---

Gaze.

A powerful gaze is felt.

It’s not merely the gaze looking at the universe or observing a satellite.

It’s a clear and focused gaze that recognizes and watches him.

‘Who is he?’

This makes it all the more puzzling.

How does he know that he is here and sends such a gaze?

How did he learn of his existence, and how did he know he would send such a gaze at this satellite?

Moreover, it’s not something inorganic.

If it were merely a machine, it would be more understandable, like one from America, Russia, Europe, or China that had detected him.

But no matter how he feels it, this is a living being.

A living being is looking at him…

He unravels the lotus position and slowly stands up from the leg position.

Then he puts on the worn-out protective suit hanging against the wall and grabs the sword secured to the wall by magnetism.

**Chiiiiiick-**

Then he opens the complicated yet crude opening device and steps outside the satellite.

—

The moment he steps outside, what he feels is tranquility.

The interior of the satellite, with all its bustling mechanical devices, inevitably produces sound.

But outside is different.

This Sea of Calmness has not a single medium to carry sound.

Only tiny substances and dark matter that cannot even be perceived fill the space between stars.

In the expanding universe, he feels calmness.

Yet this calmness is the absolute opposite of what he felt inside his mother’s womb.

Memories whirled of the harsh weather of his hometown and the abusive gestures of his father…

Pitch black and endless.

It seemed infinitely vast and powerful.

However, it did not hesitate to lash out at him.

Memories arise.

On a cold winter day when merely breathing brought pain to his lungs.

His father, heavily intoxicated, poured hot water on him.

And then, as punishment, threw him outside.

The pain from that time.

The pain felt from burns and frostbite simultaneously.

The memory of suppressing his cries to avoid being beaten while staring at the white snowy plains.

Currently, that pain feels the same.

The pain felt on the skin truly resembles that moment.

‘I can’t escape the past.’

Even with a body able to swim freely in this Sea of Calmness.

Ah.

Memories refuse to leave him.

Like mud sticking to the soles of his shoes, they won’t fall away.

However, he doesn’t wish to forget the cold, the alcohol, and all the bad memories.

So, he endures this phantom pain originating from the memories of the past and swims quietly in this Sea of Calmness. With a cable connected to the satellite serving as his lifeline, he floats here, tall and steady…

Slowly.

He moves the sword that juts out like a pin to be plunged into the sea.

A sword made of tungsten.

A sword crafted by hammering a tungsten rod he brought when he cast off chains to become free.

An item no other hand has touched, solely belonging to him.

‘How blessed it is to possess something that is mine.’

A sword that doesn’t even fit properly in his hand.

To put it dramatically, a sword that is just a slightly flattened metal rod.

Yet, the material of tungsten offsets all those drawbacks.

The stories attached to this sword give its metal rod value.

O sword, O anchor.

In this seemingly empty but actually filled space.

Where dark matter flows instead of water.

‘Then die.’

Cut.

—

A single line slicing through the void.

A heavy metallic material creates a silver line.

From a distance, a person looks so feeble that their presence appears as a mere dot.

The further away, the smaller the size, ultimately disappearing without leaving a trace as if dust floated in the air.

Such is the universe.

Such is distance.

Enormous.

Distant.

All of these concepts exist when there is something to compare them to.

Then, if such comparisons are difficult.

If the gap is so vast that one merely knows it in their head but cannot truly understand it.

Then, does this relative concept hold any meaning?

In this overwhelming contrast, can the essence remain unchanged and not fade?

The answer lies here.

Silver.

A single silver line.

That stroke drawn from afar is precisely the answer.

Swoosh.

The sound.

A sound piercing through the void.

Quiet, fast, and deadly as a sharp needle swimming through the sea.

And then.

**Boom-!**

The sound finally reaches its target.

‘It’s exploded.’

A sound that slices through the void.

A thin silver line drawn by dust.

This line pierced an air balloon, and the balloon burst.

**Boom-!**

One line, one air balloon.

When silver specks shot out like lasers, one air balloon blew up.

As silver specks passed like meteors, one air balloon burst.

**Boom-!**

Thus, the air balloons burst.

All the ‘eyes’ vanish.

Eyes that longed to become flames burst as they were pierced by needles…

“Oh goddess, daughter of the sea, have pity upon me and give me your gaze. Seek my courage but do not reach out, love me but do not overindulge, merely rock my cradle as I sleep.”

Air balloons, crashing down like fireworks.

In that scenery as if fire rained down.

The shaman recites an invocation.

“Let me be near you in the depths of the sea, even if only in dreams.”

The things he arranged respond to the invocation, exuding their meanings and fulfilling their roles.

The falling rain of flames became scattered waves, and fire sparks scattered, yearning to become one again like droplets.

The deep blackness transformed into a warm blanket embraced by the constellation in the sky, and the Higan flowers, swaying without wind, became waves.

Look.

Swaying.

The bright red Higan flower dances beautifully.

Lying down, standing up.

Dancing from left to right.

A wave of flames rises.

Covered by the curtain of darkness, it sways, carrying those playing atop it.

Making the air balloons in the sky part of the game.

But without tasting the danger, without bothering about it.

Just like the sea quietly swallowing people, that flower imitates.

The eyes that longed to become flames have disappeared entirely.

Thus, the Higan flower transforming into the sea joyfully dances with crashing waves.

And among those waves stands a person.

Covered in darkness, swaying.

Fearless at the falling sparks, an exemplary figure stands tall.

O brave one, O young one.

The sea loves that boldness dearly.

Licorice.

The daughter of the sea set her eyes on you.

Stretching the flowing hand and spreading fingers wide.

Swaying while gently wrapping around your body.

O sailor, O sailor.

You have been chosen by the daughter of the sea.

Just keep your purity, just keep your purity.

The sea does not easily release those it catches.

“Grasping with your hands and gazing with your eyes.”

So don’t look down, look up.

For the sea has numerous eyes sculpted like stars.

“Behold, there are so many eyes of the sky.”

Park Jinseong’s invocation resonates.

A rope made of Higan flowers dances like tentacles, striking down as if it were a whip.

Swoosh.

Thus struck, the whip transmits the shock directly to the ground.

Making the soil move like water, it bulges and heaves from the earth as if turning inside out and conjuring waves.

Higan flower.

Blending with the wave of flames, it transforms into a true wave, leaving scars and marks everywhere, spreading across the entire farm.

And.

The sea awakens.

Eyes molded from Higan flowers and earth, an eye formed from the coalescence of the Higan flowers, rolling its gaze.

And that eye gazes skyward.

Just like the sea, endlessly staring at the sky to hold the stars within.

It gazes into the sky, into the void above the sky.

A warrior, gliding through the universe, dwells in its sights.

That gaze is countless.

It is enough to provoke the warrior who is disturbed by the gaze recognizing him.

Thus, it leads the warrior to move directly.

—–

It is felt.

The presence of a being walking across the sea of stars.

Though the ground is nonexistent, he seems to move his legs as if intending to run, reducing the distance with each step he takes in the void.

As he transcends space, his trajectory breaks, breaks, and breaks.

A warrior charging with a silver sword draws a dotted line.

And.

“…He has come.”

The one who has attained the enlightenment of space.

The future most famous warrior.

Eventually referred to as a calamity.

He has finally arrived.

He.

Has entered Earth.

 

---