𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕊𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕔𝕜 ₒᵣᵥ (Hiatus)

Chapter 2: The Killing Games Begins

I remained confused. Planetary system 8612? Terminated? Main scenario? Was this a prank? I looked to my side to survey the condition of the people I had just talked to.

The man looked like he was in a trance as he stared blankly into nothingness. I could almost see the stream of thoughts flowing through his mind at that moment. The woman, still visibly shaking, swallowed nervously.

At this moment, the door of the subway car opened wide, and the electricity returned. The woman muttered, confused. "...Dokkaebi?"

A small... creature with two small horns and wearing a small straw mat, the fluffy, cotton candy thing was floating in the air. It was too strange to call it a fairy, too evil to call it an angel, and too tranquil to call it a demon.

So, it was dubbed a dokkkaebi by most of the people within the train cart.

"Dokkaebi are legendary creatures from Korean mythology and folklore. Dokkaebi, also known as "Korean goblins", are nature deities or spirits possessing extraordinary powers and abilities that are used to interact with humans, at times playing tricks on them and at times helping them." - So reads an extract from Wikipedia.

Dokkkaebi... huh. It looks so cute... can I eat it? I shook my head vigorously. A gut feeling told me this dokkkaebi wasn't here to play around. I raised my guard, pulling my backpack closer to my body.

The dokkaebi opened its mouth, and I tensed up, preparing to hear its speech.

[&아#@!&아#@! ...]

[&아#@#%&!&아#@!....]

...Eh? What language was this? Some kind of ancient, magical language?

"What is this?"

"Augmented reality?"

I was as confused as the chattering people, while the man next to me looked like he was having some kind of existential crisis. His eyes looked like he was staring at the space itself, void of emotion.

I gently poked the man's arm. "Excuse me, sir... are you okay?"

The man snapped back into reality. "Ah, right. Sorry about that. My name is Kim Dokja, and this here," he said as he gestured to the woman beside him, "...is Yoo Sangah."

I smiled respectfully as I introduced myself. "Nice to meet you, Dokja-ssi and Sangah-ssi. I'm Lee Byeol, but please just call me Byeol."

Sangah-ssi nodded as she looked at me. "Nice to meet you too, Byeol-hubae-nim."

"A-ah, please drop the honorifics. You two are both older than me, so just Byeol is fine." I gave them both a smile. Before any of them could reply, however, the dokkaebi spoke up again, this time in Korean.

[Ah. Ah. Does this sound good? Ah, I had a hard time because the Korean patch didn't work. Everyone, can you hear my words?]

As a familiar language was being spoken, most people's expressions began to relax. The first one to step up was a man with a fairly large build in a suit. I swallowed nervously. My gut feeling was shouting at me again, warning sirens blaring inside my head.

"Hey, what are you doing right now?" The unknown man strutted over to the floating creature.

[...Huh?] The dokkaebi looked a little confused at the sudden question.

"Are you filming? I have to go because I have to quickly get to an audition." He... seemed to be an unknown actor since his face was unfamiliar. I slowly inched my way away and hid behind Dokja-ssi's figure, to which the older man looked confused for a moment, but shrugged it off and focused his attention on the dokkaebi and the actor.