Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 5

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 5

ep1. When the Siren Sounds (5)

When we came out of the restroom, the corridor had already been cleaned spotless.

Just when I had rushed out retching, it had been a complete mess with blood and glass shards.

The janitor here really seems to work hard at erasing traces.

So people can’t know what happened here.

I found that fact newly eerie and slowed my steps for a moment.

Then Sol passed by my side and glanced at me.

A look that seemed to say what are you doing, not coming quickly.

For some reason, that put my mind at ease.

But when we came down to the 1st floor, the situation was reversed.

This time Sol was noticeably tense.

I followed Sol’s gaze and discovered the item storage lockers on the wall.

So I slowed my steps while walking ahead.

That way I blocked those item storage lockers from Sol’s view.

Sol stared at me intently, then snorted dismissively.

Right. I’ll respect that, you adolescent child.

I walked alongside Lee Sol, searching with my eyes for the 7th row, 1st column compartment that supposedly exchanges items for money.

Finding it was easy.

However, seeing it in person was quite unexpected.

Whether item storage lockers or bookshelves, almost all storage units are widest at the bottom and get smaller toward the top.

Because it’s convenient and safe to store large, heavy items at the bottom.

It’s common sense, but I hadn’t thought about it until seeing it directly.

The problematic item storage locker was in the 1st column.

It occupied the highest compartment.

So it was the smallest.

It was far too small for a person to fit inside.

Then how exactly did they put a person in there?

I couldn’t help but imagine what must have happened there.

But now the area around that item storage locker was also just clean.

As if nothing had happened.

Passing through that chilling space, we entered the corridor leading to the Lost and Found Center.

That corridor grew darker the further in we went.

Moreover, there was an acrid smell.

How should I put it, it was like the smell of old ashes.

Continuing to walk through the dim corridor, the Lost and Found Center appeared.

That place was buried in even more distinct darkness.

However, something faint was standing in the middle of it.

We instinctively recognized that it was the “Rag Doll.”

“Mister, make sure to watch when you get out. Got it?”

Sol stopped walking and whispered.

It sounded too much like a typical death flag, so I smiled with a grimace.

Then I handed Sol the small scissors from the emergency kit.

Sol took those scissors and headed toward the Lost and Found Center.

—

When the “Rag Doll” appears, cut and offer your hair.

Then kneel and bow down, asking “Please send me to daddy.”

This is the only thing you may say in front of the “Rag Doll.”

Do not move and keep asking until the “Rag Doll” grants your request.

When your requests reach 121 times, the “Rag Doll” will send you back to reality.

—

It’s something even a child can do if they just keep their wits about them.

Sol is a middle schooler and a kid who can even kick adults, so she’ll manage easily.

I watched Sol enter the darkness, then turned around.

It would be nice to confirm Sol’s escape, but I couldn’t afford to be leisurely forever.

I also had to go catch the train.

Before that siren sounds again.

But the moment I took a few steps, it became bright behind me.

Startled, I turned around and saw a pure white form.

It had the shape of a girl who was off-white from head to toe.

A transparent and pale appearance as if made of candle wax.

Is that the “Rag Doll”?

As the doll brightened, I could also see Sol prostrated in front of it.

I watched that strange phenomenon as if entranced.

But Sol suddenly stirred.

What are you doing, you’re not supposed to move.

I watched Sol, who had suddenly become strange, with anxiety.

Sol also seemed to be trying to maintain her prostrated position.

But that was only for a moment.

“Agh…!”

At Sol’s single scream, I realized something was wrong.

Sol got up as if burned and came running out from there.

And almost simultaneously, an explosion occurred.

BOOM-!

“Aaah!”

Sol screamed and clung to me, and I also grabbed onto Sol.

As flames shot up in the Lost and Found Center, the interior became even more brightly lit.

This revealed the true nature of the darkness surrounding the “Rag Doll.”

What filled that space wasn’t empty air blocked from light.

It was substantial blackness.

Inside the Lost and Found Center, blackened twisted forms were piled up in layers, interlocked with each other.

“What is that…?”

A groan escaped me without realizing.

Those things began to move.

Tearing apart tangled limbs, they struggled desperately to come outside.

One of the things that looked like a fire-charred corpse finally stretched an arm outside.

Then the flames that had been flickering inside also pushed out into the corridor, and the fire began to spread like spilled water.

I grabbed Sol’s arm and ran for now.

“What happened!?”

“I, I don’t know! I did everything just like it said…!”

Sol shouted almost tearfully.

Then her face suddenly turned pale.

“My dad already passed away.”

“What?”

At Sol’s confession, I was completely stunned.

The words written in the rules to supposedly ask that “Rag Doll.”

‘Please send me to daddy.’

Don’t tell me, is it trying to send her to her father’s side in heaven?

Then kids without dads shouldn’t use this method from the start!

But there was no such content in the rules.

Such important information should have been figured out and written down from the start…!

I ran frantically, filled with rage.

But the pursuing flames were too fast.

The fire eventually began to overtake us bit by bit.

Fortunately, that fire didn’t harm us.

Instead, everything in the railroad station melted away as soon as the fire touched it.

The clean interior of the station became a burning ruin in an instant.

Even the sparkling glass ceiling completely collapsed, revealing its hideous framework.

And beyond that, there was something.

Beyond the hazy veil that might have been fog or clouds.

Something enormously, simply enormous.

Something so immeasurably vast.

Like a mountain that had never been conquered.

Or like a god, it existed there.

I stopped walking right there.

My desire to flee vanished.

My will to live was also rapidly being chipped away.

“What are you doing, mister!”

At the feeling of being pulled, I snapped awake and looked down.

Sol was pulling me with a desperate expression.

Belatedly coming to my senses and looking back, black forms were pouring out from the corridor.

Clatter- Clatter-clatter-!

They were swarming toward us, crawling on the floor, climbing the walls, running on one leg or with crushed shoulders.

I ran toward the platform entrance again with Sol.

The moment I stepped on the stairs going down to the platform, the siren sounded.

Waaaaaaang-!

Perhaps because the ceiling had collapsed, that thunderous sound pressed down on me with even more weight.

Every cell in my body tingled and my brain boiled as if it would evaporate.

In that suffocating pressure, I realized.

That whatever was making this siren sound was that something in the sky.

While we struggled helplessly, the siren stopped.

The child and I looked at each other with anxious eyes.

It shouldn’t have been time yet.

But there was no time to wonder why the siren had already sounded.

Splash-!

A sound of water came from the shop beside the stairs.

Looking back, blood was overflowing on the floor.

…Someone must have been hiding there.

Anyone with a ticket who wanted to board the train would have to pass through here.

I ran down the stairs with an indescribable feeling.

The black forms had already filled the waiting hall and were swarming toward us.

There were far too many of them.

It seemed like there were hundreds, no, thousands.

We ran breathlessly down to the platform.

But the moment I saw where the train was, I was breathless again.

Some hand was hanging beside the train.

It was a giant hand that made the railroad look like a toy rail.

—

If you have obtained a ticket, please go down to the platform.

On the platform, the “Severed Station Master” is conducting ticket inspections.

When boarding the train, please be sure to have your ticket with you.

Anyone who boards the train without a ticket will be removed by the “Severed Station Master.”

—

Now this rulebook seemed to be enjoying my misfortune.

The “Severed Station Master” had the form of an ordinary hand.

Except the forearm part was cut off cleanly, and it was so enormous it was sickening to look at directly.

But we couldn’t stop.

The black forms were swarming right behind us.

So we were running blindly, but we knew.

That there was only one ticket.

When we finally reached the train on the railroad, I turned to look at Sol.

Sol was also looking at me.

Sol was breathing heavily up to her chin from running to match my pace.

Even in the midst of that, her gaze was directed at me.

Sol’s young eyes were stained with despair and shaking helplessly.

The black forms had reached right behind us.

There was no time to hesitate.

Driven by instinct, I pushed Sol away.

Sol let go of me more easily than I expected.

As if she had known in advance that I would do this.

So I grabbed that child’s arm again.

Then I threw her into the train.

“Ah…!”

Suddenly pushed, Sol lost her balance and fell.

Sol looked back at me while supporting herself on the train floor.

“Later.”

I couldn’t quite smile as I spoke to the child.

“Pay it back to anyone.”

Sol stared at me blankly.

Then she discovered the ticket at her feet and cried out in surprise.

“Mister!”

With that voice as the last thing I heard, I was devoured by the black forms.

* * *

Everything went dark.

I felt heat, then an unprecedented pressure crushed my entire body.

What followed after that was.

Falling

Darkness

Silence

Joy

Reality

Meeting with the Author

And the starting point of infinity.

『It’s okay, death might be more gentle than you think.』

While I was still running, I kept thinking.

About what I would do when I reached the train.

What was certain was that whatever I chose was my freedom.

The ticket was mine, and Lee Sol was neither my family nor anything to me.

She was just a perfect stranger I’d met for the first time today and only knew by name.

I had even helped her as much as I could.

So no one can blame me for backing out here.

Like this, the choice was entirely mine, so I chose freely.

Between ‘escaping while leaving the child in danger’ and ‘getting the child out first,’ I picked the one I preferred.

Of course, the former wasn’t a bad choice either.

I have no intention of criticizing people who choose that.

If they live well that way, that’s also their natural blessing.

Rather, even if they curse the latter as hypocrisy, narcissism, or unnecessary meddling, I have nothing to say.

If I had a family, I wouldn’t have made this choice either.

Moreover, I’m neither a hero nor anything special.

But everyone has their own story.

I’m the same.

I’m just this kind of person.

I stood before two equally unappealing choices,

picked the one I preferred,

and died because of it.

That’s simply how it turned out.

So I’d appreciate it if you’d stop watching and let me go now.

This current state doesn’t seem to match expressions like rest or eternal sleep at all.

I thought about why death had to be so noisy and let out a deep sigh.

“Huu…”

…What?

Just as I wondered how I could breathe when I was dead, my eyes opened.

What I saw hazily wasn’t a beautiful afterlife but a white ceiling.

Then an unfamiliar voice reached me.

“Rescuer 12, consciousness recovered.”

It seems I’m still alive after all.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————