Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Treasure Hunt While Avoiding the Monster
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It's a pretty classic genre, so it feels familiar.
You might think it's similar to hide-and-seek at first glance, but there's one huge difference.
The attitude you bring to the game.
If you've come here just to play hide-and-seek, then running away is all it takes.
But the moment you step in looking for treasure, your goal shifts from escape to "treasure hunting."
I left the teacher—who had fully hidden herself inside the bathroom—behind and scanned my surroundings.
The windows, lightly dusted from neglect, revealed only a deep abyss of darkness.
This told me two things: I wouldn't be slipping out easily, and it reminded me I'd entered a tale.
On the opposite side of the windows, several classrooms lined up in a row, including the one I'd come from. But things were off—another boys' bathroom right next to this one, or a nonexistent fourth-grade classroom next to the first-grade rooms. The layout was distorted somewhere.
As always in these kinds of tales, item placements are completely random, so even I had no idea where the treasure was hidden.
That meant checking every single classroom one by one.
The sheer scale of four floors was already overwhelming, but aside from the teacher, there wasn't much of a threat.
I just had to treat it like a grind.
Still, I needed to move to another floor before the teacher came out of the bathroom.
I crept quietly toward the staircase on the opposite side of the bathroom.
As I kept my steps light and surveyed the area, a faint glimmer caught my eye.
I froze and looked closer. A thin thread stretched between the walls.
Following it led to several bells stained with dark bloodstains, grinning murderously at me.
The moment those bells rang, the teacher would come charging out like a madwoman.
From a civilian's perspective, the teacher's overall power level was beyond handling.
How many people had sacrificed themselves to those bells, I wondered.
Not many would venture into an abandoned school just to reach Class 2-11, after all.
I lightly stepped over the thread and climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.
From here, I'd search floor by floor on the way down.
The fourth floor didn't look much different from the second floor earlier, but it was noticeably darker—hard to see ahead.
Well, that's what flashlights are for, but I'd memorized the internal layouts of the classrooms anyway, so no need.
I just had to know which class I was entering.
Let me recall what I needed to find.
First, the treasure—that was my goal for coming here.
Normally, you'd also need the exit key, but...
I had a key in my pocket just waiting to be jammed into thin air, so why bother?
It was a bit of a cheat, sure, but as long as I escaped, what was the problem?
A closer look showed the first classroom was Class 1-2.
Eight lockers and a few desks inside—check the lockers, done.
I kept a sharp eye out for the teacher approaching as my hand reached into the fourth locker and snagged something cold.
Found it already?
"..."
I'd hoped it was the treasure, but nope—just another useless exit key.
Not that I'd expected much on the first try.
Thud.
A faint footstep echoed suddenly.
Considering my hearing had long surpassed normal human levels, this sound was coming from the floor below.
If I stomped around carelessly, it'd be like annoying the neighbor upstairs—the teacher would come grabbing for me.
Even if we crossed paths, it'd just be annoying, but who knows what could happen? Better to avoid it.
No telling when she'd come up, so I needed to loot quick and head to another floor.
"..."
Long story short, nothing on the fourth floor.
A few firecrackers and a couple pencils at best?
The situation—unable to make noise because of the teacher—felt frustrating.
The faint footsteps still echoed from the third floor.
Time to head straight to the second.
I glided silently toward the stairs, brushing the floor with my feet.
As I moved, I couldn't help thinking this must be what it feels like to be a real ninja. Before I knew it, my feet had reached the third floor.
Just one more floor down—
Thud.
"Gasp."
Whoa, close call!
Almost yelled out loud by mistake!
Right in front of me stood the teacher, staring blankly into space.
Luckily, she hadn't spotted me.
She looked grotesque up close, come to think of it.
Like a corpse someone had toyed with for ages had come back to life on its own.
That face... ugh.
I restrained my movements and tossed a writing utensil from my pocket to the opposite side.
Tok. Her head swiveled toward the sound.
I seized the gap and slipped down to the second floor.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Found it!
No, wait—after scouring from the fourth floor down, it's on the first? Come on.
I skipped the third, sure, but this was ridiculous.
I buried my indignation deep inside and admired the treasure I'd finally uncovered.
A black cat statue.
Black cats symbolize misfortune, so it had some quirky powers, but that's exactly why I came for it.
Now, just get out.
Conveniently on the first floor, exit nearby—maybe go straight for it.
I stepped into the hallway.
Jingle jangle—
Oh.
A thread wrapped around my ankle, bells emitting a beautiful chime.
And then the mad footsteps thundering in.
They echoed through the entire hallway.
The teacher's ankles kept snagging more bells as she charged, their tinkling driving me nuts.
I could see the exit.
About twenty meters ahead?
But behind me, the teacher's hazy figure was sharpening into focus.
Well, no choice—time to go.
I turned the key right away.
Into thin air, of course.
A door materialized out of nowhere.
The teacher would wander for a while, clueless if I'd escaped or what, searching for the missing me. I sent her my best wishes for her future efforts and stepped through the door.
"I'm back."
Looking at the black cat statue in my hand, it seemed the mission was a success.
"Took a little time, that's all."
True to its name, the "Black Cat Statue" was a small figurine, under ten centimeters tall.
Truth be told, that school tale wasn't really about treasure hunting, and this statue wasn't the treasure either.
Originally, it was just an item for pulling aggro from the teacher.
But for me, that aggro was exactly what I needed.
Conceptually, it lured in beings who'd lost something. Pour water on it, and the teacher would come shambling toward it like she was hypnotized.
The teacher must've lost her sight or something.
Or maybe vacation days or her paycheck.
Anyway, activating this statue would draw unlucky customers straight to the shop.
Best part? Just wait out the cooldown, and you can reuse it endlessly.
In theory, if it worked right, people needing my shop's goods would come knocking.
Time to test it immediately.
I wet the cat statue with water, and it began to tremble faintly.
The moment the trembling stopped...
Meow.
With an ideal sound, it signaled the ability's activation.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Beep boop—
A tiny one-room apartment. Memories from some forgotten time flood in through the window.
An old police uniform hangs on the wall, and beneath it, a man lies staring at the ceiling.
Prominent scars on his two fingers catch the eye.
At first, when Seoul collapsed, he fled to the first affordable place he could enter immediately: a one-room.
It was shabbier than his old home, but that didn't seem to matter much to him.
The man buried his face in the pillow, lost in memories of the past.
A tale he'd gotten tangled in over a month ago with some kid—the fragile mental state he'd felt then, all proven by the vivid scars on his fingers.
He loathed himself for even considering sacrificing the child, and he acutely felt the powerlessness of being a cop in this world.
In the end, rather than toughening his mind, he chose to let it crumble.
Since that day, an overwhelming phobia of doors had followed him everywhere, ultimately forcing him to quit the force.
A cop who couldn't open a single door had no value.
So, for those reasons, he'd been burning through his savings, living as a total shut-in.
"...Still gotta buy food, at least."
He shrugged off the police uniform he could no longer wear and rummaged for clothes scattered on the floor.
As his hand touched the doorknob, his stomach churned, but he endured and turned it.
Thankfully, it opened to the familiar hallway he knew.
Avoiding doors as much as possible, he made it to the convenience store.
Even entering, he waited for someone else to open the door first and slipped in behind them.
'Not bad.'
Meow.
He paid for a few cup ramens and, with steps lighter than he could comprehend, pushed open the door.
That's when a voice he never wanted to hear again filled the space.
"Hello, customer."
His limbs trembled uncontrollably.
His mind, muddled with antipsychotics and delusions, couldn't properly grasp the situation.
'Hallucination... it's a hallucination. Did I forget my meds? ...No way it's real! No, it has to be.'
His mind raced with words.
But what actually escaped his lips...
"Ugh..."
Was nothing but a groan burrowing into the floor.