He had become a dog.
It might sound like some ridiculous story about getting lost and ending up in the north… but that was exactly what had happened.
No matter how he looked at it, it was the body of a dog. Small, nimble paws. A snout that twitched at every scent. A long, slightly curled tail trailing behind him…
—Woof. (What?)
And then, the sound of a dog barking.
When he opened his eyes, he was inside the body of an unfamiliar dog.
***
Kyle Blake focused on staying as calm as possible to assess his situation.
Don’t panic.
But that was easier said than done. He wasn’t even human anymore—he was a dog. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now.
Standing in a dim, narrow alleyway, Kyle tried to think.
His last memory was with Shu. They had been on the top floor of the Stone Mage Tower, where the wind howled through the broken walls. It was a place where one could see things that were beyond comprehension, a place where people had disappeared without a trace.
Back then, he had thought he had escaped safely. When darkness spread across the entire exhibition hall, Kyle had pulled Shu close and pressed his face against Shu’s shoulder. His voice had trembled with urgency.
And then—blackout.
For an instant, an overwhelming sense of vertigo hit him, and he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes… he was a dog.
“How is this even possible?”
Kyle sat dumbfounded on the cold ground, lost in thought. But soon, he realized he wasn’t the only one confused.
His lover, Shu, had once lived as a hamster. And it hadn’t been for a short time, either. He had even thought the entire world was nothing more than the fictional setting of The Heart of Winter.
That was more than enough proof that absurd things could happen in this world.
It was at that moment—
A translucent blue window appeared before his eyes.
[Connection verified. Data confirmed.]
[Quest being assigned.]
It looked similar to the Messenger of Love interface he had seen before, yet somehow different.
Rather, it reminded him of something else.
That moment flashed through his mind—
“Do you have the confidence to become part of his world?”
It was the same as back then.
Kyle—no, his front paw—slowly lifted as he reached toward the system window.
[500 Internal Server Error.]
[Internal server error □□□□□□□.]
[……]
The blue window shattered like a landslide, then reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle over and over again.
[503 Service Temporarily Unavailable.]
[520 Unknown Error.]
It was an incomprehensible language. If it were Shu—no, Baek Soo-hyun—would he be able to understand what these words meant?
Kyle silently stared at the cryptic messages floating above the translucent window. If he couldn’t understand them, what should he do? Ignore them or try to analyze them? Those were his only options.
And then, a particular system window appeared—one that gave him an inexplicable sense of unease.
[508 Loop Detected.]
[Loop set up?]
[YES / NO]
—Gah!
His black, fur-covered legs kicked wildly at the air in a panic. He let out a low whimper, sounding more like a distressed growl.
At that moment, the system flickered as if it had lost its physical form. With a faint pang, the system window shattered again.
Kyle had no idea what it all meant. But somehow, it left him with an ominous feeling.
He continued to glare at the system, baring his teeth. If he still had his sword—if he had even one ounce of magic power left—he might have tried to slice it apart in frustration.
And then, finally, words he could understand appeared before him.
[200 OK.]
[Auto-translation enabled: Korean]
[Miracle measurement impossible! Value already achieved.]
[A quest has been assigned to all fate-bound entities.]
[Quest Completion Reward: ‘Return to Form.’]
[Estimated Waiting Time: 7 days.]
The tension that had coiled his body like a spring slowly began to ease.
Kyle still had no idea where he was, why he had become a dog, or how he could return to being human.
But one thing was certain—somewhere in this world, his fate-bound companion existed.
This wasn’t like losing Shu forever. If Shu was still somewhere in this world, then, just as always, he would find a way back to him.
Waiting was fine. If it was something given by the one he loved, even waiting could feel like a privilege.
But this situation…
—Uh, yeah. Hmm. (I mean, surely I’m not going to be stuck like this for an entire week.)
[ .·´¯(✦▽✦)´¯·. ]
A peculiar symbol appeared, resembling a crying yet smiling face. He had seen something similar in the Messenger of Love before.
So, he really had to stay like this for a whole week.
Kyle let out a deep sigh and looked around. The first thing to do was grasp the situation clearly so he could minimize unnecessary movement.
The black dog—his current form—took a step forward, heading toward the city.
Towering, ash-gray buildings stood in tight clusters, their heights uneven like gravestones. People dressed in worn-out clothing hurried along the streets.
At the end of the road, instead of carriages or horses, bizarrely shaped carts rolled by, and the shops lined up along the street had barely any customers.
It took Kyle less than three minutes to figure it out.
This was… Baek Soo-hyun’s world.
***
Living as a dog was far more dangerous than he had anticipated.
That was why Kyle had stuck close to Shu yesterday.
—Bark, woof! Woof woof! (Don’t come near me! I really will bite you!)
Dressed in black, the men hesitated at Kyle’s aggressive posture, flinching at his bared teeth. But then, one of them clicked his tongue and spoke.
“No collar, no tags… a stray dog?”
“Dogs aren’t common in the city. Mid-to-large breeds are hard to keep, so some people just abandon them.”
“Well, letting it roam around like this is more dangerous. It’d be better to send it to a shelter.”
“You look pretty wild… But are you really okay without an owner?”
They slowly guided Kyle into an alleyway, blocking the exit with their bodies.
“Should we try feeding it something?”
“Yeah. We gave it food yesterday too. Just a little, though. x-rations, consecrated water, a tasteless soup, and some synthetic meat substitute… but it didn’t even touch them.”
Kyle, now in dog form, snorted.
Seeing the same supplies repeatedly was strange enough. But what was even more bizarre was that he had no appetite at all.
Even if his stomach was empty, he had no urge to put dog food in his mouth.
I figured as much. In the northern outposts, people were used to going without proper meals for days.
Enduring wasn’t the problem. Hunger, thirst, and cold—he could still control them.
But what they called a ‘shelter’ was a different issue. If they took him in, he wouldn’t be able to meet Shu.
Kyle quickly scanned his surroundings again.
The sun had set, and dusk gave way to the darkness of night. The city’s shadows were his ally—if he played this right, he could move undetected for the rest of the night.
The black dog crouched low. Only the most seasoned laborers could move quickly in the dark without stumbling. Keeping his center of gravity low, he focused his strength in his limbs. His breathing was quiet, his vision fixed at the center while still taking in his surroundings.
Observing carefully, he spotted gaps in their formation. And to make full use of those openings, he waited for the perfect moment.
“It should be fine now.”
“Alright… Then, let’s do an inventory check.”
“It’s right here.”
“One, two, three… Start counting.”
“……Got it!”
This was the best timing Kyle had seen so far to make his escape. He began moving—slowly.
He glanced at the man standing on the far left, then at the stacked crates beside him.
Just as they started counting—
“One, two… hey!”
Before they could even finish, Kyle lunged at the crates, knocking them over with all his strength.
Chaos erupted in the alleyway. Tattered workers and desperate vagrants scrambled to snatch up the fallen supplies, their voices rising in frantic shouts. Among the scattered items were rations and small scraps of goods.
The black dog bolted over one of the toppled crates and took off running.
“…Huh.”
Among the people present, one man stood frozen, staring in stunned silence. Of everyone here, he seemed the most desperate.
“Did that dog just do that?”
The man beside him flinched, stumbling backward as he dropped his bag. Dried chicken meat and dog kibble spilled onto the ground.
And now that he thought about it, that dog—wandering the city—surely hadn’t eaten trash. The moment he saw that, the man recoiled, as if repulsed.
“That’s unusual.”
“Why?”
The dust clinging to his clothes was brushed away with a flick. His voice wavered slightly as he spoke.
“I mean, how is that dog so light on its feet? If I had just blinked once, it would’ve been gone in an instant. That freaked me out.”
“Yeah. It’s like it understood every word we said…”
“Almost like a person eavesdropping.”
They laughed it off as a joke, thinking of it as a coincidence. Of course, they had no idea.
They couldn’t possibly know.
That in that dog’s body—there was a soul that had truly come from another world.
System!
At that moment, the black dog sprinted through the city, weaving through the streets like a shadow, desperately calling out to the system.
System! Hurry… do something! Find me a way to get to Shu!
He had no idea if running around aimlessly like this would get him caught. He needed a plan before that happened.
Just then, a flickering system window appeared in the air before him.
[Bonus quest selection in progress…]
[Would you like to go ahead and wait at the last place your companion lingered?]
[Skill required for quest: ‘Dog Nose’ has been activated!]
[Reward: Memory Fragment]
If he had to complete a quest, then fine…
Feeling momentarily dazed by the absurdity of it all, Kyle finally accepted reality and trudged forward.
