[MAIN SCENARIO #1 — PROOF OF WORTH]
Kill one or more living organisms.
Category: Main
Difficulty: F
Time Limit: 30 Minutes
Rewards: 300 coins
Penalty for failure: Death
A burly man stepped forward and began to speak.
"Okay everyone! Calm down. Take a deep breath and stop what you're doing." The other passengers turned their heads towards him.
He notices that he had catched their attention, so he spoke up again. "Have you all calmed down? May I have your attention for a moment?"
Byeol noticed that he was holding his wallet in his hands, what was it for? She glanced sideways and saw that the unnie was smiling like she knew something.
"As you all know, in a national emergency such as this one, even a small commotion, can lead to heavy casualties."
The burly man said, his voice firm. "So from now on, I will take charge of this situation."
People began protesting instantly.
"What? Who the hell even are you?"
"A national emergency? What are you talking about?"
And such others. But the man's expression stayed calm. He flipped open his wallet and showed it to the other passengers.
There was a picture of him wearing a military suit(?) and under it were the texts; 'Hyunsung Lee' in small letters and then underneath it in big letters, 'Ministry of Defense.'
"I'm army lieutenant currently serving in unit 6502."
People started murmuring again. This time, neutral ones instead of negative ones.
"I just received a message from my unit." The man took out his phone and showed it to them. They flocked like birds to him and went to take a look.
The passengers gasped when they saw the message.
"Oh my God!"
"A n-national emergency?!"
"Hey army man! What the hell is going on!?"
"I'm trying my best to contact the army base but-" he was interrupted by a man in a white suit yelling at him.
"What about the blue house? Contact the president right now!"
"I'm sorry but I'm only a soldier. I don't have the clearance to call the blue house directly."
"Then how on earth are you going to control the situation?!"
Byeol felt sympathy for the man, just a little bit though.
— 1ST PERSON, KIM DOKJA —
I stared at the burly man wearing a black jacket with a white shirt underneath it.
'i already knew this was going to turn out to be a national emergency. It was something else that took me by surprise.'
"For everyone's safety..." The man started to speak but I was stuck in a daze and couldn't listen to him.
'lieutenant Lee hyunsung.'
'i know him. I never knew him in person but I knew him by name.'
'he is one of the supporting characters in TWSA.'
'It's hard to believe that a supporting character from TWSA has actually appeared.' I scratched my head in frustration then stopped. 'was this how Lee hyunsung was originally introduced in the story?'
— 1ST PERSON, JUNG YISEOL —
Ah!' I internally giggled to myself. He must be feeling so confused right now!
I then saw that our dear reader-nim has come looking to his phone to read it again! I would kick my legs in excitement but I can't show it.
Just then, an announcement from the president on our phones came. I took out my phone and watched it.
"There have been reports of unidentified terrorist attacks in Seoul, as well as many other areas in the country."
Boring!~ watching the LA might have been a better option but we don't talk about that.
"The government will combat these attacks using all means necess—" I turned off my phone because it was getting boring and I need entertainment.
I looked at the kids next to me and smiled. They look a little bit like Reader-nim and protagonist-nim, right? Hehe.
Then we all heard 'bang!' from the other passengers' phones. They dropped them in shock as the prime minister's head was shot off.
the blood splattered behind him on the wall. Gory, yeah? Get used to it. The ugly ass dokkaebi appeared on the screen.
"I told you..this is not just some joke like terrorism!!" It grinned. Ugly but oh well, creatures can't control how they look.
"I guess you still don't get it, do you? Fine. According to my research, people in this country are good at games."
I saw Reader-nim squeeze his phone. Yes I noticed that, don't question me.
"Then let's raise the difficulty, shall we?" The timer rapidly decreased from 24 minutes to 10 minutes.
[The remaining time has been reduced.]
[You now have 10 minutes left.]
[Main scenario #1 — PROOF OF WORTH]
Category: MAIN
Difficulty: F
Time Limit: 10 minutes
Rewards: 300 coins
Penalty for failure: Death
[As an added penalty, if the first death does not occur within the next five minutes, every living organism in this cabin will be terminated.]
"What kind of sick joke is this!?"
"Did you hear what the thing just said? Did you?"
"Army man! what do we do now? Where are the police!?"
"Everyone please calm down and listen to me.."
By now, Reader-nim must've been thinking about Protagonist-nim! Hehe, Protagonist-nim is just next door.
Just on cue, passengers had noticed that the next cabin's door was stained with blood on the window.
"Someone has been murdered in the cabin before us!!"
"Aahh!!"
"Don't let them come in!!!"
"Don't let anyone through!!"
Shit, I kinda feel like a sadist because this feels satisfying. This is sad though.
[You have received an exclusive attribute!]
[A skill slot has been unlocked!]
What's this? Eh whatever!
Someone moved to block the door but got electrocuted.
"W-what's wrong with this?"
"There's some kind of invisible wall in front of the door.."
[No one may leave or enter the cabin until the scenario has ended.]
The dokkaebi on the screen—probably bihyung— snickers.
"It's getting interesting for some cabins, while others haven't even started yet." I'm pretty sure it was talking about us but we don't know that.
It snapped it's paws and a holographic screen popped up, showing a classroom. It was full of girls.
"Huh..? That's taepung girls' high school." Some guy wearing glasses said. Suddenly there was beeping, then crashing.
The students panicked and screamed but to no avail. The entire classroom was filled with blood instantly as everyone, except one, died.
The only one who survived was choking her classmate. Aahh! It's sword demon-nim! I giggled internally.
[The survivor of channel #BAY23515 Is Lee Jihye, a second year student from class B at taepung girls' high school.]
"What do you think? Fun right?" I sure as hell ain't a sadist, cause that dokkaebi is sure an ugly little thing.
"Fuck!! What is this!? What the hell is going on?!"
Me too, brother. Me too.
— 3rd PERSON, YOO BYEOL —
She could somehow tell that the unnie beside her was fangirling for some reason.
The man in the black suit was staring at his phone, wide-eyed. He rubbed his eyes as he continued staring at the screen.
What a weird man. Byeol thought, looking away. "Oppa, what should we do?" She looked at her older brother.
Taehyun shrugged. "Beats me. We should follow the scenario though." Byeol nodded, that made sense.
"Right."
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" The white-haired teenager wearing a dark green jacket from earlier was now holding a man by his collar.
"Ugh! P-please let me go!"
"Shut your mouth."
The teenager smacked him. Hard. So hard that blood came out.
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" The teenager gritted his teeth. He raised his hand to smack the guy again, but was stopped by someone grabbing his wrist.
Turns out, it was the man who tried giving money to the dokkaebi but failed. "You little brat! Don't they teach you to respect your elders?!" The man in the suit yelled at him.
"Huh? What the hell old man? You wanna die too?"
"...what?"
"Can't you see what's going on, here?"
"What the hell are you talking about, you brat!?"
"Over there." He points to the blue screen. "Don't you see that?" Screams echoed through the hologram.
The man seemed to pause. "The army isn't going to save us, y'know? And someone else has to die."
Byeol would hate to admit it but he's right. People on the screen were pleading for their life, to no avail.
"W..what are you-?"
"We.." the teenager glared at the man. "Have to pick the ones who will die." The man flinched at that.
The burly man also flinched.
"It's either kill or be killed." The white-haired teenager says. True, your instincts only kick in when you're in danger.
Aaaand...he's punching the hell out of a guy. Byeol winces. "Oof..that's gotta hurt." Taehyun cringes.
Then, the teenager riled the other passengers' enough to get them all moving. Not byeol, Taehyun and Yiseol though.
The kid with the insect cage looked absolutely terrified out of his mind. The black-haired man squeezed his phone tightly.
Then, the ginger haired woman stepped forward to help but the man stopped her by grabbing her shoulder.
"Don't be so reckless, it's dangerous!" He shouted, but the woman protested. "I know, but..!" He cut her off. "If you go, they'll kill you too!"
He has a point, though. Then he pushed her gently to sit down and exhaled a sigh that he had been holding.
Suddenly, a loud bang resounded through the other door. The man took this chance and dashed forward.
This is kind of interesting. Byeol, Yiseol and Taehyun were still sitting peacefully, somehow. Safe from all the chaos.
The teenager turned around and saw that the man was sprinting towards him and didn't get the chance to move.
The man angled his shoulder(?) to hit the teen's body, sending him flying to the back. "Agh!! What the hell!!" The teen quickly stood up.
"What's your problem?!" He shouted at the man, but the man didn't give a single fuck as he searched around the cabin.
Then his eyes landed on a spot, and seems like he found it. Byeol followed his eyes and it went towards the boy with the insect cage around his neck.
The man made a disgusted face as he reaches for one of the insects in the cage and gave it to the boy.
Then he stood confidently, turning to the passengers. "Please stop what you're doing!" He yelled amongst the chaos.
"Killing that old lady doesn't mean you're going to live!" With that, the passengers stopped trying to kill someone.
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────
The man threw the insect cage towards the floor. Ironically, 2 of them landed on byeol's feet.
"Hey. We should take one each, yes?" Yiseol smirks. Byeol nodded, that made sense. She moved to grab one and crushed it.
She felt no sense of hesitation nor sympathy. It is a being that cannot speak, so it cannot consent to being killed.
"Ah...but there's only two?" Taehyun questioned, frowning. Yiseol chuckles and grabbed the last insect. "It's a pregnant one."
"Silly boy. I can dissect them." Yiseol smiles and starts dissecting it carefully. Once she's done, she hands one part to Taehyun and crushed the other part in her hands.
Taehyun looks at her with awe. "Unnie! You're so smart!!" Yiseol smiles triumphantly, nodding her head. Of course, she'd trained for this day lest it shall come. Alas, it did.
They all received a notification but paid no mind.
A few minutes went by and byeol noticed that 3 minutes were left. The man and the teenager were having a conversation but byeol wasn't necessarily interested.
— 1st PERSON, JUNG YISEOL —
Hehe! I noticed that Protagonist-nim has finished killing all of the passengers in his cabin. I wonder if he's gonna come to this one?
It doesn't matter. The kids and I's survival are guaranteed for now, as well as Lee Gilyoung, Lotus flower-nim and Sword-nim!
Everything's going as smoothly as it should, but it could go off rails anytime, right? Am I right, Readers?
Just pretend you didn't read that, back to the chapter.
Any story can go off rails if you push it far enough from the original plot. But, let's not talk about that.
By now, Reader-nim must've unlocked his skill. Andddd, now he's threatening Namwoon.
The timer hit zero and screams filled the cabin as blood sputtered on the floor.
[MAIN SCENARIO #1 — PROOF OF WORTH HAS ENDED.]
Number of survivors in cabin number 3807 of train number 3434 to bulgwang: 8
Survivors:
Lee Hyunsung
Yoo Sangah
Lee Gilyoung
Han Myungoh
Kim Dokja
Yoo Byeol
Yoo Taehyun
Jung Yiseol
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────
The ugly creature explained to us what the constellations were and how grateful we should be because they want to sponsor us. What a load of bullshit.
It snapped it's paws and a screen popped up infront of us.
[
— select a constellation
— the selected Constellation will be your reliable sponsor.
1. Architect Of Apocalypse
2. Seer Of Chronos
3. Commander Of The Red Cosmos
4. Secretive Plotter
Haa. What the hell? Byeol got frustrated just thinking about this so she chose Seer Of Chronos. No reasons needed.
Taehyun put a hand on her shoulder. "What did you choose?" He asks, his mind still contemplating on which to choose since they all sound powerful.
"A constellation named Seer Of Chronos." Byeol replies dryly, she has no obligation to sound like an excited child just because she's eight.
"Wah! That sounds so cool~ why didn't I get anything like that?" He complains. Byeol shrugs and says, "just pick with whatever you resonate with, I guess."
Taehyun beamed like she just cured cancer and nodded. "Great idea!" Choose wisely taehyun- who said that? Anyways, back to the story.
The black-haired man from earlier spoke up in the thick silence. "Everyone, please gather around."
The burly man was first to reach out to him, shaking his hand. "Not a good time to say this, but nice to meet you. My name's Lee Hyunsung."
The black-haired man nodded his head. "Kim Dokja." Fitting name, byeol thought. Then they had a small conversation which byeol wasn't interested in.
After a few minutes of talking, the man in the suit put his hands on Kim Dokja's shoulder and he looked like a frightened cat.
Yes, yes another small conversation.
"—as the dokkaebi said, this isn't a joke. I'm pretty sure all of you has grasped the situation by now."
Pretty much just that.
As soon as Kim Dokja said we should get out of here, everyone except me, him and Yiseol unnie froze.
The monster outside roared, that didn't scare her though. The next door's cabin slammed, trying to get to ours.
The survivor there was quite persistent, because he kept slamming on the door over and over again. Ah..ahjussi's right, we should get out of here.
"If we don't leave now, we're all going to die before the next scenario." True. Seeing as how determined the survivor next door was, they could very well be killed.
"Let's find a way out of here."
Everyone started to look for working doors that would open, but they're mostly broken.
The ginger-haired unnie found a slightly open door and called out to her friend. The ahjussi rushed over and tried to open it, to no avail.
Then ahjussi told the bear-like man to use his skill and...wow it worked. We all rushed out of the train but was stopped by the ugly creature again.
"I told you earlier to stay put. Damn it!! I'm not done preparing the next scenario." It sounded like a tired dad who just put his kid to sleep only for them to wake up crying seconds later.
The ugly creature snapped it's paws once again and suprise! A fucking notification. No one wants that.
[The second scenario has arrived!]
[SUB SCENARIO — ESCAPE]
Category: Sub
Difficulty: E
Clear conditions: cross the collapsed bridge and enter oksu station.
Time limit: 20 minutes
Penalty: ???
We all began running for our lives. Byeol put everything into her feet and somehow ran faster than the adults.
A monster came up from the seas and roared loudly. Well of course. It's probably trying to destroy the bridge so byeol ran faster until her she couldn't anymore.
The monster bit(?) down on the bridge and it instantly collapsed. Ah...fuck. she had left her oppa behind. Well, he can survive on his own.
The only ones that made it across were her, Lee gilyoung, and the burly ahjussi. Then a notification sounded.
[Someone has received the blessing of a constellation.]
[The constellation's blessing has activated the Deus Ex Machina in this scenario.]
The broken bridge was suddenly restored with...light? Byeol thinks it's solid to step on, seeing as it's a blessing.
Byeol saw Yiseol unnie hesitating whether to join the fight or leave with Taehyun. She hopes she'll leave with Taehyun.
[Constellation 'Seer Of Chronos' laughs at incarnation 'Kim Dokja']
"You're my sponsor right? And why are you laughing at him." Byeol notices that it was the nickname from earlier and deadpanned when she saw the notification.
She saw Yiseol unnie rushing over to her side along while carrying Taehyun, piggy back style. Then there's also the other guy who's carrying the ginger haired unnie.
Wow. Very shameless of him to leave his colleague like that. Not even I would do that. Unless they're important to me.