After being embraced by the light, my body was spat out of the train tracks as if it was a nasty meal the earth didn't want. Like everyone else, I had my arms at my side and my legs together, all stuck with metal bars.

The sky was clear blue, with bushes and small trees spread throughout the space. Worse of it all, I was not alone on those tracks.

"Hal, look! This mister can help us."

"He is stuck just like us, Hil. He can't help us."

"Oh…"

With one glance I could not only tell they were brother and sister but twins.

The girl continued to cry, biting her lower lip strong enough to open a wound. Her brother held her hand, his voice shaken yet confident. If he was as afraid as his sister, he didn't show it; neither in his voice nor in his gaze.

"Hil, keep looking at me. I'm not crying, am I?"

"No…"

"Then you shouldn't cry either."

Their curly hair was practically white, their skin so pale it was almost translucent. While the girl's eyes were the lightest of blue, the boy's were pinkish, and even within the shade their color still looked faded.

Worst of all, they did not seem old at all. I would bet they were between six and eight years old.

"How old are you?"

I had their attention once again, yet not for long. The brother glanced at me with a suspicious gaze, eying me as if I was stupid or worse. "I didn't see you in the cabin. Who are you?"

From afar, I heard the train's whistle. And what was once a high-pitched sound, was now the harrowing sound of death. How much longer we had until the Jolly Train reached us? How many seconds?

My heart kept racing and beating against my chest, desperate. I wasn’t shocked by Giorgio's betrayal, if I would even call it that. I wouldn't be shocked to see a rat eating trash or maggots feeding off of rotten meat. It was their nature.

Yet his nature had just become a threat to my survival, and this was something I had to fix.

The important thing at that moment was to piece things together; there was a way to escape the train. Otherwise, the system wouldn't give me that many points, much less inform me I would receive a bonus if I survived.

Yet what if the only way for someone to survive in the tracks was with the operators' maneuvers? Giorgio would put the train in reverse if he could, just to pass over me again.

Still, would the system do something like that? All this time, the main theme of these challenges had been choice. Free will.

There was no way the system was that unfair and cruel.

Was there?

I tried to raise my upper body the most I could, so they focused on me.

"You guys are Hil and Hal, right?" The girl beside me nodded, yet her brother did not even blink. "Call me Eun-Woo. I have reasons to believe we can survive this. But we need to work together."

Hil opened a smile, her eyes almost shining with hope. She turned to her brother, who was not as thrilled to hear what I had to say.

"We may be children, but we are not idiots. Why should we even trust you?"

Below me, the tracks trembled and shook, the sound getting closer.

"Because I am your only chance of survival."

Perhaps it was the pure terror in my gaze or maybe the desperation flooding in my voice, but the twins nodded with shaken eyes.

"Good. Look around and try to see if there is anything, anything at all, that we can press, pull or push."

The twins began to search, yet their bodies were small and they were lower on the tracks. There was only so much they could see. I started to contort myself, stretching my neck and body in order to see any crack or small hole within those tracks.

The trembling intensified, the sound of the train so close I was afraid to turn my head.

How fortunate that I had two more sets of mouths and eyes to make sure I knew what was going on.

"Mister, the train…!"

"Did you find anything, sir?!"

To hear such anguish and horror in their voices broke my heart, turning my own desperation into a monster who was ready to consume me from the inside.

Think, Eun-Woo, think!

There had to be something, anything, that I was missing!

Then it hit me. With the corner of my eye, as I glanced below toward the tracks, the faintest of lights pouring out of the metal. I had seen that light before, twice, shining below the tracks. Only it had been stronger, right before the train hit the people. It had to mean something.

I needed it to mean something.

As I turned my head, I saw not only the Jolly Train but Giorgio's head popping up from the window, looking down at me with the widest smile on his face while showing his middle finger.

Hah, that asshole.

"Kids! Try to see if there's anything shining around you, it may be below the tracks or beside us!" I had to shout in order to be heard on top of the train.

The whistle blew again, a haunting sound that kept echoing inside my ears.

"Mister, here!" Hil shouted and my entire body leaned toward her voice. She had dug a bit through the dirt and right there, sticking out of the ground between the metal tracks, a thin silver chain.

I felt a heat wave rushing to our side.

"Pull it!"

I twisted my hand in an angle I had never tried before, every finger and muscle screaming in pain. Hil and I pulled the chain once.

I saw the blinding light of the Jolly Train casting a shadow over us.
Nothing happened.

"Again!"

My hand was sweating too much, making me lose grasp of the silver chain. Once, twice, it kept failing me.

Yet not for Hil, and she pulled.

There was a click.

"Mister!"

The moment she shouted, I felt the ground below me tremble and open at the same time my hands and feet were freed.

"Move, now!"

I didn't think I needed to give them any more orders; they were below before I even finished my sentence.

The tracks themselves had opened alongside a grave on the ground. All three of us slipped through the opening, dirt falling with us as we landed with a small thud.

The space was way bigger than I had anticipated, almost like a tunnel connecting all tracks in the same system. Before I could catch my breath, something jumped at my legs, grasping them tight.

"Thank you so, so much."

"We are forever grateful to you, mister!"

Hal and Hil had their arms around me; I could even feel their hearts beating rapidly against my legs. I let a long sigh, trying to control my own racing heart—the adrenaline still running at full speed within my veins.

"Hey, I told you to trust me, right?"

I patted their heads, my voice relieved and light.

[You survived the Jolly Train!]
[You will be rewarded for your skills]
[You will be transported to Île de Bâton in one minute]

Oh, no I wouldn't.

"Hey, listen."

The twins raised their gazes, meeting my own. Looking at them after all that madness, they were quite adorable.

"There is a monster chasing the train. If you keep running in a straight line, you’ll be moved before it can get you."

When I mentioned the mole, Hil's widened her eyes, her face becoming paler. Yet her brother furrowed his brows.

"Aren't you going to stay with us?"

That kid was quite sharp, huh? "I have a business to take care of first. But once I’m done, I will try to meet you both there. Deal?"

They glanced at each other for a few seconds, without saying anything. Then they took a few steps back and gave me a nod. Hil started to run beforehand, while Hal turned his head once before following his sister.

"Be sure to stay alive. You look like someone who likes doing stupid things." And just like that, the boy turned around and caught up with his sister, leaving me alone.

I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. Maybe I was mistaken. That boy, he wasn't cute at all.

I lowered my gaze, reading the last message the system had sent me.

[You are an operator. Do you wish to go back to the first cabin?]
[You will receive a bonus reward if you return]

I didn't even bat an eye. I just pressed the button.

Once again, I was embraced by light.

Yet that time, I wasn't the one awaiting death.

I was the messenger.