“Aigoo, Grapes must be really scared?”
But Assistant Manager Eun Haje snorted.
“Co on, Sir Highborn Civil Servant. You think Roe would be scared of sothing like this? This punk’s been on a talk show where they literally grind people up. Right?”
“……”
Ha.
I forced a faint smile at the assistant manager.
“Of course. …It’s just a persona I built while infiltrating the Disaster Managent Bureau.”
“Ohh, you little rascal. Still good at your job, huh.”
“Thank you.”
If only that were true……
Honestly, I want to confess the truth even now… But no, look at the mood here.
Four hardened veterans inside an annihilation-sanctioned Disaster.
‘If I said I’m scared now, it’d feel like trying to freeload off the group project…’
Ha.
And anwhile, soone is throwing a fit just because his talk show got ntioned…
[Heavens. You dare speak of this Braun’s Late-Night Talk Show in such a crude manner? Goodness, even if the public craves cheap thrills, this is too far!]
[Still, though I can’t fathom why soone as sensitive as you, Mr. Roe Deer, would keep company with such a person, I will respect your judgnt. Friend.]
Right, thanks… Sohow, I’m a little less scared now.
I glanced at Agent Choi.
He gave a small, playful grin.
“Oh~ so Grapes is actually a cool-headed, fearless guy, huh?”
“……”
No, nobody ever said it’s up to that extent…!
“Gotcha. Okay. From now on Grapes is—”
He broke off mid-sentence and snapped his head around. Why—
“Get down.”
I reflexively pushed down the shoulder of the person next to and dropped my head.
Fwick.
Sothing.
A taut twang and a weird brushing sensation grazed just above . I silently pressed flat against the floor, listening hard.
……
……
Then I noticed.
The shoulder I’d been pushing down was gone.
“……”
When I lifted my head.
I was alone.
Trees and fog.
Escalators and station signs.
Surrounded by a forest of countless hanged corpses, I was the only one standing there.
‘Ah.’
I didn’t scream. I didn’t call for anyone like an idiot.
I just stiffened up, then forced myself to move.
One step.
Two steps.
My pace quickened, fear fueling my urgency to find the others.
But even as I hurried, I thought, I’m not stupid. This is a supernatural zone. I fixed my direction using one corpse as a marker so I wouldn’t get lost, careful not to stray too far, turning my head…
Sothing caught my eye.
Sothing long.
Sothing jutting from a tree and hanging still.
“……”
I stepped closer, slowly.
A worn, tightly twisted brown rope, shaped into a loop to slip over sothing.
A noose.
Dangling at perfect head height, extending from a thick branch above, swaying right in front of .
“……!”
I slowly stepped back.
The noose that had been hanging in the air faded, little by little, into the fog and out of sight. I had no ti to sigh in relief. I turned my head again and forced my feet to move.
This ti, sothing took shape as a silhouette in the mist. Hoping it might be soone else, I hurried toward it, but what was there was…
Another noose.
“……”
Sohow.
The number of hanged corpses on the trees around seed to have increased.
Or maybe I could just see them better now.
Corpses in shirts, tracksuits, dresses, suits, blouses, jumpers, people of every kind, swaying as black silhouettes deeper in the fog where my sight reached.
Sounds drifted in.
News reports.
– Another body has been discovered in the ■■■ Forest of Sekwang Special tropolitan City. The deceased, identified as Mr. Shin, 30s, is presud to have taken his own life due to personal despair…
I kept walking. I couldn’t bring myself to go between the corpses, so I tried to head where there seed to be fewer. And again, there it was…
A noose.
As if it had been prepared just for soone now alone.
– The ■■■ Forest, notorious as a so-called ‘suicide hotspot’, is located in Sekwang Special tropolitan City. Photographs of bodies found hanging from trees have circulated on social dia, further fueling public controversy…
– Experts have voiced concern over the negative impact of such exposure, warning that it may encourage copycat behavior among citizens. Like this.
“……”
– Don’t you want to give up too?
Then it hit .
‘How did so many people even manage to hang themselves?’
Even if one wants to die, it takes preparation. For seven thousand people to hang themselves, there would need to be enough rope, cord, sothing to hold human weight.
So what if…
‘This forest was already filled with hanging ropes from the start.’
– Don’t you want to give up too?
What if the forest itself provided the nooses?
For the sake of a quiet death.
This place was prepared for seven thousand people to hang themselves.
Because that’s how it existed in people’s minds.
“……”
Even if I turn and run, I keep coming back.
Those loops of rope.
[Oh, an inevitable progression.]
[It’s calling you toward the ending, Mr. Roe Deer. Rather like a black box with arms outstretched, isn’t it?]
Of all the comparisons to make…!
I clenched my teeth. Don’t think about it. Don’t rember the state I was in back then, what I beca after…
More importantly.
‘How did I deal with this before?’
I have to rember.
I’ve survived and broken through ghost stories even without being in the state of 130666. I can still do sothing as a normal human being.
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