Sean: "..."

’Seriously, man. Dressed like that, it’d be weirder if you *didn’t* get noticed.’

"You..." SIGH. "Never mind. I’ll go get you a glass of water." Sean trailed off. He had no idea what Chris had been through and ultimately chose to respect his friend’s decision.

He was about to go to the kitchen to get a glass when Chris grabbed his wrist and said in a low voice, "Don’t worry about it. We need to hurry. Before they find me, there’s something very important I have to tell you."

"I’ve discovered the secret of this world," Chris said.

Sean was baffled. "A secret?"

"Yes," Chris said seriously. "The world we live in isn’t round. It’s flat."

Sean: "Huh?"

Afraid Sean wouldn’t understand, Chris made two simple gestures to illustrate.

A "0," and a "—."

Sean: "..."

He glanced at Chris’s exceptionally grave expression, then at Chris’s legs in their black silk stockings. He subtly pulled his hand free and silently took half a step back.

Seeing Sean’s disbelief, Chris said urgently, "It’s true, Sean, I’m not lying. You have to believe me."

"These stockings aren’t ordinary stockings. I found them in a mysterious little grove."

"Their purpose isn’t to increase someone else’s attack speed, but to increase *my own* attack speed."

Sean: "..."

’A little grove?’

’Increases his own attack speed?’

’You’re getting weirder, my friend.’

"Listen to me, Sean," Chris continued. "In our conventional understanding, people die when they are killed, crows’ feathers are black, coffee makes beasts of burden work more efficiently, and milk can be used as a lubricant... right?"

"But!"

"The truth of this world is that people can be resurrected after being killed, crows’ feathers are iridescent, coffee can make you sleep forever, and milk can be as hard as iron..."

"Doesn’t all of this sound familiar to you?"

’Of course it sounded familiar.’

’Weren’t these all settings from his novel?’

’For Chris to know them so clearly...’

Setting aside certain... proclivities that he understood but didn’t condone, Sean was suddenly a little touched.

"So you’ve been secretly reading my book all this time."

"So? It’s pretty good, right?" Sean asked, blinking.

The guy never had the patience to read before. When Sean had first decided to write a book, he’d only mentioned it to Chris in passing. He never expected Chris to take it to heart.

"Sean! How are you still not getting it? This isn’t about whether I read your book! The stuff in your book is happening to me!"

Sean was slightly stunned. "Getting that into it, huh?"

Chris: "?"

He raised his voice. "I’m not joking with you!"

"Oh really?" Sean tilted his head. "Then tell me, why haven’t I encountered any of it?"

"Because they are covering it all up, fighting over it all! So much blood is flowing wantonly in the dark corners we ignorant masses never notice, like cheap prostitutes in heat!" Chris said, then suddenly corrected himself. "No, that’s not right! You have encountered it, you’ve already encountered it... Your dreams, everything in your dreams is real. You know... You know everything!"

He stood up, grabbed Sean’s shoulders forcefully, and shook him, his voice growing more and more agitated. "Stop your story, Sean! Get out of here, leave this city! They’re going to find you!"

"Wait... easy now." Sean was getting dizzy from the shaking. "Find me for what?"

"They’ll discover you’re a Wizard, too!"

Sean: "..."

’Seriously? He was just a damn novelist. How did that make him a Wizard?’

’Besides, if that were true, wouldn’t it be a good thing?’

’Who wouldn’t want to have supernatural powers?’

"You’ll die!"

"Sean, history always repeats itself. The Witch Hunt Operation from six hundred years ago... the curtain has risen on it once again!" Chris’s eyes were bloodshot from the strain. His mental state was bordering on madness, and his tone held an unconcealable trace of fear.

"The Witch Hunt Operation?"

"That’s right!"

The historical Witch Hunt Operation was born from the collapse of the feudal system and manorial economy of the Middle Ages. It was a dark and cruel period. People generally lacked a sense of security and deeply distrusted one another. They were convinced that societal chaos was linked to Demons and Wizards. Thus, whenever disaster struck, they would accuse others of being Wizards on trumped-up charges and send them to the stake.

But that was just the surface.

The true nature of the Witch Hunt Operation was to hunt down and kill the real Wizards hiding among ordinary people, and to forcibly change everyone’s beliefs!

Chris’s tone didn’t sound like he was joking at all. Sean had known him for years, and this was the first time he had ever seen him so panicked and uneasy. He stared into Chris’s eyes, and the intense panic he saw there was contagious, making his own heart pound with anxiety.

’Could what Chris was saying be true?’

"But I’m not a Wizard, am I?"

Chris gave a wretched smile. "It’s no use, my friend. As long as they say you are, you are, even if you aren’t."

Sean was confused. "’They?’ Who are ’they’?"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The door was suddenly pounded on again, this time much harder than before, as if someone was hammering on it with their fists.

Chris’s face went pale. "It’s over. It’s too late..."

Sean grew tense as well. "Are they here for you?"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The pounding on the door grew louder.

"Remember what I said! Don’t write any more!" Chris warned Sean one last time.

The words had barely left his mouth when the door was smashed open with a loud BANG. Sean stared in astonishment at the two police officers who burst in—he had expected men in black, the kind with sunglasses and menacing faces. But they were police officers?

The two officers also seemed surprised to find someone other than Chris in the room. The shorter of the two quickly pulled out his badge and apologized to Sean, "Sorry, sir. We weren’t aware this apartment was occupied. We’re here to apprehend a patient who escaped from the mental hospital yesterday afternoon."