Chapter 335
“Was that a disaster alert just now?”
“It says terror—terror!”
May 4, Se-gwang Special City’s disaster day.
A moment from the past.
Near Hanbit Department Store that morning—near the street on Se-gwang Special City’s change district where I’d burst out—things still weren’t an inferno of chaos.
But it was ominous.
Right before something enormous broke out, at the very starting point, I could smell fear—an odd sensation.
Tension.
The atmosphere created by the disaster alert that said, “A bio-chemical terror incident has occurred near City Hall.”
“Look up nearby shelters.”
“Junseong, stop looking at that and go home. Hurry!”
“Are we just going to take the subway? What do we do?”
“Doesn’t it sound like there’s shouting over there? Someone’s yelling. There—over there....”
At that last line, I turned my head reflexively.
Far off down the street, there was a rectangular glass building, only the upper part visible.
The experience of 613 days spent repeating a peaceful May 4 in Se-gwang Special City told me what it was.
Se-gwang City Hall.
—First period started and then a disaster alert came out of nowhere. It said terror happened at City Hall.
But the City Hall building was fine.
It looked clean and intact, as if nothing like terror had happened. The glass surface glittered in the sunlight.
So pedestrians were glancing that way, too. They looked confused.
“Was the disaster alert just an error?”
“Hey, but it says bio-chemical terror. Just don’t go close, for now....”
But—
Thud.
“...Huh?”
I felt it.
A strange vibration was coming up from the ground.
Thud.
At short intervals—like the rapid patter of raindrops, tatatatat—an impact-like sound.
“What is that?”
It seemed other people noticed, too; the murmuring grew louder.
But the sound grew louder, too.
Thud.
In the next moment—
“Uh—uhhh?”
“Hey, that....”
The pedestrians realized what the sound was.
Footsteps.
The sound of countless people walking this way.
Thud.
[Oh, look over there, friend! We’ll need a close-up.]
I turned my head.
From the direction of City Hall, a crowd was rounding the crosswalk and walking toward us.
They weren’t running away from something, and they weren’t screaming.
Still, a huge number of people draws the eye on its own, so the pedestrians watched them, whispering and speculating.
“What is it?”
“Looks like they’re controlling the street.”
Because of the terror, right? Of course the police came. I saw on social media that fire engines are here, too—voices like that rang out all over.
I swallowed hard and stared at the approaching crowd.
And then...
“Huh?”
Something felt off.
They all wore calm expressions, walking in silence, not even talking to each other.
“...This is weird.”
Their outfits were all over the place. Restaurant staff, office workers, tracksuits, café uniforms... all of them walking shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk without anxiety, without impatience, without hesitation.
“Hey, hey—look at that.”
“Why are they all like that?”
But the wrongness didn’t stop there.
The stream of people pouring onto the sidewalk kept coming, and new outfits appeared behind them...
“......”
“...Firefighters?”
Firefighters.
Walking with calm faces, they wore orange turnout gear.
And even police were behind that column.
After them, I could see paramedics.
All of them had faint smiles.
After that, I saw injured people.
People who looked like they should be loaded into ambulances were mixed in with ordinary pedestrians, walking along...
People who’d mobilized and gathered at the terror scene—marching as they were, exactly as they’d been in that emergency.
“......”
“Hey. This is messed up.”
Humans feel fear in wrongness, too.
Only then did the people in the busy district near the department store hesitate and back away, or hurriedly raise their phones to record video.
Damn it.
I started backing away, slowly stepping backward.
My heart pounded.
And in the next moment—
Beeeeeeep!
From all directions, the disaster alert notification sound began to ring.
With shaking hands, I checked my phone.
A chill crawled down my spine.
[Se-gwang Special City]
Boundary alert canceled not terror not weapon not explosion don’t worry
Let’s go together
And—
“Uh, uhh—?”
As the alert sound died down... I heard another sound.
Humming.
A small humming melody was softly resonating in the air.
Where is that coming from?
And in the next moment, I realized.
Everyone’s mouths.
Everyone who was looking at the disaster alert was humming.
Humming was coming out of my mouth, too.
A melody that felt familiar grew from a smeared, faint sound into clearer and clearer notes...
Fuck!
I smacked my own face with my phone.
“...!”
The instant my mind snapped back from the dull pain—
“Aaaagh!”
I spun around and started running.
Behind me, after the scream, a bizarre sound began.
“Y-you—what are you doing?? Uh, uhhh....”
“Why are you leaving!”
“Good heavens!”
Those faint shouts I’d heard from far away were now right behind my back.
The sound of flesh clumping together, the sound of grinding, wailing, footsteps....
“Sw-swollen—hiiik!”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Don’t look back.
I had to get away. I had to get away...!!
My survival instinct shoved at my back. I ran without even breathing.
In the department store glass to my left as I flashed past, a child holding their parents’ hands was staring with curious eyes.
My breath caught in my throat.
Beeeeeeep!
[Se-gwang Special City]
Not a disaster alert join the sa-sa-san-san-walk event let’s walk together
To paradise
The alert sound rang from everywhere. I stuffed my phone away without reading more.
No—why did I even pull it out and read it while running for my life... wait.
...Why can I see the department store doors again?
And I realized.
I was running the wrong way.
Somehow, I had turned around again and was running toward City Hall.
...The department store glass doors were on my right.
“Uhh—?”
“Let’s go forward.”
“Yunjin! Yunjin....”
I stopped. I caught myself from stumbling, then stepped backward.
I tried to lower my head so I wouldn’t look forward, but I glimpsed it.
...The legs of someone who’d joined the group that walked over from City Hall were swelling up.
A slow, steady hum was coming out of my mouth—
No.
Someone shoved past me and bolted forward.
“Hk.”
The humming that had been coming out of my mouth cut off for an instant. Fear, confusion, panic—spreading everywhere like an infection. I made a snap judgment.
I have to get away.
But if I can’t just run in the opposite direction of that column...
I have to get off the street!
I whipped around and sprinted back into the department store.
“Waaah!”
“Ah!”
“Close the doors!”
Behind me, I heard the glass doors slam shut—and something slapping wetly against the glass.
Without hesitating, I tore across the entire first-floor area like I’d lost my mind, sprinting for the exit on the opposite side.
“Ah!”
“What is it?”
People who still didn’t grasp how serious it was glanced over, then noticed the commotion in the lobby and screamed.
Leaving behind the disaster alert notification sound starting up again in the lobby, I kept running.
Soon, an outdoor cargo parking lot came into view.
“Haa....”
I got out of the department store.
Blue sky, sunlight—the outdoor parking lot looked peaceful, but I could hear screams and bursting sounds echoing from over there.
I looked at my phone, now gone quiet.
...If you get within a certain radius of that, does the sound start?
Damn it, damn it!
Why did I drop into the morning of disaster day all of a sudden?
My head swam.
What am I supposed to do?
Se-gwang Special City is going to collapse now—how do I survive? No, first I have to find where Section Chief Lee Jaheon is, and the two people who were inside the tattoo....
[Oh my, friend. The more you rush, the more you end up wasting. Don’t waste your precious ideas and thoughts—let’s think efficiently....]
[First, shall we organize what you know, Noru?]
...What I know?
Right!
It felt like sparks were flying through my head.
I know Se-gwang Special City.
The geography, locations, transit here—things I naturally learned by repeating a peaceful May 4 more than six hundred times.
And the past few months, too, spent exploring beneath Se-gwang Special City after it became a catastrophic disaster.
I know what’s where in Se-gwang Special City, and how all the landmarks in this special city mutated after disaster day.
If I infer backward...
I know everything—what’s where, what features it has...!
...Then, based on that, I can at least try something.
“Hoo.”
I pushed myself up.
First...
Find people.
I find the people who fell with me into the middle of Se-gwang Special City after we came out of the train.
There’s a high chance they’re trapped in this past, too.
...I had to think that.
And this was already a disaster.
If this insane May 4 is repeating endlessly in Se-gwang Special City, then I have to figure out a way out—somehow.
Search and escape.
“...Let’s go.”
I decided.
I moved, breathing deep.
After some thought, I didn’t turn my phone off. It was also a notice that the “disaster phenomenon” had gotten close.
For now, I have to get away from Se-gwang City Hall, which looks like the origin point of the disaster.
And I know at least one place where this disaster is clearly delayed, in terms of time.
...Se-gwang Technical High School.
—The teachers hurriedly collected all our phones. They cut all the TV cords.
—And they told us to close our eyes, cover our ears, and lie still.
At least until they did all that, it meant the students were fine.
...They said they played classical music.
And they told them to close their eyes and cover their ears....
Only now was I starting to vaguely guess what that meant.
And—
—One of the teachers tried to go out.
The Counseling Teacher.
I would be able to meet Hoyuwon as well.
“......”
[You’ve chosen a destination, friend.]
The bus won’t work.
Following the street would be a stupid move, and by now the roads would be chaos.
And the subway—who knows when they’ll barricade the entrances....
Wait.
I looked around the shared outdoor parking lot connected to the department store’s cargo lot, and I spotted something.
—A bicycle rack
In that corner, six or seven bikes were chained up....
***
And so, a short while later.
I’m sorry...!
I was riding a bicycle.
I picked the oldest, dustiest one—the one whose owner clearly hadn’t come to retrieve it—so at least it wouldn’t be a tragedy where the owner got it stolen while trying to flee and stood there in stunned despair!
I have to stick to alleys.
Avoiding people, I started biking toward the high school through small streets and between shops instead of the main road.
“What is it? What is it?”
“Hey—cut into the café street!”
“What are those people....”
My bike, deft, squeezed through narrow passages, dodging panicked people.
My bicycle-riding skills, trained in the Disaster Management Bureau, were shining in the weirdest place.
No—come to think of it, I’m going to find people in a supernatural disaster, so maybe it’s exactly the right time for it to—
“Aaaagh!”
I snapped my head around.
Right ahead—people poured out of the side path next to a convenience store in the alley and toppled in a heap right in front of my bike.
Damn it!
I barely vaulted over them, almost going down myself.
It looked like five or six people had fallen. I shouted while fighting to steady the bike.
“Are you all right?”
It seemed like they’d been running through the alley, someone rounded a corner, fell, shoved into others, and they all tangled and went down together.
One of the fallen people jerked upright without answering and started running.
I yelled after them.
“Go the opposite direction from City Hall! Avoid the main roads!”
“Get up!”
“Eek!”
The others shoved and hauled each other up and began running too, but one middle-aged person couldn’t get up.
“Ugh....”
A high school student who’d been pinned at the very bottom was instead helping that middle-aged person to their feet.
Damn it, damn it.
It might be completely meaningless, but in the end I stopped the bike and moved to help, too. It was as I turned my body—
Someone was standing in the side path.
“......”
The shape of a person holding a phone.
From the phone in their hand, disaster alert notifications were coming nonstop.
A Se-gwang Special City citizen dressed ordinarily, wearing a flower-patterned dress.
But...
Ah.
They were swelling.
I could hear humming.
The melody was becoming more and more specific.
Letting out a soft humming tone, they staggered as they walked toward this way....
The disaster alert rang on my phone, too.
Ha.
The hair on my scalp prickled. Climbing off the saddle, I shoved the bike forward toward the alley where it was.
“Go!”
The middle-aged person, finally upright with the high school student’s help, ran off in a scramble.
I wanted to scream and run, too.
It’s already pushing into the alleys.
It was lucky there weren’t many of them.
Get out fast.
I gritted my teeth and tried to run again. I planned to use my feet for now, then steal a bike again when I found one.
But then I saw it.
The high school student who’d helped the middle-aged person was heading toward where I’d shoved the bike.
“...!”
I grabbed the student and yanked them back, and I kicked the bike away again.
I clamped down on the humming trying to rise from my mouth, turned, and ran.
The student stumbled along half-dragged, then started running on their own.
And once I was sure the disaster alert wasn’t ringing anymore—
“Haa....”
Only after I spotted a rack with a few shared bikes did I stop. Then I turned my head toward the high school student still following me.
“Are you alri—”
And I froze.
“......”
The uniform this high school student was wearing was one I recognized.
Se-gwang Tech...?
I lifted my head reflexively.
And stopped completely.
“Huff... y-yes, thank you....”
Bronze Agent Ryu Jaegwan—wearing the body of a high school student—was panting for breath.