The Black Zone was not merely a name for marking off a region.
For one, visually the land itself was pitch-black and gloomy, and the name had ultimately been attached because people were seized by that land and wandered in the darkness.
A supernatural ability that bewitched people was spread across the whole area, and one careless slip and you would be caught in the world of the Other Side without ever knowing it.
It makes no sense for a city to form in a place like that. But as they say the world turns by the hands of madmen, at some point people found safe methods and began to stay.
A place that precariously joins the world of the Other Side to reality, on the collateral of reasonable compromise and minimal safety.
The vessel in front of me was one such place.
"I didn't think I'd get to see this in person."
Almost the only way to enter the city seated at the center of the Black Zone.
"Were there tickets left?"
"Even if there aren't, you make them."
There is one enormous river that cuts across the center of the Black Zone.
This ship was the only one that used that river to carry goods and people, and since it was always full, ticket reservations were backed up a month deep.
It seems he sold the Ability Office's name for it, so it looks as if I will be seeing the Captain's face the moment I arrive. Did I scatter the bait a little too sweetly?
"This is your first time, right?"
"Uh, well, something like that."
Seo Mok handed over a flimsy pamphlet along with the ticket.
"You're supposed to know the precautions by heart, but there's no time, so just skim it."
The roughly ten-page pamphlet bore the chilling title 〈Styx Cruise Ship Guide to Safety Precautions〉.
'Ha, it's exactly like the merch.'
Red lettering on pitch-black paper, with white texture as accents here and there. The Styx Company's logo, the crescent-shaped scythe of a reaper, was there at the bottom of the pamphlet just as it had been.
When I opened the pamphlet, sure enough, the emphasized text in red spread out in letters as tiny as sesame seeds.
"Forget all of it and just remember this. I suddenly disappear? Then you've been dragged in."
"Dragged in?"
"Into the Other Side. It's written down as a disappearance, but that's all a lie. You've been eaten, that's what."
Eaten.
It was the word used for those who went missing in the Black Zone.
Seo Mok, unexpectedly kind in explaining it to me, was slightly desperate about it.
"And if you get dragged in?"
"That won't happen. Worry about yourself."
"Oh......."
"Anyway. This ship is bad enough, but it's worse once you get inside the city. If you worked in an information team, you'd know."
Not an information team, but I know it from the original-work buff.
The cruise ship operated by the Styx Company was a famous disappearance hot spot. Not only that, disappearances occurred constantly in several places in the Black Zone.
The only difference was whether one could return safely; that unspecified numbers of people got eaten was the same everywhere.
Very rarely, the Other Side would burst out into reality along with the missing person, but Seo Mok looked as if he had no intention of explaining that far.
"There's one thing to remember. If you get eaten, shut yourself in your cabin and sleep. Don't come outside. You got that?"
"Mm, well. Yes."
"......You're sure you understood properly?"
"I've committed it to memory."
When I held up the pamphlet and waved it, Seo Mok raked his narrowed eyes over me.
It cannot be helped. It is all content I had already seen in the original work.
"It seemed simple. Are we departing right away? Is the cabin first class?"
On top of that, as the one who had to go through that disappearance himself, I wanted to get it over with quickly and sleep my fill in a comfortable bed.
What am I talking about?
Seo Mok is famous for sending his companions off to the Other Side.
***
And so I was shut in a cabin.
Abandoned alone in a cramped third-class cabin that barely had room for a steel bunk bed, I first scanned my surroundings.
The reason I was calm, considering I had been dragged here while making idle conversation with Seo Mok only moments before, was this.
"The original-work buff really is a cheat."
Going through it knowing and going through it unknowing truly were as different as heaven and earth.
That said, it was a little disappointing that I had been squeezing all sorts of information out of Seo Mok, who was fretting over whether I would go missing, and it got cut off.
"Well, the timeline is sorted out to some degree."
Things like the protagonist seeming likely to come to the Black Zone within a month.
The reason I had marked Seo Mok's Ability Office from the very start.
It was because the protagonist, still at the level of a fresh chick, was slated to drop right into the Black Zone, and into 11 Rushiang Street directly across from the Ability Office at that.
"They can't stand to see me at ease. How am I supposed to sleep like this?"
Judging by the merch, no, the pamphlet, sleeping now as Seo Mok said is the correct move. And it is true that it is the easier path.
The problem was that if I fell asleep now, a gap of roughly a month would open up in reality.
Because the time axis here flows differently from reality.
The reason the Black Zone's ship, where disappearances were frequent, was booked solid a whole month out was that seats had to be left empty for those who went missing.
An empty cabin that, as it turns out, was booked a month ago.
At any rate, I had been eaten by the Other Side, and there was no time.
"How is it that engineering an intended first meeting is this difficult."
I let out a deep sigh, opened the cabin door, and stepped outside.
It was the opposite of the precautions, but I knew the trick to breaking this place.
Of course, that was on the premise that Seo Mok in reality was taking the proper steps according to the procedure for a missing person. Having sent more than one or two to the Other Side, Seo Mok was a veteran in this field alone.
"Let's clock out early."
The key to the Styx cruise ship lay in the existence of the crew.
The crew here were slightly different from ordinary people. Not only did they always carry their crew certificates on them, they all wore beaming smiles and recited nothing but preprogrammed lines, giving off a strong impression of dolls.
"Ah, is that similar for everyone in a service job?"
Then how about this?
Something like a blood-smeared face glaring at you with bloodshot eyes raised wide and a chilling smile?
Once you realized you had gone missing, the reason for being told to return to your cabin was obvious.
You must not run into a crew member.
And a crew member with the visual of a bizarre serial killer like that, all the more so.
The crew member standing on the deck tilted his head at a slant and spoke.
"All passengers, please return to your cabins."
Should an announcement in such a clear, lovely voice sound this chilling?
Doing my best to ignore the heavily pressing atmosphere, I dug at my ear.
"Mm, I've lost my cabin."
"Please tell me your name."
"I've forgotten my name too."
"Please show me your ticket."
"Ah, I left it in my cabin."
The crew member's head snapped quickly to the other side.
The CRUNCH of the neck bones meshing together was realistic.
"Missing person report confirmed. Calling the Other Side Administrator. Wait time, ten seconds. Please wait a moment."
No matter how you look at it, that is a machine voice.
I settled down and sat beside the crew member, who had stopped as though broken.
Recalling that the time axis was twisted, the ten seconds the crew member mentioned would be roughly twenty minutes in real time.
It would be about the same as the time it took for Seo Mok in reality to summon a crew member, report my disappearance, and set the follow-up measures in motion.
In the meantime, the Other Side Administrator shed the crew member's guise and burst out.
Literally peeling off the outer shell as though molting and throwing it into the river, the Other Side Administrator raised his approachability with a tidy appearance.
Still, the way he casually shook out his pitch-black gloves as blood dripped from them was a minus.
"Ah, dear me, another side effect has occurred. Mister Foreign Monster whose name I do not even know, surely you are not unaware that conduct deviating from the agreed terms causes displeasure? Have you no intention of returning home?"
I have plenty of intention. My homing instinct is probably stronger than anyone's.
The monocled gentleman in the brown fedora, receiving no answer from me, began reciting information as he pleased.
"Name, Do Hae. First visit to the Black Zone. Your companion is Mister Seo Mok, I see. Ah, I see that one often. He really is a person with adorable reactions. Teasing him was such fun, and, ah! So that is why Mister Do Hae was the one selected for this disappearance!"
What sort of life must a man live to be loved by the Other Side, Seo Mok?
Paying a brief moment of mourning to the author's cruel setting, I stood up impassively.
In truth, my objective lay less in the crew member itself than in the Other Side Administrator who would be summoned afterward.
The reason the Styx cruise ship's Administrator burst out of a crew member's shell is that he walks the cruise ship in reality as well, disguised as a crew member.
Which is to say, he is a bastard connected to reality.
"Shall we have a little talk first?"
Though that conversation would be a physical one.
***
Seo Mok thought.
"You said it was leave. Captain, this was leave, wasn't it?"
The order had been to be released from a mission that had given him a headache for months and to catch his breath on a bit of leave.
Part of it was that he could not refuse because the client was the Styx Company, but a large part was also that he wanted to be free of a nauseating schedule and breathe outside air.
That said, Seo Mok did not like boarding the Styx cruise ship. Especially when he had a companion.
That was because the Other Side favored Seo Mok excessively, which brought with it the bother of having to look after a companion who would be eaten by it.
"It really does look like he got dragged in....... Why did I take that kid on and end up with all this worry and trouble?"
As things turned out, this commission of taking Do Hae as far as Rushiang Street was now in danger of being forcibly extended by a month.
The Ability Office's Captain would boldly dock a full month of leave from Seo Mok, and he was looking at nothing but work for the next year with no way out of it.
Was explaining the rules only roughly the trap, or was the problem that bizarre jinx by which every companion of his went missing?
Either way, it was nothing but the Other Side Administrator's twisted affection.
"Mister Seo Mok, I see you often. Again this time?"
"That is how it turned out. The name is Do Hae. My companion. The ticket is here."
"Yes, confirmed. Shall I arrange lodging near the dock for you?"
"......Is there really no method to call him back sooner than a month?"
"I would decline long-term duty myself, but as you know, head office regulations leave no choice, so please understand."
Having reported Do Hae's disappearance by the procedure with practiced ease, Seo Mok went out onto the deck in low spirits to take the air.
The glittering river and the blue sky were nothing but clear, yet Seo Mok's heart was as cold as the chill wind blowing in.
"I'll negotiate extra pay when I get back. Isn't this work outside my job description?"
It was then that he noticed the passengers' murmuring spreading subtly.
The dock was visible in the distance, and he had been debating whether to take lodging nearby or return to the office.
"Kyaah! B-blood!"
A passenger who had wiped her cheek with her hand because of the water drops falling from the sky saw the deep red liquid come off on it and shrieked.
In an instant the deck turned into chaos. Passengers fleeing to their cabins and passengers gathering to watch out of curiosity tangled together, fell over, and screamed.
With his brow furrowed, Seo Mok fixed his eyes on a phenomenon he was experiencing for the first time yet did not find unfamiliar.
"Ah, don't tell me. It isn't, is it?"
This was the phenomenon of the Other Side bursting out into reality.
Why was it that the face of the client who had unsettled him from the start came to mind at once?
In that moment, the smell of blood began to waft strongly, mixed into the river wind.
"See? You can do it, so why pretend you can't?"
Then came the voice of the client, Do Hae.
Turning pale as death, Seo Mok shoved his way through the crowd and grabbed the shoulder of the suddenly appeared Do Hae, wrenching him around.
"You— what are you?"
Do Hae's eyes were no different from those of something inorganic.
It was right after that the unfocused, chilling eyes recovered their life.
"Ah, we haven't arrived yet, have we?"
It was the second case of a missing person escaping the Styx cruise ship under his own power.