Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 244.1
The Sekwang Special Metropolitan City ghost story.
An unprecedented case designated by the Disaster Management Bureau as an annihilation-sanctioned supernatural disaster, and so the entire metropolitan city was erased from people’s memories and quarantined so it can no longer be perceived.
And I woke up in the very heart of that same Sekwang Special Metropolitan City, and at Sekwang Station, no less.
In human form.
“……”
Just what the hell is this?
Sitting dazed on the dark platform floor, I reflexively think of someone to talk to.
A being with whom everyday conversation was possible no matter how insane the situation.
‘…Braun?’
……
……
No answer.
‘No way.’
The dread and fretfulness I’d kept corked up begin to seep through my head.
If even ‘that’ Braun can’t follow me here, then just what state am I in right now—
[Oh, Friend, you’re calling for me!]
“…Ha.”
I almost collapsed on the spot.
Thank goodness, really.
[My, Mr. Roe Deer. It seems the sudden change of environment startled you considerably. Let it be noted that even this Braun found it a rather disconcerting turn. Travel by well! How… folksy, shall we say.]
Still as snide as ever…
[That said, oh, congratulations.]
Huh?
[It’s not exactly a magnificent shapeshift, but isn’t it the appearance you wanted!]
That… is true.
‘I’m back in human form.’
But I don’t know why.
Why?
‘Was entering Sekwang Special City the trigger?’
Maybe because it doesn’t feel real yet, the bewilderment is strong. But when I see my face reflected in the glass, when I feel my bare hands, I can’t deny the deep relief…
‘Clothes… a suit.’
It was my familiar office attire. I swallowed, ran my hands over my face a few more times, and calmed my heart.
It’s me.
…The me that I know.
A surge like choked-up emotion passed through me.
I steadied my breathing and barely swallowed it down.
And as I started to rise—
Thump.
“…!”
My arm was grabbed.
When I turned my head, someone who’d been lying unconscious on the floor reflexively reached out at my movement.
And his eyes opened.
“……”
“……”
“…Grapes?”
“Agent.”
Agent Choi’s eyes widened.
Then he hurriedly got up and seized my shoulders, turning me this way and that.
‘Urk.’
As if checking for deformities, for any anomalies. He even reached as if to lift the dokkaebi lantern, then halted, realizing it wasn’t in his hand.
‘We left it in the well.’
But he didn’t stop there. He tried using even the contamination detection rod to figure out my condition somehow.
A little on edge, I asked,
“Am I intact?”
“……”
Agent Choi gripped my shoulders tight.
“You’re intact, Grapes-ie…”
“……”
I held my breath.
“Did that well have some kind of restorative function? No… ha.”
Confusion, suspicion, and joy stained Agent Choi’s face.
Seeing him rejoice over the recovery of a teammate who’d been exposed as a spy made me both grateful and guilty, but not for long.
Because of the situation.
“So where are we?”
“……”
“Looks like we’ve been sent to some other city. The subway? Hm, let’s see…”
Sekwang Transit Authority
SEKWANG STATION
“……”
The smile vanished from Agent Choi’s face, which had been feigning nonchalance.
Sekwang.
“Have you perhaps heard of it?”
“No.”
A city and station name you never hear in daily life.
Which leads an agent to the natural realization.
We’re inside a supernatural phenomenon.
“Grapes, wake the others. Now.”
Agent Choi and I immediately ducked down and began waking the others.
First, Agent Bronze, who tried to slap his own cheek upon seeing me but I stopped him in a rush. Second, Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae, who sat up with an oddly serene, beaming smile.
And lastly…
Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
“…I definitely put her in.”
I heard Agent Choi mutter.
‘So he… had confined the assistant manager in a makeshift Glass Prison?’
If that confinement came undone during transit to this place, that’s truly not a good sign.
I woke Assistant Manager Eun Haje myself.
“Hold on… Roe?”
“Assistant Manager.”
As she rose, I asked quickly,
“Are you connected to Director Ho right now?”
“…Wait.”
Sensing the gravity in the air, Eun Haje checked the bead she had been holding silently.
A glint came into her eyes.
“No, it’s not working.”
“……”
That feels bad… No. If anything, that’s better.
It gives me cover to fudge the source of my intel.
“Everyone.”
I looked over at the newly awakened and spoke quickly.
“I believe this is exactly the place Director Ho has been looking for.”
“……”
“What?”
I pointed to ‘Sekwang Station’.
“This entire city called Sekwang Special City is the annihilation-sanctioned Disaster he was after.”
“…!!”
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae raised a hand.
“In Daydream terms, would that be Abyss-class?”
“The classification systems differ, but it might be.”
“Oooh.”
Only Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae sounded impressed. The others’ faces had gone rigid.
Only Assistant Manager Eun Haje, perhaps having some sense of it from working on Director Ho’s project, simply looked around slowly, sharply, at our surroundings.
“Roe. Then could your return to a human form also be an effect of this Darkness?”
“…It might be.”
“Mm. Seems plausible. Look at this.”
“……!”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje raised her hand.
The hand that had vanished in Hangman… appeared intact!
“Assistant Manager, your hand…”
“Yeah. It’s back.”
She gave a crooked grin and waved, but didn’t look very happy.
“There’s got to be some condition to it, I think, tsk. It’s a little too good, you know? Is this really a high-level Darkness? If so, it ought to be a real cesspit no human could endure, not something like this.”
As for that…
“For now, what I know is… something horrific happened in Sekwang Special City, and because of it the city was completely sealed off, to the point the bureau erased the city’s very existence…”
“Hold on.”
Both agents’ faces hardened.
“The bureau did what?”
“Exactly that.”
I swallowed and, as calmly as I could, laid out what I knew.
“As far as I know, when the situation proved utterly unmanageable, they ultimately laid a kind of powerful binding. So that no one could perceive Sekwang Special City.”
Salt Goblin
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