7:00 AM.

After getting ready for the day, Gray left his apartment and headed towards the university. With his black nylon bag slung over his right shoulder, he trudged along the sidewalk towards his first class.

It was a nice day out. The sky was a clear blue, with not a cloud in sight. A gentle breeze shook the lawn of the sports field on Gray's right. And the road along his left was empty, not a single car to be seen.

Of course, it *was* still early in the morning.

As Gray looked around, the only other people he could see were the student athletes practicing on the lawn, doing sprints.

Stifling a yawn, Gray shook his head and then crossed the street, heading towards the campus buildings in the distance.

"I should be up first, right?" As he headed towards his destination, Gray went over the plan in his head.

Class didn't actually start for another hour, but he had scheduled to meet his professor at the computer lab to present his project ahead of time.

Which meant that it would have been a disaster if he didn't manage to miraculously write all that code early this morning. But Gray had, and he made sure to have both his laptop, cellphone, and code flow diagrams with him just in case it didn't work in the lab.

"So it's settled." Gray nodded and continued walking.

Nothing could go wrong.

After his presentation, Gray could graduate and then accept his job offer. With that, he could finally embark on the path to fulfill the promise he made so long ago. He could finally achieve the dream that she couldn't and-

A ringtone. His phone, vibrating in his pocket.

Gray frowned and then pulled his phone out.

An unknown caller ID. Seeing that, Gray sighed and dismissed the call. "Another spam caller..."

He had been getting a lot of those recently. Random callers that never said anything when he answered before immediately hanging up.

Gray shook his head and kept walking, doing his best to ignore the mild irritation at getting his thoughts interrupted.

And then his phone vibrated again.

He narrowed his eyes and glanced at it... And then saw that it wasn't a call. Instead, it was a text message. Another unknown caller ID. But...

"Huh?" Gray paused and then stared at his phone. "That's... possible?"

It was a blank message. Not blank as in filled with spaces, but blank as in not a single character in the message. And to confirm, he tapped on the message, trying to copy it. But there was nothing to copy.

A shiver went down Gray's spine. Staring at the blank message, he had an ominous sense of foreboding.

It wasn't right. The message was unnatural, and the fact that it was by an unknown caller ID...

He quickly deleted the text message and then blocked the number. After that, he sighed and stuck his phone in his pocket. "Maybe I'm being too paranoid..."

There had been reports about people vanishing recently, and he woke up that morning with a nightmare... Maybe the toll of it along with the stress from finals were finally getting to him.

Gray shook his head and then adjusted his bag, preparing to continue on his way.

And then he froze.

The surroundings were different. Rather than the old brown brick campus buildings up ahead and the sidewalk leading towards them, there was a giant grassland. A field of pure green, stretching as far as the eye could see and connecting with the blue sky in the distance.

Gray ran his right hand through his hair and muttered, "Did I take a wrong turn?"

It was possible. He *had* been out of it since he woke up. And there was the fact that he spaced out while writing code as well.

Maybe he did the same just now?

But that didn't make sense. He had stopped walking, didn't he? So then he couldn't have wandered off to a random place, even if he spaced out.

Gray frowned and then slowly turned around, examining the rest of his surroundings.

Grass, grass... and then a dirt road leading into the distance, ending at a rundown brick building.

In short, unfamiliar territory.

Gray was certain that this wasn't anywhere near campus. He had spent too many days memorizing the area to ensure that something like this didn't happen by accident. So then...

"Where am I?"

Furrowing his brows, Gray pulled out his phone. Maybe the navigation app could tell him where he was...

Thankfully, despite being in the middle of nowhere, there was still service. Seemed like it had been worth upgrading his cellphone plan earlier in the year.

Gray ran a quick Googol search to grab the computer lab's address, copied it, and then pasted it into his navigation app. That done, he started the navigation from his current position and-

"Huh?" Gray blinked and then tapped the navigation button again. But the result didn't change. "The computer lab's up ahead?"

The navigation app said that the computer lab should be right in front of Gray. That he would arrive at it in a few minutes if he just walked. But...

"Did I break it?" Gray frowned and stared at the screen.

It was clearly wrong. The app said that he should be in the middle of campus, but no matter how he looked at his surroundings, they were absolutely foreign to him. Not only that, but it was complete wilderness with only that one building in sight as a sign of civilization.

Gray sighed and slipped his phone in his pocket. "Might as well see if there's anyone I can get help from over there..."

There wasn't a point in standing around, and his phone was clearly broken. Since that was the case, Gray turned towards the dirt path and headed towards the building.

It was a long shot, but it wasn't like he was the only person around here.

That was impossible.

Right?