Chapter 108: Assault (3)

Principal's office. Music room. Science room. Class 2-1 to 2-7.

There were also an art room and a computer room. And next to the computer room, something that looked like stairs was drawn.

"This is a map of the second floor. I'm sure of it."

I was the only one with experience of surviving and returning from the second floor. I could be certain that this was a map of the second floor.

"Hey, Jung-seok. Memorize this. Input it all into your head."

"Got it."

Acquiring a map of the second floor was a huge achievement for us.

"I'm sorry for cursing it as a useless note."

Whoever it was, they helped us.

Could it be the party of "Aquaman" who had left many notes before? I suddenly became curious about who these people were, exploring this old school building before us.

I thought it might be good to actually meet them and hear their stories if they were still alive. Of course, that's not the important thing right now.

"Guys, let's go to the third floor then."

I encouraged everyone. For some reason, I felt like we could see the end of our journey.

"Is the magic wand Juhee has and the cross we took from Gong Ye-rin all we have for items we can use? We need to use them well if we encounter ghosts."

No matter how vicious the ghosts on the second floor were, they surely couldn't withstand Yang Juhee's magic wand.

We can do this. Such hope kept rising in my chest.

"Then let's go!"

Thinking I couldn't sense any ghosts outside, I rushed out of the music room.

We're running quickly towards the third floor.

As we were running like that, the dancing ghost appeared in front of us.

Thud thud, thud thud thud thud-

It was flailing its arms and legs and stomping its feet wildly, looking exactly the same as I remembered.

I steeled myself, having fully expected the dancing ghost to appear. But even so, I couldn't help but stop as if frozen in surprise.

"Oh, that's..."

Yang Juhee, who had always been brave in this corridor except for a very few times, was flustered. And for good reason, because the being dancing in the corridor was... Yang Juhee herself, with her joints bent in all directions.

"Isn't that me...?"

Like Yang Juhee, I was also flustered. The dancing ghost being Yang Juhee.

How on earth did this happen?

"Hahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The ghost on the ceiling controlling the dancing Yang Juhee laughed its head off. It was clearly mockery.

Stimulated by that laughter, I came to my senses and held out the cross I was holding towards it.

"Get lost, you bastard!"

"Aaaaaaaaaagh!"

To be honest, I had been half-doubting whether this cross would really work on ghosts. But unlike my lack of faith, the upper body ghost stopped laughing and screamed when it saw the cross.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

It was a scream that seemed extremely painful.

"Serves you right, you fucker!"

It let go of Yang Juhee's hair it had been holding. Thanks to that, Yang Juhee, who had been shaking wildly as if dancing, also fell to the floor.

I pondered a lot looking at Yang Juhee fallen on the floor.

Flare-

Just then, the cross suddenly started burning.

"Ah, hot!"

I had to drop the cross, feeling my hand being scorched.

Whoosh-

Having served its purpose, the cross burned away and disappeared. Jung-seok grabbed my shoulder.

"Hey! We have to go! We need to go quickly!"

Jung-seok was right.

We needed to quickly leave this place and go to the third floor, not knowing when the upper body ghost might come to its senses. But the rhythm ghost was in the corridor in front of the stairs to the third floor.

"Where are you? Kids. Teacher will love you. Come here. Young-won. Can't you hear teacher's voice? Where are you?"

I had been wondering what the rhythm ghost we parted with on the first floor was doing, but to think it would be wandering around in such a place.

The rhythm ghost seemed to be looking for us, going around each classroom on the second floor. There was no way to detour, which meant we had to encounter the rhythm ghost to go to the third floor.

"...I'll be the bait."

Just then, Yoo Dahee spoke as if she had made a big decision.

"I have a talisman, so I'll lure the rhythm ghost into that classroom over there and buy as much time as possible before escaping. You guys go quickly in the meantime."

Volunteering to be bait. It was a very brave act and a plausible strategy.

"Dahee, are you really okay with this? It's really dangerous."

"It's okay. I can do it. There's no one else who can do this kind of thing besides me, right?"

That... that was true.

Among the three people holding talismans, Jung-seok was a coward. Kwon Sua was a beginner who didn't even know what the nightmare corridor was. Therefore, the person to perform the role of bait was Yoo Dahee.

"The zoo was fun. Let's all go together next time."

Yoo Dahee patted my shoulder. It was as if she was cheering me on.

I wanted to cheer Yoo Dahee on too, but before I could, she quickly ran into the classroom of "2-4" visible in front of us.

And then she shouted from inside.

"Here! Here! Come here! Here! Long-necked ghost! Over here!"

"Hehehehe!"

Thud thud thud thud thud-

The rhythm ghost quickly crawled on all fours into "2-4". Not missing that chance, Yang Juhee ran down the corridor first.

The rest of us, including me, also ran down the corridor, but I flinched when I heard Yoo Dahee's scream "Kyaa-" from "2-4".

"Dahee!"

"Hey! There's nothing we can do! Just run!"

Jung-seok kept pulling my arm. 

That was true. As Jung-seok said, there was nothing we could do.

I went up the stairs to the third floor, hoping that Dahee had safely escaped with her talisman.

"Haa, haa."

I was out of breath, but I couldn't stop.

The third floor we arrived at like that was very different from what I had imagined.

***

Unlike the first or second floors we had seen so far, the third floor was a place with a very high ceiling. The ceiling height alone seemed to be close to 4 meters.

And rather than a school, it was built with stone like some kind of ruins, and a sturdy gate-like structure stood firmly locked in front of us.

We were all flustered by this unexpected situation.

This massive door was all we could see of the third floor.

"Hup!"

Yang Juhee exerted force as if trying to push the stone door, but it didn't budge at all.

Just then, Jung-seok shouted as if he had discovered something.

"Hey! Look at that! There's a talisman attached! On the door!"

Looking at the door as Jung-seok said, I could indeed see a talisman attached to the left part of the gate.

Anyone could see it was an 'escape talisman'. So this is where the third floor escape talisman was attached!

As I was feeling happy, Jung-seok's eyes lit up as if he had discovered something more.

"But there are more square spaces next to the talisman. Three spaces. Including the space with the talisman, there are four square spaces in total. Coincidence? No. There have been no coincidences so far. Locked door. Talisman..."

Ah-

Jung-seok exclaimed as if he had realized something.

"Could this be a door that opens when we attach escape talismans?"

I couldn't understand how Jung-seok, with his 《Computer》 trait, came to such a conclusion through his reasoning. But as always, his deduction sounded very plausible.

"There are three talismans from the basement to the second floor, right? And there are three empty square spaces here. Plus one talisman already attached. Wouldn't the door open if we attach four talismans?"

"So what Jung-seok is saying... is that these talismans not only send us home but are also used like items to unseal the game?"

Gamer girl Kwon Sua quickly understood Jung-seok's attitude. Jung-seok and Kwon Sua.

We had two talismans. We needed three talismans to open the third floor.

I couldn't help but deeply regret the decision we had made earlier.

"If we had known this, we shouldn't have left Dahee behind. It means we needed Dahee's talisman too to open this third floor. Damn...!"

Who would have thought our choice would lead to such a mismatch?

As I was regretting, Jung-seok spoke.

"Hey. It couldn't be helped. Still, this journey was meaningful enough in that we found the location of the third floor door and got a map of the second floor. We even got one talisman after all."

Swish-

Jung-seok peeled off the talisman attached to the third floor gate. And he handed it to me.

I took the talisman carefully and looked at Yang Juhee.

"You really don't need it?"

"...I don't need it."

Three talismans. Four of us.

If we escape like this, only Yang Juhee would be left alone in this corridor.

Yang Juhee, left alone like that... would end up dying.

It reminded me of when I first entered this corridor and escaped through a wet dream, leaving Yang Juhee behind.

I had promised to come back and save Yang Juhee then, but I couldn't. The current situation felt similar to that time.

"Then I'm going. Honestly, I'm at my limit. I want to get out of here quickly."

Jung-seok decided to escape.

It was understandable that he wanted to get out of this place quickly, given the series of nightmarish experiences.

"Normally, we should go back down to the second floor and try farming the computer room or art room. But honestly, I'm a bit tired. Is it okay if I escape first?"

"Yeah. Go. You did well. Sua, you should leave quickly too."

"I... I..."

Kwon Sua trembled.

Since arriving on the second floor, Kwon Sua had become noticeably quieter and looked very depressed and exhausted.

For Kwon Sua, who had seen many ghosts since childhood, she must have felt how evil and terrible the ghosts on this second floor were.

"Then both of you leave at the same time. I'll stay a bit longer before going."

One, two, three-

Rip.

With my signal, Jung-seok and Kwon Sua tore their talismans. Now only Yang Juhee and I were left.

"Are you really okay with this?"

I asked Yang Juhee.

Yang Juhee, sitting with her back against the third floor gate, sighed.

"What can I do if I'm not okay? The number of talismans is fixed."

That was true. In the end, one of us two... had to stay in this place.

Yang Juhee spoke.

"That thing the ghost stuck to the ceiling was controlling earlier. That was me, right? It didn't look like the mirror ghost that was just imitating us. Do you know what happened?"

That... I didn't know either.

To think the Yang Juhee who should have died then had remained until now. Yang Juhee said.

"Maybe when we die here, we really die once? Maybe we who wake up from the dream after dying are actually different people from who we are now?"

It was an uncharacteristically philosophical question from Yang Juhee.

"Ah, I don't know. Now you should go too."

Yang Juhee urged me to escape.

After worrying so much I thought I might get circular baldness from losing hair, I held out my hand to Yang Juhee.

"No. You go."

"...What?"

"You've never left alive so far. I've never died so far. So this time, you go."

"Hey, why are you suddenly like this? It doesn't suit you."

"It's not sudden. Actually, you guys got involved because of me, more or less. So this time, you remember me. How brave I was! How manly I was!"

"Talking about being manly while your legs are shaking like that. You really won't regret it?"

"I won't! I'll get angry if you try to give it back to me!"

Yang Juhee smiled slightly. But thinking she couldn't overcome my manly resolve, she finally accepted the talisman from me.

"Then, I have something to tell only you, so lend me your ear."

Is she going to whisper? 

I brought my ear close to Yang Juhee, but suddenly something soft hit my cheek with a smooch. While I was flustered, Yang Juhee said.

"Forget what just happened!"

Rip-

Yang Juhee tore the talisman and disappeared like powder. I was left alone on this strange third floor with a burning cheek.

I felt dazed in many ways.

To think I received a kiss from Yang Juhee. How long has it been since I received a kiss from a female student?

I did receive a kiss from Ms. Hong Mi-ri recently, but she's over twenty... Hehe- it was funny.

But that joy was quickly pushed away by the loneliness of being left alone in the dark, gloomy corridor.

In the end, I was left alone.

"...It's too scary!"

What should I do now?

As I was thinking about how to die in the most comfortable way, text appeared before my eyes.

Ding-

[Training Complete!]

[Ha Young-won - Training List!

Achieve Level 3 Lvl 5/3]

Achieve 5 Level 5 Players 5/5]