Chapter 17
Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Thousands of Gazes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
17.
All preparations were in place.
But....
The trembling hadn't stopped since earlier.
It wasn't from fear, but a trembling close to instinct.
My body was hot.
My heartbeat echoed through my skull, rattling my cranium.
I wished this trembling was simply due to those lights shining on me.
I could vividly feel the blood cells surging through my veins.
A sensation I'd never wanted to experience in my lifetime.
Grip.
Nevertheless, the man brought the mic to his lips.
“To the distinguished guests who've waited until now, I offer my deepest apologies....”
Only Park Yeon-jeong, gripping the mic at that moment, bowed his head politely to the audience.
As if the performance had truly ended, he blatantly steered the atmosphere.
“Please, everyone, head home for today.”
What profanities and curses were those?
But even without checking, the conductor displayed such seething rage that anyone could pinpoint who it came from.
His howls no longer carried any notes.
Swipe.
Park Yeon-jeong raised his head again.
Where my gaze landed....
The bizarre sight of the notes forming the conductor's face losing all control and scattering in every direction.
Those who watched the entire process without so much as blinking had surpassed fear.
Despair, as if they'd already accepted death in this place, was etched across their faces.
Choi Kang-in was no exception.
“......”
Park Yeon-jeong took in their expressions.
Then dropped the mic clutched in his hand to the floor.
Screeeeech-!
With a sudden burst of noise, every eye—lost in disarray until that instant—locked onto that single mic. Choi Kang-in's gaze fixed on me as well.
A smile, one that seemed utterly impossible in this situation, turned toward Choi Kang-in.
“Don't let them catch you.”
“......You really.”
Park Yeon-jeong regrettably couldn't hear Choi Kang-in's next words.
Precisely.
Choi Kang-in spotted an artificial sculpture—shaped like a crude, child-made eyeball—at the exact spot where Park Yeon-jeong's hand had held the mic.
He shouted on pure instinct.
“Everyone, from this moment on, do not move an inch! No matter what happens!!”
Sneer.
A faint smile crept across one man's lips.
*I'm really glad it's you.*
Park Yeon-jeong gripped the artificial sculpture in his hand with all his strength.
Then slammed it into the ground with everything he had.
Crack!
The sculpture shattered far too easily.
Every note that had been darting through the space halted in unison, frozen in place.
After the sound of the shattered sculpture hitting the floor, Choi Kang-in saw Park Yeon-jeong himself stop moving as well.
But.
Quiet.
A deathlike silence blanketed everything.
With no immediate change, everyone began to feel puzzled.
“......Puhaha! Hahahahahahaha!”
A booming laugh that shook the entire space erupted from someone.
“Hahaha! Hahahahahahaha!”
It wasn't the conductor.
The conductor could only express himself through notes, after all.
So how many people here could suddenly lose it and burst into such guffaws?
Probably none—except for one. That's what Choi Kang-in thought.
Yes.
Just one.
The person who had dragged them all here.
The one who had planted that false hope of survival and escape.
It was Park Yeon-jeong's roaring laughter.
“You actually did exactly what I said?! Haha! You idiots!”
“......”
“This moment is always the best! That pathetic instant when hope-filled faces twist into despair! This! This is it!!”
“......”
“No masterpiece could top this!”
Grind.
It wasn't Choi Kang-in's.
He couldn't turn to look, but it was the sound of someone's teeth gnashing—mingled despair and fury upon realizing they'd been duped by Park Yeon-jeong's words.
“...But I'm truly disappointed in you, note-head.”
♪?!
A single note hovering in midair quivered faintly.
“To think you'd fall for my lowbrow game so earnestly....”
With a subtle adjustment of his breath.
“You'd fit better as a variety show panelist than a conductor.”
..........
The faint tremors of the notes vanished, leaving an utterly still silence.
♩-
A single, drawn-out note.
The conductor raised his baton high into the sky.
His performance began.
Whoosh!!
Every note slicing through the air charged straight at Park Yeon-jeong.
They swarmed toward him madly at blinding speed.
Creak.
Creak creak!
Creaks from countless people, as if desperately dodging the rapidly approaching notes, tickled their ears.
But they were agonizing too.
Was moving right now...
Truly the right choice?
Even Choi Kang-in, in that instant, wrestled with tens, hundreds, thousands of tangled thoughts.
Blink.
A gaze prickled the back of Choi Kang-in's neck.
『You moved?』
!!!
Blink.
The sensation on the back of his head soon materialized as another eyeball within Choi Kang-in's field of vision.
The eerie sight of a lone eyeball floating in the air.
The eye that appeared before everyone whispered in a neutral voice, right into their ears.
『Quite a bit, too?』
The tens, hundreds... perhaps even thousands of notes hurtling mercilessly toward Park Yeon-jeong stopped dead the moment that single gaze appeared.
Precisely.
『What will you give us?』
What had been one gaze.
Blinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblink.
Multiplied horrifically, matching the number of notes that had moved.
『Let's go. Everyone's waiting.』
Teeth sprouted where eyelids should have been.
Those teeth bared en masse toward the notes that had just stirred.
Gulp.
♯!!
They began devouring the conductor's notes wholesale.
♯♪♩!!!
Dissonance screeched like screams, and soon another gaze materialized before the thrashing conductor.
Blink.
『Moved again?』
♯!!
The conductor's flailing legs were swallowed by the gaze.
♯!
Next came the left arm clutching the baton.
!!
Then the right arm.
Moments later, only the conductor's pathetic torso remained, rolling wretchedly on the floor.
..........
The conductor didn't move after that.
Or perhaps he couldn't, even if he wanted to—no way to visually convey pain now that both arms and legs were gone. Who could say.
But that wasn't the real point.
*...It's over.*
Everything ended in a flash.
Park Yeon-jeong had finished the job smoothly, thanks to the conductor taking his bait.
Truly fortunate.
One threat eliminated. Next up to take the baton:
Sending back these thousands of gazes he'd just unleashed.
He'd activated them with some mental preparation.
=======
/Item List
Thousands of Gazes.
(If you feel their gaze, give them what they want.)
Everyone's plagued by lack—deficiency, frustration, greed... such pathetic emotions.
Keep it simple.
If you need it, take it!
No holds barred!
Covet everything in sight!
Use: Summons the embedded ghost story. (Displays intense fixation on the body.)
*Many in need await your saving grace. The first child craves healthy 'two legs'.........
-[Ideological Contamination Detected]-
Access to this material prohibited.
Restricted to Section Chief rank or higher.
=======
Crackle.
An incense stick, nearly burned to the end and perilously close to the gaze, caught his eye.
To prepare for this exact scenario, he'd lit it before smashing the sculpture.
But its length was running out.
Only one way to send them packing.
Hand over a complete human body.
Naturally, he had no intention of surrendering his precious one. That's precisely why the incense was burning now.
Not much time left. The end was approaching.
Somehow, within this window, he had to let the thousands of gazes claim a body.
...Haa.
Even knowing death wasn't on the table, revulsion still coiled through him.
But he had to do it.
“…I know what you want.”
Blink.
『You moved?』
The gaze fixed on him.
Gulp.
He swallowed dryly.
“If you desire it, take it to your heart's content.”
While the incense burned, no death could claim him anyway.
*...The pain doesn't vanish, though.*
Endure.
He'd steeled himself for this upon entering the ghost story.
Before the incense fully burned away.
『…….』
Please, hurry.
『…….』
……?
What were these things?
The gazes stared at him.
Just stared.
Caught in this abrupt staring contest, Park Yeon-jeong couldn't read the situation at all.
『Not much left?』
For some reason, at that question, the gaze drifted slowly downward.
Crackle.
All attention converged on the incense in his right hand.
Blink.
A gaze.
Yet another one, fixated on the incense in his right hand.
As if...
Merely waiting for it to burn out.
『Not much left?』
Chilling!!
*This bastard!*
Caught.
They'd figured it out.
He'd never imagined they'd notice the setup.
No, more than that—
No good.
If the incense extinguished in this state...
He'd die.
Really die.
Just like that conductor sprawled on the floor—arms and legs ripped away.
A gruesome end.
*So close!*
He couldn't die like this.
He had to survive, even if it was infuriating. One unused incense remained.
He could do this.
He had to trust himself.
Light the last incense and improvise the next plan.
Still time.
Park Yeon-jeong's left hand slipped through his employee ID to retrieve the final incense.
*Now just ignite it....*
『Think you can run?』
He froze.
......A gaze of unprecedented size bored into him.
Massive enough to swallow his entire body in an instant.
Overwhelmed.
The Top Student Glasses kept his mind intact, at least.
Crackle.
The final ash fluttered down powerlessly.
The incense had burned out.
...Done for.
『Done?』
A hint of amusement laced the neutral voice brushing his ear.
Tens... hundreds......
No—thousands of gazes converged on him. Those amassed gazes bared grotesque teeth and whispered:
『IwantlegsIwantarmsIwanthertIwantheadIwantbrainIwantpancreasIwantkidneysIwant……….』
Whispers masking thousands of voices, each craving a different body part.
Even as the glasses shielded him from their mental assault.
Drip.
A hot trickle deep from his nostril.
His hand rose instinctively, wiping beneath his nose.
Red blood smeared it.
『Next: ears.』
『Next: eyes.』
『Next: mouth.』
As his bloodshot eyes met their thousands of gazes.
He sensed intuitively that his body had hit its limit.
But this was only the prelude.
The stage of agony had just begun.
『What will you give us………!!!』
Halt.
The gazes poised to devour Park Yeon-jeong en masse froze.
At first, he figured it was their twisted whim.
That's what he thought.
『You... possess that person's belonging?』
『Why?』
『From that one? Why? Incomprehensible?』
Their bizarre shift in behavior.
Spouting nonsense he couldn't parse. But instinct screamed this was his final shot—he moved without hesitation.
Click.
He yanked the lighter from his right pocket and flicked it alight.
He held the flame to the blood-smeared incense.
As the gazes locked onto the igniting incense.
*...Yes! Got it!*
White smoke billowed up.
The incense began to burn.
『…….』
The thousands of gazes that had been gnashing teeth at him moments ago.
Soon, only one remained, regarding Park Yeon-jeong. It was the look of a hunter abandoning its prey.
That final eyelid began to close on its own, a deeply subdued voice drifting into Park Yeon-jeong's ear.
『This is the last time.』
With those words.
Park Yeon-jeong's dazed gaze lingered on the still-burning incense.
*...G-gone?*
Unsure if they'd truly vanished.
Before he could tell.
Beyond the receding red gaze, a firm hand emerged from a black suit sleeve.
“…It's over.”
That enervating voice hit him.
“Yes. It's over.”
Section Chief Choi Kang-in's faint smile, as he'd closed the distance unnoticed. Park Yeon-jeong exhaled deeply, releasing all tension.
He sprawled flat on the floor.
*...I really almost died!!!*