Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 027
Chapter Title: Ghostbuster (11)
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At first, when the rampaging ghouls started dropping dead one by one, the ranch employees thought Kim Mireh, the workshop owner, had done something about it.
But it was soon clear they were mistaken.
The situation grew far more horrific—nowhere near comparable to the ghouls' rebellion.
The employees, their faces drained of color, freaked out and pointed the smuggled automatic pistols down the hallway.
"Everyone, gather up and get ready to fire!"
Clinging to their sanity, they formed a wall of gunfire.
The hallway stretched out empty, littered with corpses, nothing in sight. But something was there.
"W-Wait! I'm still— s-save me! Somebody!"
A fallen employee wailed as he was dragged into a side passage by something.
Wood-crack—Crunch!
A gruesome sound echoed, and red blood began pouring from the side passage.
"—!?"
The employees could hold out no longer. To shake off the terror.
There was only one path. Right when it would emerge.
"Fire!!"
Bang! Bbang—Bratatat!
They unleashed their bullets at the invisible killer that had picked off their comrades one by one.
"Huh?"
But something was off. The bullets flew straight down the hallway. And then...
"Haaah..."
"Wha-what?"
One employee's body was yanked upward. Their eyes shot to the ceiling.
...It was on the ceiling. It had crawled along the hallway ceiling toward them.
"Aaah—."
Before the scream could finish, the employee's body was shredded.
Squelch-crunch—
If a human body got fed headfirst into a transparent grinder, it'd look something like this.
Red blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere.
In an instant, it lost all semblance of a human form.
One employee, screaming in a mix of terror and rage...
"Aaaagh!"
...squeezed the trigger at the transparent monster on the ceiling. ...But.
Bang! Bbang—Plink.
The bullets couldn't pierce its body and ricocheted off, clattering to the floor.
"...Grrr."
In the silence, a chilling growl reverberated.
Thud.
The grinding stopped, and the corpse—lower half still trailing entrails—dropped into the hallway.
And right away, the head of the employee who'd fired exploded and vanished.
They realized it. That thing wasn't on the ceiling because it feared guns or because they were dangerous if they hit.
It had just come that way because it didn't want to get shot.
Hell, it might've even been a game of some sort.
"...Haha."
"Aaaaagh!"
A hollow laugh escaped the lips of the employee who'd figured it out, while terror burst from those who still didn't know what was hunting them.
They tried to flee, but there was no escape.
In seconds, flesh burst and blood sprayed as they died one after another.
Invisible, but undeniably there.
Was it beside them now? Behind? In front? Left? Right? Above? Below?
"Gaaah..."
Ah... it was right in front.
Crunch!
The Transparent Vampire, Grizzly, bit down and killed the last employee in the place.
It shook itself off from the stinging pellets the humans had fired.
"Kyaaah~."
Tilting its head, it checked the next direction.
It spotted the employees fleeing for the exit.
No uniform needed—it could pick out anyone who'd worked here, just as its master had said.
The slaughterhouse stench.
"Haaah..."
Scenting the livestock and human blood on its prey, Grizzly moved swiftly.
Not a single one would leave the basement.
***
The underground hallway was strewn with ghoul and employee corpses.
That was where Yohan was doing push-ups and squats.
Not like he'd suddenly felt the urge to work out.
Even if she might not care...
When he met Sion again later, showing up without a drop of sweat or even breathing hard would look suspicious, right?
"Hoo..."
Once he'd broken a decent sweat, he stopped exercising and started walking.
Obviously, the corpses were gross, and he didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary.
He wasn't a corpse enthusiast or a psychopath.
Staring at them just gave him a headache.
—The moment that thought crossed his mind, right there in the middle of the path.
He spotted an employee's face, frozen in terrified, wronged shock, upper and lower body severed.
".........."
They'd died to Grizzly on his orders to kill them all, but beyond the grossness, he felt nothing special.
These were the guys butchering people under Kim Mireh, after all.
He was glad, in a way. Killing innocent bystanders with no connection to him would've left a bad taste.
Hoped it'd stay that way—only tangling with bad guys from here on.
An incredulous smile tugged at his lips.
...Well, he hadn't killed them because they were bad, though.
It was for an alibi to protect himself.
Even if they'd been total innocents with zero connection, he'd have wiped them out just the same.
Random thought, but there was Mencius's theory of innate human goodness.
Versus Xunzi's view that humans are inherently evil.
Always mentioned together, like a burger and fries combo.
It sounded all soft and nice—people are basically good at heart.
But interpretations varied.
Mencius said stuff like this:
If you're not benevolent, you're not human.
If you don't feel pity for others...
You're not human without that compassionate heart.
Humans are innately good, so if you're evil, you're not even human.
Mencius was the guy who straight-up suggested revolution to kings' faces.
'Humans should be good... so why are you acting like such trash? Weird. Not human, huh?'
'Time for a righteous revolt—kill the king and let a real human who pities the people take over.'
Made you wonder if innate goodness was just gaslighting for the all-powerful kings of the era.
Xunzi's take—that even black-haired beast cubs could be taught to be good—seemed milder.
Anyway, point was...
He walked the blood-soaked path littered with bodies.
To Mencius, these guys or him...
Neither were human, probably.
Still, no need to get too down. Life's about staying positive.
Human reject? Nah, beast approved.
Wizard approved.
He stepped past the corpse with the aggrieved face in the middle of the hall and pressed on.
When beasts' territories overlap and they clash—boom!
The losers die.
The winners live.
This industry? Or whatever you called the wizard world—he was new to it, but he got it.
Once your foot was in, half-assing it wasn't an option.
Half-assing got you killed.
So this was his struggle to survive against the government agency.
He clenched his fist, bent his knees, kicked off the ground, and ran.
Breathing ragged, he pumped his legs and arms.
"Haa—Haa—."
Using the basement map he'd seen in Kim Mireh's room, the central control center, he bolted toward the exit.
As he neared the exit path...
"Yohan!"
Had she come back looking for him after evacuating the couples?
He figured government officials would show up soon anyway.
Sion spotted him running ahead and shouted.
"—!"
Good. Now for the clincher.
If he really had talent...
"R-Run!"
Now! Explode already, talent!
He bellowed at Sion.
"Run for it!!"
"Huh?"
Kaboooom—!!
The hallway wall shattered with a deafening roar.
"Gaaaaah—!"
Grizzly, of course. It had finished off the employees and ghouls, waited...
And on his signal, smashed through the wall, appearing dramatically.
It smashed surroundings for effect, exaggerating the chase.
Boom—Kaboom! Kraaang!
Sion, who'd been approaching him, spun around immediately.
Running beside him, she said,
"Yohan! Follow me—I'll guide you to the exit! Keep going!"
"Got it!"
He'd gained plenty from this underground workshop, but he was done with it.
Time to wrap it up.
So...
The indispensable scene in any horror flick with monsters or creatures.
The climax.
The monster chase!
Director: Kim Yohan. Starring: Kim Yohan & Grizzly. Special guest: Shin Sion.
They ran and ran toward the exit.
"Up the stairs!"
Sion said that, sending Yohan up the exit stairs first, then drew her pistol to buy time.
He grabbed her wrist at the sight and climbed with her.
"No use!"
"—?!"
No, pulling a gun in this scripted game of tag? Scary woman.
Where was she even gonna shoot our Grizzly?
Sion judged quickly.
"Excuse me!"
Suddenly, she scooped him into her arms. Using her breath control, she bounded up the stairs in one go.
Kicked open the basement door.
And finally escaped the godforsaken underground.
They burst onto the sunlit grass.
The monster emerging from the basement did the classic thing—
"Gya... Gyagyaa... Gyagyagyagyaa!"
—and scattered in the sunlight.
Well, obviously, it returned to the Grimoire. Sunlight didn't really hurt it.
Being a Transparent Vampire, implanting the idea that it was weak to sunlight seemed smart for the officials.
...Grizzly's acting sucked, though.
Panting, with a shocked expression, he stared at the basement entrance—where Grizzly had just been.
Slowly, cautiously, in a trembling voice, he said,
"...The one. That appeared at the university."
Sion's eyes twitched as she looked at him.
"What?"
Sigh—had he overdone it? Too on-the-nose?
Movies always had those blatant foreshadowing lines... Ad-lib fail.
Looks like he had no talent as a director.