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This chapter deals with the subject of suicide.
The corpse’s bluish, swollen feet dangled right above my head.
Though the body was dried out, the feet looked strangely bloated, as if swollen.
Sway.
They brushed against my cheek.
“......”
“Roe Deer?”
“Yes.”
Damn it.
I wanted to clamp my eyes shut, my whole body shriveling in revulsion, but I couldn’t.
‘If anyone here could cry and say they can’t handle this, that would be incredible in its own way....’
Could I really be the only one losing it, when everyone else acted calm, unafraid, unfazed?
‘It’s not like this is my first day on an exploration in the dark!’
Besides, wasn’t this a Catastrophe-class disaster?
‘I have to at least do my part. Something, anything...!’
“I’ll check it.”
I clenched my teeth and reached out, suppressing the urge to cling to someone’s leg and beg them to let me sit out.
And then I examined the body that had brushed against my head.
The fact that I had to touch this thing made me want to faint. Remembering how I had once sat calmly right next to a corpse with its eyes gouged out during Incident 130666 made me feel even more likely to pass out—but my head kept working.
‘...Cold.’
At least, nothing happened when I touched it—no ominous contamination, no suicidal impulses, no strange hallucinations.
“Just a corpse, it seems.”
“...Yes.”
But there were far too many of them.
I caught a fleeting grimace on Agent Choi’s face as he tried to peer into the fog.
“It’s not working. The talisman has no effect at all. But... one thing’s certain.”
“......”
“You can’t see the end of it with the naked eye. The trees with bodies hanging from them.”
The dead did not discriminate between men and women, young and old.
Countless bodies filled this forest....
Unease mingled with fear on everyone’s faces.
“Are they really actual dead people?”
“There’s a chance it’s some kind of staged effect. But if a real disaster struck this city... it’s far more likely they’re real.”
“Our Cheongdong is being awfully honest with the civilian.”
“It’s fine. Well, they’re already dead. What else can we do? Our job is to make sure we don’t end up like that, right?”
Suppressing the nausea rising from sheer scale, I forced my steps forward.
The clothes on most of the corpses were coated in years of dust.
‘Some useful detail....’
“Could you examine the hands? If they’re real corpses, maybe there’ll be clues about the circumstances of death.”
“I was already looking. Podo. Heave-ho.”
And then we found something.
The hand of a corpse in glasses, wearing a checkered shirt.
“...A little smudged, but there’s something here.”
Words written in pen on the palm:
No one is coming to save us.
Seven thousand were abandoned.
We want to escape,
but there is no way out,
so instead we become trees.
“......”
The dried ink left everything to imagination.
‘...So they realized no rescue would come.’
The phones cut off. Trapped inside a collapsing station, without food, without escape, while some unspeakable disaster raged outside, making any hope of rescue impossible.
And so....
“Well. At least they chose a quiet method. Instead of killing each other, they all died together, right?”
“Could be they were influenced by the Darkness. Or maybe this very peculiarity became the seed for the Darkness.”
“Ah.”
The calm exchange between Baekilmong staff contrasted with the Disaster Response agents’ stiff expressions.
But like veterans, they soon regained composure.
“...Now that we’ve understood the background, let’s look for the information board.”
“Yes.”
After some hesitation, not wanting to stir trouble, we left the bodies hanging as they were and moved on.
After about seventeen minutes by smartphone clock—
“Found it.”
An information board appeared.
A typical public institution # Nоvеlight # board: clean blue letters framed in black and yellow stripes, dampened by the mist....
The rules of this ghost story:
Etiquette of Segwang District (Forest of Final Moments)
“Hm. Quite chilling. Don’t you agree, old man?”
“Old—... Hah. Yes. It’s a standard supernatural phenomenon manual.”
Listening to them, I inferred something from the rules....
“The style divides the content.”
The presence or absence of periods at the end of sentences showed a pattern.
“They split between forest and subway station.”
The station-related ones read like information. The forest ones like commands.
“Hm. Maybe there really was a forest nearby that merged with the station?”
“Or the fact that there was a forest nearby influenced the station’s identity. Darkness always responds to human perception, after all.”
Deputy Eunhaje tapped lightly on the board.
Thump. A corpse that had been hanging behind the board slid down and stopped in front of me.
“...!”
I nearly cursed.
“Oh dear, Podo must be terrified?”
But Deputy Eunhaje just snorted.
“Come on, do you think Roe Deer would be scared of something like this? He even went into that slaughter-talkshow place. Isn’t that right?”
“......”
Ha.
I forced a smile at the Deputy.
“Of course. ...That was part of the persona I built while infiltrating the Agency.”
“Still the same reliable worker, huh.”
“Thank you.”
If only it were true....
Right now, I wanted to tell the truth. But look at the situation.
Four veterans, deep inside a Catastrophe-class disaster.
‘If I admit I’m scared, it’ll look like I’m some parasite trying to freeload in a group project....’
Ha.
And meanwhile, someone else had latched onto the talkshow remark....
[Good heavens. Did they just refer to Brown’s Midnight Talkshow by such a crude name? Honestly, the public’s hunger for cheap thrills has gone too far!]
[Why someone with sensitivities like yours, Roe Deer, would stay friends with such a person is beyond me—but I’ll respect your judgment. Friend.]
Yeah. Thanks.... That actually made it a little less scary.
I glanced at Agent Choi.
He smiled knowingly.
“Oh~ So Podo’s actually a cold, fearless type, huh?”
“......”
No, that’s not what I said at all...!
“Got it. Okay then. From now on, Podo—”
He suddenly whipped his head aside. Why—
“Down.”
Instinctively I shoved the person next to me down and lowered my own head.
Whoosh.
Something.
A taut, whistling sound brushed over my head with an eerie sensation. Flattening myself against the floor, I strained my ears.
......
......
I noticed.
The shoulder I’d been holding was gone.
“......”
When I lifted my head—
I was alone.
The trees and fog.
Escalators and station signs.
Amid the countless hanged bodies, I stood alone.
‘Ah.’
I didn’t scream or call out.
Just stiffly forced myself to walk.
One step.
Two steps.
Faster and faster, the need to find the others building momentum alongside fear.
But at the same time—I wasn’t a fool. This was a supernatural phenomenon. I used a corpse as a landmark, careful not to stray too far, turning my head—
Something appeared.
A long shape.
Protruding from a tree, motionless.
“......”
I approached.
A rope, old and frayed, twisted tightly into a loop, dangling at my eye level....
A noose.
“......!”
I slowly backed away.
The noose that had hung suspended faded back into the fog. No time to sigh with relief—I turned my head and kept walking.
This time, a silhouette in the mist again. Hoping for another person, I hurried forward—and found...
Another noose.
“......”
Somehow, the hanged bodies seemed more numerous now. Clearer.
Shirts, tracksuits, dresses, suits, blouses, jumpers—all kinds of clothing on all kinds of people, swaying as silhouettes in the fog.
Voices. News reports.
“In Segwang Special City’s ■■■ Forest, another body has been discovered. Mr. Shin, in his thirties, is presumed to have taken his own life....”
“This marks the seventh body found this year in ■■■ Forest. Authorities have closed the connecting subway tunnel and begun posting notices....”
I kept moving, avoiding clusters of corpses, searching for clearer paths. But again—
Another noose.
Prepared, as if waiting for the one left alone.
“■■■ Forest, notorious as a suicide spot in Segwang Special City. Pictures of the hanged spreading on social media have only fueled the controversy....”
“Experts express concern over copycat suicides spurred by the attention, saying...”
“......”
—You want to give up too, don’t you?
I realized something.
‘How did that many people all manage to hang themselves?’
Even suicide takes preparation. If seven thousand all hanged, they needed that many ropes, cords, something.
Something that could hold a person’s weight. freewebnovel.cσ๓
So—
‘What if this forest was already full of ropes?’
—You want to give up too, don’t you?
What if it was the forest itself providing the nooses, for quiet deaths?
This place had been prepared to hang seven thousand lives.
As people believed it to be.
“......”
Even if I turned and ran, the nooses returned.
The looped ropes.
[Ah, a fated development.]
[It calls Roe Deer toward the Ending, like a black box with arms open wide, don’t you think?]
Of all metaphors, really...!
I gritted my teeth. Don’t think about it. Don’t remember how I was back then, or what state I ended up in afterward....
More importantly.
‘How did I originally handle this?’
I had survived ghost stories before—even without Incident 130666’s condition. There had to be something I could do, even in human form....
‘It’s a Catastrophe-class disaster, yes—but that’s outside.’
Here, maybe there was more of a way forward.
Stay calm, calm....
—You want to give up too, don’t you?
Don’t touch the nooses.
‘Damn it.’
I grabbed my own hands, forcing them down, eyes fixed on the floor to avoid the hanging corpses.
Because here....
—The forest and the station are divided.
“......”
Right.
‘The station fixtures haven’t changed.’
The information board, the walls—they were intact.
Only the trees were strangely many, the fog dense, and the nooses endless.
So there had to be a symbol of a place with no trees, no fog.
The stairs.
‘The platform...!’
I dashed past the nooses.
Racing through my memory of subway fixtures—ceiling lights, mirrors, signs, escalators, braille tiles, fire extinguishers—until....
‘There.’
I found the stairs and rushed down.
And then—
“Roe Deer.”
A hand gripped my shoulder. I was at the bottom of the platform stairs.
Deputy Eunhaje’s face, slick with cold sweat.
The others, too, had just come through, panting hard.
Each one clutching something different.
‘They used items to break out.’
Relief washed over me.
I exhaled, wiping sweat from my brow—then realized my hand was heavier than it should be.
I was holding a corpse.
“...!!”
That shoulder I had shoved earlier—had been a hanging corpse.
‘Shit.’
And I’d been staring at the noose that appeared once the body disappeared.
‘Ha....’
The realization sent goosebumps rushing down my back.
I couldn’t throw it away. Trembling, I gently set it down.
On the clean platform floor, the bluish, bloated, dried-out body landed with a dull thud.
The lingering sensation made the hair on my nape stand on end.
“Are you alright?”
Agent Cheongdong hurried over, scanning me with the still-functioning equipment. No sign of possession, no trance-like symptoms. He stepped back with a bit of relief.
“The fog thickened so much we couldn’t see anyone. We just shouted to each other until we found the stairs. The items kept failing, gave us trouble. But then....”
When they got to the stairs, I was missing.
“There was talk of going back out to search. Thank goodness.”
Thank you....
At least I found the stairs in time.
“Still, looks like the company really does value veteran hires. Everyone made it out safe.”
“Haha....”
Limp smiles were exchanged.
“At least we learned something. The longer you stay in that forest, the thicker the fog, and the more you get lured by the corpses, right?”
“Seems so.”
I shared in detail what I’d seen—the empty nooses.
They all fell silent.
“This is why I hate expeditions without manuals. Everything’s a landmine.”
“Bit troublesome, yeah!”
“Government officers, any tricks up your sleeves? This reeks of restless ghosts, a classic haunted-site vibe.”
“Oh, you nailed it. The whole foggy forest gave off a corrupt aura—what we usually call sha energy.”
Agent Choi rubbed his chin.
“But I can’t tell if it’s from the forest itself, or from the sheer number of deaths.”
“If it’s one or the other, could you purify it?”
Our eyes met.
“...It’s possible.”
Agent Choi smiled thinly through cold sweat.
“With the right materials.”
But the reality was—
“Right now we’ve only got, what, three bullets on Cheongdong? And all designed for Great Ghosts, not phenomena like this.”
“...Yes. And even then,” Cheongdong pressed his brow, “it would require invoking the power of an allied spirit from the Agency.”
Exactly.
Some supernatural being’s help—a General, an Elder—would be needed.
But in Segwang Special City, any outside-sourced items or equipment were dead.
In other words: hopeless.
‘Damn it.’
And then I realized something else. freēwēbnovel.com
...Thirst.
‘I’m thirsty.’
The others likely felt it too.
Without food or water, how long could we last?
‘...Hoo.’
Still, I was grateful. Grateful no one had died yet, grateful we had the platform as an escape.
‘First, we need to deal with that body....’
I opened my mouth—
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
“...!!”
I turned.
The platform speakers.
A melody played—unfamiliar, but its purpose clear.
“...The subway jingle?”
The train is arriving.
Whoosh.
If not for screen doors, the gust would have knocked us back.
From the tunnel, lights blazed as a train rushed toward us at terrifying speed, the windows casting beams across the platform before it roared past.
An announcement.
This train will pass through without stopping, as there are no passengers....
“......”
“......”
The roar faded into silence. We stared after the lights retreating beyond the screen doors.
And then.
“People.”
I met the others’ eyes.
“There were people inside that train.”
“......!”
And so, one more option appeared.
—Pursue the train along the tracks.
