Surviving Among the Entities

『Dialogue, you wish to have a dialogue when death is upon you?』
“I thought you would oblige.”
『Why would you think that?』

I answered the conductor’s question.

“Were you not the one who decapitated the judge in Car No. 2?”
『That is correct. For a judge to mention the rules to a sinner is a grave sin, so I beheaded him.』
“You possessed the extraordinary ability to behead and kill the entity from another car, yet you did not kill me.”
『……』
“You intend to judge me. Or as you said earlier, you wish to make me know my place. Then what better means is there than dialogue? Could you not judge me or make me know my place through dialogue?”
『The insect speaks too much.』

Something unseen pressed down on my left leg, though thankfully not breaking it – the intent seemed to inflict intense pain.

『I see what you’re relying on, insect.』
“What do you mean?”
『You are an insect pretending to be a tiger.』

He pointed at my eye.

『That right eye of yours, was it granted by the blue moon specter? Did you have a friendship with that thing? Is that what emboldens you to request an equal dialogue with me?』

It seems he was referring to the Blue Moon.

『And that gaze watching over you belongs to the Unique Existence, the one and only. You intend to survive by relying on their protection while mentioning that fact in conversation with me. I can discern it all without experiencing it directly.』

The Unique Existence must be the blindfolded girl.

“How unfortunate. I had no such intentions at all.”

Socrates said to know that you know nothing. If there were an opposite, it would be this conductor.

『No such intentions? Yet you dare run rampant here? You must have believed in those two. Believed that as long as they existed, you could survive no matter what. An insect could only brazenly act out with such a background.』

One who knows nothing will never admit to not knowing.
This is a blind conviction in one’s own opinion, a stubbornness that refuses new perspectives – no matter what dialogue we have, the conductor’s views will not change.

『Even if they exist, I have no intention of letting you leave this place. Here, I am the heavens. Your petty tricks have already been laid bare to all the worlds.』
“Hmm.”

Therefore, dialogue is pointless. Rather, by first mentioning dialogue it seems I wounded his pride, completely closing off that avenue.

“This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I truly had no intentions of pretending to be a tiger.”

I entered a number into the smartphone I had retrieved along with the cigarettes.

[666-666-666-666-666-666]

“If I may make one final defense, I really had no intentions of acting out. As you know, humans die easily while you are akin to natural disasters. I merely wished for dialogue, and only rendered the judges into a state amenable for conversation due to their violence.”
『A pitiful excuse.』
“Just because I became somewhat stronger, I never thought I could physically defeat existences like you.”

I pressed the call button.

“Of course, I may be able to handle weaker beings. But against true existences like yourself, I am no more than a firefly before the sun – how could I possibly entertain such thoughts?”

An extremely slow dial tone played, but the conductor watching this scene did not seem to care, likely thinking it was just an insect’s antics.

“You are natural disasters. Natural disasters that cannot be directly confronted by human power. However, there are three ways humans can face natural disasters. One is to flee from them, another is to worship them, and the third is……”

The dial tone disappeared.

“To use technology or any means available to protect oneself from natural disasters.”
“Oh, Seung-hoon, you finally called.”
“That is how humans live. In this case, you would be the same kind of natural disaster.”

Baal was suddenly standing beside me.

“My, you’re in quite a state.”
“Circumstances led to this.”
“But……”

Baal gave an awkward smile.

“You really called me to a difficult place.”
“Difficult?”
“Yes, difficult. I’ve encountered someone working in the same field. You could call us rivals of sorts? We don’t have the best relationship.”
『……Why are you here, insect?』
“Long time no see, denizen of the Realm of Desire.”

Baal mentioned the conductor’s affiliation.

“So, why did you call me here, Seung-hoon? It doesn’t seem like you want to join our company.”
“I was hoping you two could converse. And while you’re at it, I was expecting you could also release the passengers trapped here through dialogue.”
“Indeed.”

Baal smiled as he looked at the door leading behind the conductor.

“There really are quite a lot. It’s rather interesting seeing them all suffer.”
『You delight in human suffering? As expected of depraved beings, even your hobbies are vulgar.』
“To inflict suffering without meaning, how truly wicked. What meaning is there in purposeless suffering?”
『Suffering is punishment. A truth of this world accepted by all three realms of existence, only denied by beings like you.』
“Excuse me? What nonsense is this? As far as I know, your side has recently changed its policies too, have you not?”
『I have nothing to say to a vulgar being. Now begone.』
“I cannot do that. Our promising employee desires it.”

Baal stepped forward, his back appearing broad.

“Seung-hoon, do as you wish, I will handle this fellow.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh dear, you’re heading that way?”

Ignoring the pain in my leg, I dashed toward what seemed to be the engine room behind the conductor.

“This really is quite troublesome. Attempting an escape on top of everything else……”
『Insect! You dare try to enter this solemn space!』
“My apologies, but please spend some time with me.”

I’m not sure how, but I managed to push past the conductor.

“20 minutes. Perhaps even less than that.”

The sound of buzzing flies in my ear.

“Now I owe you one favor.”

To be indebted to a demon, it’s both frightening and fascinating.

『……』

Seung-hoon entered the engine room. Baal, having narrowly let him slip by and unable to give chase, was smiling – but not really smiling.

‘You seem quite angry.’

His opponent was a denizen of the Realm of Desire. Of course, not the ruler of that realm but an existence occupying a throne below it – clearly a superior being nonetheless.

‘Well, Seung-hoon will probably just flee. I boldly stepped forward expecting that.’

If he fled, Baal could also flee. That much was certainly possible, but directly confronting the other was another matter entirely.

“But I really am curious. As far as I know, not just the Realm of Desire but all your affiliated realms have changed policies, have they not? From a hardline punitive approach to a conciliatory and reformative one?”
『You dare.』

The conductor’s black silhouette gradually devoured the surrounding space.

『You dare bring an insect into the engine room before me, the master of this abbreviated hell directly appointed by the Transformation Lord, not only defying my will but daring to insult the entire Realm of Desire with your remarks!』

The world was swallowed by darkness. Within it, even Baal was but a tiny fly.

『You dare stand before me, one of the Three Poisons!』
『You dare stand before me, the master of the Three Poisons!』
『You dare stand before me, the embodiment of the Three Sufferings!』

Stars flickered in the darkness. Each star was the pinnacle of anguish, the confession of all emotions, the afflictions of the entire world.

『You dare encroach upon my realm before me!!!』

Baal broke out in a cold sweat.

‘It seems this requires the president’s intervention……’

His wry smile was a bonus.

‘Not 20 minutes, even 10 minutes will be cutting it close?’

‘So this is the engine room.’

This was my first time entering the engine room. While its existence was known from the game, the specifics of what was inside or what occurred here were never mentioned.

‘There were only speculations that some mechanism related to using passengers as fuel would be present.’

And occasionally the teaser that countless screams could be heard from the door leading to the engine room – in typical creepypasta fashion, no details were disclosed.

“So this is the kind of space it is.”

The engine room I entered contained an enormous furnace befitting a massive factory.

‘An endless space with no visible walls.’

Before entering, I had formulated a few plans. One was to take control of the train to return to the present world while simultaneously freeing all the passengers.

‘If that’s not possible, then I’ll cut off the fuel supply.’

Since I assumed the furnace supplied fuel to the train, I approached it – only to be met with countless screams.

“Save me!”
“Aaaaaahk!”
“Just kill me instead!”

Even with my enhanced senses from 「Friendship」, I could not hear them from afar as the furnace’s intense flames devoured all their screams.

‘I can’t tell if they’re alive or dead.’

Judging by their regenerating bodies, it seems they are alive and suffering eternally.
Or perhaps they are already dead souls, continuously regenerating.

‘Whichever it is, I must free them.’

If they are living people, it is only right to save them. And even if they are dead, it is still right to liberate them from eternal torment.

“How do I stop it?”

I carefully examined the area around the massive furnace, but could not discern anything notable.

“?”

Then, on the back of the furnace I discovered an inscription as enormous as the furnace itself.

[WK Custom Perpetual Power Device – Avici]

“WK……”

The logo of the interdimensional mega-conglomerate was engraved on it.

“Truly impressive marketing.”

Suddenly, a good idea occurred to me.

“Could this also be possible?”

I took out my smartphone and held down the power button. After 5 seconds, Sarang finally awoke.

『You called, Seung-hoon?』
“Sarang, would hacking this be possible too?”

The furnace was not digital, but an analog, simple tool.
The size was park-level, but still just a massive furnace.

‘But if it’s not an ordinary furnace, but one specially manufactured?’

Besides supplying fuel to the train, the furnace itself could potentially be a kind of computer controlling the train’s operations.

‘Like how Sephiroth took the form of a tree yet was a multidimensional computer.’

For entities, we must infer beyond what is visible through the information provided.

『Based on analysis, this product appears to be a WK Company hyperdimensional AI-circuit-based automatic fuel generation and propulsion device.』
“As expected.”
『Additionally, it seems security was not a consideration as the system is extremely vulnerable, so hacking should be easily possible.』

I asked Sarang:

“Please do it. Stop the fuel supply, halt the train’s operation, and obtain information about this product.”

Sarang’s lively voice emanated from the smartphone.

『I will begin immediately.』