Chapter 118

“Hey, Supervisor, I'll go now. I'm fine going alone.”

Supervisor Dolphin readily volunteered to jump at the first altar.

Someone had to bite the bullet and go alone at the first altar. But we also needed someone to organize the passengers and check on them until the end, so I had to stay behind until the last moment.

As it turned out, though, Supervisor Dolphin didn't jump alone either.

“Th-then I'll go first too...! I'll do it.”

“If we're going anyway, better to get it over with.”

There were so many volunteers that several people decided to jump together even at the first altar.

And just before it began:

Distance Remaining: 4

“You still have a chance to back out.”

Even at that final crossroads, not a single person backed down.

“Let's go!”

“Aaaah!!”

People went out the window.

Led by Supervisor Dolphin, more than seven people poured out at the first altar.

Open the sea route

The train quickly left the altar, and our surroundings brightened again.

“Uh...”

People blinked at the almost routine scene they had learned through fourteen loops.

“Th-they're gone.”

Naturally, it must have looked little different from the previous jumps.

'The lack of painkillers won't make a difference until after they land.'

Then a curious phenomenon occurred.

'Wait, was it actually no big deal?'

Perhaps that was what they were thinking, because some people belatedly announced that they wanted to jump too.

Like this person, for example.

“Hey! I'll go too.”

This passenger was the very one Supervisor Dolphin had caught acting like an asshole and marked as a prospective sacrifice...

Apparently having conveniently erased the memory of raising his fist at people in the early loops and saying things like, “Go before I beat the crap out of you,” he spoke to me as if nothing had happened.

Well, that didn't matter.

“Then you can jump at the second...”

“No, I'm going with you. I mean, with the Forerunner. I really want to go with you. At the end.”

“... Well. All right.”

If that was what he wanted.

[“Rather a rude fellow.”]

Quite right.

Then I heard the passenger talking to his companions behind me.

“Hey, what are you doing? Why the hell are you suddenly saying you'll jump?”

“Tch, can't you read the room? Obviously, if you believe and jump, you get some special power or something. Fuck, it's plain as day. You've got to get on board fast at times like this.”

Hmm.

'Oh dear...'

There was nothing like that.

“I'm telling you, the pain thing is probably just a bluff to weed people out.”

It wasn't.

'It's really going to hurt.'

Well, people were free to delude themselves.

I decided not to stop him. Instead, I took another look at his face so I could add him to the list of people going to the altars...

Wait a second.

Now that I looked at his face...

'... He has a huge mole on his cheek.'

I hadn't noticed that feature before because I'd hurried us past him, worried Supervisor Dolphin might preemptively punch him in the face.

'And he was from Car 6, wasn't he?'

Someone with those exact characteristics came to mind.

Hmm.

'I think he's the passenger who originally became the cult leader...'

[“Oh dear! Did Mr. Roe Deer take his role?”]

Well, much as I hated to admit it... apparently so.

'I suppose things like this happen when all fourteen loops go so smoothly.'

Still, this was far better than leading the passengers through fear and madness, cutting out people's organs as living sacrifices, and then tossing their empty husks out the windows...

Anyway, what mattered was that the vast majority of volunteers were descending to the altars together without incident, calm and resolute.

“I'm off.”

“Let's all meet again as better people!”

“We can do this!”

Strangely, the mood kept improving. Some people even wiped away tears as they waited.

“Honestly, this is the first time I've ever tried to challenge myself like this...”

“That's awesome!”

As people encouraged one another and shared heartfelt stories, I turned toward one person standing apart.

Baek Saheon, who was watching all of it with a distinctly unenthusiastic expression.

“... I'm not sure why you're looking at me. I'm not going down.”

“Suit yourself.”

I hadn't expected him to.

“But, you know.”

Baek Saheon spoke in a slightly insinuating tone.

“Well, if you need me, I could go down for one painkiller.”

“Oh, to use right now?”

“No, after all this is over and we're out.”

“Oh...”

I smiled.

“No thanks.”

“...”

Just sit back and enjoy the free ride.

'Trying to score an item for practically nothing, are you?'

“Ah, it's the fifth altar, Forerunner!”

“Yes. I'll be right there.”

Leaving Baek Saheon behind, I joined the passengers to offer the volunteers advice and applause.

In other words, I did what I could as a Silver Heart Badge holder.

And...

About three hours passed.

Entering the Ninth Altar

“...”

At last, the final moment had arrived.

“Let's go.”

“Yes.”

I stood with all the remaining volunteers.

... The number of people intending to go out the window this time easily exceeded twenty.

'That's an absurd number.'

Honestly, I was scared.

If these people started writhing in real agony and resenting me, could I take it mentally?

“Here we go!”

“H-hyah!”

People held hands and jumped through the window without hesitation, two or three at a time, one group after another.

After making sure the very last volunteer had jumped, I immediately stepped up to the window.

“A-are you going?”

Actually, backing out now wouldn't affect our clearing this.

But...

[“Ah, will you be using that excellent painkiller again, my friend?”]

...

'No.'

I tucked the painkiller back inside my clothes.

Then I hurled myself toward the window.

SPLAT.

My body fell from the high-speed train and tumbled into the dark-red altar passage.

And the moment my senses registered my surroundings...

...

'Fuck.'

It was a primal hell.

I couldn't believe I hadn't found this sight revolting before.

Although I'd already done this twice, the difference between having Happy Maker injected into my arm and not having it was stark.

Countless scraps of rotting flesh from unknown bodies writhed across the floor in waves like earthworms—a hell filled with rotten blood and filth.Thefleshw asmoving!

D-does this cause delirium too? No, I'm wearing the silver ring, so I'm fi—no, stop thinking. Stop thinking.

I steadied my breathing so the silver ring's resistance could do its work.

At least I couldn't hear that sound hammering inside my head like before.

'Get a grip...'

Then.

Pain struck as though my entire body were on fire.

“...!!”

I nearly fell.

Searing pain.

Searing pain!!

Sear

ing

pain

Sear

ing

pain

Sear

ing

pain

Every syllable felt like hot candle wax searing my entire body.

Not hearing that bizarre sound in my head wasn't enough!

And the people who could hear it...

“Fuck! Fuck!”

“Aaaaagh!”

“Wh-what are you saying, what... S-siiin?”

Sobs, screams, and delirious cries rang through the altar.

My head spun.

THUD.

Someone near me fell flat, plunging into the flesh. Swallowing a scream, I hauled them up.

“Grrrrgh...”

'P-painkiller.'

All I could think about was getting them up and injecting Happy Maker.

But the moment I supported them and slung them over my back—

“...!”

Suddenly.

The searing pain sharply diminished.

'... No!'

It hadn't diminished. I couldn't feel it around my back and shoulders where our bodies touched, making the rest feel relatively bearable...

“... Ah!!”

I understood.

The places where we touched didn't feel the searing pain.

Because they weren't exposed to the altar's environment!

“Everyone! Huddle together! It gets better if you stay close!”

As I spoke, I pressed myself against someone nearby as if linking arms around their shoulders.

Word spread.

“Don't leave your skin exposed! Th-the sound's coming from there!”

“Hold hands!”

Soon the scattered groups of two or three gathered, crowding against one another from front and back.

“Fuck off! Aaaagh!”

Of course, some people still couldn't pull themselves together. I saw them push others away and sink completely into the flesh.

“You fucker, I'll get youuu!! You lied! You li■■■”

One passenger in particular—the one who had practically bullied his way into joining at the last minute to get “special powers”—glared murderously at me and pointed before being buried in the flesh and left behind.

But the vast majority, more than twenty people, began clustering together, surrounding one another like penguins.

“I-it's work...”

“I can bear it. I can bear it...!”

“L-let's moooove!”

Then we began running toward the light, pressed as close together as possible, arms linked and bodies jostling.

The pain was minimized.

Packed together so tightly that we couldn't bite or claw at ourselves, our hands gripped the people on either side, while our running feet scattered the rotten flesh beneath us.

Screams and shouts rang out, but so did encouragement and cries of determination.

A shared sensation.

“We're almost there!!”

The light drew closer.

Slowly but surely.

A little more.

A little more...

And finally!

“Ah...”

With desperate cheers, people threw themselves into the light.

“Waaaaah!!”

I, too, was engulfed in light, my mind beginning to soar into an overwhelming sense of exaltation.

Though I couldn't hear the voice that had already vanished...

...

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

Perhaps the test this ghost story posed had never once been solved “properly.”

And right then, I felt as though I'd caught a faint glimpse of the direction its answer lay.

'Maybe Tamna...'

Was it an unknown world we could reach if every passenger jumped from the train together and went through this process?

* * *

I opened my eyes.

“Gah!”

“Ugh...”

“Ah... Wh-what?”

Gasps and quiet groans came from all around.

Seats shook here and there as people jerked in that distinctive way people do when startled awake from a light sleep.

I immediately looked up at the train's screen.

And the scrolling text on it—

Bound for Mokpo

—changed.

Departing

BEEEEEP!

With a cheerful sound, the high-speed train began pulling out of the station...

“Oh, we're back safe and sound.”

“... Yes.”

Escape successful.

'Whew...'

All the tension drained out of me, and I slumped back in my seat.

But the moment I saw the person opposite me, I snapped straight back to attention.

'... Deputy Jin Nasol!'

She was staring at the train ceiling, arms crossed, without a word or expression.

W-well, of course, it was all a dream now, and she hadn't jumped at the end, so I doubted she had much lingering anger...

'Still, let's do what needs doing!'

I hurriedly rummaged through my pocket and pulled out something that would revive my tired, efficiency-obsessed superior.

Something all three of us sitting here had. Namely...

“... Deputy.”

“...”

“The Dream Essence Collector is full.”

Clear golden liquid sloshed inside the collector.

Right.

We were on a business trip, so naturally we had our Dream Essence Collectors. And since we'd cleared a ghost story, they had collected the liquid.

'If we'd cleared the old Iksan-bound version, it probably would have been F- or D-grade...'

But now, with an anomalous manifestation that added an extended route, a double-digit number of restarts, and so many people jumping to the altars together...

“It's C-grade.”

The same grade as the Darkness in Mokpo that we'd intended to enter.

And since our Dream Essence Collectors were already full, there was no point entering another Darkness now.

At last, expression returned to Deputy Jin Nasol's face.

“Then we don't have to go to Mokpo, do we? Head back at the next station.”

“Yes, yes, ma'am!”

I sighed with relief, rubbing my chest.

'Thank goodness.'

I supposed getting work over with early really was the best gift for an office worker...

That was when it happened.

I heard whispering from the seats behind us.

“Hey... I had this weird dream... The train was running over water?”

“Whoa, what's that about? What a nonsense dream.”

“No, but it was interesting. Everything was crazy, and there was this saintlike person... Did we call him the ‘Forerunner’? Anyway, he was sitting right in front of us.”

“Oh, really?”

“...!”

W-wait a second.

Apparently my cult-leader act had made such a strong impression that it had lodged firmly in people's memories.

'L-let's get out of this seat first.'

After excusing myself to my superiors, I headed for the restroom to get out of sight.

CLICK.

“Whew.”

Hmm. Let's stay here for a few minutes until the details evaporate from the passengers' memories...

[“You look like a star hiding from overzealous fans...”]

For some reason, it was embarrassing how accurate that was...

Still, this wasn't a bad situation.

'No, it's an excellent ending.'

A faint sense of pride spread through my chest.

... This peace was something the passengers in the original Tamna-Bound High-Speed Train Incident had never enjoyed.

'Because that... had a much more horrific ending.'

It was so shockingly hopeless that I remembered it vividly even without the wiki.

At some point, after hundreds, thousands of loops, the passengers' minds had completely collapsed. They had gone beyond mass madness and become almost inhuman.

With every passenger mentally broken, the carriages had become a hellish mire of suffering where even deciding to jump out the windows in the required numbers was impossible.

'But with repeated trials, statistically, the “right answer” can occur by accident...'

After countless restarts and endless years, they finally jumped in the correct numbers all the way to the ninth altar.

They escaped the anomaly in that dramatic fashion, but...

'In a sense, they never escaped.'

Even someone who experienced the offering just once would wake thinking it was a nightmare and remain affected for dozens of minutes or longer.

But what about the mind of someone who had repeated it hundreds or thousands of times?

'... They couldn't get out of the nightmare at all.'

It is presumed that the passengers failed to recognize that the anomalous phenomenon had ended and they had returned to reality.

They mistakenly believed they were still trapped in the loop...

Instead, the slight recovery of their mental faculties upon returning to reality only deepened their despair, and they began committing acts of madness more actively.

And so hell descended upon reality too.

Most of the passengers killed and were killed by one another, tearing and dismembering, in their seats, in the aisles, at the windows.

After that enormous upheaval and frenzy, the train derailed...

And exploded.

Thus the “Tamna-Bound High-Speed Train Incident” met its horrific end...

Survivors: 7

Fatalities: 404

... Thank goodness it hadn't become reality.

I sighed with relief.

And now that everything was over, I finally had room to wonder about something.

Deputy ■■■

The sole Daydream Inc. employee among the original incident's survivors.

The employee who would have purchased this silver ring I'd bought on Death Row, trading three civilians for it.

Where had that person been?

'No, were they even here?'

I didn't know.

Baek Saheon was the only company employee we'd been able to identify on the train earlier.

And I hadn't wanted to draw attention by doing something like hunting down employees when it wouldn't help us clear the incident anyway.

'Either way, it's a relief.'

If that person had been here, they must have survived too, since everything had ended safely.

What mattered was that the tragedy aboard that train hadn't happened.

BANG BANG BANG!

Ah.

'Time to get going.'

The next person had grown tired of waiting and was knocking on the restroom door.

Clinging to memories of the fourteen loops that were already beginning to fade, I jotted a few notes in my phone, finished washing my face with cold water, and left the restroom.

CLICK.

The person waiting abruptly stepped into the restroom.

'Was it urgent?'

I hurried past to return to my seat...

Something whipped through the air.

“You fucking bastard.”

I lowered my gaze.

A utility knife blade.

The knife was slashing dangerously across my chest...

“...!!”

Fuck!

I stepped back, simultaneously grabbing the attacker's forearm with one hand and twisting it.

CLATTER!

The utility blade fell to the floor with a sharp sound. I subdued the attacker and pinned him to the floor.

In the process, I saw his face.

“You fucker, uh, aaagh!”

Holy shit.

Breaking into a cold sweat, I pressed him down.

'The cult leader...!'

“Fuck! It fucking hurts, huuurgh, it hurt! Huh!”

It was the man who'd jumped at the final, ninth altar and been left behind!

'This crazy bastard...'

“You tricked me?!? Then you deserve to die, you fucker, you son of a...”

Gripping the man as he continued cursing, I slammed him hard against the floor once more.

With a short thud...

He lost consciousness.

“Hah.”

My palms were drenched in cold sweat.

'... Did he lose his mind after being left behind?'

And since he'd been a nasty person to begin with, perhaps he'd had more sins to offer and suffered longer...

Still, it should have been no more than a nightmare. He must have had a serious problem controlling his anger.

'I suppose that fits the kind of person he is.'

“Whew...”

I wiped away my sweat.

Fortunately, my chest was unharmed and painless despite the knife slash.

Why?

'... Good thing I wrapped that paper around myself beforehand.'

I'd never expected to get dragged into another ghost story on my way to one for work. But worried I wouldn't have a chance later, I'd put the defensive wrapping-paper item over my bare skin before setting out.

The “Wrapping Paper 12B357-Na” sold at the Alien Shop.

Considering I'd even received a prediction of my death, it was only a natural precaution.

'Still, I never dreamed I'd nearly get killed by some knife-wielding maniac rather than a ghost story...'

Could this have been the death I'd been warned about? Had I just prevented it?

'What do you think, Braun?'

...

No answer.

“... Braun.”

A strange premonition ran down my spine.

So... I'd just been slashed across the chest.

I wasn't hurt, but that only applied to my bare skin, which I'd covered with wrapping paper.

But outside that, in the pocket over the left side of my suit jacket, was...