Haunted Castle and Sudden Betrayal
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Special Project Designee: Baek Jaesung 15
We arrived near a remote mountain in Gyeonggi Province. There was an artificial dungeon built by the Association. A massive building, about the size of three soccer fields combined, stood imposingly waiting for us. From the outside, it was just a plain rectangular brick structure.
"Alright, form groups as I call your names!"
As expected, we all got scattered into different teams. I ended up grouped with two dark-skinned guys.
"Yang Hyunmin."
"Park Seungrok. Nice to meet you."
"Baek Jaesung."
We exchanged names in a dry, perfunctory manner. Not a single one of us, myself included, showed any curiosity about the others.
Even though we were on the same team, we were all competitors here. Everyone knew that. After the introductions, not a word passed between us. Fucking bleak.
"Then, starting with the called groups, enter one by one in order. Once inside, you'll warp to a random location in the dungeon! Remember: fighting other dungeon hunters in the same dungeon means automatic disqualification."
Sujin's group was first. Starting with them, we filed into the dungeon one group after another.
"Next group. Please enter."
Our turn came in a flash. I took the lead and stepped in first. The moment I entered the dungeon, a dizzying vertigo hit me.
The dizziness vanished in less than a second. I was in a long corridor.
"What is this? It looks just like a medieval castle."
Not quite on the level of the Lord's Castle in Coolong County where I lived in the Solari World, but it was a pretty impressive castle. Looking out the window, it was pitch-black night. Of course, that vast sky was all an illusion.
"A castle, huh. It's giving off real Dracula vibes—super creepy."
The guy who'd introduced himself as Yang Hyunmin spoke up. The castle was dimly lit. Only sporadic candles in the corridor provided any light.
"Feels like armored knights or something might pop out."
Armor Knights were monsters that were basically walking suits of armor. They fit perfectly with this place.
"Let's move for now."
We proceeded slowly straight ahead. We stepped cautiously on the red carpet. The corridor was dead silent. Aside from our footsteps, there was no sound at all.
"Feels like a ghost could jump out any second."
Park Seungrok said while scanning the corridor. Between the candles on the walls hung frames filled with landscapes and portraits.
In daylight, they might've seemed atmospheric, but in this pitch-black night, just like Park Seungrok said, the vibe was downright eerie. Turn your head, and it felt like the eyes in the portraits were staring right at you.
"Huh!?"
Suddenly, Park Seungrok stopped in his tracks.
"What's up?"
"Th-that... painting. Didn't it just move?"
Park Seungrok pointed to a nearby portrait. It depicted a Western guy with ringlet curls, like something out of a music textbook.
"Move?"
"The eyes... they definitely moved just now."
"Really?"
I pulled a candle off the wall and held it up to the painting.
"Kieeeek!"
A scream poured out from the painting. At the same time, blood oozed from beneath the frame. This novel ghost monster bled while burning.
"Whoa whoa whoa! It was a real ghost!"
"Not a ghost, probably a monster. Never seen one like this before. Wild."
Suddenly, the figure in the frame reached an arm toward me. The arm thrust right through the frame. I casually sidestepped and grabbed the protruding arm, then lit it with the candle.
"Keeek!"
"Burns nice."
The frame ghost was done in under three minutes. Once the painting was charred, it died automatically.
"Maybe other monsters are hiding in the corridor paintings too."
I said that while holding the candlestick.
"Let's burn 'em all."
The corridor was pretty long. We burned about thirty portraits. Five of them had monsters.
After that, we reached the end of the corridor. Stairs appeared before us. We could go down to the lower floor or up to the upper one.
"Which way?"
Yang Hyunmin turned to me and asked. Somehow, I'd implicitly become the leader of this party.
"Down."
"Any special reason?"
"In a creepy castle like this, feels like the boss monster would be in the basement."
Lame reason. But whatever, reasons didn't matter right now. We headed down the stairs together.
"Let's go all the way to the basement."
We kept descending until we hit the basement. It looked like a wine cellar. But it was filled with water.
"Ugh! The smell... total sewage."
"Disgusting."
It was just like playing a horror game. Probably a monster lurking in that sewage.
"Nothing to gain here. Let's head elsewhere."
We gave up on the basement without regret and went to the first floor. There was a grand lobby, a dining hall, and one locked room.
In the lobby hung a massive portrait at least three meters wide on the wall. It depicted a pale-faced man. Probably the castle's owner.
"The exit door's locked."
"Step back. Holy Missile."
I blasted the door with brute force. The light projectile shattered the locked door easily. But the moment it broke, the door repaired itself like nothing happened.
I tried a few more times, same result. Even breaking the glass windows fixed them right away like the door. Seeing that, Park Seungrok said,
"Looks like we need a key to open it—the 'rule' of the place. Probably the same for that locked room over there?"
His gaze turned to the locked room on the first floor. Sure enough, forcing it just led to regeneration. Guess the dungeon saw it as cheating.
"What a pain. Feels like a real game."
Dungeon entertainment exam, huh? We really felt like protagonists in a game. If we were game protagonists, we had to act like it.
"Damn. Where do we get the key?"
The castle was huge. Even in my tiny one-room back then, losing something meant tearing the place apart. In a castle this big... no need to explain further.
"Earlier, I found this note on the dining hall table."
Yang Hyunmin showed us something like worn parchment.
Keys to the 1st floor storage room are frequently lost. A key storage box has been installed at the end of the corridor in the servant quarters on the 4th floor. Please return them after use. Failure to comply will result in identifying and severely punishing the last user.
"Feels like a fetch quest grind."
"This is straight-up a horror game. Knew it wasn't a normal exam, and spot on."
Everyone chimed in. Guess we had to go back up to the fourth floor.
"If this is the 'rule,' no choice. Probably best to follow instructions for passing."
"Can't be helped."
We headed back to the stairs.
We farmed the key from the fourth-floor corridor, unlocked the first-floor storage, found a note there leading to the basement, drained the sewage after killing the monster inside, found a key in a special oak barrel in the storage, unlocked a third-floor room, solved a puzzle there to find a secret passage.
A few goblin-like monsters came out of the secret passage. After beating their asses and going in... fuck, anyway, after a ton of bullshit, we finally found the key to the castle's main gate. Now I got why horror game protagonists all end up twisted.
"At least we escaped the castle. Fewer monsters than expected—lucky."
Park Seungrok said with a grin. Stepping out, a dense forest stretched before us. The castle was smack in the middle of it.
After all the hassle in the castle, our group had bonded a bit more than at the start. Not that getting close to dudebros was great, but cooperating during the exam was more beneficial.
Pushing through the forest, a pack of dire wolves appeared. Now I could handle dire wolf trash with one hand. As we kept going, I sensed presences approaching from the opposite direction.
"Oh. Another team?"
Yang Hyunmin took the lead. His ability was Healing Factor, the super-regeneration type, making him the temp party's tank.
We followed behind Yang Hyunmin, slowly heading toward the presences. Sure enough, another team was there.
"Huh?"
Familiar face. Han Seungjin. Even under the moonlight-flecked darkness, his handsome looks didn't fade.
Han Seungjin stared at us with an expressionless gaze. His left arm was covered in red blood.
"Seungjin?"
The blood on Han Seungjin's arm wasn't his. Next to him lay an unidentified dungeon hunter, chest riddled with holes—that was the source.
"Well, shit."
Han Seungjin muttered in a voice like he'd bitten into bitter food. What the hell was this situation?
Before I could figure it out, Han Seungjin extended his arm toward me.
"Jaesung."
His voice flowed out. Thick darkness extended from his arm through the air toward me. It blended perfectly with the inky blackness around us.