Changwi (14)
The Mind's Eye.
It is the eye of the heart.
Perhaps it is the most essential skill for a marksman.
To observe the world without relying on mere eyeballs, quietly enveloping oneself and perceiving through nothing but the microscopic vibrations and fluctuations of particles against the skin.
The clearest, most precise vision.
"I'm using that Mind's Eye right now," Im Hae-jun explained, his eyes tightly shut.
"Then would you mind letting go of my hand?" Kang Hyun asked.
But the moment Kang Hyun tried to pull away, Hae-jun thrashed his legs in a sudden panic.
"No! I'm still in the training phase! Hold my hand! Hold it! Screeech!"
"I am holding it."
"...Hey, kid. We've arrived, so calm down," Yun Hwa-rim said, shining her flashlight ahead.
"Let's go inside."
"Sigh... I won't even be of any help, so why..."
"Oh, stop being such a coward. You're practically wearing geumjul, what is there to be afraid of?"
Im Hae-jun was practically wearing sacred straw ropes instead of clothes. Whether it was a placebo effect or not, it actually seemed to work, keeping his mental state stable.
"I even gave you the red bean bracelet."
His base mental capacity was a mere four slots, and the fifth slot—the circle—had been added by the item. It was thanks to the red bean bracelet they had picked up along the way. A rare item crafted by threading red beans together and preserving them with mana.
They were so hard that he had mistaken them for red stones at first.
"...Fine. Let's go in."
Clearly pleased with his new rare item, Im Hae-jun stepped forward and opened the police station door himself.
I made my way up to the fourth-floor operating room. It was relatively peaceful compared to the chaotic world inside the camera, where the vengeful spirit was running amok, screaming about faces.
Chrrk.
The radio crackled to life.
"Testing, testing. This is Yun Hwa-rim, over."
"Speak."
"Leader. We searched the police station... and we found the director of the abandoned hospital among the list of missing persons. He was initially a suspect, but apparently, he went missing as well."
"Is that so?"
First, the clues gathered from this abandoned hospital were as follows:
• The hospital director experimented on the culprit.
• The culprit killed the hospital director, and the director became a vengeful spirit trapped inside the camera.
• The culprit requires a specific ritual and incantation to activate his abilities.
"Also, it looks like Ji-woo's team stopped by this police station too."
"Seo Ji-woo too?"
"Yes. The entrance CCTV was working, so I pulled the data. Ji-woo came with several others."
"How many were there?"
This was crucial information.
"Uh... hold on... six people. Quite a crowd. Let's see: Ji-woo, Un-yul, Ho-jong, Yong-seung, Hyeon-hak, and Ha-yeon."
"Six people."
"Good. Good job."
Thanks to that, the puzzle was complete.
"And we recovered the tape from the missing camera crew. But it only shows the morgue."
"The morgue?"
"Yes. It looks like it was fixed on a tripod."
"Got it. You did well."
"Yes, sir!" Im Hae-jun's voice chimed in from the side.
"Hyung, I'm here too! I'm the one who found the CCTV—"
I cut the transmission.
"...A beautiful face."
The doctor's voice leaked from the camera.
The camera crew was currently hiding in the supply room, but it was only a matter of time before they were found.
"Show me... show me your face..."
Whirrrrrrrrr.
The doctor was tearing the door down with a drill. It was incredibly difficult to fight a vengeful spirit within its own domain.
As the saying goes, even a mutt fights better on its own turf; earthbound spirits were nearly impossible to defeat physically under normal circumstances.
"Please, show me your faces, everyone..."
"...Face?"
But why was he so strangely obsessed with faces?
The most straightforward solution that came to mind... would covering their faces work?
Hehehehehe—
"Do you know something?"
The will-o'-the-wisp flickered and danced. I tried to follow it, but my foot slipped. A sudden, sharp pain shot through my knee.
"Urgh..."
It was a warning that my remaining active time was running short.
Hehehehehe—
"Alright, I'm coming."
The little flame guided me again.
Third floor, the corner of a patient room. There was a pile of animal masks, the kind you might see at a festival.
"Are you sure about this?"
Hehehehehe—
Vengeful spirits are creatures of extreme obsession. Because they are souls condensed from terrifyingly persistent grudges and malice, one can escape safely as long as they find the loophole in that obsession.
This was knowledge sourced from the grandmother's used bookstore.
I grabbed whatever masks my hands could reach.
The camera crew's current location was the fourth-floor supply room. Leaning on my cane, I climbed back up.
"...Aigoo, my knees."
Arriving right outside the supply room, I used telekinesis to pick up a pen.
According to Seok-yul, the hospital director is obsessed with faces. Maybe wearing these masks will work?
Pretending to be a YouTuber, I scribbled a note, stuck it to the masks, and pressed the REC button to send them through.
According to Seok-yul, the hospital director is obsessed with faces. Wearing these masks might keep you safe.
Whirrrrrrrrr!
The sound of the drill outside. The mad doctor was destroying the door.
The camera crew and Seo Ji-woo had barricaded the entrance of the supply room with all kinds of furniture.
"Fuck, what the hell is that thing?"
Reporter Lee Tae-young broke out in a cold sweat. The rest of the crew was also drenched.
"...You seem remarkably calm, Ji-woo."
On the other hand, Seo Ji-woo hadn't shed a single drop of sweat.
"I'm an explorer, after all."
"Must be nice."
Whirrrrrrrrr!
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
Suddenly, a shower of masks tumbled down from the top shelf of the supply room.
"Whoa!"
"Aaaah!"
The camera director, Jin Yoo-sun, zoomed in on the masks. A note was attached to them.
According to Seok-yul, the hospital director is obsessed with faces. Wearing these masks might keep you safe.
"Oh?! Everyone, look at this!"
Director Jin Yoo-sun picked up the masks.
Seo Ji-woo looked up at the shelf where the masks had just fallen with a puzzled expression.
"...Were those always up there?"
Whirrrrrrrrr!
Finally, the drill pierced through their door.
Gasp!
Reporter Lee Tae-young quickly covered his mouth.
"Are you in here...?"
"Everyone, put one on for now!"
Jin Yoo-sun distributed the masks. They all hastily slipped on masks of pigs, cows, horses, and other animals.
"Show me your face... your face..."
Whirrrr— Crash!
The door shattered. The massive doctor stepped inside, tossing the barricading furniture aside like toys.
"..."
Everyone held their breath, hiding their faces behind the masks. The doctor slowly scanned them.
Nothing but masks.
His brow furrowed deeply. His rimless glasses glinted with an eerie light.
"Ugly... nothing but hideous things."
The doctor suddenly pulled down his surgical mask. His mouth was torn open, a gaping, blood-red slit stretching from ear to ear.
Dragging his operating room Crocs, he turned around.
"I need... a beautiful face... I want to see it..."
The vengeful spirit slowly faded away into the darkness. Director Jin Yoo-sun captured the monstrous doctor's retreating figure on camera.
That was when Seo Ji-woo spoke up.
"...Let's head to the morgue."
"No."
Lee Tae-young shook his head.
"Let's go to the sixth floor and find out for sure. Who that guy is, and what else is going on. What do you guys think? We can actually identify the killer here. This is an exclusive—a massive, once-in-a-lifetime scoop."
"I'm in."
Jin Yoo-sun nodded, and the other writers showed their agreement.
Seo Ji-woo watched them with a complicated expression.
There is no space without an exit in this world. If you can enter, you can also leave.
That is an absolute, undeniable truth.
Then, how do we pull out those trapped inside this camera?
"...The record button."
The moment the record button is pressed, external objects are sucked into the camera.
"And, the morgue."
The last footage shot by the camera crew was exclusively from the first basement floor—the morgue.
I headed back down there.
A tripod stood completely alone in the middle of the morgue, surrounded by rows of chilling freezer units.
Though it didn't radiate any magical energy, the ENG camera fit perfectly onto it.
Hehehehehe
I saw the will-o'-the-wisp.
Its laughter was slightly lower in pitch this time, carrying a distinct note of warning.
Hehehehehe
It even tried to stop me once more.
This creature... might not be a vengeful spirit after all.
"I know. I know too," I said, mounting the ENG camera onto the tripod.
"What kind of bastard he is."
The camera's viewfinder was still playing the crew's investigation.
They were gathering clues inside the research lab. Seo Ji-woo... was helping them as well.
In a way, it was deeply tragic.
The sixth-floor research lab.
The very existence of a research lab in a run-of-the-mill hospital was bizarre.
"Whoa..."
Director Jin Yoo-sun filmed the surroundings. Four anatomical mannequins clung to the walls, and in the center of the room stood a space enclosed by glass on all four sides.
The only furniture inside were a desk, a chest of drawers, and a bed.
"Yoo-sun, film me."
"Got it."
Lee Tae-young stood in front of the glass enclosure and spoke to the camera.
"Look at this. It is highly likely the hospital director kept the test subject confined inside this glass room."
Jin Yoo-sun captured her movements through the lens.
"I'm going to step inside."
She opened the glass door, walked in, and pulled open a drawer.
"It's a picture diary. It appears to have been written by a child... and the date goes back over forty years. Could they have been raised in a place like this since childhood? This is absolutely horrific."
Tae-young flipped open a page.
A child dressed in red, and a doctor in a white coat. A bolt of lightning-like light descended from the sky, illuminating the child in red.
"What on earth happened here? Is the serial disappearance case of Wolryeong Village... really the work of this individual?"
Reporter Lee Tae-young stuffed the picture diary and other clues into her reporting bag.
Seo Ji-woo watched them, anxiously biting her nails.
Thud.
Something moved. Startled by the sound of a presence, Jin Yoo-sun quickly panned the camera.
A human figure with its skin turned inside out—no, an anatomical mannequin.
The mannequin had taken a few steps away from the wall.
It was supposed to be completely fixed to the wall.
Jin Yoo-sun's lips turned pale and trembled.
"That... that thing just moved."
"Huh? What did?"
Click.
The sound of a switch flipping down.