Agent Bronze… Why is he in a Sekwang High uniform, looking so young?
"..."
My mind almost went blank at the insane situation, but I immediately collected myself and started to assess what was happening.
Agent Bronze looked slightly younger than his high school appearance I'd seen in the 'In the Dark Shadow' ghost story.
And it wasn't just the uniform that was different.
His expression and aura clearly showed his youth.
"Excuse me…"
And he doesn't recognize me.
'…Has he been assimilated into the Segwang Special City Ghost Story?'
Just like me, 'placed' as a suitable Civilian of Segwang Special City on May 4th.
…Wait a minute.
If all my companions who fell in here are in this state, then how on earth am I supposed to get them out?
How do I convince them?
The relief of finding a companion was brief, and I was immediately faced with another urgent choice.
I desperately racked my brain. Meanwhile, the high school student Ryu Jaegwan, who had run after me, caught his breath and chose his words.
"The bicycle from before… Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
I looked at his face, which was still so youthful.
His expression was a mix of bewilderment and concern, but he was calm for someone his age who had just witnessed something straight out of a ghost story happen in reality.
'…Agent Bronze did say he was first caught up in a ghost story and rescued by the Disaster Management Bureau when he was a student.'
Could he have been reverted to a point even before that? No, what's important right now is how to get him to come with me.
I pretended to look at the uniform of the student, who had no name tag, and asked.
"More importantly… are you a student?"
"Yes."
"Is your destination by any chance Sekwang High School? That looks like their uniform."
"It is, but…"
"That's great. I'm heading that way too."
I then approached the public bike rack and started smashing the bike locks with a rock.
"…!"
"It'll be difficult to rent a public bike with a Smartphone now. This will be faster than trying in vain."
"..."
"On your way here, did you see anyone swelling up? Or a Disaster Alert."
"…Yes."
"From now on, only listen for the alarm and never check the Disaster Alert. If you see people walking in a crowd on the street, never approach them."
In the meantime, one bike lock was completely broken, but I didn't stop and moved on to break the lock of the next bike.
I pulled one out and offered it to the high school student.
"Do you know how to ride a bike?"
The high school student Ryu Jaegwan looked at me with trembling eyes, then nodded his head firmly.
* * *
I was leading the way, riding my bike.
Behind me, the high school student Ryu Jaegwan followed on the public bike I had given him.
Seeing him follow with clenched teeth, it seemed Agent Bronze's cycling skills had been promising from the start….
I skillfully dodged the sounds of Disaster Alerts and screams coming from all over, continuously taking detours as I rode toward Sekwang Technical High School.
But those danger signals would soon disappear.
…Once no survivors are left in this area, the alerts will naturally stop sounding.
'I have to move fast.'
My mind was racing. As I was planning my route… I spotted something.
A convenience store.
"Wait a moment."
"Yes?"
Making sure Ryu Jaegwan's movements weren't wobbly, I stopped for a moment in front of the convenience store.
Then I quickly opened the door, went inside, and swept up various items.
'Mainly food.'
But I didn't take too much. Mobility was essential.
Instead, after some thought, I bought two of the sturdiest-looking large umbrellas and a tool set.
Then, I spoke to the part-timer at the counter, who had been glancing at a book with earphones in the whole time I was checking out.
"You need to get out of here, quickly."
"Huh?"
"There was a biochemical terror attack near City Hall, and it's spreading. Run to the subway station as fast as you can."
"!!"
Only then did the part-timer turn on his phone to check his messages, his face panicked as he began to stare frantically at his phone.
As I left, I caught a glimpse of the part-timer grabbing items from the convenience store, just like I had….
Then I looked at the high school student Ryu Jaegwan, who was watching me awkwardly while holding his bike, and said.
"Open your bag."
"Huh?"
I put two small bottles of water and a calorie bar into Ryu Jaegwan's school bag. Then I handed him an umbrella and had him strap it to the side of his bike.
"We don't know what the situation will be like from now on, so it's best to be prepared. Use the umbrella to push things away in an emergency."
"Th-thank you."
Ryu Jaegwan took the bag but hesitated before speaking.
"I-I'll pay you for it."
"I'm not about to take money from a student in an emergency like this. Get on your bike. We're heading to Sekwang High, quickly."
"But… yes."
Ryu Jaegwan looked like he had a lot to say and many questions, but knowing the gravity of the situation, he wiped his sweat and grabbed his bike again.
But in the end, he asked.
"How… do you know all this so well?"
"...I'm used to it."
"Huh?"
I changed the subject.
"More importantly, school hours have passed. Why are you heading to school now?"
"I, I had to go to the bank, so I was a little late."
"Have you contacted your family?"
"…It's fine."
From that euphemistic reply, I realized that Ryu Jaegwan's backstory here was likely similar to reality.
—Because my parents divorced when I was young, and after my mother passed away, I grew up in an orphanage.
…Let's not talk about it anymore.
"I understand."
I quietly started riding my bike again.
Perhaps because of his good physique, Ryu Jaegwan's bike followed me without any trouble.
'Good.'
Soon, the wall of Sekwang Technical High School came into view.
"Hoo."
The area around the school wasn't chaotic yet.
However, from the opposite wall and the nearby apartment complex, the sound of Disaster Alerts could be heard….
Along with overlapping screams.
"..."
"..."
Ryu Jaegwan and I approached the school's main gate very cautiously.
I could feel him watching me.
"Excuse me, why… did you come to this school?"
"There's someone I need to find."
I answered without hesitation, quietly looking around as I entered the school grounds.
When I parked the bike in an inconspicuous spot in a corner, Ryu Jaegwan similarly followed my lead, parking his bike and following me.
He was holding the umbrella, just like me.
I found that strangely commendable, but the tension only heightened.
'…The security guard isn't coming out.'
It was strange.
We walked toward the school entrance, careful even of the sound of our footsteps.
Soon, the high school student Ryu Jaegwan grabbed the front door. He pulled it… but the door didn't open properly due to a strange resistance.
As if something was stuck.
'Hmm?'
Ryu Jaegwan paused for a moment, then grabbed the door again and pulled harder….
"Wait."
"Yes?"
"Come over here."
Something felt off.
I stopped Ryu Jaegwan and, without opening the front door, carefully called him over to a window.
A window through which one could see into the first-floor hallway.
A soft-colored curtain was drawn there, but I could peek inside through a gap.
"...Hoo."
I looked through the gap first, then made way for Ryu Jaegwan.
The student, who had been looking at me with a questioning expression, turned his head to the gap, and his tense face soon became deathly pale.
"…Why?"
Just as I thought.
I saw the students lying asleep in the hallway.
It was the peaceful end-credit scene I had seen after clearing the 'In the Dark Shadow' ghost story.
Seeing the talismans stuck in the cracks of every classroom door and window, I felt a strange sense of lingering emotion.
'So this is how the barrier Team Leader Hong set up was manifested….'
Making the children remain asleep through the repeating Day of Disaster.
That comatose state was probably judged as a form of death, like the Baekseol Mountain Apple I had eaten, keeping them isolated from the World-ending Class Disaster that was spreading through the Disaster Alerts.
So I shouldn't open the school door.
It probably wouldn't have opened easily anyway.
But Ryu Jaegwan, a student of this school, seemed to have gotten a gruesome impression from seeing the students lying collapsed in a row in the school hallway.
"What is this, what on earth…"
I quietly looked back at Ryu Jaegwan.
"Do you remember anything?"
"…Remember?"
"I mean, does seeing that remind you of anything? Especially,"
I pointed a finger at a talisman.
At the symbol Agent Bronze himself had drawn.
"that talisman."
"..."
As Ryu Jaegwan's eyes scanned the talisman's symbol, a strange light flickered in them for a moment.
But it soon clouded over with worry and confusion, and the teenager's gaze returned.
And in the eyes that looked back at me, there was a strange wariness and tension.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"..."
Well, it took me over 600 repetitions to get out, so it's unreasonable to expect Agent Bronze to suddenly snap out of it with just a few words.
If anything, I, who was pointing at a talisman and saying something in this situation, would just seem suspicious.
'I can't get anxious.'
In that case.
"You don't need to worry."
I smiled as I looked back at the high school student Ryu Jaegwan.
"That's a protective talisman. As long as no one tears those talismans off, this school will be safe from what's happening now."
The expression 'how on earth would you know that' flashed across the high schooler's face, but his demeanor changed from wary to more inquisitive.
"So don't worry about your friends. It would be better to think about how to get out of here."
"…Excuse me, sir, what are you going to do? You said the person you're meeting is at the school."
Right. Ho Yuwon.
But a question bloomed in my mind.
With the school doors locked and everyone asleep, how could the Counselor come out?
At that moment.
My and Ryu Jaegwan's Disaster Alerts went off at the same time.
"…!"
I reflexively turned my head.
…Near the school gate.
In the shadow of a corner of the school building, a smiling security guard was watching us, a phone in one hand.
And he stepped out of the shadow and slowly walked toward us.
I watched, frozen.
I realized… that it wasn't just one security guard.
There was another torso connected to its spine, another lower body dangling like a tail.
It had merged with another security guard.
"…!"
And it didn't end there.
…I could see people beyond the school gate.
Residents of Segwang City, likely from the nearby apartments, wearing placid expressions.
A wave of them, walking along the main road, was visible just outside the school gate….
'Damn it.'
The security guards were walking across the schoolyard.
The Disaster Alert kept ringing, and the way out through the school gate was blocked….
I slapped my own hand as it reached for my Smartphone to check the Disaster Alert, then grabbed Ryu Jaegwan's Smartphone and pulled it down.
'Can't go out the main gate.'
Waiting for the Counselor… I'll give up on that for now.
"Student."
"..."
"Carefully, as soon as you grab your bike, head for the back gate. Got it? You must not run into the crowd at the main gate."
Ryu Jaegwan slowly nodded.
Cold sweat trickled down my chin.
To do that….
'…I guess I have to lure that thing first.'
I really didn't want to, but I had no choice.
I focused on the security guard first, not the crowd.
'I can't let that thing get inside the school building.'
If that security guard or the crowd was lured here because of the anomaly of me entering the high school, it would be the absolute worst-case scenario.
I suppressed a shudder and swallowed. I was about to run toward the school gate.
But the moment I took a step.
[Oh my, we have a prior guest, my friend!]
I saw the silhouette of a person heading toward the school gate before me.
And that person's back was all too familiar.
The Counselor.
The being I had been waiting for seemed slightly flustered, but he soon collected himself and started running.
"…!!"
The Counselor headed steadfastly toward the school gate despite the crowd outside, but he stopped upon seeing the security guards.
And the moment the 'security guards' also spotted the Counselor.
…The teacher strode toward the security guards.
'No.'
A chill ran down my spine.
'Is he crazy!'
In the end, I gritted my teeth, ran, and grabbed my bike.
"Go now! The back gate!"
"…!"
Then I got on my bike and started riding like mad toward the school gate.
The wheels hit the ground.
'Please!'
I believe in my Disaster Management Bureau-style cycling skills!
But at that moment….
The Counselor plunged his hand into the security guard.
"…!"
It was as if he was rummaging for something, digging through the flesh of the mutated security guard's head. The guard swayed at the motion.
I realize again something I knew but hadn't truly grasped.
The Counselor is not human.
A Cooperative Spirit Beast.
So, that thing was also a ghost story.
I reflexively stopped the bike.
The being before me was exploring the guard's insides with a serious, academic air, as if trying to figure out what it was.
But.
"...!"
The Counselor flinched.
As if noticing something was wrong, he tried to pull his hand out.
But his hand wouldn't come out.
Instead, the Counselor's arm was sucked into the guard's mutated torso. My Disaster Alert blared loudly. The area around the Counselor distorted strangely, and a strange stimulus?a tile-roofed house?a strange, blue forest, a high fever seemed to rush through my head….
"Hup!"
I came to my senses and looked up again.
In that time, the Counselor had almost pulled his arm out of the security guard's head, but the revealed arm was….
It was melting, dissolving into a gooey mess.
"…!!"
And the security guard was slowly reaching out, as if to grab the Counselor.
'Damn it…!'
I hesitated, then finally got the bike moving again, gritted my teeth, and charged forward.
With an internal scream, I narrowly snatched the Counselor from in front of the 'security guards'.
"…!"
With the bike's momentum, the Counselor's arm was barely pulled free from the security guard.
A strange headache and pressure made my nose bleed.
The Counselor's weight almost made the bike topple over, but I used sheer strength to balance it and started riding again.
My head was spinning.
[A feat worthy of being called acrobatics, Mr. Roe Deer!]
The Counselor, half-dragged by the bike, was perched behind me like a piece of luggage.
But it seemed he was making sure his own infected arm didn't brush against my back.
'…Hah.'
I almost fell over about three times but managed to shake off the 'security guards'.
My hands grew damp.
As I recalled the movements of agents who were better cyclists than me, I couldn't have missed Agent Choi and Agent Bronze more.
'Please.'
Feeling cold sweat run down my spine, I pedaled like crazy.
A seemingly flustered voice came from behind me.
"You are…."
"Talk later!"
I cut across the schoolyard toward the back gate, joined up with Ryu Jaegwan who was coming out from there, and barely managed to get my bearings and ride on.
Toward a direction where the Disaster Alert alarm was faintest.
Since both my hands were occupied, I thankfully didn't have the chance to check the Disaster Alert inadvertently.
All the while, the Counselor I had snatched was carried behind me in silence.
"Hoo-wook!"
I came to a stop near the mountain behind the school after a full-on sprint.
This place, quite far from City Hall and sparsely populated, showed no signs of the Disaster's contamination yet.
And….
"Are you alright?"
"..."
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.
I turned my head.
The Counselor, who had been on the back of the bike, was holding me with his uninfected hand, looking at me with a worried expression.
The face of Ho Yuwon, but a person with an unfamiliar, comfortable, and friendly air.
Director Ho's true form.
The target he had been so desperately searching for, trapped in Sekwang Special City, was looking at me.
"Cooperative Spirit Beast-nim."
"You can just call me Counselor."
"Counselor."
I swallowed hard.
I really hate to say this, but….
"Give me your arm."
"Pardon?"
"Give me your arm, and clench your teeth."
No matter how I looked at it, it had to be amputated.
But he smiled and stopped me.
"The Contamination only applies to Civilians. I'm fine…."
But the Counselor's expression clouded over as he looked at his own arm again.
Because its form was collapsing into a gooey mess.
"…I'm starting."
"..."
The teacher stopped trying to refuse.
I took out a suitable tool from the tool set and began the procedure….
"…Student."
"..."
"Turn around and face the other way."
But Ryu Jaegwan sat down next to me with a pale face.
"I'll help."
"No, you won't."
"Get back."
But the high school student stubbornly handed me the saw from the tool set.
His hand was trembling.
Even though it must be difficult to understand what's happening, a stubborn will is visible in the two eyes set in his pale face.
I held back a sigh and finally began the amputation.
Squelch.
But the Counselor's expression is calm.
It was as if he felt no pain, nothing at all, to a strange degree.
The part below his ruined elbow simply fell off.
As if it had never been there.
As if it were deleted.
"..."
"Thank you."
Is it because he isn't human?
Hiding the goosebumps rising on the hand that held the saw, I silently nodded.
The Counselor, who stared impassively at the spot where his hand had disappeared, had a complexion so calm it was bizarre for a human.
But for a different reason, a slight urgency tinged his voice.
"Could I possibly ask for one more favor? There's a place I must go to end this Disaster. There's something I need to find."
"..."
"If you could just give me a ride to the station on your bike, I'll try to end it with the Hyunmu Team Agents while you rescue the others."
But I knew.
All the efforts of the Counselor and the Agents would fail miserably.
Trapped in here, endlessly repeating the Day of Disaster.
"..."
My spirits sank.
But the Counselor, seeing my expression, spoke jokingly as if on purpose.
"You're wearing my jacket, so I'd appreciate it if you could at least do this for me."
"…!"
"You must have found it in the branch office's break room."
I looked down at my clothes.
…Juror Number 1's jacket.
That is, Ho Yuwon's Disaster Management Bureau jacket was still draped over me.
The Counselor, Ho Yuwon, standing before me, had been looking at the Fox patch on my jacket.
He had realized it was his.
'…In that case.'
I, in turn, gave an awkward smile.
"It must be your jacket, sir. I was on a break from work, so I grabbed it in a hurry. I apologize."
A small smile spread across the Counselor's anxious face.
"It's alright. Are you an Agent from the Blue Dragon Team?"
It was then.
"…Did you say Agent?"
Both the Counselor and I turned to look at him.
Ryu Jaegwan.
In his slightly trembling voice, there was a composure trying to suppress confusion and fear.
But there was also a faint curiosity.
"What kind of… Agent are you?"
"..."
In that moment, I realized.
A way to accompany Ryu Jaegwan.
I slowly opened my mouth.
"You saw them earlier, right? The Disaster Alert, the monster, the strange phenomena. They're like ghost stories."
"..."
The high school student, Ryu Jaegwan, nodded.
I calmly continued my explanation.
"This is a Disaster called a Supernatural Phenomenon. I'm an Agent belonging to the government agency that specializes in these phenomena… the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau."
"…!"
"I came here because there are people who must be rescued…."
I looked at Ryu Jaegwan, whose eyes were shining unknowingly, and said.
"Do you know who one of them is?"
"…Is it the Counselor?"
"No."
I smiled and looked at the high school student.
"It's you."
"…!"
"Student Ryu Jaegwan."
Looking at the strange Agent who called him by his name, which he had never told him, high school student Ryu Jaegwan's eyes wavered.
"I was relieved to find you quickly. So…."
I said, taking hold of him.
"Until you safely escape this Disaster, student Ryu Jaegwan, I will accompany you."