The personnel to re-enter Segwang Metropolitan City were assembled very easily.
-I wanna go!
This was because everyone from Daydream, having finished their reports on the Project, said they were ready to re-enter Segwang Metropolitan City.
It was surprising that Baek Saheon was among them, though.
-You said you'd give us more points.
Earning high-grade points without the risk of dying is certainly attractive.
-We've also finished all those tedious project reports. We can go with you.
-Yes.
Manager Lee Jaheon and Deputy Manager Eun Haje also affirmed.
However….
-…Let's leave Minseong to recover a bit more.
-...Yes.
…Of course, we would be happy to see Deputy Manager Minseong looking well in Segwang Metropolitan City. But he himself would probably be afraid of returning to a state where he couldn't regain his consciousness in reality.
It also seemed better for the Security Chief's peace of mind to enter after we had passed the Hanbit Library section.
Finally….
'The agents… will probably have a hard time for a while because of work.'
That's what I thought.
-Grapes-ie~ Just a moment. I want to check the state of Sekwang Technical High School.
I received a strong expression of intent to participate, even if it was just for
half a day on their day off….
-…Ah. You're going in right away? Hmm.
But it seemed Agent Choi had other plans.
I guessed it was because of the incident where several agents fell into a complete sleep during the Sekwang Technical High School affair….
'It seems like he has to go around meeting the agents on leave, like Agent Haegeum.'
In any case, his own intention was firm.
-Jaegwan will go. Got it? I'm counting on you, Jaegwan.
-Huh?
And so, the personnel present here are as follows.
Manager Lee Jaheon.
Deputy Manager Eun Haje.
Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae.
Supervisor Baek Saheon.
Agent Bronze.
And me.
'Six people.'
The same number of people as when we first entered Segwang Metropolitan City.
Anyway, before waiting for the train, we were planning to briefly enter Hanbit Library to check on the state of Sekwang Technical High School.
However.
"It's gone."
Where Hanbit Library had been, a subway station now continued on as normal.
In a state of complete darkness, without a single light source.
"..."
"What is this now. What's the reason for…."
Closed for Renovations
-Corner under reorganization-
Corner under reorganization.
'Don't tell me….'
Did Sekwang Technical High School become a private corner and go under reorganization?
I reflexively looked back at Agent Bronze. The agent nodded his head.
"…It seems that as the library suspended its operations, the original station revealed itself in its place."
"Hmm."
"Then, shall we check it out?"
Everyone agreed.
And so, we first shone our flashlights ahead.
"..."
"It's a real station facility."
There were no bizarre structures or items there.
It was truly a subway station with the lights off. Walls made of tile, thick pillars, a gray floor, safety signs, and ticket gates.
"…Well, there are no particular danger signals."
Baek Saheon, who had lifted his eyepatch, muttered sullenly.
"This feels just like… a state where the Darkness has ended."
It was just as the Deputy Manager said.
Even when we shone our flashlights, there was no reaction, and the inside of the station was very quiet.
"…Then I'll proceed slowly."
"Yes."
Slowly, without a sound, we entered.
Drip
The sound of water dripping came from somewhere.
[My, it seems to be damp. The person in m charge of this place must not have managed the space properly.]
Or… they're in a situation where they can no longer manage it.
The more we went in and confirmed the state of the station's interior, the more we realized.
"...!"
It was a ruin.
'It's been abandoned for years.'
Rust and black mold bloomed on the floors and in the corners, and the tiles and mirrors on the walls were broken or cracked.
And the trash.
Traces that people had lived inside here for a while. Cans, blankets, plastic bags, used tissues….
"…Was this used by people who evacuated?"
"...I think so."
The station was brutally realistic.
As if its supernatural aspects had vanished, revealing the appearance of a station abandoned after a disaster.
'…Do other stations also become like this when the ghost stories occupying them are concluded?'
I couldn't be sure. For one, Hanbit Library wasn't concluded, just closed.
But just seeing the raw, non-ghost-story side of this Segwang Metropolitan City felt strange.
And….
"Look over there."
We checked the nearest exit, Exit 1.
The shutter was down.
And that shutter….
"…Ugh."
It was blocked with dried blood, filth, and all sorts of junk and heavy objects. Traces of people desperately trying to block the outside.
'It's a trace I also saw at Segwang Station.'
The state of the station on the opposite side of the tracks.
"I think we could get outside if we cleared it…"
"Don't."
"Yes, sir. Team Leader."
We looked around the place like that.
The convenience store had already been completely looted, and the few remaining fresh products were rotting with an unpleasant smell.
The decorative exhibits in the station were black, covered in a layer of dust.
All the machines were already dark,heavy, dead space with not even a bug or a mouse.
"..."
"There, that's Exit 4."
The only thing that felt out of place was this.
Sekwang Tech Graduation Ceremony
To Exit 4! →
The exit on the sign that had been attached to the platform.
Exit 4, which originally seemed to lead to Sekwang Technical High School, was….
"Ah."
Blocked with a wooden board.
As if that place alone was being isolated and protected.
"Doesn't this… look just like the back of that library bookshelf?"
"…Yes."
What was more surprising was that the wooden board was filled with
colorful sticky notes.
1st Year Class 7, fighting
Friends who just sleep whenever they're sleepy
I don't usually like classical music, but this is nice to listen to. It's calming.
Sleeping soundly
Gotta go smash some tteok-twi-sun when I wake up
Memos that seemed to have been left by students.
The playful words were like yearbook quotes or a rolling paper.
Agent Bronze's eyes, which had been looking them over, stopped at one neat memo.
Thank goodness everyone is safe
"…It's Agent Gomyeong's handwriting."
"..."
It really was a relief.
And my eyes, too, stopped in a corner.
Let's see each other when you wake up
A memo made from a torn piece of A4 paper, taped up. On it was a handwriting I knew well.
The handwriting I had seen when I borrowed the school uniform from the infirmary.
"..."
"Roe. Should we collect the sticky notes?"
"I think it would be better to leave them, just in case."
"…Alright."
We left the singularly colorful and clean Exit 4 behind us and continued our search.
"…Not even a single rat."
"Oh. It feels like a ghost is about to pop out."
But we couldn't find anything else out of the ordinary, and the flashlight beams eventually headed back to the platform stairs where we had started.
"Is that the last place?"
The sign that was there.
Station Office
The station office's translucent reinforced glass door was locked with a padlock.
Of course, our current party included a Lizard who could rip off not just the padlock, but the entire door.
"I'm breaking it."
Snap.
Manager Lee Jaheon tore the shackle of the padlock in half.
And the moment the station office door was finally opened….
"…!"
Whipping her body back, Deputy Manager Eun Haje whispered.
"There's a person."
To be precise.
It was a person's corpse.
Inside the dark station office.
A station employee's corpse was frozen stiff on the desk.
My body nearly jumped.
[The glass on the desk is completely covered in blood. It seems whoever made this mess had no intention of cleaning up!]
Hah.
'This is crazy….'
I suppressed the goosebumps crawling up my body, entered the station office, and approached the corpse.
'Why is there a dead person only here?'
The station office was cleaner and more intact than the outside, which made the corpse's grotesqueness stand out even more.
…The corpse's slumped body, revealed in the flashlight beam, was completely covered in dried bloodstains on its lower half. It seemed there had been massive bleeding from the neck.
In the dead person's left hand was… a shard of a mirror.
'…Did he slit his own throat?'
But why?
There was only one way to find out.
'Hah.'
I gritted my teeth, reached out, and grabbed the corpse.
"Be careful."
Then, together with Agent Bronze, I flipped it over.
The blood-soaked corpse, its eyes wide open, stared at the ceiling.
'Ugh.'
"It seems he did slit his throat. Hmm… but it's strange. I don't know how the padlock could have remained perfectly intact!"
"..."
She had a point.
'The people who evacuated here just happened to leave the padlocked station office untouched?'
And this person went to the trouble of padlocking it, only to slit his own throat.
'It's strange.'
And in this world, strange things are usually related to ghost stories.
"..."
I looked at the corpse's blood-soaked upper body, especially the neck that had been slit with the mirror shard.
'…There might be something in the part covered by blood.'
Hah, seriously.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the corpse was more dried out than rotten, so there were no maggots or anything of the sort.
And….
"…!"
There was something.
'A line.'
A single line, not stained with blood, was revealed.
This is….
'A string?'
"Are you trying to check the wound?"
"No. There's something there. …It looks like a string."
"One moment."
Agent Bronze muttered something, as if to ward off any potential 'impurity,' then grabbed the line near the neck wound.
Caked blood powder fell off, and something dropped down along the string.
The thing that had been hanging on its chest.
ID Card
Name: ■■■
Segwang Transit Corporation
"…!"
It was a station employee's ID card.
The name in the center was stuck with blood and wasn't clearly visible, but it was certain.
'This might be useful.'
An employee ID card is usually a pass.
We're constantly moving through stations, so a station employee's ID has a high probability of being used as a gimmick.
"…I'm taking it out."
"Yes."
I carefully reached out and pulled the ID card off the corpse's body.
In the process, a chunk of dried blood on the ID card fell off into the air with a thump….
ID Card
Name: ■■un
Segwang Transit Corporation
"..."
Wait.
I held up the ID card and scraped the name part. Through a piece of tissue, dark red blood powder pattered down.
A single, undamaged letter of the name revealed itself.
ID Card
Name: ■ Heo Un
Segwang Transit Corporation
...The name of my colleague.
And….
The name of a Cheerful Research Institute employee.
"…!!"
Wait a minute.
[Oh, what an unexpected encounter!]
"Agent Grapes?"
"Please wait a moment."
I searched the desk where the corpse had been lying. It looked like an
ordinary station office, and the office supplies and documents that came out were all things you would expect to find in a subway station.
But just one thing.
"..."
"A map?"
It was a drawing placed under the desk glass. A 3D blueprint showing the entire station.
On that blueprint, a stamp-like mark in red was placed on one location.
The head of a rabbit doll.
A toy.
'…Cheerful Research Institute.'
I lifted my head.
"This, I think I know this mark."
"An escape hint?"
"…Perhaps."
And I checked the location of the mark on the blueprint.
"Hmm… It's the platform opposite to where we woke up."
Hoo.
"It might be dangerous, so for now, just I will…."
"Stop talking nonsense and lead the way."
"..."
Yes, sir.
After looking around the station office one more time, I left with the others.
The ID card in my hand.
However….
"Wait a minute."
"Yes?"
Just before leaving the station office, I grabbed Baek Saheon's shoulder.
"What did you take?"
"…!"
When the others had swarmed around the corpse, Baek Saheon had gone alone to the side of the sofa in the station office. And….
"There's something in your pocket."
"...So what. You took the ID card too."
"Right. And I showed it to everyone."
"..."
"What did you take?"
Baek Saheon rolled his eyes and then took something out of his pocket.
A round pouch.
It was a cat-shaped coin purse.
"…It was in the lost and found box."
Ah.
- Person who lost a cat coin purse, please go to the station office
The lost and found note that had been stuck to the platform wall.
This bastard had remembered that and tried to find it as soon as he saw the station office.
'No.'
Then at least share the information.
'If some strange phenomenon happens because you took that, we'll all have to deal with it.'
Of course, he probably didn't because he didn't want to give it to others.
I looked at Baek Saheon with an incredulous expression, and for a moment, he flinched and pulled back.
'...?'
No matter how I look at it, this is the reaction of someone who thinks he's about to get his ass kicked by me.
'Ah.'
Right. This bastard saw me performing Physical Exorcism.
Hmm.
"You're free to take things. But if it becomes like the casino incident..."
"..."
"I think it would be really difficult and sad. You understand, right?"
Pat, pat.
I walked over, patted his back, and said.
"From now on, whatever you take, don't hide it."
"..."
Baek Saheon nodded.
"Agent Grapes. He's not the type to listen just because you say that."
"No, it's fine. Goat will understand, too. He's my colleague."
I said with a smile.
"Right, Goat?"
"…Right!"
Baek Saheon forces a smile.
Thank you, Reptilian Aliens….
'To think a conversation could go this smoothly.'
Now I can apply pressure while still talking nicely.
"Thank you."
"? Yes."
I gave a nod to Manager Lee Jaheon and then came out of the station office again.
…The surging tension seems to have subsided a bit, thanks to that.
"Let's go."
We crossed the gloomy, abandoned station again and headed to the opposite side.
To get to the platform on the other side.
As we went down to the platform, the bright light of the lamps, as if operating normally again, coldly illuminated the tracks and passageway.
And across the tracks, we could see the platform where we had woken up.
"...The feeling is similar."
"Ah. But it looks like trains don't come to this side."
That was true.
Unlike the opposite platform, where announcements of approaching trains could be heard intermittently, this side was filled with an unnaturally deep silence.
'At Segwang Station, the area above the stairs had completely collapsed.'
…I had a bad feeling.
Feeling as if we had entered a place we shouldn't have, we kept walking.
Searching for the place marked on the map.
And soon, we arrived.
■■■
A steel door with a wiped-out nameplate.
"…It seems to be a communication or machine room for the subway station."
"Ah, right. I think I've seen employees going in and out of the doors like this on the platform."
In that case, this should open it.
I held the station employee's ID I had acquired up to the number pad next to the steel door. Then….
Beep-boop-bip.
The lock was released.
"..."
I carefully grabbed the door and opened it.
The smell of something burnt stung my nose.
"...!!"
"What is it?"
A pitch-black interior revealed itself.
Beyond the steel door was almost immediately a wall.
But if you stepped in slightly and looked to the side….
"…A hallway?"
That's right.
Black water pooled on the completely burnt walls and floor, and offices were visible on both sides. Along with soot-stained, illegible doorplates.
"What is this?"
But this structure was extremely familiar to me.
'…Cheerful Research Institute.'
The Cheerful Research Institute projected into the ghost story in the Daydream underground Annex.
Goosebumps rose on my back.
'It was here…!'
The subway station of Segwang Metropolitan City.
The Cheerful Research Institute was originally here.