I opened my eyes.
A dark, clean platform. But beyond the screen doors, the opposite platform was in a disastrous state.
...The scenery of Se-gwang Station.
Entry successful.
I looked down at my body—back in human form—and drew a deep breath.
This time, everyone makes it through.
And I went over our plans again.
—Ah, right: when you all wake up again, it won’t be at SDRA headquarters. You’ll open your eyes somewhere else.
—Huh?
—I pulled the passage out and rerouted it. You’ll be waking up in a very safe place....
Meaning: there wouldn’t be a sudden heap of unconscious agents and Baekilmong employees dropped into SDRA HQ anymore.
Even if the corridor was “sealed,” it was shocking that Ho Yuwon had found a way to siphon off a segment of SDRA’s exclusive passage.
...Considering his doggedness, maybe it isn’t even surprising.
In any case, since my disappearance would likely spark considerable controversy within the SDRA, I left a notice on the main hall floor—“gone for a brief stroll through a dream, due back soon”—to help shield the responsible staff.
And last of all:
An emergency escape method from Se-gwang Special City within the dream.
—Here’s the euthanasia drug you asked for, Mr. Roe Deer.
—...!
—It guarantees a peaceful death. It might be the most compassionate product Baekilmong Corporation makes.
Agent Cheongdong looked like he’d sooner bite his own tongue than swallow it, but he accepted the issue in the end.
You couldn’t ignore the risk—just like with the nooses—that you’d end up in permanent contamination, trapped in a coma with no way to escape.
It’s here.
I checked my pocket for the pill and confirmed that the items I’d prepared and brought were all intact and in place.
At the same time, I did a headcount with my eyes.
Like me, two agents in Hahoe masks were pushing themselves up from the platform floor.
...The agents had some friction about whether they’d join us inside Se-gwang City.
—For this expedition, it’d be better if you government folks sat it out. Could take who-knows-how long.
—Eyy, we burned through all our leave. Citizen.
For this expedition, they’d carved out time—at least until we rescued Deputy Lee Iseonghae.
—And... you want us to leave when there’s someone to rescue.
From the tight smile on Choi Agent and the hard-set face of Agent Cheongdong, I could feel their heavy sense of responsibility.
But the whole Black Tortoise 1 Team couldn’t keep vanishing on multi-day expeditions, so if there was a “next time,” pulling time like this would be hard.
Anyway, the point was: this time, they were coming.
“Up we go. Podo, you okay?”
“Yes. In one piece.”
Blue light gleamed under the Hahoe mask’s eye slits as he looked at me—then gave the slightest nod.
Next in the lineup....
“Everyone awake?”
“Yes.”
Men in animal masks, wearing suits.
The current and former Baekilmong field expedition teams.
Section Chief Lee Jahaeon.
Deputy Eunhaje.
Section Chief Baek Saheon.
And—
“Section Chief Roe Deer.”
Deputy Eunhaje grinned and thumped my back.
An older form of address that felt almost nostalgic.
Here I was: in a suit, fully human-looking.
[Oh. And of course, I’m here as well, friend.]
Headcount complete.
“Everyone has safely entered Se-gwang Special City.”
A perfect start.
“Let’s go.”
I nodded.
First—
Se-gwang Transit Authority
Se-gwang Station
The platform we stood on was cold and spotless, as if the time we’d almost been noosed here had been a lie. It was like someone had hit reset.
“Roe Deer, looks like you were right. Our customer count’s been reset.”
“Yes. Thankfully.”
Normally, once subway operations end, the system shuts down. That is, after a day passes, the date encoded on a single-use transit card expires and it can’t be used.
Naturally, that meant we wouldn’t be tracked by the bizarre nooses in the concourse.
“.......”
Only—right above those stairs—
“...Feels like the fog’s spread.”
You could see, with the naked eye, that the concourse fog was wavering on the verge of spilling down onto the platform.
...Because we were seized on the platform last time?
Compared to when we first came, it felt distinctly more menacing and ominous.
And right at the point where the stairs ended, something twitched like it was about to pop out.
The hanged.
Exactly the same forms as when we died here last time.
“.......”
“Do you think the corpses will still be there?”
“Better not check.”
“Oh, now you sound like a proper old-timer. I agree.”
Baek Saheon, listening to this grim exchange right beside us, had gone pale.
Just like when he’d tried to change his tune at the lip of the well—‘On second thought, I’ll pass’—only to be shoved in by Ho Yuwon, he seemed to have finally grasped the severity of this extinction-class disaster.
“Alright. Then let’s get ready. Section Chief Goat—eyes in order?”
“...Yes.”
He even felt for his eye patch, then answered meekly.
He did the math.
Trolling here wouldn’t help anyone survive, and the completion reward was too sweet.
Ho Yuwon had put a wish coupon on the table as a project reward for Baek Saheon, too.
...Even trotted me out as a witness to certify it.
—Those who satisfactorily completed the task last time all received their potions. Isn’t that right, Mr. Roe Deer?
—Affirmative
...Even so—and I didn’t know how he’d react to my next line—
“In that case, to enter the fog at first, three will suffice: myself, the Lizard Section Chief, and Section Chief Goat.”
“Hold on.”
“The rest of you, please give us signals without letting the fog touch you. Help us find the stairs.”
“Just a moment.”
As expected—
“In that case, the reward distribution needs to be adjusted. This won’t do. Three people do the work while the rest just signal? Looks like we need to renegotiate.”
“Ha. Feels like coming home.”
Deputy Eunhaje nodded, saying this was exactly what a field team sounds like.
Baek Saheon seemed to be gauging whether someone would step up to smooth things over by offering up a share of their items or rewards.
Since they’d rushed to recruit him, he figured he was essential.
In that sense, he was quick on the uptake.
The deputy isn’t the type to ‘calm down’ with something as sensible as “you assess escape vectors and the agents must hold back to cover the rear.”
If he were, his nickname wouldn’t be Viper—it’d be Owl.
Hmm. Maybe we’d jumped in too fast without settling the mood.
Looked like we needed this at least once.
I smiled and spoke quietly to Baek Saheon.
“Don’t like it? Someone else can do it. We’ve already got a method.”
And then, lowering my voice further, I smiled wider.
“We just pluck a left eyeball from a Type A male in his twenties.”
“......!”
“Someone else can get the transplant. Don’t worry. Even if he bleeds out and dies, he’ll wake up back in reality anyway.”
Baek Saheon reflexively pressed his eye.
“Wanna do it?”
“.......”
“Think it over. If you deliberately screw up the expedition, the project takes a loss—so we could do it that way.”
“...N-no.”
“Mm?”
“I’ll just go.”
“I worry you’ll get in a mood and feed us wrong sight info out of spite. Speak freely.”
“I won’t do that.”
“Hmm... I mean, even if you alone survived, once you’re out you’d still have to keep seeing these people’s faces. Why would you do that, right?”
“.......”
“But lying on purpose would be kind of funny.”
“No,”
“Yeah. It’d be funny.”
“It would not.”
“It would.”
“I said it wouldn’t...!”
“Alright. Then do it well.”
Pat, pat.
I tapped Baek Saheon’s shoulder.
“Wow~ what are you two chatting about so cozily for that long?”
“Ah. I offered encouragement.”
“~~!”
“He says he’ll do his best.”
“Phew, thank you. Citizen.”
Baek Saheon looked like he was swallowing a string of curses, but in the end he took off his eye patch and fixed his gaze on the fog.
Hoo, good.
Troll prevention: done.
It had been a while since I’d sweated through that routine. I almost felt nostalgic.
I averted my eyes from Choi Agent’s Hahoe mask, which somehow seemed to be grinning....
“Let’s go.”
And the reason we could proceed with certainty through all this—
“Please cover our rear, Section Chief.”
“Yes.”
—was Section Chief Lee Jahaeon.
***
I took a step deeper into the concourse fog.
Just now, I’d gone to the information board, copied down all the rules, and memorized them.
And, just like when heading for the board, I pierced the fog with the sun-catcher the agents had given me; this time, I faintly located the “Transit Card Recharge & Vending Machine” and set our heading.
“That way.”
Up to here, it was similar to last time, but—
Our approach was different.
We could choose the safest path.
“Follow the path Section Chief Goat takes exactly, Section Chief.”
“Yes.”
Using his vision, Baek Saheon was picking a route with the least “danger.”
And we weren’t going to use the evil-warding pollack this time.
Hard to procure, for one.
And with the escape method we were trying this time, we didn’t need it.
Instead, to follow the rule “Do not get separated from your party,” we used two items.
Nothing fancy—just things to keep us from drifting out of each other’s radius.
Cuffs Without Chains
The invisible chain of the cuffs prevents you from leaving each other’s radius.
Born from Baekilmong’s Friendly Seed Kit, this item was in Deputy Eunhaje’s possession.
And as we walked—
“We’re here.”
I reached the single-use transit card vending machine and pulled cards.
Seven in total.
“There are six of us, so why....”
“Shh.”
I pocketed all the cards. And from here—
It was critical.
“.......”
Carefully checking the turnstiles, I slipped back toward the entrance.
Alone.
And then—
Beep.
Beep.
Beep-beep....
Of the cards in my hand, I tagged six in sequence for entry.
And at the same time I tagged the sixth, I passed through the gate.
“...Done.”
I put five of them into the same pocket. Then, without running, I moved at a brisk, urgent pace.
Deeper into the thickening fog.
...As the sound of a news broadcast began somewhere.
—Another body has been found in the ■■■ Forest of Se-gwang Special City.
[Oh. It’s starting again.]
Cold sweat ran by reflex.
I rang my bell and forced myself onward, fighting not to be lured by the news. Beside me, from Baek Saheon—guiding our direction—I could hear the grit in his teeth.
“What is this, this....”
To eyes that sense danger, it would look like a minefield.
And heading straight for us.
To be exact—
—You want to give up too, don’t you?
—straight for me.
“.......”
Baek Saheon was desperately steering us toward the least-awful directions.
And once we were far enough from the turnstiles, our pace shifted to a run.
“Hff.”
As I ran, stiff and soft things thumped against the top of my head. Feet of corpses. Not far now. To keep from panicking, I thought:
We did everything right.
We just had to be fast.
This was a place where the more people you had, the harder it was to respond. The key was moving as a small group, always keeping track of one another, never separating.
That’s why three is optimal.
One to secure vision.
One to lead movement.
And—
One to physically destroy.
—You want to give up too—
He’s here....
“Duck.”
Section Chief Lee reached out a hand.
The noose dropping over my head was caught in his grip. Veins stood in his forearm with the taut strain, and then the tough rope shredded apart strand by strand.
In his hand—moving without hesitation—was the noose that had been about to snatch my neck, now ripped and ruined.
Correction:
Not one.
Whip—
In the fog, he began to annihilate every noose and corpse falling toward my head—by force—without pause.
It was staggering physical might.
“We’ll move faster!”
“Yes.”
Even while sprinting, Section Chief Lee crushed whatever his hands touched—corpses, trees, nooses—without discrimination.
A mad feat that completely ignored the rules.
Insane.
So this is the power of a physical specialist.
It was like a horror story had turned into pulp action—so overwhelming I felt a burst of catharsis that erased my fear for a moment.
The thrill of a recruitment done right lasted only that moment.
Swish.
[Good heavens, that one was rather close!]
On our run to the stairs, I nearly got noosed three times, and each time Section Chief Lee scraped me free by a hair.
Hah—
And at last—
I saw the stairs.
The blade of a guillotine glimmering blue in the fog.
We’re there.
Just before setting foot on it—
......
I stopped.
“Are you crazy? Move—”
“Unlock the cuffs and go down.”
Without asking twice, Baek Saheon released the link on the cuffs and ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) sprinted down the stairs.
But—
The fog did not follow Baek Saheon.
As I thought.
Last time the fog had chased us down onto the platform because we’d been adjudicated as passengers and recognized as such.
Which, conversely, means—
Only those adjudicated as passengers must not go down to the platform. Just hold until the train comes.
In other words, I alone would endure with all the cards on me.
Put simply: I would hold all the nooses’ aggro.
Of course, as is, I was ripe for death.
No matter how much Section Chief Lee blocked for me, he’d be violating countless usage rules in the process and become a target of the nooses himself. As time passed, limits would close in, risk would spike exponentially—
“Good work, Podo.”
From here, the rest joined in.
From the stairway where the fog didn’t reach, a gold warding rope spread under my feet, pushing the fog back, and perm-rod bullets began to fire.
Equipment custom-fitted for this expedition from the SDRA.
“Hold!”
I was now an “End-of-Life Forest” patron—experiencing all the phenomena—while the others stripped away as much of it as they could.
And if I just held—
The train is arriving.
“It’s coming!”
I heard the thunder of a train approaching. Teetering at the edge of the stairs, dodging nooses, I held as long as I could.
Passengers, please observe proper etiquette and board safely.
Hold.
Again.
Hold.
And—
The screen doors are opening.
“Roe Deer, now!”
I turned.
From my pocket, I pulled the five cards and tossed them down onto the platform.
“...!”
Thrown as neatly as I could manage, the cards landed near the open screen doors, on the platform floor.
“Pick them up and get in!”
Exactly.
It doesn’t matter who did the turnstile tag—if you’re holding a ticket, you’re a passenger...!
So if you delay passing out the passenger qualification to the last possible second, right as you board—
You can use the platform as safely as possible...!
“Move!”
We moved in unison.
People sprinted down the stairs, grabbed cards from the floor, and dove into the train.
I started a step later, to delay the fog’s spread as much as possible. Section Chief Lee ran beside me, yanking ropes and branches. Splinters, straw, and dried flesh flew.
“Section Chief!”
Deputy Eunhaje, who had grabbed a card off the floor, tossed it. Section Chief Lee swatted away noose shreds, caught the card, and shoved me into the train as he leapt aboard.
Finally, Choi Agent grabbed a card—
The screen doors are closing.
Section Chief Lee yanked back a noose dropping over Choi Agent’s head.
I grabbed Choi Agent’s arm and hurled him.
Into the train.
Thud.
“.......”
“.......”
“Ha.”
Sprawled on the floor of the car, Choi Agent let out a breath.
“Alive.”
[The train is departing.]
With a roar, we began to pull away from Se-gwang Station.