Chapter Text
There was a light that Kim Soleum had been following. The corridor was dark, if he could even call wherever he was a “corridor”. There were no discernible walls, he couldn’t even see the floor he was somehow walking on. There was nothing much past him than the endless abyss.
As depressing as his surroundings looked and felt, after saying farewell to all of the people who had helped him come along so long, it was finally time for him to go home.
Could it really be considered a farewell, though? He had spoken to a total of two people before his departure from this world, and one of them was quite literally a ghost story.
He couldn’t hear much past Agent Haegeum’s words. Kim Soleum was sure that there were people in the background, maybe somebody who wanted to talk to him too, but their voice could not reach him. There were still many many questions that he had, but he couldn’t push out the words to ask. He feared that the more he asked, and the more that he questioned it, the more that he would get lost and confused.
Maybe some reminiscing was needed. While he wasn’t intending to ever think of the horrors that grabbed at him in this world, there was also no way he couldn’t think of it. There wasn’t any way for the events of this world to have not left a lasting impact on him and his mental state.
The little pink bunny plush, the one that held a good friend. But now, he couldn’t hear Braun’s voice anymore. He shifted his gaze from the Good Friend plush to the direction in front, away from where he heard the voices come from.
There was no warmth, there was no feeling coming from the brightness. It was simply just a light, a source of brightness mixed up within the completely void surroundings. He managed to approach where the shine was coming from, his legs dragging across the floor.
And then, as if coming from nowhere, a door appeared. An outline of white circled around the rectangular object.
His arms drew up from his sides, the suit he was wearing crinkling at the edges. The feeling of hard wood took him by surprise momentarily, before he hand reached out to push open the door, and then
everything
went
white
Kim Soleum gained consciousness on a train, the subway. He jolted up, his hazy mindset clearing up and immediately glancing around. From his expectations, he probably should’ve been in the pop up still, maybe in his room.
His hands weakly grasped around the pink plush in his suit pocket. It was the only semblance that told him that whatever he went through wasn’t a dream, and that it all really did happen.
After getting some weird looks from the other people, he sheepishly sits back down onto one of the subway seats. His eyes darted around, was he in some sort of Darkness? He took in information of the train, apparently bound for Bulgwang. The 3434 train, in train cart 3707.
Why was he in some random subway? He had no recollection of boarding, if he ever even did. His hand reached into his pockets, searching for his phone. His hands grasped at the back, an unfamiliar feeling. The bump of the popsocket that he usually held onto was gone, his fingers wrapping around the phone. Maybe he should buy another one, just to replicate the feeling.
The rumbling of the train was loud, to a point where he couldn’t drown it out by zoning out. It made him anxious in a way.
His eyes wandered down to the phone background and screen, looking at the time. It was 6:48, which didn’t entirely surprise him. The fact that he wasn’t at the pop-up anymore was already off putting, but he was also somehow forward in time.
‘Even if I’m not surprised.. Something is definitely wrong.’
He unlocks his phone using his pin, and something in particular seems off. The entire situation seemed off, but there was something wrong with his phone. On a whim, he opened his browser and typed in three key words.
Darkness Exploration Records.
Nothing popped up.
His heart sank to his stomach, his fingers flying across the screen as he typed in every abbreviation or relevance to it.
Nothing came up, nothing at all. At the bare minimum, it was those ghost stories you would find on Youtube, but even then, there wasn't a clear connection to anything related to the wiki.
The wiki didn’t even seem to appear. It was more than concerning, it was terrifying, because it meant one thing.
‘I’m not home. No, I’m further from home than I was before.’
At least while he was in DER, there was a sliver of chance he could get home. But now he was practically stranded.
Glancing around, Kim Soleum noted that the area seemed basically normal, though he didn’t let his guard down. After all, that was how the world of DER was, but there were secretly ghost stories wandering around.
He opened his messages, intending to only see if his chats with his family were restored, or at least able to contact someone.
‘...?’
He couldn’t even open the app. The moment he tried opening it, the app immediately crashed on him. It was suspicious, reasonably so. Why would the messages app crash?
Was he still in DER?
The wish was a guaranteed return home, there shouldn’t have been anything wrong with it. At least, that’s what he thought. Did something go wrong with the wish he made? The intent was included, he just wanted to go home!
The time ticked to 6:55.
Kim Soleum needed to shift his thinking for a second. He took a deep breath.
The Bulgwang train wasn’t anywhere he needed to go. He would get off at the next stop, he reasoned.
‘..It’s been a while since I’ve eaten real food.’
A loud shriek startled him from his thoughts.
“Aah.. AAA!”
His head snapped upwards, his mind prepared for something related to a ghost story.
“A bomb, that person has a bomb!” A teenager yelled, scrambling backwards from a large man.
He felt his body relaxing slightly, in relief of the fact that he was not in another weird ghost story, before he immediately felt shivers go down his spine.
The people around him got up from their seats, shoving and pushing each other to try and open the windows or bruteforce the doors of the moving train.
Kim Soleum stood up, but by then, everybody in the car was scrambling to find some type of exit. He cursed his luck under his breath, a stone settling in his stomach.
Just as suddenly as the bomber appeared, the lights of the train flickered, before completely turning off.
{ Hello, everybody. Pleased to meet you! }
An echoing voice resonated through the cart, one that only faintly reminded him of Braun.
He decides to turn his attention to a much more pressing matter than the bomber, that being the weird shape hovering right over the door used to pass through the cars.
The white lump was making clear noises, a weird form of a mouth moving up and down to talk. However, the words it was saying weren't equal to the words that Kim Soleum was hearing.
{ What’s this? Hah! Dear Constellations, please take a look over here! The scenarios have not yet started, but entertainment is already occurring over here! }
The words were Korean, but the way that the blob was moving its mouth, it was very obviously not. It was hard to hear it over all of the commotion anyways.
Kim Soleum needed to do something to stop that bomber first. A feeling of dread and fear creeped onto him, but he reasoned that he just went through worse. He should be able to stop just one bomb.
(He needed to protect.)
He lunged straight at the armed man, grasping the bomb tightly and forcing it out of the man’s hands. Somehow, Kim Soleum noted, despite his stature being smaller than the terrorist’s, he was successfully able to get the bomb away.
The screams and yells of the other people, scurrying to get out of his way, was noticeable, but he just simply needed to do one thing.
He slammed his elbow into a nearby window, trying to crack it open. The tunnel they were in wasn’t that narrow, and if he was able to get it to open, then the people in the train wouldn’t get hurt as bad.
He continued, but it felt like the glass was made out of pure solid metal. Glass wasn’t supposed to be this thick nor tough, especially for a subway window. He was expecting it to shatter the moment he applied enough rough force onto it.
[ Oh dear, Good Friend, I’ll help you out. ]
The window shattered the next moment, as to which Kim Soleum was able to toss the bomb out, shards flying all over as the bomb exploded the moment it exited the train car.
He was tossed backwards against the train walls from the impact, his back hitting the metal with a thud.
Blue windows appeared in front of his face as he squinted his eyes open.
–
{ Main Scenario #1 - Proof of Value }
Type: Main
Difficulty: F
Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms
Time limit: 30 minutes
Reward: 300 coins
Failure: Death
–
‘What the fuck.’
Kim Soleum thought he got away from the life threatening ghost stories, but he only got tossed into another one. One that he didn’t entirely recognize. There was a faint feeling of something familiar, but he wasn’t able to place his finger on it entirely.
{ You have achieved the ‘First Kill’ achievement! }
{ 100 coins have been given as additional compensation. }
‘What? What did I kill?’
He thought back to when he threw the bomb out the window. Was there something caught up in the explosion?
Kim Soleum pulled himself up from his position on the floor, glancing over the window. A family of dead rats lay on the ground.
Just then, he was vaguely able to register whose voice he heard.
‘..Braun?’
[ Why yes, that is my name! ]
‘Why are you here?’
[ That’s the question I would’ve asked you. Why am I here, I wonder? ]
‘That… I’m not too sure why myself.’
He glances at the panicking crowd of the subway. He takes a deep breath and opens his mouth to try to calm down the people, but is harshly interrupted by something. No, it’s someone.
A flash of a man in dark clothing goes by, and a chain reaction goes off. Suddenly, all of the previous people are on the floor, dead.
He can’t help but let out a small gasp, covering his mouth.
{ The Leader of a Way to Utopia gasps with shock. }
‘What the fuck is going on.’