GSGW c248
Chapter 248
The train was coming in.
And the warding charm I was holding might not last much longer.
Everything pointed to one thing.
'Hurry!'
We had to reach the platform through the stairs immediately.
“This way.”
Assistant Manager Lee Songhae, whose sense of direction was the sharpest, practically burst forward like an animal and began retracing the path we had taken.
I had been mapping it in my head as well—and everyone else had probably tried to remember it the same way—so no one hesitated as they ran after her.
Breathing.
Footsteps.
…And from far away, the vibration of the approaching train.
The distance closed in an instant. Only the sounds of us pushing through trees and fog echoed through the silence.
And at last, the stairs appeared. A clear view without fog. The passage that would send us somewhere else….
Exit ■
Stairs leading upward.
"......"
"......"
Reflexively, I looked up. Piles of objects stacked crazily in front of a lowered shutter. Dried bloody footprints. All sorts of desperate attempts to block any connection with the outside.
The stairs leading out to Segwang Special City.
Wait.
Wait a second.
'Why?'
Then the realization struck me like a blow to the head.
“Etiquette…!”
“…!!”
Segwang Station (Forest of Final Moments) Etiquette
3. If you run near the ticket gate, an exit will appear.
We had run the moment we entered through the ticket gate.
And so we had arrived at the ‘exit.’
My heart went cold.
‘Why didn’t anyone remember?’
With this many people, it was impossible that not a single one of us had noticed it.
Then I realized something. Even now, as I remembered it from the shock…
‘It’s evaporating from my mind.’
Like fog seeping in.
‘A gimmick.’
It seemed the contents of the notice board couldn’t stay in one’s memory for long. But there was no time to despair.
‘Quick.’
We had to turn back…!
“Bronze. Direction again!”
“Yes.”
Wait. I hurriedly added.
“Agent, do not look toward the exit.”
No telling what might be there.
“…! Yes.”
After confirming Agent Bronze nodding while lifting the colored glass, I urgently checked the item.
…Half of the warding carving I was holding was now covered in black mold.
The silk thread was rotting away.
‘…It’s faster.’
Coming to the exit by mistake had clearly worsened things.
At this rate, the remaining time it could hold was probably…
Barely five to ten minutes.
‘Hurry.’
“Found it, the ticket gates…!”
“Okay. This time, let’s not run.”
We moved forward.
So that it wouldn’t count as running—so that both feet would never leave the ground at once. Under extreme tension and concentration, we began moving again. The moment we reached the gates, we traced the direction toward the station again.
We found the transportation card charger.
Most of the warding pollack was now covered in dark purple mold.
From the charger, we walked back along the path we had taken earlier.
The silk thread hooked on my ring finger snapped.
The fog thickened more and more along the path we walked….
Drip.
Cold sweat fell onto the warding charm.
Now the shape of the charm was almost impossible to recognize.
More than half the threads looped around my fingers had snapped.
‘Faster.’
Not being able to run felt like torture.
Part of me thought maybe it would be fine to run now—but since we had already triggered the rule once, no one dared to try it easily, so we kept walking.
Walking.
And then.
And then….
Stairs.
The way down to the platform.
"...!"
Barely able to breathe, everyone rushed down the stairs. Gripping the remaining threads connected to the warding pollack tightly, I moved my feet as well.
And then.
And then….
We stepped out of the fog.
"......"
"......"
The moment our feet reached the platform.
“Haaah….”
“Ho…”
People collapsed where they stood.
‘We survived.’
The moment everyone felt that same instinctive realization, the tension drained away all at once, and a trembling relief spread through the air.
I stared at the ceiling, gasping for breath.
Then when I lowered my head, I saw a single strand of silk thread left.
I swallowed.
‘That was close.’
[Oh, what a thrilling exploration, with a delightful twist in the middle. My friend!]
Yeah. A friend who lent me a hundred million can say whatever he wants.
Soon, even among the others, small joking remarks began to pass around.
“When that exit appeared, I thought we were dead.”
“Hahaha!”
“Good thing we made it down!”
The subtle distance that had existed between the individuals of the two hostile groups—Daydream Inc. and the Disaster Management Bureau—seemed to have shrunk a little.
Some strange sense of solidarity must have formed.
[A very classic psychological phenomenon. The mechanism is a bit different, but one might compare it to the suspension bridge effect!]
Right.
‘Whatever works.’
Even after we got out, it felt like we could settle things without turning red in the face.
“When we get out, we should have an afterparty. Didn’t the civil servants say they liked gopchang hot pot? Or what, maybe Korean beef?”
“Ah, we go crazy for it, citizen.”
“Agent, please….”
“The old stiff here looks like he could eat a full kilo. Why hold back?”
“…?!”
“Can I come too?”
“Of course.”
We all knew we probably wouldn’t actually go out drinking together, but the conversation passed back and forth a few times just to loosen the tension and clear our heads.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
“It’s coming.”
The signal that another train was approaching appeared.
‘Do they come more often if there are passengers in the station?’
I didn’t know about the frequency, but if we could get out of here, that would be good enough.
Of course, whether it would truly take us out of the ghost story remained to be seen….
“Since there were people on the train, it’d be nice if it connected to some other supernatural phenomenon. Right, Grapes?”
“…Of course.”
Anything would be better than the center of a catastrophe-level ghost story….
And besides.
“…We should also prepare for the possibility that the people inside the train are not normal.”
“Obviously.”
If the passengers appearing inside a ghost story train, statistically speaking, they might also be contaminated humans.
The train is arriving.
I could see the agents switching their equipment to gear suited for human targets, and the Daydream Inc. employees organizing their items.
Some of those items probably couldn’t even be used here, but they were arranging them just for appearances.
‘Not that someone empty-handed like me has room to talk.’
Looking at the warding pollack swaying in my sweat-dampened hand, I held back a sigh.
It was already almost completely ruined.
One hundred million won for five lives wasn’t a bad price, but still—thinking of it as a single-use item felt like a waste….
Tap.
"......"
I watched it fall to the floor.
The persimmon wood carving, covered in mold, lay there crushed, no longer recognizable in shape.
The last silk thread that had been dangling from my hand had snapped.
The warding charm had completely.
Broken.
“……”
“Wait a second. Roe Deer, that—”
It wasn’t something that could break simply because of weight.
It was an item.
…Which meant.
It had been fulfilling its role of warding off misfortune right up until the moment it snapped.
"......"
I stiffly turned my head toward the stairs leading up from the platform.
…Fog that had poured out from the concourse was flowing down through the passage.
'Ah.'
Right. The concourse is part of the subway station.
If we were counted as passengers by the station…
If the station had recognized our presence…
Then the forest in the concourse had recognized us too.
Enough to chase us.
Until now, the reason it hadn’t pursued us all the way to the platform was because the warding charm had been blocking our presence in our place.
But now that it was broken—
“Back—”
The next moment.
The fog cascaded down the stairs like a flood and completely swallowed the platform.
“…!!”
The platform wrapped in fog began to stretch unnaturally wide, and the shadows of trees appeared.
Trees with hanged corpses dangling from them.
…Nooses without bodies.
—In the ■■■ Forest, infamous as a suicide hotspot, new bodies have been discovered. This time, five unidentified men and women were found hanging side by side from trees near the subway connecting passage.
—According to witnesses, they are believed to have given up boarding the subway train before taking their own lives. The final conversation they exchanged while alive was…
—Don’t you want to give up too?
“Dodge!”
I lowered my head. I tried to grab the shoulder of the person beside me—but what my hand caught was another corpse.
I shook it off in panic.
“Everyone, to the screen doors!”
Thankfully, I could still hear voices.
And in the fog, a faint trail of blue flame flickered while the sound of bells rang out.
A presence pushing the fog away.
“Here!”
I rushed toward it.
As I got closer, a silhouette appeared through the fog. Agent Choi, standing near the screen doors!
Passengers are requested to observe etiquette and board safely.
“When the train doors open, immediately—”
Snap.
“…Agent?”
Just now.
Just now, did Agent Choi just get caught by a noose around the neck right in front of me and get hoisted up into the tree?
What?
What is… this?
Why did that suddenly happen? This was clearly a type of urban legend that lured victims. But since we’d already been registered as station users, it didn’t need to lure us anymore? Because the warding charm that had been holding it back suddenly broke like a dam bursting? Because we violated the etiquette rule? Or…
Just now.
He died?
He died—
“Damn it.”
……
“…Assistant Manager!”
I barely regained my senses and pushed through the fog, searching for her voice. The Assistant Manager—she should be around here somewhere…
Whoosh.
Another figure was hooked by a noose and yanked upward.
Vanishing into the fog.
—Don’t you want to give up too?
I froze.
'…Ah.'
The platform was already completely swallowed by trees and fog.
Maybe everything I’d just seen was a hallucination? It had to be. People couldn’t just suddenly die like that. Two people, just like that—
But there were still other presences…
“Agent Grapes!”
Agent Bronze.
“Agent!”
Silhouettes approached me. Beside them, I saw Assistant Manager Lee Songhae.
The glow from the luminous star sticker she had stuck to the back of her hand raised high, illuminating a small patch of the fog.
We were almost right next to the screen doors.
The light from the open train doors flickered faintly through the mist.
“Get in immediately—!”
This time—
I saw it.
A noose shot out of the fog, wrapped around Agent Bronze’s neck, and dragged him upward.
He was reeled into the fog.
“…!”
Instinctively I grabbed his lower body. At the same time, Assistant Manager Lee grabbed his legs.
But it was meaningless.
Because it had caught his neck.
With impossible force, the noose tore free from our hands and yanked him upward.
Crack. The sound of his neck breaking echoed.
“……”
The screen doors are closing.
I threw myself toward the train.
My mind spun wildly, unable to form a coherent conclusion. Escape—was this escape? Like this? Was there nothing we could do?
It was already too late—
…!
Then I saw it again.
By the light of the luminous star sticker Assistant Manager Lee raised as she ran, I saw a rope descending through the fog.
A noose.
One of the two of us.
'No.'
I shoved Assistant Manager Lee beside me, almost throwing her through the closing train doors.
At the same time—
—Don’t you want to give up too?
A noose tightened around my neck and yanked.
Whoosh.
Pain.
Pressure.
Suffocation.
……
Death.
Darkness.
***
Would you like to continue?
***
“Gasp!”
“Agent!”
Ryu Jaekwang opened his eyes. His breath came in frantic gasps, the agony and crushing pressure around his neck still throbbing through his chest and body.
He tried to lift a hand to touch his throat, but someone stopped him.
“Calm down. You’re at headquarters!”
…Headquarters?
His eyes snapped into focus.
A modern room hung with sacred ropes and talismans. A bed. The smell of disinfectant and rice…
The Bureau’s contamination ward infirmary.
"......"
He slowly let the strength drain from his hand. The medic leaning over him sighed in relief.
'A nightmare?'
Was that possible? Had he experienced some kind of supernatural-disaster nightmare?
Then where had the nightmare begun? Was the place he was in now actually the dream—
“We keep telling people not to use the well as a transit route anymore! But you used it anyway… Everyone who went through has been unconscious for two days. Agent Bronze is the first to wake up.”
"......."
“Agent Choi definitely said to use it, though—”
“W-wait, just… wait a second.”
Ryu Jaekwang asked urgently.
“Did the well activate?”
“Oh, it worked all right! Suddenly a supernatural disaster and a bunch of Daydream employees all appeared at headquarters unconscious—it was chaos.”
“……"
“And since everyone’s still unconscious, it’s obvious you were all hit by some kind of strange supernatural phenomenon… Agent?”
Agent Bronze grabbed his neck again.
'…My voice won’t come out properly.'
There was also a strange sense of suffocation, and something like auditory hallucinations clinging to him.
…Like a noose.
“Are you alright? You’re scheduled for a full examination, but…”
“Yes.”
There was strange pain, trembling in his body—some lingering aftereffect, perhaps…
But he was alive.
'I didn’t die.'
He realized that clearly.
Segwang Special City.
The reason they had been able to connect to that place—a place erased from reality, not even recognized in memory.
It was a dream.
They had entered Segwang Special City through the well—inside a dream.
And…
“Ah, it seems everyone else is regaining consciousness now. But… one of the Daydream employees still hasn’t woken up.”
They left one person behind there.
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