Searching the Ruined Seoul
“You’ve all been kidnapped by a cult.
“I’m a government agent who infiltrated to gather evidence.”
I delivered the lie with perfect calm.
Anomalies, ghost stories, special phenomena—ordinary people never believed them even when you explained. Back when I’d first faced the subway ghost story, the sheer unreality of it had gotten me killed once already. For civilians, a well-chosen lie was far more soothing than the truth.
“These lunatics play with people until they die. Burning them alive, burying them, drowning them—every grotesque method you can imagine.”
“Hiiik.” “I don’t want to die.”
I fed them just enough fear to keep them pliable. Abruptly kidnapped, already psychologically crushed, they would swallow anything I said.
“When the van stops, a strange group will approach. That woman uses some kind of drug that empties people’s minds. To keep from falling under it, don’t look into her eyes. If a weird light appears behind her, bite your lip hard and endure.”
I drilled the warning into them. This loop was the last one. I intended to save as many as possible and get out. Even if fakes were mixed among them, it no longer mattered. Their behavior was identical to real humans.
“We’ve arrived. Remember everything I told you.”
The van stopped. People were forced out. I still couldn’t understand why I’d been dropped at the same place as Goe-bung-i1231, only at a different point in time.
“Welcome, prospective believers.”
A woman whose face was veiled in gauze appeared. A high-ranking executive of the cult, one of the core figures who personally attended Eun-hwa.
“Everyone, look at me.”
A brilliant light bloomed behind the veiled woman. I bit my lip and resisted it.
“I’ll show you to your rooms.”
I held out against the light. The veiled woman turned away.
They didn’t die, right?
I had helped them only within the bare minimum I could manage. Praying that no one had died, I headed for the room.
Thud.
The door shut. People exhaled the breaths they had been holding. Of everyone who had ridden in the van, not a single one was dead.
“Thank goodness. You’re all alive.”
I felt quiet relief.
“Where is this place? And where did all of you come from?”
A familiar face—Kim A-rang—approached and asked. A real human face that had not been eaten by a monster.
“I was grabbed and brought here just like you. A strange woman came up and asked me to fill out a survey, right?”
“Yes.”
“I ignored her and walked past, and suddenly I dropped into this place.”
“Yes.”
“Everyone else here is the same. They refused the strange woman’s survey and fell into this place.”
The people hung on my every word. So this was the kind of attention a Management Bureau agent enjoyed. I savored the gazes while spinning the same lie I had used in the van.
One lesson from the previous loop: there was no need to tell ordinary people too much. Feed them the truth about anomalies and ghost stories and they simply went mad.
“If you want to survive, trust only me. Stick together and we can all walk out of here alive.”
I clenched a fist and thumped my solar plexus. Their trust was mine.
“This is a cult of madmen. Break even one trivial rule and you lose your life. Stick to the rules I give you and you won’t have to worry about dying.”
I explained the rules—dining hall rules, the rules for each day of the week—and laid them out clearly. The sudden, unexpected rules Goe-bung-i1231 had mentioned were ones I had never encountered, so I could not speak of them.
“Why are you so good at talking? How do you even know these rules?”
Once I finished speaking, a brief rest was allowed. Team Leader came straight to my side.
“I did my own investigating, Team Leader.”
“Team Leader? You can just call me by my name now, can’t you?”
Ah. Right—she was my girlfriend now. I had planned to launch a confession attack, get rejected, and still receive her help. I never expected her to accept it.
This is seriously awkward.
I forced my stiff lips to move and spoke In-seo’s name.
“In-seo, then. Check around here for any Management Bureau markings.”
You never knew. Bureau agents might have infiltrated the cult and left signs behind.
“Why would a Bureau employee come all the way out here? Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
“You never know.”
The cult had been built on the outskirts of Seoul. The Management Bureau’s Seoul branch was only a few hours’ walk away. Korean Bureau agents might well have infiltrated and left coded messages.
“You’re right. There is a Bureau cipher. The rulebook you mentioned is carved into it.”
In-seo spoke while staring at the ceiling.
“Really? Any other information?”
So that was where the rulebook had been. Thanks to Goe-bung-i1231 I hadn’t needed to find it myself—fortunate.
“No idea. But why leave a cipher like this? And it’s an old mark they barely use anymore…”
They survived, then.
Whatever In-seo’s personal interest, confirming that Bureau agents were still alive inside the anomaly was enough.
“Is the location of a safe place written down? Or maybe where they themselves are living?”
If there was somewhere I could stash these burdens safely, moving around would become far easier.
“Nothing like that here.”
“Shame…”
Things were not going to be simple. I had confirmed Bureau information, but not the existence of a shelter.
Dong. Dong. Dong.
“Everyone, mealtime. Act exactly as I told you.”
After a firm final warning I left the room. We moved as one unit down the corridor—no running, only a slow walk toward the dining hall.
No monsters nearby. We can all sit at one table.
I had kept every human who should have died alive. Because of that we could cluster together and claim a single table.
We stuck tight and headed for the dining hall. We stopped in front of it, dropped to our knees, and sat.
So far, so easy.
No monsters in sight. We had succeeded in gathering at one table.
“Ugh…”
A meal of appalling blandness followed. Put it in the mouth, chew, swallow. I barely finished and exhaled.
“The first day is almost over.”
Back in the room I let out a long breath. The long day had ended—one hour before the bedtime drum would sound.
Patrol times…
I already had the anomaly’s patrol schedule memorized. Avoid the patrols and you could survive surprisingly well.
“Come outside with me.”
I went out with In-seo. My destination was the nearby room of a high-ranking priestess. The anomaly woman prayed without rest, day or night.
“What are you doing?”
I slipped a hand into the folds of her clothes. In-seo’s eyes narrowed.
“This woman has a map.”
I pulled it out and spread it before In-seo. As a Management Bureau team leader she might spot some clue I had missed.
“Well? See anything?”
“Hmmmm.”
Seo In-seo frowned at the map. A map alone was not enough.
Do I have to go all the way to the Bureau tomorrow?
“What’s this space up here? It looks suspicious.”
“That’s…”
The place she pointed to was Seoul. The Seoul that had collapsed and fallen into ruin.
“That’s…”
What was I supposed to say? I could not tell her that a shattered world existed inside the anomaly.
“We’ll go there ourselves tomorrow. For now, let’s head back.”
It was time for the anomaly’s patrol. I returned to the room with In-seo.
“Tomorrow the two of us will go outside to search and come back. The rest of you just pretend to pray quietly. If you do that, these lunatic cultists won’t kill you.”
The next morning, the moment breakfast ended, we finished preparations to cross the mountain.
I had already briefed Goe-bung-i on the situation. He, however, planned to search a different direction today. In the previous loop Goe-bung-i had reached the same place at the same point. Yet his perspective and mine had not differed at all.
Should be fine, right?
The last loop had been a throwaway. At the cost of my life I had already cleared a path in the direction Goe-bung-i1231 would take.
“Let’s go.”
Preparations finished, we crossed the mountain. The path over was easy. We reached the summit without any interference from the anomaly.
“Seoul…?”
“Let’s head down first.”
I led the dazed In-seo down the mountain. We passed through ruined streets and arrived at the Management Bureau building.
“It’s the Bureau.”
Seo In-seo, still wearing that blank expression, slowly approached the building. I licked my lips and watched her.
“Shall we go underground?” “Yeah.”
Together we descended. We reached the ninth basement level. As expected, the stairs leading to the tenth floor were nowhere to be seen—sealed off as if they had never existed in the first place.
We climbed back to the surface and searched for anything that might serve as a clue. I already knew Bureau agents had survived. If I could learn where they were, the difficulty would drop dramatically.
I rifled through documents and traces.
Almost time to head back.
The hour to return was approaching. I gathered my things and went to In-seo’s side. She stood frozen in front of a file folder as if nailed to the floor.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s my father’s name.”
“...?”
Suddenly? My future father-in-law was showing up here? Come to think of it, I had never heard anything about In-seo’s family. We had known each other less than a month. I knew nothing about her at all.
“This is weird. Dad disappeared without a word when I was eighteen.”
“We have to go back. Time’s tight.”
I brought In-seo back to the cult. The haul had been meager—only the discovery that among twenty-three unidentified agents was my future father-in-law.
In-seo’s mind was elsewhere, so our pace slowed. Naturally we reached the cult a little later than planned.
“Sorry. We’re late.”
“It’s fine.”
Because we were late, the patrols’ vigilance had sharpened. Breaking through that cordon and getting inside was impossible.
“Let’s hold out around here for a bit.”
Today was Friday—the day the anomalies’ activity grew sparse. If we seized the right moment we could still slip into the room.
We hid in the undergrowth and watched the anomalies’ movements.
Eun-hwa.
Eun-hwa was strolling down the corridor. Seeing her brought back everything that had happened on the subway—the moments with the Eun-hwa who had become an anomaly. The Eun-hwa who had given me her virginity was unforgettable.
“...Isn’t that the part-timer girl?”
“Yeah. Looks like she’s been taken over by an anomaly.”
“But she just collapsed all of a sudden?”
Huh?
It was real. Eun-hwa lay on the floor. The anomalies panicked; then screams erupted and they scattered in every direction.
“...Run.”
I gestured to In-seo. The worst-case scenario I had seen on the gallery was unfolding—an abrupt action that broke the rules. With screams, the anomalies poured out beyond the cult grounds.