WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 57: Geochilsan Express Train (3)
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“…What?”
I had come out full of confidence, only to open the door to irritating noise and the anxious murmur of people.
A crowd filled the narrow passageway, stamping their feet as they nervously glanced toward Car 2. There were far too many of them to be standing passengers.
“Excuse me, what happened? Why is everyone out in the corridor?”
When I asked a college student, he pointed toward Car 2.
“Th, there’s a fight…”
“A fight?”
“Yes. Someone was demanding to know why the train wouldn’t stop and why there was no signal. They started arguing with a crew member, smashed a table…”
Just as he said that, something crashed again, and several more people fled into the corridor. A large person was directing people out of the car.
“Please step back. We’ll restore order and provide further instructions. Please clear Car 2 for the moment.”
“Huh? Officer Ryu Hyeon-u?”
At the familiar voice, I looked again at the door-sized figure. It was Ryu Hyeon-u. I had never been so glad to see a familiar face.
“Mr. Seon Jaehyeon? What are you doing here?”
I had greeted Ryu warmly, but Ryu’s expression was anything but welcoming. Ryu looked surprised, perhaps flustered.
“Uh…”
Had Section Chief Seon-u In not told Ryu I would be on this train? Was it some secret project, some scheme to skim off money under the table?
‘Well, the Corporation people weren’t officially riding this train either, and they said they didn’t even know who was. Maybe they were avoiding something by each doing their own job without sharing information.’
I should have known from the moment Seon-u In asked to meet somewhere away from the waiting room. After quickly running the numbers in my head, I gave Ryu my usual bright smile.
“I had something to do in Busan over the weekend, so I thought I’d head down there. I woke up from a nap, and it looks like the train still hasn’t even reached Daejeon?”
Ryu Hyeon-u briefly checked the people around us, then gestured for me to come closer. I could hear whispers nearby.
“A Distortion has occurred. Did you anticipate this?”
“I have a rough idea of what’s happening. Did you board knowing it was a Distortion?”
“I knew there was a Distortion here, but I didn’t board today because of a problem.”
“Then personal business?”
“No. A routine patrol. The Corporation judged that this Distortion posed no danger, so we check periodically for mutations. It appears a mutation has occurred this time.”
No, it wasn’t a mutation. Still, my hypothesis had been right. It matched both what Seon-u In said and the report.
Even with the Corporation’s current capabilities, they had found no way to overcome the time of this 100 Million Years Train.
“Anyway, we’re still assessing the situation. Please help control the scene for a moment. I need to break up the dispute.”
Right. A crazy situation was still a situation that needed resolving.
“Of course. Let’s go.”
In the middle of Car 2, at a spacious four-person seat with the seats facing one another, a man still had a crew member by the collar and was shouting at them.
A couple of people in similar clothes and another crew member were trying to stop them. Judging by their outfits, they seemed to be part of a hiking club or something.
“If the train won’t stop, shouldn’t you at least find out why? You’re the employees, not me! Bring your supervisor here right now!”
“Sir, please calm down and take a seat. We’re also doing our best to understand the situation…”
“Understand my ass! Do you know what time it is?!”
“We don’t know enough at the moment…”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?! Then tell us what you do know!”
“P, please calm down and let me-”
“Does this look like a situation where I can calm down?! Are you making fun of me?!”
The man’s face was red with rage as he shoved the crew member violently.
“Argh!”
“Hey, hey?!”
There was no time to stop him. Thrown back by the man’s strength, the crew member slammed their head into the metal armrest of the seat in front of them with a deafening crash and sprawled in the aisle.
Their limp body twitched and convulsed a few times… then stopped. Screams and commotion broke out among the onlookers.
“Wh, what? Are they dead?”
“Did that man just kill someone?”
“N, no! I… I didn’t mean to…!”
The color instantly drained from the man’s red face, leaving it pale and bluish. He had assaulted a crew member, and there had been a huge sound like someone’s skull splitting open.
Everyone thought the same thing.
Someone had been killed.
Perhaps realizing what he had done, the man turned his head this way and that, shouting out excuses.
He hadn’t pushed them on purpose. That bastard had just fallen over first. Why were they lying there and making things difficult for him instead of getting up? And so on.
“G, get up! What am I supposed to do now?!”
I couldn’t keep watching him reach for the motionless crew member.
“Step back. No further violence will be tolerated.”
Ryu Hyeon-u quickly stepped between them and restrained the man.
“No! Ah, yes, Officer! You saw it, right?! You saw that I didn’t do it on purpose…!”
“Calm down.”
Meanwhile, I approached the crew member and checked their pulse. Fortunately, they were breathing.
“Are you all right?”
“…Ugh…”
Good. They were conscious too. When I helped them up, they rubbed their head a few times and rose to their feet. They seemed a little dizzy, but considering the noise, they looked surprisingly fine.
“Can you stand?”
“Ah, yes… Yes. My head feels a little foggy, but I think I’ll be fine after resting for a bit.”
“Watch out for a concussion. I don’t know if there’s a doctor on the train, but please rest.”
Relieved whispers spread through the crowd.
“They… they look fine?”
“Didn’t something crack…?”
“Maybe the table behind them got smashed… They seem all right…”
Ryu Hyeon-u’s gaze fixed on me. I nodded.
“Fortunately, it seems to be just a bruise. They’re very shaken, so please let them rest.”
Ryu Hyeon-u isolated the man in a corner and began clearing the area.
“W, well… I may have gone a little too far earlier…”
“Save it for when we get off. Give that crew member your ID and ticket. When we disembark, this will be handled according to railway law.”
“No, I…”
Perhaps because he was intimidated by the much larger Ryu Hyeon-u, the man meekly quieted down. He should have done that from the start.
The passengers who didn’t want to remain in Car 2 left to find empty seats in Cars 1 and 3. Only the man’s companions remained near him. Once the crowd had mostly dispersed, the crew members helped their injured coworker away and scattered to their respective cars.
“What did you find?”
Ryu Hyeon-u came straight to me in the corridor and lowered Ryu’s voice. I barely managed to whisper the words that had been sitting on my tongue into Ryu’s ear.
“They died instantly.”
“…As expected.”
The place where their head had hit was sunken in. Under the hand supporting their head, I had felt something broken and soft. There was even torn flesh inside. I didn’t want to touch any deeper than that.
“But there was no blood. Nothing leaked from inside, either.”
“They didn’t appear to be in life-threatening condition.”
“…I didn’t get to explain this earlier, but no one will die here. Looking at how injuries occur… they’d probably survive even if their limbs were cut off or their stomach was sliced open.”
The 100 Million Years Button makes a person exist for one hundred million years. I didn’t know whether the mind would collapse, but in most versions, even an ordinary mind was forcibly maintained…
“You’re saying that if someone is injured at all, they’ll have to live injured for the remaining time shown on that electronic display?”
“Yes. At least it’s fortunate no one has gone on a stabbing rampage.”
What if someone was stabbed and didn’t bleed, or bled but didn’t die? What if people realized that death had been removed inside this train?
A seven-thousand-year hell would begin aboard the train.
Some would turn to religion. Others would run wild, saying it didn’t matter because they couldn’t die.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what would happen once people realized they had to live here for seven thousand years in a grotesque state of immortality, neither dead nor alive.
“But it’s only a matter of time. That crew member will notice something’s wrong with their body in a few hours, and people already find this strange.”
“We need to determine how many people are aboard, including the crew, and how many we can control.”
The two of us? That didn’t seem possible.
As if luck hadn’t abandoned us, Ryu Hyeon-u’s PDA made a sound at that very moment. It was the same kind of device the other Corporation people had kept carrying at Jangsalgot.
[Ah, ahem. Signal confirmed.]
A voice came from the PDA with a radio-like crackle.
[This is Mok Inha, Section Chief of Haetae 3, Grade 5 Archivist of the Ghost Story Records Corporation. Any Archivists connected to this network, respond immediately. I repeat. This is…]
“Didn’t you say Section Chief Mok came separately?”
“…Yes, that’s correct. I wasn’t assigned to accompany the Section Chief today.”
Ryu Hyeon-u adjusted their grip on the PDA and pressed the transmit button.
“This is Ryu Hyeon-u, Grade 8 Archivist of Haetae 3. I am currently in the passage between Cars 1 and 2. I am accompanied by collaborator Seon Jaehyeon.”
[Huh, what? Our Number One Junior is here?]
Before Mok Inha could reply, that familiar, slick voice cut into the transmission.
“I didn’t expect Mr. Gangrim to be here too… How did you end up on board?”
[Our Number One Junior said he had a house in Busan, remember? So I was heading down to investigate while I was at it. Then a Distortion suddenly happened, and I guess our junior brought it with him?]
“No… I boarded because of personal business too. I’m a victim here.”
When I grumbled lightly, Mok Inha neatly cut off Lee Gangrim before the teasing could continue.
[Enough chatter. Confirm your affiliation and name first.]
Lee Gangrim giggled.
[Yes, yes. Lee Gangrim. Grade 5 Archivist of Haetae Section 1, currently in Car 12~.]
[Have you confirmed any abnormalities?]
“A disturbance occurred in Car 2. One civilian assaulted a crew member, inflicting injuries equivalent to instant death. However, the injuries weren’t visible externally, and the crew member maintained vital signs.”
[Are you saying they became a zombie?]
“No. More precisely, I believe it’s closer to an immortal state where they’d remain alive even if they were dismembered.”
[Blood? Was there blood?]
“There was no bleeding.”
“There was a torn wound. I don’t know whether it would bleed if it went deeper.”
[…If everyone is currently able to move between cars, gather together. We’re in Car 8.]
[Oh, there’s a good place for that. Shall we meet there?]
“Where?”
[Here, can you believe it? There’s a dining car. It’s between Cars 9 and 10, so let’s gather there. I’ll safely clear the passengers out.]
“…There’s a dining car?”
Dining cars had existed back in the days of Mugunghwa and Saemaeul trains. Current KTX trains only had snack vending machines, since all the cars had been converted into passenger cars…
“Then where did the passengers who were there go?”
That wasn’t a question with an immediate answer. Ryu Hyeon-u and I hurried toward the rear cars.
The crew had managed to calm the passengers, who appeared fine for the moment. When we opened the connecting door to Car 9,
“Junior!”
Lee Gangrim suddenly pulled me into a hug, displaying an excessive amount of interest. Mok Inha was waiting nearby, and beyond them lay the dining car.
“G, good to see you. More importantly, what is this…?”
“Isn’t it amazing? Your reaction is much better than Section Chief Mok’s, hey.”
It was a dining car, but nothing like the ones I knew, and it was certainly not Korean.
Soft yellow incandescent lights. Antique tables neatly set with white tablecloths and red velvet chairs. Wooden paneling covered the walls, while an Eastern-style carpet filled with vine patterns lay across the floor.
It looked exactly like something out of a twentieth-century Orient Express mystery.
‘What got mixed with what to make this space turn out like this…?’
I was worried this was becoming harder and harder to deal with. How was I supposed to fix the ghost story without the Corporation people discovering Hertz?
No, wait. With this many Corporation people here, couldn’t I just let them handle it? I had solved everything at Jangsalgot, so perhaps this time I could watch a Corporation-style solution.
The record said nothing had happened, so it seemed they had simply endured the seven thousand years through sheer grit. But maybe they could solve it differently this time…
“All right.”
Lee Gangrim clapped lightly.
“Our clever junior, what should we do?”
“Pardon?”
Why was he asking me that?
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