Chapter 347

I swallowed.

Agent Choi looked unwell.

Even though the hope and joy on his smiling face—at a teammate returning—was unmistakable....

Deep fatigue showed through underneath.

“How’s your body.”

“.......”

“When you’ve been lying down forever and you just get up, your muscles are all gone and it’s seriously rough, right? Ha—your senior’s been there too. Take it easy. Easy.”

Following his banter, I carefully pushed myself up.

My arms and legs trembled, but for someone who’d been asleep for 293 days, it wasn’t bad. Maybe I... No. Stop thinking about that.

What mattered was that I’d escaped Se-gwang Special City—and Director Cheong’s grasp—for the moment.

Probably thanks to this man.

I tried to hide my still-shaking hands as I turned to thank him, but the surrounding scene made me freeze.

“...Where even is this?”

“Somewhere with good air and good water.”

It looked like the inside of a natural cave.

A small space between jagged rocks, like a hidden shelter carved out inside.

In one section of the rock wall, five-colored cloths were draped like a ritual shrine, concealing something....

And beside me, I saw the sleeping body of Bronze Agent Ryu Jaegwan.

“.......”

I looked between the neatly arranged bedding where Bronze Agent lay sleeping and my own place, then turned back to Agent Choi.

“...We definitely entered Se-gwang Special City through the Fox Counseling Office.”

“I diverted you.”

“...!!”

“That place was going to... No, forget it.”

Then Agent Choi suddenly brightened again.

“Anyway, that was perfect timing just now, right? This is what the top ace of Black Turtle Team 1 does. Podo. See? I told you I’d save you right on time.”

“.......”

A bad feeling crept up, swallowing everything.

I glanced to the side.

Agent Choi tried to cover it like he was casually clearing it away, but the ritual bell was still there.

And the bloodstain that had burst out and run from it.

“...Why did blood spatter from the bell?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Mount Seorak’s Daecheong Peak Tiger General... did you ask him and save me?”

“Something like that.”

“How.”

“With a good method.”

“...Then why is there blood on the bell?”

“.......”

“The Tiger General is... a vegan, you said.”

“.......”

“Agent.”

My voice shook.

“What, exactly, did you offer to whom?”

“.......”

Agent Choi stared at me for a moment....

Then burst out laughing.

“What are you talking about! Hey, look.”

He rolled up his sleeve and showed me an arm packed with scars. He rolled up his pant leg too, then pressed at his body.

...He looked fine.

“I’m fine, yeah?”

Then he shrugged.

“Don’t say stuff people can misunderstand~ You’ll make it sound like a cool agent like me, who thinks about citizens day and night, is some addict gambling their body away at a casino.”

“.......”

Then what, exactly, did you...?

“Just rest for now. Eat... and then we’ll talk.”

“.......”

“Hm?”

In Agent Choi’s gaunt, smiling face, I saw something desperate.

I remembered Bronze Agent still asleep beside me.

And I thought.

What it must have been like for him, alone, for the last 293 days.

“.......”

In the end, I nodded slowly.

Agent Choi grinned wide.

“Come on, eat up.”

The food laid out was egg porridge and side dishes.

The side dishes looked like frozen or packaged food, but the egg porridge tasted freshly made, like it had been cooked somewhere just now....

[It looks like a spread someone scraped together with real effort, given how little they had.]

I ate as earnestly as I could. Agent Choi’s face grew a little brighter, steadier.

So I could ask.

“Agent. While I was asleep... what happened?”

“.......”

Agent Choi opened his mouth.

“There’s one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want first?”

“...Uh,”

“No, forget it. I’ll just tell you.”

He waved a hand and looked at me.

A calm warmth settled in his eyes.

“Podo. Do you remember the train shelter?”

“Of course... I remember.”

Because I fell there.

While I was falling—and even while I was going through things I don’t want to remember—I still remembered the train, slicing through the far-off air, leaving toward outside the city.

Maybe it was better that it was empty air.

Maybe it ran in the “not-surface” sky by accident, and that was why, instead of crashing or stopping, it could safely use supernatural phenomena as fuel.

Like how the subway, separated from the surface, stayed comparatively intact.

But the fuel... both agents disappeared from the train.

Me and Bronze Agent.

Cold spread through me as I jerked my head up.

...No.

The people on that train—Mr. Yeong Eun who was aboard.......

“Podo.”

“.......”

“The train made it outside. And....”

“The people inside all survived.”

I stared at him like I’d been punched.

“You saved them.”

“...Really?”

“Really.”

“Everyone... got out safely?”

Agent Choi nodded.

“Yeah.”

“...!”

“Congratulations. Black Turtle Team 1 Agent Podo. ...You safely rescued 104 citizens from a catastrophic supernatural disaster.”

Ah.

A surge I couldn’t put into words hit my chest for the first time in ages.

A sense of accomplishment.

...Thank god.

It was such a relief.

[Congratulations. Friend!]

So much relief that it made breathing feel tight.

How did it happen? How did they keep the train running safely with an engine that used agents as fuel...?

“Was someone in the engineer’s cab?”

“Oh, that’s a pretty specific question.”

But Agent Choi answered without hesitation.

“From the reports, there were two. A middle-aged man with bruises all over his body.”

...The engineer.

“And... there was a young woman beside him, checking the controls and standing guard.”

......No way.

“Agent Parkha.”

Ah.

Ah...!

It was Go Yeong Eun.

If I could be judged an agent, then Go Yeong Eun could too. Right...!

And since there wasn’t much distance left before the city border when they escaped, she must have made it into the cab safely.

“Is Go Yeong Eun okay?”

“She was hospitalized for a bit, but she was discharged healthy.”

“.......”

Thank god.

Yeong Eun got out of Se-gwang Special City....

It didn’t feel real. I wanted to see her.

And even if the conditions lined up like this, I needed to find out how the train managed to slip through the seal.

Then it hit me like lightning.

Because it was the subway...!

The subway people weren’t offered up. They weren’t included inside May 4.

They were an exception inside the seal’s structure.

So that’s why they could get out.

Everything clicked into place in my head at once, and relief surged again like a rush. Then....

“The rescued citizens were taken care of by the Bureau after Agent Parkha reported it.”

“.......”

“Podo?”

“Did... did you confirm those citizens were safe afterward? I mean... the Bureau sent them back into society without any other... problems?”

“Hm? Of course. When you’re rescued from a supernatural disaster, you go back after simple memory erasure. Even if you came out from inside a cognitive seal, the process isn’t any different.”

...Haa.

“They did contamination screening, confirmed it wasn’t infectious. Restored their identities, and they all got out.”

“...I see.”

Agent Choi answered without the slightest hesitation. He didn’t seem to realize what I was worried about.

That was what made it chilling.

...What if “someone” who planned the sealing rite had intervened somehow?

But Agent Choi’s tone turned a little playful.

“Oh, there was one thing nobody expected that made the procedure pass quickly.”

“If it was something nobody expected...?”

Agent Choi looked at me.

More precisely, at the Good Friend doll placed neatly beside my bedding.

“Mmm~ The rescued citizens showed this cult-like tendency to fervently worship a pink rabbit plush?”

Ah.

“When we looked closer, it was supernatural phenomena. So that’s what the conclusion became.”

Agent Choi lightly slapped his knee.

“‘Those citizens were contaminated by a cult-like supernatural phenomenon related to a plush doll, and are presumed to have entered that phenomenon and indirectly bypassed the seal’!”

“.......”

“Seems like that’s how it was judged. Processed as a special case.”

My god.

[Ha ha, for viewers waiting in trust of this Brown, there is always a gift-like surprise!]

“Well, they said the memories related to supernatural phenomena were cleaned up before they returned to society, but the rabbit plush enthusiasm apparently remained?”

Aaaah....

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry....

But I was so insanely relieved that I just nodded.

Then a bitter smile rose on Agent Choi’s face.

“The problem is... a few of those citizens went missing again as soon as they returned.”

“...What?”

“To some counseling office.”

......!

“Yeah. It was done by the being you call Director Ho. They heard that someone got out from the special city.”

Ah.

“After that... those citizens couldn’t return to society again, and that Director Ho project started making more and more extreme, strange choices... you could sum it up like that.”

“.......”

Agent Choi’s pale blue eyes sank calmly.

“So I diverted you. I know what they’ll do with you if you leave you there.”

His voice trembled for a moment, then quickly steadied.

“Honestly, I wanted to divert your other... sleeping teammates too, but they’d separated the rooms completely.”

“.......”

“...Podo. I’m sorry.”

“No. Absolutely not....”

How could I possibly demand, Why did you make that choice?

And this agent already knew I wouldn’t be able to say that....

“Right. It’s best not to see that dangerous director ever again, yeah? If you ever need to go back into the special city underground, you can use the well.”

“.......”

I couldn’t answer yes.

I already knew too much.

Even though he’d clearly noticed, Agent Choi deliberately forced his tone bright again.

“Oh, and there’s that. Agent Parkha seems like she’s trying to return to duty?”

“...! Really?”

“Yeah.”

A soft, low voice continued from behind.

“And you’ll see her soon, too. You can hear the detailed explanation about the train from her.”

...!

I sprang up and turned my head.

My head spun for a moment, but more than that, I saw a familiar face emerging from beyond the rocks.

“Agent Haegum!”

“Agent Podo.”

Agent Haegum’s expression, bright with delight at seeing me, twisted the moment she saw Agent Choi grinning beside me.

“You—!”

“Hahaha, hey, sis, it worked out! Choi pulled off another one, right?”

Agent Haegum, who’d been striding over like she was about to smack him, let out a sigh and lowered her hand.

“...I came when I got the message. Agent Podo, I’m glad you woke up safely.”

“Thank you.”

Watching them, I felt a sudden doubt.

“Are you both... off duty?”

No—more than that.

Wasn’t Agent Choi the only one left in Black Turtle Team 1...?

Had he been operating alone?

Maybe he sensed my gaze, because Agent Choi gave a slight laugh and looked away.

“Black Turtle Team 1 is... being processed as all on leave.”

“...!”

“It’s my first time in my life taking leave that isn’t medical leave. But I was due for a break anyway. Hey, what’s with that face.”

Smiling, Agent Choi shook his head.

“No problem. The people who were on leave returned to Black Turtle Team 5. They took over our schedule completely and are working it now.”

Listening to him ramble about things like, “They said 4 sounded bad, so they insisted on 5 and even picked a number off on its own,” my chest felt heavy.

Only then did I realize this place wasn’t just somewhere to stash us while we slept—it was a base Agent Choi had been living in for months.

He even took leave and kept searching for a way to wake Bronze Agent and me....

Otherwise there was no way he could have pulled me out of Director Cheong’s grasp with timing that perfect.

And once I reached that thought, I made up my mind.

I took a deep breath.

“Aren’t you going to ask what I went through?”

“...Are you ready to talk?”

I think I am.

...About the truth I learned in Se-gwang Special City.

I was about to open my mouth, but I realized the two agents were tense in an odd way.

And I noticed another discomfort.

I’d felt it from the moment I opened my eyes, but I hadn’t dared to bring it to the surface... the wrongness.

Why aren’t they asking about everyone else’s whereabouts...?

They didn’t ask why the others besides me hadn’t woken up.

Even if they knew I would speak first if it was urgent, wouldn’t their position—waiting outside for almost a year—be different?

Wouldn’t they be desperate?

At the very least, you’d think they’d urgently ask whether Bronze Agent was okay, alive, safe—whether they’d even seen him. But they kept dodging the topic.

...Like they wanted to spare me, even a little more.

“.......”

Spare me from what?

-There’s one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want first?

The news about the train survivors being rescued was good news, no matter how you heard it.

Then....

“Agent.”

“.......”

“What was the bad news...?”

“.......”

“Agent?”

A pained look flickered across Agent Choi’s face, then got smoothed away with practiced ease into a calm, capable agent’s expression.

“Stay calm.”

Agent Haegum spoke.

“Agent Podo. Good and bad always come stuck together like two sides of a coin.”

“...What do you mean?”

Agent Haegum looked straight into my eyes.

“Don’t panic. Listen slowly.”

.......

“The special city’s seal is breaking.”

Information poured into my head, turning it white.

“Looks like the train became the trigger. The moment more than a hundred people escaped from inside the special city, something in the sealing rite’s conditions... seems to have gone out of alignment. A crack is forming.”

Wait.

“People are keeping it quiet inside, but this damned Choi bastard pulled something dangerous... anyway, he clawed the information out.”

Agent Haegum nodded toward the ritual space concealed by the five-colored cloth.

“He kept watching the seal from here. How it twisted, and when it would lose its effect.”

.......

“How much time is left?”

“300 days.”

Ha.

So we had to find a method somehow within that. As my mouth went dry at the sudden time limit—

I realized Agent Haegum was still speaking.

“The collapse began with a 300-day grace period from the day the train escaped....”

Wait, wait....

“Today, 293 of those days have passed.”

.......

.......

“Then the days remaining are....”

“Seven.”

My breath stopped.

“In a week, the special city’s sealing rite will collapse.”

I stared blankly at Agent Haegum.

“Then a catastrophic disaster will be released onto this land.”