Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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Brown was gone.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Th-this person, they moved!!"
Judging from the lack of silver coins in the doll's stomach, the 'Good Friend' ritual itself had been nullified? Or maybe because it was a dream, it just looked like a doll...
'Stop!'
Puzzles weren't the priority right now! Get it together!
You're in a ghost story right now!
"Look over here!"
I whipped my head around.
Someone was screaming from a dark corner of the classroom.
It was the person who'd been poking at the 'student' sitting rigidly alone at a desk, frozen like a wax doll just moments ago.
But that wax doll...
"There!"
Had vanished from the desk.
And following the finger of the person nearby, their face turned blue as they pointed...
The vanished student stood rigidly at the back door.
Gripping the door.
Expressionless.
Scanning the classroom.
"......"
"O-over there. You're joking, right?"
No response.
No movement.
"Hold on."
One brave soul approached and waved a hand right in front of its face.
The 'student' didn't even blink. It just stood frozen at the back door, eerily lifelike...
"It's not breathing. It's a mannequin or something..."
"But how does a mannequin just move like that? Maybe they trained some trick to look like they're not breathing?"
"Yeah, that's it. You know how on variety shows or YouTube they observe people's reactions?"
No.
Of course not. There were no cameras here, no variety show crew trying to scare people.
"Graduation ceremony...?"
A bright, orderly, school-appropriate broadcast played.
"Shall we check it out? This is weird."
"Hey, aren't we all looking like we did in high school? Wow. What kind of dream is this?"
A few people had already decided it was a dream and chatted casually without tension.
It probably didn't feel that scary up to now.
'No sense of reality.'
They'd regressed to their high school selves, after all. Rejuvenation was usually a pleasant thing.
And nighttime schools were staple ghost story settings, but with a crowd and moonlight filtering in, they could feel romantic too.
But...
"H-hey, look at this student mannequin?"
Someone approached the motionless student at the back door.
And pointed at the student's outstretched hand toward the rear.
"This hand motion looks just like..."
"...it's trying to lock the back door."
Thud.
The window curtains slammed shut.
"Mommy!"
"Ah, that scared me!"
The automatic curtains closed with a loud bang, plunging the classroom into total darkness.
For just a moment.
Flicker.
The classroom lights came on with a delay.
"Phew, that's a relief."
"Guess it was turning on the lights... Huh?"
Blood pooled across the ivory classroom floor.
"Wh-what?!"
Following the blood trail upward with your gaze,
One person lay collapsed near the back door, neck twisted completely backward.
An impossible angle for a living human, blood gushing from it in massive quantities, pooling between the floor tiles.
Eyes wide in shock, as if completely unexpected.
"Aaaah!"
"Gaaah!!"
It had begun.
Yeah.
The only escape from this nightmare ghost story was 'death'.
There was no way out of this nighttime school except dying.
And... it was so iconic it'd become a cliché: a ghost story featuring something inhuman.
"Th-that one!!"
One of the screamers pointed with a trembling hand.
At the student still frozen at the back door.
But there was one key difference.
"Its hand is covered in blood."
"......"
Everyone's gazes hardened as they turned.
And they confirmed it.
On the right hand gripping the door, inside the clenched fingers as if trying to hide it,
Blood smeared along the fingerprints.
"......"
Gazes shifted back to the corpse.
They saw the bloodstains on the back of the twisted neck, shaped like fingerprints.
"Ack!"
"Mommy! Wh-what! Heok!"
And then again.
Flicker.
The lights flickered.
Sekwang Industrial High School students don't move while being watched.
But the instant the gaze is averted,
By the time the lights flicker back on,
They move at inhuman speeds.
The person who'd pointed at the doll was gone.
"Ack!!"
That person was found as a corpse on the floor, lower chest shattered.
Thud.
The limp pointing arm fell weakly to the floor.
"Ah......"
"......"
"Aaaah!!"
Panic, terror, frenzy.
"N-now! Attack it now! Hey, you close by, hit it!"
"F-fuck! Then you do it, why push it on me?!"
Flicker.
"Hik."
Another corpse added.
One of the yellers was impaled upside down on a desk.
Only the lower half remaining.
"......"
"......"
In the silence of terror,
People turned their heads.
Now the 'student' at the back door stared piercingly at the people.
A faint smile on its face.
"...!!"
"Heeek!"
"R-run! Run!"
"Open the door now!"
People rushed to the front door, avoiding the student blocking the back.
But...
It was already too late.
"This way... Aaaah!!"
The person who opened the front door collapsed.
A smiling student stood in front of the open front door.
The girl with neatly trimmed bangs had the same name tag.
"J-just go around it!"
"Go!"
People ran past the smiling student. And again.
Flicker.
The lights flickered.
"......"
The student at the front door vanished from my sight.
Aaaah!!
...Desperate screams echoed from the hallway.
And one by one, the screams faded.
"......"
"......"
A maddening silence.
Panting breaths, distant wails, people staring at the door with bulging eyes ready to pop.
"Slowly,"
I said quietly, scanning the classroom.
"Let's move slowly. Check if anything else moves again. Both front and back doors."
"Ah, ah......"
The adults, indistinguishable from high schoolers in appearance, shuddered and stumbled back from the doors.
"......"
Of the awake people in this class,
Half had fled—status unknown. The other half remained in the classroom.
No, not remained—they were frozen in place...
I thought quietly amid them.
'We're screwed.'
This wasn't how you were supposed to start.
You had to bolt out alone before the curtains closed and total darkness fell, grab an emergency flashlight first, gather necessary items, and hide.
'Missed the timing.'
I'd panicked over Brown's absence and my judgment lagged.
And now, people were finally catching on.
"Th-this is that one!"
"Huh?"
"You don't know? The monster that can't move if you watch it!"
"Y-you know about it?"
"Argh, how don't you?? There's that monster that follows if you don't look! It can't move while we're watching!"
The person, voice distorted by fear and excitement, rambled on.
Maybe they'd read weird text versions, or we seemed like we'd entered a game, or possession...
Even people who'd normally ignore it listened in panic.
It was a familiar plot.
And the conclusion of a fear-overwhelmed group was... simplistic and extreme.
"Then we gotta attack it quick and take it out!"
"Huh?!"
"If we run now, it'll chase us anyway! We die if it goes unseen! We saw what happened to those who left! Hurry! Before the lights flicker again!"
"Ah!"
People, entranced, rummaged the empty classroom for weapons. Brooms, chairs, sandbags, utility knives...
'No.'
This was a straight path to a standard bad ending!
"Wait just a moment..."
That was when it happened.
Someone covered my mouth.
"...!"
I nearly punched them.
To avoid escalating, I slowly turned my head back and confirmed who was muffling me.
I locked eyes with a familiar face.
'...The government agent!'
It was a Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau operative!
Ryu Jaegwan, the agent I'd met at the mountain lodge, had short high school-style hair, but his features were largely the same as now.
'Where was he sitting?'
No, that wasn't important!
'Right. Government agents can enter too!'
This wasn't a ghost story Daydream Corporation was 'isolating and securing'.
Meaning, you could run into personnel from other organizations like this.
But still, seeing the same agent again? Wasn't he working too hard?
"If you won't scream, I'll let go."
I immediately nodded solemnly, and the agent released me without another word.
'Whew.'
"You really have a knack for getting caught up in this sort of thing."
"......Yeah."
Let's just say so.
"And what that person said earlier is partially correct."
"......"
"Keep watching that student doll no matter what. Don't look away, blink alternately, and if the lights go out, bow your head immediately. And..."
The agent whispered the standard manual he already knew.
"They're extremely sensitive to sound."
Right.
"Don't raise your voice. Absolutely."
I nodded faintly.
"But... is it right to let people attack it...?"
"Right now, prioritize your own safety. Saving those caught in the disaster comes after."
The agent declared matter-of-factly.
"When caught in a supernatural disaster, assume all involved will die and act accordingly."
"......"
This was... classic Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau protocol.
'They think properly grasping, sealing, or destroying this ghost story is more important.'
To prevent the many deaths that could follow.
A value judgment that would pull the trolley lever without hesitation to kill one instead of five.
"I'll tell you the escape timing too. Just memorize what I said for now."
"...Yes."
Arguing with the agent here would be suicide.
I shut my mouth for now.
Meanwhile, people were approaching the student with weapons.
'Damn it.'
Once more, I wove in a question to naturally guide the answer.
I needed to know this for natural actions ahead.
"B-but isn't this a dream? Then if we just die, we'll wake up, right...?"
It was the standard nightmare escape.
Meet death in the dream and wake up in reality.
At first glance, quick suicide might seem best, but no. Absolutely not...
'There's a requirement.'
"That's correct, but there are conditions."
As expected.
"Conditions?"
"Yes. See that name tag?"
The agent pointed at the 'student doll'.
"You must die wearing that doll's name tag to 'normally' wake up. If not,"
If liberation conditions aren't met,
The explorer becomes bound to 'In the Black Shadows'.
"You'll suffer... undesirable effects."
"......"
"There are a few more conditions for a safe death, but I'll explain while we go."
"T-together?"
"Yes."
Hold on.
But interpreting my bewilderment somehow, the agent made a 'no need to apologize' face.
Like forcing a reassuring smile for a child.
"Don't worry. Many agents besides me have been deployed. Surely some have passed through."
Multiple Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents...?
'This round... must have overlapping explorations from both sides.'
There had to be records of such rounds.
I frantically searched my mental exploration logs for candidates, but the situation shifted first.
"K-kill it!"
Finally, people attacked the student doll.
And surprisingly.
Crack.
"Ack!"
"B-blood...!"
The 'Sekwang Industrial High School' student bled like a normal human.
Blood spurted, bruises formed, bones cracked.
"Ack!"
"What do we do, ah, shit..."
'...Sigh.'
Fear and dismay crawled up my spine.
But the agent, unfazed as if accustomed, gestured subtly toward the front door.
"First, let's use this opening to..."
"...Hm?"
That was when.
Figures appeared on the brightly lit central stairs visible beyond the open front door.
"...!"
Three or four people climbing silently.
They had one thing in common.
They all wore bizarre animal masks!
'Employees!'
And even familiar masks.
Water buffalo!
'Mr. Jang Heowoon.'
The Y Squad newbie who'd shared hardships in the theme park ghost story!
'Reassigned to general team?'
After how long?
With my recent mess, I hadn't checked others' rotations, but he'd survived three months unscathed.
'Anyway, good to see you. Really.'
But next to him... someone not so welcome, whom I'd seen earlier.
Black goat mask.
"......"
Baek Saheon.
'You two ended up in the same class, huh.'
They were following company safety guidelines: 'Take masks and wear them during actions'.
'I want to wear mine too.'
Check and use my brought items to boost escape odds.
Overall, best to naturally part from the agent and join them.
"A-agent..."
"Daydream Corporation...!"
"......"
Oh no.
"Be careful. If you encounter people in suits with animal masks here, never act like you know them."
The agent gritted his teeth, shooting a contemptuous glare forward.
"They're from that disgusting cult company. Don't get involved."
"......"
"Most employees are psychos with warped ethics. Stay cautious."
"......Yes."
Absolutely.
Absolutely don't get caught!