Chapter 121.1
A dark office.
Taka-taka-taka.
Someone sits alone, typing away.
Letters appear on the illuminated monitor screen.
Report (Draft)
Author : Lee Jaheon
20XX. 01. 02. Eyewitness testimonies of the clearance process of the anomalous C-grade Darkness that occurred aboard the Mokpo Express, and the (presumed) death of Supervisor Kim Soleum.
The typing continued at a steady rhythm, with no hesitation or pause, as if the timeline was already neatly arranged inside the writerâs head.
Witnesses : Employee A, Employee C, Employee F (Initials assigned based on team divisions for ease of reference.)
Employee A :
Are we really doing this interview again? I donât see the point.
Anyway⊠yeah. I boarded the train for a business trip, and next thing I knew, the train itself was running over the ocean.
Employee C :
The clearance went super smoothly! Supervisor Soleum led a lot of it, and it was really nice seeing him work so hard to minimize civilian casualties!
(Employee A inquired whether the anomaly was intentionally orchestrated by the company, but the Research Team stated that it was âpure coincidenceâ â Further confirmation available in Interview No. 3.)
A three-person elite team successfully led the clearance of the anomalous Darkness. Collection of C-grade essence confirmed.
From this point forward, all testimonies consistently stated that the train was no longer an anomalous space but a fully real-world environment.
Employee C :
Supervisor Soleum was the first to check the liquid and then said he was going to the restroom. Right, âthatâ restroom.
After the trainâs departure, Supervisor Kim Soleum left his seat, stating, âIâm going to the restroom.â No contact for 15 minutes.
At the 17-minute mark, Employee F, who had been seated in Car 3, visited the elite teamâs section.
Purpose of visit : âTo say goodbyeâ, according to testimony.
Employee F :
Ah, Iâve mentioned this before, but⊠I was on vacation, sir.
I got caught up in the anomaly unexpectedly, but I tried to stay calm and assist the team as best I could. Itâs only natural as an employee of our company.
After everything ended, I went to say goodbye to my superiorsâthen realized my friendâwhoâs from the same recruitment batch as meâwasnât at his seat. So I went to look for him.
Employee C :
Oh, you were heading the wrong way at first, so I directed you to the correct way! I guess you instinctively turned toward your original seat!
Following Employee Câs guidance, Employee F proceeded to the restroom.
There, they found a collapsed man outside the restroom door.
Condition of the victim :
– No external bleeding
– Both hands and feet had been removed
– The severed areas were covered in fine ash
A medical professional diagnosed that the limbs appeared to have been instantly incinerated by an extremely high temperature.
( Source : Somang Medical Center [Daydream Inc. Affiliated Hospital] )
Employee F :
I had a bad feeling about it. But the restroom door was locked. No response when I knocked.
Well⊠not to brag, but Iâm pretty handy with locks. I tried unlocking it myself⊠and succeeded.
âŠBut. (Sharp inhale.)
At the 21-minute mark, the express train restroom door was unlocked.
Employee F :
The restroom was⊠silent.
There was no one inside. Just a perfectly clean, ordinary express train restroom. Which made it feel even more wrong. So I instinctively stepped back to leaveâŠ
And thatâs when things started falling out of thin air. âŠAlong with blood.
The hands typing on the keyboard momentarily halted.
The cursor moved as the mouse navigated toward a desktop folder labeled âScene Photosâ.
Several images were attached to the document.
Photograph of the interior of the restroom beside Car 7 of the blood-soaked express train.
The walls and floor are drenched in blood, with everything scattered haphazardly across the ground, stained red.
A mask, an employee ID, a briefcase, and⊠a Dream Essence Collector filled with C-grade liquid.
Yet, amidst the carnage, there was one pristine space.
A small, bathtub-shaped patch of tileâcompletely free of blood.
As if⊠someone had taken it away.
Employee F :
And then, a giant hand suddenly appearedâugh! Uuuurgh, itâit pushed me! Flash, flash, flash, flash⊠HelloThejoyofthisnightanewfaceeverydayandyourfamiliarhostGoodeveningthisisTheLateNightTalkâ BLAAAAARGH (Interview terminated)
Contamination and PTSD symptoms. Fox Counseling Center referral recommended. Seventh interview ended.
A testimony from the fourth interview is hereby referenced instead.
Employee F:
A hand appeared from thin airâa hand with a halo, no, some kind of strange light, no⊠no, never mind.
(Deep breath.)
It picked up a strange bathtub that had fallen onto the floor. A small bathtub with a checkered pattern and golden feet. A-And⊠when that happened, blood spilled across the floor, and⊠somethingâ
Something like a shredded black ribbon fell with it.
The hand grabbed the ribbon too. And then⊠on the mirror.
It wrote something.
The typing hands stopped once more.
The writer reached for a printed photograph pinned to the board beside his desk.
A bathroom mirror, covered in blood, its surface serving as an inkwell for an elegant, cursive message.
Mr. Kim Soleum
is working somewhere else
starting today.
:)
The Research Team theorized that the message was linked to the anomalous âTamra Expressâ Darkness that had manifested on the train.
(This hypothesis was considered highly credible and formally recorded in internal research logs.)
Supporting evidence include Supervisor Kim Soleumâs active role in this Darkness’s resolution and his unique ethical approach to clearing Darknesses, increasing the likelihood of irregular occurrences.
There is a possibility that, while on a routine business trip, he was âinvitedâ to a place called âTamraââa yet-unknown spaceâwhere the message now hinted at his death.
Or, conversely, that Supervisor Kim Soleum had been chosen as the final sacrifice for Tamra Express.
Tak.
The writer stopped typing.
Not because he didnât know what to write nextâ
“Section Chief.”
“Assistant Manager Eun Haje.”
âbut because he had a visitor.
Siptea
Eek so that’s how the prophecy unfold!
CHELY_
Dad, I mean team leader Lee Jaheon, please bring Kim Soleum backđđđ