Sewang Special City Ghost Story.
A city that the Disaster Management Bureau had designated as an Extermination-Level Supernatural Disaster—an unprecedented case where an entire special city was erased from people’s memories and sealed off so no one could ever recognize it again.
And yet, I had opened my eyes right in the middle of Sewang Special City—at Sewang Station, no less.
In human form.
“......”
What the hell is this?
Sitting blankly on the dark platform floor, I instinctively reached for a conversational partner.
The one being who could hold casual conversation even in the midst of madness.
‘...Brown?’
......
......
No response.
‘No.’
The dread and unease I had forced down began to creep through my mind again.
If even that Brown couldn’t follow me here... then just what kind of state am I in right now—
Oh, my friend is calling for me!
“...Hah.”
I almost collapsed where I sat.
Thank God. Really.
My, Roe Deer. Looks like the sudden change of environment startled you quite a bit. Well, let me make it clear, even Brown found this case somewhat perplexing. Traveling through a well, of all things! How... folkloric, shall we say.
Still sharp-tongued as ever...
But oh, congratulations.
...Huh?
Not exactly a fine piece of shapeshifting art, but isn’t this the very appearance you wished for!
That’s... true.
‘I’ve returned to my human form.’
But I don’t know why.
Why?
‘Was entering Sewang Special City the trigger?’
It still didn’t feel real, leaving me dazed—but the deep relief I felt when I saw my reflection in the glass and touched my bare hands was undeniable.
‘My outfit... is a suit.’
A familiar office uniform. Swallowing, I ran my hands across my face a few more times, steadying my heart.
It was me.
...The familiar me.
A surge of raw emotion welled up in my chest.
I took a deep breath and forced it back down.
It was at that moment, just as I tried to rise to my feet—
Thump.
“...!”
My arm was grabbed.
Turning my head, I saw one of the people lying unconscious on the floor had reflexively reached out at my movement.
And then their eyes opened.
“......”
“......”
“...Podo?”
“Agent.”
Choi Agent’s eyes widened.
He hurriedly pushed himself up and grabbed my shoulders, turning me back and forth.
‘Ugh.’
As if checking for deformities, checking if anything was wrong. He even tried to raise his Goblin Lantern—but froze when he realized it wasn’t in his hand.
‘Left it in the well.’
But he didn’t stop there. He pulled out his contamination-detecting divining rod, desperate to determine my condition.
Feeling a little uneasy, I asked,
“Do I look fine?”
“......”
Choi Agent gripped my shoulders tightly.
“You’re fine, Podo...”
“......”
I held my breath.
“Wait—did that well have some kind of restorative function? No... hah.”
His face twisted with confusion, suspicion, and joy all at once.
The sight of a teammate—who had been revealed as a spy—being restored, and Choi rejoicing in it as though it were his own blessing, filled me with both gratitude and guilt. But that didn’t last long.
The situation itself didn’t allow it.
“So where the hell are we?”
“......”
“Looks like we’ve been sent to another city... a subway, maybe? Let’s see....”
Sewang Transit Authority
Sewang Station
“......”
The faint smile Choi Agent had worn to feign composure vanished from his face.
Sewang.
“Ever heard of it?”
“No.”
Neither the city nor the station name existed in daily life.
Which meant he realized it too, naturally.
We were inside a supernatural phenomenon.
“Podo, wake the others. Now.”
Choi Agent and I immediately crouched down and began rousing the unconscious.
Cheongdong Agent, who nearly slapped his own cheek when he saw me until I hastily stopped him.
Deputy Lee Seonghae, who woke up with a serene, almost unsettling smile.
And last...
Deputy Eunhaje.
“...He was supposed to be locked in.”
I heard Choi mutter under his breath.
‘Had the Deputy been confined in a makeshift glass cell?’
If that confinement had been undone by our relocation here, this was serious indeed.
I moved to wake him myself.
“Wait... Roe Deer?”
“Deputy.”
I quickly leaned in as Eunhaje rose.
“Are you connected to Director Ho right now?”
“...Hold on.”
Sensing the grave mood, he checked the orb in his hand.
And his eyes sharpened.
“No. Doesn’t work.”
“......”
That didn’t feel good—
No. Actually, it was better.
I’d have an excuse to blur the source of my information.
“Everyone.”
Looking around at the awakened, I spoke quickly.
“I believe this is the place Director Ho Yuwon was searching for.”
“......”
“...What?”
I pointed at the sign: Sewang Station.
“This entire city, Sewang Special City, is the Extermination-Level Disaster he sought.”
“...!!”
Deputy Lee Seonghae raised his hand.
“In Baekilmong terms, does that make it Abyss-Level?”
“The classification system’s different, but it could be.”
“Oooh.”
But only Lee Seonghae was impressed. The others’ faces were grim.
Only Deputy Eunhaje, perhaps already partially aware through his work on Ho’s project, calmly scanned the surroundings with narrowed eyes.
“Roe Deer. Then could your return to human form also be due to this Darkness’s influence?”
“...Possibly.”
“Hmm. I think that’s likely. Look at this.”
“......!”
Eunhaje raised his hand.
The hand that had vanished in Hangman... was whole again.
“Deputy, your hand...”
“Yes. It’s back.”
He gave a wry smile and waved, though he didn’t look very pleased.
“There’s clearly some condition at work here, but... tch. It feels too good. Is this really the highest grade of Darkness? If so, shouldn’t it be an unendurable cesspit no human could withstand?”
That was...
“All I know is that some horrific incident struck Sewang Special City, causing the entire city to be sealed. The Disaster Management Bureau erased its very existence....”
“Wait.”
Both agents’ faces stiffened.
“The Bureau did what?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed and forced my voice to stay calm as I laid out what I knew.
“As I heard it, the situation grew so uncontrollable that they ultimately imposed a kind of binding curse. So no one could recognize Sewang Special City at all.”
“Oooh... that’s even possible?”
“......”
Cheongdong Agent’s mouth opened.
“It is possible, technically.”
“Phew.”
Choi Agent gripped his head. Clearly the two of them were already narrowing it down to one of several specific ‘rituals’ that could achieve such a thing.
“As far as I know, there are no records of it ever being done. Of course...”
“Right. If they really did it, they would’ve wiped the agents’ memories afterward. Anyway, Roe Deer. Keep explaining.”
“...Yes.”
Cheongdong opened his mouth again, but Choi quickly silenced him.
I continued.
“And the reason our environment seems better than expected, even in such a terrifying situation, may be because we’re in a subway station.”
I pointed toward the platform’s glass screen door, the same one where I had seen my reflection earlier.
“...Would you look at that?”
Beyond the darkness.
A subway layout where two platforms face each other across the tracks.
From here, you could see the tracks of our line, the tracks of the opposite line, and the facing platform beyond.
And that place—
“It’s all collapsed.”
Shattered, exposing twisted steel beams. From the broken stairway, concrete poured down in rubble.
The contrast with this intact platform was jarring.
And on the glass screen doors of that ruined platform—
Help us
SOS
Please
Mom, I love you
They were covered in countless words.
Messages of rescue and dying confessions, scrawled in blood, dust, and filth.
Scrawled from the other side, the letters appeared backward.
“...!!”
The sheer weight of catastrophe that had engulfed this city froze my body.
‘Hah.’
And I remembered.
The document describing the process by which Sewang Special City was sealed as an Extermination-Level Disaster.
Day one.
“Most residents fled into the subway stations, but with the entrances collapsed, they were all trapped inside. Horrors are occurring outside, but the precise situation at the site cannot be confirmed.”
“They said, ‘If it’s the subway, we can probably last a few more days,’ so search operations should begin immediately!”
—Report from an on-site agent (Dismissed)
“...One of the last places that sent out rescue signals from Sewang was the subway stations.”
Meaning the subway had a higher chance of being relatively safe.
It wasn’t clear if this was specifically Sewang Station—but still, better than suddenly being dropped into the heart of an Extermination-Level disaster with nothing.
‘Not that it makes much difference....’
Phew.
Recalling the wiki left my mouth dry. Hunger and thirst seemed to hit me again.
“So in other words...”
Wait.
“Agent?”
“Okay.”
Choi Agent, who had been sighing, was suddenly at the platform doors, calmly trying to force them open.
“Agent?”
“Just a quick look around.”
“Oh, should we check the other side?”
“Hold it, just wait a moment.”
Both of you, please!
“As I said—this entire city has been annihilated and sealed as an Extermination-Level Disaster!”
I rushed forward to block them.
“People clearly fled down here, but heading into the half-collapsed side might be dangerous. It could be connected to the outside.”
Most likely, Choi and Lee Seonghae’s idea was this:
‘If we’ve got no intel, we at least need to do something.’
But....
“And if it comes to that... I’ll go. I know this place better than anyone—”
“Podo.”
Choi Agent reached out his hand. And then—
Smack.
He flicked his finger against my forehead.
“...!”
Ow!
“Podo, do I look like some kind of suicidal thrill-seeker to you? Of course I was only going to check carefully and come straight back.”
Though Choi Agent was smiling, he looked thoroughly pissed off....
But as he drew in a breath, it all resolved back into relief.
“You’re the one who shouldn’t be making rash moves here. Please. Seriously.”
“......”
“And you too, Jaegang!”
“Honestly, compared to me or Cheongdong Agent, you’re the one who acts more rashly, sir—”
“Ahem.”
“—Ack.”
I dodged Choi Agent’s flick just in time and hurriedly backed away.
I shot Cheongdong Agent a look of sympathy, but he only gave me a face full of unspoken complaints.
“......”
“Once we’ve moved somewhere safe, I’d like to have a talk.”
Spare me.
Suppressing a sigh, I rubbed my forehead.
...Been a while since I felt that sting.
“Well, since everyone here’s experienced, let’s move together and check our conditions as we go.”
“Yes, yes.”
And so we decided to take stock of everything in this relatively “safe-feeling” platform before heading up the stairs.
While everyone was checking their bodies—
“Sir!”
It was Deputy Lee Seonghae who spoke up.
But...
“Sir?”
“Ah—should I call you Deputy Roe Deer instead?”
“No. Just Roe Deer is fine.”
“Then don’t call me Deputy either, just call me Dolphin, Roe Deer-nim!”
With a bright grin, Deputy Lee Seonghae pulled a few things from his coat: small glow-in-the-dark star stickers, a tube of effervescent vitamins, and what looked like a tail comb. He checked them one by one.
“Mm. A few of my gear and items aren’t working.”
“Same here. Seems like any item that draws power from elsewhere is dead.”
“Ooh, nice deduction, Deputy!”
Everyone was checking their gear like pros.
And then—
“Roe Deer-nim, do you have any items?”
“......”
...No.
I’m broke.
‘My items....’
I’d handed them all over to Section Chief Lee Jahaeon to liquidate, so what I had left was—
Oh,butyouhave∗mymerchandise∗,myfriend!Oh, but you have *my merchandise*, my friend!
...Right.
‘I’ve still got this.’
Not the real “good buddy,” just a knockoff. Damn it.
Justtuckmeintoyourbreastpocket.Ah,perfect.Just tuck me into your breast pocket. Ah, perfect.
I carefully took out the rabbit doll and slipped it into my suit’s front pocket, as Brown requested.
For some reason, Deputy Lee Seonghae gave me a big thumbs-up. Uh. Thanks...
‘I wonder how Section Chief Lee Jahaeon is doing.’
Come to think of it—since I was back in human form, maybe I could access the VIP Personal Shopping in the interstellar mall again.
I had the “VIP Cell” mounted under my tongue, after all.
‘Unless that too counts as power borrowed from elsewhere, in which case it won’t work....’
Anyway, in the middle of an Extermination-Level Disaster with a barehanded five-man party, that was out of the question. Pass for now.
Suppressing another sigh, I started patting my pockets like the others out of sheer habit—
‘...Huh?’
I had my smartphone.
“...!!”
I quickly pulled it out: a black rectangle with a griptok attached.
The very same one I’d carried back when I worked at Baekilmong.
‘What the hell?’
In a rush, I powered it on. To my shock, it lit up.
No signal, no Wi-Fi. But—
The most important thing appeared.
Darkness Exploration Records
The wiki page was still accessible. Just like before.
“......”
“Oh, my phone doesn’t get reception either!”
“...Yes. Same here.”
Nearly had a heart attack.
I answered Deputy Lee Seonghae as casually as I could, thumb hovering to switch off the screen—when it struck me.
‘He can’t see it?’
“Could you... read this page for me?”
After a moment of hesitation, I held the phone out, showing only the word Darkness Exploration Records.
But he tilted his head.
“There’s nothing there? Ah—if you want my impression, it looks a bit plain for a home screen!”
“...Thank you.”
He couldn’t see it.
‘So only I can read it.’
My heart was pounding so hard it hurt my ears.
‘I don’t know why—but this’ll make checking things a lot easier.’
Forcing calm, I pretended to inspect the phone further.
And then I noticed something else.
The griptok.
‘The crack is gone.’
Finally restored?
And the X-mark that used to sit in the center—was no longer gold. It was now finished in red.
“...?”
What did that mean?
And where had this griptok-mounted phone been all this time—
Youreallydon’tknow,RoeDeer?You really don’t know, Roe Deer?
[Let’s try a little deduction. A place unknown to you, and yet always with you....]
“......”
Ah.
‘No way.’
A chilling guess pieced itself together in my mind.
Inside my body.
...The griptok had been fused into my melted form, stuck with me inside the uniform. I had been merged with it all along....
‘If so...’
Then that bizarre editing function I’d been able to use—
‘...Did it originate here?’
My head throbbed with the shock, fear that my body might melt again, and the effort of remembering what state I’d even been in before—
Bzzzzzt.
“...!”
The phone vibrated.
I snapped out of my thoughts and reflexively looked.
A new entry notification.
Newly Registered Page
(1) Sewang Subway Map
The Darkness Exploration Records wiki had updated.
Familiar, yes. But—
‘Impossible.’
The wiki was built from my memory. This couldn’t happen.
Dazed, I tapped it.
Sewang Subway Map
“......”
A strange feeling came over me.
‘Is this the new function of the restored griptok?’
Over those six months as a melted SDRA staffer—what exactly had this griptok been completed into?
“Is everyone done checking? Let’s move.”
“Yes, sir!”
I left the blank page as it was and began moving with the others.
‘Stay cautious.’
Being human again was wonderful—but the loss of the abilities I’d wielded before still stung. That, too, was human nature....
The five of us, veterans all, made no noise and no sudden moves. We advanced slowly, securing visibility as we climbed the platform stairs.
Thump. Thump.
Only the measured vibrations of our footsteps echoed.
And as we reached the top of the stairwell—
A forest spread out before us.
“...!!”
A vast, mist-laden forest, shrouded in gloom.
The subway’s structures—hydrants, tactile paving, escalators, signboards, mirrors, and lit ceilings—remained in place, but they were strangely enormous, repeating like a labyrinth.
Between them, trees, earth, and fog had filled every gap.
So dark, so foggy—visibility was almost zero.
“......”
“...Wait.”
Choi Agent sniffed lightly at the mist, frowning.
“No toxins, it seems. But cover your breathing anyway. If anything feels off, we fall back to the platform immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Best to check the information boards first. Supernatural Disasters with domains tend to have structured rules, like ghost stories.”
“Good. Who wants to volunteer as the vanguard? ...Ah, everyone’s so eager. You’re all recruit material, seriously.”
With this many veterans loaded with defensive gear, that’s what happens.
So we all advanced together in search of an information board.
Stepping between the trees—
Rustle.
Dry leaves crackled beneath our feet. Somewhere, a mournful sound echoed....
And before long, we found—not a guide board, but a massive sign.
“Ah.”
It was a station name board, wrapped in vines and branches along the wall.
Similar to what we’d seen on the platform—but with a difference.
“They even display ads here.”
“Ads?”
“Yeah. You know how in real subways, they sell naming rights? Put a hospital or a company name next to the station for revenue.”
That’s right.
Usually it was just advertising.
But the inscription here read—
Sewang Transit Authority
Sewang Station (Forest of Death’s End)
“......”
“......”
Everyone sensed it instantly.
This was no normal “sponsored name.”
At that moment—
Bzzzzzt.
‘...!’
I glanced down at my phone. The wiki had updated.
Sewang Subway Map
‘Sewang Station.’
I clicked without breathing.
Sewang Station (Forest of Death’s End)
A subway station of Sewang Special City, known as the Forest of Hanging Trees.
On the Day of Disaster, an estimated seven thousand evacuees fled here, making it a central refuge.
‘The Forest of Hanging Trees...?’
The moment I read that far—
Thud. Something brushed against my head.
“......”
I raised my gaze.
I had been careful not to brush too close to the trees—but distracted by the phone, I’d leaned against something dangling.
And slowly, I realized what I’d touched, what I had thought was a branch—
A human foot.
“......”
“Podo... hold on.”
“Oh, there’s a corpse. Right above your head, Roe Deer-nim.”
It hit me.
Those alternating thin and thick “trees” weren’t trees at all.
Every thick trunk held a body hanging from its branches, skeletal and swaying.
“Every single one is a corpse.”
“They all hanged themselves.”
And I realized something else.
That being human again also meant regaining the ability to feel terror.
That I was a coward again...!
‘I’m screwed.’
“Shall we scout the area around us?”
“Good idea. Roe Deer—check the one above you. Oh, barefoot.”
“...Yes.”
Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!!