wait. Could I hear her thoughts? ‘Maybe it’s a love letter from a lover?’ She continued her thoughts, ‘Or it could be a puzzle. Maybe if I can solve the puzzle, the gate opens. It could also be that it’s a sort of map… there might be a key! But what do these swirls mean?’ She sighed internally and shook her head.

I was unable to wrap my head around what I had just heard. The beginning confusion, that I suddenly was able to hear her thoughts, quickly dissipated, and disbelief formed. How could her reasoning be so wrong?! It’s infuriating to see and to think I might have thought the same if the little voice hadn’t translated it. 

Right. Where was this voice? It should have translated the letter. Is this a timeline without the voice? But why? Everything seemed the same otherwise. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t communicate with my other self. I had tried talking to her, but she didn’t hear it. The same with my thoughts. Thought transmission seemed to be a one-way street.

While the thought of my stupid self frustrated me, I could not act, so I went back to observe the other people.

Outside the fog, the fight between the two groups had come to a stalemate. A lot of people had chosen the team at the edge. Currently, Thomas Donau and the Chinese programmer talked. I still couldn’t hear anything they said and my lip-reading abilities were pretty much nonexistent. As the discussion heated up, the acting vice representatives, the woman on Thomas Donau’s side, and the previous leader with cap — who was now replaced by the Chinese Mata Tech guy — both sighed and facepalmed silently. Apparently, the arguments on both sides were ridiculous. 

A beefy man positioned himself behind Thomas Donau. Thomas Donau looked behind, then he continued to argue with the Programmer. He couldn’t hide the smugness that came with the confidence that he would at least physically win this fight.

After the Chinese man in a suit said something, the beefy man came to the front. Suddenly, his fist from the guy in a red shit shot out and hit the white shirt underneath the black jacket of the Chinese programmer. The programmer hunched with pain, holding his lower abdomen. 

Then his whole body agilely shot up, as if he never was in pain. Fully recovered, he hit the beefy man’s neck area with the flat side of his hand. The other slumped together. His face fell flat on the stone floor. Thomas Donau, flustered and with raised hands, took a few steps back. He didn’t want to mess with a karate master.

Then, finally I heard something, fainter than earlier. But it was the first thing I heard since arriving in this world again.

{There are 200 seconds left,} the voice of fate boomed out.