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It was like a chaotic chess match on the board.

Black was the anomaly. White was humanity.

But unlike a typical game where the number of chess pieces is fixed, Inunaki Tunnel had an innumerable amount of pieces.

It had devoured all the tunnels throughout Japan. This meant it had monopolized all the fear and urban legends associated with those places. There were more than enough chess pieces to put on the board as there were stories.

On the other hand, we, the human side, had only 72 pawns. However, I was not in a hurry.

After all, my chess pieces were replenished with each new cycle. Even if we failed this time, I could press the \'Retry\' button and keep playing the game with more knowledge and a richer strategy.

[An explorer has died.]

[No issues.]

[Advance.]

Cycles 141, 142, 143, 144, and 145.

Over five cycles, I strategized against Inunaki Tunnel. However, I didn’t invest all my time solely in Inunaki Tunnel.

Leisurely, I also exterminated other anomalies, consuming only the 72 death row inmates.

As the cycles accumulated, the strategic game increasingly favored me. No more death row inmates died at the tunnel entrance. Fewer were enchanted by the graffiti.

The records of the strategic battles between the anomaly and me, the chess game logs, remained as the strategy.

Thus,

[The exit is visually confirmed.]

[Mr. Undertaker, inmate 66 died approximately 20 meters from the exit. Right before death, the inmate looked back.]

I grabbed the radio.

“Did they exhibit any other peculiar behavior besides looking back?”

[No.]

“Then it seems the myth of Orpheus has been intertwined. Seeing the exit of the cave and looking back, resulting in the lover being dragged away and dying… It’s common for myths to be distorted and applied to anomalies.”

[Ah.]

“We need to add to the strategy that you must never look back once you can see the exit. Saintess, that was the last explorer, right?”

[Yes. There are no more available death row inmates. Should we postpone to the next cycle?]

I shook my head.

“No. With only 20 meters left, let\'s finish it this time. It’s better for the operation’s overseers to go through this last part to validate our strategy.”

I glanced back.

“And for the Association’s dignity as well.”

Yu Ji-won, Manyo Neko, and Phantom Blade, the three awakened ones, were looking at me.

“Yu Ji-won. You stay here and keep watching the map. It’s okay if you just stare at the map.”

“Yes, Your Excellency. I will keep my eyes fixed on the operation map without blinking.”

“There’s no need to go that far. Anyway…”

I locked eyes with the two Magical Girls. Their gazes held a mix of emotions.

Anxiety. Wondering if they had almost entirely handed over the subjugation to the Korean awakened ones.

Excitement. Hoping the chance to deliver the final blow to the anomaly that had tormented Japan might finally come.

Sadness and guilt.

These emotions didn’t need explaining. They weren’t feelings directed at us or living humans.

“Let’s go. Manyo Neko, Phantom Blade.”

“……”

“Let’s avenge your fallen comrades.”

Their eyes turned cold.

Soon, the final exploration team set out.

“We were too complacent during the first subjugation, nya.”

Tap. Tap.

The sound of human footsteps trickled down the tunnel\'s dark walls like rainwater. Mud splashed onto the Magical Girls\' shoes.

“Well, because it remained quiet without spitting out anomalies or causing havoc, nya. Compared to other anomalies that wreak havoc on villages and cities, it seemed weak, nya?”

[Five shrines around Nagoya and Kyoto formed the first subjugation team. We didn’t expect it to become the ‘first,’ though.]

“My childhood friend was part of that team, nya.”

[She was also my close friend.]

Tap.

Outside, the cicadas’ noise from the distant hills was almost deafening, but inside the tunnel, there was a malevolent silence.

Each step echoed off the walls, making the strange graffiti wriggle like glowing worms. But no one looked at the patterns.

“Stars—guide—the dawn.”

As the darkness deepened, Manyo Neko lightly shook her umbrella. The outside of the umbrella glowed faintly blue.

It was magic. Before the unparalleled witch Dang Seo-rin developed Cursed Song Incantation, it was the only known method of casting spells in this world.

It was spellcraft, assembling words to manifest the caster\'s imagery, with the number of phrases interwoven determining the mage’s caliber.

“Though the second, third, and fourth subjugation teams were organized afterward, the results were similar, nya. Ah, look at this, nya.”

Manyo Neko pointed her umbrella at the floor.

On the relatively unblemished concrete floor, Japanese characters were engraved. Though mostly damaged, some were decipherable.

-Die.

-No. I don\'t want to be here anymore. Where did everyone go? Why did they leave me, die. LCNA. 1199.

-To future explorers or Association members, I leave this message. Never walk down the center. Do not listen to the sounds from the center, and if you sense a presence.

-Please save me.

Manyo Neko raised her umbrella, and the letters on the floor were swallowed by the eternal darkness again.

“They are all traces of previous subjugation teams, nya.”

[This must be Gamma Point, right?]

“Yes. We left markers in relatively safe zones from Inunaki Tunnel’s erosion, nya.”

They, too, had attempted to create a strategy. Like I did.

“But ‘relatively safe zone’ isn’t the same as ‘completely safe zone,’ nya. The fourth subjugation team was annihilated following these guidelines, nya.”

“…Document corruption, then.”

“Exactly, nya. That damned thing did nothing during the third subjugation, but when the fourth team arrived, it started playing tricks, nya.”

It was not rare for anomalies in the void to mimic human language. They mimicked not just language, but voices, behavior, and appearance.

Just like now.

-Manyo Neko!

-Phantom Blade? Phantom Blade, is that you?

-You really came to save us!

-My student, well done. I always believed in you.

Phantom Blade’s cold smile surfaced. The mute Magical Girl did not voice her derision, but the smile’s chill was unmistakable.

[Bullshit.]

“Do you know them?”

[Ah, comrades and my mentor. She was the leader of the fourth subjugation team. They said her lower body was found at Gamma Point. I’m glad her voice is intact.]

Tap.

The Magical Girls continued walking without looking back.

Suddenly, their footsteps felt like muted screams.

The anomaly pulled out all sorts of trap cards, but none deceived us. The ‘Inunaki Tunnel Strategy,’ recorded from 1 to 77, guided us to the exit.

When the light of the exit began to appear in the distance,

-Manyo Nekooo.

Suddenly! A forearm shot out from behind us as if to embrace us.

The wrist was adorned with a dainty bracelet. The sleeve had frills.

-What’s wrong? Take my hand.

-Didn’t you come to save us? The Association? Did headquarters abandon us?

-Let’s go back together, Manyo Neko. No, Rika.

The stoic expressions of the Magical Girls showed slight cracks.

-We promised to gather again when the first snow fell this year, remember? On Mount Yahiko.

“…….”

-I still remember our promise, Rika.

Manyo Neko halted her steps.

She and I both knew that looking back now would end everything.

But I chose not to remind her. Phantom Blade didn’t use telepathy either.

“…This is truly fucked up, nya.”

A mutter echoed through the tunnel.

“That promise was made seven years ago, nya. But you didn’t even set a clear criterion for the first snow before you left for the subjugation, nya. Is the first snow the one in Hokkaido? Or is it the one in the village we were in? That was the shittiest promise ever, nya.”

-…….

“So when it snowed in Hokkaido, when it snowed in the village, when it snowed in your hometown, I climbed Mount Yahiko three times, nya. It was hell, nya. And you were never there. I thought I’d die from the cold, nya.”

-…….

“I was wondering where you died that they couldn’t even find a piece of your body, but here you are, trying to lure harmless humans into this shitty tunnel? Where did your vow to serve the gods and protect people go? You’re a real bastard, you know that?”

I could never forget what I saw then.

The ‘hand’ that had emerged from behind us, which had merely flailed in the air, gently held Manyo Neko’s hand.

Interlocking fingers.

-Gomen. Let’s go back together.

“…….”

-Rika.

Human voices trickled down the tunnel\'s dark walls like rainwater. The rain poured heavily.

Tap.

We walked.

The light came closer and closer. The mossy and corpse odors that plagued our noses gradually gave way to the scent of fresh leaves. By the time the muted screams had changed to cicadas\' cries,

[We’ve arrived, Mr. Undertaker.]

We exited the tunnel.

Without exchanging words, we instinctively turned back. The exit of the tunnel. The plaque once inscribed with ‘Inunaki’ now bore a different name.

Soroji Tunnel.

This was the tunnel’s original name before it was consumed and corrupted by the anomaly.

Under that name, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of corpses were strewn beyond the tunnel.

“…….”

[…….]

Most of the bodies wore the extravagant attire of Magical Girls. However, their dresses were rotting from the dark mud of corpse poison and the ravages of time.

Manyo Neko knelt before a corpse missing one arm.

I later learned that Manyo Neko was part of the first subjugation team but had survived because she was assigned to wait outside the tunnel.

The anomaly Inunaki Tunnel.

Aliases: River Styx, Hell Gallery, Orpheus’s Underworld Path.

Threat Level: Continent-class.

Subjugation complete.

Epilogue one.

All the tunnels in Japan returned to normal one by one, but for some reason, the undersea tunnel crossing the Korea Strait remained intact.

Of course, \'intact\' meant it could only be used if the strategy was meticulously followed. All the dangers that Inunaki Tunnel once possessed remained within the undersea tunnel.

Noh Do-hwa frowned.

“How strange. The undersea tunnel was a fictional structure to begin with, so it should disappear, shouldn\'t it?”

“Well, I don\'t know. Even though I’m an anomaly expert, I don\'t know everything.”

“Hmmm…”

Noh Do-hwa squinted at the undersea tunnel peeking out from Busan’s coast.

“Well, if it comes down to it, it’s not bad to have another means of exchange with the other side…”

The story related to this undersea tunnel will be told in the next chapter.

Epilogue Two.

From the 145th cycle onward, I decided to visit Japan early whenever possible.

The purpose was simple. To exterminate Inunaki Tunnel in advance before the Association suffered heavy casualties.

And also to farm my precious spirit camera.

So in the 146th cycle, after obtaining the camera and arriving at Inunaki Tunnel, I sensed a familiar presence approaching from afar.

“Hunya? We have an early visitor, nya?”

It was Manyo Neko.

A slightly younger and less mature face than in the previous cycle.

Thus, instead of an umbrella, Manyo Neko was holding something else.

“What should we do, You? The High Priestess told us to block the tunnel entrance.”

“Shouldn’t we just warn them to retreat for now?”

“Yes, but that person looks really powerful, nya… Ah. It seems they’ve noticed us, too.”

“It’s dangerous, so stay back, Rika.”

I raised my hands to show I had no hostile intentions and approached.

Contrasting with the golden-haired Manyo Neko, a black-haired Magical Girl stared at me.

“Who are you? Never seen you before. You’re not from the village, right? This place is off-limits to civilians starting today. A missing person report has been filed.”

“I’m an awakener from Korea.”

“Korea…? What brings you here from Korea?”

Hmmm.

Her eyes were filled with distrust and wariness. But as the Undertaker, I was a seasoned regressor adept at forming relationships.

About four minutes of conversation and four packs of snacks later,

“It’s delicious, nyaaa!”

“Chocolate after so many days… The genuine richness of cocoa’s flavor…”

“Ah, I’m melting, nya…”

“So, are we friends now?”

“Yay! Tomodachi, nya!”

The Magical Girls eagerly wrapped the tunnel entrance with sacred ropes. They repeatedly emphasized not to enter, then leisurely departed.

The sun was setting. I watched the two walk away, holding hands, for quite some time.

“…Should I take a picture?”

Click.

It was purely on a whim that I raised the spirit camera and photographed Inunaki Tunnel.

I wanted to capture this moment as a keepsake.

Zzzzz— The photo developed. Since Inunaki Tunnel hadn’t yet devoured all the tunnels in Japan, the photo was much calmer than before.

There were no Magical Girls’ bodies, nor were limbs or heads grotesquely displayed.

Just the stone wall blocking the tunnel entrance.

On it, bright red letters were written.

-Welcome back. This is the seventh time, isn’t it?

I froze momentarily with the camera raised.

Cicadas sang from the cedar forest.

…It wasn’t just chilling because it seemed like the anomaly knew I had been regressing repeatedly.

Such a trick could simply be a hallucination showing what the opponent feared. An anomaly with advanced illusion abilities, like Inunaki Tunnel, could easily do that.

The problem lay elsewhere.

The first time I encountered Inunaki Tunnel was in the 141st cycle. 142, 143, 144, 145… I had returned to confront the tunnel in the 146th cycle.

Six times in total.

Yet Inunaki Tunnel welcomed me as if this was the ‘seventh’ time.

Where did the remaining encounter disappear to?

Footnotes:

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