Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Happiness General Hospital - Horror Tale (9)
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“…Emergency patient incoming. Registering chart. Patient is on standby for transport.”
The moment cold, stiff fingertips wrapped around my wrist.
Thud—
My vision shook as if the floor had given way, and when I came to, my body was already strapped onto a bed.
Clank—
The bed rolled forward as if its wheels were being dragged.
Beside me, the sound of rustling paper, followed by the scratching of a pen nib.
“Breathing, steady. Heart rate, normal... slightly elevated? Blood flow, elevated. Awaiting diagnosis. Precise examination required.”
A moment later, the bed stopped, and the nurse turned away while muttering.
“…I’ll fetch the morphine.”
The sound of the chart closing.
And footsteps gradually fading away.
Clank—
As the door shut, the emergency room fell back into silence.
“Let’s go.”
I sat up immediately.
From the time the nurse left until she returned to this room: 32 seconds.
Until I could escape: 50 seconds.
Pat, pat. I calmly brushed off the dust and caught my breath.
Among the row of cabinets, the third one from the left.
I took ten steps forward toward it.
Then three steps to the left.
From that spot, I crouched down and looked to the left—
‘Bingo.’
An object on the floor caught my eye.
I picked it up right away.
A cold, eerie texture brushed against my fingertips.
The first time had been luck.
Passing through the emergency room in one go.
From then on, the journey from entering the emergency room to reaching the general treatment ward was full of more twists and turns than expected.
Loop 1.
Too cocky from the first successful try and my earlier agility dodging the guard, I tripped over my own feet and face-planted.
I knew regression wasn’t an option for escaping.
But the nurse’s remark as she approached mentally finished me off.
“Paaatient— your leg huuuurts, doesn’t it?”
Loop 2.
I slipped trying to get off the bed too quickly and rolled dramatically across the floor.
All sorts of items I grabbed while falling clattered loudly.
The nurse stopped, turned back.
Soon my body was bound with ropes, and that loop ended.
I accomplished nothing that time.
Loop 3.
In simple terms, I got lost.
Running down the tense hallway.
This looked like that, that like this.
Wandering like that, I eventually got caught by a nurse.
...
And now.
More than half the emergency room’s map was etched in my mind.
‘...Fuck.’
***
Soon, footsteps approached my location.
Thud... thud...
Clank.
The creaky door slowly opened, and the nurse entered, swinging her long arms.
Her empty eye sockets reflected the white fluorescent light.
Her gaze swept around, heading toward the bed I’d been lying on.
I silently counted down inside my head.
…Ten, nine.
Soon, the nurse’s head heading for the bed stopped.
A slight tremor.
Staring piercingly at the empty bed, she seemed to register that the spot was vacant.
The moment the nurse’s mouth split open grotesquely upon sensing something wrong.
I hurled the object in my hand to the opposite side with all my strength.
Clang—!
“Paa—paaa—tient, wheeeere—?”
The medical tool that hit the floor rolled, its sharp metallic ring echoing everywhere.
Almost simultaneously, the nurse’s voice rang out.
Bang.. bang..
Amid the reverberating echoes, the nurse’s head slowly tilted to the right.
I got up.
Slipping out the door in the rhythm of it closing.
...One. Zero.
I turned right into the visible hallway and kept going straight.
It was darker inside than expected, so anything beyond a certain distance was hard to see, but I’d seen this scenery countless times already.
Bang!
The door behind me shattered.
“……Paa—paaa—tient, wheeeere are yooouuuu.”
The nurse noticed my absence and burst out.
But by then, I’d already reached my destination.
[Patient Room]
***
Stepping inside, a familiar sight unfolded before me.
A space wallpapered entirely in white, without a single window.
No other furniture, giving the feeling that something was missing.
The only things there.
A bed in the center of the patient room.
And one girl lying on it.
[파천황] : Don’t touch that thing.
[Not Human] : It’s fake. No contents. Just an illusion.
[Crazy Woman] : Not human, empty shell. Nothing inside the body.
The chats scrolled down just like in the previous loop.
Last loop, I hadn’t had time to ask amid the urgency, but now I wasn’t pressed for time.
I voiced the question that came to mind.
“..Is there a way to tell fakes from the real thing?”
[파천황] : …How the hell should I know just by looking, huh?
[Not Human] : For real lol. If there was, I’d be rich. I’d sell everything I own for it.
[Crazy Woman] : Newb, you watch too many fantasy movies?
My face flushes.
‘No. Then how do you know?’
The video I bought from storage for 200 coins—when it came down to what I needed, it was really just the first minute.
From that short clip alone, I couldn’t make a firm judgment.
It had ended up as just my guess.
One of the ghosts watching my expression stopped teasing and spoke up.
[Not Human] : Because that thing’s been sitting there forever.
[Not Human] : Call it a dummy doll to bait people.
Bait people?
But in a dangerous situation like this, would anyone freeze up just from seeing a girl like that?
‘..Except me.’
[Not Human] : I know what you’re thinking. It’s not like that. It’s not there to bait visitors to this room like you.
[Not Human] : ……Well, maybe a little?
[Not Human] : The key point is. Alpha. Horror Tales don’t just kill people outright.
[Not Human] : Remember the ‘New Employee First Day Anomaly’ from before?
“I remember.”
[Not Human] : ..Horror Tales know exactly how to make people despair most.
[Not Human] : So they make a doll. Based on the person’s most cherished existence.
[Not Human] : You remember that guy you saw when you first came in?
Taking my silence as affirmation, ‘Not Human’ kept typing.
[Not Human] : That guy made a sort of contract with the Horror Tale.
[Not Human] : Sacrificing something in exchange for receiving something later.
“Why—”
[Not Human] : Why go through the hassle? Obviously because there’s gain. In those cases, the Horror Tale gets freer.
[Not Human] : In modern terms.
[Not Human] : It’s like subcontracting. Humans aren’t the only ones adapting and learning from the environment. Horror Tales learn and adapt by observing humans too.
“...”
[Not Human] : Horror Tales gain a lot from this.
[Not Human] : They’re not bound by rules.
[Not Human] : They can bait incoming people like in the lobby.
[Not Human] : Truth is… Horror Tales don’t even need to bait people.
A foreboding chill ran through me at ‘Not Human’s words.
“No way..”
[Not Human] : Yeah. The intense emotions that middle-aged man spits out.
[Not Human] : Desperation.
[Not Human] : Urgency.
[Not Human] : Despair.
[Not Human] : Pain.
[Not Human] : All of it becomes food and power for it.
My mouth gapes at the endless malice.
[Not Human] : It’s no loss for the Horror Tale in any way.
[Not Human] : No downside. Eventually, repeating that wears down the human soul until it vanishes.
[Not Human] : Then? If the contract’s subject disappears?
[Not Human] : The Horror Tale doesn’t even have to pay up.
[Not Human] : The subject’s gone.
[Not Human] : That’s fate.
[Not Human] : For humans.
[Not Human] : Who make contracts with Horror Tales.
I approached the girl staring blankly ahead.
Patient info was visible.
Name: Kim Boram.
Guardian: Kim Myung-hoon (43 years old)
[Not Human] : So don’t misunderstand. This isn’t like last time where you can intervene.
[Not Human] : Unlike the New Employee First Day Anomaly, you’re a patient here, not staff.
[Not Human] : You have no say in this hospital’s contract.
Her chats appeared.
No usual trolling vibe.
Just worry from someone worn down.
[Not Human] : Give up.
[Not Human] : Just worry about your own body.
[Not Human] : That’s the safe way.
[Not Human] : That’s the smart way.
[Not Human] : It’s okay to be a little selfish.
[Not Human] : …To put it harshly, this is just... yeah, someone else’s misfortune.
…Safe.
After that, my memory blurs; I don’t know how it went.
I left the patient room, stopped by the admissions office, and entered the girl’s name.
I learned that the payment required at checkout varied by the numbered treatment rooms.
Treatment Room 1: Heart.
Treatment Room 2: Brain.
And so on.
Dizzying.
At some point, I noticed.
I’d paid the fee at checkout and was turning away.
In my hand was a single pathetic paper stamped ‘Normal.’
Probably, this way, I could escape the Horror Tale.
I headed to the hospital’s main entrance.
I pressed the now-familiar button.
When the door opened.
Outside was no longer the dark forest scene.
The cityscape I’d been swept into was visible.
People passing by.
Cars filling the roads.
I stared blankly at the sight.
Blankly…
The automatic door closed.
Hiss—
And I was still standing inside the hospital.