Chapter 268

## 268

What has become of me?
My skull, vibrating with a rhythmic cycle of heavy throbbing and piercing stabs, was unable to process the surroundings and simply lolled to the side.
The world around me was nothing but a chaotic, oscillating blur.
Vibrant bulbs, the distinct yellow texture of floor tiles, a sign indicating an exit path, shades of gray….
A flight of steps.
“Heuk.”
In that instant, clarity struck.
Go Young-eun was sprinting down the stairwell with desperate intensity, carrying me upon her back. A hand, noticeably missing several digits, gripped my arm where it hung limp over her shoulder.
With great effort, I parted my parched lips.
“…Ms. Goral.”
“…!”
Jarred by my voice, she stumbled and nearly plummeted, yet she somehow maintained her momentum and pressed on down the stairs.
All the way to the subway platform.
“…”
I must be a massive burden.
Go Young-eun… her own body is broken and incomplete, so how is she managing to transport me? The logic of the situation escaped me. However, I could sense a frantic energy, the unmistakable feeling of a flight for survival. I couldn’t remain a passenger on her back. I must be weighing her down, and now that my mind was returning, I needed to stand. I gathered what strength remained in my core and reached my legs toward the ground….
….
There was nothing to meet the floor.
Below my thighs, there was only empty space.
My left limb was gone from the thigh down, and my right had been severed at the hip.
There were marks of hemorrhaging that had erupted and then, inexplicably, ceased.
‘…The casino!’
The floodgates of memory burst open, and the events of moments ago crashed into my mind with agonizing force.
The Body Casino, the VIP chamber, the game of Russian Roulette, Deputy Lee Seong-hae, the sickening sensation of my skull being torn apart, the physical toll taken from the tracks, the Euthanasia Pill, my frantic resistance, my own palm clamped over my face to suffocate….
Acts of sabotage that had inflicted catastrophic losses on the casino’s holdings.
‘Were my legs… the payment for the damage?’
Under the circumstances, it was a logical deduction. Even so, it felt insufficient; the loss of my legs alone couldn’t possibly balance the scales for the destruction I had caused.
But more importantly.
‘Why am I not dead?’
I had pressed a handgun to my temple and pulled the trigger. Why was I still present? Why was my consciousness intact?
And….
Was Go Young-eun actually attempting to rescue me?
“He, re is,”
“Quiet.”
Go Young-eun, who had reached the platform as if on the verge of collapse, immediately veered toward the wall opposite the safety doors.
She wrenched open the Fire Hydrant cabinet.
“…!”
“Hurry…!”
The Fire Hydrant, typically only large enough for a rolled hose, was unnaturally hollow and deep.
It was just enough room for a single person to stretch out, or for two to huddle together in a cramped embrace.
With frantic care, Go Young-eun maneuvered me into the shadows of the box before sliding in herself.
Thud.
She pulled the metal door shut. With a sharp metallic ring, the hatch locked, plunging us into total gloom.
The only things visible were the tiny slivers of light from the station bulbs and the crimson glow of the emergency lamp bleeding through the seams.
“…”
“…”
“It’s, it’s al, huuk, right, the casino staff, they don’t pursue targets outside… we just have to stay clear of the addicts.”
She tried to say more, but her lungs were failing her. Yeongeun struggled to find her breath. Despite her exhaustion, she leaned toward me, trying to gauge my status in the dark.
Just as I moved my hand instinctively to comfort her.
“Hu-eup….”
A new luminescence flickered in the dark.
A soft emerald radiance.
Something at Go Young-eun’s hip was giving off a faint shimmer. From her position, she hadn’t noticed it, but I recognized the glow instantly.
‘Daydream C-Class Regeneration Potion.’
….
A realization took hold of me.
Under the veil of the shadows, I reached out and pulled the regeneration tonic from Go Young-eun’s tattered jacket and tucked it into my own.
During this, Go Young-eun was finally beginning to steady her breathing.
“Ms. Goral.”
“Huu, yes?”
“Did you pull me out? From the casino….”
“…”
“What took place?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. It just felt like the dealers were descending on the VIP Room, and when I peered in, everyone was… gone, and only you, Mr. Roe Deer, were still clinging to life….”
So she had hauled me away.
…She must have utilized some sort of tool or mystical item.
Having survived in Sekwang Special City for six months, this partner of mine must have developed her own methods for staying alive….
“Even so, I was too slow… and while I was getting you out, your legs, Mr. Roe Deer,”
“Don’t dwell on that. …I am grateful.”
The fact that I hadn’t perished instantly was the most harrowing outcome.
‘…If Go Young-eun hadn’t stepped in.’
Instead of Deputy Lee Seong-hae, my physical form would have been stripped down within the casino, and I would have been transformed into a dealer. A hand-off of a cursed baton.
A wave of dread washed over me.
“And because I’m missing my legs… I must have been easier to carry.”
“…”
“In a way, it’s a blessing.”
“A blessing, my—”
Go Young-eun looked as though she was ready to explode with fury, as if she wanted to scream a thousand curses at me, but she held them back. I couldn’t tell if she feared being heard by those outside, or if she simply lacked the strength to argue….
My mind was functioning, but I could feel the sharp edge of my awareness beginning to blur into a dull haze….
I was acutely aware of the persistent pain in my head.
Lifting a hand to investigate, I felt the jagged edge of a wound.
Whether my cranium… had been breached, I had no way of confirming.
One thing was certain: a bullet had struck me.
‘…Was the weapon faulty?’
Or had the projectile bypassed the vital centers of my brain by some miracle, leaving me alive?
They say the brain is incapable of feeling its own pain, so I remained ignorant of just how grisly my condition truly was.
Watching me grope at my own head, Go Young-eun suddenly jolted as if struck by a lightning bolt of realization.
“Ah!”
She began frantically patting her pockets.
“The tonic, the one the Manager gave you…!”
“…”
I knew it.
I knew she would attempt to sacrifice it for my sake.
“Quickly, quickly….”
The potion of restoration.
The one I had already surreptitiously moved to my own pocket. Go Young-eun’s hands shook violently as she searched her coat for the vial she had received from Manager Lee Jaheon.
…A heavy sense of remorse and sorrow weighed down on me.
But I had no intention of giving it back.
Swallowing that potion would only make my guilt unbearable.
“…It’s fine. I believe the bullet only clipped me.”
“What, what are you saying….”
“So… the missing pieces, *cough*, later… I’ll head back to the casino and reclaim them.”
“…”
“If we can locate the medicine later, it would be… more useful if you were the one to drink it, Ms. Goral.”
I could only pray that the shadows were thick enough to hide the truth written on my face.
“The shot to my head… I think it was just a graze, and for now… I can feel my strength returning.”
It was a lie.
I was on the brink of death.
But for me to consume it now would be a senseless waste. Go Young-eun was the one who absolutely needed that chance.
“…We just need to board the train. Once we’re on, we’ll go back to how we were! Then we can look for it at our leisure, and fix everything….”
“Yes.”
I knew I wouldn’t survive long enough to see that train.
But I gave her my silent consent. Go Young-eun appeared terrified, but she didn’t dare open the Fire Hydrant door to look at me in the light.
She simply kept whispering the words, as if trying to convince herself as much as me.
“Don’t be afraid. The Fire Hydrant… for some reason, when people lose themselves to the addiction, they never think to check inside….”
“I see….”
I fought through the vertigo to keep my thoughts straight.
I needed to distract her.
“Did you hear that as a rumor as well?”
And… because I genuinely wanted to understand.
“Ms. Goral, what exactly happened to you?”
“…”
Just as before, a long silence stretched between us.
But eventually, the memories began to pour out.
“Do you recall? When I mentioned I had left medical school.”
“…”
“To tell the truth, it was a struggle from day one. I was a girl from the country, and my family struggled financially. The cost of tuition, just living, and the rent I had to pay when the dorms were full… it was too much.”
Go Young-eun’s voice was wandering, yet strangely steady.
“Even with the loans, there’s only so much you can earn working part-time. Once the main coursework started, it felt like an impossible mountain….”
“…”
“And there were internal problems within the department as well.”
….
“But it had to happen right then. Right when my bond with my parents shattered completely.”
Ah.
“We had a falling out, and I cut all ties with them.”
Go Young-eun’s shoulders gave a small, involuntary twitch.
“After that, I was on my own, and my drive just… vanished. I think I drifted into a different major naturally. I was… burnt out beyond repair.”
I remained a silent listener.
“It’s a common story, isn’t it? But….”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“It’s ironic, but that’s why I’m here.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Why I entered this firm.”
“…”
“I didn’t have any way to find my family again.”
She didn’t mean she wanted a simple investigator to track them down.
“I want to mend things… but I’m paralyzed at the very first step.”
“…”
“I thought if this place could fulfill any desire, maybe it could fix something like this.”
And I realized.
Go Young-eun understood the ‘correct’ way to utilize a Wish Token.
Since she had engineered a way to fulfill Jang Heo-un’s desire by proxy, she had applied that same logic to herself.
“When you… handed that Wish Token to me. I had a thought.”
Her voice grew somber.
“I didn’t want to be transported to some fantasy world where everything was perfect. I didn’t want to wake up in a life where I never left med school or where I was already a doctor living with my parents. So….”
So.
“I made this specific wish.”
“Please grant me a supernatural power to gather intelligence regarding my family.”
…!!
“With that power, if I could locate them, I planned to find out what happened and try to make things right.”
A wish for a personal, specific utility.
‘It wasn’t a greedy request.’
Go Young-eun had calculated a wish that was grounded and self-contained, in a way that made me marvel at her foresight.
‘By all rights, this… should have been successful.’
But.
“When I made the wish and finally opened my eyes….”
….
“I was standing here.”
In this nightmare of a subway station.
In the bowels of Segwang Metropolitan City.
“And the moment I came to, I realized something. I had a specific… question.”
“Where did I actually come from?”
“Isn’t that bizarre? No one just says they’re from ‘the country.’ You name a town. But I, strangely, had never even asked myself that. And about my family….”
I heard her swallow hard.
“I realized I didn’t even know why we stopped talking.”
A cold shiver of realization.
“Only the lingering feeling of ‘the bridge is burned beyond repair’ stayed with me. Just a hollow sense of defeat and the certainty that I could never reach them….”
In that heartbeat, I understood.
“What is this place?”
Go Young-eun was a native of Segwang Metropolitan City.
When the ‘Extinction-class supernatural disaster’ struck and the city was cut off from the world, my colleague, who had been living a solitary life in Seoul, was left adrift.
And the Wish Token had meticulously crafted the perfect environment for her ‘ability to hear news of her family’ to exist.
By dragging her into the epicenter of the catastrophe.
And.
“I developed this strange talent for hearing the whispers and rumors of this place.”
And every member of her family….
“But, but I haven’t heard a single word about them.”
….
“Maybe that makes sense. This is a ghost story, isn’t it? Right? How could I find my family inside a nightmare like this? That, that has to be it…?”
“…”
“Either the Token was a dud, or Director Ho is a liar. Right?”
Even though I knew the truth, I wanted to agree with her.
I tried to.
“…Mr. Roe Deer?”
But the words were trapped in my throat.
“Mr. Roe Deer!”
I slid down against the interior wall of the Fire Hydrant.
The strength had vanished from my body. It felt as though my very nerves were failing….
‘Is this the conclusion?’
The end was finally here.
And yet….
The sound of a train was echoing in the distance.
“Do you hear it?”
I felt Go Young-eun’s hands on my shoulders.
She was trembling.
“The train! It’s coming. We just have to get on. The one arriving now, it’s my sanctuary. We just have to reach it, please….”
Communicating was becoming an impossible task.
*We request all passengers to board the vehicle safely and maintain proper decorum.*
A flood of light hit us. I think she had thrown open the cabinet door.
I felt Go Young-eun attempting to hoist me out.
“It’s that one. Train G1572, if we can just make it onto that one, just that one….”
Emerging from the Fire Hydrant, Go Young-eun tried to lift me onto her back once more, but….
With the last spark of my will, I held her back.
“…Mr. Roe Deer?”
My hand had no grip left, so the gesture was purely symbolic. I just managed to rest my palm against her arm.
I tried to form the words with my lips.
‘Do not worry.’
“What….”
‘I will return.’
At the very last, even my jaw refused to move.
“Mr. Roe Deer, Mr. Roe….”
Amidst the thunderous roar of the arriving train.
I passed away.

I snapped my eyes open.
“You’ve returned to us, Mr. Noru!”
It was the voice of Ho Yuwon.
“Everyone was ready to execute me because you wouldn’t wake up. It was quite a fright. As if I have any control over your private matters, Mr. Noru….”
The eyes of the Plague were peering down at me.
“But I find myself intrigued.”
A smirk played across his lips.
“You managed to save the person you went in for, but do you truly have no ‘unfinished business’ left in Sekwang Special City?”
….
“Have you discovered a reason to go back?”
Damn it.

Would you like me to analyze the thematic parallels between Go Young-eun’s wish and the protagonist’s situation in this chapter?