Inside the engineer's compartment.
The Chief Conductor, his face ashen, glanced back and forth between my Agent uniform and the commotion outside, then began to stammeringly confess everything to me.
About this train.
"You already… you already know, don't you, that, that subway trains have always been strangely safe for some reason…."
It seemed that almost everyone had realized the gimmick, 'even injured people become fine once they enter the train,' from the very Day of Disaster.
"People were pushing to get on the train, fighting over seats… fights broke out, people died, it was absolute chaos."
"Then were people originally occupying this train in the same way?"
"No! This train appeared out of nowhere!"
…!
"A train that wasn't there before suddenly announced it would be running the next day, and then it pulled into the station and the doors opened!"
I could imagine the scene.
People who had barely survived, unable to board a train, gathered on the relatively safe platform, only to see a new, empty train appear with its doors opening.
"…And inside were the expendable agent and other agents, I presume."
"Th-that's right."
The Chief Conductor, eyes darting around, composed himself and spoke in a deliberately plausible tone.
"But I recognized this train. This was a Defective Train!"
"…!"
"You know, when a train breaks down during operation, we don't take it all the way to the Garage, we move it to a sidetrack. Usually, after the subway closes for the day, we park trains on a hidden track in the station, so it was probably there."
"..."
"I don't know how they managed to repair it, but they brazenly showed up with it and started taking the people left at the station…."
They must have used some supernatural equipment or ability to make the Defective Train functional.
Having been swallowed by a supernatural phenomenon in the first place, they probably had no reservations.
"I… yes. They asked if anyone had experience operating a train, so, yes. I helped the expendable agent a lot. Hahaha…."
So, this man wasn't even the original engineer of this train.
'Is that why he was called the Chief Conductor.'
"Of course, subways these days are almost all automated, but still, having an expert versus not having one makes a big difference, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I understand the expendable agent's decision."
However, I glanced back at the paper taped next to the cockpit, where dozens of names were crossed out with an X.
"But I imagine their expectations for what that expert would do after they were gone were quite different."
"No… Agent, Agent! You really have to understand this, is it an ordinary hardship to live with this many people for several years?"
The Chief Conductor said urgently.
"The people who called themselves Agents, huh? They went to the station to get supplies and didn't come back, one by one! That all happened because they were trying to take all the refugees who came to the train with them. We were short on food and everything, but they kept trying to get enough for the exact number of people, and that's how it ended up like this!"
"…Is that what you think?"
"Of course! You know how it is. When people are all together, you have to cut some loose, huh? You have to leave some things behind for the system to work."
"..."
"It's all~ because I was trying to maintain this shelter, huh? Following the expendable agent's wishes! As I tried to maintain it, I got overwhelmed and made mistakes, that's all!"
I didn't feel a surge of anger.
It was just a strange feeling.
In fact, this man's own situation was the result of being abandoned by the outside world under the very judgment of 'you have to leave some things behind.'
But to see him make a statement that, on the contrary, justified the situation he was in, felt bizarre.
And a strange sense of exhaustion… thinking that the agents had pushed themselves too hard one by one and died trying to save a person like this.
'…Anything beyond this is not for me to judge.'
It was probably right for the people who had been in the Train Shelter all along to do it themselves.
So, instead of showing hostility to the Chief Conductor, I went back to searching for information.
"Tell me more about when the expendable agent went missing. I heard they went to get food."
"What? No, I think there's a misunderstanding here, I absolutely did not chase the agent out or anything like that!"
Hmm?
I remained silent on purpose. The Chief Conductor, growing more wary, poured out an explanation to excuse himself.
"You're trying to say, 'Why did they go out at that specific time when we weren't short on food,' aren't you?"
[He's confessing on his own.]
"Absolutely not! I did not do anything to deliberately chase that agent out. They just kept getting off on their own, saying something like, 'There's something more this train needs'?"
…'There's something more this train needs'.
"What exactly did they say was needed?"
"Well, they didn't really answer properly. They just smiled and told me to wait and see. There was nothing to smile about, but they kept doing it, so I started getting annoyed…."
I cut the Chief Conductor off.
"Then did the expendable agent leave any last words? Anything they usually emphasized, or said before they left."
"…Well, they tried to give the people on the train hope. Things like that. That we'd be able to escape someday, that they were looking for a way…."
I could see him rolling his eyes as if thinking it was all obvious platitudes.
That alone was enough to tell me.
'…That agent must have had an incredibly hard time.'
The agents of the Disaster Management Bureau, no, precisely because they were agents, would have known all too well.
That they had no idea how much longer they would be trapped with the survivors in this city's subway ghost story, beneath a surface where countless civilians had been massacred.
'At some point, they must have realized they were sealed in.'
Perhaps an agent well-versed in rituals or ceremonies might have even faintly grasped the circumstances of being a human sacrifice.
But they couldn't have shown it.
Reassuring all the survivors—few in number, but still overwhelmingly many for one person—and stabilizing this shelter so it wouldn't constantly descend into a living hell must have been no ordinary task….
"..."
"Ah, th-that's right! There's something the expendable agent left behind! It's a personal belonging, you could call it their only memento. Over there…."
"Don't move."
The Chief Conductor, who had been cautiously trying to get up, froze again when I grabbed his shoulder.
Keeping one hand firmly pressed on his shoulder, I opened the place he had pointed to.
A small drawer next to the cockpit.
The moment I opened it, a small object in the empty space was revealed along with a cloud of dust.
"..."
It was a Five-colored escape rope.
An agent's standard-issue item that couldn't function properly here.
It was neatly tied like a shoelace, covered in a layer of dust.
…The end was slightly frayed.
As if someone had frequently fiddled with it to find peace of mind.
"..."
The desire to get out.
And… it also felt like a cord of hope, expressing the will to one day leave.
And so, I realize.
'They must have done something.'
—They just kept going out on their own to find something, saying this train needed something more!
They must have been planning a rescue operation beyond simple survival.
Even if they thought it was hopeless, there must have been something they were trying to do, an attempt to make the outside world rescue the civilians.
Just like the agents at Segwang High.
If so, where could it be?
"N-now that I've answered everything, Agent…."
"Shh."
I continued to examine the engineer's seat.
If there was a core facility on the train, it would naturally be here. What on earth did they think this train needed?
I looked into the cockpit. But would the agents have touched the complex-looking equipment and monitoring screens without an expert present?
If they did, where….
—Sir.
—How about we think centered on the user, not the facility?
The user.
A place the agent themself could routinely access, use, and protect.
But a place that another person entering this engineer's compartment would find difficult to notice or touch even by accident.
"…!"
I looked back at the Chief Conductor.
The Chief Conductor, who had flinched when our eyes met, freaked out when I reached out with my other hand, not the one holding his shoulder.
"Huh? Uh, ugh… huh?"
I lifted the Chief Conductor straight up.
And moved him aside.
Then I flipped over the chair he had been sitting on.
The seat of the 'engineer' who operated the train.
"…!!"
* * *
A short while later.
"E-everyone!"
The Chief Conductor, who had rushed out of the engineer's seat, raised both hands and shouted.
"I was shortsighted. The Rabbit Doll is a perfect friend to humanity! I of course permit the train's remodeling!"
"Woo!!"
The peak of dopamine!
A sense of victory, as if they had won a sports match, filled the inside of the train. The people, steeped in the narrative, all took the Chief Conductor and went to the representative of the Rabbit Worship Cult.
A crowd naturally formed, and people began to flow out like an ebbing tide toward car number 3.
And there was someone quietly following that crowd.
Lee Jaheon.
Because of his remarkably conspicuous physique, those who already knew him spotted him at once even in this pandemonium.
"Manager?"
"Deputy Falcon."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje approached with a pleased look and whispered.
After all, a temporary atmosphere had been created where, regardless of being an outsider, you were socially acceptable as long as you wore a Rabbit Doll badge.
She spoke with a hint of amusement.
Deliberately not even mentioning the fact that she had died.
"I heard you worked part-time at the Talk Show ghost story. What did you do?"
"I performed audience guidance, guest assistance, staff support, and porter duties."
"…You did four things at once? No, wait a minute, when you were doing one thing, did someone come up to you, get angry or sigh, and then make you do something else? Right?"
At that, Lee Jaheon replied instantly with a blank expression.
"Yes."
"Bwahaha!"
Eun Haje burst out laughing.
But given the situation, she couldn't laugh for long.
She could see her companion wandering in the distance.
"Ah, there he is."
It was Bronze, who was muttering "Pink…?" with a bewildered face as he looked at the Rabbit Worship Cult and the plush doll enshrined in the Central Velvet Battleship.
Having spent the last few days visiting Jang Heo-un… that is, Agent Hwagak, under the pretext of getting food, he was having trouble adjusting to the suddenly changed pandemonium on the train.
It was enough to make him forget the bitterness of having to manage and take care of the bodies of those who had left the train and died so they wouldn't rot.
Then, he finally met someone he knew.
"…!"
Bronze rushed over and got straight to the point.
He had no idea why this Lizard employee, who hadn't been here before, was present, but that wasn't the most urgent matter right now!
"That, isn't that the doll Agent Grapes used to carry?!"
"It is not."
"Then that's a relie—."
"It is a replica of that doll."
"..."
Bronze was at a loss for words, but he managed to reply.
"Then is this perhaps… Agent Grapes's doing?"
"Yes."
"…!! Did you see where he is? I have to go find him right aw—."
Section Chief Lee Jaheon grabbed Bronze by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up.
"?!"
—Manager. Could you possibly find Bronze in the back cars and bring him here?
It was to grant both of their requests!
And so, a short while later.
Knock, knock.
The door to the engineer's compartment opened once more with a short knock, and Section Chief Lee Jaheon pushed the person he had found inside.
"…Agent Grapes."
"Bronze."
Bronze approached urgently.
"What on earth have you done?! Don't tell me you did all this just to get into this engineer's compartment…."
But he stopped talking.
Because Kim Soleum was looking at him with an expression full of tension, anxiety, and anticipation, his lips twitching.
"Agent, could you please check something for me?"
"Pardon?"
"Here,"
Kim Soleum flipped over the chair in front of the pilot's seat.
"…There's a talisman here."
"...!"
"I think the agents who made this train into a shelter attached it, but I have no expertise in talismans. So I needed you…."
"Please wait a moment."
Bronze stopped everything he was about to say.
And he looked again at the symbol on the underside of the overturned chair.
Straight lines.
A blocked pattern.
Repetition and restraint.
It was clearly drawn with the ashes of something burnt mixed into a viscous liquid. These ritualistic elements, barely cobbled together from whatever they could scrounge up in their environment.
But it was a talisman.
And he had already seen agents who tried to create a temporary protective barrier with such talismans, at that high school in Segwang Metropolitan City.
With terrifying concentration, Bronze's blue eyes shone as he began to decipher the meaning of the talisman.
"..."
"..."
And only after a good while did he straighten up.
"…What kind of talisman is it?"
"..."
Bronze, having returned the chair to its original position with extreme care, opened his mouth.
"This is not an evil-warding talisman."
"Pardon?"
"It means its purpose is not to drive away a wicked thing. …This is the opposite, a talisman that draws something in."
…!
"A Luck Amulet, that is… it could be said to be a talisman used to draw in fortune, luck, or a situation."
"…Like a talisman for passing an exam?"
"Yes. But the type is a bit different."
Bronze explained calmly.
"This is, if I had to classify it, a Destiny Amulet."
…Destiny?
"Are you saying this train is a talisman to meet someone?"
"Rather than someone… it seems to be for meeting a certain thing."
A certain thing.
"So, that talisman was made with the purpose of making this train meet a certain thing. But when a supernatural law is added to it…."
Bronze declared.
"To meet that thing, this train will move on its own."
...!
"Yes. If this talisman is used properly, the train itself will likely move somewhere in its entirety."
"…! Could it possibly move completely outside of Segwang Metropolitan City?"
"I don't think that's likely."
Bronze frowned.
"You can't write the strokes in a way that makes the train deviate from its role. So, it would be moved to a place where this train can fulfill its role…."
"..."
"That is how I interpreted it."
A place where the train can fulfill its role.
"…Then it would be on a track."
Kim Soleum's mind raced. He hurriedly checked the monitor attached to the side of the cockpit.
The train's route map.
(Image)
'If this talisman is used properly, does it go to the opposite track?'
Until now, the opposite track had been out of service. But perhaps because there was a hint on that side, this agent wanted to make the train run in the opposite direction….
'Then what's the order?'
Kim Soleum hurriedly recalled the stations in the order of the Segwang Subway Map.
Segwang Subway Map
Segwang Station (Forest Path of Demise)
Midnight Station (Body Casino)
Midnight Station (Hanbit Library)
Twilight Station (Conscience Vending Machine)
Afternoon Station (Blood Broadcasting Station)
Midday Station (Nap Shelter)
Morning Station (Scales Tribunal)
And he diligently traced the stations in reverse order. But….
'....'
As he did so, Kim Soleum suddenly thought of another question.
Because these station names had been revealed one by one, he had never recited them all in his head like this and hadn't noticed it before.
A slight sense of dissonance that he had just accepted as is.
'The subway stations in Segwang Metropolitan City… are all named after times of day.'
They were strange names.
It probably wasn't this non-intuitive method before. The station names would have been based on the region and its characteristics.
But after being Contaminated by the Day of Disaster incident, the subway mutated into a supernatural phenomenon, and the station names must have changed to these.
…But then.
'Why is Segwang Station still Segwang Station?'
It was strange.
Conversely, didn't that mean only Segwang Station wasn't Contaminated?
How could that be?
The suicide spot ghost story named Forest Path of Demise was definitely gruesomely Contaminated. To the point where they could only run away from it, without even daring to think about resolving it.
Then why was only the station name intact?
'That's….'
....
Segwang Station.
Segwang Metropolitan City.
...!!
"Agent Grapes?"
"Bronze."
Kim Soleum looked back at Bronze.
A strange light was flashing in his eyes.
"I think I've figured out where the expendable agent was trying to send this train."
"...!"
"It must be here."
And Kim Soleum pointed to a station on the route map.
"Segwang Station… you mean?"
"Yes."
Kim Soleum nodded.
"But it's not the track we've seen so far."
"That's…."
"Agent."
Kim Soleum's mind churned out logic as if it would explode.
Why hadn't Segwang Station's name mutated like the other subway stations?
It was simple.
Because it wasn't completely Contaminated by the subway ghost story.
Because that 'Segwang Station' wasn't a name exclusive to the subway!
"Segwang Station must have a high-speed railway."
"…!!"
That's right.
Kim Soleum recalled Seoul Station, where he had boarded the Train Bound for Tamra.
Seoul Station has a subway too.
But at the same time, there was something else.
'A high-speed rail…!'
Tracks that connect region to region.
"The station that represents this city, 'Segwang,' is very likely not just a subway station, but a high-speed rail station as well…!"
"…If that's the case."
Agent Bronze looked at the route map.
(Image)
"If this Train isn't on those tracks, but is placed on the high-speed rail tracks…."
The destination of those tracks doesn't just circulate within Segwang Metropolitan City like that.
"It goes outside."
"...!"
"The Agents were trying to take this Train and escape from Segwang Metropolitan City!"
Agent Bronze realized it again.
Agent Grapes, who would procure fuel for the Train, was here.
And if he, an expert in Talismans and Scripture, was here….
"We can try it now."
We can escape the Train Shelter.