Chapter 105 - The Pedestrian III

6

Inunaki Tunnel was laden with every imaginable curse.

Fear of tunnels themselves. Ghost stories. The vengeful spirits of workers buried during construction. Murders and disappearances inside tunnels...

I had slightly underestimated the difficulty of an anomaly that had extended its sinister reach across the Korea Strait. We withdrew from the tunnel entrance and resumed our strategy meeting.

“Is it impossible to physically destroy that tunnel from outside?”

“Probably, meow.”

Manyoneko sighed.

“When our Council decided to tackle the tunnel, physical destruction was the first thing we tried, meow. We even brought in bombs formerly used by the Self-Defense Forces and blew up seventy-two tunnels simultaneously, meow.”

“And the results?”

“We observed Inunaki Tunnel restoring itself in as little as four minutes, or four days at most, meow. We suspect it can only be subjugated by ‘walking all the way from the tunnel entrance and out through the exit,’ rather than through physical force, meow.”

“... I see.”

Occasionally, there were anomalies like that. The kind that could not be subjugated through physical force alone.

The God of Alienation, Gapless, belonged to that category too. To briefly lay out its subjugation method once again:

1. Seal the ninety-nine ghosts of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons at Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School.

2. Descend to basement level four, walk 4,444 steps, and place one hundred candles at the location you reach.

3. Have at least two people exchange the ghost stories of the ghosts sealed thus far—in other words, the Hundred Tales.

4. Walk four steps toward Gapless when it arrives, and have a member of the party capable of playing the ‘shrine maiden’ role seal it.

5. Help the shrine maiden during this process by delivering ‘a strike Gapless cannot predict.’ Using the fine sword Doha, crafted for me by Noh Doha, for instance.

... Such was the sanity-destroying walkthrough.

Unless you were a regressor, you would naturally blurt out, “Was this even designed to be beatable?” When the Saintess saw the walkthrough later, she actually knitted her brows and murmured, [“... You really are incredible.”]

But conversely, it meant that even a God of Alienation-class anomaly that made a mockery of the world’s laws could be subjugated with ‘that much’ effort.

There was no need to even mention a mere Continent-class anomaly like Inunaki Tunnel.

Even if physical force did not work, an anomaly absolutely always had a void spot.

“I more or less understand.”

“...? Meow, then why are you standing up with your sword cane? Undertaker?”

“Whenever an anomaly can’t be subjugated through physical force, I’m the sort who asks himself whether the problem was insufficient firepower.”

From that day on, a season of brutal trials descended upon Inunaki Tunnel.

“Secret technique: Tunnel Collapse.”

KRRRROOOM!

I poured out aura without restraint and brought down the tunnel entrance.

As Manyoneko had said, the tunnel structure returned to its original state in less than forty seconds. (It seemed to have grown stronger since the earlier attempts, improving its regenerative power.) But my blade paid no heed to such petty tantrums.

“Secret technique: Tunnel Collapse. Continued.”

RUMBLE! BOOM! CRASH!

Every time Inunaki Tunnel restored itself, I subjected it to another relentless carpet bombing. I blew away not just the entrance but the entire mountain ridge the tunnel ran through.

“MEOWWW! What are you doing, meow! These mountains are dedicated to our god, meow!”

“Calm down. It’s just collateral damage.”

“Our shrine’s property just got blown away! That’s primary damage, not collateral damage, meow!”

Manyoneko bounced about in outrage, but I had achieved what I intended.

Forty seconds later, the tunnel reappeared all alone in the wasteland where the mountain had been. Like a scalp that had gone completely bald, the tunnel’s exterior structure was exposed for all to see.

“Just as I thought.”

As I had expected, Inunaki Tunnel was strictly an anomaly that parasitized ‘tunnels.’ The void under its control could not envelop the mountain beyond the tunnel itself.

Armless Sword gazed at the starkly exposed tunnel in admiration.

[“Oho. An impressive display of power indeed, Undertaker. The tunnel is laid bare in its entirety.”]

“The fear a tunnel holds is concentrated in its darkness. It’s ‘the uncertainty of not knowing how far you have to walk before you reach the exit,’ and ‘the helplessness of being surrounded by cement on all sides, unable to escape in an emergency.’ But look.”

I climbed onto the tunnel’s outer wall and walked to its midpoint. Then I smoothly sliced through its middle as though it were tofu.

“With the structure exposed, we can rescue an explorer from outside like this if they get stranded. Of course, the outer wall will restore itself after forty seconds, but there’s no problem if we get them out before then.”

[“Ah... Indeed. When thou puttest it that way, it hardly feels frightening at all.”]

“Anomalies are mold that bloom by devouring not just the void in reality, but the gaps in our minds. If we can eliminate even a little unconscious fear, we must use every means at our disposal.”

[“Mm. Truly a lesson worth a thousand gold pieces.”]

“Of course it is! A thousand gold pieces really did just go up in smoke, meow! Oh, woe is meow! Woe is meowww!”

CLICK!

I took the spirit camera from Manyoneko and photographed the tunnel entrance again.

Now then. We had answered the anomaly’s provocation with one of our own. How would it respond?

The photograph soon developed. Last time, it had hung human torsos from each cedar. Now, perhaps because the entire forest had been felled, it had nailed the corpses to the stone wall at the tunnel entrance.

Only this time, there were just heads.

The severed heads had their lips, eyelids, and other features secured with tiny nails. The nails forced the corpses into artificial ‘smiling expressions.’

The words ‘Welcome home’ still adorned the stone wall, now written in the blood flowing from the magical girls’ heads.

“... So you’ve still got room to spare.”

Not that it would do it any good.

“Meow?”

“Just talking to myself. You don’t need to look at the photograph. It’s only playing games with your fellow magical girls’ corpses anyway.”

“...”

Manyoneko gave a small nod.

I picked up the radio. The radio itself did absolutely nothing, but I had passed it off as an ‘anomaly radio’ so the others would not find it strange.

“Saintess.”

[“Yes.”]

“Please contact Commander Noh Doha. Ask her to begin the operation.”

[“Understood.”]

A short while later.

“Your Excellency. The chess pieces are moving.”

Yu Jiwon spoke from the table set up at the tunnel entrance.

“They are currently entering the Busan undersea tunnel in sequence, starting with Group One.”

“Good. Keep reporting. Saintess? You’ll need to keep monitoring the death-row inmates’ vision. Please share their reactions, dialogue, and even their smallest actions with me. We need them to compile the walkthrough.”

[“Yes.”]

The familiar seventy-two chess pieces slid slowly across the table. The death-row inmates we had lost in their entirety during the previous run.

Me, Noh Doha, the Saintess, and Yu Jiwon. The strongest support specialists began maneuvering the multitude of chess pieces.

This time, the prisoners’ lives would be put to slightly more valuable use.

7

A tunnel in reality is ‘a passage you can enter and walk through to the exit.’

A tunnel in the void, on the other hand, is ‘a maze whose exit you can never reach, even after entering.’

Thus, to defeat a tunnel anomaly, a person need only enter and emerge unharmed. That would prove that ‘this place is no longer void, but reality.’

I will now append the guidelines for crossing Inunaki Tunnel safely—or, more precisely, the communications log we exchanged while establishing those guidelines.

This log is almost identical to the walkthrough that would later be posted in SG Net’s [Library Society Anomaly Encyclopedia].

Although the survival rate of people entering the tunnel is by no means high, you can assuredly return alive and unharmed if you keep your wits about you and doggedly follow the ‘walkthrough.’

On the record.

[“Mr. Undertaker. All exploration groups have been issued radios. I introduced myself as a team leader in the National Road Management Corps and arranged for the explorers to follow my instructions.”]

[“Advance party entering.”]

[“Destroying the stone wall is judged to attract more attention from ‘Inunaki Tunnel’ than necessary. The explorers climbed over the wall.”]

1. As soon as the death-row inmates climb over the stone wall, they will encounter a terrible ‘garbage smell.’

It resembles the stench of leaves rotting away throughout the season after summer rain.

The damp cave’s foul breath will cling to your entire body like ticks, but do not panic.

On the contrary, places where you can smell it are ‘safe zones.’

[“Two explorers report smelling an unbearable stench.”]

[“Death-row inmate No. 6 reports that it smells not merely like a cave, but like a corpse left to rot. What should we do?”]

“Please instruct him to look for the corpse.”

[“Yes.”]

1-1. If you smell ‘blood’ or ‘rotting corpses’ rather than garbage or moss, you must immediately turn around and climb back over the stone wall.

However, if you have already taken ‘seven or more steps’ since entering the tunnel, do not return. In this case, your body will be severed at the waist the moment you cross the stone wall.

Attempting to locate a hidden corpse because you smell one is also strictly prohibited.

You will ultimately discover that the smell is coming from inside your own body.

Compiling Rule 1 of the walkthrough required five death-row inmates.

[“An explorer has died.”]

[“The remaining members are somewhat confused, but there is no obstacle to continuing the operation.”]

[“I will ask Commander Noh Doha to deploy the next group as scheduled.”]

[“All clear.”]

[“Advance.”]

2. Never cross the center of the tunnel to walk on the right. Always, without exception, travel along the left side.

[“Mr. Undertaker. I’ve passed this instruction on to all the explorers, but why must they use only the left side of the passage?”]

“Ah. In the previous run, the four of us walked side by side down the passage. Then Armless Sword, on the far right, and Yu Jiwon, in the middle, suddenly died.”

[“Pardon?”]

“Oh, Jiwon, you don’t need to look this way. Focus on the Minimap. Anyway... They began choking and gasping as though they had suddenly been submerged in deep water, and collapsed shortly afterward.”

[“...”]

“When I examined their corpses, filthy water poured from their esophagi and lungs. The cause of death was drowning.”

2-1. If you smell ‘water’ or ‘sewage’ while walking, you are walking too far to the right.

Immediately move a little farther left and continue walking.

If you find it strangely difficult to breathe or walk, likewise move left. However, in this case, move with ‘swimming motions,’ not ‘walking motions.’

Wear a life jacket from the moment you enter the tunnel, just in case.

Compiling Rule 2 of the walkthrough required no death-row inmates.

[“All clear. I will instruct them to continue advancing.”]

“Yes, please do.”

3. The interior of Inunaki Tunnel is covered in all manner of colorful graffiti and scrawls.

Paint covers the entire passage on every side. The graffiti is packed as densely as seashells clinging to a seaside rock face.

The scrawls may appear to consist of Latin letters, but they resemble no language on Earth.

If the scrawls seem to writhe when you look at them, or you smell ‘blood’ from their red portions, immediately avert your gaze from the graffiti.

The deeper you travel into the tunnel, the more vivid and complex the graffiti will become.

If the graffiti still looks like ‘scrawls,’ that area is safe. But if it looks like an exquisitely beautiful ‘work of art,’ or especially a ‘beautiful living creature,’ immediately avert your gaze.

This phenomenon is suspected to be a void effect that confounds a tunnel’s ‘corridor’ with a gallery’s ‘corridor.’

[“Mr. Undertaker. Several explorers are showing excessive interest in the graffiti.”]

“Have you detected any unusual behavior?”

[“Yes. They are moving closer to and farther from the graffiti as though admiring works in an art museum, murmuring phrases such as ‘beautiful,’ ‘pretty,’ and ‘enchanting.’”]

[“Ah.”]

[“Abnormal behavior detected in death-row inmate No. 14. He is repeatedly muttering, ‘If only the color here were a little deeper.’”]

[“The explorers around him are trying to restrain him, but it seems ineffective.”]

[“Self-harm confirmed in death-row inmate No. 14.”]

[“He has cut open his own abdomen and is painting the graffiti red.”]

“I see. Be careful not to look at the scrawls yourself, Saintess.”

[“Yes. I am periodically switching viewpoints. Death-row inmate No. 14 has gouged out his own eyes, embedded them in the graffiti on the tunnel wall, and crushed them.”]

[“Death confirmed.”]

3-1. If a person standing in the middle of the tunnel admiring the graffiti becomes unresponsive, shoot them dead immediately.

If distinct ‘tattoos’ have appeared on their arms, neck, or elsewhere, you have already missed your chance to kill them. Flee as far from that person as possible.

Individuals infected in this manner will hereafter be called ‘viewers.’

If the overpowering smell of blood disappears and you smell moss, a basement, or a cave instead, you have entered a safe zone.

3-2. If you feel that a viewer is pursuing you, use the knife you carry to cut off a finger or toe, draw tattoo-like patterns on your face, and hold the severed part in your mouth.

Press yourself as close to the tunnel wall as possible and make no sound.

Even if you hear footsteps from somewhere, do not look toward the tunnel passage. Do not make a sound. Remain against the tunnel wall until the footsteps have completely disappeared. Holding your breath for at least thirty seconds is recommended.

Compiling Rule 3 of the walkthrough required eleven death-row inmates.

[“An explorer has died.”]

[“All clear.”]

[“Advance.”]