The Living Exhibition
The exhibition was alive. The final exhibit in the human history section—a massive wooden gallows—loomed before us, exuding an eerie aura. Even though the tragic deaths of countless visitors from the previous regression had been undone, the structure still seemed to pulse with that same chilling energy.
Elaine, wearing her rabbit mask, silently hefted the axe and approached the gallows. She raised it high above her head... and that was the moment.
We saw the noose dangling from the gallows twitch to life. Damn it, time's up!
"Elaine, protect your neck!" I shouted the order to her as I quickly raised my arm to shield my own throat. A blood-scented rope whipped toward my neck at a hair's breadth speed. Fortunately, I'd been just a fraction faster; instead of snaring only my neck, it caught my forearm as well.
An immense pressure crushed down in that instant, but by tensing my arm with all my strength, I managed to hold on. It hurt like hell, but it wouldn't kill me.
After securing my own neck, I checked on the others. Thankfully, they'd all anticipated the gallows awakening and protected themselves in time.
But the ordinary visitors hadn't. Their attention had been fixed entirely on us within the exhibit area, and they had no idea ghost stories even existed.
In that moment, the human history section turned into one massive execution ground.
"Elaine! Pass me the axe!!"
At my shout, she tossed it to me without hesitation. I thrashed against the rope still trying to strangle me and barely managed to catch it.
The heavy axe blade in my grip left no room for doubt. I swung it straight at the gallows post.
Crack! The weathered, twisted wooden pillar took a direct hit from the blade, letting out a thunderous roar. But once wasn't enough. Again. And again. Amid the agony of the rope squeezing my throat, I desperately hacked away.
Thankfully, the axe outmatched the noose's grip just enough. The post cracked open with a splintering sound, and finally, with a deafening crash!, the entire gallows collapsed.
The moment it broke, the pressure on my neck vanished like a lie. The rope went limp and fell to the floor. I lowered my arm, gasping ragged breaths.
Rope burns marked my neck and wrist vividly, but they weren't fatal. A glance around showed the other students in similar shape.
Elaine, Rone, and Rozalia clutched their throats, coughing and wheezing as they caught their breath. Everyone was safe.
But... I slowly turned to look at the others.
The visitors who'd been making a fuss, fearing and whispering about us moments ago, now lay silent on the ground.
Most were wracked with coughs from the strangling shock, but their lives didn't seem in immediate danger. Not everyone, though. Some lay motionless. Their necks were twisted at unnatural angles, faces purple from blood rush. Their necks had snapped from the rope's force before they could even suffocate.
Damn it, too late. We'd moved as fast as possible, destroying all three exhibit sections, but the ghost story had awakened anyway. Too slow. Four people tearing through the exhibition was just too damn slow.
"Kyaaack!!"
Before we could even catch our breath from destroying the gallows, screams echoed from afar. No surprise—it was the natural death section and the art section.
At least here in the human history section, we'd cleared everything except the gallows—and we'd taken that down too. The other sections weren't so lucky.
In the end, it was a repeat of the previous loop. Operation Payday had seemed on the verge of success, but it fell woefully short of preventing the ghost story's manifestation.
At this point, I accepted that Payday had failed.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Heavy vibrations like an earthquake. Then the wall of the human history section crumbled.
Monsters from the natural death section poured through the flying debris. The first thing that caught my eye was a life-sized Tyrannosaurus skeleton.
No... would they even call it a Tyrannosaurus in this world? Funny the weird thoughts that pop up when death's knocking.
Fantastical beasts followed in its wake.
"Everyone, run! Get out of the exhibition hall!"
A student who saw them yelled frantically at the crowd. Pointless as it was, they couldn't just stand by and watch people die.
But despite those efforts, more people died under the moving exhibits than escaped alive.
Fleeing crowds. Screams and sobs. The upper crust who'd paid top dollar to visit Everlight Academy crumbled pathetically before this unprecedented disaster called a ghost story.
If someone photographed this, it'd fit right in the art section. In the face of certain defeat, my mind fled reality with such pointless imaginings.
No. No. I couldn't give up here. This loop had failed, but I couldn't waste it. I needed every scrap of info, every sliver of possibility for the next try.
Gripping the axe tight, I eyed the exhibits preying on visitors. Even info that seemed worthless now might prove key later, when the puzzle pieces fit and revealed a whole new picture. I had to find hints in this chaos that could become weapons next time.
That was when it happened.
"Teacher! Look out!"
Elaine's urgent cry rang out. I tried to turn, but it was too late.
"Grahk!!"
Slash! A bizarre sound pierced my ears. Sharp claws raked deep into my side.
My ridiculous clown mask tumbled to the dirty floor. Amid the burning pain in my flank, I looked at the creature that had slashed me.
Tiny eyes glinted in the darkness. A platypus taxidermy.
"Ha. Unbelievable. If I'm gonna die, couldn't it be something cool like a dinosaur fossil? A freaking platypus?"
Damn it, I'd just pulled my head together to do something... Talk about rotten luck.
Malice, utterly at odds with the round-eyed, dopey creature, welled up in the platypus's eyes. It raised its long, razor-sharp claws for the killing blow.
And... stopped.
"...Huh?"
I reacted a beat late, staring at the platypus as I braced for an embarrassingly lame death.
But the cruelty had vanished from its eyes, leaving only hollow emptiness.
Even as I cautiously backed away, it didn't react. No, before that—it felt utterly lifeless now. Like it had reverted to its original fake model.
Reverted? Why had the platypus turned back into an exhibit? The ghost story wasn't resolved yet.
Checking around, only the platypus had returned to taxidermy. The others were too busy hunting humans.
That plunged me into even deeper confusion. If things were reverting, why just the platypus...?
"...!!"
Lightning struck my mind—a hypothesis that explained it all. No, it was more like enlightenment.
I whipped my head around, scanning the scene.
Visitors still screaming and fleeing. Exhibition staff pleading for help in the corner of my vision, guarded by reluctant security in formation.
Elaine sighing in relief at my survival. Rone desperately wielding her gift against the fantastical beasts amid the despair. Rozalia staring at me with a puzzled expression.
And finally, artworks spilling over from the art section into human history.
Aah. So that's it. I'd found the reversal foothold—a way to maybe land a real hit on this ghost story.
Operation Payday had failed, but the intel from this loop would be a massive weapon next time.
I smiled like that, and thud! The dinosaur fossil's foot crushed me.
As my bones shattered under the fossil, I thought: At least it's a decent death compared to the platypus.