For a moment, silence fell over the underground passage, which was swallowed in darkness. The group that had been rushing through the iron door stopped dead in their tracks, smothering their footsteps. A split second ago, there had been a sound—a bizarre noise like sharp nails scraping across a concrete wall—and now its faint echo dissipated into the darkness.
Jung Hae-jun immediately dropped into a crouch and swept his flashlight around. The walls of the narrow corridor were slick with the clammy dampness of an old underground facility, and a red mist slithered along the floor like a snake. Everyone's hearts pounded in unison. From behind Jung Hae-jun, someone gulped audibly.
It was Fog.
Over Jung's shoulder, Song Ha-rim and Baek Ji-soo scanned the darkness with tense eyes. At the front of the group, Park Seo-yeon slowly raised one hand, signaling them to hold position. Jung Hae-jun held his breath and listened intently. In the oppressive underground stillness, all he could hear was his own breathing and the faint shuffles of his team. The scratching noise from moments before had fallen silent. The darkness was absolute, and the red mist swirled lazily around their ankles.
He whispered inwardly, What was that just now? Was it a Specter's trick, or just some stray noise from the facility? However, that piercing noise echoing through the tunnel hadn't sounded mechanical at all. It felt as if some unseen presence had deliberately wanted to announce itself… A chill prickled the back of Hae-jun's neck.
At last, Park Seo-yeon motioned for the team to advance. The group slowly began moving forward again. With each step deeper into the passage, the red mist grew thicker. As the faint orange glow of the anchor beacon at the entrance dwindled behind them, it felt as if the very support anchoring them to reality was fading away as well. Jung Hae-jun's vision began to blur, and his sense of direction started to swim. It was as if the space itself were warping around them, drawing them into a labyrinth.
Before long, Park Seo-yeon halted. She fumbled at her belt and produced a second anchor beacon. "Let's set another anchor here," she said softly. As soon as she spoke, Baek Ji-soo stepped forward briskly. He bent down by the wall to attach the beacon.
That was when it happened.
All of a sudden, the overhead fluorescent light flickered once, and for a moment it felt like the walls on either side of the corridor shuddered. "Ah!" Baek Ji-soo yelped, recoiling as his hand froze mid-action. At the same time, Song Ha-rim shouted in alarm, "Stop! Something's wrong… look at this!"
Jung Hae-jun swung his flashlight beam to where she was pointing. There on the wall, a faintly glowing orange arrow drawn with fluorescent spray paint came into view. Jung Hae-jun's eyes narrowed at the sight. It was the very mark that Baek Ji-soo had painted just moments ago as they passed. Yet they had been walking in a straight line—so how was the exact same arrow now in front of them?
Song Ha-rim murmured, her voice trembling, "A loop… the space has overlapped. We're repeating the same place."
Before she could even finish, the lights overhead flickered twice more and then blinked out entirely, plunging them into pitch darkness. Czzzt— A burst of static hissed over the radio. "Front lights are down," Park Seo-yeon's low voice reported through the comm.
Jung Hae-jun quickly toggled the switch on his flashlight a few times, but no light came on. It seemed every electronic device around them had died at once. As total darkness consumed them, Jung Hae-jun instinctively pressed his back to the wall. Beside him, he could hear Fog's breathing grow ragged.
"Everyone, hold your positions. Don't move," Park Seo-yeon called out cautiously in the dark. But Jung Hae-jun noticed her voice sounded farther away than before. Had the momentary loop distortion subtly stretched the distances between them? He slowly reached out and grasped Fog's arm, reassuring himself that the man was still there. Fog was trembling slightly; his fear was palpable.
In the darkness, Jung Hae-jun felt a strange presence stirring around him. From somewhere in the void came a low, ki-kik sound—an eerie chuckle that whispered past his ear. A cold chill coursed down his spine, and beside him Fog held his breath, swallowing a whimper.
In the blink of an eye, Jung Hae-jun realized he was completely isolated. He could no longer sense a single one of his teammates nearby. Fog, who had been right at his side, was gone; Park Seo-yeon and Baek Ji-soo, who had been ahead, were nowhere to be found; even Song Ha-rim, who had been bringing up the rear, had vanished without a trace.
This is just an illusion. Stay calm. Jung Hae-jun took a slow breath and steadied himself. His flashlight was still dead, leaving him blind, but he instinctively reached for his belt, where the portable radio from the Searer team was clipped. He pressed the transmit button and spoke in a low, firm voice, "This is Jung Hae-jun. Requesting response."
After a crackle of static, Park Seo-yeon's voice answered, then Baek Ji-soo's. Next, a third voice broke in—Fog, sounding shaky: "Fog here… I'm alive… but I ain't alright, not one bit…"
"Song, do you read me?" Hae-jun asked urgently.
A brief silence followed. Then Park Seo-yeon's voice came back, quiet and grim. "…No response. I don't see her."
Jung Hae-jun bit back a surge of nausea. Song Ha-rim, who had been covering their rear, had gotten lost in the illusion.
Gritting his teeth, Hae-jun began groping through the dark to find Fog. Fortunately, he soon heard a faint, groaning mutter not far away. He carefully edged toward the sound. "Fog, you there?" he called softly. Almost immediately, he sensed movement right in front of him.
"D-Detective… I-I'm here…" a weak voice answered. Fog stumbled forward, finally coming back within reach, and Jung Hae-jun exhaled in relief. He grabbed Fog's arm to steady him—Fog's legs had nearly given out, and he was barely standing. Even without light, Hae-jun could tell the man's face was ashen.
"You alright?" Hae-jun asked tersely.
Fog let out a shaky, exhausted grumble. "Not in the least. Hell, I'd almost feel better if a ghost just popped out and got it over with—gettin' toyed with like this is gonna drive me crazy…" Even terrified out of his wits and stripped of his bravado, Fog still couldn't stop complaining. Jung Hae-jun mustered a brief, wry smile at that, then his face hardened again.
"Stick with me," he ordered. "If we split up, we're done for." He hooked an arm under Fog's shoulders as he spoke. Leaning on each other, the two began inching forward, keeping one hand on the wall and searching for a safer spot. After a few cautious steps, Hae-jun's foot nudged something small on the floor.
"Hold on," he muttered. Crouching down, he felt around in the dark until his fingertips brushed a cold hunk of metal. He picked it up and realized it was a palm-sized cylindrical device… the anchor beacon. This must be the one Baek Ji-soo had tried to set up—it must have dropped here.
Jung Hae-jun's fingers found the switch on the device's side. "If I turn this on…" he murmured, trailing off. Fog had already caught on; even in the dark, Hae-jun sensed Fog nodding eagerly.
"Light! If we get some light back, things might be a bit better," Fog whispered in agreement.
Hae-jun pressed the button. The beacon emitted a short electronic beep and began to glow amber. With a crackling buzz, its LED started blinking at a steady 0.8-second interval. In the darkness, the rhythmic pulsing of the orange light seemed, strangely, to push back the encroaching mist and shadows. Almost immediately, Hae-jun felt his dizzy vision clearing. Fog let out a long breath of relief as he glanced around. "Well, what d'ya know… it actually works," he sighed, a faint hint of hope in his tone.
But before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, a sudden metallic BOOM reverberated nearby. It was the sound of a heavy steel door slamming shut close at hand. Jung Hae-jun reflexively ducked, and Fog yelped in surprise, collapsing to the ground. At that moment, a small access door in the wall—hidden in the shadows until now—rattled loudly and swung into view. A prickle of foreboding ran through Hae-jun; something about that gaping doorway set his nerves on edge, as if something awaited beyond it.
He hesitated only an instant before making his decision. "Let's go," he said, lifting the anchor beacon and darting toward the door. Gripping the handle, he turned it—and, surprisingly, it opened without resistance. Inside was a cramped space that looked like a maintenance room. Old electrical panels and machinery lined the walls, suggesting it was part of the corridor's infrastructure.
"This is it…," Fog whispered, barely audible.
No sooner had they stepped inside than, as if on cue, the iron door behind them slammed itself shut and locked tight.
"Damn it!" Jung Hae-jun spat, whirling around. He grabbed the handle and tried to wrench the door back open, but it didn't budge an inch. At the same time, a strange grinding noise echoed from above. Heart lurching, Hae-jun snapped his head up. The emergency lamp on the ceiling was flickering sporadically, but in its frail, stuttering light he caught a glimpse of a dire sight—the ceiling itself was slowly descending.
"Fog, out! Now!" Hae-jun shouted, his voice edged with panic. The two spun and hurled themselves at the door. Jung Hae-jun slammed his shoulder against the metal with every ounce of strength he had left, but the door held firm. He drew back and kicked at it viciously, but it didn't so much as shudder, as if some enormous force were pinning it closed.
Above them, the ceiling was beginning to drop faster. Screeeeech! A horrific shriek of steel on concrete tore through the chamber as the descending ceiling picked up speed. In a matter of seconds, the narrow space had been nearly cut in half. Jung Hae-jun and Fog instinctively crouched down as low as they could.
"We're gonna get crushed alive at this rate!" Fog wailed, his voice breaking.
Wild-eyed, Hae-jun's gaze darted around the trap—solid walls on every side. His lungs tightened; the air felt thin and hot. Any moment now, that slab of steel overhead would slam down and flatten them where they stood.
At that instant, something hot uncoiled in Jung Hae-jun's veins. His rational mind began to slip, giving way to raw, feral instinct. A savage urge welled up inside him—an impulse to throw back his head and let out a primal roar. I can't die like this…! his mind screamed. The edges of his vision shimmered and bled red, as if a crimson veil were falling over his eyes. His heart thudded harder, faster—wildly. Every muscle in his body tensed to the breaking point. A red haze swam before him.
Somewhere deep in his head, a voice whispered. Destroy it! Tear it apart!
Just then, a rhythmic flash of light cut across his vision. The anchor beacon clutched in his hand was still strobing, steady and bright. For a split second, with each pulse of the beacon, the crimson hallucination around him wavered. The wall in front of him ripped open like a torn curtain, revealing that the "door" he'd been battering was nothing but an illusion. Right beside it, the faint outline of the real iron door appeared.
Jung Hae-jun gasped for breath, clamping his teeth together. There!
And with that, the wild fury inside him recoiled—chained back by the narrowest margin.
With a beast-like roar, Jung Hae-jun sprang to his feet and hurled himself at the newly revealed door. Just as the descending ceiling was about to pin him, he drove his shoulder into the door with every remaining bit of strength. "Hgh—!" Fog, realizing what was happening, let out a gasp and threw himself against the door alongside him. The anchor beacon's orange light strobed furiously as both men heaved.
Crrrreeak— A shrill metallic groan rang out, and at last the door, locked tight until now, began to inch open. Through the widening crack, tendrils of red mist curled in from the corridor outside. Bit by bit, the outline of the hallway beyond became visible. Jung Hae-jun and Fog squeezed themselves through the narrow gap and flung their bodies out into the corridor.
THUD!
Behind them, with a heavy crash, the ceiling inside the maintenance room slammed down in full, landing with a dull, earth-shaking impact. The two men tumbled onto the corridor floor, gasping for breath. Fog sat back heavily and wiped a shaky hand across his sweaty brow. "Phew… we damn near got smashed flat, I tell ya!!" he blubbered, voice quavering on the verge of tears.
Jung Hae-jun lay on his back a moment, sucking in harsh breaths, then slowly pushed himself to his feet. As he did, the image of the anchor beacon's rhythmic signal shattering the illusion flashed through his mind. He knew with certainty that that tiny window of interference had kept him tethered to reality.
"Detective!" a voice shouted from down the hall. A faint beam of light was bobbing toward them through the red haze. It was Park Seo-yeon. Beside her, the pale glow of Baek Ji-soo's chem-light came into view. Both of them broke into a run when they spotted Hae-jun and Fog.
"You're safe!" Baek Ji-soo cried out in relief as they reached the two. Park Seo-yeon took in the sight of Jung Hae-jun and Fog—sweat-soaked and coated in dust—and hesitated, unsure what to say. She paused to catch her breath, then lifted a trembling hand to check a portable phase-pin tracking device.
"The core's signal keeps jumping…" she muttered in frustration. Baek Ji-soo adjusted the device's antenna, but on the small screen the indicator still jittered erratically, refusing to settle.
Czzzt— The radio on Park's vest crackled with static, and a faint voice filtered through. "Shin Yeon-hwa here, I've got your location." It was Agent Shin Yeon-hwa from Chaser team, calling in over the comm. She was breathing hard as she continued, "We were caught in a loop as well, but we just got out. However… we lost Agent Seo Do-gyeong."
Park Seo-yeon's face went rigid. "Agent Shin, link up with us first," she responded tersely. "At present, both Agent Song and Seo Do-gyeong are missing."
"Understood," came Shin Yeon-hwa's curt reply. "Breacher Kang Moo-yeol, our shield-unit operative, is securing an underground civilian evacuation route. Now the only mission left is to subdue the core."
"Copy." Park Seo-yeon gave a brief acknowledgment and signed off.
They couldn't allow themselves to be toyed with by the Specter's distorted realm—this Domain—any longer. Jung Hae-jun gestured to the softly blinking beacon in his hand and spoke with firm resolve. "It works, just like we thought. A moment ago, this steady signal cut right through the illusion. I saw it myself."
Park Seo-yeon's eyes glinted. "The 0.8-second signal… it really did work," she said, nodding. "This confirms that the timing we've been keeping is correct. As long as we stick to that rhythm, we can withstand the distortion."
Baek Ji-soo steeled himself as he pulled out additional anchor beacons, handing them around. Fog managed a weak grin, still looking nervous, and mumbled, "Heh, so it's all about keepin' the beat… Even ghosts can't do a damn thing about that, eh?"
They were all exhausted—worn out and shaken—but not one of them was ready to quit. Jung Hae-jun wiped his sweat-slick palms on his trousers and took a steadying breath, staring straight into the darkness that loomed beyond the red mist.
Czzzt— The radio crackled again. This time, through the static, a faint voice was calling out: "...Seo… Do-gyeong… respond…"
Everyone froze, holding their breath. That faint transmission—barely audible over the hiss of static—was the call sign of the missing rookie agent, Seo Do-gyeong.