The personnel who would re-enter Se-gwang Special City were gathered with almost ridiculous ease.
— I wanna go!!
Because once the project reports were over, everyone from Baekilmong Corporation said they were ready to head back into Se-gwang Special City.
The fact that Baek Saheon was among them was the surprising part.
— You said we’d get more points.
Well, the promise of high-grade points with no actual risk of dying is indeed appealing.
— We finished all those petty project reports too. We can go with you.
— “Yes.”
Section Chief Lee Jahaeon and Deputy Eun Haje also stated it plainly.
However...
— ...Let’s leave Minseong out, until he recovers more.
— “...Yes.”
...Of course, we would be happy to see Park Minseong in a stable state in Se-gwang Special City.
But he would be afraid of returning to reality while still unable to fully reclaim his sense of self.
And Guard Captain should probably only join after we passed through the Hanbit Library section—emotionally, that would be better for him.
Lastly...
I thought:
‘The agents... probably won’t be able to join for a while, since they have duties.’
But—
— Podo, wait a second. I want to check the condition of Segwang Industrial High School.
I received a very strong insistence that they would participate even if only for half a day off.
— ...Oh. Going in immediately? Hm.
But Agent Choi seemed to have another schedule.
I assumed it was because several agents had fallen into deep sleep due to the Segwang Industrial High School incident this time.
He probably has to visit those on leave, like Agent Haegeum.
Either way, his intent was firm.
— Jaegwan will go. You got it? Take care of him, Jaegwan.
— “Huh?”
Thus, the personnel present now are:
Section Chief Lee Jahaeon.
Deputy Eun Haje.
Deputy Lee Seonghae (Dolphin Deputy).
Park Saheon (Goat junior).
Agent Cheongdong.
And me.
Six people, huh.
Exactly the same number as the very first time we entered Se-gwang Special City.
So before waiting for the train, we intended to briefly enter the Hanbit Library to check the condition of Segwang Industrial High School.
However—
“It’s gone.”
Where the Hanbit Library should have been, the subway station simply continued normally.
Pitch black, not a single light source.
“.......”
“What now. Why...”
[Closed
— Corner under reconfiguration —]
Corner reconfiguration.
No way...
Had Segwang Industrial High School become a non-public corner undergoing restructuring?
I instinctively looked toward Agent Cheongdong. They nodded.
“...It seems the library ceased operation, so the original station structure has reappeared.”
“Hm.”
“Should we go check it out?”
Everyone agreed.
So we shone our flashlights forward.
“.......”
“It’s really just station facilities.”
There were no strange structures or objects.
Truly, it was an unlit subway station. Tiled walls, thick pillars, gray floors, safety signs, ticket gates.
“...No particular danger signals either.”
Baek Saheon, lifting his blindfold, muttered bluntly:
“This feels... like the darkness has concluded.”
Indeed.
No reaction to the flashlights. The station was utterly silent.
“...Then we’ll proceed slowly.”
“Yes.”
We entered quietly, making no footsteps.
Drip.
Somewhere, water fell.
[Ah, it appears humid. Whoever maintains this place has not been tending to it.]
Or perhaps—they could no longer maintain it.
The deeper we moved, the more obvious it became.
“...!”
Ruins.
It’s been abandoned for years.
Rust and black mold along floors and corners. The tiles and mirrors on the walls were cracked or shattered.
And trash.
Signs that people had lived here for some time. Cans, blankets, plastic sheets, used tissues...
“...Refugees must have stayed here.”
“...It seems so.”
The station was brutally realistic.
As if the supernatural veneer had peeled away, revealing what remained after disaster and abandonment.
Do other stations become like this once their ghost-stories conclude?
I couldn’t be sure. The Hanbit Library wasn’t concluded—it was just closed.
Still, just seeing a piece of Se-gwang Special City in its raw, non-ghost-story state felt strange.
And then—
“Look.”
Exit 1.
The shutter was down.
And that shutter—
“...Mm.”
Was caked in dried blood, filth, and piled debris. Signs of a desperate attempt to barricade from outside.
Same traces as Se-gwang Station.
The other side of the tracks.
“We could clear it and go outside but—”
“Do not.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
We checked further.
The convenience store had long been looted, spoiled produce rotted with a foul smell.
Decor displays were black with dust.
No machines had power. No bugs. No rats. A dead, heavy space.
“.......”
“There—Exit 4.”
Only one thing felt out of place.
[Segwang Industrial High School Graduation
→ Use Exit 4]
The posted guide on the platform.
The Exit 4 that originally led to the school was—
“Ah.”
Blocked with a wooden panel.
As if that place only was sealed and preserved.
“This looks like the back of a library bookshelf.”
“...Yes.”
And more startling—the wood was covered in colorful Post-it notes.
1–7 Class, do your best!
These guys sleep first whenever they’re tired
I hated classical music but this one sounds nice, calming
Having a great nap
When we wake up we’re going for ricecakes-fried-stuff combo
Student messages.
Playful, like yearbook signings or a graduation rolling-paper.
Agent Cheongdong paused at a neat memo:
I’m so glad everyone is safe.
“...This is Agent Komyeong’s handwriting.”
“.......”
Thank goodness.
And I also stopped at one note in the corner.
See you when we wake up.
Ripped A4 paper taped down.
Handwriting I recognized.
The handwriting from when I borrowed a school uniform in the Infirmary.
“.......”
“Roe Deer. Should we collect the Post-its?”
“I think... it’s better to leave them, just in case.”
“...Right.”
We left the bright, colorful Exit 4 behind and continued searching.
“...Not even a rat.”
“Oh. Feels like a ghost’s gonna pop out.”
But we found no special anomalies, and our flashlights led us back to the staircase we entered from.
“So that’s the last spot.”
The sign:
[Station Office]
The frosted reinforced glass door was locked.
Of course, among us was someone who didn’t need tools to break locks—or doors—Section Chief Lee Jahaeon.
“I’ll cut it.”
Snap.
He tore the padlock in half.
And the moment the Station Office door opened—
“...!”
Deputy Eun Haje immediately leaned back and whispered:
“There’s someone.”
To be precise—
A body.
Inside the dark office.
A station worker’s corpse remained on the desk, frozen in place.
My body almost jumped.
[The desk glass is drenched in blood. Whoever did this did not bother cleaning!]
Ha.
God...
I suppressed the shiver crawling up my spine and approached.
Why is there only one corpse here?
The station office was preserved enough to make the presence of a corpse even more grotesque.
Under the flashlight, the collapsed body was crusted in dried blood from the neck down.
There must have been massive bleeding from the throat.
In the dead person’s left hand—
A shard of a mirror.
...They slit their own throat.
Why?
Only one way to find out.
“Careful.”
I gritted my teeth and, with Agent Cheongdong, turned the corpse over.
The blood-caked face stared blankly upward.
“...Looks like self-inflicted throat cut. Hm... But weird, right? How was the padlock untouched!”
“.......”
Exactly.
Refugees wouldn’t leave a locked room untouched.
And this person locked themselves inside—and then slit their own throat.
Strange.
And in this world, strange things usually connect to ghost-story mechanics.
“.......”
I examined the blood-caked chest, the throat.
There might be something under the dried blood.
Luckily—or not—the corpse had dried rather than rotted. No maggots.
And then—
“...!”
Something.
A line.
A strip not covered in blood.
A...
string?
“Are you examining the wound?”
“No. There’s something there. A string.”
“Wait.”
Agent Cheongdong murmured a brief prevention rite, then lifted the string.
Dried blood flaked off.
Something dangled from it—hung at the chest.
ID Card
Name: ■■■
Segwang Transit Corporation
“...!”
A station staff ID.
The name was obscured, but there was no mistake.
This might be useful.
An employee ID usually doubles as an access pass.
We were navigating a station. There was a high chance it would serve as a gimmick.
“...Taking it out.”
“Yes.”
I carefully removed the ID.
A clump of dried blood crumbled away—
ID Card
Name: ■■un
Segwang Transit Corporation
“.......”
Wait.
I scraped more dried blood off the name. With a tissue, the dark flakes fell away.
A single, intact character appeared—
ID Card
Name: ■heon
Segwang Transit Corporation
......My classmate’s name.
And—
A YuKwae Research Lab employee’s name.
“...!!”
Wait.
[Oh, what an unexpected reunion!]
“Agent Podo?”
“Just a moment.”
I searched the desk. Normal office supplies, papers—standard subway station items.
Except one thing.
“.......”
“A map?”
A diagram under the desk glass. A full structural layout of the station.
One mark, in red—stamped or drawn.
A rabbit plush head.
A toy.
...YuKwae Research Lab.
I lifted my head.
“I recognize this mark.”
“Escape hint?”
“...Possibly.”
The marked location corresponded to—
“Hm... The opposite platform from where we woke up.”
Exhale.
“It might be dangerous, so I’ll go alone—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Lead.”
“...Yes.”
I looked once more around the office, then exited with the others.
ID in hand.
But—
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
Just before leaving, I grabbed Baek Saheon by the shoulder.
“What did you pick up?”
“...!”
When others swarmed the corpse, Saheon had gone to the sofa. And—
“You’ve got something in your pocket.”
“...What. You took the ID too.”
“Yeah. And I showed it to everyone.”
“.......”
“What did you take?”
Saheon grimaced, then pulled out a small item.
A round pouch.
A cat-shaped coin purse.
“...It was in the lost-and-found box.”
Oh.
To the person who lost a cat-shaped wallet, please check the Station Office.
The scrap note posted on the platform wall.
He remembered it and searched for it immediately.
Seriously.
If something causes anomalies later, we need to be prepared.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know that—he simply didn’t want to share.
I looked at him, exasperated—
and he flinched.
...?
He was reacting like he expected me to beat him.
Ah.
Right. He saw me physically exorcise something earlier.
Hm.
“You can pick things up. But if it turns into another casino situation...”
“.......”
“It would be really hard and sad. You understand?”
Tap tap.
I gently patted his back.
“Don’t hide things when you take them.”
“...Yeah.”
He nodded.
“Agent Podo. He’s not the type to listen if spoken to nicely.”
“No. Goat will understand. We’re classmates.”
I smiled.
“Right, Goat?”
“...Right!”
He forced a smile.
Thank you, reptile extraterrestrials.
We can communicate like this now.
Now I can apply pressure politely.
“Thank you.”
“? Yes.”
I bowed once to Section Chief Lee, then exited the office.
The rising tension eased slightly.
“Let’s go.”
We crossed the dim, ruined station toward the opposite platform.
Descending to the platform, the lights were bright and cold, illuminating the tracks.
On the opposite side was the platform where we originally awoke.
“...Feels similar.”
“Ah—but trains don’t come to this side, looks like.”
Indeed.
Whereas the other side occasionally had trains pass, here there was only silence.
At Se-gwang Station, the staircase above was completely collapsed...
This felt wrong.
As if we had entered somewhere we were not meant to.
Still, we walked—toward the mark on the map.
We soon arrived.
■■■
A metal door with its sign scraped off.
“...Looks like a communications or mechanical room.”
“Oh right. Sometimes those doors are open and staff go in and out.”
Then this should work.
I pressed the station ID to the keypad.
Beep.
Unlock.
“.......”
I carefully opened the door.
A burnt smell stung my nose.
“...!!”
“What the hell.”
Inside was scorched black.
Just beyond the door was a wall, but stepping slightly inside—
“...A hallway?”
Yes.
A corridor of charred walls and floors, black water pooled, offices lining the sides—nameplates burned unreadable.
“What is this...”
But I recognized the structure immediately.
...YuKwae Research Lab.
The ghost-story-projected auxiliary basement in Baekilmong Corporation.
Cold sweat rose down my spine.
It was here...!
The YuKwae Research Lab had originally been under Se-gwang Special City’s subway station.