Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Subway (3)
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After taking down the woman with the torn mouth, we opened the door to the next car with tense hearts.
Just in case, we decided to prepare for battle well in advance this time before moving.
We had learned that among the anomalies, there were some that ambushed us.
"...My talismans."
I resolved to fight with the Returning Sword as much as possible from now on.
Borrowing more talismans from Bora, who seemed a bit sulky, didn't look easy.
As we entered the next car, we spotted another woman crouched in the center of the car.
For a split second, the horrific monster from before flashed in my mind, sending chills down my spine, but the atmosphere this time was completely different.
"Ugh... eung..."
The woman was genuinely sobbing pitifully.
She was sniffling with snot running down, truly heartbroken.
It wasn't the eerie wail from before, but sincere sobbing born of fear and sorrow.
"Mom... Dad... Damn it... I didn't even get to spend all my money... Damn..."
"...She's pretty realistic."
Her desperate cries for family and money tugged at the heartstrings.
Park Sunja gave a wry smile and whispered.
This time, she really seemed to be a survivor. As we cautiously approached, the woman spotted us, startled, and lifted her head.
The moment she saw us, she rushed forward as if we'd become a ray of light in her despair, nearly throwing her arms around us.
"P-people!"
"Yes, we're here to rescue you."
"R-really? Uhuuuk..."
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed, wailing like a child for a long time.
Park Sunja soothed her while reporting the situation to Han Sora on the support team via the comms device in her ear.
Han Sora first requested the woman's personal details.
"I live in Sejong City, I'm the second child—"
Despite her frightened voice, the woman fluently answered everything we asked: her name, home address, family relations.
Han Sora confirmed shortly after that the woman was indeed on the rescue request list.
The woman said she hadn't made the request herself, but ever since being trapped in this bizarre train, she'd been desperately praying for someone to save her.
I wondered what methods the Monster Management Bureau used to even detect such prayers and register them as rescue requests. Their capabilities suddenly piqued my curiosity.
"...There's one more rescue target. At Hwamuyeok."
But the woman wasn't the only one we needed to save.
According to the info Park Sunja got from ongoing comms with Han Sora, there was still a rescue target remaining at 'Hwamuyeok' station itself.
If we safely cleared to the frontmost car of this subway, we'd return to the Incheon station where we first boarded, so part of the team would escort this woman back to the surface then, while the rest stayed on the train to head straight to Hwamuyeok.
"Shun, Hanbit. You two escort this woman safely to the surface after reaching the front car. Soyoung, Minjun, and Bora will stay on the train and head to Hwamuyeok to rescue the remaining survivors."
Park Sunja quickly assigned roles. I nodded at her decision.
"...I'm the team leader..."
Bora's lip puffed out, but when Park Sunja apologized, explaining she'd made the call first due to weak combat skills and needing to liaise with support, Bora's pout vanished instantly.
When we moved to the next car with the rescued woman, we scanned every inch again, tense as ever.
This car was perfectly identical to the previous car 10 in every way.
The number of handholds, ad content, even the tiny stains on seats. No matter how hard we looked, we couldn't spot a single difference.
"...No anomaly here?"
Bora muttered.
We checked even more meticulously just in case, but the result was the same.
So we advanced to the next car right away.
"...No anomaly in this one either."
"...What's going on?"
The next car, and the one after that.
As if someone desperately wanted us off this train, we passed three or four cars in a row without a single anomaly.
It wasn't that we missed it; there truly were no anomalies, allowing us to proceed.
The other team members seemed quite flustered by this.
But it wasn't my first time.
Even in the underground hotel, the monster had urged me to leave.
This anomaly phenomenon was trying to chase me—or us—out of its domain as quickly as possible.
Swipe.
"...Car 1."
"The frontmost car."
In the end, we reached what appeared to be the subway's front car without much trouble.
Then, with a hiss, the subway stopped, and the doors opened.
By the rules, exiting this door should take us back to that Incheon station where we boarded.
"Alright, you and the lady get off first. You two, guide her safely to the surface. I'll contact support right away."
"Huhuuk... Thank you... Thank you..."
Park Sunja instructed Shun and Hanbit along with the rescued woman.
The two nodded and supported her toward the train doors.
The doors opened, and familiar subway platform lights filtered in.
We waited until they safely disembarked and the doors closed again.
Now, only Bora, Park Sunja, and I remained on the train. Our mission wasn't over.
We still had to rescue the other survivor at Hwamuyeok.
As the train departed, I decided to exploit the rules right away.
"How do we get to Hwamuyeok now?"
"Hold on."
No sooner had I finished speaking than I smashed my fist into the nearest window.
Crash-!
The window shattered with a loud crash.
Bora and Park Sunja looked startled by my sudden action but quickly grasped my intent and began smashing whatever they could grab around them.
Kicking seats, hurling talismans at handholds, ripping off wall signs.
The rules had added a ban on damaging property, with violation forcing immediate disembarkation at Hwamuyeok.
Our reckless actions produced instant results.
Screeech—!
Shortly after we started trashing the train interior, it jolted violently, braking hard and slowing down.
Then all lights went out, and without any announcement, the train came to a complete stop.
Moments later, the doors slid open, letting in damp, eerie air.
Before us lay a platform shrouded in darkness.
A weathered station sign reading [Hwamuyeok] faintly visible.
We had finally arrived.
At Hwamuyeok.
As we slowly stepped off at Hwamuyeok, the darkness lifted, revealing our surroundings.
"Gasp...!"
We three swallowed hard in unison.
The sight before us delivered a more direct, blatant horror than any anomaly so far.
Hwamuyeok.
In one word, it felt like a transfer station for monsters.
On the massive subway platform, non-human entities—monsters of every shape—roamed freely as if it were nothing.
Just that scene alone made my heart pound up to my throat.
"...We're completely trapped now."
Bora muttered warily, pulling out a few talismans from her pocket in advance.
Their forms varied wildly: some looked almost human at a glance, others lacked eyeballs or had grotesquely twisted limbs, and some were so melted and unrecognizable that even looking made my stomach churn with disgust.
Amid that hellish landscape, Han Sora from support relayed key strategies for Hwamuyeok via Park Sunja's earpiece.
Simple, yet excruciatingly difficult strategies.
"According to Han Sora... the most important rule here is just one: 'Never let on that you're human.'"
Park Sunja's voice came low and rapid.
"If they discover you're human, you'll be forcibly ejected from this station immediately. And once ejected outside... you can never return to the human world. At least, no one's ever come back 'alive' from there."
No one's come back alive.
The weight of those words crushed us.
We strolled as casually as possible, pretending to be one of the monsters native to the place, heading to a corner of the platform.
Then Park Sunja asked support again. How to avoid detection as human.
Han Sora's survival rules were as follows.
First, no matter what, stay calm and act natural.
Second, never show fear, no matter how grotesque the monster.
Third, especially never let the station staff-uniformed monsters catch your true nature.
They seemed to act as some kind of sentinels.
There were various minor rules too,
but these three were the most crucial first.
We massaged our stiff, tense facial muscles to relax them, forcing the most natural, indifferent expressions we could.
"...If other monsters pick a fight, never show fear—raise your voice boldly. It's safer to fight than look scared..."
"...Fight boldly..."
"No... you don't have to fight. Are you listening?"
Tense and on edge, I burned just one rule into my mind for now.
Don't let them catch me scared. Even if it means fighting.
And so, feigning nonchalance, we stepped out among the monsters to find the rescue target somewhere in this bizarre, perilously dangerous Hwamuyeok.
Each step felt like walking on thin ice.