We found our missing party member, Deputy Lee Seonghae, at Casino Station.
We could have been glad that the pursuit had succeeded.
If only he hadn’t been working there as a one-eyed dealer in a casino ghost story.
“Dolphin....”
“Shh.”
Agent Choi gripped my shoulder hard. I shut my mouth on reflex.
“......”
“Yes, Dealer. Please show us the way~”
“Yessir!”
And then, leading the way, the dealer in Lee Seonghae’s likeness began walking ahead. We quietly followed behind.
Agent Choi whispered low.
“Instead of making a scene saying you recognize him, better to wait for the right timing and snap him out of it all at once, even briefly. Got it?”
I nodded.
The dealer led us past the decrepit entrance zone of the casino and inside.
We quietly looked around as we entered.
...If this were the Darkness Exploration Log, the scene would have been recorded just like this....
Following the dealer through the entrance zone, we came to a place that looked like it had been carved out of a subway’s maintenance sector and remodeled—three iron doors standing side by side.
The zones behind each door were revealed in order.
1. Left – The Red Door
“Slot Machine Zone!”
When the door opened, we were hit with the fast-tempo, low-quality music, worn brass ornaments, and a square hall filled with endless rows of slot machines.
Compared to the atmosphere props out front, this place had a more systematic, obsessive air.
“Pull the lever and enjoy a simple game~ With just 1 coin you can go for the jackpot, so it’s super popular!”
Most of the slot machines were broken down already, but many shabby ones were still running, with dazed visitors pulling their levers.
If they had no hands, they used their feet. If no feet, their mouths.
One desperate person grabbed whatever came out of a winning machine and scrambled away into a corner.
And behind him, a horde of addicts chasing like mad.
The sight made my skin crawl.
“Then let me show you the next zone!”
2. Right – The Blue Door
“Dealer Zone. This is where we run various table games. Only guests holding 50 coins or more may enter~”
This space looked more like a proper casino than the slot zone.
But over half the tables were smashed or broken.
At the few intact tables, other ‘dealers’ dressed like Lee Seonghae stood still or ran games. Their number was drastically small, and hardly any visitors sat at them.
[Feels like an isolated place. Like a rundown casino at a tourist spot no one visits anymore.]
[Just look at those wretches. What a pitiful sight!]
The visitors seated in front of the dealers had no legs, or half their faces gone, or else were completely swaddled in tattered hoodies and padded coats.
“......”
“How do you like it?”
“Ah, seems like today’s a quiet day.”
“Yup~ We get way more visitors on weekends!”
It was obviously not that simple, but of course you couldn’t expect realistic conversation with the contaminated.
I smoothly shifted the topic.
“Actually, I was surprised to meet a dealer. I thought this was an unmanned facility.”
“Ah, I understand~ I heard ■■ City Royal Casino has been innovating their management policies lately, since subway ridership has been dropping.”
That was a loaded statement.
The dealer in Lee Seonghae’s face grinned and led us onward to the next room.
“There’s also a special game you can only play here!”
The last room.
3. Center – The Golden Door
A rusted iron door once painted gold, its color long peeled away.
Above it, a velvet nameplate not yet faded:
VIP ACCESS
“Only guests with 999 coins or more can enter this room~!”
As the words implied, the door was shut tight.
We had no way in.
“It’s the area I’d most recommend—here [N O V E L I G H T] you can see the true face of Royal Casino.”
“What kind of game is played inside?”
“That information is for qualified guests only!”
“How many people are inside now?”
“That information is also for qualified guests only!”
In other words, if we wanted to know anything about that VIP room, we’d need 999 coins.
“One thing I can tell you—it’s where you can win enormous amounts of coins~!”
“...I see.”
[Hm. Curious, friend?]
Of course something felt ominous, but right now, that wasn’t the important part.
“......Thank you for the explanation.”
“My pleasure, guest!”
The dealer with Lee Seonghae’s face smiled again.
I bowed slightly to return the greeting—but a single thought kept circling in my head.
A single question.
Was Deputy Lee Seonghae...
always this tall?
“Then, shall we start with entry into the Dealer Room!”
I clearly remembered Deputy Eunhaje was more than ten centimeters taller than him. But now? At a glance, this one looked even taller.
And the shoes weren’t cushioned sneakers, just plain leather shoes.
How could that be?
“Would you like to play a game?”
Back in the Dealer Room, the dealer explained brightly from across a shabby table.
“It’s a simple card game! All you have to do is guess the card I’m holding. Minimum bet 3 coins, and you can win up to 36 times your stake!”
The cards in his hand flickered skillfully.
And then I noticed something else.
“Would you like to bet?”
The one-eyed dealer’s gaze met mine.
The gaze of a one-eyed man... meeting another.
“If you wager all 35 coins you’re carrying, you could, in theory, earn VIP room access in one go.”
.......
“No thanks.”
I smiled and stepped back from the table.
“It’s our first time here. I’ll try a slot machine first, maybe look around a bit, and come back to bet later. Thanks.”
“...Yessir. Thank you!”
Only then did the dealer’s tenacious stare finally drop, and I slipped away with the others.
We returned to the entrance zone, and after confirming he wasn’t following us—beside the pawnshop—I finally spoke.
“Podo, did you see it?”
“Yes.”
She’d seen the dealer’s hands shuffling the cards.
“The ring and middle fingers were off.”
“Yeah. ...And the wrist bones connected unnaturally.”
Not to mention his height, oddly greater than Deputy Lee Seonghae’s ever was.
All of it pointed to one fact.
......
“Only the head is Deputy Dolphin.”
The dealer’s body was clumsily pieced together from mismatched parts.
The head being Lee Seonghae’s.
“He gambled away most of his body parts here, sold and repurchased them over and over.”
Or else—
“He fell into debt, and the casino stripped him of everything and reassembled him as a dealer.”
Either way, the same question remained.
So then....
“...Can we even call him salvageable?”
.......
“He must be terminated.”
“Wait,”
Agent Cheongdong cut in.
“Then he’ll wake up in reality. Just aim for the head.”
“Hold on!”
Deputy Eunhaje broke in over him.
“Civil servant, calm down. Let’s think this through. ...Can you really call someone just a head, the same person?”
“Mm~ I’d say the part with the brain is the real person. Dreams come from the head, after all.”
“No.”
Agent Choi disagreed. So did Section Chief Lee Jahaeon.
They looked at each other.
“Citizen, why do you think not?”
“Yes. In the Darkness, sometimes classification isn’t by medical diagnosis, but by symbolic or ritual standards.”
“...So, for example, the heart instead of the head could be the basis? Some cultures see the heart as the truer essence of a person?”
“Yes.”
“Phew...”
Agent Choi sighed low.
If we didn’t acknowledge “only-a-head Deputy Lee Seonghae” as still himself... and if that meant he wouldn’t wake up in reality—
His consciousness might simply die instead.
And besides.
“There’s no guarantee it works the same as at the last station—that dying here means waking immediately. Old man.”
“...Even so, leaving someone fully contaminated in an unrecognized extinction-level paranormal disaster is less humane.”
“Cheongdong.”
Agent Choi’s low voice came out like a warning.
“I told you not to recite the Bureau manual like it was your own thoughts.”
“......”
“Our junior’s a bit stiff, but he didn’t mean ill, citizens.”
“I know. What the old man said was an overgeneralization, but not exactly wrong.”
Deputy Eunhaje softened the tension.
“Anyway, didn’t we bring euthanasia doses exactly because we expected we’d have to die to get out?”
That was true.
I figured the gimmicks wouldn’t change too much...
And besides.
“I think so too. ...Since I still look human, this must be a dream entry, not physical reality.”
“...Roe Deer.”
“So if there’s really no other way, then yes—we’ll do what Agent Cheongdong says. But first, let’s try to find another way.”
“......”
Cheongdong nodded heavily. The others seemed to reach consensus too.
Objective 1: Gather as much information as possible from the Midnight Station Body Casino.
That became our first goal.
Though not everyone agreed.
Baek Saheon’s face, with its look of not my problem, said it all.
He had no particular bond with Deputy Lee, and the reward came from Ho Yuwon, so rescue wasn’t his goal anyway.
He’s more interested in the spoils.
And Ho Yuwon, oddly enough, had been lenient this time:
—For now, I’d like you to collect information on the external Se-gwang Special City.
Instead of rushing out blind, exploring the station properly might yield relevant intel.
And even if not, a casino was the perfect place to get items.
So yeah—his mind’s on the spoils.
Agent Cheongdong noticed too, giving Baek Saheon a look of contempt from behind his mask.
But that wasn’t the right way to handle him.
I put a hand on Baek Saheon’s shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes?”
He flinched (thankfully), but this time wasn’t whip—it was carrot.
I spoke as gently as I could.
“Since this is a casino, wouldn’t the dealer know the mechanisms and prizes best?”
“...So?”
“So if we rescue him and bring him out, he might give us valuable info.”
“......”
From the look on his face, Baek Saheon had already gathered intel on Lee Seonghae’s character—he knew the man wasn’t the type to take help and then ditch you.
“Think about it.”
I let him go.
That should be enough to keep him from interfering in here.
So the group split up.
Deputy Eunhaje went to observe the other visitors, Section Chief Lee and Baek Saheon headed to the slots, and the agents each inspected the pawnshop and prize counters.
And I....
“Welcome back!”
Entered the Dealer Room again.
—Deputy, could you lend me 20 coins? Just briefly. I don’t plan to spend them, just need to get into the Dealer Room.
—Okay. I’ll head there soon too, so come meet me.
Taking the “blood-like” coins cautiously from Deputy Eunhaje, I reached the 50-coin threshold to qualify for games with the dealer.
“Yes. Good to see you again.”
I sat across the table.
The dealer in Lee Seonghae’s face beamed.
“Will you be betting?”
“...Yes.”
“Understood!”
With joy on his face, he began sorting the cards again.
“Just a reminder! If you’re caught cheating, there will be penalties.”
“Of course. I’ll be careful.”
I watched his every move closely, then spoke as if in passing.
“Have you ever worked anywhere else?”
“...Excuse me?”
“I think I saw you at a resort once.”
The cards in his hand froze for just a beat.
And then—
“Ah, yes, I did work briefly at the Flower Golden Resort. Such a wonderful place!”
“...I see. That’s nice.”
“Thank you~”
So he remembered that much at least.
I resolved to push further with personal questions, something that might revive his memory, while also finding out what he’d been through. I decided to play.
At that moment—
“Well then, let’s begin... oh!”
Another person sat at the table.
Who?
Had Deputy Eunhaje joined us, saying we were together? I turned my head—
“...!”
It wasn’t him.
It was a local from Se-gwang Special City, a shabby padded coat pulled all the way over his head, sitting down next to me.
“......”
“......”
What the hell?
Uneasy, I debated standing up. But for now, I stayed seated.
Sweat dampened my palms.
“Will you be betting?”
The figure beside me nodded silently, slowly. Three coins clinked onto the table.
Stained, worn coins.
“......”
I placed three coins down too.
By contrast, my coins gleamed faintly under the light.
“Very good! Then let’s begin!”
The dealer swept up the coins and spread the deck facedown across the table.
“Which card would you like?”
I waited.
But the man beside me didn’t pick.
The silence was suffocating.
“...This one.”
“Yes sir!”
And the moment I picked, the man tapped the card right next to mine, as if he’d been waiting.
...What’s this?
Something felt off.
“Now, just guess the suit or the number! Correct suit wins triple, correct number wins eightfold, both correct wins thirty-six times!”
He added: J, Q, K excluded, Ace counted as 1.
[Hah! Odds all tilted in the casino’s favor. How blatant!!]
Right.
But more than unfairness, the tension was strangling me as I spoke softly.
“So it’s a probability game. Higher multiplier on numbers than suits, so those must be the ‘higher grade.’ Like rare solution stock.”
“That’s a fun comparison, guest!”
So small talk was allowed. Let’s keep probing.
“Dealer, have you ever played as a guest yourself? How many coins have you staked?”
“Me?”
A flat voice answered.
“I once bet 990 coins.”
...!
But before I could say more, the game pressed on.
“Then first, let’s ask the guest who staked first. What will you bet on?”
......
“Guest?”
A single bandaged index finger rose from the other man’s hand. The rest were hidden beneath compulsive wrappings.
“Very well, you’re betting on 1!”
Whew.
Now it was my turn.
For now...
“I’ll bet on the suit. Diamonds.”
“Confirmed!”
The dealer turned to the man beside me—and I followed his gaze.
That was when I realized.
The man had turned almost completely toward me, not the dealer.
Even as the dealer spoke his bet.
“And for our number bet...”
The card flipped.
“Three of Spades.”
“......”
“Too bad, you lost!”
The man beside me didn’t so much as twitch.
And then—
“Next...”
My card flipped over.
Eight of Diamonds.
“Congratulations! You win! Here are your earnings~”
The dealer pushed nine coins across. Among them, I saw one of the man’s filthy, stained coins mixed in. I swept them into my pocket.
“......”
“Congratulations! Would you like to play again?”
A gaze bore into me.
The resident of Se-gwang Special City who had just lost coins was staring straight at me.
I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.
“......”
I quietly gathered my winnings and rose.
Avoid him.
I’d go meet Deputy Eunhaje, then come back.
“Oh, are you leaving already?”
“I’d just like to look around a bit...”
But the moment I turned—
The casino visitor was already standing in front of me.
“......”
“......”
He lifted his head.
From under the padded coat, his lower face was revealed.
And then—
“Roe Deer.”
A familiar face.
A familiar voice.
[Good heavens!]
“Why... are you here?”
Ko Yeongeun.
My fellow trainee.
Her anxious eyes were asking the very words I should have spoken.