Cha Uijae rubbed his face with both hands, but of course, doing so didn’t help bring back his scattered thoughts. He stared blankly into space, amazed by how vivid people’s imaginations could be. With just one photograph, rumors were spreading like wildfire.

He recalled a YouTube video he had seen recently, which had just 534 views. The video featured a black screen with bright red, yellow, and white text flashing across it, explaining how modern people who had gone through events like the Day of Fracture and the Day of Change sought more extreme stimuli to escape reality. They called …