Chapter 261.2 |
I hesitated briefly, then decided to explain the relevant information properly.
‘We’ll have to share exploration information anyway.’
It would be easier if I could give a source. Since the screen itself wasn’t visible, there was no risk of revealing the <Dark Exploration Records>.
Of course, I couldn’t say something like, ‘Got it from a merch box. Shocking, right?’ so I phrased it indirectly.
“I acquired a damaged memorial popsocket and had it repaired with the Elder’s help.”
“Our elder?”
“Yes.”
In practice, that was more than half true.
And what I was saying was that during the repair process, functions other than ‘reading information already acquired’ would sometimes manifest…
“That’s correct.”
I nodded.
Before suspicion or doubt could surface on the agents’ faces, I added this as well.
“…It might be influenced by my state as part of the Security Team.”
“……”
The atmosphere sank for a moment, but Agent Choi smiled casually, as if it were nothing.
Whoosh, and he even let out a quiet whistle.
“Our Grapes-ie, that new ability seems pretty usefu—”
I could feel every passenger’s gaze.
“…!!”
Office workers sitting and standing, students, the elderly, people in training suits, suits, dresses, jeans. All of them.
They were looking at Agent Choi.
“……”
They turned their heads and stared intently.
When I held my breath and checked, the passengers in the next car were also looking at us. Without leaving their seats, they turned only their eyes, and the pressure of those gazes pouring in made it feel like our eyes would meet no matter where we looked.
“……”
Agent Choi moved his hand, just slightly.
The gazes didn’t change.
Agent Choi took a single step near the door.
The gazes didn’t change.
Agent Choi took the smartphone I held out to him.
The gazes didn’t change.
Agent Choi casually sat down in one of the seats. Then he pretended to look at the smartphone.
Just like the other passengers.
……
……
The gazes disappeared.
“……Huu.”
We quickly moved closer to Agent Choi.
The agent wiped away cold sweat and grinned.
“I thought things were about to blow up.”
“I thought my heart was going to drop, Sir Highborn Civil Servant. Ah, that was a figure of speech, Section Chief.”
“Yes.”
After a few joking remarks were exchanged, we collected one piece of information that was confirmed with a sigh.
“A whistle, huh. That’s it.”
The reward left behind by a cold-sweat-inducing incident.
—Passengers react to whistling.
‘Why?’
“Is it some kind of Pied Piper type? What do you think, Bronze-ie?”
“…It reminds me more of zombies.”
Zombies.
‘It did look like an instinctive reaction, that’s true.’
I turned my head and observed the passengers. Since the distance had closed, I could see them more clearly.
And then I realized.
“…They’re holding their books upside down.”
“…!!”
A spine-chilling sight.
The group and I hurriedly checked the other passengers.
…They were all the same.
“They’re only making the hand motions of knitting.”
“…The screen is turned off.”
The passengers weren’t simply failing to recognize us.
They were something that merely repeated, through meaningless yet similar motions, the everyday actions people normally performed on the subway.
“……”
What is this?
And as if reflecting that realization and question, a wiki page update notification sounded.
New lines added at the bottom.
Among the train’s passengers, entities identified as ordinary civilians are in fact irreversible addicts, and are long term missing persons who have been completely contaminated by ■■■ ■■.
“…!”
They merely board the train out of inertia and reenact fragments of their everyday lives before the day of the disaster, and they do not respond normally to anything other than actions related to their addiction.
Do not provoke.
“……”
I remembered.
The faces of the long-term missing persons I had seen at Looky Mart.
And the description written on the page of this wiki.
Upon boarding this train, it appears that one’s outward condition is restored to the same state as when first entering the Sekwang City’s underground facilities on the day of the disaster.
‘Outward condition.’
So only the exterior was intact, while those passengers were already……
‘…Horrifically contaminated.’
A state that could be written as addiction and read as complete contamination.
They would be the long-term missing persons of the ghost story itself, having lost their human form, their minds collapsed, with only the desire to return to reality remaining.
Trapped in the ghost story of Sekwang Special Metropolitan City, unable to leave.
“……”
I shared the information I had inferred from the wiki with the group…
Their expressions hardened bitterly.
Emotions they were familiar with.
“…As a rule, we do not attempt to rescue long-term missing persons recklessly. Inside the train, let’s be careful about drawing attention or putting ourselves in dangerous situations.”
“……Let’s do that.”
The atmosphere sank.
Fortunately, they were seasoned enough not to be completely swept up by it.
It was just that… the inside of the train felt eerie and desolate.
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