Bronze Agent and I stared at each other as if we’d been struck by lightning.
The Train Shelter.
The place’s true value was revealing itself beneath the Driver’s Cab chair.
An escape talisman...!
But after the shiver passed, urgent questions flooded my head.
“Wait. But if we could leave with that talisman in the first place, wouldn’t you have left long ago?”
“......!”
There was no reason to endure while agents died one by one. So why on earth....
-Just, he kept getting off on his own, saying this train needed something more, and he kept going out to look for it!
Ah.
Something was missing.
What? What had been missing?
At that moment, someone threw the Driver’s Cab door open from outside.
“Noru....”
“Mountain Goat!”
The instant I saw Ko Yeongeun’s face, a line came out before any explanation for how I’d been dodging everyone, before anything about the current situation.
“I found traces of an escape attempt.”
“...!!”
I hurriedly called everyone into the Driver’s Cab, then watched Section Chief Lee Jaheon close the door and lean against it like he was standing guard.
It looked like, together with Deputy Eun Haje, the two of them had brought Ko Yeongeun as well.
The cramped Driver’s Cab filled to the point that it was hard for anyone to even sit, but no one cared about that right now.
“If this train ended up placed on high-speed rail tracks, could it run?”
“On the tracks?”
Instead of asking why, Ko Yeongeun seemed to catch something in an instant and asked back in alarm.
“Wait a second. Don’t tell me you’re thinking of running high-speed rail on this subway?”
“We didn’t come up with it.”
“What....”
Ko Yeongeun’s gaze followed mine and Bronze Agent’s, landing on the talisman under the overturned chair.
“It seems the agents who made this Train Shelter planned from the start to use this train as an escape method.”
“......W-wait, wait....”
Ko Yeongeun drew in and let out a few breaths as if she were digesting the information pouring in, then spoke quickly in a steady voice.
“Noru.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you think I’d know whether this subway train is compatible with high-speed rail....”
“.......”
All this time, I’d gotten so much informational help from her that I’d reflexively asked, thinking maybe she’d know—if that put pressure on you, I’m sor—
“But I do know.”
“...!”
“...Living here, I tried to listen to my aunt as much as I could. Subway and rail-related stuff.”
Because we were trapped in the subway.
“And I’ve also heard some ‘rumors’ about the subway, too.”
I looked at the person who had tried desperately to gather rumors and information just to adapt to suddenly being thrown into an extreme survivor group.
“Then may I ask for your answer?”
“Yes.”
Ko Yeongeun frowned as she spoke.
“As far as I know... first, the track gauge should be the same. Meaning it would sit properly and mesh on the tracks normally.”
“...!”
“Wait, but subway and high-speed rail start with different speeds... doesn’t that mean the principle of movement is different?”
“That’s right. The current would be different.”
At Deputy Eun Haje’s words, Ko Yeongeun nodded.
“I heard subways usually use direct current, and high-speed rail uses alternating current. Simply put, high-speed rail uses much higher voltage.”
“Is it incompatible?”
“I don’t know about elsewhere, but as far as I know, the Se-gwang Special City subway can’t.”
“.......”
Ko Yeongeun had learned this through Q&A with her aunt, someone in a related profession.
Then the agents would have been able to, too.
If they’d reached the same conclusion we had.
-Just, he kept getting off on his own, saying this train needed something more, and he kept going out to look for it!
“I think that was it.”
“Huh?”
“The reason the agents who made this Train Shelter couldn’t attempt escape right away, and went around looking for supplies.”
Current.
Fuel, or power, to make this train run...!
That was....
“Will-o’-the-wisp.”
I turned to Bronze Agent.
“If we have a will-o’-the-wisp, isn’t it possible?”
If we used a supernatural entity as power instead of current.
“It’s possible.”
“......!!”
Yeah. Then everything connected.
“But at the time, the agents on this train didn’t have that will-o’-the-wisp.”
If they had, they would have left behind “traces you can recognize if an agent touches it,” like at Hanbit Library....
“So they kept going out to the stations.”
“...To find the holder!”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“They must have been searching for other agents who came in carrying a will-o’-the-wisp.”
But in the process, instead of finding another agent, they were worn down until, in the end....
.......
We swallowed the rest, naturally.
“......Then if we bring back a will-o’-the-wisp, we can try this escape method right away.”
For an instant, hope flickered through Ko Yeongeun’s eyes, but—
“Wait! If you can physically run out by doing that, then a lot of people who were already outside the subway would’ve escaped too, wouldn’t they? But they couldn’t.”
Having had hope about escape crushed again and again, she tried to keep checking the situation as calmly as possible.
“You’re right.”
“Or maybe it’s possible, but everyone outside is already dead, so there was nobody to even try it.”
“.......”
“Well, that’s just my guess.”
Deputy Eun Haje’s words were hopeful for our situation, and utterly despairing for Se-gwang Special City’s.
But I had another doubt, too.
The sealing of Se-gwang Special City isn’t just a level of keeping ghost stories from leaking from inside to outside.
It was a Sealing Ritual structured so that Se-gwang Special City residents were sacrificed. So of course citizens couldn’t easily escape.
Could we really escape by high-speed rail? How far had the agents of this Train Shelter guessed and prepared?
First... I need to bring Agent Choi and Agent Haegum in.
I wanted to confirm the opinions of veteran agents who knew Se-gwang Special City, no matter what.
If we touched this rashly and someone died, it would be irreversible.
I nodded.
“Even if we try after preparing slowly and checking thoroughly, it won’t be too late.”
“...Yes.”
Ko Yeongeun’s face settled into calm.
And as if she were trying not to let herself hope again, she lowered her expression.
Through that, the train’s outside noise—joyful voices from the Train Shelter residents—drifted in faintly.
“.......”
“.......”
“Um, but.”
Ko Yeongeun’s face turned oddly uncomfortable.
“Noru. Don’t tell me that thing you said a few days ago, that rabbit enthusiasts would increase inside the train... you meant that ceremony happening outside right now...?”
Ah.
“It... wasn’t intentional.”
Ko Yeongeun’s expression grew even more uncomfortable.
“I-it wasn’t intentional, but you can predict rabbit-doll enthusiasts will increase?”
“.......”
“.......”
“I’m sorry. I was looking for a gap to explore the Driver’s Cab.... I’ll... clean it up.”
The stares were really sharp....
Under the quiet glare of the Train Shelter residents and Section Chief Lee Jaheon (why?), I lowered my head.
I heard Ko Yeongeun’s uncomfortable voice.
“Still, I think this is the first time I’ve seen the people in this shelter all enjoying something together. It’s kind of... like the World Cup.”
Yes....
Thank goodness....
It was when I let out a relieved breath.
“But doesn’t it feel... kind of strangely quiet since earlier?”
“Huh?”
“No, I know it’s really noisy outside.... But still. Somehow.”
Muttering why? Ko Yeongeun kept glancing toward the car beyond the Driver’s Cab window.
Car 1, almost empty now, was calm, sure—but the sounds from beyond it were still loud and bustling.
What does she mean?
“What do you mean by ‘quiet’?”
“I don’t know. I... it’s, like, hollow?”
Hollow?
Like something is missing?
It meant it felt like something that had been there wasn’t there. But in a train, something you’d notice like that by sound....
.......
Ah.
There had been no announcements.
“.......”
“How many minutes have we been talking now?”
“Five? Ten....”
“Eleven minutes and twelve seconds.”
Wait.
Hearing Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s voice, I slowly turned my head....
“The interval between stations on the Se-gwang subway,”
“Is about eight to ten minutes....”
It was a timing where an announcement should have played at least once.
No—if I include the time I spent talking with Bronze Agent about the talisman....
Right now, something was wrong.
“The train isn’t arriving at stations....”
.......
......!!
“Agent!”
Bronze Agent almost simultaneously flipped the chair over again to check the talisman. The strokes made from ash-water—
Were boiling, burning black.
“.......”
Wait, wait!
“This is... did the talisman activate?”
“Huh??”
“No, why all of a sudden??”
“Bronze Agent, does that item activate when discovered by someone else?”
“No! If you used a talisman like that, there’s no way this kind of form could—”
But Bronze Agent’s face went paper-white.
“...But it is exerting its effect.”
Damn it!
I immediately started peering through the front window beyond the control area.
More precisely, I pressed my head to the glass and tried to look back at the section we’d already passed.
Unfamiliar.
Something was off. I’d seen the outside environment while riding the subway a few times, but definitely compared to now....
It felt less dark.
“.......”
I pulled my smartphone from my pocket, turned on the flashlight, pressed it to the window, and tried desperately to see behind the train.
The light was useless. I couldn’t see the rear.
But I caught a sign flashing by.
Safety First During Maintenance
Two Workers Per Team Required
...This track wasn’t an official, in-service subway line.
A maintenance zone.
A line that branched outward.
The train... is running straight.
The track no longer curves and loops.
We’d passed it without noticing.
A track switch.
The talisman had changed this train’s destination by “accidentally hitting a track switch.”
“...The train has left the subway loop line.”
“Wait.”
“Then the destination is....”
Section Chief Lee Jaheon silently lifted his head and declared.
“Altitude is increasing.”
“......!”
We were going up to the surface.
“From this point on, do not stare excessively forward. We are leaving the underground space.”
“.......”
“This team is entering darkness that has no exploration record.”
And outside this subway is the space of a catastrophic supernatural disaster.
The train was running toward the outside high-speed rail!
“We have to stop the train.”
“Noru...!”
“We’re not ready yet.”
No—there wasn’t time to persuade. Damn it. I hurried to the control area to hit the emergency stop button—
“You can’t! The talisman is already exerting its effect. If you interfere, it could go wrong in an even more unexpected direction!”
Damn it!
“Agent, even if this doesn’t go wrong and we escape cleanly, it’s still a problem!”
Because if—if this train really was a method to escape Se-gwang Special City, and escape succeeded like this....
Those two die.
Because they’re already dead.
If they go out, they’ll only become something that moves, dead, contaminated by the ghost story.
No.
An alternative!
I slapped away Bronze Agent’s hand gripping my shoulder and grabbed the side door of the Driver’s Cab at once.
“Hey!”
“Agent! Deputy! I’ll open the door, so get off! Get off and walk down along the tracks!”
It won’t open. Damn it! My eyes went wild, fixed on the control area. The train door release mechanism in the Driver’s Cab, the release mechanism...!
Where is it!
There was no clue an amateur could find. Damn it, damn it....
“Section Chief! Just break the Driver’s Cab door lock—”
“Stop.”
“.......”
“We’ll try to save the two of us and smash the train and get everyone killed. Come on, Noru.”
I turned my head.
Deputy Eun Haje was smiling bitterly.
“...It’s already too late. Look.”
Ah.
I turned my head.
Bright light was pouring in through the Driver’s Cab window.
The surface.
Se-gwang Special City appeared.
