Chapter 111

“Bound for Tamna? What’s that?”

“A glitch? Wow, that’s kind of creepy.”

The passengers on the high-speed train murmured at the changed display inside the carriage.

They weren’t particularly concerned. Their tone suggested nothing more than an unusual diversion during a boring journey.

... Until they truly understood what that diversion entailed.

“Hey, I got it on video. I’ll put it on Inheart— ... Huh?”

“What?”

“... I can’t get online.”

Typical.

“Hey, check your phone. Hurry!”

“E-excuse me, mine says I’m out of service range. Can you make calls?”

“What’s going on? Why can’t anyone get through?”

The murmuring grew louder.

But Deputy Butterfly, seated in front of me, didn’t stir. Supervisor Dolphin, in the aisle seat beside mine, merely grumbled under her breath.

“Ugh, what a pain. Had to get caught up in this when there are civilians everywhere.”

It was a typical opening to a Darkness, recognizable to anyone in our company’s Field Exploration Team.

What they didn’t know was that this ghost story was an anomalous phenomenon the government, rather than our company, had identified decades ago and recorded in a brief document.

The Peach Blossom Paradise Test (tentative name) is an extremely rare phenomenon occurring aboard Iksan-bound high-speed trains departing from Seoul.

No casualties to date. Disaster classification pending.

But that was all there was.

‘Because there hadn’t been any casualties!’

The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau generally registered a ghost story as a disaster only after someone died in it.

And so the brief document was closed with the statement, “The anomalous phenomenon is presumed to have ceased following the extension of the Iksan-bound high-speed rail service to Mokpo.”

But... it had started again.

Right now, on this train.

“Hey! L-look outside!!”

“Oh my God!”

I turned toward the train window. Outside, where we should have seen Seoul as we left the city...

An endless blue sea stretched before us.

“...!”

The blue horizon met a vermilion sky in a fantastical, uncanny vista.

Throwing up spray and cutting through the waves, the train sped over the glittering surface of the blue sea...

“Is this train... running on the sea?! H-how?”

“Wow...”

“Oh, isn’t this computer graphics? Some sort of trial run for window displays?”

The passengers forgot their bewilderment and marveled at the strange yet beautiful scenery, which felt somehow like a transcendent realm.

Someone tried taking pictures with a phone that supposedly had no reception, only to exclaim in surprise that the pictures wouldn’t save.

The Tamna-Bound High-Speed Train Incident.

This was identical to the opening of the document I knew...

“...”

Goddammit.

If I’d focused on the fact that I would be boarding a high-speed train bound for Mokpo, I might have realized this ghost story could occur.

‘But it was designed to make me overlook that.’

A different Darkness had been placed in front of me as my objective!

-Go to Mokpo and enter a C-grade Darkness.

I’d concentrated on that premise, endlessly revising and refining my countermeasures, only for an awl to spring out from somewhere entirely unexpected.

I laced my fingers together. My mind raced.

‘... Was this trap designed with that in mind?’

Or was it a coincidence?

The wiki did explicitly say this incident had “occurred without anyone anticipating it.”

‘But that was written from the Disaster Management Bureau’s perspective.’

Another organization or individual... might have worked it out by studying the pattern of the ghost story’s occurrences.

... Especially...

‘Looking at my companions, this feels far too deliberate...’

“Excuse me, Deputy. Wake up.”

“... Haah.”

Beside me, Supervisor Dolphin woke Deputy Butterfly in the seat ahead.

“More work? It had better be high-grade. At least then we can report it and get some extra points.”

“Right?”

Two Elite Team members.

In other words, people capable of making ruthless, unsentimental decisions to accomplish their mission.

‘... They’re the worst possible match for this ghost story.’

Because this...

Was a ghost story that tested human ethics.

“Hmm. The text on the screen’s changed.”

...

I looked up, my gaze gone cold.

A new sentence scrolled across the screen.

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“... A sacrifice?”

CLUNK.

One window at the very front of the carriage opened.

The people sitting nearby recoiled in alarm.

“Oh, shit!”

“This window isn’t supposed to open— Wait. Why isn’t any wind coming in?”

“But why did it suddenly open—”

As though...

It were telling us to throw a sacrifice through it.

“...”

Bewilderment and a trace of fear spread across the faces of the few passengers who had left their seats to actively investigate the phenomenon.

“What... sacrifice? Offer a sacrifice?”

“This is so weird...”

But no one wanted to speculate or discuss what a sacrifice or an offering actually meant.

“... Hasn’t it just been hacked?”

“Let’s find an attendant.”

Avoidance.

People simply clicked their tongues, eyes anxious, and sat back down, or headed to another carriage to look for an attendant again.

They pretended to be calm.

Precisely because they’d realized something was seriously wrong, an icy silence settled over the carriage...

TAP TAP.

Just then, Deputy Butterfly lightly tapped the armrest of her seat opposite us, drawing my attention and Supervisor Dolphin’s.

“Don’t get involved. Watch what they do first.”

“Got it for now!”

“Yes.”

She probably wanted to see what happened when someone else tried something first. ... Perhaps she also wanted to stop me from doing anything unexpected.

But I’d had no intention of intervening in the first place.

‘If this really is that incident, it’s better not to act yet...’

I sat quietly and watched to see whether events unfolded “as prescribed.”

A little later.

“This is way too weird!”

Cries began erupting here and there at irregular intervals.

“I found an attendant, but they’re completely panicking! They’re shouting that they don’t know what’s happening either!”

“There are people with kids in the carriage ahead, right? They’re all freaking out because their children have disappeared! This doesn’t seem like something normal...”

“They can’t reach the driver. The driver’s cab is completely locked!!”

Once people started communicating with the other carriages, they learned even more chilling facts.

-Ah, confusion! Throughout human history, the incomprehensible has always inspired fear. This place is no exception.

-Will you continue watching where they end up, my friend?

‘... For a while.’

That was the right thing to do.

But I couldn’t help feeling anxious, so I clenched my teeth to suppress my agitation.

I watched the people standing by the carriage doors, addressing the passengers as though making public announcements.

“Everyone, I think we need to come up with some kind of plan!”

“Right, this really looks like serious trouble—!”

DING-DING!

“... Huh?”

Everyone turned.

New words appeared on the carriage display.

Entering the First Altar

“... Altar?”

In a flash, the brilliantly blue sea outside began turning red...

Then suddenly went dark.

“Aah!”

Instead of the horizon, every window now showed walls covered in a grotesque mucous membrane.

“Th-this is...”

“Oh my God!”

As though the high-speed train had entered a tunnel or a station, it continued gliding through that strange, dark space.

Distance Remaining: 5

“Sh-shouldn’t we try something?”

“Look for a button or something!”

“A button? There’s nothing like that...”

Distance Remaining: 4

“Oh, what do we do? What do we do...?”

“Excuse me! You by the window! Help me close this window instead of just sitting there—!”

“God, you’re so fucking loud!”

THUD!

Distance Remaining: 3

“Y-you’re trying to shove me... Huh? Whoa?”

SPLASH.

“Aah! Someone fell out the window!”

“N-no! He tried to shove me and fell out himself!”

Distance Remaining: 2

“Sh-shouldn’t we stop the train? Someone fell—”

Distance Remaining: 1

“Let’s lie flat on the floor. Quietly.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

0

An offering has come

Open the sea passage

In an instant, everything brightened again.

The endless blue sea outside the windows glittered dazzlingly once more.

But...

“Haaah!”

The carriage was in utter chaos.

I looked at the crowd clustered around the open window. In particular...

An office worker in his thirties wearing glasses, his face deathly pale.

And the empty seat directly beside the window.

“I’m telling you, he pushed someone out the window!”

“No! He tried to shove me and fell out himself!”

“That’s right! I saw it from beside them. The man who fell was acting strangely. Really aggressive...”

“But someone died either way!”

Beside me, Supervisor Dolphin whispered.

“Hmm. Considering all that stuff about sacrifices and offerings on the screen... I guess the person who fell counted as an ‘offering,’ huh?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

The deputy tossed out her answer, then announced, fiddling with the fingernails fitted with her equipment,

“We’ll watch just one more before we act. Get ready, both of you.”

“Okay.”

“...”

The one saving grace was that people calmed down a little once they decided the man who fell had brought it on himself.

The few who had come forward to berate and interrogate the bespectacled office worker soon grasped the situation. They added a few more unnecessary remarks, but quietly backed away.

“Are you all right? Don’t let it get to you.”

“Yes... I’m all right. I suppose everyone’s just on edge.”

Supervisor Dolphin watched the exchange closely.

Deputy Butterfly and I also quietly observed the situation while checking our respective equipment.

But that was where our good fortune ended.

Twenty minutes later.

“Again!!”

Entering the Second Altar

The view outside turned red and dark again, as though we had entered a tunnel.

“What the hell is this?!”

But thanks to their earlier experience, rather than panicking, people quickly ducked and covered their heads.

“It’ll go away after a while.”

Listening to the passengers’ whispers, I looked at the superior sitting opposite me.

Deputy Jin Nasol had already put on a strangely shaped monocle and was surveying the dark carriage.

Her eyes were searching for the most useless, suitable candidate.

“... Deputy.”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t we also observe what happens when no one is offered as a sacrifice?”

I spoke in her language as best I could.

“We don’t know whether going to ‘Tamna’ is a good thing. I think it’s worth taking that gamble.”

“Hmm.”

A brief silence.

“All right.”

Whew.

I nodded, holding back a sigh.

‘We can’t draw attention by sacrificing someone here.’

Meanwhile, the numbers on the carriage display were rapidly counting down...

Distance Remaining: 5

Distance Remaining: 4

Distance Remaining: 3

Distance Remaining: 2

Distance Remaining: 1

0

Passed

In an instant, light flooded through the windows again.

The tunnel had ended, revealing the sea.

“Ah...!”

Just as the passengers instinctively sighed in relief...

“It’s g-gone!”

The text on the display flickered, then vanished as well.

All that remained was the beautiful view outside the train, racing over the dazzling blue sea amid white spray.

“... Ah.”

Their tension briefly broken, people raised their heads one by one, looking reassured.

“It’s still the sea, though.”

“But something seems... over, right? Are we okay now?”

“The more I think about it, this has to be some sort of event. You know? Like an escape room. Honey, did you sign us up for anything?”

TAP TAP.

Supervisor Dolphin whispered too.

“That went surprisingly well. Maybe you clear it by not sacrificing anyone else? That’s a pretty obvious condition, too.”

“... Let’s keep watching for now. The deputy did tell us to.”

“Yep.”

Another ten minutes or so passed.

Somewhat relaxed, people got up and moved around the carriages, searching for the missing children, calming the attendants, and speaking with the driver.

Just when it seemed that, having adapted to the situation, people had regained a measure of composure and rational judgment...

Suddenly, without warning.

THUNK.

The train lurched forward.

“...!!”

“Huh? Whoa?!”

Passengers tumbled from their seats. I gripped the armrest tightly and weathered the initial jolt.

Then, suppressing my fear, I looked out the window.

More precisely, I strained to look as far down outside as I possibly could.

The white spray thrown up by the train as it sliced across the glittering surface...

Was gone.

CRASH!

The train broke through the surface of the water and plunged.

“Aaaaah!”

“Aah!!”

Windows shattered. Water surged in. The conscious passengers screamed, either trying desperately to swim out or clinging to one another.

Unconscious people floated in the water. I felt like I was losing my mind.

-Isn’t this a moment when you need help, my friend?!

...

‘Not... yet.’

-Hmm!

Submerged in the dark, suffocating seawater, I followed Deputy Jin Nasol’s swift, precise instructions as she signaled for us to escape through the window.

But the closer I got to the window, the more I felt my consciousness fading... strangely faster than my lungs should have allowed.

The suffocating dizziness continued...

...

‘Hh.’

My consciousness.

Slipped away.

* * *

“...”

“...”

“... Huh??”

I opened my eyes.

To the high-speed train’s announcement chime.

DING-DING-DING!

Inside the Mokpo-bound high-speed train, whose doors had just closed at Seoul Station.

Supervisor Dolphin sat beside me, and Deputy Butterfly sat opposite.

And the display was perfectly normal.

Bound for Mokpo

I heard the dazed voices of passengers in the same carriage.

“Hey, I just had the weirdest dream...”

“You too? Hey, me too. Something about a train bound for Tamna...”

“Huh? W-wait. ... Me too?”

“What?”

Bound for Mokpo

“... Hey, hey, hey! Look, look!”

“Huh? Wh-whaaat?!”

Bound for Tamna

Departing

The train departed with a roar.

Exactly as it had the first time.

Just the same.

“Aaaaaah!!”

Sobbing, screams, and horrified voices began ringing out everywhere.

“Wait! Wait! What the hell is going on? What—!”

“Let me out! Let me out!”

“Mom... what is this?”

What else could it be?

‘... Exactly what it looks like.’

I groaned under my breath.

※Urgent Bulletin

A fatal irregularity has been observed in the recent recurrence of the anomalous phenomenon “Peach Blossom Paradise Test (tentative name).”

It has been confirmed that, at the moment the high-speed train plunged into the water, its passengers returned to “the moment of its initial departure.”

Survivors stated that they had been trapped in a repetition of the time during which the Tamna-bound train was in motion.

Yes.

In here, everything started over.

‘... With everyone’s memories intact.’

During this process, every passenger, without exception, retains memories of what they experienced.

In other words.

This was the beginning of the second loop.

-A time loop! A classic favorite of science-fiction enthusiasts. But the truly interesting point is that you are even more “trapped” than usual...

-When everyone’s experiences accumulate equally, even the brave will find it difficult to step forward. Consequences that last forever! Isn’t that a tremendous constraint on one’s actions?

Yes.

‘That’s why... I have to be extremely careful about stepping forward.’

I had to be prudent.

And I couldn’t let myself be swept up in the crowd’s panic.

Remember. Only one thing mattered to me.

‘Now I can persuade people with reason.’

Now that everyone had truly experienced a bona fide “supernatural phenomenon,” they would at least listen instead of dismissing me as a lunatic spouting nonsense.

So from this point on, I could cautiously begin to act.

‘This isn’t... bad.’

I could survive.

I could... survive.

Yes. I had to think that way.

I repeated it to myself, pulling myself together.

Then the very first thing I needed to do now was...

‘Find the person with the Silver Heart Badge.’

Besides me, there was someone else aboard this train—the decisive reason this incident’s ending had become absolute hell.

First, I had to establish that person’s identity.

‘Let’s find them and try to keep them under control.’

It had definitely been mentioned once or twice in the short story.

I tried to recall the exact carriage and seat number where that person had been sitting.

They’d definitely been in the first carriage...

...

...

‘Wait.’

Let’s try to remember a little more calmly.

Then what was that person’s exact name...?

...

“...”

“Excuse me? Supervisor?”

I couldn’t remember.

‘Ah.’

It had been weeks since the Griptok broke.

The gaps in my memory had finally begun to appear.