Chapter 495
Chapter 495
On the screen, a flashy BGM for a successful deduction played as Park Moon-dae’s narration began.
[Park Moon-dae: It was strange from the beginning.]
Park Moon-dae was shown reading his profile.
[Park Moon-dae: It said the Undertaker was the culprit of this incident, but it didn't explain what the incident was. That’s odd, right?]
Above the text ‘You are the culprit of this incident’ on the profile document, there was a photo with a red 'X' drawn over it.
A black robe and a bizarre skull mask.
It was the exact same appearance as the corpse the eliminated members had seen in the blood-stained bathroom of the afterlife!
Park Moon-dae, who had been studying it intently, tilted his head on the next page.
[Park Moon-dae: But then, the mission was way too easy.]
The Undertaker’s mission.
It ended in a single sentence.
[To be sacrificed.]
It meant to be eliminated and die.
If one understood what ‘sacrifice’ meant while playing the game, it was a very simple and terrifying story.
[Park Moon-dae: Honestly, the Undertaker dies the moment they're caught as the culprit. Even if not, there are plenty of ways to get eliminated.]
[Park Moon-dae: After figuring out what ‘sacrifice’ meant during the deduction part, I thought it was suspiciously easy.]
And so, he had come to this conclusion:
[Park Moon-dae: The Undertaker has to die.]
“…!!”
[Park Moon-dae: I realized the story only progresses and someone can escape only if the Undertaker dies.]
[Park Moon-dae: Therefore, there’s information I absolutely must relay using the walkie-talkie.]
He needed the Undertaker’s ability—the power to communicate and exchange information between the two worlds via walkie-talkie.
Then, what was the most striking piece of information in this bizarre afterlife?
[Park Moon-dae: The corpse in the bathroom.]
That strange, chilling corpse that was soaked in blood despite having no wounds.
[Park Moon-dae: I thought there would be something there.]
The screen then cut to another scene.
It was the survivor team unlocking the door to the bathroom they had just locked.
[Kim Rae-bin: This is the correct number.]
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Good.]
Click.
With a short sound, the lock fell away, and the members quietly approached the inside of the bathroom.
Seon A-hyun whispered into the walkie-talkie.
[Seon A-hyun: We’re… we’re inside.]
The inside of the bathroom was clean, just as it had been when Park Moon-dae’s group first discovered the walkie-talkie at the sink.
And though it was deathly silent, they were not fooled.
—Park Moon-dae: I think it was inside the cabinet.
Recalling Park Moon-dae’s advice delivered through the walkie-talkie, the surviving members quickly formed a formation and pushed into the room toward the sink.
And then.
[Ryu Cheong-woo: I’ll open it.]
After nodding to the three waiting members, Ryu Cheong-woo quickly pulled the cabinet open.
Immediately—
Flicker.
Flicker-flicker-flicker-flicker-flicker—
[Kim Rae-bin: Gasp!]
[Cha Yu-jin: OK.]
The bathroom lights began to flicker frantically again.
However, this party—composed mostly of members with exceptionally strong nerves—did not back down and peered straight into the cabinet.
And they saw it.
[Cha Yu-jin: Oh my….]
A ghost holding a knife, staring out from the pitch-black cabinet.
“Aaah!”
It looked exactly like the corpse from the floor below!
The graduate student watching the video screamed involuntarily, clutching her pillow.
Don't tell me that thing was standing behind Moon-dae and the others when they ran out of the bathroom?
‘That’s so scary!’
It was a perfectly natural human reaction.
Tense, chilling BGM played. It was a situation where, whether it was a horror or thriller movie, the characters should have turned tail and bolted immediately!
Naturally, the members should have fled upon seeing the ghost, scattering in a nail-biting chase sequence… but….
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Grab him!]
[????]
They decided to push through with pure physical force!
[Cha Yu-jin: Got it.]
Cha Yu-jin lunged into the cabinet without hesitation and grabbed the ghost by the waist. The actor playing the ghost froze in sheer bewilderment!
The viewers froze as well, but soon erupted into laughter.
-??
-LOLOLOLOL
-I can see his expression even through the mask
-We’re sorry, our boys grew up on survival shows, so they don’t hold back
-The ghost dropped his knife, what now?
Ryu Cheong-woo even managed to snatch the weapon away while Cha Yu-jin held the ghost down.
Since it was a broadcast, the ghost couldn't have actually stabbed the members, but even if he could have, their movements were so prepared and swift that he wouldn't have had the chance to counter.
And then.
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Lift him up!]
[????]
The four of them hoisted the ghost—now bound in curtains—into the air and began to run in perfect synchronization.
-? LOL
-Is he a piece of luggage?
-From luggage to the coffin, LMAO
-Reminds me of log PT drills in the military.
[Seon A-hyun: The door… it’s open!]
They dashed through the doors they had pre-emptively opened and stuffed the ghost into the coffin!
-Wow, crazy
-It’s funny but thrilling
-Because the members were so serious, the comedy was just a side dish; the suspense and the thrill of potentially losing the ghost were brought to life by the fast-paced editing.
Even the youngest members were shown frantically closing the coffin lid manually, looking horrified as they watched the struggling ghost.
Thud! Thud!
-Oh my god
-Wow, that’s brutal;
-The coffin lid rattled as if the ghost were pounding from the inside.
However, the members calmly pressed down on the lid and attempted to converse with the ghost as if following a protocol.
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Shall we have a talk? Sir, judging by your attire, it seems you’re the one who created this altar.]
[??? : …….]
[Cha Yu-jin: There’s a possibility this person is an American ghost. Hey, can you hear me?]
Surprisingly, there was absolutely no response.
Cha Yu-jin shrugged. The viewers let out hollow laughs.
-As if he’d be an American ghost LOL
-No, but why are you treating him like a ghost after catching him with physical force? T_T
-Their pacing is like a pro
-I’m going back and forth between laughing and screaming, my cat is looking at me weirdly T_T
└ LOLOLOLOL
In contrast to the viewers who were flabbergasted by whether this was right or how they even came up with such an idea, the members were dead serious.
[Seon A-hyun: Should we… put the candles on now?]
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Wait a second.]
After a few seconds of silence as if deep in thought, Ryu Cheong-woo quickly split the team into two.
Himself and Seon A-hyun.
And Cha Yu-jin and Kim Rae-bin.
[Ryu Cheong-woo: We’ll hold this down, so I want you two to go check the cabinet where the ghost came out of earlier. I think I saw something behind it.]
[Kim Rae-bin: Yes!]
Thus, while the older brothers—former professional athletes—guarded the coffin, the two youngest members sprinted back to the bathroom.
And there, forgetting their usual bickering, they thoroughly searched the inside of the cabinet staged with fake blood… and then….
[Cha Yu-jin: Kim Rae-bin! Look at this!]
[Kim Rae-bin: Oh my goodness!]
They discovered that the back panel of the cabinet rotated like a revolving door.
And what lay behind it… was a dark concrete staircase leading downward.
[Cha Yu-jin: That… looks like the way to hell.]
[The way to hell…?]
It looked like the path to hell.
Along with Cha Yu-jin’s words, the dark staircase passage was shown on camera.
Then, a question came through the walkie-talkie.
[Park Moon-dae: Is there any writing there?]
[Kim Rae-bin: !! Yes, there is!]
On the concrete wall next to the stairs, there was writing in dark red.
And finally, the full story of the incident was roughly revealed.
-It really was a cult altar
-Crazy, he tried to resurrect by using celebrities as offerings? That’s insane;;
-Whoa...
To summarize: the leader of a cult had been murdered during some bizarre ritual.
The culprit was the Undertaker.
So, to come back to life, he intended to reenact the murder case and offer the TeSTAR members as human sacrifices one by one!
-Suddenly occult, I’ve got goosebumps
-If they had kept going like that, only two survivors would’ve been left...
And the way to stop this terrifying situation had been found in the afterlife.
[Lee Se-jin: There was something written on the bathroom cabinet here, too. You know, like ‘how to resurrect’ and ‘precautions,’ stuff like that.]
[Kim Rae-bin: I see! That makes sense.]
It said that if the ghost was sacrificed at the altar, they could escape this bizarre ritual site.
An ‘emergency exit’ would open, and viewers were divided on what that meant.
It was then.
[Bae Se-jin: And also.]
[Bae Se-jin: I think… the cabinet here opens too.]
-Gasp?
-Then?
In an instant, the screen cut to the afterlife.
Park Moon-dae calmly held the walkie-talkie, his eyes fixed on the back of the cabinet.
[Park Moon-dae: We have stairs going both up and down.]
[Kim Rae-bin: !!]
That was it.
Behind the cabinet in the afterlife, stairs led in two directions: up and down.
[Park Moon-dae: Since we came down here through the coffin, the upward path probably leads to your side.]
On the screen, the staircases of the two cabinets were connected via a cut.
[Park Moon-dae: Then as for the downward path… I’m willing to bet that’s the exit.]
[Kim Rae-bin: Pardon?]
The flashlight pointed toward the downward stairs.
There, although the lights were off, the silhouette of a sign on the ceiling was visible.
[Park Moon-dae: There’s an emergency exit sign.]
[Cha Yu-jin: Oh!]
-Amazing
And so, the final escape attempt with a heart-pounding time limit began.
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Hurry!]
As soon as they placed the candles and burned the coffin on the altar, the lodging began to shake as if it were about to collapse. The surviving TeSTAR members quickly descended to the afterlife through the cabinet passage.
With the coffin descending to the afterlife, there was a risk the ghost might try to come out.
[Bae Se-jin: This way!]
Fortunately, the survivors met up with the eliminated members who were already waiting at the stairs and quickly headed down again.
And they saw it.
[Park Moon-dae: The emergency exit!]
The emergency exit lights flickered on along the stairs, illuminating the door!
The members opened the door and ran out one by one.
[Cha Yu-jin: Ohhh!]
They were outside.
Outside the set where the sun had set, staff members clapped under the filming lights.
[Everyone successfully escaped!]
Along with the cheers, a sense of liberation overflowed!
Immediately following was the behind-the-scenes footage.
[Production Crew: As we mentioned, the roommates for TeSTAR’s new dorm were to be decided through this game.]
[Production Crew: Points were awarded based on mission success and the order of escape. Those with the highest scores get to choose their rooms first!]
The members who successfully completed their missions and escaped in the top ranks began to enthusiastically pick their rooms.
Of course, Park Moon-dae was among them.
An interview clip of him was inserted.
[Park Moon-dae: I did a preliminary survey of which rooms the members liked.]
[Park Moon-dae: I’m thinking I should go for a room with a quiet member.]
The interview seemed to have been filmed right after the game ended. He looked quite confident back then.
However, he was soon faced with reality.
[Production Crew: Unfortunately, Moon-dae, you didn't clear your mission.]
[Park Moon-dae: ?]
-Huh?
-Moon-dae was sacrificed, why?
The Park Moon-dae on screen voiced the viewers' confusion.
[Park Moon-dae: I did clear my mission. I was sacrificed.]
At that point, Park Moon-dae had an expression that suggested there must be some mistake.
However, the production crew said this while holding back laughter:
[Production Crew: Ah, about that.]
[Production Crew: The Doctor saved you, Moon-dae. Clap clap clap!]
[Park Moon-dae: ?!!!]
Park Moon-dae whipped his head around.
The ‘Doctor,’ Cha Yu-jin, was waving with a bright smile.
-Wait
-No way, LOL
-That’s right.
Cha Yu-jin’s role was the Doctor!
With the Doctor’s ability, he could unconditionally save one person before the game started!
And his mission aligned with that.
If the person he designated actually fell into a life-threatening crisis and survived, the mission was a success!
So, as soon as he saw his profile back then, Cha Yu-jin had deduced:
[Cha Yu-jin: Every culprit kills the smart person first.]
[Cha Yu-jin: So, I’m saving Moon-dae hyung!]
And coincidentally, Cha Yu-jin’s deduction was perfect.
Park Moon-dae was the first to be sacrificed.
In other words… a grand success!
[Cha Yu-jin: Moon-dae hyung sacrificed? Denied!]
[Park Moon-dae: …….]
Originally, Moon-dae was supposed to come back up at the end of the game to reveal the existence of the cabinet passage connected to the afterlife.
But because of TeSTAR’s playstyle, which covered everything with physical force, he never got the chance!
As a result:
[Production Crew: So, here’s how it turned out….]
Cha Yu-jin: 1st place.
Park Moon-dae… last place.
-LOLOLOLOLOLOL
-Park Moon-dae sacrificed himself after a hard carry
-It’s heartbreaking, Moon-dae!
-We won’t forget! We won’t forget!
And so, Park Moon-dae lost his right to choose a room….
‘He’s pitiful, but so cute!’
The graduate student couldn't stop laughing even while feeling bad for him.
However, a happy ending of sorts was waiting for Park Moon-dae.
After hearing the full story, the Park Moon-dae in the program gave up on everything and trudged toward the last remaining room, but….
[Kim Rae-bin: Moon-dae hyung! I look forward to working with you….]
[Park Moon-dae: Forget it.]
[Kim Rae-bin: ??]
[Park Moon-dae: Thanks.]
By a stroke of luck, he ended up with the best roommate, reaching a happy ending.
-Congrats congrats
-LOL so funny
-Live happily with the rabbit, Moon-deng-deng
‘Oh, how cute….’
The graduate student smiled and nodded.
For the record, Ryu Cheong-woo joined 1st place Cha Yu-jin’s room, which filled up quickly.
[Cha Yu-jin: Welcome, bro!]
[Ryu Cheong-woo: Haha! Right, looking forward to it.]
Second, Seon A-hyun and Lee Se-jin met, showing off the long-standing friendship of TeSTAR’s same-age line.
[Seon A-hyun: Se-jin…!]
[Lee Se-jin: Whoa, A-hyun, A-hyun~! We’re finally roommates!]
And by this point, viewers naturally realized something.
-Wait, hold on
-If it’s like this, then the single room is— LOL
That’s right.
The final, long-awaited single room went to….
[Bae Se-jin: Sigh….]
Bae Se-jin, who finally got to live in a single room after six years of waiting!
[Wish Fulfillment Ceremony]
Bae Se-jin began to quietly express a gesture of victory alone in his single room with a happy face on his bed.
It was a very rare sight. It was because he had forgotten about the unmanned camera.
-LOLOLOLOL
-Hamster….
-One hamster, one cage. Okay, got it.
Viewers sent generous laughter and congratulations to the introverted Bae Se-jin.
[TeSTAR has moved into their new sweet home.]
The subtitles changed cheerfully, and the video ended on a high, happy note. The graduate student smiled and clapped without realizing it.
‘That was good….’
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, the video brightened again.
“…??”
What appeared was Cha Yu-jin in a hoodie with a grumpy face.
He pouted and threw the card he was holding.
-Uh?
-???
-What is this?
[Cha Yu-jin: This game was no fun. A cult? Ghosts? It’s too childish.]
[Kim Rae-bin: You were the most immersed in it, what are you talking about?]
[Cha Yu-jin: Hey!]
While the two bickered, the camera’s view gradually pulled back to show the place they were in.
“…!”
It was a place familiar to the graduate student as well.
‘Gasp!’
The attic.
It was the very place that appeared in the music video for their last album’s title track, Overture – Rabbit Hole!
The sight of TeSTAR having just finished a board game was the same as before.
However, this time, the words written on the board game were different from before.
It was… the title of this variety show!
At that moment, the fans realized.
-C-c-crazy
-Wait, so this self-produced content was the board game they were playing?
-I have goosebumps
-Wow
While the chat was being updated.
Among the TeSTAR members who were tidying up the cards, the member who had been acting as the Game Master this time spoke up.
[Seon A-hyun: Hey, then… shall we try another game?]
Seon A-hyun.
[Seon A-hyun: This one will be even more fun. ……I’ve been preparing it for a long time.]
A close-up of his face, smiling softly and quietly, appeared, and the variety show ended.
[To be continued…?]
Leaving behind an ominous subtitle on a black background.
-Wait
-??
-Excuse me?
-Is this a hint for the next album?
Soon, the fans grasped the situation.
‘Yes, this is a comeback hint!’
-Crazy, I’m going to watch it again from the beginning
-T_T
For the next week, it was as good as guaranteed that there would be a plentiful supply of content through new interpretations of this self-produced content.
‘Wow, are they coming back again within this year?’
The graduate student also quickly sent a KakaoTalk message to her fansite master friend, who was quick with rumors.
Around the time TeSTAR fans were screaming at the unexpected connection of the worldview.
Fans of another group were also screaming.
[<One Take 4K> Cheong-ryeo (CHR) ‘Ash’ @MusicBOMB]
-Whoa
-T_T This is insane, seriously
It was because Cheong-ryeo’s music show activities for the first week of his solo album comeback were underway.
And a few days before that.
Park Moon-dae had received a text message.
-VTIC Shin Cheong-ryeo Sunbaenim: Filming scheduled for 9/13 (Wed) 17:00
“…….”
-VTIC Shin Cheong-ryeo Sunbaenim: See you on the dot ^^
Featuring.
It was the start of Park Moon-dae’s individual activities, coming late after their promotion period had already ended.