Chapter 348

I wanted to snap back, “What did you say?”—but the truth was, my head had already understood what Agent Haegum meant.

It felt like something in my brain had burst from the shock.

...The sealing rite is collapsing?

So the disaster in Se-gwang Special City... is going to be completely released?

And that—

There’s a week left.

An enormous fear surged up on reflex.

After coming back with my skin still remembering the “disaster’s” true shape, panic with almost physical, crackling edges raised goosebumps across my mind.

Then....

It’s the end.

What happens?

Even though I knew the seal’s horrific nature, even though I’d seen the Se-gwang Special City citizens’ suffering with my own eyes, my face was probably drained white.

Because in a few days, that scene would arrive across the entire country.

Powerless—no, wait.

I turned to Agent Haegum.

There was no way I was the only one feeling this fear.

“Does the Bureau... not know?”

If they did, they wouldn’t have wasted the last 300 days doing nothing. They would have built some kind of countermeasure.

The problem was, if they had built a countermeasure, these two agents wouldn’t be talking about a catastrophic disaster detonating in a week in this tone.

...Are they keeping it secret?

Agent Haegum frowned slightly.

“You know. There are barely any agents or officials in the Bureau who even know about that special city.”

......!

Right. They erased all the agents’ memories and made the city cognitively unrecognizable.

In the process, Blue Dragon Team vanished outright, and the organization was even restructured as if it had always been that way.

But.

“Still, someone who knows would know.”

“.......”

Looking into Agent Haegum’s eyes, I realized who she meant.

Whoever led the sealing rite.

Someone who pushed that chilling plan—making May 4, the disaster day, repeat infinitely, using endlessly dying people as fuel to keep the sealing rite running.

Someone higher up would definitely know.

“...But from what we’ve pieced together, me and that bastard Choi... there hasn’t been any special movement inside the Bureau over the last few months. If they were taking measures, it should have affected the sealing rite. The fact that it hasn’t means even that isn’t happening.”

“That’s....”

Wait.

One horrifying assumption brushed through my mind.

If they weren’t moving now, then—

“...Are they waiting until the seal disappears completely?”

“.......”

“And then thinking they’ll perform the sealing rite again right after it disappears?”

“Yeah.”

“...!”

“If you have to seal it anyway, it’s a method that’s already been proven. I think there’s a high chance they’ll choose that over uncertain reinforcement.”

Ha.

“The only problem is... where they’ll get the ‘sacrifice.’”

Agent Haegum seemed tense only at the variable in that question itself.

But I already knew the answer.

...Just offer up the freed Se-gwang Special City citizens all over again.

This is insane.

My scalp prickled.

I opened my mouth urgently.

I have to say this....

“Agent—about the sealing rite... have you already talked about it with the other agent?”

About human sacrifice.

I tried to keep it vague, but the next moment I met Agent Choi’s eyes and knew.

“Why are you circling around it. Podo. We already heard.”

......!

A dry voice came out of that bitter smile, tired.

But there was almost no anger or confusion.

...As if he’d already chewed it to pieces over and over, calm.

“Ah. Worried about being tracked? Then it’s fine to talk here. They can’t chase us this close under the Tiger General’s resting place.”

And he added,

“...It’s a place the Bureau doesn’t even know about in the first place.”

“.......”

“We tried everything to pull only living citizens out while keeping the existing seal itself... but we just couldn’t interfere with the rite at all.”

His blue irises fixed on me.

“All the way up to this point—seven days before the seal ends.”

“.......”

His head must have been at the breaking point.

His direct junior and the ex-spy were missing from a catastrophic disaster and still couldn’t wake, the organization he’d given his life to served some chilling secret, Hoyuwon could do something unpredictable at any moment....

Looking at those hollow eyes that had clearly never rested even on leave, my own chest turned cold.

A crisis right in front of us.

I’m losing it.

Procedures and loose ends whipped through my head—Director Ho, the security team’s status, the researchers at Twilight Station, the Blood Broadcast Bureau rental fee, the lizard body stored at Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s place....

A 293-day blank, choking the throat.

But all of it would become meaningless if we couldn’t stop the catastrophic disaster coming in a week.

And yet re-sealing Se-gwang Special City... I couldn’t bring myself to even consider that as anything but evil.

Either way was hell for someone.

...At this point, how much does Director Ho know?

No. Focus.

If I couldn’t change what was coming, I had to move faster.

I had to contain this somehow.

“Agent Podo, be care—”

“I’m fine.”

I stood up without support. My legs shook.

My head cleared.

The first thing I needed was....

“I want to meet Yeong Eun—Agent Parkha.”

The incident where the seal started breaking.

I needed to reconstruct the circumstances from the person who’d been the center of gravity when the train shelter escaped.

Fast.

***

Go Yeong Eun arrived at Agent Choi’s hideout under Agent Haegum’s guidance less than half a day later.

“Soleum!”

Yeong Eun really was fine.

Instead of that haggard padded jacket she’d worn in the Se-gwang Special City subway, she looked neat and composed, like when I first saw her at the company, wearing casual clothes without any special processing.

...Which also meant all her exposed body parts were present.

-So the body parts Yeong Eun lost at Body Casino....

-We got them back from Body Casino after the escape.

-...!

-Yeah.

“I can’t believe you woke up. Really, really thank god....”

-Not even two weeks after escaping, she called Choi and asked him to tell her the “escape-by-dying method” we used to enter the special city again.

-In the end, she went back in as soon as she recovered. And at Body Casino, which had reopened for business, she retrieved every part she’d lost.

-The only thing missing is her ring finger. They said someone else already took it from the pawnshop.

I watched Yeong Eun lift her left hand—missing its ring finger—and wipe her face, hiding a sigh of relief.

And I forced myself to speak.

“Yeong Eun. I should have come to see you, but with the situation right now, it was difficult—so I asked the agents to invite you here.”

“Of course it’s fine! No, if you just woke up, you must be exhausted—your muscles and everything would be gone....”

Yeong Eun’s eyes flickered with something strange when she realized I was in better shape than expected, but instead of asking directly, she quietly closed her mouth.

...Even there, I felt an odd flow of time.

“Yeong Eun, have you been doing okay? ...I heard you’ve been entering the special city subway.”

“I’m... better than before. I’m living with my aunt. My aunt... forgot everything that happened.”

Yeong Eun’s voice darkened for a moment, then returned.

“And honestly, one reason I’m trying to return to duty as an agent is so my memories won’t be erased.”

Ah.

“You might call it calculating... but losing my memories feels like losing myself.”

She added that right after the rescue, she’d deliberately kept saying she wanted to “return to duty,” implicitly delaying memory erasure.

“And afterward I brushed off getting my body parts back as being thanks to an item. ...It sounds kind of extreme, doesn’t it? This isn’t Daydream Inc, it’s the Disaster Management Bureau.”

“No. I completely understand.”

Especially from Yeong Eun’s perspective—someone who’d been trying to win a wish without even knowing why she’d forgotten, after losing her memories of her family in Se-gwang Special City.

And....

Once I reached that thought, my mouth wouldn’t move.

I’d planned to say it again only when all three were together, because I didn’t have the confidence to speak it “normally” after telling the two agents.

Damn it.

But we didn’t have time, and ruin was coming.

“Yeong Eun.”

“Yes?”

“There’s good... news, and bad news.”

A bitter smile appeared at the corner of Agent Choi’s mouth, then vanished.

But as he listened to what I said next, even that bitter smile disappeared.

“The good news is that the other people may have a chance to wake up safely, too.”

“That’s... that’s really good news!”

A flash of joy lit Yeong Eun’s voice, then she forced herself calm.

Agent Choi’s eyes were on me too.

“Deputy Eun Haje and Ryu Jaegwan... and Section Chief Lee Jaheon—are they alive? The three of you disappeared from the train too, so we thought you... fell together.”

I nodded slowly. A cold anger flickered across Yeong Eun’s face.

“...That conductor shoved you, right?”

“.......”

“I knew it. So that’s what it was. That insane bastard....”

She said she didn’t regret hitting him at all, then steadied her breathing and continued.

“But still—thank god you were alive. ...We couldn’t find any trace of you four in the subway, no matter how hard we searched.”

“.......”

“Then you were on the surface?”

“Yes. ...It was completely unexpected, but there were people living on the surface of Se-gwang Special City.”

I met Yeong Eun’s eyes.

“And they were dying every day.”

“......What?”

The air turned cold.

“...What do you mean?”

I told her.

About Se-gwang Special City’s catastrophe, repeating May 4.

“...!!”

And....

“...That’s... how you seal the disaster?”

“.......”

“By repeating a single day every day, so no matter how much time passes the disaster can’t leave that city’s radius—people are just... dying every day?”

From Yeong Eun’s blank words, emotion slowly began to boil.

“Then my mom and dad...?”

“Yeong Eun....”

“Now, how many years has it been... I—”

She sucked in a sharp breath. I rushed to her side to pat her back, but Yeong Eun pushed my hand away.

...!

“.......”

Her head dropped low. For a long time, she didn’t answer.

Then, slowly, I heard her murmuring.

“...You’re saying this is real? This is reality? Really... that happened?”

“...It might only be my guess—”

“You’re always right! Every deduction you made was right every time! Why would you say something like that now.......”

She steadied her breathing again.

A stabbing silence sank into the cave.

I looked at Yeong Eun’s clenched fist.

It was trembling, drained white.

I saw Agent Choi slowly rise and move soundlessly to her side.

He—and Agent Haegum too—were pale, cold. But in front of the person whose family was involved, they didn’t show their shock.

After I barely steadied my own breathing, I asked him in a small, coded voice.

“...Did you know?”

About Yeong Eun.

“You’re asking if I didn’t know the seal would break in seven days?”

......!

“Of course I knew. Even after I got out, my ability to hear ‘rumors related to the special city’ didn’t disappear. Honestly, that rumor was why I kept trying to go into the subway.”

Yeong Eun’s voice cracked.

“When I think about it.”

“...Yes.”

“If we just let that seal break... isn’t there a chance my mom and dad could be alive when it breaks?”

...!

“May 4 keeps repeating. So if the timing matches, and it breaks at a time when lots of people are still alive... then wouldn’t they get fixed there while alive?”

[Oh, an interesting guess!]

Instead, my blood felt like it was turning cold.

There was no way it would go that conveniently, that kindly—but I couldn’t bring myself to refute her.

“...Yeong Eun. In that scenario, within days this entire country would—”

“Then we run away. As fast as we can. If we go to the other side of the earth, it might be safe...! And,”

Even while panting, Yeong Eun’s voice was icy.

“Why should I have to care about any of that?”

“...!”

“Let it fall apart. Let them handle it themselves. I—sorry....”

She clenched her teeth.

“No, I’m not sorry at all. ...I only want to apologize for snapping at you.”

“.......”

Agent Haegum lowered her sword.

Then she slowly patted Yeong Eun’s back.

“Honestly, you don’t even have to apologize for that. I feel the same way....”

“.......”

I could tell Yeong Eun was gritting her teeth and crying soundlessly.

Not tears of sadness—tears of agony and rage.

...Suppressed fury, like the Counseling Teacher.

I forced down the emotion rising in my own throat.

...Is there really no way?

Was Yeong Eun’s idea only ever going to remain a personal plan, a desperate hope? Or was there—.

.......

Wait.

“What if we end it first?”

“...Pardon?”

“If we end the disaster before the seal breaks... it might be possible.”

“Agent Podo!”

“Wait.”

But Agent Choi looked at me immediately.

A strange light turned in his eyes.

“So if the disaster ends right before the seal breaks... the citizens might survive while alive.”

“Yes.”

It felt like fire had flared inside my head.

Now I knew how to go from the subway to the outside.

Walk along the maintenance tracks.

If I stepped onto the surface of Se-gwang Special City on a rewound morning.

If it was some extremely early point, before the city itself became completely contaminated.

Then a termination attempt... could be tried...!

And I already had a “method” I’d been preparing—after getting a hint.

-Then somehow divert the dream incubator Daydream Inc copied

Install it in what’s left of the Pleasant Research Institute facility

The potion manufacturer I’d diverted from Daydream Inc.

And the ones I entrusted it to....

The researchers.

.......

The experience of May 4 on disaster day meshed with the contents of that note in my head.

It was almost there. But....

“Even if the odds are low, isn’t it something we can try?”

I lifted my head.

Yeong Eun was catching her breath.

In her eyes, a conflict flashed like sparking wires—fighting not to hope, calculating fiercely.

“Yeong Eun.”

“.......”

“Have you ever visited Twilight Station in the special city underground? There’s a resort pop-up store there, and inside....”

“...You mean Mr. Heo Un, right?”

“Yes. And there should have been Daydream Inc researchers there.......”

But I saw the answer in Yeong Eun’s expression.

“They weren’t... there?”

“No.”

......!!

“Wait.”

Before my blood could turn completely cold, Yeong Eun’s calm voice cut in.

“I’ve heard a ‘rumor’ that Director Ho... secured the Daydream Inc employees who went missing in the subway.”

...!

“So I think the current project team... has them secured somewhere in the subway stations.”

.......

“...Do you need those people... for the termination attempt?”

I nodded.

“Then... let’s go meet them.”

“...!”

“Before it’s too late, let’s go see Director Ho.”

Disaster-day until arrival: D-6.