It was known that this was a crossover world combining multiple 2D everyday universes.
Ordinary daily worlds could be completely ignored; the only suspected supernatural realm that could be discerned was the Digital World.
But clearly, neither the crimson sky nor the chilling laughter of the infant had anything to do with the Digital World.
He didn't recall any Digimon making such a creepy entrance—not even Ultimate-level Digimon came with built-in environmental magic like this.
Of course—it might just be that Saigo Homura hadn't watched enough of the movies, and this could be some new Digimon from the later crappy sequels.
But—
The blood-red sky, the completely immobilized crowd—this inexplicable sense of déjà vu...
Finally—with adrenaline surging, or perhaps due to some special trait of his own—maybe his mental strength was exceptionally strong after reincarnation? In this utterly abnormal situation, he could still maintain clear consciousness and think straight.
Saigo Homura suddenly broke free from his frozen posture, stumbling forward a few steps before nearly crashing into the nearby store shelf.
Homura first gulped down several greedy breaths of fresh air, panting heavily.
"I can move...!" A look of surprise spread across Saigo Homura's face.
Run—!!!
Though he was a bit curious about what the hell was out there. Maybe just one glance would tell him which world's monster it was from, but right now, survival was the top priority!
Horror movie rule number one—curiosity killed the cat!
Those idiots who knowingly walk into danger and peek anyway deserved to die within three minutes.
Even if he craved an extraordinary life beyond the ordinary, it sure as hell wouldn't be under these dangerous circumstances.
And just as Homura prepared to slip out the back door of the mall, a terrifying suction force suddenly pulled from the shattered windows outside. Then, he witnessed a mysterious, spectacular, and utterly horrifying sight.
Countless humans—their bodies unconsciously bursting into azure flames and floating upward, the flames turning into a meteor shower that soared into the sky toward the same direction in the outside world.
"!!!!!!"
Boom~!!
The surrounding buildings began shattering, cracking, and exploding under this immense suction. Even the streetlights on both sides of the road outside were snapped by the invisible force and flung into the air.
The mall's entrance was completely torn open, and Homura could finally see the outside world clearly.
It was a massive, infant-shaped monster, its maw wide open as it endlessly devoured the flame-like gases flying in from all directions.
Not feeding on human flesh and blood, but on something far more essential, far more vital.
Homura: ...!
Fuck—!!! Shit shit shit shit shit fuck—!
This was enough to make anyone curse! This scene that stirred his DNA to its core. Ah, it's you!
Crimson Denizens—!!! No—Torches!
Homura recognized it at a glance: what was being devoured wasn't human mental energy or souls or anything like that, but something far more fundamental—their very existence!
A person experiences three deaths in life.
The first is physical death.
The second is when society declares your death.
The third is when the last person who remembers you vanishes from the world, signifying the death of your very existence.
But more terrifying than man-eating demons were the monsters that devoured existence—Crimson Denizens from the Crimson World~! Torches were even lower-tier existences under the Crimson Denizens, like the weak Hollow minions in Bleach.
As his gateway anime from his past life, the classic masterpiece—Shakugan no Shana—Homura had not only binged all four seasons and nearly a hundred episodes of the anime but had also read the later light novels.
Though this thing in front of him could at best be an elite mob in the Crimson World, not even qualifying as the first minor boss, the Crimson Demon King, it was still a monster no ordinary human could hope to fight.
According to that world's lore—without knowledge of the Free Law, unable to wield the Power of Existence, no matter how strong you were, you couldn't resist. You'd end up like these ordinary people now, silently drained of your existence and utterly forgotten by the world, as if you'd never existed at all.
No—if someone was a bit stronger, they might be able to break free from the boundary's restraints on their own, just like him earlier. Even ordinary folks with slightly stronger mental fortitude could manage it.
At that moment, Homura felt something stirring inside him, as if it were about to be sucked out of his body. His skin began to glow with blue light.
Precisely because he understood what it was, the fear cut even deeper—!
As expected—he wasn't special! Even if he'd broken free through sheer survival instinct and willpower, that was the end of the line.
Homura desperately reached out with both hands, as if trying to force his Power of Existence back into himself.
What the hell—!
If he got eaten here—! Turned into dregs! Even if he didn't die immediately afterward, but instead lingered as the embers of his existence slowly burned out until he vanished completely, wasn't that way worse than just dropping dead?!
Worse than death itself was the cruel realization that his very existence would be erased from the world, that his loved ones would gradually forget him, never even noticing he'd ever been here!
The agony of watching yourself be forgotten by the world while powerless to stop it... just imagining it was terrifying as hell!
He wasn't the protagonist of the Shakugan no Shana world, Sakai Yuji, with his Reiji Maigo that restored his full Power of Existence every midnight. Once his ran out, it was gone for good.
He knew all the plot points, but they were utterly useless. He needed the power to fight back—! He absolutely, absolutely never wanted to feel this powerless terror and uncertainty over life and death again!
Where was the promised cheat for transmigrators and reincarnators? The golden finger—!!! If it really existed, come out now!!
It was pretty much a last-ditch, desperate plea born from utter hopelessness.
Homura was well aware of his own limits. As an ordinary guy without cheats, getting through this crisis was nothing but a pipe dream.
Even the original protagonist, Sakai Yuji, had to go through getting eaten first, turned into dregs—then rescued by the heroine.
Right now, all Homura could pin his hopes on was that golden finger that was twenty years late, or might not even exist at all, never showing up.
Ding~!
Until a delightful notification sound rang out.
It wasn't the legendary system chime; instead, it sounded like something being activated.
Then, a flood of information poured into Homura's mind.
In that instant, time seemed to freeze temporarily, allowing Homura to quickly process the influx in his head while realizing the truth of this world.
What? It was actually—like this?! This was really just an ordinary everyday world? More precisely, it used to be just an everyday world.
Subconsciously—a thought flashed through Homura's mind: I'm saved—!