[Hidden Scenario: The Lost Chapter — Activated]
[Main Objective: Survive Until the Story Ends.]
[Optional Objective: Discover the Original Author's Intention.]
[Time Limit: Undefined]
[Reward: Undefined]
[Penalty for Failure: Narrative Severance]
Narrative Severance.
Even just reading it made Kim Dokja feel like his name had been shaved off the timeline.
"What kind of scenario doesn't even say what the rewards are?" Han Sooyoung muttered, squinting at the message. "It's like being shoved into someone else's dream with no pants and no script."
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't say anything — which meant he was paying very close attention.
Kim Dokja stared down the tunnel where the remnant girl had disappeared into the dark. No map. No explanation. Just the suggestion that someone else's story was now bleeding into theirs.
"Dokja-ssi," Lee Hyunsung said hesitantly. "I think… the subway changed."
Kim Dokja turned.
And his stomach dropped.
Where there had once been familiar tile and fluorescent lights, there was now old, iron-braced wood. Lanterns swung from invisible wind. A warped station sign above them read:
Line 0 — Terminal of Unfinished Fates
A chill settled into his chest.
Han Sooyoung sucked in a breath. "This is from her version of the regression. A loop we never saw."
Yoo Joonghyuk's jaw tensed.
"You remember this?" Kim Dokja asked him.
Joonghyuk shook his head. "No. But something in me hates it."
Then the train arrived.
Except it wasn't a subway train. It was a steam-powered monstrosity, black metal covered in chains and melted ink. There were no conductors. Just a single, flickering sign above the door:
Passengers: All Characters Without Resolution
Shin Yoosung edged closer to Dokja. "Is this safe?"
"No," he said, stepping forward. "But we don't have a choice."
They entered.
The doors slammed shut.
The interior was endless. Literally. Rows upon rows of empty seats stretched into the horizon, like they were sitting in the story's memory of a train rather than a real one.
Then—
"Hello again," said the voice.
The girl sat several rows ahead, but this time, she wasn't the remnant.
She wasn't even human.
She shimmered — threads of golden ink and burning syntax making up her form. A being built from prose.
"What are you?" Kim Dokja asked.
She smiled, tired and knowing. "A rejected draft. An orphaned arc. A version of the truth that didn't test well with the audience."
Han Sooyoung's expression darkened. "You're not just a person. You're a narrative weapon."
"I'm a possibility," the girl said softly. "And you let me back in."
The train lurched.
[Lost Chapter Progress: 3%]
A new message appeared in the air.
[Begin First Trial: Confront the Characters You Left Behind.]
Before Kim Dokja could question it, the train cabin flickered — and suddenly, the seats weren't empty.
They were filled.
Dozens of characters now surrounded them, some familiar, some not. Versions of people they had known, half-recognized from unfinished loops and alternate ends.
And one of them stood up.
Yoo Sangah.
But not his Yoo Sangah.
This one's eyes glowed with the light of a world he had never lived in.
"You promised," she said, stepping down the aisle. "You said we'd all make it."
Kim Dokja flinched.
Another stood — Joonghyuk. But this one was twisted. Wounded in a way only a thousand failures could leave behind.
"Why did you erase our version?" he growled.
The ghost-versions advanced, filled with bitter memory and unresolved threads.
The air thickened.
Han Sooyoung grabbed Dokja's sleeve. "They're weaponized regrets."
Yoo Joonghyuk pushed past them and drew his sword — but the blade passed right through the false Joonghyuk's chest.
"They're not real," he muttered.
"But they are," the girl said from the front of the train. "They're real enough to hurt your mind."
One of the Yoo Sangahs lunged.
Kim Dokja didn't block.
He remembered.
He remembered his Yoo Sangah — the real one — and the way she had stood by him. The way she had faced death with a smile.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save your version," he whispered. "But you were never mine."
The false Yoo Sangah paused.
And shattered into letters.
One by one, the apparitions faded — not by being fought, but by being faced.
[Trial Complete: You Have Resisted the First Wave of Narrative Contamination.]
[Progress: 11%]
The train continued.
No one spoke for a long time.
Finally, Han Sooyoung said, "So… we're on a ghost train through the graveyard of fan edits and abandoned arcs?"
Kim Dokja exhaled slowly. "Pretty much."
Joonghyuk muttered, "This is why I don't read."
But Kim Dokja's mind was elsewhere.
Because this scenario wasn't just a trial.
It was a question.
Could their version of the story survive what was never meant to be told?
End of Chapter 21