Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Happiness Comprehensive Hospital Horror Tale (13)
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The shadows that had filled the corridor began to recede, and the hospital director's triumphant expression slowly hardened.
Even as he swung his six arms to forcibly push back the massive hands lunging toward him.
For the first time, fear and panic flickered across his face.
**Boom!**
The ceiling split open, and another hand plunged down without warning.
The hospital director gritted his teeth and swung his arms to block it, sending debris flying in all directions with the clash.
But then the floor rumbled, and another hand shot up from the cracked gap.
And yet another, clawing its way out through the wall.
The endlessly multiplying hands bore down on the hospital director.
“…I, I shall grant you life!”
He turned his gaze toward me.
A grotesque light shimmered in his hollow eye sockets.
That gaze fixed on the button in my hand.
“Youth! Eternal life! Whatever you desire, I shall make it yours…!”
His rasping voice filled the corridor.
“Just that button… the one on that hand… give it to me, to me!”
His voice cracked like a plea.
It was no longer a threat, but a seductive whisper.
“…It’s something you don’t need, human. Without handing over that button, you’ll simply age and sicken like any other mortal.”
As if that button were his last lifeline.
“Give it to me. You shall be saved forever… with a robust body free of any ailment…”
The overwhelming presence from when he first tore through the ceiling was gone.
All I saw was a pathetic beast begging for its life.
I slowly approached him.
For a moment, the hospital director's face lit up.
He must have thought I was about to offer what he wanted.
“Stop groveling.”
“…What?”
“Get off the stage. Your turn’s over.”
I kicked the hospital director squarely in the back with all my strength.
It was a casual kick, yet strangely, I felt power surging through my entire body in that instant.
His body pitched forward.
And that was enough.
My role was done.
The rest—
**Boom!**
Hands erupted from the floor and seized the hospital director.
The precarious balance shattered in an instant.
*Crunch, boom, crackle—!*
Chaotic noises raged in the darkness.
A moment later.
As the sounds enveloping everything subsided, no bipedal anomaly remained standing in the hospital.
The pulverized hospital director, pinned to the floor, twisted his head to glare at me.
Five of his six arms had been torn away, and the remaining one merely scraped weakly at the ground, broken.
More than half of his massive torso was buried in the floor, flailing amid dirt and rubble.
The anomaly's form was no longer overwhelming.
It was merely wreckage, desperately clinging as it slowly sank into the earth.
Yet even then, he opened his mouth one last time.
“…The, the button… give it to me…!”
His broken arm scraped the floor, groping toward my hand through empty air.
“It’s… not too late yet. Your parents, your children… anyone you desire… I can bring them back to life…”
I smiled and moved my hand toward him.
“Hurry… hurry and give it…!”
His face brightened.
The expression of someone deluded into thinking he could turn the tables at the last moment.
I raised my middle finger.
“Where do you get off, you anomaly scum.”
His laughter froze.
Behind him, a massive, incomprehensible arm rose from the ground.
The overwhelming form I had seen upon first entering this hospital.
This time, it seized the anomaly in one grasp.
Dragging it down into the depths.
The danger was gone.
“Time to head home…”
As I let out a sigh of relief and turned my head, my opening mouth clamped shut again.
The middle-aged man who should have been there was nowhere to be seen.
The one who loved his family more than anyone.
The perfect dad.
As if he had never existed in the first place.
Shortly after the anomaly was dragged into the floor, a brilliant white light exploded from the depths below.
In an instant, the darkness cleared, and the shadows filling the hospital scattered to pieces.
My vision gradually brightened.
A space where I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
In that light, for some reason—
I thought I vaguely saw two figures standing together.
…Clear.
**Ding!**
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[Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital Horror Tale]
[Progress]: 100%
[Rulebook – Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital Horror Tale]
Rule 1. Patient Identity
1-1. Everyone entering this place has the unified identity of ‘patient’.
1-2. If approached by a nurse or doctor, you must maintain patient demeanor.
Rule 2. Hospital Boundaries
2-1. Do not attempt to leave the hospital.
2-2. Even if the entrance is open, leaving without permission will immediately ‘terminate’ your patient record.
2-3. ‘Termination’ is not discharge.
Rule 3. Windows and Forest
3-1. Do not look at the forest outside the hospital building.
ㄴ If the forest enters your view, immediately close your eyes and count to 10.
ㄴ Do not react even if you see hands from the forest.
Rule 4. Patients in the Waiting Line Dolls
4-1. All patient dolls possess number tickets. They are only permitted to move when ‘their number is called’.
4-2. Stealing or swapping patient dolls’ number tickets is prohibited.
ㄴ If caught, an alarm sounds, and a security anomaly appears.
ㄴ If caught by security, you will be forcibly expelled from the hospital. (Immediate ‘absorption’ death)
4-3. However, sitting next to or waiting like a patient doll is allowed.
ㄴ Maintain ‘patient’ behavior.
4-4. The wait never ends. Numbers advance beyond allotted times, so your turn won’t come through normal means.
Rule 5. Nurses
5-1. Nurses classify patients as ‘emergency’ or ‘non-emergency’.
ㄴ Non-emergency leads to death by ‘bleeding’.
ㄴ If deemed emergency, you’re charted and forcibly bedded.
5-2. Move while the nurse is away.
ㄴ Physical resistance is insufficient even for an adult male.
ㄴ Staying still long-term risks exposure, so don’t linger.
5-3. Nurses call patients with mechanical voices.
ㄴ Hide or minimize movement upon hearing it. Pursuit begins if spotted.
ㄴ Their hearing surpasses normal adults.
ㄴ Speed increases drastically if a patient flees.
5-4. Nurses only act within assigned areas.
Rule 6. Security Guards
6-1. Security guards are anomalies in black uniforms with empty eyes, enforcing hospital order.
ㄴ They are not singular entities.
6-2. They appear immediately if you steal number tickets or cause a disturbance.
6-3. Resistance is futile once caught; you’re forcibly expelled.
ㄴ Expelled individuals are immediately seized and absorbed by the ‘black arms’ outside.
6-4. Zoned security guards do not leave their areas. (Lobby security guards only guard the lobby)
ㄴ This shows anomalies cannot deviate from their roles.
Rule 7. Hospital Rooms and Dolls
7-1. The child (or patient) lying on the hospital bed is not a real human.
ㄴ Hollow inside, merely dolls modeled after patients.
ㄴ Treating dolls as patients can partially disrupt or alter rules.
ㄴ Dolls may temporarily gain life.
7-2. Discarding dolls raises survival odds but prevents true ending.
Rule 8. Contractors
8-1. This hospital occasionally has human contractors bound to the horror tale.
ㄴ If you miss the timing or no contractor is in the lobby, switch strategies quickly.
8-2. If a contractor’s ‘payment’ becomes invalid, the horror tale is restrained at the contractor’s request.
8-3. Contractors can willfully alter payments or demand immediate fulfillment of overdue ones.
ㄴ Altered payments must be fulfilled with something from within this horror tale world.
ㄴ Outcomes vary by contractor actions, so choose this route cautiously.
Rule 9. Hospital Director
9-1. The hospital director is a superior entity with six arms, the ‘core’ of this hospital.
9-2. Prefers endless bargaining over direct combat.
ㄴ Never sign, no matter how appealing.
ㄴ Rash contracts without expertise can bring disaster.
Rule 10. Medical Certificate
10-1. Complete treatment and receive ‘normal’ diagnosis from the doctor.
10-2. Complete payment procedures after diagnosis.
10-3. Discharge is denied without full payment.
10-4. Non-‘normal’ results keep you as a patient indefinitely.
[Rulebook Update Complete]
[Current Rule Count: 10]
[Level: Danger Class]
[Next Stage Conditions Met]
[You have successfully neutralized the Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital Horror Tale.]
[First Clear Bonus: 100 Horror Tale Coins awarded.]
[Initial Clear Bonus: 100 Horror Tale Coins awarded.]
[100% Progress Bonus: 200 Horror Tale Coins awarded.]
[You have completely destroyed the Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital Horror Tale.]
[Hidden Bonus: Complete annihilation of the horror tale.]
[Reward: 1000 Horror Tale Coins awarded.]
*Horror Tale Coins can be used at the Horror Tale Shop.
*Coins sponsored via broadcast will be tallied and settled after broadcast ends.
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***
The light faded, revealing an ordinary scene.
I stood before the automatic doors.
I caught my breath briefly and turned on my heel.
I still had unfinished business.
I headed to the shop I’d visited that morning.
[Boram Restaurant]
Perhaps because dinner time had passed, the shop was quiet, filled only with lingering warm air.
Opening the door rang the bell clearly.
In the silent dining hall, only faint dishwashing sounds continued.
The ajumma looked up, her eyes widening slightly.
“Oh my, you came once for lunch and now again…”
She greeted me like a familiar customer.
“…May I ask why the shop’s sign reads ‘Boram’?”
The ajumma’s mechanical movements paused.
A smile seeped into her expressionless face, as if a long-forgotten memory had resurfaced.
“…It’s my daughter’s name. Kim Boram. My husband and I named it that.”
Her smile was tender, as if stirring buried memories.
I’d used quite a few Horror Tale Coins today.
I should save them, considering the possibilities.
There were endless things I could do.
But contrary to my thoughts, my lips moved first.
“…I’ll pay the price.”
The Recorder’s Pen glowed faintly, activating its extra function.
Memory sharing.
Light rippled outward like waves.
The ajumma’s vision shook.
It blurred, sharpened, then her gaze went vacant.
What I showed her wasn’t much.
His final choice and resolve in life.
And the relief he ultimately found.
Whether the two figures I saw standing side by side were in that memory, I wasn’t sure.
It had been too vague to discern hallucination from reality.
Still.
I hoped his final moments reached her.
Something quietly trailed down the ajumma’s cheeks from her eyes as she stood there for a while.
When I first came here for lunch, I hadn’t thought much of it.
I assumed her dry tone came from fatigue.
I figured the calendar stuck on 2012 was just laziness, as she’d said.
Her weary, mechanical speech, the time frozen at 2012.
It wasn’t indifference—time had stopped for her since then.
“…Ah.”
A deep, immeasurable sigh poured from her.
I quietly closed the shop door and slipped out.
So as not to disturb their long-overdue family reunion.
***
It happened as I walked slowly along the street in front of the restaurant.
The door burst open behind me, and someone rushed out.
I flinched instinctively.
I hadn’t set a boundary when activating the ability earlier, so I hadn’t considered bystander reactions.
Had I been caught—
Footsteps approached, and soon a woman stood before me.
Panting heavily, hands on her knees.
She looked to be in her early twenties.
Yet she seemed familiar.
A face I’d seen somewhere before.
Long black hair.
Pale skin.
Déjà vu around her eyes.
Suddenly, a memory flashed, and the nameless impression clicked into place like puzzle pieces.
The woman looked up.
A bright smile played on her lips.
My mouth fell open.