GDCG c296

Previous chapter

Next chapter

 

Chapter 296

The group that would re-enter Segwang Special City came together very easily.

—I'd like to go!

Because everyone from Daydream Inc. had already said they were prepared to enter Segwang Special City again once the project reports were finished.

The surprising one was Baek Saheon. 

—You said there'd be more points.

High-grade point accumulation without worrying about dying was certainly attractive. 

—We've finished all those tedious project reports too. We can come along.

—Yes. 

Section Chief Lee Jaheon and Assistant Manager Eun Haje also agreed without hesitation. However... 

—...Let's leave Minseong alone until he recovers a bit more. 

—......Yes. 

...Of course, we would all be happy to see Supervisor Minseong walking around healthy in Segwang Special City. But he himself would probably be afraid of returning to a state where he couldn't regain his sense of self in reality.

Emotionally speaking, it also seemed better for the Security Captain to come in after we had passed the Hanbit Library section.

And finally….

'The agents will probably be busy with official duties for a while.'

Or so I thought. 

—Grapes~ Hold on a second. I want to check the status of Segwang Technical High School.

We received an extremely firm declaration that they would participate no matter what, even if they only had half a day off….

—Ah. You're going in right away? Hmm.

Agent Choi, however, seemed to have another commitment.

My guess was that it had something to do with several agents falling completely asleep during the Segwang Technical High School incident.

'He probably has to visit people on leave like Agent Haegum...'

In any case, his intentions were clear.

—Jaekwang will go. Understood? Take good care of him, Jaekwang.

—Pardon?

Thus, the members present are as follows.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon.

Assistant Manager Eun Haje.

Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae.

Supervisor Baek Saheon.

Agent Bronze.

And me.

'Six people.'

Exactly the same number as when we had first entered Segwang Special City.

In any case, before waiting for the train, we planned to enter Hanbit Library briefly and check the condition of Segwang Technical High School.

However—

"It's gone."

A normal subway station continued where Hanbit Library had once stood.

Dark. Without a single source of light. 

"......."

"What is this now? Why would it..."

Closed

-Undergoing Section Reorganization-

Section reorganization.

'Could it be…'

Has Segwang Technical High School become a private section and entered a period of reorganization?

I instinctively turned toward Agent Bronze. The agent nodded. 

"...It appears that the library suspended operations, causing the original station structure to reveal itself."

"Hmm."

"Then shall we check it out first?"

Everyone agreed. 

So we illuminated the area ahead with our flashlights. 

"......."

"It's really a subway station." 

There were no strange structures or bizarre objects.

It was genuinely just a dark subway station. Tile-covered walls, thick support pillars, gray floors, safety signs, and ticket gates.

"...Well, there aren't any obvious danger signs."

Baek Saheon muttered as he lifted his blindfold.

"This almost feels... like a darkness that's already been completed."

Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae was right.

Even under the flashlight beams, there wasn't the slightest hint of anything supernatural. And the station was incredibly quiet. 

"...Then let's proceed slowly."

"Yes."

Without making a sound, we slowly entered.

Drip.

The sound of water falling echoed from somewhere.

[My, my. It appears to be damp. The person responsible for maintaining this place clearly neglected their duties.]

Or perhaps... they were no longer capable of maintaining it. 

The deeper we ventured into the station, the more we realized—

“......!"

It was in ruin. 

'It's been abandoned for years.'

Rust and black mold covered the floors and corners. Tiles and mirrors along the walls were cracked or shattered.

And there was trash.

Evidence that people had lived here for some time. Cans, blankets, plastic bages, used tissues…

"...Did refugees stay here?"

"...I believe so."

The station was brutally realistic. 

It was as though the supernatural aspects had vanished, revealing the abandoned remains left behind after a disaster.

'...Will the other stations look like this too if the ghost stories occupying them ever end?'

I couldn't be certain. Hanbit Library wasn't even finished yet. It was merely closed. 

Still, simply seeing Segwang Special City stripped of its ghost stories felt strange.

And then…

"Look over there."

We examined the nearest Exit 1.

The shutter had been pulled down. 

And that shutter...

"...Hmm."

Was covered in dried blood, filth, debris, and heavy objects. Evidence that people had desperately barricaded it.

'I saw signs like this at Segwang Station too.'

On the station across the tracks.

"It looks like we could get outside if we cleared it..."

"Don't." 

"Yessir. Team Leader." 

So we continued searching the station.

The convenience store had already been completely looted. Several fresh food items left behind had rotted and emitted a foul odor. 

Display pieces meant to beautify the station had become black with dust.

Every machine had long since gone dark. There were no insects. No rats. Only a heavy, lifeless space. 

"......."

"Over there. Exit 4." 

Only one thing felt out of place.

Segwang Technical High School Graduation Ceremony

To Exit 4! →

The exit indicated on the sign hanging above the platform.

Exit 4, which originally seemed to lead to Segwang Technical High School…

"Ah."

Had been boarded shut.

As though that area alone had been isolated and protected.

"This... doesn't it look exactly like the back side of those library bookshelves?"

"...Yes."

Even more surprising was the fact that the wooden boards were covered with colorful sticky notes.

Class 1-7 fighting

We're the kind of friends who sleep first whenever we're sleepy

I usually hate classical music, but this one sounds nice. It makes me feel calm

Sleeping soundly

When I wake up, I'm going straight for tteokbokki, fried food, and sundae

Notes that appeared to have been left by students.

Their playful messages resembled yearbook comments or notes written on memory boards.

Agent Bronze's eyes stopped on a single neat memo.

Thank goodness everyone is safe

"...This is Agent Gomyung's handwriting."

"......."

It truly was fortunate.

Then my own gaze stopped on a corner of the board.

See you when you wake up

A note made from a torn sheet of A4 paper and taped into place. The handwriting was familiar.

I had seen it when borrowing a school uniform from the nurse's office.

/tl. this is so sweet T-T

"......."

"Roe Deer, should we collect the sticky notes?"

"I think it'd be better to leave them here. Just in case."

"...Alright."

Leaving behind the colorful, pristine Exit 4, we resumed our exploration.

"...Not even a single rat."

"Oh. Feels like a ghost is about to appear."

Yet we found nothing unusual. Eventually, our flashlight beams returned to the staircase leading back to the platform where we had started. 

"Last stop is over there."

The sign hanging above it read:

Station Office

The station office's reinforced glass door was locked.

Of course, our group happened to include a lizard capable of tearing off the entire door rather than merely opening the lock.

"I'll break it."

Snap.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon tore the lock's shackle cleanly in half.

And the moment the station office door finally opened…

"...!"

Assistant Manager Eun Haje immediately recoiled and whispered,

"There's a person inside."

More precisely—

It was a human corpse.

Inside the dark station office.

The body of a station employee sat frozen at a desk.

My entire body nearly jumped.

[The glass covering the desk is completely drenched in blood. It seems whoever made this mess had no intention of cleaning it up!]

Ha. 

'This is driving me insane...'

Suppressing the shiver crawling up my spine, I entered the station office and approached the corpse.

'Why is there only a dead body here?'

The station office was cleaner and more intact than the outside, which only made the corpse seem even more grotesque.

...Illuminated by the flashlight, the body lying face down was completely covered in dried blood stains. It looked as though an enormous amount of blood had poured from the neck.

What the dead man held in his left hand was... a shard of a mirror. 

'...Did he slit his own throat?'

But why?

There was only one way to find out.

'Ha.'

Grinding my teeth, I reached out and grabbed the corpse.

"Be careful." 

Then Agent Bronze and I turned it over.

The blood-soaked corpse, unable even to close its eyes, stared up at the ceiling.

'Ugh.'

"It really does look like he slit his throat. Hmm... but something's strange. I don't understand how the lock was left completely untouched!"

"......."

He had a point.

'The people who took shelter here just happened to leave the locked station office alone?'

And this person had gone through the trouble of locking it before slitting his own throat.

'Something's off.'

And in this world, things that were off were usually connected to ghost stories.

"......."

I looked at the corpse's blood-covered upper body, especially the neck that had been cut with the mirror shard.

'...There might be something beneath the blood.'

God, seriously.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the corpse had not rotted. It had nearly mummified instead, so there were no maggots crawling over it.

And then... 

“...!"

There was something there. 

'A line.'

A single line emerged from beneath an area untouched by blood.

This was...

'A string?'

"Are you trying to examine the wound?"

"No, there's something there. ...Looks like a string."

"One moment."

Agent Bronze muttered something under his breath, seemingly taking precautions against any possible "corruption," then grasped the line near the wound on the neck.

Dried flakes of blood crumbled away, and something slid down along the string.

Something hanging from the chest.

Identification Card

Name: ■■■

Segwang Transportation Corporation

"...!"

It was a station employee ID.

The name in the center was stuck beneath dried blood and impossible to read clearly, but there was no doubt.

'This might be useful.'

Employee IDs were usually access passes. 

We would continue moving through the station, and a station employee's ID would likely function like a key.

"...I'll remove it."

"Yes."

Carefully, I reached out and pulled the ID card from the corpse's body.

As I did so, dried blood stuck to the card fell into the air with a soft tap…

Identification Card

Name: ■■un

Segwang Transportation Corporation

"......."

Wait.

I lifted the card and scraped at the name section. With tissue covering it, dark-red flakes of dried blood showered down.

And a single undamaged character of the name was revealed.

Identification Card

Name: ■Heoun

Segwang Transportation Corporation

…...The name of my colleague.

And…

The name of an employee from the Cheerful Research Institute.

"...!!"

Wait a second.

[Oh, what an unexpected reunion!] 

"Agent Grapes?" 

"Please give me a moment."

I searched through the desk where the corpse had been lying. It looked like an ordinary office inside a station, and the office supplies and documents scattered around all seemed like things one would normally find in a subway station.

But there was one thing.

"......."

"A map?"

It was a picture placed beneath the glass covering the desk. A three-dimensional layout showing the entire station.

At one location on the layout was a red stamp-like mark.

The head of a rabbit doll.

A toy.

'...Cheerful Research Institute.'

I raised my head.

"I think I recognize this mark."

"An escape hint?"

"...Maybe."

Then I checked the location marked on the layout.

"Hmm... it's on the platform opposite the one where we woke up."

Hoo.

"It could be dangerous, so I'll go alone first—"

"Stop talking nonsense and lead the way."

"......."

Yes, sir.

After taking one more look around the station office, I finally left with the others.

Still holding the ID card in my hand.

But then...

"Wait."

"Yes?"

Just before leaving the station office, I grabbed Baek Saheon's shoulder.

"What did you take?"

"...!"

While everyone else had crowded around the corpse, Baek Saheon had gone by himself to the sofa in the corner of the office. And... 

"There's something in your pocket."

"......Why? You took the ID card too."

"Yeah. And then I showed it to everyone."

"......."

"What did you take?"

Baek Saheon's eyes darted around before he pulled something from his pocket.

A round pouch.

It was a cat-shaped wallet.

"...It was in the lost-and-found box."

Ah.

If you lost a cat wallet, please come to the station office.

The lost-item notice posted on the platform wall.

This bastard had remembered it and immediately gone looking for it the moment he saw the station office.

'No.'

Then at least share that information.

'What if carrying it causes some kind of paranormal phenomenon? We'd need to be prepared.'

Though, of course, he probably kept quiet because he didn't want anyone else taking it.

I stared at Baek Saheon with a look of disbelief. Then, for some reason, he shrank back. 

'.......?'

No matter how I looked at it, that was the reaction of someone expecting to get punched.

'Ah.'

Right. He had seen me perform physical exorcism before.

Hmm.

"You're free to take things. But if it turns out like the casino incident……"

"......."

"I'll be very sad. Very, very sad. You understand, right?"

Pat, pat.

I stepped closer and patted his back.

"From now on, don't hide things you pick up."

"......."

Baek Saheon nodded.

"Agent Grapes. He isn't the type to listen just because you say that

"No, it's fine. Goat will understand too. We're colleagues."

I smiled.

"Right, Goat?"

"...Right!"

Baek Saheon forced a smile.

Thank you, reptilian aliens...

'To think communication with him could go so smoothly.'

Now I could pressure people while speaking kindly.

"Thank you."

"? Yes."

After thanking Section Chief Lee Jaheon, I left the station office once more.

...The tension that had been surging through me seemed to ease a little thanks to that.

"Let's go."

We crossed the gloomy abandoned station again.

Heading toward the opposite platform.

As soon as we descended to the platform, bright station lights illuminated the tracks and passageways with a cold glow, as though the station were operating normally again.

And across the tracks, I could see the platform where we had first awakened.

"...The feeling is similar."

"Ah, but I guess trains don't come to this side."

She was right.

Unlike the opposite platform, where they occasionally heard trains arriving, this side was wrapped in an unnatural silence.

'Back at Segwang Station, the area above the stairs had completely collapsed.'

...I had a bad feeling about this.

With the uneasy sensation that we had entered a place we were never supposed to come, we continued walking.

Searching for the location marked on the map.

And soon, we arrived.

■■■

A steel door with the nameplate erased.

"...It looks like a communications room or machine room for the subway station."

"Oh, right. I think I've seen doors like this open on platforms before, with workers going in and out."

Then this should work.

I pressed the station employee ID we had found against the keypad beside the steel door. Then... 

Beep.

The lock disengaged.

"......."

Carefully, I grasped the handle and opened the door. 

The smell of burning assaulted my nose.

"......!!"

"What the hell?"

The blackened interior came into view.

Beyond the steel door was almost immediately a wall.

But if you stepped inside and looked to the side…

"...A hallway?"

That's right.

The walls had been completely burned, black water pooled across the floor, and offices lined both sides. Their nameplates were hidden beneath layers of soot.

"What is this place?"

But the layout was incredibly familiar to me.

'...The Cheerful Research Institute.'

The Cheerful Research Institute projected by the ghost story in Daydream Inc.'s underground annex.

A chill ran down my spine. 

'It was here...!'

The subway station beneath Segwang Special City.

The Cheerful Research Institute had originally been here.

 

Previous chapter

Next chapter