Descent into the Unknown
Jeong Seok pointed at the large hole in the broadcast room floor and asked for my opinion. “Ha Yeong-won. Have you ever seen anything like this?”
“No. This is a first for me too. I’ve never even been to the broadcast room before.”
The hole in the broadcast room was a first for me as well. The gaping opening in the floor was pitch black, and the lighter’s flame couldn’t reveal its depth. Logically, though, it had to lead down to the basement level. The basement of the old building—the same place I’d visited with Yu Dahee and Jeong Seok, where I’d obtained the magic wand. Either way, we now had a new choice.
1. Go down.
2. Don’t go down.
While we were still debating, a sound rang in my ears.
Chii-ring—! Chii-ring—! Chii-ri-ri-ring—!
It was the sharp, piercing sound of a bell.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
A scream filled with hatred followed right after. The shaman ghost, enraged after being stabbed by Yang Ju-hui, had already reached us.
Clack—.
Rattle—!
The sound of doors opening was loud and frantic. Was it checking every room along the corridor one by one? I wasn’t the only one who realized this. Jeong Seok asked in a tense voice, “Hey. What do we do? If we hide here, we’ll just end up cornered again. Make a decision.”
After thinking it over from every angle, I made up my mind. “Fine. Screw it. Let’s go! What’s the worst that could happen—death? Let’s do this! Move!”
Simply surviving in this terrifying place meant nothing. If this was a game called the Nightmare Corridor, then the real meaning lay in conquering and progressing, not just staying alive. Jeong Seok nodded at my conclusion. “Good idea. But how do we get down?”
He picked up a box that had been lying in the broadcast room and dropped it into the hole.
Thud—.
A sound came from the bottom almost immediately. “Roughly a 1kg object fell, and it took about a second to hit. Using the acceleration due to gravity… about two meters. The height seems to be around two meters.”
Two meters. Was there a ladder or some kind of platform? While I was glancing around, Yang Ju-hui spoke up. “Hey! Two meters isn’t enough to hurt you if you jump! I jumped from the second floor back in middle school, so I know!”
Apparently Yang Ju-hui had experience jumping from the second floor during her middle school days. I had plenty I wanted to say, but she seemed fed up with our discussion. She loosened up her limbs, sat at the edge of the hole, and jumped down as if making a grand decision.
Thud—!
“Ow!”
Yang Ju-hui cried out the moment she landed. I called down, “Hey! You okay?”
“I’m fine! Hey! It’s not as high as I thought!”
She seemed unharmed. Jeong Seok and I were impressed by her reckless courage. Now it was my turn. “I’m going.”
Hoo—.
After taking a deep breath, I jumped down with all my strength. Two meters wasn’t that high, but it still felt a little scary—though the ringing of the bell behind us was far more terrifying.
“Got you!”
Yang Ju-hui caught me. Finally, it was Jeong Seok’s turn. “Hey! I’m coming down! Catch me!”
Jeong Seok, perched at the edge of the hole, leaped toward us. Yang Ju-hui and I caught him safely, and all three of us made it down to the basement without serious injury.
Flick—.
Yang Ju-hui used the lighter to scan our surroundings. Contrary to expectations that the basement would be cold and damp, it was swelteringly hot. A sticky, fishy, and foul stench filled the air from every direction.
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「Save me」
「A ghost lives here」
The walls were covered in frantic, scribbled writing. It felt similar to the first floor where the ghosts roamed, yet somehow even more chilling.
“Look at that.”
Yang Ju-hui pointed at something she’d spotted. It looked like black threads at first glance. But as we approached, we realized they weren’t threads at all—they were strands of human hair. Fallen hair was scattered everywhere. Judging by the length, it seemed like it belonged to a woman, though we couldn’t be certain.
“So what do we do now?”
Yang Ju-hui asked while sweeping the lighter’s flame around. We’d escaped the enraged shaman ghost by coming down here, but we had no clear objective.
I made a quick but intense decision. “Let’s search around for now. Anything that could be a hint or useful—we grab it all.”
This was my first time in the basement level of the Nightmare Corridor. I needed to acquire anything that could help, then escape this place alive. Yes—find an escape route.
# # #
How long had we been walking? It felt like at least five minutes.
“Hey… was this corridor always a straight line?”
Yang Ju-hui, still holding the lighter, asked us. She was questioning the straight corridor structure of the basement level. Jeong Seok replied, “The basement corridor we went to with Yu Dahee didn’t look like this. That was reality, though. Now we’re inside the nightmare, so there might be differences.”
Step. Step.
Only the sound of our footsteps echoed through the basement. Just as it started to feel like we were looping through the same area, something strange appeared ahead.
“A bag. Whoa, this is a Louis Vuitton backpack!”
Yang Ju-hui fearlessly picked up the item lying on the floor. What was so special about it?
“This thing costs over three million won! I’ve always wanted one!”
So it was an extremely expensive luxury backpack. Ziiip—. Yang Ju-hui opened the zipper and pulled out the school supplies and textbooks inside.
Flick—.
Under the lighter’s glow, the textbooks looked like they belonged to a first-year student at Yeongji High. A name was written on them too.
「Gu Hye-na」.
Just as I was thinking the name sounded familiar, Jeong Seok spoke. “Gu Hye-na… wasn’t that the girl who went missing at the start of the semester?”
Right! Jeong Seok was correct. The name of the girl who’d caused such a stir after disappearing at the beginning of the semester was Gu Hye-na. So why was her stuff here?
“Nice. Loot acquired.”
Yang Ju-hui rummaged through the Louis Vuitton bag without any hesitation, despite it belonging to a missing person. Flutter—. A single sheet of paper fell out from inside the bag. It looked like a torn piece of a notebook, with writing on it.
「Shaman – No eyes. Can hear sounds well. Carries a bell. Doesn’t seem too dangerous if not provoked. But once spotted, it chases endlessly. Cannot leave the first floor.」
“It’s a note about the ghost!” Jeong Seok shouted in surprise. We decided to read the rest of the writing below it as well.
「Escape Talisman – Burning this talisman allows escape. One talisman per person. One is guaranteed to be in front of the statue. There is one statue per floor.」
There was also a drawing that seemed to depict the talisman. It looked like an object with the character written on it.
「I can do this. I can do this. The longer I stay, the more I feel like I’m being swallowed by this place. I need to find it and get out quickly. But is it really possible? I don’t know how long I’ve been here. I’m a prisoner trapped in an eternal cave… My name was… what was it?」
It was someone’s journal. The handwriting became harder to read toward the end, but it was valuable information nonetheless. Jeong Seok shouted, “If we find this ‘Escape Talisman,’ we can escape!”
“At least one of us has to escape no matter what. If we die here, we’ll lose our memories. This information has to be remembered by someone who makes it out. No matter what!”
It was high-grade information we’d obtained for the first time. We couldn’t afford to lose it all in a total wipe. Flutter—. Yang Ju-hui flipped the notebook over. There was writing on the back as well.
「The rotting flesh was buried at the Gaeryong Mountain rock ledge. Only the head is needed. I am the jailer and the liberator. I will faithfully carry out my assigned duty.」
Yang Ju-hui muttered, “…This… was this written by the missing Gu Hye-na? No, it doesn’t look like a girl’s handwriting. The content on the back doesn’t either. Creepy. Who would write something like this?”
It was creepy. I thought the same. I’d planned to thoroughly explore the Nightmare Corridor today, but the more I learned, the more I just wanted to get out of this damned place immediately. Jeong Seok spoke up. “…What does it mean they buried something at the Gaeryong Mountain rock ledge? Is it just me, or does that bother you too?”
…I don’t know, damn it. Honestly, I felt like we’d gathered enough information for today. This was enough to escape. I looked around and spoke as calmly as possible to shake off the chills. “So where do we get this ‘Escape Talisman’? It says one is guaranteed to be in front of the statue… but where is the statue? It probably means something like a statue or idol, right?”
There was nothing around that could be called a statue. “It says there’s one per floor, so there should be one down here too.”
We decided to keep moving forward. We continued down the corridor until we finally reached a dead end. “The path’s blocked.”
Jeong Seok tapped the wall. It looked thick and solid. Then Yang Ju-hui spotted something in the corner. “Hey! Over here! There’s a dog hole!”
True to her reputation as a delinquent who’d crawled through plenty of dog holes, Yang Ju-hui was practically an expert at spotting them on the floor. We crawled through the opening. Fortunately, it wasn’t very long, and soon a wide cave-like space opened up before us.
“A cave?”
Splash—splash—.
The cave was flooded up to our ankles. And within it, between flickering candles, stood a strange figure. It looked like a headless Buddha statue sitting in a half-lotus position, with a head placed between its legs. But that head didn’t belong to the Buddha. Black hair spread out in all directions from it. Its eyes were closed as if asleep, and its expression was peaceful, but I could never forget that face.
“This fucking— It’s the head ghost…”
Honestly, I’d been wondering about it. While the shaman ghost was running rampant, where had the head ghost been? I’d thought it was fortunate that it hadn’t appeared, whatever it was—but of all places, it was here.
“…That’s the head ghost?”
Yang Ju-hui trembled violently. Jeong Seok also let out a rough breath and frowned. “Ha Yeong-won. Is that the head ghost you mentioned? Is that Bong Se-yeon’s head?”
Jeong Seok seemed terrified but determined to face what was in front of him. However, he soon shook his head. “No. That’s not Se-yeon’s head. That noona had a big mole near her eye, so her nickname was ‘Dotty’! That head… doesn’t have a mole! There’s no mole!”
“What?”
…Was this real? Soon Yang Ju-hui spoke as well. “I know Se-yeon too. That’s not her.”
Ah—. I realized I’d made a fatal mistake in my reasoning. Yang Ju-hui had known Bong Se-yeon, Bong Ji-yeon’s older sister. And Yang Ju-hui had encountered the head ghost in the first cycle. But she hadn’t acted like she recognized it back then! Why was I only remembering this now?
“This fucking— Then what the hell is that head?”
I was nearly panicking. While Yang Ju-hui was also glancing around in confusion, Jeong Seok exhaled roughly and said, “I got it. That’s… Gu Hye-na. The first-year who went missing a few months ago! I went to the same academy as her in middle school, so I recognize her! That’s Gu Hye-na! The owner of the bag we found!”
The identity of the head ghost had been revealed. It was a female student from Yeongji High who had gone missing at the beginning of the year.
“…Hey. Gu Hye-na or whatever. Look at that! There’s a talisman stuck on the Buddha statue! Isn’t that the escape talisman!?”
The bold Yang Ju-hui pointed at the statue. Just as she said, a single talisman was attached to the Buddha’s palm.
“But… how do we get close?”
The head ghost’s hair was spread out in all directions. The head ghost was the type that spread its hair like a spiderweb and killed anyone who touched it in a horrific manner. It looked docile now, but if we touched it… something terrible would happen. In times like this, we had to look for variables. And fortunately, that variable was with Yang Ju-hui.
“Yang Ju-hui. You still have the magic wand, right? Looks like it’s time to use it. You said it can create a barrier or something when used. While I run and grab the talisman, try using the magic wand.”
“You mean this magic wand?”
“And Jeong Seok. Once we get the talisman, you’re the one with the best memory, so you should be the one to escape. As soon as you wake up, write down everything you remember in a notebook! Got it? Alright, Yang Ju-hui! Now chant the spell!”
“Spell? What spell! The magic wand’s spell? What spell?”
“I don’t know either! A spell! Anything that comes to mind! Don’t you have some ‘Princess whatever’ spell?”