It was about 20 minutes later that we successfully boarded the train heading for Segwang Station.
[Goodness, we'll be trampled to death at this rate! What a disgraceful sight!]
We had to let several trains pass.
'I almost got crushed to death trying to get on.'
It was because people who had been seriously injured while fleeing had started desperately trying to stay on the trains, refusing to get off.
'Everyone's realized they're only okay while on the train.'
It was a pandemonium of people trying to get on and people pushing them away.
…In fact, I saw someone get crushed to death.
'…Hoo.'
Watching the gruesome scene unfold, too fast to do anything, I gritted my teeth and looked after the two of them.
"This way, please."
Without overdoing it, I moved to the very end of the platform where there were relatively fewer people and calmly attempted to board the train.
The doors are opening.
'Just as I thought.'
People in a panic tend to rush to board through the same route, like the lemming effect, but the last car, which avoided that, was relatively more rational.
…For now.
I pushed the two of them in and managed to stand gathered right in front of the door.
The platform screen doors are closing….
We made it.
'Hoo.'
My stomach was so unsettled with relief and tension that it was starting to hurt.
But Reporter Eunhaje looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"You're quite capable, aren't you? So calm."
"Thank you."
"It's chaos outside, but the people in here are in a relatively better state. From what I overheard on the way, it sounded like some kind of zombie virus had broken out."
I answered nonchalantly.
"The underground is relatively safe."
"Is that so? That's strange. In a biochemical terror attack, shouldn't the underground be more dangerous since the toxic substances sink?"
She was sharp.
"And… how does that lanky guy over there know that kind of information?"
"..."
I checked our surroundings.
It was so noisy that it didn't seem like anyone had the leisure to eavesdrop on our conversation. Everyone was lost in their own pain and desperation, trying to contact someone, trembling with an acquaintance, or looking outside.
I opened my mouth.
"…You can think of me as an official who is familiar with this kind of disaster situation."
"Is this related to the title 'Agent,' by any chance?"
"..."
So she did hear it.
"That's right."
I briefly explained the Disaster Management Bureau to Reporter Eunhaje. As she listened, the reporter's eyes gleamed.
'Even if it sounds absurd, it's an explanation that fits the situation.'
And as soon as I finished saying, 'There are people to be rescued and evacuated, and it's currently in progress,' she laughed heartily and said.
"Alright. 'Agent,' then you'll have to write a report, won't you?"
"I might."
"Then you'll need someone to record what you've done, right?"
Then she pointed to herself and grinned.
"I'd be perfect for it."
"..."
"There are few people as good as me at grasping conspiracies and incidents. I'll write it down for you very objectively, with good analysis and interpretation."
No matter how I look at it, you just seem full of desire to report on this….
'Well, whatever….'
I suppressed a sigh and nodded.
"I would be grateful if you did."
"Okay. Good choice."
Reporter Eunhaje winked.
But this person wouldn't be able to write that article as a reporter anyway.
Because the person here wasn't a real reporter, but just the form the Assistant Manager had taken, fixed in a state befitting the Segwang Special City Disaster Day after being subjected to Contamination.
…Actually, that's why I had tried to use the Resort contract to revert her to her original form through a 'command from the employer.'
It didn't work.
All I had done was add a single line for the Resort contract to the existing contract, and any power beyond that was impossible to exercise.
If it had been possible, she would have transformed into her Resort work uniform and her wounds would have healed, which meant it wasn't working at all.
My abilities as the Resort manager, that is.
'As expected, the influence of other ghost stories is blocked in Segwang Metropolitan City.'
I had thought it was because it was sealed off, but maybe it was the nature of the disaster itself that started at City Hall….
....
Wait a minute.
The train is shaking.
"Huh?"
The car is tilting.
"Whoa? Whoa, whoa?"
"Huh?"
"Oh my god!"
People grabbed onto the handrails, but those who couldn't or lost their grip slid and poured to one side.
The side opposite to where we were standing.
To the right.
"Aaaaaaack!"
My blood ran cold.
I immediately hooked my arm around a pole and reached out to grab the other two. Reporter Eunhaje, who had already grabbed another pole, and the student Ryu Jaegwan, who had grabbed the same pole as me, reached out with crisscrossing hands and grabbed my arm and shoulder.
We were left dangling precariously from the left door, almost floating in the air.
"What's going on? What is it?"
"Hic, sob!"
The train was still moving, but it was frighteningly precarious.
"Agent, there's a strange sound…."
It wasn't the screech of friction from going around a curve. It was….
The sound of something breaking.
'Ah.'
A train running with more passengers than its load capacity.
The train, finally unable to bear the weight and derailing from the tracks…
was overturning.
Keeeeeeeeeeeee-!
"Gyaaaaaaah!"
"Somebody help!"
Screams came from the front cars, and the train, without slowing down, continued to lurch forward unsteadily….
It began to topple over completely with a heavy thud.
"Aaaaaaack!"
The pole we were holding onto rose toward the ceiling. People tumbled down like cascading cargo, piling up below with the sound of breaking bones.
A sight where the person at the very bottom would have already been crushed into a pulp.
We're being buried.
The train is still moving, its body bouncing.
'No!'
If I let go now, we'll be swept away.
'Calmly, calmly… shit!'
I gritted my teeth and prepared to land as carefully as possible.
'Before it completely flips over, I have to slide down to the floor.'
I just need to slide down the pole.
The hands of the two people next to me were damp with tension and cold sweat. I sent them down first, and to slide down last myself, I took a breath and pulled on the arm holding the pole.
And then I saw it.
A blue light was flickering outside the window.
"...!"
Goblin.
For a moment, I was about to blank out, but I came to my senses, turned my body, and looked at the device next to the door.
'Emergency release…!'
I operated the manual device, making it possible to open the door.
'Quickly!'
I gritted my teeth again and was about to climb the pole to open the door when.
"Agent, step on me…!"
"…!"
Using the high school student Ryu Jaegwan's shoulder as a foothold as he offered me his back, I launched myself more easily and grabbed the door.
And I opened it slightly.
Fwish.
An ethereal light streamed through the crack in the door.
The blue traces of a goblin fire were hovering near the door.
To anyone, it would look like an act of rescue….
'…A trace?'
The goblin fire showed no expression or personality.
A mass of energy that had lost its purpose.
'In that case…!'
I let go of the hand clinging to the pole.
"…!"
Barely hanging onto the door on the ceiling with one hand's grip, I stuck my other hand through the gap in the door… and snatched the trace of the goblin fire.
And I threw it forcefully under the train.
Hook.
The sacred flame of the Cooperative Spirit Beast, which recognized my identity as a former Agent, traveled down my hand and connected to the subway wheels below.
The next moment, after a flash of blue light.
With a grinding sound, the train flipped back over.
"…!!"
"Uwaaaaaah…!"
The train rotated 90 degrees in the opposite direction, not too abruptly. The door I was holding closed on its own. I heard the sound of the wheels spinning freely, and then….
Click.
There was the sound of the wheels engaging with the tracks.
"..."
The train is now departing….
The scenery beyond the car window began to move smoothly….
"…Ha."
I let out a long sigh, holding onto the door.
"Are you all right?"
"Hah… more or less?"
"Yes, yes!"
My companions were safe. The sound of my own heartbeat throbbed in my head with relief.
"My… that lanky fellow is flying around."
I returned a weak smile to Reporter Eunhaje's admiration.
But the inside of the train was already hell.
"Huu, sob…."
"Minjeong? Minjeong!"
The bodies of those crushed to death and the cries of people with broken bones could be heard.
Right next to us, close enough to brush against.
The car, once packed with people, was now also filled with corpses.
'Damn it.'
I reflexively moved the high school student away from there, pushing him closer to the door.
Reporter Eunhaje, on the other hand, was observing the tragic scene quite intently.
My hair stood on end, but I eventually got up on trembling legs and looked at the pile of people.
It's so horrific… but maybe because I've seen so many people die today, I feel a strangely desolate and dry exhaustion.
I staggered and began to pull the living from the pile. And once the inside of the train was somewhat organized, I pulled my hand away….
"Wow, thank you. Unknown Agent. We were saved thanks to you being here."
…!!
I whipped my head around.
Beyond the crowd, in the front car, I could see several new figures who had appeared inside the train at some point.
Figures tending to the crushed and injured people.
Those wearing blue jackets of a very similar design to mine.
Arrest Rope, Glass Hand Cannon,
…and the trace of a Goblin Fire.
And.
"We would've been in real trouble if we hadn't gotten this sorted out before the next train arrived."
A person wearing a traditional lion mask, who had appeared next to me at some point, was muttering.[1]
Beneath the mask, on the blue jacket, letters were visible.
Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
They were Disaster Management Bureau Agents.
'…!!'
The Segwang Special City Disaster Day.
The dispatched Agents had appeared right before my eyes.
Among them, the one wearing the Lion Mask was looking at me, who had helped them connect the train to the tracks.
And with a voice that seemed a bit anxious yet cheerful, they asked.
"My, you've already organized this train car in the meantime. You handled that goblin fire pretty well earlier, so which branch are you from, Agent?"
....
"I'm not from the Segwang City branch."
"Hah, I see."
The eyes inside the comical and fierce Lion Mask seemed to glow yellow, then looked at my jacket.
"…But that jacket, it doesn't look like standard issue. Looks like a knockoff."
"It is."
I deliberately answered sheepishly.
"I was on a break and didn't have my clothes, so I had to quickly borrow a uniform from a local Cooperative Spirit Beast."
"Wow. Right. Making do with what you have when you're missing something, that's a real field Agent's remark…."
"Haha."
The other person laughed heartily at my bitter smile.
I quickly scanned the situation….
'…Man? Woman?'
I couldn't even tell that.
Like the masks of Daydream, the being was obscuring its perception, making it difficult to grasp its appearance and characteristics.
I couldn't even tell if the voice was high or low. It felt like all individuality was suppressed by the comical feeling of that Lion Mask.
'…Or is it the power of a Goblin?'
Sure enough, a slightly troubled voice brought up the topic of Goblins.
"By any chance, do you have a goblin fire that accompanies you, Agent? My partner goblin fire suddenly evaporated this morning. Leaving only an afterimage."
Of course, it would.
The Sealing Ritual would have been performed after all the real goblin fires were taken out.
They wouldn't exist inside the May 4th of Segwang Metropolitan City, trapped in the Day of Disaster.
But I answered without showing any of this.
"…I'm on a break, so I have neither a goblin flame nor any equipment. But if what you're saying is true, this is no ordinary situation."
"Hmm…. That's true. That thing usually sticks to me like a rice cake."
The Lion Mask scratched its own mask and said.
"The strange thing is, there's quite a bit of a trace left. It's like, the consciousness of this cute little goblin fire has disappeared, but there's something like a portable battery left behind."
"..."
That.
'Could it be that the power of the goblin fires used on the Segwang Special City Disaster Day is still trapped and remaining in here?'
Just like what happened at Segwang High School.
"Did you hear anything else when you borrowed that uniform from the Cooperative Spirit Beast?"
"Nothing in particular."
Instead, I relayed what the 'Counselor' had said about 'going to Segwang Station to end this disaster.'
"I see. Hmm…."
The Lion Mask Agent turned their head.
I swallowed hard as I watched the agents from the front car calming people down as best they could and separating the corpses.
And my companions….
"So you're both from the same Disaster Management Bureau, but you don't know each other? It seems the departments are quite divided and there are separate branches for each region?"
"Ahaha. Yep. That's right."
The Lion Mask Agent smoothly brushed off Reporter Eunhaje's words, then randomly patted the high school student Ryu Jaegwan's head and said with a laugh.
"You must be the ones who requested rescue, right? Are you from the Blue Dragon Team?"
I smiled bitterly.
And I answered without thinking.
"Actually, I was in the Hyunmu Team. But I don't have any equipment… so I'm just trying to rescue people as I can."
"Uhat! That's awesome. Fellow Agent."
Then they rummaged through their pocket and took something out.
A sparkling, jade-colored firearm made of glass.
A Glass Hand Cannon.
"I'll give you this. I brought a spare."
"…Thank you."
"No, I'm the one who was saved thanks to you. Man, I almost died trying to get the train back on track with just a goblin fire's afterimage."
I quickly tucked the Glass Hand Cannon into my clothes. The Lion Mask Agent, who was watching this, nodded and said.
"So you'll be getting off at Segwang Station. You're going to check the status of the Cooperative Spirit Beast and then re-establish a rescue route."
"Yes."
"Then…."
The Lion Mask Agent hesitated slightly, checking the tragic state of the train and the civilians.
They had seemed cheerful throughout the conversation, but now, beneath that demeanor, anxiety and unease flickered and disappeared.
And so my companions wouldn't hear, they lowered their voice and whispered in my ear.
"Hey, I've got a bad feeling. I smelled that vile Gwang-cheol[2] scent here."
"Gwang-cheol… you mean?"
"The Daydream Director. That pseudo-religion nut!"
...!
Which director were they talking about?
'And Gwang-cheol… if it's that.'
In other words, Gangcheol.
The fire-breathing evil imugi monster… right?
[Hmm, a folk tale popular in my friend's homeland! Should I call it classic, or outdated. Of course, if one has been a celebrity since the 17th century, I suppose I could treat it as a classic.]
Right. But there's a director like that in Daydream?
No, more importantly.
"You can… smell something like that?"
"I'm not wearing this hot and heavy mask for no reason. I wear it for this kind of spiritual efficacy."
"…!"
The Lion Mask rippled here and there, its yellow eyes rolling comically.
"This guy is especially amazing at sniffing out wicked and powerful beings or unfair contracts! It's got a nose like a bloodhound, doesn't it?"
I, I see.
But another realization came first.
The Cheerful Research Institute was ruined because of Daydream.
If so, there's a high probability that Daydream was also involved in the Segwang Metropolitan City incident related to the Cheerful Research Institute…!
Perhaps even at this very moment.
I asked urgently.
"Do you think Daydream is deeply involved in this situation?"
"It seems so, right? And there's something else that's bothering me."
What is it?
I moved closer at the beckoning Lion Mask Agent and leaned in.
A lower, smaller voice said.
"That smell is coming from you, too."
I froze.
"Agent. Did you by any chance make some kind of contract with a Daydream Director? Perhaps…."
"..."
"You're pretending to be an Agent, playing the role of a troublemaker?"
[1] Not exactly a lion but it’s the closest word I could find
[2] Gwangcheolie -> name for a trad kr monster. In some sources, it's just another name for imoogi. In other sources, it's said that if an imoogi fails to become dragon, they become this. (from kirikirinki on tumblr)