Chapter 27
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: CCTV
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When I first woke up in the classroom, I was in a state of panic.
Not only were the front and back doors locked, but it was also midnight.
And when the time limit expired, my body swelled up until it burst, and I died.
That was my memory of the classroom.
Looking back now, the escape method was simple compared to the other classrooms.
Find the recorder, find the note with the numbers, and play them in order. That was it.
Incidentally, the recorder had belonged to Dayeon.
“That couldn’t have been a coincidence.”
Perhaps my connection with Dayeon began in that very classroom.
And this red locker was likely the same.
I checked the nameplate at the top again.
It was stained red, making it hard to see.
But if I looked closely, I could faintly read it.
[Jin Dayeon]
It was definitely Dayeon's name.
That meant this red locker belonged to Dayeon.
Seeing that the door was firmly secured with a padlock, the key to the locker was probably with her too.
“That’s strange.”
Why hadn't Dayeon mentioned the existence of her own red locker?
It was as if she'd deliberately hidden its existence.
Was there an item inside that I wasn't supposed to know about? My thoughts were a mess.
I'd come into the classroom without much thought, but I never dreamed I'd run into such a complication.
At this point, I couldn't help but suspect Dayeon was hiding something from me.
“Or maybe this, too, was a trick planted by the school's curse...”
My mind was filled with confusion.
If I'd known this would happen, I shouldn't have come into the classroom in the first place.
A hint of regret crept in.
I was pacing in front of the red locker.
“What are you doing here?”
A voice suddenly came from behind me.
I turned my head to look back.
To my surprise, Dayeon was standing right there.
“...Why are you here?”
Dayeon was leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe, looking at me.
Twirling a strand of her hair, she walked slowly toward me.
“I crawled out through a gap in the debris.”
As she said that, I could see she was a mess.
Her once-neat uniform was torn and dirty, covered in stone dust.
It was a state she couldn't have gotten into without crawling through collapsed rubble.
“It was too boring just staying in the school store, so I came out. Good job, right?”
Dayeon spun around on the spot.
I could see the state of her tattered uniform. Her white skin was visible through a tear in her shirt.
“Don’t look.”
Dayeon quickly covered the tear with her hand. It wasn't like I wanted to look anyway. I feigned a sigh and turned away.
‘Did Dayeon really escape?’
Seeing Dayeon walking around perfectly fine in front of me, doubts began to sprout.
No matter how I looked at it, the collapsed entrance to the store had no gap a person could fit through.
There was only enough space to peek your face through, at best.
To say she'd squeezed through that gap was highly suspicious.
“You have a strange look on your face. Something bothering you?”
“...No.”
Still, if the Dayeon in front of me wasn't Dayeon, then who was she?
If she were a ghost, she wouldn't bother acting like Dayeon and would have tried to kill me straight away.
For now, I decided to take Dayeon's word that she'd crawled out of the school store.
If she was hiding something, it would come out eventually. I could make a decision then.
“We’re going to the second floor.”
“Already? We could rest a little.”
“No time to rest.”
My business in the classroom was finished.
I had originally planned to stop by the school store, but since Dayeon had escaped, there was no need to go anymore.
I soon headed for the second floor.
“Just follow me quietly. I solved the computer room puzzle while you were gone.”
“Heeh, you worked so hard all by yourself. Did you miss me that much?”
“Not at all.”
We left for the hallway with some half-hearted banter. Having someone next to me definitely lessened the fear.
The eerie, chilly air of the hallway, which had been so palpable just moments ago, vanished in an instant.
And so, we returned to the second-floor computer room without any trouble. Thankfully, we didn't run into the security guard who should have appeared by now.
“So this is the computer room. It’s spacious.”
Dayeon looked around, expressing her admiration.
She started clicking away at a computer with a dark monitor, amusing herself.
Of course she would.
I left her to it and went to the password-protected computer.
When I turned on the PC, the same screen as before appeared.
[A New Beginning]
Soon, a blue screen appeared.
It was a window asking for a password.
[Enter the password.]
[Hint]
[1= Number of blue books in the Secret Archives]
[2= Number of lights in the Teachers' Office]
[3= Number of specimens in the Science Lab]
[4= Number of windows in the classroom]
Having gone through all the rooms mentioned in the hint, the password was now clear in my mind.
I tapped the keyboard and entered the password.
“It was 6805, I’m sure.”
Clack, clack.
I double-checked to make sure I hadn't typed it incorrectly.
Only after confirming the password was correct did I press the Enter key.
Clack!
The password screen spun as it began to load. Soon, a message appeared with a bright light.
[Welcome.]
“It worked!”
“Congratulations.”
Dayeon, who had appeared at some point, was plastered to my side, staring intently at the monitor.
I tried to put some distance between us and moved the mouse.
First, I tried to connect to the internet.
But only the loading icon spun around, and no window appeared.
“Look here, the internet is disconnected.”
Dayeon pointed to the bottom right of the monitor.
A warning symbol was flashing near the settings.
It meant the internet wasn't connected.
“So the internet is out, after all.”
“But it looks like we can still open files and emails.”
All sorts of document files were scattered messily on the desktop.
Of course, none of them were very useful.
[starcraft.exe]
[Fighting Spirit.scx]
[Computer Room Usage Guide.txt]
[Virus Removal Antivirus Program.zip]
[Minesweeper.exe]
“There’s no way they would password-protect a computer just to show us these files.”
“I know, right? Wanna play Minesweeper?”
“We don’t have time to play.”
I snatched the mouse back from Dayeon as she subtly tried to move it toward Minesweeper and searched through the files.
A password-protected computer meant an important clue was hidden here.
A clue to the next location had to be somewhere here.
While rummaging through the desktop, the Recycle Bin, shoved off in a corner, caught my eye.
Normally, the Recycle Bin icon is supposed to be empty.
But right now, the icon showed it was full of documents.
This meant something was hidden in the Recycle Bin. An idea flashed in my mind. I immediately clicked on it to open the window.
[Recycle Bin]
[X-student DisXppearance Article.pdf]
[Group DisXppearance Article.pdf]
[Sacrifice's Diary #6.txt]
“As I thought.”
The reward for the puzzle was hidden in the Recycle Bin.
There were three files in total.
Except for the diary, the titles were corrupted. Fortunately, the files themselves weren't, so there was no problem opening them.
[Which file would you like to open?]
[1. X-student DisXppearance Article.pdf]
[2. Group DisXppearance Article.pdf]
[3. Sacrifice's Diary #6.txt]
First, I opened the first file.
[X-student DisXppearance Article.pdf]
【XX/XX/2013,
On a day that should have been peaceful and quiet, a misfortune ■ccurred.
A female student has gone missing from G. High School.
Local and national police are investigating, but there has been ■o progress.
As an aside, the missing female student-】
From the next sentence on, the text was corrupted and illegible.
Still, I instantly intuited what the news article was about.
A female student went missing from a high school.
And she still hasn't been found.
That was the gist of it. As I continued reading the news article, I felt a sense of familiarity.
“This is about you, isn’t it?”
I took my eyes off the monitor.
I looked straight at Dayeon beside me.
Dayeon pretended not to hear the question and stared intently at the monitor.
Seeing her remain silent, I took it as a yes.
A news article published ten years ago.
The story of a female student who went missing at school.
It perfectly matched the situation of Dayeon, who had been trapped in this school for ten years.
The circumstances fit too perfectly to dismiss it as a coincidence.
“I guess it is about me.”
In the end, Dayeon nodded as if she had no choice but to admit it. But it was strange.
Why would a file like this even be here?
I'm standing right here; I'm well aware that Dayeon is trapped in this school.
‘Is there some kind of hidden hint?’
Just in case, I wrote down the article on a blank page of the diary to keep a record.
[Obtained Missing Female Student Article.]
Now that I'd checked the first file, it was time to check the second.
I skillfully manipulated the mouse and immediately clicked the next file.
[Group DisXppearance Article.pdf]
【XX/XX/19XX,
A group of students has gone missing from G. High School.
The seven missing students were all classmates and are presumed to have met with misfortune after secretly sneaking into the high school at dawn.
The police have concluded that the cause of this crime was the act of someone who held a ■rudge against them.
According to their close friend, Kim Byeong-cheol, they had ■rranged to meet up the day before the incident under the pretense of a test of courage.
However, no trace of the students' entry was found at the school.
The investigation continues day and night based on Byeong-cheol's testimony, but the case's progress is unclear.
We pray for the safe return of the missing students.】
“Hmm…”
I've seen this article's contents somewhere before, too.
School at dawn.
Test of courage.
Seven people missing as a group.
“It’s the same as the situation in the diary.”
It was a carbon copy of the situation described in the 'Sacrifice's Diary' that I'd repeatedly found.
According to the article, it seems no one escaped the school in the 90s.
...Not even the diary's owner.
“So that’s why it’s called the Sacrifice’s Diary.”
The missing students became sacrifices and were devoured by this school.
Then who are they being sacrificed to?
Is there some kind of cult hiding in the school?
It was confusing, but dwelling on it wouldn't give me an answer.
I put it aside for now and recorded the article's contents.
[Obtained Group Disappearance Article.]
“Let’s see.”
Now, there was only one file left in the Recycle Bin.
The Sacrifice's Diary.
[Sacrifice's Diary #6.txt]
A diary written in the 90s, converted into a .txt file, and sitting in a computer's Recycle Bin.
What an absurd sight.
Still, in a place teeming with all sorts of ghosts, this wasn't all that surprising.
It was probably just the result of the school's curse doing... whatever it does.
I was shaking my head at the ridiculous situation, about to open the file.
Click.
Suddenly, the monitor turned off.
For some reason, the PC shut down.
“What the?”
“A power outage?”
I pressed the power button repeatedly, but there was no response.
The plug was properly in the outlet, and all the cables were correctly connected.
But for some reason, the computer had died.
“Did it break...?”
“Too bad. I wanted to play Minesweeper.”
I was pointlessly poking the monitor's power button when I heard a crackling static sound from somewhere.
A moment later, a bright, cheerful chime filled the entire school.
Ding-dong-dang-dong~♬
-This is an announcement from the school broadcasting room.
It was none other than a school announcement.
A woman's voice, like a broken machine, echoed throughout the building.
“What is it this time...?”
“Shh, it’s an announcement.”
The school announcement began, with only the two of us as its audience.
-Student Lee Hyeon, please come to the second-floor broadcasting room immediately.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Calling me, and only me, to the broadcasting room.
I wanted to just ignore it, but I had a bad feeling and couldn't pretend I hadn't heard.
-I repeat.
-This is an announcement from the school broadcasting room.
-Student Lee Hyeon, please come to the second-floor broadcasting room immediately.
The announcement continued to echo.
As if urging me to hurry to the broadcasting room.
Endlessly.
On and on.
-I repeat.
-ThisisanannouncementfromtheschoolbroadcastingroomStudentLeeHyeonpleasecometothesecond-floorbroadcastingroomimmediately.
The constantly repeating announcement, as if on fast-forward, was making my head spin.
“This is an announcement from the school broadcasting room...”
“Why are you doing it too?”
“Sorry, it looked fun.”
The endlessly looping announcement forced me to get up.
“I guess I have to go, right?”
“Yeah. Go on.”
According to the broadcast, only I was told to come; there was no mention of Dayeon.
Fearing we might get into trouble if we went together, I trudged out by myself.
“Try to figure out how to turn the computer on while I’m gone.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll try.”
Coming from Dayeon, the word 'try' wasn't very convincing. Still, I held on to a sliver of hope, just in case.
Trusting that Dayeon would solve the computer problem, I stepped out into the hallway.
“The broadcasting room...”
Right next to the computer room, across the hall, a sign clearly read 'Broadcasting Room'.
As a bonus, the door was wide open.
I could clearly sense the developer's intention: 'Don't bother wandering around looking for it; just see this and come find it yourself.'
“Thanks a million.”
I let out a feigned sigh and stepped into the broadcasting room.
The moment I did,
SLAM!
The broadcasting room door slammed shut. I'd experienced this situation before.
“Again...?”
Just like with the Secret Archives, I was now locked in the broadcasting room.
At this point, I was curious what it was this time to warrant such a drastic reaction.
I rubbed my weary eyes and looked around.
The broadcasting room was lined with monitors.
I doubted my eyes, wondering if I was seeing things correctly. But the scene in the broadcasting room was exactly as it appeared.
Various pieces of equipment and monitors were lined up as if on display.
Moreover, they were all on. The sight naturally drew a gasp of awe from me.
“CCTV?”
All the CCTV cameras scattered throughout the school were being displayed through the broadcasting room.
The scene looked like something out of a spy movie.
Was this also an effect of the school's curse?
It was less a broadcasting room and more of a CCTV room or a monitoring room.
“Interesting.”
I could see every part of the school at a glance.
Of course, there wasn't a single person in sight...
“Huh?”
Suddenly, my gaze lingered on one spot.
A large monitor was broadcasting a real-time scene from somewhere in the school.
The top-left corner indicated which location this CCTV was showing.
[School Store]
Ignoring all the other monitors, I carefully observed the CCTV feed from the school store.
For some reason, I could see something moving around. It was a person. A female student.
“...Jin Dayeon?”
To my astonishment, the person on the school store's CCTV was Jin Dayeon.
Furthermore, the entrance to the store was still buried under rubble.
It was completely blocked, with not even the slightest space to get out.
The thought of finding a gap in the debris and squeezing through was absolutely impossible.
Well aware of this fact, Dayeon was stuck in the school store, unable to escape, just waiting for me.
The image of Dayeon yawning, looking bored, was captured on the CCTV and displayed on the monitor.
But seeing that raised a sudden question in my mind.
“Wait a minute.”
At the same time, a chill ran down my spine.
If Dayeon was still stuck in the school store,
Then,
who in the world was the Dayeon I was just with?