Chapter 111

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Bound for Tamra? What is that?”

“An error? Wow, but it’s a bit chilling.”

The passengers of the high-speed rail muttered as they looked at the altered cabin screen.

Even so, they were not serious; their tone was merely that something unusual had happened during a boring travel time.

…That was, until they truly realized what kind of incident it was.

“Hey, I filmed this. I’m going to post it on Inheart……. …Huh?”

“Why?”

“…The internet isn’t working.”

It was typical.

“Hey, turn on your smartphone. Quick!”

“Uh, excuse me, but it says I’m out of service range. By any chance, does your phone work?”

“What is this? Why is all communication down?”

The muttering of the people grew louder.

However, Assistant Manager Butterfly, who sat in front of me, did not budge, and Supervisor Dolphin, sitting in the aisle-side seat next to me, merely grumbled softly.

“Ah, how annoying. We got swept up in this when there are so many civilians, of all times.”

For it was a typical introduction to the Dark that anyone in our company’s field exploration division would guess.

Furthermore, though they did not know it, this ghost story was actually an anomaly that the government—not our company—had already identified and left a short document about decades ago.

The Peach Blossom Spring Trial (tentative name) was a phenomenon that occurred very rarely on the Iksan-bound high-speed rail departing from Seoul.

No casualties to date. Disaster classification deferred.

But that was also all.

‘Because there were no casualties!’

The Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau usually registered a ghost story as a disaster only when someone died.

Therefore, the short document had concluded with, “As the Iksan-bound high-speed rail is extended to the Mokpo-bound high-speed rail, the anomaly in question is assumed to have disappeared.”

But… it had started again.

Right now, in this very train.

“Excuse me! L-Look outside!!”

“Oh my goodness!”

I turned my head and looked out the train window. Outside the window, which should have shown the city as we left Seoul….

An endless blue sea lay before us.

“…!”

The blue horizon meeting the orange sky created a fantastic and bizarre scenery.

Splashing water droplets, the train parted the waves and advanced rapidly over the glittering ripples of the blue sea….

“Is this train… running on top of the sea right now?! H-How?”

“Wow….”

“Ah, isn’t this a graphic? Like some trial operation of liquid crystal windows?”

The passengers admired the background, which felt strange yet beautiful and somehow like a transcendental space, forgetting their bewilderment.

Some people holding their non-functional smartphones tried to take pictures, only to be surprised that the files wouldn’t save.

The Exploration-Bound High-Speed Rail Incident.

It was identical to the introduction of the document I knew….

“…….”

Dammit.

Had I focused on the very fact that ‘I am boarding a Mokpo-bound high-speed train,’ I might have noticed the possibility of this ghost story occurring.

‘But by design, I was made to overlook this.’

For they had placed another Dark as the target in front of me!

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

Because I focused on this proposition, constantly revising and supplementing only this countermeasure, a spike popped out from an unexpected place.

I interlaced my fingers. My mind spun rapidly.

‘…Is this a trap aimed at this?’

Or is it a coincidence?

It was indeed written in the wiki that this incident ‘occurred without anyone anticipating it.’

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

Other groups or individuals… might have figured it out by looking at the occurrence patterns of ghost stories.

……Especially.

‘When I look at my companions, it feels too intentional….’

“Excuse me, Assistant Manager. Wake up.”

“……Sigh.”

Beside me, Supervisor Dolphin woke up Assistant Manager Butterfly in the front seat.

“Is it work again? I’d rather it be high-grade. So we can report it and get more points.”

“Right!”

The two from the elite team.

In other words, they were people capable of making cold-blooded, decisive decisions for the success of the mission.

‘…They are a terrible match for this ghost story.’

This was….

Because it was a ghost story that tested human ethics.

“Hmm. The text on the screen has changed.”

…….

I raised my head with coldly frozen eyes.

A new sentence flowed across the screen.

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“…Sacrifice?”

Clack.

One of the windows at the very front of the train car opened.

The people sitting nearby were startled.

“Gosh!”

“This is originally a window that doesn’t open……. Wait a minute. Why isn’t any wind coming in?”

“But why did this suddenly open….”

As if….

As if telling them to throw a sacrifice in there.

“…….”

Bewilderment and a faint fear spread across the faces of a few passengers who had left their seats completely to actively check the anomaly.

“What… sacrifice? Offer a sacrifice?”

“This is too strange….”

Yet no one wanted to deduce or talk about what a real sacrifice or offering was.

“…Wasn’t it just hacked?”

“Hey, let’s just find a crew member.”

It was avoidance.

The people merely clicked their tongues with anxious eyes and sat down, or moved to another car to search for a crew member again.

They pretended to be calm like that.

Because they truly realized that the current situation was unusual, a chilly silence flowed through the cabin instead….

Tap, tap.

At that moment, Assistant Manager Butterfly lightly tapped the armrest opposite her, drawing my and Supervisor Dolphin’s attention.

“Don’t step forward. Observe what they do first.”

“Understood for now!”

“Yes.”

Probably, the assistant manager wanted to see what kind of results would be brought about by someone else trying first. …It also felt like she was trying to keep me from acting impulsively.

But I had no intention of stepping forward in the first place.

‘If this is indeed that incident, it is better not to act right now….’

I sat quietly and watched if the situation unfolded ‘as destined.’

After a while.

“This is too strange!”

Screams of people began to erupt intermittently here and there.

“We found a crew member, but they’re in a complete panic! They’re screaming that they don’t know either!”

“No, there are people who brought their children in the front car, right? Everyone is in an uproar saying their kids have disappeared! It doesn’t seem like an ordinary situation….”

“They say they can’t contact the driver. The driver’s cabin door is completely locked!!”

Upon starting to communicate with other cars, they learned even more chilling facts.

-Ah, chaos! In human history, what cannot be understood has always been an object of fear, and there is no exception here either.

-Are you going to keep watching where they flow, my friend?

‘…For a while.’

That was correct.

However, because anxiety was unavoidable, I grit my teeth to suppress my nervousness.

Then I looked at the people standing in front of the train cabin door, talking as if making a public announcement to everyone.

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

“Right, this is definitely a huge deal…!”

Ring!

“……Huh?”

Everyone’s gaze turned.

New characters appeared on the in-flight video.

Entering the First Altar

“……Altar?”

Whish.

Outside the window, the dazzlingly blue sea suddenly began to turn red….

Then it suddenly became dark.

“Ah!”

Through all the windows, a wall covered with a bizarre mucous membrane began to show instead of the horizon.

“T-This is…….”

“Oh my god!”

As if the high-speed train were entering a tunnel or a station, the train continued to slide and run into that strange and dark space.

Distance Remaining: 5

“S-Shouldn’t we try doing something?”

“Let’s try finding a button or something!”

“A button? There’s no such thing….”

Distance Remaining: 4

“Ah, what should we do? What do we do….”

“Hey! Person in the seat in front of the window! Let’s close this window together, instead of just sitting there…!”

“Ah, seriously, so fucking noisy!”

Thud!

Distance Remaining: 3

“A-Are you trying to push someone right now… Huh? Uh, uh, uh?”

Splash.

“Ah! Someone fell out the window!”

“N-No! He tried to push me and then fell on his own!”

Distance Remaining: 2

“S-Shouldn’t we stop the train? Someone fell….”

Distance Remaining: 1

“Let’s lie flat on the floor, quietly.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

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