Second Protagonist [Omniscient Reader]
002 | FIRST MURDER

002 | 𝗣𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗨𝗡𝗨𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗔

𝗣𝗢𝗩 𝗚𝗼 𝗘𝘂𝗻𝘆𝗲𝗼𝗻.

After the horned creature left, the situation on the carriage became chaotic, again.

I try to avoid the noisy crowd, I don't want to get dragged away with this. Why didn't they sit quietly and use their brains instead of looking for a commotion?

I know for a fact that this situation makes people panic, worry, fear, and also doubt the future. I'm no exception either.

Something that appears in a fantasy novel appears in the real world. But hey, if you keep panicking without brains it's not the best situation right now.

Sitting quietly in my seat, I maintained my composure as the wheels in my head began to spin.

What kind of creature is that? Where'd it come from? And this game-like screen is really cool.

{It's called Dokkebi}

I was shocked and reflexively tightened my knife, what was that, auditory hallucination?

Looking at the other people not far away who were still trying to be calmed by a man who claimed to be a soldier, that must be my hallucination.

{This is not a hallucination.}

{Ha? Is he really that guy?}

{Shut up stupid! I'm sure it's him.}

{It wasn't my fault! Her aura was so different, her different style confused me. I'd rather believe we found the wrong person.}

I confusedly heard many voices without knowing where it was coming from, what was it in my head? How could?

{True what Ga#&¥s said he really changed drastically. You guys don't fight anymore, we've managed to infiltrate, lest our plan be destroyed}

The voice that was one becomes more. As if several people were talking simultaneously in my head, this made me dizzy.

I don't understand what they're saying, their language isn't Korean, I think it's kind of similar to the language the white guy was using.

From the looks of it they didn't mean to hurt me either, mugkin. But I can't guess carelessly, what if my guess is wrong?

The enemy is invisible, what to do?

They must be strong–at least much stronger than any creature I have seen in my entire life I have spent–I can hear their voice but others cannot.

Forget about those voices, seeing people pull out their phones, I also opened them up to see the fidio live footage from the prime minister.

—To all my citizens, *******not familiar are currently in action in a number of areas, including Seoul.

The speech is simple. The current government will deploy all means and methods to combat the *****, and there will never be any negotiations. As such, everyone should be confident to move on with their lives.

*******? This sounds more comfortable to hear. But really? That strange creature has appeared, is it possible that this is a leaked government biological weapon? Like in the movies?

No. gabe. The creature has done something like out of logic, can float from the gravitational pull of the earth, he also has no wings, this is strange.

And his intelligence doesn't seem to be low as it can be human language, there's also the fact of the blue panel in front of me. Since when have humans been able to create this technology? And it was on the ordinary people in the subway.

No matter how I think about it, this is not true. So there's only one conclusion I can draw right now.

The people in the carriage started to fuss with, "Where's the president?" Or "Why the prime minister turned up."

“President is dead.”

“What? Really?!”

“I'm not sure. Someone commented like that on Naver―”

“Sial, then it's fake news!”

If the prime minister is not the president, then the fate of the president has been determined. Looking at the people around, I realized that it seemed like social values were going to collapse in the near future.

Touching my own face, I felt a strange feeling start to appear, my heart pounding strangely, I covered my lips with my hands so that no one would see me smile.

God, why am I so excited? The world will turn into something I don't know, why am I happy?

{That's him! That smile! Not wrong again.}

{A long time ago we did not see him smile like that, when was the last time?.}

{If not wrong should be in the second world?}

Ignoring the rant in my head, I looked closely as people without warning dropped their phones.

“Uwaaaack! What?”

Fear filled the carriages, the sound of gunfire and blood filled the entire mobile phone screen, only this sound filled the entire carriage. I feel like I saw a thriller but a realistic version.

The prime minister is dead, and it's live. The next thing that appeared was that kind of strange creature again.

[Everything, didn't I say. This is not a game like terrorism.]

People are at a loss for words, their mouths are gaping like stupid goldfish, it's funny. I laughed, but it would look strange if I did.

[Do you guys still not understand too? It's not something like that. Do you still think all this is just a joke?]

[Hahaha, according to the data I have, people in this country are very good at playing games. So, how about I increase the difficulty?]

With beeps. Hints of great time appeared in the air. Then the time indicated starts to decrease rapidly.

[The remaining time has been reduced by ten minutes.]

[It remains ten minutes before the scenario ends.]

[If the first murder doesn't happen in the next five minutes, all the lives in this carriage will be wiped out.]

The next event you can imagine, the people became chaotic even the army man was overwhelmed.

“A-There's a murder back there!” Someone exclaims.

The scene that occurred in Gerbong 3907 could be seen through the hallway window. There's a killer in the next car.

“We must drive them away! Don't let anyone in!”

People tried to hold the iron door tightly so as not to open.

{What are they trying to do?}

{They did something stupid.}

{Forget about that, do you have any feeling of forgetting something?}

[All types of access to the train will be restricted until the scenario is completed.]

Along with the appearance of this message, people were thrown back from the iron door as a transparent barrier appeared.

“A-What is this?”

Once again, an annoying voice sounded, [Haha, there are some places that are quite pleasant, while other places have not started it yet. Okay, this is a special service. I will show you what will happen if there is no murder in the next five minutes.]

A large floating screen immediately appeared and displayed a certain school classroom, there were girls on the screen in dark blue school uniforms, the look on their faces was clearly frightened.

{Ha? Is there anything you can forget about your genius brain?}

With continuous beeps sounding for a while. The girls in High School started screaming.

[The time given has expired.]

[Payment settlement will begin.]

As soon as the announcement ended, the heads of the high school girls sitting in the front row exploded in the next second.

One by one, again and again. More and more heads exploded. High School girls scream and run towards the door or window of the classroom. But no matter how hard they try, it won't work, the barrier shuts them down.

In the end the remaining one girl strangling her own friend appeared on the screen. The last thing on display was that the student looked around him.

[Channel #Bay23515. Princess Daepong High School, the second-grader who survived: Lee Jihye.]

The girl on the screen disappeared. Then the strange creature said, [How? Interesting right?]

He spoke with a smile, but people no longer looked at the screen. I noticed that the people who made eye contact, were gradually moving away from each other.

Inter-human trust is running low.

{You think I'm god or what!? Even though my brain is smarter than your stupid one, I can also forget.}

{Job. I'm not stupid.}

The thing that immediately attracted me was the man in office clothes who focused on his phone screen. That's not unusual.

I wonder, what did he see until the man was so focused?

The man's behavior is very different when compared to other people in the train car.

Well, it's none of my business either.

Curiosity came and went quickly, I immediately turned my attention to the young man who was crouching in front of the old woman.

{Enough! Why do you fight all the time!?}

{Stop your rant and think.}

The young man said, “Sial, I'm in a bad mood and this old woman keeps complaining and complaining! Can't you shut up?”

The young man was a male student, his body was thin and his hair was dyed white. His name was written on the badge attached to his uniform.

Kim Namwoon's.

Looking at his reaction, he seemed to adapt quickly. He doesn't look like a good person either, it's going to be a little troublesome, I guess.

I have been studying martial arts for a while, can I defeat him? It was possible, but the last time I studied martial arts was during high school graduation. I'm a little unsure of the victory.

It's best not to provoke him just in case, noting that mentally, I observed Kim Namwoon.

{Ga#&¥s first.}

{Kok me!?}

An agitated Kim Namwoon grabbed the grandmother's collar and lifted her up. Grandma's helpless legs staggered. Kim Namwoon's palm swung in the air.

The slap! The slap!

Under normal circumstances, someone would run to stop him. But now no one moves to do so. It didn't take long before the slap turned into a blow.

“T-Please! Please save me!”

Some of the men around Kim Namwoon seemed hesitant to stop him, but in the end none of them made a move. Until the rich guy I remember having a lot of money tried to stop him.

“Young man, why are you treating old man like that?!”

Kim Namwoon pointed to the ceiling of the subway car with his finger.

{Fucking fat bases. Pastas alone before he did not want to carry you, you are very fat like a pig.}

“Did you see it?”

On the ceiling, a semi-blue holographic screen rotated the scene.

[L-Let go of me!]

[Byhack!]

[Dead! It's dead!]

Not just train cars, holographic screens display live broadcasts of dying people in various places. Kim Namwoon continued to speak.

“You still don't understand? The army and the police will not come to save us. And the obvious fact, someone must die.”

“A-What do you mean..?”

“We have to choose someone to die.”

{Do you want to die, Ga#&¥s? It will be fast and painless.}

The rich man could not answer. I was sure to see the hair on her open wrist standing up.

“Of course, I know what you're thinking. Killing your fellow countrymen to survive is something only bastards would do. But you know, this is a situation beyond our control. We'll die if we don't kill. So, who's gonna blame us? Are you ultimately going to choose to die just like that just for maintaining your morality?”

“I-Itu—”

“Think carefully. The world you've known all along, just ended.”

Both are better than one.

{Say enough! Can you guys just shut up for a second!?.}

After Kim Namwoon finished his sentence, a crack had been involved in the eyes of the people in the carriage. It was a scene where their vague morality began to collapse.

{{Sorry..}}

For all I know, the world has changed. If these people don't adapt immediately and stick to moral and social norms, it can backfire on themselves.

And Kim Namwoon stated. “New world needs new law.”

True, a new law had begun to take shape at this moment. You're gonna be a hunter or a hunted one?

The law of survival of the fittest.

Kim Namwoon turned around and continued punching the grandmother. This time, no one stopped him. Not even the army men stopped him.

The soldier's hands clenched firmly, he stared into the air with a heavy expression. Perhaps he had also made the difficult decision to remain silent like that.

{M%nd, didn't you miss something in your bag?}

“Hah, it turned out to be hard to kill. Hey, are you guys just gonna shut up and watch? Do you want to be left behind?“

People were trembling at Kim Namwoon's words. Their expressions are easy to read. The eyes of the people immediately began to change.

Their eyes were now filled with the most primitive emotions that all living things had.

“Yes, this brat is right. If we don't do this, everyone will die.”

The first man rushed towards Kim Namwoon. He followed the white-haired young man kicking the old woman lying curled up.

{In the meantime, the coin is there, the map is there, the food is also there, the key remains the same, everything is fine, what is less?}

“Have you forgotten? Someone has to die so we can live!”

“Ah, fuck. I don't care anymore.”

“I'm still living.”

The second and third man moved. The people who stood far away from the grandmother—the surviving cowardly men, the university students who recorded this incident with a cell phone, the mother of a child, the, and the rich man before—they all moved closer to the grandmother and started beating and kicking her. They carried the same desire: to hasten the death of the grandmother.

“Dead! Die fast!”

Goddamn bum. Deja vu's taste is unpleasant, damn it.

This scene....

Why so similar? So familiar that it made my blood boil, my hands involuntarily clenched.

{You can't possibly forget that important thing right!?}

Before I knew it, I had already stood up from my seat in the corner and arrived in front of the group, with my fist, I hit one of the men who punched the old woman. Hit him right in the stomach.

Brakkkk!

{Ups?}

{{....}}

After I hit the man, the sound of a loud enough explosion from the man that was thrown and hit the transparent barrier, the sound of bone friction was not fake. It was certain that there was a fracture, even his mouth spurting blood.

[You've achieved ‘First Killings’!]

[100 coins have been received as additional compensation.]

Seriously!?

What have I done? Since when have I been this strong? Is it possible that the world is changing and the whole world is changing too? Why do I not feel anything? The young man and the people who beat up grandma also did not look any different, otherwise, the grandmother was already dead by now.

{I really inggin kill you now.}

{The barrier seal bit by bit will be lifted, how can we tell the purpose of all of us to this world if there is a language barrier?}

I felt like a superhuman for a moment, this power is cool.

Kim Namwoon and the others were shocked, they could not believe their eyes that the man was no longer breathing just because of one blow.

POV Author

Not far from the scene, Kim Dokja saw this familiar scene in shock. Her memory is spinning, she is still up when Yoo Jonghyuk begins his regression back in the nth.

「As before, only Kim Namwoon and Lee Hyunsung survived. Nothing has changed.」

「Should...」.

「The young man turned his head towards her, still with a mocking smile on his lips, he fled with his pet white cat in his arms as he let his guard down, but because of the hoodie he had torn off, he did, he can now see exposed whites and his blue hair blowing in the wind.」

「From Kim Namwoon, he knew that the young man was strong, he killed a man with just one punch.」

A man who died from just one hit in the beginning of the first scenario, was the only one who did so throughout Yoo Jonghyuk's regression.

Staring at the black-robed young man with the little white cat above his head, was unmistakable.

But how did he come to appear here? It's too early.

—Go Eunyeon didn't mean to kill him, really. He only did so reflexively as memory and reality overlapped with each other in his view. Although unintentional, Go Eunyeon also has no guilt of killing him.

“You–” Kim Namwoon has not finished his sentence as the train shook, a loud noise filled the ears. People shouted as smoke rose from the front right corner of this carriage.

Go Eunyeon soon catches her white cat that is about to fall due to a sudden shock, hugging her tiny body and using her own body strength to maintain balance.

{What should we do now? Should we go back?}

{We have painstakingly infiltrated and there is no way we leave one of us here, it will only cause our strength to weaken if separated.}

At this moment, it was as if waiting for this moment. The person dressed in office (Kim Dokja) who attracted Go Eunyeon's brief interest before reacted.

Throwing a question mark in his heart behind his head, Kim Dokja ran towards the grandmother past the people who were screaming and falling over.

“What? Eeeok!”

He collided with Kim Namwoon which caused the young man to fall to the floor with a shout.

'Is he trying to save Grandma?'

Looking at Kim Dokja who quickly looked around. Go Eunyeon changed her amsusi.

'He aims another'

{Then how now?}

{.... We have to go back, and quickly come here, that's the only option, although the chances of us returning here will be thinner.}

{{....}}

Justright. Kim Dokja's attention immediately went to the little boy who fell towards the grandmother due to the explosion.

He was a child crying in the middle of this hell, a child holding a net of insect collectors.

'A moment, insect collecting net? Could it...'

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Kim Dokja took the net from the boy. And put his hand into the net, took a grasshopper and put it in the boy's grasp. Then he turned towards the people.

“Everything, please stop. You all won't be able to survive if you kill that granny.”

His voice sounded very clear due to the temporary silence surrounding the carriage after the explosion. People, one by one began to stare at him, including Go Eunyeon's eyes that had been fixed on him ever since he made his move.

“For example, you managed to kill that grandmother. What's next?”

{Only this is our choice, now or not at all.}

Go Eunyeon had guessed what would happen next now, hugging her white cat, she muttered lowly in order not to sound anyone, but enough to be heard by her target. Kim Dokja who attracts all the attention is also a bonus value.

“That grandmother's death will be recognized for what dokkaebi called the ‘first murder’, and it can buy time there. Then how next?”

'The creature was named dokkaebi teryata. I thought it was some kind of alien.'

“Ah..”

“If what dokkaebi said is true, each of you should kill one at least. So, who are you going to kill after that granny? Are you going to kill the person next to you?”

{You how else, let's do.}

People, who were thinking the same thing, started to stay away from each other. Horror filled their eyes. In fact, everyone knows, the death of the grandmother was just the beginning.

{As a cause of trouble, I will be at the forefront.}

{You can always count on in critical situations M%nd, though often sloppy.}

Go Eunyeon noticed that people were trying as far away from her as possible.

That's natural.

The strength he displayed was too beyond their comprehension, they might consider him

monster man or something.

{Do we have to say goodbye to him first?}

{No need, he doesn't understand our language, it's free, we are chased for time. Come fast.}

On the other hand, Kim Namwoon noticed the wavering atmosphere.

“Haha, what are you all worried about? Who should be killed next? Cowardly. Don't worry about your turn coming because everything has an equal chance of being killed!”

Kim Dokja knew Kim Namwoon would say something like that. With a slight wave of his hand, he cut off his words.

“No need to bet like that. There are other ways for you to survive, even you don't need to be a killer for that.”

“A-What is it?”

People are getting very nervous. Kim Namwoon's expression began to change.

“Have you forgotten? To solve this scenario, we don't have to kill humans.”

'They're starting to realize it'

Go Eunyeon watched the confused people, but there were some who realized something.

[Kill one or more living things.]

Is correct. Since the beginning, the word ‘mania’ was never specified in the contents of the scenario.

Kill one or more living creatures. In other words, any life can be used to solve a scenario. A shrewd person shouted pointing at the net in the hands of the office man that Go Eunyeon did not know his name.

“Insect! Insect!”

“That's right, insect.”

Put his hand into the net and took out a grasshopper. The grasshopper was the fattest grasshopper he had ever seen.

“B-Give me that! Fast!”

“Only one! I only need one!”

Step back slowly when you see people start to move. Today, despite facing a group of people who burst into madness, who previously tried to kill the grandmother. Even so, there was slowly a smile on the man's face.

'He seems to enjoy this. An interesting person.'

“Do you guys want it so much?”

Waving the net was like a trainer provoking an animal. Some impatient people jumped at him.

“Then catch it!”

Kim Dokja crushes the grasshopper inside her hand, which she had taken before. At the same time, threw the net he had in his hand as tightly as possible to the opposite side of where the grandmother and the crowd were.

“This is crazy!”

The grasshoppers immediately escaped from within the thrown net and jumped with all their might to fly in search of their freedom.

__________

𝗩𝗢𝗧𝗘 | 𝗞𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡 | 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪