Night gradually shrouded the island that served as the Deep Blue Route headquarters.
Armed vessels sat quietly in their designated positions on the sea surrounding the island.
Lights on the ships twinkled like scattered stars. Night-shift crew members paced the decks, their occasional conversations drifting across the water.
Everything appeared normal.
At least, on the surface.
“Charlie, go down to the hold and take a look. I thought I heard something just now.”
“Got it. I’m on it.”
The crewman named Charlie set down his cigarette and turned toward the cabin.
He pushed open the hatch and started down the ladder, muttering under his breath about what kind of noise there could possibly be in the middle of the night.
Halfway down, he suddenly stopped.
In the darkness, he saw a hand.
It was a hand growing directly out of the surface of the wall.
It looked like a woman’s arm, reaching out silently as ethereal flower petals drifted around it.
Charlie gasped in shock, but before he could react, the hand lightly tapped him on the shoulder.
Charlie’s body froze.
In less than a second, his body began to shrink and deform.
He gradually transformed into a small toy.
The toy was half-human and half-gorilla, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Charlie himself. It wore similar clothes, and its face was fixed in the same expression of shock.
Unfortunately, he was no longer a man; he was merely a toy.
The gorilla toy’s limbs flailed as it tried to scream.
At that moment, a transparent bubble drifted out of the darkness, gently enveloping the toy before vanishing on the spot.
It was as if it had never existed.
Silence returned to the cabin.
...
On the deck, another crew member stretched.
As he yawned, a strange sensation suddenly washed over him.
“Is it just the two of us on night watch over here?” he asked casually.
His companion blinked, also feeling a bit odd. He thought about it carefully and said, “Usually, there should be three people on watch here. Maybe there was a mistake with tonight’s schedule.”
“Maybe.”
The two continued their idle chatter, moving from tonight’s midnight snack to tomorrow’s shift schedule, and then to scandalous backdoor gossip about a certain executive’s rise to power.
Their laughter grew rowdy, and no one mentioned Charlie.
It was as if they had forgotten Charlie ever existed, and they certainly didn’t remember him just having been there, shooting the breeze and spreading rumors with them.
...
In the lounge, a crewman who had drunk too much beer ran off to use the restroom.
Just as he stepped out of the bathroom and into the narrow corridor, a hand reached out from the wall beside him and tapped him.
The corridor was now missing a crewman, but it gained a living toy.
A bubble enveloped the toy and vanished instantly.
No one noticed.
...
In the galley, three crewmen sat together eating a late-night snack.
They talked and laughed as they ate, the atmosphere lively.
Suddenly, three hands reached out from beneath the table, simultaneously tapping the men on their shins.
All three froze at the same time.
In the next second, three toys appeared on the seats.
The toys remained in their eating poses, completely unaware of what had happened.
Bubbles drifted over and enveloped them.
The toys vanished.
A few minutes later, another crew member walked over with a tray and paused.
There were three trays on the table, but no one was in the seats.
He scratched his head, didn’t think much of it, picked an empty spot, and sat down to start eating.
...
Minutes and seconds ticked by.
Fewer and fewer people remained on the ships, yet no one ever noticed.
It was as if those who disappeared had never existed in the first place.
“Strange...”
A crewman stood on the deck, looking around.
The night breeze blew, and the sea was calm. There was no sign of trouble.
But he felt something was off, as if something was very weird.
Wasn't this ship... too empty?
He turned and scanned his surroundings.
Only two people were moving on the deck, and only occasional noises drifted from the cabins.
The standard complement for this vessel was fifty crew members.
But now...
He went around and counted the people on board.
Seven.
There were only seven.
“How is that possible?”
His brow furrowed. There shouldn’t be so few people on the ship.
Yet, in his memory, there were indeed only seven crew members.
The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt. A powerful sense of cognitive dissonance swirled in his heart.
He hurried into the cabin, found the duty room, and flipped open the crew manifest.
The list was packed with names.
He scanned them one by one.
He didn’t recognize most of them.
But...
His eyes fixed on one name.
Charlie.
Who was Charlie?
Why did the name feel so incredibly familiar, yet he couldn't remember a thing about him?
He looked at another name.
It was the same feeling—an inexplicable sense of familiarity, but he couldn't recall where he had ever seen the person.
A chill rose from the base of his spine.
There were only seven people on the ship, yet here was this long crew manifest.
The names on the list were clearly familiar, but he couldn't remember a single face or a single event associated with them.
“No, something is wrong!”
“How could I feel familiar with so many strangers’ names at once?”
His hands were shaking; he realized that something bizarre might be happening on the ship.
He had to report this immediately!
Just then, a hand lightly tapped his shoulder.
A new toy appeared in the duty room. Now, there were only six people on the ship.
The crew manifest fell to the floor, ignored.
...
The same scene was playing out simultaneously inside every armed vessel nearby.
Women’s arms grew out from every unexpected place to launch sneak attacks.
Whoever was tapped turned into a toy.
Lone individuals were caught, and groups were caught just as easily.
The toys were carried away by bubbles and vanished.
The people who disappeared were erased from everyone’s memories.
Since no one remembered they existed, their absence was naturally not easily discovered.
This continued until vessel after vessel was completely emptied.
The armed vessels that had once been teeming with crew members now sat quietly on the sea, brightly lit but utterly deserted.
The equipment on board continued to run, humming as it maintained a facade of normalcy.
...
The anomaly gradually spread toward the interior of the island.
In the port duty room, a hand reached out from the floor and tapped the duty officer on the leg.
In the gatehouse, a hand grew out of the wall of the booth and tapped a dozing security guard.
As a patrol team walked down a forest path, multiple arms reached out from the tree trunks, tapping the entire squad at once.
A row of panicked toys was carried away by bubbles, leaving only empty air to continue the patrol.
No one noticed the patrol was missing men.
No one remembered those who had vanished.
...
Inside a heavily guarded outpost on the island, two guards were chatting.
“Why does it feel a bit quiet today?”
“Does it? It’s always like this.”
“Strange. There are only two of us, so why are there four cups of tea on the table?”
“Oh, yeah...”
Their conversation came to an abrupt halt.
Two hands reached out simultaneously from the wall behind them.
The outpost was now empty, with only the tea cups on the table still steaming.
...
In the meeting room, the CEO was still deploying various response plans.
Suddenly, his expression changed, and he looked at the people present.
On both sides of the long table, several executives had developed looks of obvious daze.
Everything still seemed normal, but his intuition was screaming a frantic warning.
Rate on N.U.
