Chapter 171

Honestly, I was flustered.

When my calmness was pointed out.

When I remembered the woman’s words that I feared death.

When the thought that my reaction was strange crossed my mind for the first time.

I felt that something was wrong with me.

So I explained.

I explained somehow, trying to place everything within the category of understanding.

Because I thought that would make me feel reassured.

CRASH—!

With a roar, the water surged greatly.

“Kgh……!”

Half swept away by that raging wave, I grabbed the wire and barely went against the current.

I felt like a fish trapped in a fishbowl.

And the fishbowl we were inside was now being shaken madly.

Every person has their own narrative.

No, they desperately hope they do.

Because only then can they understand.

Because if the narrative is completed, they can accept each person’s ending, even if only later.

Why the world is this suffocating, and why it is cruel.

But if we are not stories that must necessarily be completed.

If all of this is a play we put on because we cannot endure our own worthlessness.

The water level rose higher and higher.

When the glass ceiling was about to touch our heads, Cha Si-eon shouted,

“Mr. Seo Do-un! We are going to the field!”

“Yes……!”

In the end, we changed course.

Because if we kept waiting here, we would truly drown.

Apparently, my dream had been nothing but a simple daydream.

Still, in preparation for a situation like this, we had tied a wire to the door connected to the field.

If we dived and went out into the field, at least there would be no ceiling…….

I lifted my head to draw in a deep breath.

Then, an unexpected shadow was reflected in my eyes.

A huge shadow falling across the glass ceiling above my head.

Some form visible beyond the translucent glass.

Something enormous, simply enormous, was drawing closer and closer to the ceiling.

As if peering inside a fishbowl.

Or as if it would break the glass wall and devour us.

In truth, there is no reason humans must not be crushed to death like insects.

Humans are precisely the species that crushes insects to death whenever they see them.

Even if a god or a species superior to humans appeared and treated humans that way, with what shame could we complain?

No.

Even this is excessive meaning-making.

Would God truly go out of His way to torment humans?

Perhaps humans merely usurp the name of God because they want to wrap their desperation in the grand packaging of tragedy.

SPLASH—!

Avoiding that shadow, we jumped into the water.

Above our heads, debris from the shattered ceiling poured down.

GURGLE—!

A steel frame that had fallen into the water dragged in masses of air bubbles.

Thanks to that, the water grew murky and my vision became chaotic.

Above it, shards of glass fell like rain.

SPLASH—! GURGLE—! SPLASH—!

Fragments of the ceiling fell one after another.

And following them came something huge, whose identity I could not know.

Even underwater grew dark beneath its shadow.

That thing, no different from a wall, crashed down as if it would crush us.

And once again, a roar rang out.

Enough.

I do not know.

I do not know what is what, not at all, completely, not one bit.

I am tired of asking why this happened to me and searching for meaning.

So I will admit that reality and stories are different.

And that reality is not a game either.

Stories are at least kind.

Every device is used rationally and exits the stage.

Characters meet endings that suit their lot.

Games are even more human-friendly.

They are mountains that can always be crossed, and every problem has a strategy and an answer.

But reality is not like that, and unlucky humans vanish futilely within it.

Without even knowing the meaning of their existence.

No, perhaps such meaning never existed in the first place.

Perhaps all this is the pitiful struggle of humans, shabby beyond measure.

……Nevertheless, if there is a God, may He look, at least once.

At the situation of one human who had been isolated for far too long.

And at the desperation of humans who hate watching that more than dying.

“Puhah!”

I had been floundering in the dark water, but suddenly, I could breathe.

“Hah, haah……!”

Gasping for breath, I looked around.

For some reason, I had come back above the surface.

What held up my body was an unknown mass of metal, thickly twisted together.

When I looked to the side, Cha Si-eon too was catching his breath while dripping water.

What happened?

I had been getting crushed underwater by something like a huge wall.

Could that wall have scooped us out?

Unlike me, who looked around frantically, Cha Si-eon was staring at one place.

After a while, Team Leader Cha said,

“The water is draining.”

The water is draining?

Half-doubting those words, I lifted my head.

The water pouring from the ceiling had stopped.

No, the ceiling was gone.

The ceiling, which had entirely collapsed, was completely open, and only the sky filled it.

That sky was blue and clear, without even a single raincloud.

Perhaps because the water pouring from above had stopped, the water gathered below was now calm as well.

Only, the water level was lowering quickly enough for us to feel it.

We watched the water drain.

As the water level lowered, the appearance of the steel frame that had lifted us was also revealed.

And when all the water had drained.

Standing on the floor, we lost our words as we were.

The thing that had come down while collapsing the ceiling.

The thing that had crashed down upon us underwater and scooped us out of the water.

It was none other than 「Giant Siren」.

---

Its entire body was broken.

Only one arm barely remained attached to its giant siren head.

What we had been riding on was the back of its hand.

The body below its chest could not be seen.

At that sight, I suddenly remembered.

Lee Seop, who had tried to deliver a message to us at 「Hotel」, and had been horribly punished for it.

“Hah…….”

I barely let out a sigh.

Did you crawl all the way here after ending up like that?

Because you too hated watching while unable to do anything?

「Giant Siren」 remained still with not even half its body left.

It neither sounded its siren nor attacked us.

Like a machine that had already stopped operating, it merely rusted beneath the dazzling sunlight.

We looked at it for a long time.

Step—

After a long silence, Cha Si-eon took a step.

He approached beneath 「Giant Siren」’s head and took out a knife.

Then, as Baek Sa-ra had done before, he dug beneath its collarbone.

Grind— grrrind—

「Giant Siren」’s arm shook.

As if reacting to pain.

But only that much. It did not attack us.

Cha Si-eon looked back at me.

Understanding the meaning, I approached the place where he stood.

I saw the core.

The thing we had lost before our eyes.

I quietly swallowed a breath, and Cha Si-eon handed me the ring I had dropped.

Receiving it, I lowered my voice and asked,

“Do you have any final words?”

Cha Si-eon looked at me.

He seemed to think for a moment, then after a long while, he opened his mouth.

“I am sorry I was late.”

Did it hear him?

It probably did.

Because this place was now quiet.

---

「Giant Siren」 began collapsing.

Like a very old castle crumbling.

It scattered without leaving even dust behind.

Then the ruined 「Railway Station」 quickly recovered.

At last, when the waiting hall regained its old appearance, Cha Si-eon’s communications rang.

-Team Leader Cha Si-eon, can you hear me?

A tense voice.

It was the Bureau’s Situation Control Room.

Cha Si-eon, who had been sitting beside Lee Seop’s body, took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“I can hear you. I am with Agent Seo Do-un.”

A loud noise rang out beyond the speaker.

It was the sound of Control Team agents cheering.

As if enduring that sound, Cha Si-eon closed his eyes for a moment.

Then he continued speaking.

“「Giant Siren」 silenced. Secured the core of 「Railway Station」. The phenomenon in which 「Railway Station」 overlapped with other Special Zones appears to have been resolved. In addition, Agent Lee Seop’s body.”

Cha Si-eon’s words stopped briefly.

But soon, they continued again.

“We secured his body. Recovery is needed, so if there are personnel waiting at the entrance to 「Railway Station」, please request support.”

-I will relay this to the command staff.

As if understanding the situation, the Control Team agent’s voice also lowered.

At that, Cha Si-eon added in a dry voice,

“Please also check the condition of contaminated person Lee Sol.”

-Yes, I will check immediately!

From the sounds that followed, we could feel the Situation Room becoming busy.

The Situation Room began contacting various places, and we silently waited for the result.

Quietly holding our breath, prepared to accept any outcome.

The reason I like stories is because this world is difficult to understand.

The world is chaotic, merciless, and cold.

When that sort of world is imitated and refined into a single book, it feels reassuring.

When I see a story rushing toward an extremely rational ending, I can breathe.

Moreover, authors are kind unlike God, so they bestow mercy upon people’s pitiful clamor.

That is why I like books made by people and the stories contained within them, but even so, I have not yet resolved to live inside books forever.

That is because this world is even fickle.

-We confirmed Lee Sol’s situation with Analysis Team 5.

After a wait that felt eternal, the Situation Room returned with an answer.

-They say Lee Sol’s bodily deformed parts are collapsing.

“…….”

Collapsing?

Amid bewilderment, we tried to properly understand those words.

But the more we thought, the more confusion only increased.

Even so, as we could not bring ourselves to speak, the Situation Room shouted again.

-The parts deformed by contamination are being removed on their own! They say her original appearance is recovering!

“Hah…….”

Only then did I release the breath I had been holding.

Cha Si-eon was the same.

Unable to laugh or cry, we silently closed our eyes.

The world is chaotic, merciless, and cold.

But it was not forever despairing.