WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 55: Side Story - Welcome to Line 0, the Express Train to Hell
──────
‘Ah, this is killing me.’
Kang Ju-ye, a twenty-eight-year-old office worker living in Suwon, staggered home in a half-conscious daze after several straight days of overtime. When she reached the subway platform, she sat on a bench and blankly waited for the last train.
‘Thank God the last train is at eleven.’
If it hadn’t been, that damned boss would’ve made her work even longer. Wishing for a future where the last train would miraculously be moved up to six in the evening so she wouldn’t have to work overtime, she swayed to her feet as the approaching train’s lights came into view.
‘Ugh, I’m sleepy. I need to get home, wash up, and sleep.’
An announcement played over the platform.
[Now arriving, a train bound for Seryu. Passengers, please take one step back.]
《Now arriving, a train bound for Hell. Passengers, please take one step forward.》
‘?’
Hadn’t it just said something about Hell? She thought she heard a faint voice mixed with static between the announcements, but after hesitating for a moment, she dismissed it.
‘Must’ve heard wrong.’
Inside the quiet, empty car, she sat at the end of a seat and rested her head against the pole.
‘Don’t fall asleep. If I miss my stop, I’m screwed.’
Then, the moment she blinked...
“?”
“What?”
“Huh? Where is this?”
“W-what? Where are we!?”
She was sitting in a packed subway car.
＊＊＊
‘Is this a dream?’
Kang Ju-ye pinched her cheek. The car that had been empty moments ago was now packed, and its passengers shouldn’t have been there.
“Where are we!?”
“What? I definitely got on the subway in Brooklyn!”
“Hey! Isn’t this New York?”
“I was on a Tokyo Metro train...”
White people, Black people, Asians, Easterners, Westerners, Koreans, Japanese, Americans, Germans. People from all over the world were gathered together. If this wasn’t a dream, then what was it?
“...This isn’t a dream!?”
Her pinched cheek stung. One by one, others realized it wasn’t a dream either, and the car grew several times louder.
“Everyone, listen! Isn’t this strange? Why can we understand each other!?”
“That’s because you’re speaking English... No, wait. What language is that?”
“French!”
“Weren’t you all speaking Japanese?”
“My God! What on earth is happening?”
They could understand one another’s languages naturally. After the bizarre situation continued for a while and people gradually calmed down, they began exploring the car. Kang Ju-ye looked around as well.
‘It’s Line 1?’
The foreigners wouldn’t have known, but this was a Korean Line 1 subway car, the kind Kang Ju-ye saw every day.
“The doors to the other cars won’t open.”
“I can’t see the other side of the car at all.”
“What about the windows?”
“Damn it, same here. They won’t open, and I can’t see what’s outside.”
“We can only tell the train is moving from the shaking.”
Then she noticed something else.
‘Wait, the route map is strange.’
Above the entrance was a detailed route map labeled [Line 0 Route Map].
[The Crusher -> The Talker -> The Violator -> The Whisperer -> The Greedy One -> The Judge -> Engine Room (No Entry)]
Just as she tried to make sense of the unfamiliar map, a loud commotion broke out in the car.
“Everyone, shut up!”
“Eek!”
A Black man with tattoos covering both arms pulled a handgun from his waistband. Pointing it around the car, he threatened everyone nearby.
“Fuck! This is exactly like some cheap horror movie where you suddenly get dropped into a fucked-up place and die to some fucked-up monster! I don’t want to die here!”
“Calm down! This isn’t a movie!”
“Shut up! I was supposed to go on a nice date with my girlfriend, and now I’ve been dragged to this bullshit place! Do you know how I feel!?”
Just before the disturbance turned violent.
『Ahem, an announcement from the engine room.』
An announcement echoed through the car.
『First, we would like to sincerely thank all passengers for boarding the Line 0 Express Train to Hell. Our train is currently headed for Hell, Hell. Passengers are requested to proceed to Car 1 for a Simplified Judgment. We repeat. Our train is headed for Hell, Hell, so passengers must receive a Simplified Judgment. Please proceed to Car 1 without delay.』
The announcement ended, its voice steeped in boredom.
“Car 1?”
“What car are we in?”
“It says Car 6.”
As the passengers hesitated, the tightly shut doors opened by themselves.
“Do we have to go to Car 1?”
“What happens if we don’t?”
“Hell? Did it really say Hell? Then shouldn’t we not go?”
Among the hesitant passengers, Kang Ju-ye saw it.
『Kikikikiki!』
At the very back of the car, a woman in white mourning clothes with long hair hanging down had suddenly appeared.
『Kikikikiki!』
“Shut up.”
Fortunately, Kang Ju-ye wasn’t the only one who saw it.
“The rules of horror movies! If a monster appears, you die if you just stand there and watch!”
The Black man’s gun flashed.
“I’m not doing that stupid shit!”
Bang-!
After twelve gunshots, acrid gunpowder smoke filled the car. Yet the woman in mourning clothes remained unharmed despite being shot.
“Oh, fuck.”
『Kikikikiki!』
The woman in white rotated her head three hundred and sixty degrees, then glided across the car and grabbed the Black man by the neck with one hand.
“Help...”
The Black man’s neck crumpled like clay and came off.
“Ahhh!”
“R-run!”
The woman in white didn’t stop there. As she crushed every one of his limbs, everyone fled in a panic.
“Save me!”
“Ahhh!”
There had been too many people in one car. Several failed to escape, only to be caught by the woman in white and have their entire bodies crushed in her hands.
“What is this place!?”
“A mountain!?”
The passengers who made it through the door weren’t in much better shape.
“We were definitely on a train just a moment ago!?”
The space beyond the door had been an ordinary subway car until they crossed through it. The moment they did, they found themselves deep in unfamiliar mountains.
“Where are we now!?”
“I-I think I know where we need to go. I’m not the only one feeling this, right?”
No one said anything, but the passengers silently agreed.
‘For some reason, I feel like I need to go that way.’
‘If I go there, I think there’ll be a path.’
Following that natural instinct, as naturally as fish breathing underwater, they moved on. An old, shabby Buddhist temple appeared before them.
『Oh, sinful beings.』
A grotesquely obese monk smiled broadly from the temple porch.
『Endure hardship. Atone for every sin through hardship, and attain enlightenment.』
The monk struck a wooden fish. At that moment, several passengers screamed.
“Ahhh!”
They were inflicting pain upon themselves. Some tore at their skin, ripped it, and tried to peel it off. Some kept smashing their heads against the ground even as blood poured out and their brains spilled forth. Others foamed at the mouth while strangling themselves.
“Eek!”
The remaining people ran wherever their instincts led them. The passengers’ suffering did not end there.
『Lewd sinners, I shall lessen your sins by violating you.』
A hotel where a ten-meter-tall giant chased after people and violated them regardless of gender.
『That one running beside you plans to kill you and survive alone. Kill them first!』
“Ahhh!”
『You actually fell for that? My, you’re terribly selfish. You killed someone else to save yourself. A sinner like you must live here for others for the rest of your life.』
A stream with a boy who turned the passengers against one another and made them kill each other.
『Oh, there are so many new pigs! Here, take this! Jewels for you!』
A plain with a pig-faced giant who threw jewels that filled anyone who saw them with the desire to possess them, but made anyone who touched them strip naked while alive, crawl across the ground, and squeal like pigs.
“Huff, huff!”
Only one person made it through all of that and reached the final car.
Kang Ju-ye.
“Sniff... Mom...”
She wasn’t better than the others. She had simply been a little luckier, which was why she reached Car 1.
“I miss you...”
The final car, Car 1, was an ordinary subway car. A door leading to the engine room stood ahead, and nothing could still be seen outside the windows. It was ordinary, yet not ordinary at all. As she burst into tears, the engine room door finally opened.
『Ah...』
Through tearful eyes, Kang Ju-ye looked at the figure that emerged.
It wore an old-fashioned conductor’s uniform, but its face was shrouded in black shadow, impossible to make out.
『It has been a long time since a sinner reached this place.』
It was the same voice she had heard in the announcement.
『Then we shall begin the Simplified Judgment.』
“P-please let me go.”
Kang Ju-ye pleaded with the conductor.
“T-this is Hell, right? Isn’t it? I must’ve died from a heart attack or something because I worked too much overtime without realizing it. Or a cerebral hemorrhage? That’s why I’m being judged, right?”
『...』
“I-I really lived a good life! I wasn’t the kindest person in the world, but I donated to UNICEF, listened to my parents, never wasted food, never killed animals, and never fought with anyone.”
『...』
“So please, send me to Heaven? Ah, Paradise! Please send me to Paradise!”
The conductor raised a hand to its shadow-covered face. A small monocle rested in its palm.
『According to the results confirmed through the Simplified Karmic Mirror, you have committed many sins.』
“What!?”
Kang Ju-ye’s heart sank.
『In the autumn when you were twenty-seven, you cut in line while boarding a bus.』
“N-no...”
『In the summer of that same year, you watched pornography online.』
The conductor continued listing her sins.
『In the spring when you were twenty-six, you went a month without contacting your parents, unaware of their concern.』
『In the winter when you were twenty-five, you vented the stress of job hunting by whining to your mother.』
『In the summer when you were twenty-three, you slapped your boyfriend when he said he wanted to break up.』
『In the spring when you were twenty-three, you engaged in lewd acts outdoors with your boyfriend.』
『In the autumn when you were twenty-two, you secretly threw away the blood hangover soup your mother made because you said you couldn’t eat it.』
『In the autumn when you were twenty, you did not give your seat to an elderly person on the subway.』
『In the winter when you were nineteen, you insulted a classmate you disliked behind their back with your friends.』
The conductor did not stop reciting her sins. Kang Ju-ye finally came to her senses and desperately protested.
『In the spring when you were seventeen, you killed a cockroach that appeared in your home.』
“W-wait! Everyone does that!”
『In the summer when you were sixteen, you looked at the nape of a male classmate with lewd eyes and had obscene thoughts.』
“Everyone does that!”
『In the winter when you were fifteen, you wrote a post slandering someone in an online community.』
“Please, please listen to me!”
Ignoring her cries, the conductor continued reciting her sins. Only after a long time did it finally stop.
『In the spring when you were zero, your difficult birth caused your parents great anguish.』
“I-is that all?”
『Yes. A total of one thousand six hundred and twenty-seven sins have been confirmed. This is a summarized result from the Simplified Karmic Mirror, so your actual sins are expected to be more numerous.』
“But everyone does those things! You can’t even call them sins!”
She protested once more.
『No. They are all sins. The laws of Hell must be strict and solemn, so there are no exceptions.』
“Please show mercy... Aah!”
The conductor grabbed her by the hair and forcibly dragged her into the engine room.
“Eek!”
Inside was an enormous furnace. It was so vast that even from a distance, Kang Ju-ye felt the pain of her skin burning from the intense heat.
“S-save me!”
『This is a Temporary Hell, a place where those who arrive in the bodies of the living suffer in those bodies and pay for the sins of the present world. You cannot die here, so your request cannot be granted.』
As the furnace drew closer, she could see what was burning inside.
“Ahhh!”
“Save me!”
“Please! It’s too hot!”
Countless people of every race were being burned in place of firewood. Among them were the Black man she had seen in the first car and the other passengers who had fallen behind along the way.
『There is only one punishment in this Temporary Hell: to be burned alive and fuel this train.』
“Ah, ah...”
『The term of punishment is...』
The conductor threw her into the furnace.
『One Kalpa.』
Her entire body burned.
『Until then, scream and repent for your sins.』
With unbearable itching, her body regenerated.
『That is the solemn punishment bestowed upon sinners.』
Her regenerated body burned once again.
『Now, then...』
The furnace door closed, and an announcement played through the train.
『You have all worked hard today. Please rest until the next sinners arrive.』
The train, with only monsters remaining inside, thundered along the tracks.
『We are Agents, judges who pass judgment in the present world on behalf of busy Hell. The busiest public servants of this age, when sinners fill the world.』
Within the black shadow, the conductor’s eyes gleamed coldly.
『Then, we shall recruit the next sinners.』
＊＊＊
“Ah.”
Late at night, a man appeared at Suwon Station.
“I hope it shows up today.”
The man with a Polaroid camera around his neck headed toward the platform.
“Line 0 Express Train to Hell.”
His steps were lighter than anyone’s.
Footnotes:
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