"Oppa! Oppa! Listen to this!"
"Hm? What were you going to tell me?"
This was the opening of [Ways of Survival] that Dokja told me a long time ago.
"It had two little horns. It was wearing a tiny straw mat, and this bizarre creature with soft fluff all over it...!"
"So? What was that thing called?"
"So that thing was called a 'Dokkaebi'!!"
It probably wasn't a coincidence that this memory came back to me now.
And there was only one reason I remembered something so trivial.
Usually, Dokja answered everything with dull, lifeless eyes and a flat voice, but that time, her eyes had been bright with life as she happily told me about the novel.
Dokja, seriously thinking about how to make a pointless little story sound more fun while telling it to me, had been unbearably cute.
I was the only one who listened to that story properly all the way through.
At that moment, one reader had become a storyteller, and I had become the listener for that storyteller.
Yeah. I think it started back then.
That was when I began to hate [Ways of Survival].
[—]
[——&A#@!Ah#!…]
From the red sparks that burst out in the aisle, a bizarre lifeform appeared with the exact same appearance Dokja had described long ago.
It was, in every sense, the Dokkaebi from [Ways of Survival] itself.
"What is that thing even saying?"
"Augmented reality? Is it something like that?"
"It's ugly."
Unable to grasp the situation, people just murmured among themselves as if this were all merely fascinating.
At this moment, there were only two people who could understand what this meant.
Those two were, naturally, me and Dokja. Still, the one who knew this situation best wasn't me, but Dokja standing beside me.
There was bound to be a huge gap between me, who had only heard bits and pieces of the story, and Dokja, who had actually read it and loved it.
"Dokja...?"
"..."
"Dokja...?"
Dokja couldn't even close her mouth, apparently too shaken by the reality in front of her.
"Kim Dokja!"
"Huh? Why?"
"If the reader, of all people, is going to freeze up like that in a moment like this, what are we supposed to do?"
"Haha... right. You're right, Oppa. I've got myself together now."
"What would my Dokja even do without this big brother?"
My flippant tone left her dumbfounded, but maybe seeing me fuss over her like always helped settle her down. Her expression loosened, and she started assessing the situation.
"First of all, this definitely isn't a dream. Right?"
"I wish it were a dream too."
"Um, what exactly are you two talking about?"
Ms. Sangah, who had been quietly listening, finally voiced her confusion.
Well, from the perspective of someone who didn't know [Ways of Survival], the situation itself had to be bewildering. Hearing us talk like this, it probably sounded like we knew exactly what was going on, so of course she'd be suspicious.
Or maybe it wasn't suspicion. Maybe she was simply curious about what the two of us were talking about when it was clearly something she didn't know.
"We were just thinking about how to get through this. If it's really just virtual reality like people around us are saying, then there'd be no reason for the train to slam to a stop."
"Then... it sounded kind of like Spanish. Should I try talking to it?"
At that moment, I had only one thought.
'Is she serious?'
What was she planning to do by talking to an unidentified lifeform?
When you have no idea what's going on, it's better to stay still, watch how everyone else reacts, and figure out the situation first.
Especially when the thing in question had suddenly emergency-stopped the train and appeared out of empty air. It didn't look like the sort of thing that would listen to us anyway.
"...Do you even know what that thing is? What, are you going to ask it for a loan?"
"Like Dokja said, we don't even know what it is, so let's just stay still."
"Ah, okay..."
After a short while, the Dokkaebi stopped speaking in that incomprehensible language and began speaking Korean instead.
"Hey, what exactly do you think you're doing right now?"
"Is this some kind of movie shoot? I have an audition, so I need to get going."
'That idiot...!'
How could that moron seriously think this was a movie shoot?
What kind of brain did you need to look at this situation and reduce it to some film set?
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
The Dokkaebi's expression openly twisted with irritation.
Well, from the Dokkaebis' point of view, humans were nothing more than bugs crawling all over Earth.
And now one of those bugs was interrupting it and getting angry at it.
To put it simply... the situation was getting worse.
"What is this?! Start the train already!"
"What do you think you're doing without even getting the citizens' cooperation?!"
"How are you going to compensate us for this?"
This was the problem with the human species.
They adapted to situations absurdly well, but that also meant they were absurdly easy to get swept up by them.
Wasn't the current situation proving exactly that?
One reckless fool had spread through the entire train car like a contagion.
"Ms. Sangah, don't move."
"Pardon?"
"Oppa, you too. Don't move."
"Right."
In a ruined world—or rather, a world that was about to be ruined—there were basically three ways to survive.
First, become overwhelmingly stronger than everyone else.
It didn't matter whether that meant physical ability or some special power.
You just had to be able to smash through schemes and traps with sheer force.
Second, become smarter than everyone else.
Put nicely, that meant meticulous planning. Put less nicely, it meant playing the game like a complete bastard.
And third, there was simply knowing how to carry yourself.
In a world rushing toward ruin, if you attached yourself to a strong group, or a strong individual, or if not that, manipulated people until they trusted only you, then just handling yourself well would get you halfway there.
The people in front of me had no strength, no brains, and no sense for survival.
In other words, they were idiots who didn't understand even one of the conditions needed to live in a world like this.
And in a ruined world, the price was always brutal.
Puh-beok!
The first citizen who had mouthed off to the Dokkaebi had her head burst apart.
People couldn't even scream. They could only stare as the headless bodies collapsed, terror carved into their faces.
Even though Dokja must have expected all of this, she was frozen in fear, unable to do anything.
It couldn't be helped. Something seen and felt right in front of you was different from a picture, a comic, or words on a page.
While the Dokkaebi spoke, no one could take their eyes off it.
To anyone watching, it looked like the obvious source of everything happening here.
Did they realize there were countless beings far beyond the Dokkaebi in front of them?
"Do you want money, by any chance?"
A middle-aged man asked the Dokkaebi.
"Ms. Sangah. Isn't that Manager Han from the finance team? The parachute hire from the glass company CEO?"
"...That's right."
"A manager from your company? Is he a decent guy?"
He was fawning over the Dokkaebi, offering it money, his whole body radiating confidence and the thought, 'I'll be fine.'
'A parachute hire, huh? There really is no bigger dumbass than that bastard.'
"...No, not at all."
"Then leave him be. Dollars, won, whatever—those are things humans agreed on and only humans use. There's no way that would work on a Dokkaebi."
Snap
When the Dokkaebi snapped its fingers, the checks the manager had been waving around burned up in an instant.
Of course, it didn't forget a simple warning either.
Snap
When the Dokkaebi snapped its fingers again, the voice we'd heard earlier rang out once more.