It seemed my stint as a cult leader had left a lasting impression on some people.
‘I need to get out of here.’
I quickly excused myself to my superiors and discreetly headed for the restroom.
Okay. I’ll hide here for a few minutes until the details of the dream started fading from their memories.
– You’re like a celebrity avoiding overzealous fans…
It was embarrassingly accurate.
‘No, it’s actually a great ending.’
A faint sense of pride spread through my chest.
……A sense of peace that the original passengers of the Tamra Express had never experienced.
‘Because back then, the ending had been far more horrific.’
It was seared into my memory, even without referencing the wiki.
At one point in the endless loops, the passengers’ minds had completely broken. They had descended into collective madness, becoming something no longer recognizable as human.
By then, the train cars had become a living nightmare, where the mere concept of deciding to jump through the windows was lost in the sea of pain.
‘But if you repeat the process enough times, there’s always a chance that someone stumbles upon the right answer…’
After countless restarts and endless time, they eventually gathered the correct number of sacrifices for the ninth altar and escaped this anomaly.
But in a sense, they never truly escaped.
Even for those who experienced being offered once, the trauma lingered for several minutes afterward, as if waking from a terrible nightmare.
So what happens to those who endure it hundreds or thousands of times?
‘…They could never escape the nightmare.’
The passengers presumably did not realize that the supernatural phenomenon had ended and they had returned to reality.
They mistakenly believed they were still trapped in the loop…
In fact, as their mental strength partially recovered upon returning to reality, their despair intensified, leading them to act even more irrationally and violently.
Thus, even in the real world, hell descended.
The majority of the passengers killed and dismembered each other on the spot—on their seats, in the aisles, and near the windows.
After that horrifying chaos and madness, the train derailed…
This was how the ‘Tamra Express Disaster’ met its terrible conclusion.
…Thankfully, this outcome hadn’t become reality.
I let out a deep breath of relief.
Um, now that everything was over, I finally had the time to question a lingering mystery.
The only known employee from Daydream Inc. who had survived this incident in the original scenario.
The same employee who presumably had the same silver ring I was currently wearing, having bartered it with three civilians at Death Lane.
Where exactly had that person been?
‘Or rather… were they even here?’
The only company employee I had directly confirmed aboard the train earlier was Baek Saheon.
And since I didn’t want to cause unnecessary trouble or draw attention by sniffing out all the employees, I let it be.
‘Well, in any case, it all worked out.’
If they were aboard, they must have survived since the incident had ended peacefully.
What mattered was that the tragedy originally tied to this train had been averted.
‘It’s time to leave.’
Someone, impatient from waiting, was knocking on the bathroom door.
I quickly jotted down a few notes in my smartphone’s memo app to hold on to the fading memories of the past 14 loops, splashed cold water on my face, and stepped out of the train restroom.
The person waiting outside barged in the moment the door opened.
‘They must’ve been in a hurry.’
I passed by them and headed back to my seat.
“You fucking piece of shit.”
I instinctively lowered my gaze.
The blade had narrowly grazed past my chest.
I immediately stepped back while grabbing the attacker’s forearm and twisting it sharply.
The cutter blade fell to the floor with a sharp clang as I pushed the attacker down and pinned him to the floor.
That’s when I saw his face.
“You bastard—ah, ahhh!!”
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
‘The wannabe cult leader!’
“Fuck! It hurts—damn it, it hurts!!”
It was the same person who was left behind at the ninth altar!
“You lied to me?! Then die, you bastard, you piece of—”
I forcefully slammed him into the floor once more.
A short, dull impact rang out.
My hands were drenched in sweat.
‘Did he lose his mind after we left him behind there?’
Considering his already bad personality, he had probably experienced even more suffering during the offering because of his greater guilt.
Still, even if it had been a nightmare, it must have been a particularly severe one for him.
What an uncontrollable temper.
‘No wonder he ended up .’
I wiped the sweat off my face.
At least the blade hadn’t cut through my chest or caused any pain.
‘…Good thing I wrapped myself in protective packaging beforehand.’
I hadn’t expected to be dragged into another ghost story during our trip, but I had prepared for the possibility by layering my skin with a protective wrapping item before departing.
The item, ‘Wrapper 12B357나’, was something I’d bought from the alien shop.
Given the death prediction I had received, it had been a sensible precaution.
‘Still, I didn’t think I’d be dodging death from a knife-wielding maniac rather than getting done in at a ghost story…’
Was this the death prediction I had been warned about? Did I just narrowly avoid it?
‘What do you think, Braun?’
An unsettling feeling crept down my spine.
I had just been slashed across the chest.
Though the packaging had protected my skin, the outer layer of my suit—specifically, the left chest pocket—had taken damage.
And in that pocket was…
My heart pounding, I hurriedly reached into my suit pocket.
My trembling fingers pulled out the fluffy animal plushie inside…
Cotton fell to the ground.
The pink fabric dangled, torn and frayed, as the broken plush keychain swayed in my hand.
I stood frozen, staring at the plush doll, now split in two.