Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Occult Club
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Dr. Janus had said that an entity would be born here today.
He'd also mentioned that the moment right after birth was the best time to tame it, so he'd come into the main building alone to give taming it a shot.
'It's quiet.'
He walked down the silent hallway. It was definitely quiet, but after consuming "Dried Friendship," it seemed his body had gained the ability to hear things that couldn't normally be heard.
《You know what? The school statue isn't just any ordinary statue.》
《Really?》
《Our school's founding chairman's grandfather was a pro-Japanese traitor who sold the country out to Japan, and the ashamed chairman mixed his father's ashes into the Yi Sun-sin statue when it was made! To atone to General Yi Sun-sin! But because he was such a die-hard collaborator, the general turns into a samurai craving blood every night?》
Voices utterly different from those of ghosts, machine noises, or entities.
《The King Sejong statue is actually alive. It sits there every day watching us study, and since we keep butchering the Hangul, it gets furious and grabs anyone who comes in at night, forces them to take dictation, and rips their limbs apart in lingchi punishment the moment they get a lot of answers wrong.》
《The Reading Girl statue's book turns one page every day. If you don't graduate before it finishes the book... all the students that year die! So don't flunk and graduate quick!》
《At night, the Thinker starts moving. It tempts you to ponder philosophy with it, and if you fall for it, you become the Thinker in its place! The Thinker becomes a real person! But if you refuse? It chases you down at Olympic gold medalist speeds!》
It was information.
The chatter from students back when the school was still normal.
Info from ghost stories that had just been idle fun.
《In Class 1-7, the blackboard has a history teacher buried in it who loved history too much. Go into that classroom at midnight, and you're forced into a history exam—read the questions, and you're flung back to the era written in them!》
《There used to be this genius science teacher. He made a Nobel-worthy discovery by accident in the science lab, but tripped, hit his head, lost the results and forgot how to make it! After that, he kept experimenting but couldn't recreate it, despaired, and killed himself. Now, late at night in the science room, he appears and makes students try to reproduce the experiment! Fail, and he kills you!》
《There was this balding math teacher who loved math so much his hobby was counting primes. One day, he found the world's most perfect number and wanted to share it, but died of a heart attack first! As a ghost, the shock of death made him forget what it was. Now he wanders the school asking what the most perfect number is, and if you can't tell him, he tears your body into that many prime pieces!?》
Was this an info-body, perhaps?
Feeling information flow straight into his head—not as voices—as he kept walking down the hallway.
《Our school had this insanely strong PE teacher! He chugged steroids like water, ate protein shakes instead of rice, snacked on chicken breast—athletic ability on gold medalist level! Died of a heart attack mid-workout, though. Late at night in the gym, he sometimes shows up and challenges students to compete! Lose, and he takes your body—so run! No, if you run, he chases and steals it anyway, so just never go to the gym!》
《We had an art teacher who graduated from a famous art college. She was so good at art that she'd rip up drawings from students with no talent! One day, she did it again, and the furious student stabbed her throat with a pen and killed her! Now, in the art room, her ghost appears, makes you draw, and if it doesn't satisfy her, stabs you with a pen!》
《Our school had a legendary homeroom teacher. The strongest teacher in the world, but he wanted to get even stronger, so he went to a shaman. The shaman said eating fresh students' meat would absorb their youth and energy to make him stronger, and he did it! After devouring dozens, the cops found him and shot him dead. As a ghost, he's even stronger and still eats people!》
And when he reached the end of the hallway, he encountered information that wasn't a ghost story.
《Senior, congrats on graduating.》
《Thanks.》
《But senior, can I ask now why you started the Occult Club? You never made a single ghost story yourself. You even put up prize money to make them trendy—why didn't you make any?》
《Because I love ghost stories.》
It seemed like a conversation between a senior on the verge of graduating and a junior.
《Ghost stories have value only if they're unexpected. A ghost story I make? I know all the info since I made it, so zero value. But one someone else makes? Even if it's sloppy, you fill in the gaps with imagination and enjoy it, right?》
《Senior really is unique.》
《Haha, then I should tell you the ghost story I made, for my junior's sake. You know what? All ghost stories are true.》
《Eh, human imagination is infinite and can make anything real or whatever?》
《No.》
The senior said.
《This world has ghost stories—things like ghost stories, worse than ghost stories—that really exist. I saw them when I was a kid. They're always right beside us. So someday, you'll have to choose too.》
《Choose what?》
《Whether to fight them, submit to them, use them... or live oblivious and get unlucky and die to them.》
《...Senior, that's a ghost story, right?》
《For the record, I plan to use them.》
《Senior Hyung-seok?》
《My name isn't Lee Hyung-seok anymore. There are tons of ghost stories about names, right? So I ditched mine.》
His own name.
《No Named. Call me that from now on. Not sure if we'll meet again.》
《Senior.》
《Live well.》
The info-body cut off.
"Hmm."
No Named, huh.
'Dr. Janus said this place has high info-body density.'
Did No Named know that?
Or was it just coincidence?
'Never heard that name in the game.'
Maybe entities whose creators were unknown were born from this guy's hands.
"That can wait until after it survives here."
At the end of the hallway, a door leading to another building welcomed him.
Stepping through, he was greeted by a high ceiling and a polished wax floor.
『A student here for the PE exam! Come on in!』
A monster over three meters tall, with bursting muscles, waved at him.
『The PE exam is simple! Beat me in a PE match! Ten events total! Pass eight or more, exam over! No more questions? Oh, first tell me your name!』
Gorilla-crushing-level power.
Muscles beyond human, into monster territory, wriggled like living fibers.
『Fail the exam, and I'll use your body! Nice and tender—perfect for building muscle!』
An exam, huh.
"Hello?"
Shouldn't be too hard.
"I'm Lee Seung-hoon."
"Tleoya!"
Lee So-hee screamed as she bolted. Broadcasters including her manager ran alongside her.
"Run!"
"What the hell was that just now!"
"The statue was walking!"
"Yi Sun-sin said 'Chikusho!' or something!?"
Communications cut the moment they entered the school.
Immediately confronted by a walking statue.
A Japanese-speaking Yi Sun-sin statue and the rampaging Thinker.
[Damn! Everyone into the building! Heavenly Demon Divine Art - Earth!]
And a suit-wearing old man blasting palm winds.
"Huff, huff!"
"Tleoya..."
Following the martial artist's grandpa's advice, the group caught their breath inside the building.
"What the hell was that?"
"Martial artist grandpa, living moving statues, traitor Yi Sun-sin too."
"Would've been a huge hit if we were broadcasting."
"You idiots, broadcasting matters right now!?"
Lee So-hee's manager, Lee Ye-seul, yelled at the natural live streamers.
"But what do we do now?"
"Tleoya!"
"Ye-seul sis, what's Tleoya saying?"
"Says we should hide here or the statues might attack again."
"Sounds good."
The group headed up the building.
"But Ye-seul, you understand So-hee?"
"After listening so much, I can tell. 'Tl' half-tone higher is 'go,' 'pa' sound is 'na,' like that—I distinguish them all. Go further, convert pitch highs/lows, pronunciation accuracy, emotional intensity into analog curves, and you crack the language patterns hidden in 'Tleoya.'"
"No way you can just listen and get that?"
"I'm from music school."
"Even music school grads couldn't, right? Perfect pitch or something?"
They reached the top floor, revealing a pretty big classroom.
[Art Room]
The group's steps halted.
"...Don't wanna go in."
"...Tleoya."
"...Feels off."
"...Bad vibes."
"...In horror movies, they go into places like this and get killed by ghosts."
"...Yeah, if you've seen horror flicks, you don't do that."
The moment everyone turned to leave.
『Take your seats.』
The art room door opened on its own, and their six bodies floated into the air.
『Late on exam day? Vulgar. Well, kids from a dump like this school are all the same.』
Sucked in like a vacuum, kidnapped into the art room.
Forcibly seated, canvases appeared before them.
And at the front of the classroom, a woman elegantly greeting with dance-like poise.
『Pleased to meet you. I'm the art teacher.』
The woman with a pen stuck in her throat bellowed.
『The exam starts now! Theme is free! Draw something that satisfies me!』
Foam flecked with blood at her mouth.
『Fail, and I'll put a hole in your throat!』
『This place feels suspicious.』
Shin Young-moon, walking the hallway with other agents, spotted a clean classroom and opened the door.
"Something intuition-wise here?"
『No, it's just clean unlike the other places.』
"Oh, thought Agent Young-moon was using his 'ability.'"
Shin Young-moon gave a wry smile.
『Can only use it once a month, probability's random too—gotta be careful. Don't rely on it too much. Might not even work properly.』
"Still believe in it."
"Me too."
"I believe too."
Nothing unusual inside the classroom.
『Shall we go?』
"Huh? Why'd you come in?"
"Huh? Why did I come in?"
Normally, when entering a specific spot, manual says at least one or two agents wait outside for emergencies.
This time too, one agent should've stood by outside—but when they came to, they were all inside.
'Entity irregularity!'
The thought flashed through all their minds.
By then, they were already seated.
『...The math exam starts now.』
A balding, translucent middle-aged male ghost glared at the agents with a twisted face.
『The exam question is to name the most perfect number. I judge. If it's not perfect...』
Blood tears streamed from his eyes.
『...I'll rip you into 97 pieces.』