Chapter 152

GURGLE—!

For some reason, I was exhaling underwater.

“……!”

The moment the fishy taste of river water spread through my mouth, I came to my senses and relaxed my body.

Then, instead of fighting the river’s current, I swam in the direction my body was floating.

Soon, I was able to reach the surface.

SPLASH—!

“Puhah!”

I lifted my head out of the river and hurriedly breathed.

Then I wiped my wet face and looked around.

Is this the Han River?

Was I released from 「Railway Station」?

The fog was so thick I could not make anything out.

All I could see was fog, and river water.

I checked my smartwatch first.

The light came on, but communications were off.

I was still inside a Special Zone, and in a place where communications did not connect at that.

Should I call this fortunate?

It seemed 「Railway Station」 had not been reset yet.

I looked around again.

The same fog, and river water.

At the endless sight, cold fear surged in.

SPLASH—!

Swallowing my impatience, I swam.

I cut through the current, hoping this vast, empty landscape was an illusion.

Surely it isn’t a place with nothing but water.

Damn it, if land is far away, even a buoy would be fine.

I prayed that anything would appear and crack this unrealistic sight.

SPLASH— SPLASH—!

But no matter how much I swam, I remained in the middle of fog and water.

On top of that, after stopping for just a moment, I could no longer tell which direction I had come from.

I even began to doubt whether I had actually moved by swimming at all.

“Ha…….”

When I realized even my sense of direction had become distorted, my heart sank.

What do I do? Where the hell is this?

“Team Leader Cha! Team Leader Cha Si-eon!”

Remembering that Cha Si-eon had been holding me, I shouted.

“Ms. Baek Sa-ra! Agent Jeong Jin-u!”

I also called the others who had been nearby.

But my voice only rang in the air, seeming to reach nowhere.

“Hah, hah…….”

My breathing rose to my throat, as if panic was about to set in.

Just as my breaths grew shorter and shorter.

Flutter—

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fall.

I hurriedly turned that way.

On the river water, a single black feather floated.

A feather?

SPLASH—!

I swam over and hurriedly grabbed that feather.

But the feather melted away like cotton candy and vanished.

Instead, I lifted my head and checked the sky.

A single black bird was crossing the fog-covered sky.

I chased that bird and swam.

SPLASH— SPLASH—!

But the bird was too fast.

Catching up seemed impossible, but I kept swimming with the feeling of clutching at straw.

In the end, the bird disappeared from my sight.

Instead, a huge pillar appeared before me.

Several pillars standing on the river water beyond the fog.

And the bridge placed above them.

Seeing that, I realized where I had come.

This was a Type 1 Special Zone.

「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」.

---

Survival Rules for Missing Persons within 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」

You are currently inside 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」, managed by the Government of the Republic of Korea.

This is a dangerous situation in which you may lose your life, so please familiarize yourself with the survival rules below and evacuate quickly.

■ Common Precautions

One. Do not forget that you are human.

Only humans may leave this place.

Two. Obey the social norms of the Republic of Korea.

Criminal acts are not permitted even within a Special Management Zone, hereafter Special Zone.

Three. Within Special Zones, all acts of consumption, such as eating, drinking, or reading, are prohibited.

Such acts may inflict serious damage upon your body and mind.

■ Escape Directives for 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」

「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」 is a bridge-shaped Special Zone characterized by extremely thick fog.

Visibility here is extremely short, below 10m.

Additionally, the length of this bridge varies from a minimum of 1km to a maximum of 28km.

Cross the bridge.

That is the only way to escape this place.

---

Why on earth…….

Could the 「Railway Station」 members have been wiped out?

Was that why 「Crow」 evacuated only me here?

No, no.

If that were the case, Cha Si-eon should have been beside me too.

At the end, Cha Si-eon was holding me.

Right, it is too early to be pessimistic.

Get a hold of yourself and overcome this situation first.

First, I had to get onto the bridge.

But climbing the pillar barehanded was impossible.

The pillar was cylindrical and made of brick.

There was nothing at all to grab or step on.

What should I do? Should I examine another pillar?

Or should I swim like this to the end of the bridge?

Damn it, I don’t even know whether that kind of workaround would work, or whether my stamina would hold out.

That was when it happened.

BOOM—!

A loud sound suddenly rang out.

It seemed to come from above the bridge.

What is it?

I flinched for a moment, then shouted in urgency.

“Is anyone up there?!”

If I stayed stuck to the pillar, I would not be visible from above.

So I swam out from beneath the bridge and shouted again.

“I am Seo Do-un! I fell into the river!”

I shouted desperately while looking up at the bridge.

But the fog was so thick that I could not even see the bridge’s railing properly.

Is no one there?

As I felt at a loss, a blurry shape appeared beyond the fog.

Some shadow hanging over the railing.

It called my name.

“Mr. Seo Do-un?”

It was Cha Si-eon’s voice.

“Team Leader!”

Recognizing that voice, I shouted in relief.

“Team Leader! Please pull me up!”

I had been in the cold river water for too long.

Pushing myself out of the water to keep my body from sinking was becoming more and more difficult.

So I urgently asked for help, but Cha Si-eon was cautious.

“State the code word.”

“There is no code word!”

“Field.”

“I said there is no code word! Team Leader, please pull me up first……!”

When I shouted desperately, something finally fell from above.

SPLASH—!

I squeezed out what little strength I had left and swam toward it.

When I got there, I saw that a wire with a ring attached had been lowered from the bridge and was swaying like a fishing line.

I hooked that ring around my waist and grabbed the wire.

But Cha Si-eon did not pull me up immediately and asked me again.

“Prove that you are Seo Do-un.”

“The survival swimming you taught me was helpful!”

The wire began pulling my body up.

SPLAAAASH—!

My body rose into the air, pouring off river water.

I hung from the wire, then stretched out my arm and grabbed the railing.

Cha Si-eon pulled my shoulder, and I was dragged up limply and lay down as I was.

The rough asphalt ground touched my cheek, but this was far better than being in the cold water.

“Phew…….”

After catching my breath first, I asked Cha Si-eon,

“I heard a loud sound earlier.”

“Nothing happened.”

“……?”

It had been loud enough for me to hear below the bridge.

Yet nothing happened?

Puzzled by Cha Si-eon’s assertion, I looked around.

Right beside us, the railing separating the roadway and the sidewalk was slightly crushed.

……Did he kick it, by any chance?

While I was looking at the railing, Cha Si-eon removed the ring from my waist and said,

“Remove the water and get your equipment in order.”

Instead of collecting the wire, Cha Si-eon threw it outside the road bridge.

SPLASH—!

Then he turned on a searchlight and attached it to the railing, raised his rifle, and fired into the air.

BANG—!

While taking off my equipment and wringing the water out of my clothes, I was startled by the gunshot and asked,

“Is it all right to make such a loud sound?”

“It is better than someone drowning.”

Cha Si-eon’s voice was cold.

No, it seemed closer to bitter.

His attitude made me feel it again.

That the operation had been frustrated right before success.

And that a completely new phase had begun.

We had forced through an unreasonable operation, and in the end, we had placed the personnel in danger.

Cha Si-eon was boiling alone under that heavy responsibility, and I was not free from it either.

That was when it happened.

BANG—!

A gunshot rang out from somewhere else.

As we looked around, unable to grasp the direction, a sparkling light came into view.

It was the same searchlight as the one Cha Si-eon had turned on.

But the position of the light was a little strange.

Why is it so high?

Absurdly, that light was flashing above our heads, at a dizzying height.

As I was looking around, wondering what on earth that was.

BANG—!

Another gunshot rang out.

This time too, I could not grasp the exact direction, but I could tell it was from a different location than the one I had heard earlier.

Then another light came on in another place.

“Mr. Seo Do-un, move away a little and turn on a searchlight.”

He intended to check the number of personnel.

As instructed, I put some distance between us and turned on a searchlight.

Then several more lights appeared beyond the whitish fog.

One, two, three…….

Including mine and Cha Si-eon’s, a total of 12 lights appeared.

Why 12?

“Baek Sa-ra does not have a light.”

Cha Si-eon said this to me as I counted anxiously.

Right, Baek Sa-ra had minimized her equipment, intending to move quickly.

That is a relief.

If only Ms. Baek Sa-ra is safe, then everyone survived.

But the problem was, as expected, the positions of those lights.

“Why are the other people’s lights positioned like that?”

This place is 「Great Bridge」.

It is a structure stretching in a straight line.

But the lights visible beyond the fog were all at different heights.

For now, we were the lowest.

The other lights sparkled from higher places than us, and they were lined up in a circle above our heads, like the rails of a 360-degree roller coaster, or like a Ferris wheel.

What the hell is this? Are those people floating in midair?

At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Right now, this place is 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」.”

“Yes.”

“And the original form of 「Great Bridge」 is Hangang Bridge.”

“That is correct.”

“What came down from above earlier looked like Nodeul Island.”

“I have judged the same.”

“If you take Hangang Bridge from Nodeul Island and go north, it is Yongsan Station.”

“…….”

“If we consider this space a paper map and fold it so that Yongsan Station and Nodeul Island meet, what happens to Hangang Bridge in the middle?”

“It would fold together or become a ring shape.”

Cha Si-eon and I looked at each other for a moment, then raised our heads again.

That was exactly the case.

The lights we had turned on were forming a ring.

Cha Si-eon lowered his head and pressed his forehead.

Then, with his thumb and middle finger, he pressed hard on his own temples and exhaled deeply.

I knew what this action meant.

Cha Si-eon was now extremely angry.