Chapter 128: Flood (1)
"Did you feel the earthquake last night? It seems Korea isn't safe from earthquakes either. Should we reconsider moving to Canada? Canada. Doesn't it sound nice and quiet?"
Sua’s mom, who had been staying at her officetel since yesterday, clicked her tongue while cooking.
It was because of the earthquake last night.
"Haha, I didn't feel any earthquake. And Canada? Sua didn't want to leave Korea. Sua has always struggled with foreign languages."
Kwon Sua's father scratched the back of his head awkwardly, sitting at the dining table.
Woof woof- Woof woof-
Wangwang, the Shiba Inu, barks loudly at the father.
"Hey! You can't bark like that in the house! Oh my, why is he barking so much?"
Kwon Sua's mother picked up Wangwang the Shiba Inu and placed him carefully in the small pet fence set up in the house.
"Sua, I'll have breakfast ready soon. Come eat."
"...I... I'm not really in the mood for breakfast..."
Kwon Sua's voice trembled. She wanted to speak as calmly as possible, but couldn't.
The reason for Kwon Sua's confusion was clear.
━You bitch. You seduced oppa. Die. Die. Die.
━You fox bitch. Kill your family and die too.
The ghosts were already sitting at the dining table. And from Kwon Sua's experience of seeing these things since childhood, she knew they were the kind that harm people.
"......"
Women with their eyeballs gouged out sitting at the table, opening their mouths wide.
Scared to sit at the table with those things, Kwon Sua decided to use her acting skills to the fullest.
"Mom. I don't want breakfast. I'm on a diet."
"Diet? Where do you have fat to lose! Today's breakfast is rice cake soup, your favorite!"
Mom scolded. Dad, sitting at the table, chimed in.
"Yeah, Sua, where do you have fat to lose? Don't do things like dieting. At your age, it's important to eat well and build up your strength."
"I see. You're seeing a boy these days, right? Did your boyfriend tell you to diet because you gained weight? Is that it?"
"Ah, Mom! He's not my boyfriend! ...Not yet..."
"What? Boyfriend? This dad hasn't heard about this! Honey, what are you talking about! Sua having a boyfriend! Sua! What's this about a boyfriend?"
"What kind of boy is he? Is he handsome? Is he rich? Just tell Mom."
"Boyfriend! Sua is only a first-year in high school! Sua! This dad is against you having a boyfriend until you enter university! Against it!"
━You bitch, die. Die. Die.
━Hey. You can see me.
━150 deaths in 33 days.
Kwon Sua couldn't bear to stay in the living room any longer.
Woof woof woof-
Wangwang the Shiba Inu kept barking. Scary and noisy shadows.
'I think I'm going crazy!'
Kwon Sua chose to escape.
"Mom! Then let's go out for breakfast! There's a delicious soup rice place nearby. I feel like eating that. Mom, let's have breakfast together!"
Kwon Sua grabbed her mom's hand and pulled her outside. Kwon Sua's mom laughed, turning off the heat under the boiling rice cake soup.
"Alright. Soup rice for breakfast. You have the exact same taste as your dad. Your dad used to ask to go for soup rice even after I had prepared breakfast."
"...Really?"
"That's right. Since we're on the topic. You know your dad's death anniversary is coming up soon, right? Now that you're taking a break from idol activities, should we go visit your dad's grave together this year...?"
"......"
Kwon Sua couldn't bring herself to answer. As Kwon Sua was closing the door, her dad waved from inside.
"Have a good trip."
Click-
After the door closed, the outside world was a complete mess due to the massive earthquake from last night.
Roads were overturned, trees uprooted, and signs had fallen, injuring people. When you turned on the news, it was all about the earthquake.
━Earthquake damaaaaaaage-
Of course, Kwon Sua couldn't even watch the news properly.
When she turned on the TV, terrible things kept appearing and jumping out, forcing her to look away.
"Is it because I couldn't sleep well due to the earthquake yesterday? Why are my shoulders so heavy?"
"My head hurts."
Kwon Sua quickly withdrew her gaze after looking at the people walking on the street. Black shadows were everywhere in the world.
They clung to people like black soot.
'This is strange! Something's wrong!'
Kwon Sua had been a woman who could see bizarre things since she was very young. But it was at most once a week.
But now... it was as if a container full of cockroaches had been dropped, releasing its contents everywhere, with strange things all over the world.
***
"Status window."
『Name. Ha Young-won Lv.5
Traits. 《Sloppy Clock》 《Breath Holding》 《Strong Heart》 《Trait Enhancement》
Quirk.
Funds. 860 Points
Description. Time that had been stopped for a long time has started moving again. You, who are inevitably experiencing various things and growing, are both afraid and excited about what will happen next.』
『Shop ◀ Click to open』
『Treatment Center ◀ Click to open』
『Training Ground ◀ Click to open』
『Mercenary Group ◀ Click to open』
Since the status window appeared, I would look at these words whenever I wanted to calm down. Looking at these words strangely boosted my confidence.
『Blood-stained School Uniform. An extremely shortened school uniform. Someone's blood is on it. Carrying it might reveal a special path.』
The description of Yang Juhee's sister Yang Do-hee's school uniform caught my eye. Carrying it might reveal a special path... I'm not sure what this means.
I turned my attention from the incomprehensible to clear numbers.
"We gained about 300P from this expedition, but we also spent about 300P treating everyone's quirks, so it's almost a wash... Add in the points from the rabbit piggy bank and defeating the wall-watching woman... We're still coming out ahead."
I now had 860P.
In the past, I would have happily pondered how to spend these many points, but now even these points felt like a castle built on sand.
It was because we'd had so many occasions to use points in large quantities recently. It seemed like we'd have many more opportunities to burn through points in the future. Just looking around...
"Hmm."
I tried my best not to make eye contact with the dark things wandering the streets.
"Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello."
There were quite a few 'somethings' mixed in on the streets that were clearly not human, even though they were pretending to be human and mimicking human behavior.
Looking at that back alley, for instance, there were all sorts of unidentifiable things mixed together...
━Groooan.
Ugh, shit...!
I couldn't even imagine what kind of ghost or animal cry that was. Whatever it was, it must be some terribly horrific monster or ghost.
Whatever they were, I thought we shouldn't get tangled up with the things all over the streets, and I hurriedly headed to Ms. Hong Mi-ri's office where our secret base was.
Jung-seok, Yang Juhee, Yoo Dahee, Kwon Sua, and Bong Ji-yeon were in the office.
They all had dark circles under their eyes and their skin looked dull. Must be because of the terrible night they had.
"Hey. The earthquake yesterday was because of something we did, right? Did we really open the third floor door?"
Jung-seok had been caught by the spider woman yesterday and died horribly. So he seemed to have forgotten all those terrifying and intense memories from yesterday.
It was the same for Yoo Dahee and Yang Juhee.
I had gathered the pirate crew members to explain what happened yesterday.
As I was slowly organizing in my head how to explain this from where, Yoo Dahee spoke up while looking at her phone.
"Did you guys see the disaster alert yesterday? Isn't it the first time you've seen them make a mistake with a disaster alert? I saw online that some people had trouble because they gave wrong information about shelters."
"You mean that message about the flood warning? I saw that too."
Bong Ji-yeon, who liked Yoo Dahee, quickly agreed with her.
The atmosphere was chaotic in many ways. Yang Juhee, who yawned so wide you could see her molars, said.
"So, why did you call us here?"
"Obviously to talk about what happened yesterday... and what's happening today."
Chatter chatter-
I explained to everyone about yesterday's events using my well-practiced storytelling skills.
Opening the third floor. Using the shop on the third floor and dying. About the woman with eight arms and the man wrapped in bandages, and...
"Did you guys see them too? There are ghosts and stuff all over the world. Not in this room, but..."
"......"
"......"
"......"
Everyone fell silent. Had they all seen ghosts on TV or on the streets?
Kwon Sua, who looked the most upset, seized the opportunity to join the conversation.
"There... there are some in my house too! There are ghosts in my house! I thought I was going to die since this morning! It's because that third floor opened, right? What on earth is going on!"
Kwon Sua said she'd been struggling with ghosts since morning. Ghosts in the form of young girls, she said.
If asked whether the current events were related to me opening and entering the third floor, honestly, I found it hard to give a definitive answer.
Of course, there was no other explanation if it wasn't the third floor opening.
"This is hell!"
Kwon Sua cried out, almost in tears. I wholeheartedly agreed with her words.
How scared I was when I woke up this morning and there was a ghost in my room too.
It's fortunate that Giganoto ate it, but if Giganoto hadn't been there... it would have been a terribly horrific morning.
Shudder.
I tried to calm my trembling body and boost my confidence to reassure everyone.
"It's a terrible situation, but. I think it could be an opportunity. It takes a ton of points to conquer the third floor. In that sense, this is like having our cake and eating it too."
For us, ghosts = points.
I thought that way as I tried to muster up courage. However, Jung-seok, as always, said something cold.
"I feel like events are increasingly getting out of our control. Besides the earthquake, a lot of things are happening that affect reality. Is it really okay to continue with the conquest?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean no one can guarantee what will happen next."
I fell into deep thought at Jung-seok's warning.
Just looking at today, the news and internet were full of reactions from people injured in the earthquake and those who struggled after being misled by the strange safety alert.
I was trying to ignore such things, but if we explore the third floor more... if we open the fourth floor, no one knows if things might become even more uncontrollable than now.
"Hey. Jung-seok. If you're that scared, you can back out. I'm going to keep going."
Just then, Yang Juhee growled like an angry fox. I've never seen an angry fox, but if there was one, it would be like Yang Juhee right now.
"You said you found my sister's uniform too. It feels like we're almost there. We're really almost there. You want to quit now? I can't accept that."
Yang Juhee's resolve was firm.
Now that her sister's uniform had been found on the third floor, she didn't seem to have any intention of backing down.
But even Yang Juhee, who was like this, couldn't move in front of the spider woman on the third floor...
"For now, let's start by driving out the ghosts in Sua's house and earning points. And Juhee. I have something I want to ask you, so let's talk for a bit."
I concluded that conquering the third floor would be impossible without hearing why Yang Juhee became afraid of spiders. We had to overcome our fears and terrors and move forward.