Chapter 4

Chapter 4 . When the Siren Sounds (4)

The Girl in a School Uniform struggled with all her might to shake me off.

But when that didn’t work, she spun around and kicked me with all her strength.

THWACK—!

The kick struck my injured arm.

I almost collapsed on the spot, but I forced myself to hold on.

“Let go of me……!”

The child tried to scream.

I hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Mmph, mm……!”

When I held her jaw, the child’s struggles grew even more violent.

So I held on to her and muttered desperately.

“It’s okay, it’s okay……!”

I felt the child flinch at my voice.

To calm her down, I whispered even lower.

“I’m sorry I scared you. Just don’t scream. Then I’ll let you go.”

At my request, her resistance subsided.

Soon, the child looked at me and nodded.

When I slowly removed my hand, she did not scream, just as promised.

Instead, perhaps because the strength had gone out of her, she sank to the floor.

She looked about middle school age.

What she was wearing was an ordinary winter school uniform.

She had long hair tied back in one bundle and was of average height.

Her face had gone as white as a blank sheet of paper, so I could not tell what her usual impression was like.

“Are you alone?”

At my question, the child looked up at me.

Her gaze was not pitiful so much as fierce.

So I changed the question.

“How long have you been here?”

“……I don’t know.”

“Are you waiting for someone?”

The child shut her mouth again.

It seemed she did not want to admit that she was alone.

“If you’re alone, do you want to come with me?”

I said it because I could not leave a child behind.

But the child stared straight at me, then said in a stubborn tone,

“Forget it. Just drag me off. Instead, when you get out of here, just tell my mom I’m dead.”

“What are you talking about?”

When I failed to understand and asked back, the child said as if arguing with me,

“You’re going to kill me and buy a train ticket.”

“What?”

“Why are you so surprised? It’s written on that paper.”

The child jerked her chin toward the paper lying on the floor.

The Survival Rules I had dropped because the door opened while I was about to set them down on the floor.

As she said, those Survival Rules did contain ways to get out of here.

But what this child was saying was the first I had heard of it.

“There’s nothing in there about killing someone to get a ticket.”

There were no corpses among the successful barter cases with the 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」.

No, that was actually a prohibited item.

But the child did not listen to me and only frowned.

I felt that the conversation was going in circles, so I simply took out the Ticket I had and showed it to her.

“Look. I already have a ticket. So I don’t need to kill you.”

When I showed her the Ticket, the child’s expression wavered a little.

But she had not completely let her guard down.

Before that opening closed, I hurriedly continued.

“How old are you?”

“……Fifteen.”

“Then you can get out of here right away.”

“What do you mean?”

The child looked at me in surprise.

Thanks to that, I also grew puzzled.

This child had spoken as if she knew about the rules.

Yet she had no idea about the contents most favorable to her.

I picked up the Survival Rules from the floor.

Then I showed the child the part I had skimmed over because it was useless to me.

---

Route B. Escape through the 「Cloth Doll」

This escape method is available to children or adolescents under the age of 16.

The 「Cloth Doll」 does not reveal itself to people aged 16 or older.

If you do not meet this condition, please select a different route.

---

In other words, as a 28-year-old adult, this was a route I could not even attempt.

Instead, although “Route B” was limited in its targets, its difficulty was low.

So I had thought, So there’s a concept of youth protection even here.

And this girl happened to be fifteen years old.

Thinking she must be relieved now, I looked at the child.

But instead, the child began dropping tears.

Her face, with her lip clenched tightly between her teeth, looked utterly frustrated and wronged.

“What’s wrong?”

“No one told me there was something like this.”

“There were other people?”

“Yes…….”

“Where are they now?”

“Some died, and some took the money and left.”

At the word money, I grew puzzled again.

When I kept failing to understand, the child added,

“Those bastards killed people and turned them into money.”

At that moment, I finally realized my mistake.

Since earlier, I had only been thinking of the barter exchange with the 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」.

But that was not what the child had been talking about.

The thing that exchanged objects for money.

That was the Storage Locker on the first floor of the concourse, the one I had given up on early.

---

Place the item you wish to exchange in the locker in row 7, column 1, and close the door.

The item placed in the locker will then disappear, and cash equivalent to 70 percent of that item’s market price will be automatically dispensed.

---

No way.

I recalled the thought I had while passing by earlier.

-If I cut out the organs inside my body and put them in there, wouldn’t I earn enough for the ticket?

I had dismissed it as a stupid idea.

But there were bastards who had actually tried that?

Dazed, I asked again.

“How many bastards are you talking about?”

“Three.”

“And how many people did they kill?”

“More than two.”

Calculations began turning in my head.

Whether it was from the news or a movie, I had once vaguely heard about organ trafficking prices.

I thought three or four major organs each went for about one or two hundred million won.

Even conservatively, one human body was worth 400 million won.

Seventy percent of 400 million was 280 million won.

The price of a Ticket was 15.78 million won.

Then what?

So those bastards had gotten Tickets for themselves and still killed more people for money?

“Where are they now? Were you hiding here because of them?”

“That’s…….”

WEEEEEE—!

The siren sound I had heard earlier came again.

The Survival Rules said the siren sounded every 47 minutes.

It seemed it had already been about an hour since I entered this place and wandered around.

At the sound shaking the entire station, I covered my ears.

But the child screamed and covered not her ears, but her head.

This time too, the siren cut off after only a few seconds.

As soon as the sound stopped, the child hurriedly looked around.

Then she saw me and let out a sigh of relief.

“Those people probably all left. Because of that sound.”

“That sound?”

“When the siren goes off, one person always dies.”

“What?”

Startled, I swallowed a breath.

This was the first I had heard of it.

But there was a scene that immediately sprang to mind.

“How do they die?”

“They just…… get crushed. Like bugs.”

So that was it.

The reason the man who had given me the Survival Rules had died.

A chill crept up my spine.

I had already heard the siren twice.

It meant death had brushed past me twice.

But why wasn’t this written in the Survival Rules?

Had the author failed to figure it out?

No, that couldn’t be.

They had figured out that the siren sounded every 47 minutes, but they didn’t know someone died every time?

They had deliberately left this out.

For what purpose?

Because even if you knew, you couldn’t avoid it or stop it?

I forced down the shock.

Then I tried to infer what the child had gone through here.

The child seemed to have been with several people from the start.

They would have gathered to discuss measures and found the Survival Rules too.

I did not know what kind of Archimedes had thought of putting a person into the Storage Locker.

In any case, they had tried it, and they had succeeded. It was Eureka.

After that, I did not know whether the taste of money had made their eyes roll back, or the taste of blood had bewitched them.

A few people formed a group and began hunting.

They shoved people into the Storage Locker one after another.

But that did not last long either.

Because every time the siren sounded, someone was inexplicably crushed to death.

At first, they must have thought it was coincidence.

But the second time, suspicion would have formed. The third time, certainty.

At that point, they would have fled without delay.

Carrying money made from other people’s corpses.

I pictured that situation in my head and sighed.

I finally understood why the child had remained so guarded.

Even now, the child was watching me uneasily.

As if she was afraid I might turn the same way after hearing the story.

I looked for a moment at the child, who avoided my eyes, then opened my bag.

Then I took out the portable first-aid kit rejected during the barter exchange.

“Here.”

“What is this?”

“There are adhesive bandages in there, so put one on. Your neck is bleeding.”

It had bothered me for a while.

For some reason, the nape of the child’s neck was full of scratches.

They looked like fingernail marks.

The child looked back and forth between me and the first-aid kit with startled eyes.

Then she said in a voice that had grown even smaller,

“Mister, you’re bleeding a lot more than I am…….”

“Huh?”

When I failed to understand, the child pointed at my head with her hand.

I felt around my forehead and touched something slick.

When I looked to see what it was, my hand was dyed bright red.

“Gah……!”

What is this? Blood?

Don’t tell me I’m the one bleeding?

Come to think of it, I’d been wondering why I’d been sweating so much all this time!

I must’ve been cut when the glass broke earlier……!

When I saw the blood and panicked, the child stared at me.

Then she tore off a wad of toilet paper and handed it to me, and I hurriedly pressed it against the wound on my head.

The child found disinfectant and gauze in the first-aid kit and took them out.

I finished even the first aid with those, but for some reason, the shock would not fade, and I sat there dazed.

Then the child muttered, almost too quietly to hear,

“You somehow managed to survive even like that.”

Her words had a bone in them—a barb.

“If you had a ticket, you should’ve gotten out quickly. What were you thinking, showing it around like that? What if someone steals it?”

I had not imagined it.

The child was scolding me.

“I showed it to you because you can get out even without a ticket…….”

At my excuse, the child snorted.

It sounded thoroughly disdainful, but in any case, it was the first smile she had shown.

Perhaps her guard had lowered a little, because the child also took out an adhesive bandage and began sticking it to her own wounds.

I watched her, then opened my mouth.

“What’s your name?”

“Lee Sol.”

“Lee So-ri?”

“Lee, Sol. My given name is one syllable.”

Her name was Sol.

Sol, like a brush. Wouldn’t kids tease her for being named after a cleaning tool? Was that okay?

“All right, Lee Sol. I’m Seo Do-un, and I have a Ticket. You have another way to get out of here. If we waste time here and the siren goes off again, next time it might be our turn. So for now, let’s focus on getting out. What do you say?”

I held back the urge to tease her about her name and spoke quite seriously.

The child, Sol, looked at me for a while.

Then she gave a small nod and said in a tiny, shrinking voice,

“I’m sorry I kicked you earlier.”

Yes, I had to accept that apology.

I really had nearly died back there.

I could not bring myself to say it was fine, so I nodded with a petty smile.

---

If you are a child or adolescent under the age of 16, carry a cutting tool such as a knife or scissors and proceed to the Lost and Found Center.

Upon arriving at the Lost and Found Center, running is prohibited.

Laughing is prohibited.

Crying is prohibited.

Looking around is prohibited.

Breathing too much is prohibited.

The actions you must take to obtain the mercy of the 「Cloth Doll」 are as follows.

Memorize them precisely and return alive safely.