“Bound for Tamra? What’s with that?”
“An error? But whoa, it’s kinda creepy.”
The high-speed train passengers murmured as they noticed the change on the onboard display.
But it wasn’t serious—just the kind of curiosity you’d expect from people trying to pass time during a long, boring trip.
At least, until they truly understood what kind of incident they were dealing with.
“Hey, should I record? I’ll upload it to Inheart and…… …Huh?”
“What?”
“…Internet’s not working.”
Classic.
“Uh, excuse me, but mine says I’m out of the coverage area. Does yours work?”
“What? Why isn’t anyone able to connect?”
The murmuring around us gradually grew louder.
But Assistant Manager Butterfly in front of me didn’t move an inch, and Supervisor Dolphin sitting beside me just muttered quietly.
“Ugh, how annoying. Of all times, why did it have to happen when there are so many civilians on board?”
It was the textbook introduction of a Darkness—a pattern any Field Exploration Team employee from our company would immediately recognize.
What the passengers didn’t know was that this particular ghost story had been documented decades ago by the government, not our company.
The Paradise Test (tentative name) was a phenomenon that very rarely occurred on high-speed trains departing from Seoul and bound for Iksan.
To date, there had been no casualties, and its disaster classification was pending review.
But that was the extent of the documentation.
‘Because there were no casualties!’
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau only classified ghost stories as Disasters if people had died.
Thus, the official report had been closed with the assumption, ‘The phenomenon appears to have ceased after the Iksan-bound high-speed train route was extended to Mokpo.’
But now… it had returned.
Right here, on this train.
“Look outside! Someone, check the view!”
“Oh my god!”
I turned my head toward the train window.
The view that should have shown us the outskirts of Seoul instead revealed…
An endless expanse of blue ocean.
“…!”
The deep red sky met the horizon, creating a surreal and mesmerizing scene.
The train sped forward, spraying mist as it cut through the waves, gliding across the shimmering surface of the sea.
“This train… it’s running on the ocean?! H-How the heck?”
“Wow…”
“Wait, is this some kind of CG effect? Like a trial run for LCD window displays?”
The passengers, awestruck by the surreal, almost transcendent landscape, momentarily forgot their confusion and began admiring the view.
One passenger tried to take a picture with their phone, only to panic when it failed to save.
The Tamra Express Disaster.
The introduction was exactly as described in the document I had read…
“……”
Damn it.
If only I had focused on the fact that I was boarding a train bound for Mokpo, I might have anticipated this ghost story’s activation.
‘But they designed this perfectly to slip past my attention.’
They had placed another Darkness in front of me as the target to keep me distracted!
– Travel to Mokpo and enter the C-grade Darkness there.
I had been so focused on preparing for that mission that I didn’t see the real threat coming from an unexpected direction.
I clasped my hands together, my mind racing.
‘Was this a trap set on purpose?’
Or was it a coincidence?
According to the document, this phenomenon had been described as one that ‘no one ever expected’.
‘But that was written from the Disaster Bureau’s perspective.’
Other groups—or individuals—might have figured out its activation pattern.
…Especially considering the people accompanying me.
‘The setup feels way too intentional.’
“Pardon me, Assistant Manager, wake up.”
“……Hah.”
Supervisor Dolphin nudged Assistant Manager Butterfly awake.
“Another job? Might as well be high-grade so we can file a report and earn more points.”
“Exactly!”
Two members of the elite team.
In other words, people capable of making cold, ruthless decisions to ensure mission success without hesitation or remorse.
‘…This ghost story couldn’t be a worse match for them.’
Because…
This ghost story tested human morality.
“Hmm. The text on the screen changed.”
……
I lifted my head, my gaze icy.
A new sentence scrolled across the screen:
<marquee behavior=”scroll” direction=”left” scrollamount=”7″>To reach Tamra, offer a sacrifice.</marquee>
marquee.addEventListener(‘finish’, function() { loopCount++; if (loopCount >= 104) { marquee.stop(); // Stops after 104 loops } });
“…A sacrifice?”
Rattle.
A window at the very front of the train car slid open.
Passengers sitting nearby flinched and recoiled.
“Whoa, what the—!”
“That window’s not supposed to open… Wait a second, why isn’t the wind blowing in?”
“Why did it open so suddenly…?”
As if… inviting someone to throw a sacrifice through it.
“……”
A few passengers, who had gotten out of their seats to investigate the anomaly more closely, now wore expressions of confusion and growing fear.
“What do they mean by a sacrifice? An offering?”
“This is so weird…”
But nobody wanted to theorize out loud about what kind of sacrifice or offering it could be.
“Couldn’t it just have been hacked?”
“Let’s go find a conductor or train staff.”
Avoidance.
Most people either sat back down while clicking their tongues anxiously or moved to other cars in search of train staff, pretending to remain calm.
Because they had already realized that something was seriously wrong, an eerie stillness fell over the train car.
Tap, tap.
Assistant Manager Butterfly lightly tapped the handle of the seat across from her, drawing my and Supervisor Dolphin’s attention.
“Don’t interfere. Just observe what they do first.”
“Understood!”
“Yes.”
The assistant manager was probably waiting for someone else to act first to see what would happen… And perhaps also ensuring that I wouldn’t do anything reckless.
But I had no intention of acting rashly in the first place.
‘If this really is that Disaster, it’s better to stay put for now.’
I quietly observed to see if events would play out ‘as expected’.
After a moment—
“This is way too strange!”
Sporadic screams began to erupt throughout the train car.
“We found a conductor, but they’re in a total panic! They’re screaming that they have no idea what’s happening!”
“There are families with kids in the front car, and they’re freaking out because their kids are missing!”
“This isn’t normal! We can’t contact the engineer either! The control cabin is completely locked!”
As communication spread between train cars, people learned more terrifying details.
– Ah, the chaos of it all! Throughout human history, what cannot be understood has always been a source of fear. And here, it’s no exception.
– Are you going to keep observing where this leads, Friend?
‘…For a while, yes.’
That was the right move for now.
But I couldn’t help feeling anxious, so I clenched my teeth to suppress it.
I watched the people standing by the train door, loudly proposing ideas to the rest of the passengers.
“Everyone, we need to come up with some sort of plan!”
“Yeah, this is starting to look like a serious situation—”
Di-ri-ring!
“……Huh?”
Everyone turned their attention to the onboard screen.
A new message had appeared.
First Altar Entrance
“…Altar?”
Fwick—
Outside the window, the once-brilliant blue sea suddenly turned blood-red—
And then everything went dark.