The Pen That Killed Me
The sound of shattering echoed through the room. Crack!
The moment the slime engulfed my body, the orb broke apart. A grotesque groooan tore from the slime as its form twisted violently and began to evaporate.
Resolve the Five Ghost Stories of Inshin Middle School
1. Statue (Completed)
2. Murderer
3. Human Specimen (Completed)
4. Security Guard (Completed)
5. Female Student ???
The clear condition was met too. So it really was the human specimen after all.
“Whew.”
My legs were shaking from the massive drain on my internal energy. Thankfully, it seemed everything related to formalin was treated as part of the anomaly. The nauseating stench, the formalin that had soaked the science lab floor, all of it vanished like a mirage. Even the liquid that had covered my body disappeared.
“Whoa… As expected of overwhelming force.”
The female student had somehow appeared right beside me, eyes sparkling.
“I told you it wasn’t like that.”
She was looking at me like I was some kind of superhero, but this had been a close call. What if I hadn’t pierced the core properly? I would’ve instantly become Kim Muhan, formalin-pickled.
“When the body’s strong, the head gets to relax. Perfect, right?”
“That just means I’m a brute.”
“You can have both a good body and a good head.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Give me a minute to circulate my energy.”
“Circulate?”
“Think of it like meditation.”
“Ooh… Okay.”
I hadn’t even had time to catch my breath before rushing here, so my internal energy was completely drained. I had no idea what might pop out next, and in this state I wouldn’t even be able to beat the security guard ghost story.
I sat down in the lotus position. The Heavenly Demon Divine Art had a total of seven stages. The core of the first stage, Holy Fire, was the process called Refining Spirit and Absorbing Energy.
In the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Refining Spirit and Absorbing Energy meant using the power of Holy Fire to awaken the solidified essence within the body, then absorbing external energy to grow the Holy Fire once more.
When I closed my eyes, I saw a single spark burning in the darkness. Its momentum had decreased quite a bit compared to before. All I had to do was grow the diminished flame back up.
Blood Demon had said it, right? That the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was the greatest martial art of all time. I’d never seen any other martial arts, but my instincts told me those words weren’t wrong.
Whoosh—!
An invisible current of energy swirled violently around my body. The moment I began circulating with full intent, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art greedily devoured every bit of energy in the surroundings. A scorching heat rose up to fill my previously empty middle dantian.
How much time had passed? It wasn’t perfect, but I had recovered enough to fight. Roughly eighty percent?
I let out a long breath and slowly opened my eyes.
The first thing I saw when I opened them were the female student’s huge eyes. She was staring intently at my face from so close that I could feel her breath.
The moment my eyelids lifted, she scrambled back, squatted down beside me, and pretended to doodle with her finger.
I have no idea what she’s thinking.
If I have to resolve her story, how should I do it? Should I just cut her down with my sword like the other ghost stories?
I stopped my thoughts before they got too complicated.
“All done?”
When I stood up and brushed myself off, the female student acted like nothing had happened.
“Yeah.”
“Where to next?”
“Fourth floor.”
“…Hmm.”
The female student fidgeted uncomfortably.
“The classroom where you said you acted out the ghost story. Let’s go there.”
“Haa…”
She let out a deep sigh at my words.
“Let’s go.”
Unlike before, her steps were heavy. I quietly organized my own thoughts as well.
We climbed to the fourth floor in silence.
“It’s over there. Class 1.”
The female student pointed at the classroom labeled 2-1.
“Wait here.”
I didn’t know what kind of trauma trigger might cause something to jump out.
“Okay.”
She nodded obediently. I cautiously approached the 2-1 classroom at the end of the hallway.
Through the half-open door of the 2-1 classroom, I saw another female student. She was sitting neatly at a desk, diligently writing something. She looked exactly like the girl I’d just been talking to.
Scratch. Scratch.
The sound of a ballpoint pen scraping across paper filled the classroom. Unlike the ghostly female student, this one clearly had a physical body.
I walked forward, deliberately making noise. Even though I was now within sword range, the anomaly sitting at the desk didn’t react at all.
I looked at the notebook the anomalous girl was writing in. It was covered in pitch-black, unidentifiable symbols.
“Stop.”
I spoke gently.
Then—
Crack.
The anomalous girl’s neck twisted at a grotesque angle. I couldn’t see her face properly. Where her eye sockets should have been, there were only countless black symbols. The same unidentifiable characters that were written in the notebook.
The anomalous girl’s mouth split open unnaturally wide.
“҉̢̕It҉̢̕’s҉̢̕No҉̢̕t҉̢̕Ov҉̢̕er҉̢̕Ye҉̢̕t҉̢̕”
After spitting out those words, she went right back to scribbling symbols in the notebook.
This is a pain in the ass.
Seeing it up close only confirmed my suspicions. This was the body of a living human. The ghostly girl had probably had her body stolen by the anomaly. In that case, I couldn’t kill her.
Maybe killing her would be the simplest solution, but if there was any other way, I really didn’t want to do that.
She wasn’t openly hostile yet, so I looked around the classroom. There was actually something I was curious about.
As I thought.
There was a seating chart on the teacher’s podium.
“Hyeon Seo-ah.”
So that’s your name.
Unlike the ghostly girl whose name tag I couldn’t even see, the name was clearly visible here in this classroom.
Whoosh—!
Suddenly, sharp air sliced across my cheek. The anomaly that had been sitting at the desk was now right in front of my nose in the blink of an eye.
“҉̢̕Do҉̢̕n҉̢̕’t҉̢̕Ca҉̢̕ll҉̢̕Th҉̢̕at҉̢̕Na҉̢̕me҉̢̕.”
A voice like dry sand scraped against my ear.
I didn’t step back.
“Why not?”
“҉̢̕Th҉̢̕at҉̢̕Na҉̢̕me҉̢̕Is҉̢̕Mi҉̢̕ne҉̢̕No҉̢̕w҉̢̕.”
“It’s not yours. Give it back to its owner. Both the body you stole and the name.”
“҉̢̕No҉̢̕!҉̢̕”
The anomaly’s face writhed violently. Looked like I’d touched a reverse scale I shouldn’t have.
“Hyeon Seo-ah.”
“҉̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̢̕St҉̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̢̕op҉̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̢̕!҉̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̶̷̸̢̕”
Bang—!
The anomaly slammed its fist on the podium. I twisted my body urgently to dodge.
Before it could rampage any further, I moved to where the anomaly had been sitting. The pen. I picked up the pen that had been bothering me since earlier.
It’s basically a rule that something like this would be connected to the ghost story…
[You have died.]
Returning to the Waiting Room.
Huh?
I blankly looked around. Pure white walls no matter where I looked. It was the scenery of the Waiting Room. The last thing I’d heard in my ear was definitely the word “death.” So this wasn’t a dream.
I really died? Just from picking up that one pen?
What the hell was it that it killed me before I could even feel any pain?
“Huuuuuu…”
My head throbbed from all the incomprehensible events. Still, this was the Waiting Room. There were people I could ask for advice.
I picked up the pen the anomaly was using and suddenly something descended and I died.
The comment came less than thirty seconds after I posted. Is this guy a tsundere? I felt it from the beginning, but he’s strangely kind.
They’re talking among themselves again. I’m grateful they’re trees that give without restraint, but sometimes it’s really frustrating.
After the high school girl and Blood Demon had a rather ominous conversation, I waited a moment and a new post appeared.
Attached File: Blood Demon Meridian Opening Great Method (Temporary Title).pdf
I calmly opened the file. Unlike the Heavenly Demon Divine Art that had felt like my head would split open the moment I looked at it, this felt like a normal book. It was comfortably readable.
This martial art, which consisted of a total of eight parts, had a simple function. To summarize:
A method to forcibly open the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and use them.
In other words, it was a self-destruct technique.