(It's recommended to check the comments for images of some parts to help with visualization)
Segwang Metropolitan City.
May 4th.
City Hall Rooftop.
Sunlight.
A knocked-over dream incubator. Beneath it, a torn cocoon.
Connectedtoamasshuggingthemusicboxrevealedfromwithinthecocoon risesKimSoleumtheinvitedoneonecalledfromaworldwhereghoststoriesdonotexist I look away.[1]
The sound of the music box.
And....
My hand, installing the Potion Maker. It's convulsing.
"Hk,"
The last wire.
Faster, faster!
Cold sweat dripping, the movement of my fingers connecting the cord, the fear, the urge to glance at the candle, the upheaval beneath the torn cocoon, my wavering vision, the sound of the music box....
....
Click.
The moment the last wire connected.
I pressed the Potion Maker's power button. At the same time, I grabbed the candle with one hand.
"...!!"
I can breathe again.
In my trembling hand, the candle cast a faint light, illuminating only the Potion Maker.
I took a deep breath and backed away, pressing myself against the machine.
To get away from the cocoon revealed beneath the dream incubator.
To get away from... it, revealed through the torn cocoon!
[Oh, this is quite a splendid success, Friend!]
Don't look around. Don't listen to the music box! As the candle melts away at a frantic pace, I barely manage to get a grip, get a grip....
....
Finally, the Potion Maker's panel lights up.
◇HELLO FUTURE!
Beginning identity verification.◇
I let out a ragged breath.
A clean font appears on the modern panel.
I try to hold up Kwak Jegang's ID card, which I had prepared in advance.
From now on, there's no telling what will happen. It's all within the realm of prediction and speculation. So, I must react calmly….
◇Operational error detected!◇
My body freezes.
◇Auto-recovery in progress Error detected Unknown overpower stateeeeeeeeeeeeeee◇
I hold my breath.
◇Preparing for automatic system shutdown… Failure ◇
◇Preparing for automatic system shutdown… Failure ◇
◇Preparing for automatic system shutdown… Failure◇
◇Failurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailurefail ◇
◆
◆HELLO FUTURE!
Beginning identity verification. ◆
◆HELL■ ■■TURE!
Begin■ing iden■■■■■■■■. ◆
◆Turn around◆
I turned my head.
Kim Soleum, who was in the cocoon, is behind me.
Below his waist, a mass made of countless human bodies is visible.
The connected one.
No, countless human bodies are holding onto him, and Kim Soleum, a mass formed below his waist, looks at me, hugging the music box.
I look at the hand grabbing my foot.
The hand of a Segwang Metropolitan City civilian, protruding from the mass, was holding me.
I turn my head.
The last flame of the completely burnt-out candle in my hand was dying.
....
Kim Soleum approaches.
The music box in his arms gets closer and closer.
Kim Soleum comes even closer.
I can see inside the music box in his arms.
A fantastical music emanates from within the wide-open music box. A sound that is serene, lovely, that activates cells and restores the body, but it is not for humans, and so the human body mutates into a being that can hear more of this music box melody, they malocclude and tangle together until they become greater, yes, I know.
....
That's right.
I know!
How do I know?
◆I am telling you◆
The Kim Soleum before me 'whispers'. This phenomenon was currently happening because a backflow was occurring in the Potion Maker.
The Potion Maker cannot withstand the rooftop setup for the dream incubator.
Because Daydream had modified the dream incubator to reduce the power and Dream Essence Liquid needed for the machine's operation, and created the Potion Maker as a degraded version of it.
So this degraded version cannot withstand the powerful output equipped for the purpose of creating another world.
Thus, the machine was overloaded….
The being inside the cocoon used that.
This machine, which handles the mysterious energy source called Dream Essence, has the potential to be either sacred or malevolent in itself.
Kim Soleum, who had been trapped inside the dream incubator, inside the cocoon, can now communicate with the being before him—me—through the Potion Maker, which has become overloaded, lost control, and fallen into his hands.
Through him, through the music box, the amplified truth of the world is flowing into me.
He is telling me the truth.
But I am already immune to the dark truths of this world.
The chilling truth that this is the world of
It has nothing to do with me.
So I'm fine. What is he saying? No? So that means….
....
....
Huh?
Huh?
Huh huh huh huh?
I've figured it out!
Yes.
Heeheeheehee!
I got it!
I've figured it out!
I looked at the person before me, nodded, and chuckled.
"So Kim Soleum was summoned to Segwang Metropolitan City just fine!"
The Kim Soleum before me is the summoned Kim Soleum! The person summoned from a world without ghost stories to this world of ghost stories! An innocent citizen!
"And he's gone completely crazy because of the music box!"
The Angel's Sigh Melody isn't for humans, so it just contaminates anyone who listens to it for too long, right!
So Kim Soleum, being human, became prey for the Biological Disaster and became its central host.
"Just like the mermaid princess in the Mermaid Tomb!"
He became a ghost story himself!
A terrifying being!
It grows bigger and bigger, devouring the citizens of Segwang Metropolitan City every May 4th! It spreads by disseminating 'the frightening truth of a world without ghost stories,' fusing with people, and growing inside the cocoon to be reborn as an even greater Lord ■■!
It sends out Disaster Alerts to deceive people!
Yes, it was Kim Soleum!
"Right. Kim Soleum read
....
But then,
"Then… what am I?"
( it's a bigger blank space here, might mean something idk)
"Ah, you're telling me about that too!"
Yes.
At some point in time after this incident!
One of the researchers from the Cheerful Research Institute who survived and escaped this Segwang Metropolitan City conducted follow-up research afterward.
"Uh-huh, I already knew that."
Because after I drank the Wish Ticket, I woke up in that broken dream incubator.
Lord Name Invitation Research
A bizarre ghost story that spontaneously arose at Daydream's headquarters due to the influence of the dream incubator that Daydream stole.
The 'past Cheerful Research Institute' in the basement of the Daydream Main Building.
The research conducted by a Cheerful Research Institute researcher who had hidden there.
A success case.
Me.
They succeeded in awakening Lord Name's mind inside a glass tube.
Whose mind is it?
Who is Lord Name?
Did I just vaguely think it was me?
He says he'll give me a precise description here. Right, so, that is….
The very Kim Soleum of this Segwang Metropolitan City.
....
....
"Ah?"
Yes.
The researcher, in the basement of Daydream, tried to extract the mind of Kim Soleum from the sealed Segwang Metropolitan City….
The resident of the 'world without ghost stories' they had already invited!
The ego of the insane Kim Soleum!
The necessary conditions for invitation and contract confirmed so far are as follows:
Maintain Lord Name's existing identity.
1. Forget existing attachment relationships.
2. Provide a survival objective.
3. Remove all sense of dissonance.
And so, the one they chose.
This is called by the product name 'Good Friend'.
Yes.
"So I was the Good Friend version of the Segwang Metropolitan City World-ending Class Disaster!"
Just like how I summoned Braun, the host of the ghost story talk show, into the Rabbit Doll and made him a Good Friend!
Just like the friendly, dependable, approachable, and communicable Rabbit Doll was in my daily life!
I am a Good Friend who can communicate like a moderate, everyday person, without being crazy, who just wants to go home!
A friend who feels no dissonance from not remembering what happened after being invited from Segwang Metropolitan City!
And so, I was completed!
A human ego dwelling in a body made by recycling Daydream's Dragon Mascot!
"I see!"
Now I know!
The place I was originally from is inside that Kim Soleum's head!
If I die, I return to that Kim Soleum!
I can't go home!
I'll be devoured!
I'll go back!
ThesensationofdespairandunificationboilsuuuupinsidetheconnectedmindIfeel likeI'mbeingcontaminatedwhatisthisistheend[2]…. No, I won't collapse, because, because….
[Friend.]
The Rabbit Doll moves.
[The timing we've prepared together is approaching.]
....
Ah.
Do you remember?
This Plush doll can move within a ghost story.
[Hoh, that's right! This was the place.]
The Plush doll bizarrely moves its own arm out of my front pocket, unfastens a button, reaches inside my jacket, and pulls something out for me.
[Here, here you go.]
A candle.
The Rabbit Doll hands it to me.
I… grip the spare candle I had prepared.
The fire ignites again.
"...Heok!"
I back away.
I'm drenched in cold sweat.
But the candle of meditation, gazing, and protection makes me focus on a single point in my mind.
It makes me reflect.
"Hwoook,"
[An excellent preparation, Mr. Roe Deer!]
But I realize.
There's no telling how long this candle will last either.
Here at the city hall of Segwang Metropolitan City, where the 'world without ghost stories' is arriving in a distorted form, Items are also beginning to fail to exert their mysterious powers….
Just as the Counselor disappeared while climbing the emergency stairs.
The Good Friend, too.
[No need for thanks. Instead I'll await your applause after this session of filming is finished!]
[…Hmm, I'm terribly tired. It wasn't like this even when I did a live broadcast for a fortnight! Oh, back then, the camera light never went out, not even in broad daylight or for a moment at dawn….]
The Rabbit Doll, having stopped moving, nearly tumbles out of my front pocket.
I hastily catch the Rabbit Doll with one hand and quickly put it back into the front pocket.
And I look at the burning candle.
A short reprieve.
◇The candle will soon go out◇
....
I tell myself while I'm still sane.
…speaking to myself, in many ways.
Like before.
"You ask if I didn't expect this? …Of course not."
My, I… no, let's stop thinking. Panic feels like it could consume my mind at any moment. It feels like I could be sucked into that thing screaming, as if by gravity.
But.
But, I mean.
....
"I expected something else."
I raise my head and surmise what's beyond the rooftop.
The ground that must be below,
And below that, the… subway.
"The possibility that when I installed the Potion Maker, something unexpected would happen and I'd be in danger."
That included the probability that I would be contaminated, or become unable to maintain my sanity.
....
What that means is.
"Of course I prepared for everything."
I raised my hand.
* * *
Lee Seonghae raised her head.
A strange tremor was being detected from the tunnel wall.
"Hmm?"
A few others who were waiting nearby also shot up or showed signs of alarm.
Kim Soleum had recommended that the Project members wait outside as much as possible, saying 'you never know,' but most of the initial Project members had remained in the subway.
In the maintenance tunnel, at that.
And….
It had already been over a full day since Kim Soleum entered the surface through this part of Segwang Metropolitan City.
—The flow of time is different, so even if I secure just about 20 minutes on the surface, a full day will have passed in the subway.
According to Lee Seonghae's calculations, it was probably about 25 minutes past on the surface.
And after more than a full day had passed, this vibration she was feeling now….
It was coming down from the exit, through the walls.
Lee Seonghae looked at the exit.
From that place that had been perceived as 'nothing there'….
Suddenly, sunlight began to pour in.
"...A sign that the seal is breaking."
"..."
The agent named Haegeum looks back at her fellow agent.
"Choi."
"Yeees. You are precisely correct, ma'am."
The agent called 'Choi' stood up from his spot.
The one who had been stubbornly sitting in the tunnel closest to the exit, as if telling a fortune, tossing and catching something, gets up and dusts himself off without any lingering attachment.
There was no trace of panic, but his mask-hidden face showed no hint of what expression he was making.
"Please take care of Bronze, if you can."
"...."
"...I'll be going now."
"Wait."
Haegeum, who had been looking at Agent Choi with a complicated expression, speaks as if giving advice.
"Our minds will be flung back to our outside bodies soon anyway. …Just wait a little longer."
"...."
Lee Seonghae saw that one of the agents called 'Choi''s hands was clenched so tightly that the veins stood out and it had turned white.
Is he worried about Mr. Roe Deer?
Maybe that's why he's conflicted, unable to do something he needs to do!
'He's a good person.'
She liked that the agents were all decent people.
That included Ms. Go Young-eun who was sitting next to her….
Huh?
Why isn't she here?
"Hey!!"
The voice of the person who had disappeared from next to her rings out from below the tracks.
"Something's wrong with the subway!!"
"...?!"
Yeongeun's flustered and stiff voice rings out, as if she had gone down to check the situation.
"What's wrong?"
Lee Seonghae immediately ran down without delay. She could hear people following behind her, but her eyes were fixed straight ahead.
And so she was the first to see it.
The subway tracks were aging.
"...."
As if being hit directly by the passage of time, dust was accumulating on the tracks in real time, and they were wearing down.
The surfaces exposed to the air were also starting to rust.
"...The time that's passed is being reflected! Everyone, back away!"
The effect of the seal breaking.
And that wasn't all.
Two people are standing at the far end of the tracks.
"Hello."
"Hello."
They approach.
A man in a well-tailored yellow uniform, with a cow mask and long, dark brown hair.
He was familiar.
Especially to Lee Seonghae.
"Oh, hello to you both!"
"Former employee Dolphin! A pleasure to see you."
"Do you wish to be rehired? If so, please speak to the Mascot!"
Familiar faces greet them cheerfully.
But unlike Lee Seonghae, the agents behind her are frozen.
Agent Haegum asks the employee of the ghost story Resort, once called 'Agent Hwagak.'
"...What are you doing?"
"We are acting under the Manager's orders."
"And the Manager's orders come from the Mascot."
"What are those orders?"
"It's very good news!"
The employee who had been assigned to the Pop-up store, Bison, smiled and announced kindly.
"The Golden Flower Mascot has selected this place as the site for a theme park."
At that moment.
The golden architecture of the Flower Golden Resort began to devour the subway tracks, pushing its way in.
[1] Connected to a mass, hugging the music box revealed from within the cocoon rises Kim Soleum the invited one. one called from a world where ghost stories do not exist (cuts to normal) I look away.
[2] The sensation of despair and unification boils uuuup inside the connected mind I feel like I'm being contaminated what is this is the end