The Examiner from Hell
I wrote a new sentence on the whiteboard.
Solution: Genre Twist
"You remember the toilet ghost from last time, right? We solved that by twisting the horror genre into a black comedy. It's the same thing this time."
"Twisting the genre?" Minhye tilted her head.
"The genre of this scenario is a 'car-chasing thriller,' isn't it?"
"Right."
"A story where an enraged ghost possesses a driver and hurtles toward catastrophe. What's the ghost's power source here?"
Seyeon answered, "Rage. Road rage."
"Exactly. It's angry. Because a car cut it off, because it got caught at a red light, or just because it hates the world. It's driving to let that rage explode."
"You mean the ghost, right?"
"Yeah, exactly. The bastard that's going to show up at midnight on Monday."
I looked around at my team members and grinned.
"Then let's think about the opposite. Instead of getting angry while driving, when is the most nerve-wracking, heart-stopping moment behind the wheel?"
"Um... when you're a complete beginner?"
"When you get into an accident?"
The team members threw out their opinions. Shaking my head, I wrote the correct answer on the board.
What if it's a driver's license test?
"Ah... of course... I see where you're going with this!" gasp-like realizations escaped their mouths simultaneously.
"Think about it. A strict examiner is sitting in the passenger seat. Points docked for not using your turn signal when changing lanes, points docked for gripping the steering wheel too tightly, points docked for crossing the stop line... Could you really get angry then? Forget anger—you'd be breaking out in a cold sweat."
Next, I slapped a photo of Professor Park Jinchul onto the whiteboard.
"We have the perfect actor for this. Professor Park Jinchul. You know what he's normally like, right? Particular, a stickler for the rules, and the ultimate old-school pedant who loves pointing out everyone else's flaws."
"He's... literally the embodiment of that."
"Right now, the professor is consumed by the ghost's rage, so he's furious too. But what if I use my authority to crank his natural personality up to two hundred percent?"
I wrote a role name next to his photo.
Role: The Driving Examiner from Hell
"When the ghost tries to jerk the wheel and speed, instead of the professor going wild along with it... he'll be evaluating and criticizing the ghost's driving skills, maybe even outright dismissing them."
I did my best impression of the professor's voice.
"'Hey! You there. Why is your cornering so rough? Zero points for ride comfort! That's a traffic violation! You lack the basic fundamentals!' Just like that. What do you think?"
"Pfft!" Minhye burst out laughing.
"Wow, I can actually picture it. The ghost is going to be so dumbfounded... It's driving like a maniac to kill everyone, and some guy is next to it unleashing a barrage of nagging."
"That's the key. Completely throwing off the ghost's rhythm. Instead of letting it run wild on pure rage, we make it stressed out from the constant nagging. We stop it from focusing on the road."
Seyeon pushed up her glasses, her eyes shining. "That makes sense. Instead of physically blocking the ghost's rampage, we introduce a character to force a genre shift. But how do we finish it? Nagging alone won't stop the car."
"Exactly. That's why we'll use a Setting Addition."
I pulled out my final card.
However, any vehicle deemed 'disqualified' by the examiner must immediately cease operation and pull over to the shoulder.
"This is the rule I'm going to add. Forcing the Road Traffic Act and the rules of the driver's license exam to become the absolute laws of this scenario."
"Whoa... incredible. It's over," Deokhu marveled.
"So the moment the professor shouts, 'That's it, you're disqualified!' the car has to stop no matter what?"
"Precisely. Even if the physics engine is broken, we'll shut down the engine of the narrative itself."
I set down the whiteboard marker.
"But there's one critical prerequisite for this plan."
The team members swallowed hard.
"For me to apply the [Role Assignment] to the professor and control the situation... we have to be right next to that car."
"Walkie-talkies or wiretaps won't cut it. It has to be a distance where my voice and my will can reach him. In other words, we have to pull up right next to that Grandeur speeding at a hundred kilometers an hour, roll down the window, and make eye contact. You know what that means, right?"
Only then did Deokhu's face turn pale.
"So... that's why you told me to modify the van?"
"Yeah. The fact that we have to race doesn't change..."
I looked straight at Deokhu.
"Deokhu. If we want to save the professor, survive this crazy road, and pull this off, we need your car. A sturdy, incredibly fast monster of a machine. We can't just rent a sports car out of nowhere, so if we're going to make do with what we have..."
Deokhu hesitated for a moment, then clenched his fists as if making up his mind.
"Sigh... I get it. Hearing you explain it makes me realize why we have to do this."
"Good. And Minhye."
"Yes?"
"You have your filming lights, right? Bring those too."
"What for?"
"To blind them. We need to disrupt the ghost's vision so it can't focus on driving. Seyeon, get ready to hack the navigation system. If the ghost tries to head toward a cliff, we have to keep disrupting its route."
The plan was complete.
Step 1: Modify the van and prepare for the chase. Step 2: Track down and intercept the runaway Grandeur. Step 3: Activate [Role Assignment] to awaken the professor as the examiner. Step 4: Activate [Setting Addition] to induce a disqualification and force a stop. Step 5: Emergency escape.
I held up the car keys.
"Now that we know the why and the how... let's go build it. Another monster to catch the monster on the road."
With grim expressions, we stepped out of the hideout.
It was time to head to the empty lot and give Deokhu's van a new lease on life.
I wrote one more thing in large letters on the whiteboard.
Mad Max (X) → Infinite Challenge (O)
"Professional tuning? We don't need it. This car only needs to survive Monday night. If we can't boost the engine power, we'll just make the car lighter. If we can't weld, we'll wrap it in tape."
"We have the [System Reset] on our side. Even if the car gets totaled or torn to shreds, as long as we succeed in the task, it'll be back to brand new by Tuesday morning. So..."
"Don't hold back—tear it all down and rebuild it. Tonight, we're turning this van into a monster of the road."
An hour later, we moved to a secluded empty lot near the campus.
It was pitch black without a single streetlight, but once Deokhu turned on the work lights he'd brought, it transformed into a decent outdoor garage.
A dilapidated gray van sat alone in the center.
Dented and rusted all over, it was a vehicle that had been rotting away at Deokhu's family home.
"Alright, let's begin. Step 1: Weight reduction."
I grabbed a monkey wrench and a screwdriver and flung the van doors wide open.
"We reduce the weight to increase the speed. Strip away everything that isn't absolutely necessary for driving."
"What do you mean by unnecessary? Like what?"
When Minhye asked, I pointed to the back seats.
"This. And that. Every single bit of it."
We huddled inside and began unscrewing the bolts of the back seats.
"Ugh, look at all this dust! Oppa, do you ever clean your car?"
"Hey! Those seats are full of precious memories!"
Our demolition work didn't stop.
Clatter! Thud!
"Whoa... will this thing even run with everything stripped out?" Seyeon asked worriedly, looking at the bare interior of the van.
"Well, we can't do a professional strip-down anyway. We're just pulling out what we can, so it'll be fine."
And then...
"Step 2: Reinforcing defense."
An old mattress salvaged from the recycling bin of my studio apartment building.
From my bag, I pulled out ten rolls of heavy-duty duct tape, ratchet straps for securing cargo, and tough gaffer tape commonly used on movie sets.
"Let's wrap it up!"
We pressed scrap tires against the front and rear bumpers of the van, binding them frantically with ropes and ratchet straps. Not stopping there, we wrapped them in layers of duct tape until the tires and the chassis became one.
We cut up the mattress and strapped the pieces to the sides of the vehicle. It was a makeshift defense against side-impact collisions, but it looked surprisingly decent.
"But seriously... this looks incredibly sketchy..." Minhye giggled as she looked at the finished bumper.
It certainly looked ridiculous.
It looked like we had plastered trash all over the car. Far from the grand, post-apocalyptic aesthetic of Mad Max, it looked like a vehicle a local junk dealer would drive. I couldn't help but chuckle myself.
"But we have to do whatever we can to prepare for the worst."
I called out to Deokhu. "Deokhu, you're up. Step 3: Installing special equipment."
"Yes, sir! Ready to go!"
And then...
"Minhye, bring the lights."
"On it!"
What Minhye brought was an HMI light, a professional film-set fixture.
An essential tool for night shoots, capable of casting a glare as bright as broad daylight.
"Where do we mount this?"
"On the roof. Like a searchlight."
We laid the light stand across the roof of the van, slathering it with cable ties and tape to secure it. We hooked up the power to a high-capacity portable generator Deokhu had brought.
"You said this was to blind them, right?"
I grinned as I explained, "If the Grandeur tries to threaten us, or if we need to overtake and block it. If we blast this HMI light directly through their windshield? Even if the ghost of a legendary racer was driving, they wouldn't be able to see a thing and would have to slow down."
"Ah! Visual disruption?"
"And this is for an auditory assault."
Deokhu mounted two speakers to the rear of the roof.
These could be used to shout at the car chasing us, or to blast high-frequency waves like we did last time.
3:00 AM.
All work was complete.
We took a step back to admire our creation.
"Oh..."
"Wow..."
A festival of scrap tires and duct tape wrapped around the front and rear bumpers.
Mattress pieces plastered haphazardly along the sides.
A massive light and speakers mounted on the roof.
A visual monstrosity that would make any passing cop immediately pull us over and arrest the driver on the spot.
"What do you think? With this, don't you think we can go toe-to-toe with a possessed Grandeur?"
"Forget going toe-to-toe, I think the ghost will take one look at this and run away in terror," Deokhu chuckled.
"Alright, let's take it for a test drive. Deokhu, start her up."
"Yes, sir!"
Deokhu climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key.
Vrooooom!!!
It sounded almost like a tank roaring to life.
"The engine sounds killer!"
Deokhu stepped on the gas.
The van surged forward, kicking up dirt. It definitely felt lighter.
Excited, Deokhu spun the wheel, drifting in circles around the empty lot.
The smell of burning rubber and clouds of dust filled the air.
Minhye flipped the switch for the lights.
Flash!
The HMI light on the roof pierced through the darkness of the lot.
"Nice. Not bad at all."
I crossed my arms, watching with satisfaction.
Of course, all of this was highly illegal and incredibly dangerous.
But we knew. This hideous hunk of scrap metal was the only life jacket that could save Professor Park's life.
And once everything was over, the [System Reset] would descend and cleanly erase all traces of this mad tuning.
"Bring it to a stop!"
At my signal, Deokhu slammed on the brakes.
"How is it, Hyung? Does it pass?"
"Yeah, it's perfect."
The car was ready.
The wiretap and GPS tracker we'd planted on the professor's car were fully operational.
We had also prepared an emergency car hammer and a fire extinguisher, just in case.
All that was left was to hope Professor Park would make it safely to Monday, and that we would arrive in time the moment the entity showed its true colors.
"Let's go. Get some sleep. On Monday night, we won't even have time to blink."
We packed up our gear and left the empty lot.