It falls.
I knew it.
After I opened my eyes at the Daydream new employee orientation, I had been forgetting who I originally was, as if wiped away.
About my life as Kim Soleum.
I can barely remember my family or friends.
I'm certain they existed. I remember the emotions and their preciousness, but the specific and detailed things are becoming increasingly hard to remember.
So perhaps I thought it wouldn't be strange if nothing appeared on the Scales of Evil, in the place where something I love should appear...
Because now there's nothing left.
Only the feeling about home remains.
A place that wasn't scary, an ordinary place, a place where I originally existed purely as myself.
Only my desire to return there remains, and that intense obsession has ultimately converged into one thing.
Pop-socket.
A way to return home, something I felt I could accomplish, a visible method before my eyes.
The candidate's heart has been determined through the Scales of Evil to contain psychological values that take precedence over ethical and moral judgment.
The right scale containing the pop-socket falls to the floor.
The left scale containing the silver heart extracted from my chest shoots rapidly upward.
This indicates an irredeemable evil person under current circumstances, permanently terminating re-examination and
The heart bounces out of the giant scale.
sentencing to humanitarian execution...
"Wait!!"
Someone who had left the line came running into the courtroom.
And caught the knife handle stuck in the organ bouncing from the scale in mid-air.
"...!"
The person who placed the heart back on the scale shouted.
"I'm also an agent!"
It's Agent Bronze.
202■Management 370616 Selection Candidate...
The speaker stopped speaking.
Ryu Jaegwan's dead face is revealed standing before the courtroom.
Deceased.
Deficiency in candidate qualification requirements confirmed.
A person who is already dead is not qualified to be a candidate.
Revoking 202■Management 370616 Ryu Jaegwan's Selection Candidate qualification. Leave the Courthouse immediately...
"Please wait a moment."
Agent Bronze looked at the scale with sunken eyes, then turned his head toward the speaker.
"As I mentioned, I'm also an agent. I have the qualification to be involved in this selection process."
What is he doing right now?
No matter what he caught from watching the trial, this is too much.
No, wait, did he come in targeting this?
Thinking he'd be safe because he's not a subject of examination?
'He wouldn't do that.'
It only seems to increase the probability of being subordinated to the ghost story!
Rather, if he just leaves now, both Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Agent Bronze could...
"My agent name is Bron..."
"This person is not affiliated with Segwang Metropolitan City. He's an agent from Seoul Headquarters."
I interrupted.
"He has no qualification to be involved in the selection process. Different jurisdiction..."
"No, I do."
"...!"
Agent Bronze looked at the speaker.
His eyes had already finished thinking.
"Didn't the Segwang Metropolitan City branch request support from Seoul Headquarters?"
"...!!"
Damn it.
"Since I came in response to that request, I have the qualification to be involved in this trial."
"Agent,"
I urgently grabbed Agent Bronze.
"That way you might become subordinated to this Supernatural Disaster, please stop..."
"Ah, right. I'm the same."
Agent Choi!
"We're agents from Seoul Team Hyumoo 1."
And he put his arms around both me and Agent Bronze.
"What are you doing?"
"Be quiet."
Agent Choi looked over my heart placed on the scale as if wanting to retrieve it, but soon looked away as if gauging the danger and said.
"...Hey, selection officer speaking through the speaker, come out and talk with us! It seems like the Scales of Evil is being misused. I never thought it was a particularly good item to begin with."
Agent Choi smirked.
"Do you think proper judgment is possible when you drive people to extremes and interrogate them in such an emergency? No, don't you know that information obtained through torture isn't accurate?"
The speaker didn't respond, frighteningly so.
But Agent Choi shouted even louder.
"A Silver Heart appeared but it still showed unsuitable! When we look at Supernatural Disasters, we consider this level an exceptional situation!"
"Yes."
Instead of cold sweat, the color of dead skin shows on Agent Bronze's neck as he agrees.
"So as a related party, I suggest... judging citizens' rescue qualifications this way is not acceptable."
Why are they doing this?
Anyway, even if I die by humanitarian execution, there's a high probability I'll get out of Segwang Metropolitan City. I can prepare again and re-enter. Shouldn't they be more concerned about their own situation?
Are they worried that I might die 'permanently' in this ghost story? Like that pile of corpses under the glass.
'I don't think so.'
They seem to be trying ghost story breaking methods, but it would be safer to do it after my trial.
I said very quietly, low enough for only the agents to hear.
"Look, it's really okay."
"Shut your mouth."
"Really. I was originally just planning to break the scale."
"...!"
It's the same method as just setting fire to the residential area near Midday Station.
'If there's no way to judge, it has no choice but to end.'
And since it wouldn't break easily, I was planning to cause chaos while bringing out all sorts of Contamination.
I figured there was a high probability of dying in that process.
"I expected to die anyway. So it's okay..."
"No. You're not okay."
Agent Bronze interrupted.
"You're the one most likely to become subordinated to this Supernatural Disaster."
What?
"There's no condition easier for a Supernatural Disaster to devour than someone who's mentally cornered and in panic. So..."
"I'm not in panic."
"...Agent Grapes."
Agent Bronze looks at the pop-socket on the scale with his eyes.
"Why is that precious?"
Why?
Is it okay to say?
I felt wary for a moment, but realized it was meaningless since Agent Choi, who had already heard my whole story, was next to me.
He'd share everything anyway.
So...
"...It's a way to return home."
"..."
"No, it's like a symbol of that method."
The more I spoke, the more I seemed to ramble, so I tried to organize my thoughts.
"Since I newly discovered it, and because I didn't know I could find a way back..."
"..."
"Actually, I don't remember much about home from before, but I can't help it. If you see it as evidence that I'm excessively obsessed with home right now, I have nothing to say, that aspect might look strange..."
"No."
"...!"
"As I said before, I understand wanting to return home. That's not it..."
Agent Bronze asks.
"Then why did a pop-socket appear up there instead of the home you want to return to?"
...!
That's,
"Even if your memory is dim, there surely would have been symbols that felt like home. Didn't you see it earlier? What appeared on Agent Choi's scale."
The scene of Team Hyumoo 1's waiting room.
Though it was just an image, anyone who knows Agent Choi could guess what meaning it implied.
"But Agent Grapes, right now, it's not home but only the method to get home that appeared up there."
....
Pop-socket.
"Isn't that backwards?"
It's like cold water was poured into my head.
'Wait.'
I looked at the pop-socket in the scale again.
Right. Valuing the 'means to return home' more than 'home' itself is logically strange...
Is the scale wrong?
That doubt surged in my head, but this time, instead of comfortably following that doubt, I forcibly suppressed it and brought up a difficult question to think about.
'Then does it imply a different meaning?'
For instance... the Darkness Exploration Record itself?
'No.'
If that were the case, the scale wouldn't have tipped over.
I think of the researchers.
The reason I felt strange that their perspective on Darkness was similar to mine was because I couldn't just find it interesting when terrible things happen in reality...
'That wasn't inverted.'
Then...
There was only one answer.
I'm just obsessed with the situation itself of being able to go home.
Because it was too sweet.
Because I couldn't bear it when I saw a way to go home right before my eyes.
Because it seemed like I could do anything if I could just draw the real Wish Ticket original from that dream incubator.
That moment captured me.
'Ah.'
The shock when the potion button was assembled in the dream incubator.
Calculation and catharsis.
Tremendous longing.
....
Could it be that the current me is...
'Excessively captivated by that intense impression?'
"..."
"Agent Grapes."
I looked around.
...For the first time, things come into view.
My companions' expressions.
Their complex thoughts.
Worry about this Supernatural Disaster and my condition, concern for the long-term missing persons lined up behind us, tension...
Tension.
I looked down at my hands.
They're wet with sweat and trembling slightly.
...I'm putting excessive force into them.
But I don't really know how to release the tension.
[Hmm. Shall we try taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling? Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. It's a simple calming method. Now...]
I did so.
[Good, friend!]
Deep breathing.
....
Following my breath, the pulsing in my shoulders, chest, and limbs subsides.
I lowered my hands.
My head spins briefly, then settles clearly.
'Right.'
...Was my condition a bit strange?
Since learning the identity of that dream incubator's button, I seem to have completely lost my mind and come here without considering anything else.
'I thought I was doing it.'
I wasn't.
I need to pull myself together.
'I might not be making normal judgments right now...'
I tried not to give in to the impulse to somehow break the scale and get out.
'From now on... I need to keep checking and judging.'
"Thank you."
"...!"
"I've come to my senses a bit."
I looked at Agent Bronze and nodded. Relief seems to briefly settle in his expression.
At that moment.
The small pop-socket on the giant gray balance scale wavers and flickers.
"...!"
Dream Essence incubator, Wish Ticket, abstract landscape presumed to be a pop-up store, smartphone screen, images in the scale shake and...
Don't stabilize and keep changing.
"Look, it's changing in real time! If you want to claim this is the Disaster Management Bureau, please listen to field agents!"
I hear Agent Choi shouting at the top of his lungs. He's even waving his Executioner's Sword and iron badge.
"Here! I have an agent ID too!"
But the speaker remained silent.
"Please check..."
At that moment.
Unable to confirm
"...!"
Unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm unable to confirm
The speaker's voice distorts. Gets warped. Strange sounds fill the courtroom.
"...Similar to when we got pending."
"It seems unable to recognize that we're agents."
"Right."
The two stand on either side of me, looking up at the speaker with tense eyes.
Submit evidence submit evidence submission window confirm absence of confirmer agent death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation death confirmation
Stop.
Currently, there are no personnel at the Segwang Metropolitan City ■■■■ Bureau branch to confirm related parties' identity evidence.
The agents' shoulders stiffen.
Denying related party approval request...
"But isn't this something you can say even if you're not a related party?"
The sound of dress shoes walking from behind.
"Ah, I'm not an agent, just someone who wants to say something."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje's voice.
"This is a trial anyway, isn't it? I mean, since it's being conducted in the form of a trial in court."
....
Right.
-[Hmm. Then let's advance. This is a step toward receiving judgment, no, trial!]
I recall Braun's words.
My head becomes clearer.
"Then appeals should also be possible, shouldn't they? And you should be able to appoint lawyers and call witnesses."
Correct.
"Roe Deer usually breaks things this way... Well, this is a field I know better than you, so I mentioned it."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje, who smiled at me, looks at the speaker.
"Isn't that procedurally correct?"
202■Management 370617 Selection Candidate...
"Yes yes. I'm dead, that's right. Want to introduce me a bit more? I was a journalist. You know Haengseon Daily? I'm from there."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje grabbed my shoulder and stepped forward.
"And let's roughly say this person is a witness."
Deputy Manager...
"This candidate is a special case, so don't handle it this casually, I'm requesting a proper public trial. Let's have a proper formal trial."
Her voice echoes through the courtroom.
"Since you're being stubborn about not confirming related parties, well, then just think of the people here as this person's defense counsel and witnesses."
....
The voice from the speaker stopped.
The long-term missing persons who must be standing behind us are also strangely quiet as mice.
And in the courtroom stopped in silence, finally a verdict rings out.
Confirmed.
"...!"
Taking into account the scale's fluctuation and testimony, canceling the selection work for 202■Management 370614 Selection Candidate Kim Soleum and referring to formal trial...
I clenched my fists tightly.
The courtroom twists dizzily, the background wavers, and only the gray scale remains clearly visible...
The moment I blinked.
Darkness fell all around.
"...!"
I stood alone in the darkness.
And.
Thud thud thud thud thud.
Pin lights fall one by one from far away.
A new space becomes visible.
Similar to the previous courtroom, but with seating areas for people on both sides.
Lights shone meaninglessly on dozens of empty seats, but my companions sat on both sides near me.
I saw the agents and Deputy Manager exchanging glances with stiff expressions.
And finally.
Thud.
A light falls on me.
And across from me, the giant scale is still positioned, with the heart extracted from me placed on it.
The voice that was heard from the speaker echoes in the air.
Opening the formal trial of 202■Management 370614 Selection Candidate Kim Soleum.
"Good."
But here, an unexpected situation that even Assistant Manager Eun Haje didn't anticipate occurs.
All jury members, please take your seats.
"...!!"
Dark figures reveal themselves in dozens of empty seats.
Those wearing agent uniforms.
However, those with distorted forms who no longer look human at all, those missing their upper bodies entirely, burned, or in indescribable states.
"These bastards... they're using a jury system."
Candidate, please step forward.
The dead agents of Segwang Metropolitan City looked at me.