Chapter 346: Ch 346: Welcome back
I lie crushed beneath the collapsed concrete, listening to the voices from
outside.
I try to move my mouth, but no sound comes out.
The words just flow into my hazy, dull head....
The voices of the Sewang City Disaster Management Bureau’s Staff, riddled
with deep fatigue and bewilderment.
"For now, we’ve prevented further collapse. ...By radio, we’ll also be
focusing on rescue rather than termination from now on...."
"There are civilians in the main hall.... ...like this, so many have died...."
"What do we do, Team leader? The selection criteria...."
The voices... grow more distant....
’Ah.’
There won’t be time to rescue the person crushed here. I understood the
situation very slowly.
The sound of the agents’ footsteps moving away, leaving the pile of
collapsed concrete, spreads as vibrations through the cold steel rebar
touching my cheek....
"Agents."
Then, a familiar voice rang out.
The Counselor’s voice.
Hoarse and cracked, his voice sounded low and muffled, as if he, like me,
were trapped inside the concrete....
"There’s, an agent, in here...."
"...!!"
"He’s down here,"
A brief commotion seemed to stir among the agents, and then they sounded
like they were approaching.
"Who are you?"
"I... I’m a counselor from Saegwang High School."
"Ah!"
As if they realized his identity from those words, I heard the hurried
footsteps of them approaching. Then, the noise of them clearing away
concrete and rebar debris rings out.
With that movement, the structural fragment lodged in my back collapses
further to the side. I dully registered the pain spreading through my body....
I couldn’t move.
"Wait."
A calm voice is heard.
"...How did someone like you end up crushed under there?"
"Pardon...? I’m... just a counselor...."
"..."
A heavy silence fell. Through it, the sound of clearing debris continued,
but....
"Something’s strange, back away."
"Just a moment. If I just move this... Hup!"
"...!!"
"W-wait."
I hear the sound of a heavy piece of debris, finally lifted, being dropped,
and the sound of someone sucking in a breath.
As if they had witnessed something completely unexpected.
"His form is...."
"It must be Contamination. Get back."
The sound of footsteps, the clash of equipment, a scraping noise rings
out....
"No, cough, it’s not... Contamination."
The Counselor’s voice was no longer muffled, as if he had been exposed to
the outside.
"Don’t worry...."
But it was weak, hoarse, and sunken.
"...’Counselor.’ Are you aware of your own condition?"
"Yes. I’m... fine. But, over there, below...."
He sounded desperate.
"The agent who carried me on his back is there...."
"..."
"He has... a special ability. He’ll surely be of help.... So,"
Silence flowed.
None of the agents answered.
"...Agents?"
"What is that agent’s Code Name?"
"I... haven’t heard it yet."
"...Then what about his affiliation? You should be able to tell by looking at
his jacket."
"..."
Slowly, the reply comes.
"The jacket... is here. He gave it to me.... He’s not... wearing it."
"..."
"..."
"Isn’t this your jacket?"
"It... may look that way. But in reality... it is not...."
"..."
"..."
"I understand."
"Agent...?"
I hear the agents backing away.
The sound of them talking to each other in low voices also travels through
the collapsed concrete to my ears....
"We can’t spend any more time. ...Move out."
"But...!"
"The circumstances don’t add up. That supernatural being is already not
normal. Even if we rescue him, it’s unlikely we’ll get any help. He’s
already...."
"...S-still, even if he’s not an agent, there must be a person under there...
He’s going to die soon...!"
"Agent!"
The sound of a hand grabbing a shoulder.
"Right now, there are probably hundreds of thousands of people dying in
this city."
"..."
"And you want to spend more time for one person whose survival is
uncertain? If we make an exception to the rules, what happens to the other
civilians we couldn’t save?"
"...That,"
"Go. Before the other civilians get here!"
However.
"Those words...."
The slow voice of the Counselor is heard.
"They sound so familiar."
"..."
"I feel like... I’ve heard them before."
I held my breath.
"Pardon?"
"Don’t answer."
"So, yesterday...?"
....
"No... the day before yesterday, too, and before that, and before before that,
and before before before before that..."
"W-wait."
"Back away!"
Even amidst the growing commotion outside, even in my already dazed
mind, I heard the Counselor’s voice as if I was captivated by it.
’That’s....’
Because I realized it was frighteningly similar....
...To how I was just a short while ago.
’He’s become self-aware.’
That sensation I felt when I came to my senses within the 613th May 4th.
The Counselor was spitting it out with his own mouth.
"But the situation is different, so, right.... I burned to death."
"Get back!"
"I think I burned while holding the doorknob... Right. I burned to death. I
was burning inside that machine room, asking the agents for help. I said I
couldn’t get out because collapsed concrete was blocking the door..."
"And you all just left."
"I thought it couldn’t be helped. I held no resentment. Saving the civilians
was the priority... B-but."
"..."
"Just how many times... are you saving civilians? Why does the same thing
keep happening?"
"What is he talking about?"
"Don’t listen."
"Why does it keep... repeating... This... This is, strange, cough, huh? I’m
trapped...."
"Dammit."
Footsteps ring out urgently.
"Get back! Seal the platform. Seolhui, the Talisman!"
"That’s...."
"Seal?"
In a flash.
The atmosphere sinks into a bizarre, chilling stillness.
"Right. That was it. ...A seal."
...!
I hear him murmuring as if possessed.
"After I burned to death in there, I passed through the door and remained on
the platform. Because that’s the kind of being I am. And for four days, I was
trapped, listening to the sounds of civilians committing suicide, trying with
all my might to scan the surface, the outside. I was planning to beg anyone,
in any way, to help this city... But."
....
"They started performing a strange ritual."
My heart tightens.
"Looking closely, it was a Sacrificial Ritual. I was on pins and needles,
wondering what kind of sacrifice they were offering to stop this disaster,
what kind of sacrifice and price they were paying to save my clients, yet I
was also filled with elation, eagerly awaiting its completion...."
"The sacrifices were my clients."
"They put the countless people living in this city on the ritual altar and
offered them up. No, not just people, but every single living thing, down to
a single blade of grass on the surface, was scraped up. And, and...."
....
"May 4th started all over again."
I noticed a flash of realization piercing through my dull mind.
’Ah.’
The day repeating... wasn’t part of the Extinction-class supernatural
disaster.
’It was part of... the Sealing Ritual....’
If so, there were probably two reasons why the day was repeating....
To prevent the contagion from spreading.
And....
To continuously revive and supply the Living Sacrifices needed to maintain
the seal.
Saekwang Special City, like a self-powering facility, was offering itself as a
sacrifice every day to maintain the city’s seal....
Trapped on May 4th.
’Ah.’
A terrifying chill settles in my body.
It probably wasn’t because I had lost so much blood.
"And so,"
....
"My clients, again, everyone living in this Gwangjin...."
The Counselor’s voice echoes emptily across the platform.
...Now, the agents’ voices were gone.
It was as if they had already blocked off the collapsed platform with
talismans; the screams, noises, and voices I had been hearing since a
moment ago were all gone, as if a switch had been flipped.
It became quiet.
But.
A bizarre, boiling energy descends.
’...No.’
I struggled to lift my head.
"They will die miserably every day. I will keep watching them and burn to
death. You’ve thrown these hundreds of thousands, millions of lives as bait
instead of rescuing them. You deceived me with your lip service, with your
sweet words, and you...."
Thud.
I slammed my head.
"...!"
Thud, thud....
"Agent...."
I abruptly let my head, which had been hitting the concrete, fall.
I had no more energy to move, no strength, nothing at all....
"Wait, just a moment...."
Soon, I felt a staggering, solitary vibration.
A hand clearing the debris above me.
It was a very arduous and lengthy process.
The presence, as if barely moving something heavy, the movement, as if
about to lose its grip, continued without stopping, and then....
Whoosh.
At last, the chunk of cement that had been heavily pressing on my head
disappeared.
Light poured in, but....
I couldn’t see what was in front of me.
"..."
Was it because I had injured my head badly?
However, on top of my hazy consciousness, I felt someone moving their
hand as if to pat my head.
"It’s okay, it’s going to be okay...."
With his one remaining hand, he pats my head as if stroking the head of a
sick person.
Drip, drip. The sensation of drops of liquid, hot as blood, falling onto my
forehead echoes in my head....
"...Did you come from the outside to help me?"
I barely managed to twitch a finger.
"Thank you...."
"..."
"This city has been abandoned. I, far from protecting this place... am just a
fox being offered up as a sacrifice along with everyone else."
I hear a whisper, trembling with rage and despair.
Squelch.
There’s a sound of something collapsing.
No.
’I have to... speak as the Counselor.’
I barely lifted my arm and tapped him.
"Ah! Ah...."
"..."
"Don’t worry."
He struggles to slightly prop up my upper body and place it on his lap.
"Still, you will get out."
....
...What did he, say?
"There’s a way for someone from the outside to return. It’s okay if you can’t
move. I will push you.... by attaching a small fox to you. Just like helping
someone slip out through the back door of the counseling room."
Squelch.
"A counselor, after all, can see a client out after the session is over."
The sound of laughter.
"Of course, an ordinary counselor couldn’t do it, right? Haha...."
Squelch.
The touch of the hand on my head disappears.
The sensation of something melting, flowing down my cheek, and
disappearing onto the floor below.
Now, only a voice is heard from the empty air.
The faint voice of the Counselor.
"Before your breath is cut short and you are placed on the sacrificial altar,
before you are trapped in this May 4th... I will send you back to where you
originally were, to your workplace."
Click.
I hear the sound of a doorknob being pulled.
And immediately after, the sensation of the floor supporting my back
vanished. As if a door had opened behind it.
My body falls into it.
To the other side of the door the counselor opened.
"Goodbye."
I felt the touch of a small furry animal’s paws wrapping around my waist,
and we fell into the void together....
....
"Return in peace, my client."
That was the last thing.
* * *
’...Ah.’
I slowly regained consciousness.
The pain throughout my body was gone as if it had been a lie, but a
strangely sunken feeling was there in its place.
’So that’s... what happened.’
The new facts I had learned filled my head.
Cheerful Research Institute, the true nature of the Disaster, the Sealing
Ritual....
Ho Yuwon.
’....’
At the last moment, Ho Yuwon seemed to have almost lost his form and
collapsed.
Was it because... he tried to use some divine or Corrupt power in his
original form, not his safe identity as a ’Counselor,’ to send me out?
I thought of the touch of the small fox that might still be clinging to my
waist, but that sensation was already gone.
’...I need to get up.’
This was no time to be lost in thought.
I got out, but I didn’t know what happened to the other three... right,
Manager Lee Jaheon, the assistant manager, and the agent.
’I really hope the Manager led the other two and got out safely.’
And that we all woke up outside together.
’First, I need to hurry and open my eyes.’
Then the fake sunlight of the Fox Counseling Room pouring down would
greet me. I exhaled and looked straight ahead....
"Ah, you’ve perceived it."
....
I looked straight ahead.
I saw a concrete wall.
It was the wall of Daydream’s Underground Security Isolation Chamber.
And using that wall as a backdrop, I saw a director looking here, smiling
cheerfully.
"130666."
It’s Director Cheongdalrae.
"...!!"
What is this, what, what is this....
-I will send you back to your workplace.
Wait.
Wait a minute...!
No, no....
"You’ve finally returned. You’ve been absent for quite a while."
In a shock that felt like all the blood was draining from my body, I backed
away, no, no....
"And you’re in a very weak state. You’ve even lost your body."
The director waves her hand.
In her hand is my contract, wait.
"Hmm, it would be best to return to the form you had when we made our
contract. For work, that is."
My form is melting, no.
It’s not melting, it’s not melting! I am human! I have to, have to endure....
"You shouldn’t endure. Wouldn’t it be easier to inhabit the Security Team
suit if you return to your original form? Since you have no body, you can
just use the suit as your vessel to operate."
I don’t want to.
I don’t....
"Now."
I have to find the Security Team suit and get up, no, refuse....
"Refuse? That’s a bit different from the terms of the contract."
130666 is working on Director Ho’s Project! Since I’m working on the
project, I must prioritize the work there....
"Oh dear, there’s no place for you in that project anymore."
....
What?
"It was last year that Director Ho started selecting and operating other team
members for his project."
...Last year?
Then, just how much time has passed....
"He said that you and a few other team members were deployed on a long-
term mission and would not be operating on the project for the time
being...."
Director Cheongdalrae looks at me.
The one who readily killed hundreds of thousands, burned down the
research institute, and brought the dream incubator... a clearly dangerous,
overwhelming violence.
A being that thinks only of its own benefit.
A terrifying malice, understandable and therefore frightening, peers at me
with amusement.
"It seems there were other circumstances, weren’t there?"
....
"I can feel your fear."
A cheerful voice is heard.
"How was it? Did you find something interesting in the Special City? About
me."
...!!
"If so, you must have learned that I don’t do things that would put me at a
disadvantage. That includes matters concerning you."
....
"Now, get up. And put on the security suit."
I got up.
No, I realized I had no body.
I was... the disembodied consciousness of something that had infiltrated
Saekwang Special City as a dream and then escaped....
"I’ll have to get it out myself."
I move forward. I was heading toward the cabinet in the concrete wall
when....
I tried to shoot through the wall and into the hallway.
"Oh dear, it seems you thought you could do that without a body?"
Ah.
"The walls of a security zone also conceptually separate the class of what’s
inside from the outside. How else could we isolate a Supernatural
Phenomenon?"
....
"Unless someone lets you out, there’s no other way."
I looked back at the director.
"A clever but pitiful attempt. I’ll have to give you disciplinary action as
soon as you’re in the security suit. How about killing a child?"
Please.
...Unable to do anything, I approached the cabinet.
The hand opening the cabinet door trembles. The bizarre Security Team
employee 130666, who had exerted physical force without a body, stuck his
head inside that cabinet and....
....
I heard the sound of a bell.
-Found you.
I was pulled into the cabinet.
An immense pressure enveloped and pulled me as if yanking me upward,
and soon, it tore me from Daydream’s security zone.
An alarm blares behind me.
But in an instant, I was snatched by the scruff of my neck like prey by
something huge and transported.
Somewhere.
"Grapes-ie."
"..."
"Grapes,"
I opened my eyes.
I turned my head to look at my arm.
It’s there.
I looked at my hand.
It’s there.
It moves.
I’m in a human body....
"..."
But, just now, just now...!
"Heok, heok...!"
"It’s okay."
I gasped for breath, trying to calm myself in time with the sensation of a
hand patting my back. Breathe, breathe....
"It’s all over. You’re safe...."
I compose myself.
"..."
"Grapes-ie."
I lifted my head.
...Agent Choi.
The agent from Team Hyumoo 1, his face pale, smiles faintly and places the
Ritual Bell in his hand to the side.
Blood splattered from the bell.
A trembling voice was heard.
"Welcome back. ...It’s been 293 days."
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
I_Love_Kim_Soleum
This is probably the most gut wrenching Chapter in this whole book.