Chapter 107
Zip-
Yang Juhee, wielding the thick industrial box cutter blade, charged at the rhythm ghost.
Thwack-!
"Die!!!"
The rhythm ghost, stabbed in its long neck, writhed like a vicious snake and let out a scream so terrible it made us want to cover our ears.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
This scene was already a nightmare in itself.
It was a situation where we wanted to cover our ears, but we couldn't just stand there dumbfounded.
"Sua! Now's the time! You need to get up quickly! Hurry! Get up now!"
I helped Kwon Sua, who had fallen, to her feet.
We needed to run away fast. But where to?
Where could we run when a ghost from the second floor had come down to the first?
The first floor hideout "1-4" was far from here.
I thought quickly and came to a conclusion.
"Let's go to the second floor! To the principal's office! Evil spirits couldn't enter the principal's office! It's safe if we just break the mirror! Hurry! Let's run away! Everyone up to the second floor! We need to get to the principal's office!"
We ran frantically.
Unlike the first floor where the structure changed randomly, the layout of this second floor seemed mostly fixed, as I could easily find the location of the principal's office.
Bang-! Click-!
After closing the door of the principal's office, we all breathed heavily. We didn't forget to break the mirror in case the mirror ghost might appear.
Crash-!
"Phew, I'm out of breath. Why did the rhythm ghost suddenly come down to the first floor? Why?"
As I was frowning at this incomprehensible situation, Jung-seok spoke.
"There's no rule that second floor ghosts have to stay on the second floor. Remember the journal we got last time."
[Someone's Journal. The 'Dancing Ghost' that should be on the second floor somehow came down to the first floor. Aquaman was badly injured, and Darth Vader and I decided to retreat.]
Right, there was such a journal entry. Then Yoo Dahee, who was the only one among us not out of breath, said.
"Maybe... it's because of the talismans? When there was a head ghost, it would come up to the first floor if we removed the basement talisman. When we removed the first floor talisman... the Red Mask appeared."
"What do you mean?"
"I think the talismans might have been sealing the movements of the ghosts on each floor. Maybe the second floor ghosts became free because we removed the second floor talisman?"
"Gasp!"
Yoo Dahee's words sounded very plausible.
Gu Hyena's head starting to move when we removed the basement talisman. Hong Ye-ri, the red woman, appearing when we removed the first floor talisman. And the second floor evil spirits starting to run wild freely when we remove the second floor talisman.
It was a very reasonable guess.
"Then what should we do now? Should we just escape?"
I wanted to just get out of here. But Yang Juhee had a different opinion.
"Hey. Let's keep going since it's come to this. I still have my magic wand, and Yoo Dahee has her bell. We also have the cross we took from Gong Ye-rin. It's too much of a waste to leave now."
Yang Juhee was very aggressive and full of adventurous spirit. And she also seemed to have made a big decision.
"And if worst comes to worst, you guys get out. I don't need a talisman."
Giving up ownership of a talisman. This was a very significant decision.
"Juhee, are you serious? You're willing to die again?"
"I'm serious. We can't keep running away forever. I need to find my sister. Even if it's just her body!"
She seemed really serious. Now, if we exclude just one person, the other three could survive.
Deeply moved by Yang Juhee's words, I proclaimed like an orator.
"Guys, then let's go to the third floor. Let's go to the third floor, find the sacred statue, and try to secure four talismans."
What the heck, if we die, we can just use 100 points to cure the quirk.
However, Yoo Dahee's status window hadn't been revealed to me yet, so I couldn't put her in the treatment center.
The same was true for Kwon Sua, who got caught up in this today.
"Dahee and Sua, you two keep these two talismans. And Jung-seok, you take one. Jung-seok, this time make sure you escape before dying. Don't die stupidly like last time."
I could see various emotions sparkling in the eyes of Yoo Dahee, Jung-seok, and Kwon Sua as they looked at me.
Was it respect for their leader?
"Hey, are you going to be okay?"
Yang Juhee asked me. I nodded.
"No. I'm not okay."
I had 784 points.
It was enough to cure any quirks that might develop in me and Yang Juhee.
Knock knock-
Just then, someone knocked on the principal's office door.
─Guys, you're in there, right? Open the door quickly!
It was Bong Ji-yeon's voice. Was Bong Ji-yeon here too?
Bong Ji-yeon knocking on the second floor principal's office door. It was a situation similar to the last Random Matching.
While everyone was silent, Jung-seok spoke.
"We need to check. Bong Ji-yeon. Say the name of the guy you like right now."
─Do... do I really have to say that myself? Jung-seok, open this door right now! Hurry! I'm so scared! Open the door quickly!
"Say the name quickly!"
─...Jung-seok! There! I like you! So open the door!
A shy confession in this situation?
I was worried that Jung-seok, who was devoted to Bong Ji-yeon, might go crazy and open the door. But Jung-seok frowned even more coldly and spoke as if spitting out gum.
"No. The person you like right now isn't me, it's that oppa, right? You're not Bong Ji-yeon. Seeing how you're imitating a person, you must be the mirror ghost?"
......
The sound of Bong Ji-yeon knocking on the door from outside became very quiet. It seems it really was the mirror ghost.
"...Is it gone?"
I listened carefully to the now quiet outside. Of course, Jung-seok was horrified.
"Hey, that's such an ominous line."
I know that, but how can we nitpick such things in this tense situation? Eventually, a problem arose.
─Hey. Open the door, you guys. You're going to a crappy high school and you think you can exclude me, the mayor's son? Do you think you're something special just because I hung out with you?
─Young-won, please open the door. You like me too, don't you? I'll do something nice for you if you open the door. Open up now! You losers! I said open the door!
Jung-seok and Bong Ji-yeon's voices could be heard from outside.
Bang bang bang, bang bang bang-
The sound of knocking on the door was very loud.
─Hey, Ha Young-won. You're not better than me in any way, so why are you the pirate crew captain? I could do a better job. You lucky bastard!
─You think you're the only one seeing other guys? All the other girls are doing it too! They're secretly contacting oppas behind your backs! Yang Juhee even went to see a movie with a bicycle-riding oppa last weekend!
They were even spewing curses that were hard to ignore after hearing them. Yang Juhee got angry at the voice that seemed to squeeze out malice from its gut.
"What nonsense! I went to the zoo on the weekend!"
Everyone seemed on edge hearing these stories in familiar voices. Soon, Jung-seok said.
"Remember how the mirror ghost caught and killed me and Bong Ji-yeon last time? I think the mirror ghost is imitating us to try and divide us. By spouting nonsense."
I knew those shouts were plausible nonsense. But we didn't have any good options either.
As I was wondering if we should just hope they'd retreat on their own, Yoo Dahee took something out.
"How about we use this?"
Jingle-
It was bells attached to a stick.
[Exorcism Bell. When shaken, a clear and beautiful sound spreads widely. When rung by someone with aptitude, it can drive away evil beings once.]
The shaman's bell!
Right, if we use that, we might be able to drive away the ghosts outside the door.
Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling-
Yoo Dahee shook the bell up and down repeatedly. A clearer and sharper sound than expected filled the principal's office.
The voices of the fake Bong Ji-yeon and fake Jung-seok shouting at us from outside were drowned out by the bell sound and became completely quiet.
Swish-
The bell, having served its purpose, turned to powder and disappeared. If we need to get out of this principal's office, now would be the perfect time.
***
"Guys, there's no one here. Come out quickly."
Swish-
Yang Juhee, who had poked her head out of the principal's office, gestured to us. After using the bell to drive away the ghosts outside, we also stepped into the corridor.
"Guys, let's look for the third floor from now on. And if you see the science room, absolutely don't go in. We'll all die if we go in there. That's the mirror ghost's lair."
I gave everyone a stern warning.
I wanted to avoid being wiped out on this second floor like in the last Random Matching.
"Those with talismans, if things get dicey, tear the talisman and escape immediately. I've seen cases where people died without escaping even though they had talismans because they weren't careful. There's no dumber way to die than that."
Alright, Ha Young-won Pirate Crew, setting out on the second floor again.
Step, step, step-
Maybe because there were many of us, our footsteps echoed loudly in the corridor. Five people.
Perhaps because of our numbers, I felt somewhat reassured.
"It's the music room."
Jung-seok pointed.
As he said, the music room was visible.
"How about we go in and rummage around? Thinking about Gong Ye-rin and Im Hee-yeon's party, it seems really important to farm useful items here."
Jung-seok's opinion was very reasonable.
There must be plenty of items we haven't discovered yet in this old school building. Among them, there should be many things that could help in conquering this dark nightmare.
However, I was really reluctant to enter the music room.
"The rhythm ghost was in there."
When we first met it, the rhythm ghost was hanging by its neck on the piano in the music room. Thinking about entering such a place made me a bit scared, to be honest.
"Skip it?"
Jung-seok asked. I thought briefly, looked at everyone's faces once, and then shook my head.
"No, we should go in when we have the chance. We don't know when we'll get another opportunity like this. What the heck. Let's go into the music room."
Slide-
As we opened the door and entered, we saw a spacious classroom with a piano in the corner and lots of desks.
"Um, I'll keep watch. I'm confident in seeing ghosts. I hated this about myself and wanted to live normally, but now I think my eyes might be helpful!"
Kwon Sua offered to keep watch in the corridor.
It was quite reassuring to see her trying hard to do her part despite how terrifying this unfamiliar situation must be for her.
The four of us, excluding Kwon Sua, rummaged through the music room. Then Yoo Dahee spoke as if she had found something interesting.
"Guys, look at this."
[There was a beautiful young pianist.
She was discouraged by her skills that weren't improving, and something nestled in that empty heart. The pianist invited her envied colleagues to her home one by one, cut off their heads, and ate their cooked brains.
The pianist's skills improved dramatically after that, and the melody spreading from her fingertips drove listeners mad like cold moonlight. On the day before a famous competition, the pianist, whose criminal acts were all exposed, hanged herself on her piano just before being arrested.
That piano was bought by a rich person and placed in a school's music room. The piano sound came from the empty music room every night. It was the melody created by the blood dripping from the corpse that had hanged itself, striking the keys.
This was thought to be the identity of the 'Suicide Symphony' that made listeners commit suicide─but all these were meaningless speculations.]
It's all useless.
The piano ghost is pure evil, with nothing known about its origin or how to exorcise it. If there's only one way to conquer it, it's just to reach the third floor while avoiding her.
"This pianist is talking about that long-necked ghost, right?"
At Yoo Dahee's question, I became quite troubled for a moment.
To think there's no way to conquer the ghost except going to the third floor.
"If they're going to leave a note, they should at least leave a helpful hint. They're just getting people's hopes up for nothing. Ah. I wasted my time reading this."
My face scrunched up in a frown.
Then, on a hunch, I flipped over the note Yoo Dahee had found. There, I saw what looked like a crudely drawn map.
"Oh, shit! It's a map of the second floor!"