Chapter 130: Flood (3)

"You want to go inside this building?"

Ms. Hong Mi-ri came to the school urgently after receiving my call.

The old school building had been thoroughly closed and managed since the students' disappearance incident, but Ms. Hong Mi-ri had a key that could open it.

Fiddling with the iron chain and lock securing the main entrance of the old school building, Ms. Hong Mi-ri asked again.

"You really want to go in here? It's been abandoned for so long, there must be many dangers. If you get pricked by glass shards or nail fragments, you could get tetanus or something."

The old school building was an abandoned ruin.

It was full of all kinds of trash, and there might be lots of disease-carrying pests like cockroaches or rats.

But I was in a state of being controlled by some kind of inspiration.

"There might be more to the basement of this old school building. Teacher, we need to go to the basement."

"More to the basement? I've never heard anything like that."

Ms. Hong Mi-ri scratched her eyebrow as if this was news to her. But seeing my determination, she finally unlocked the old school building.

Creak-

When we opened the main entrance, which hadn't been opened in who knows how long, it made a dull and unpleasant noise as it opened.

Whoosh-

The wind blowing from inside the building unpleasantly licked our faces.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz-

Buzz buzz buzz buzz-

It was a midsummer day with cicadas crying. But inside the old school building, it was dark, damp, and cool like a winter night.

Squeeze-

I gripped the golf club I had brought from Kwon Sua's house even tighter. And I said to everyone.

"Let's take a photo first before we go. You never know."

Click-!

One photo of all of us together. Creating a save point made me feel a bit more at ease.

"Guys, let's go in then. It's just my guess, but this school has more basement levels. Let's keep going down to the basement. To the basement. The terrifying basement..."

The last time we came to this old school building's basement, it was a terrifying experience that almost made my liver drop.

But now we were seven people including Ms. Hong Mi-ri, and with this many people, honestly, there was nothing to be afraid of.

There are things you can't do alone but can do together, right?

That's exactly what I was trying to do now.

Step, step, step-

We entered the dark basement, lighting our way with our phone flashlights. It was a damp and humid basement.

As we looked around, Jung-seok asked.

"When we came last time, we didn't find any stairs going down, right? But you still think there's a deeper basement below this one?"

"We hadn't opened the second floor then."

I had paid a large number of points to open up to the second floor of the old school building in the shop.

You might wonder what this means now, but...

"There was a day when I opened the first floor of the old school building, and Yang Juhee, Kim Geonho, and Jung Sojin suddenly entered the newly opened building and lost consciousness and went missing. Jung-seok, you'll remember."

"At the beginning of the semester?"

"Yeah. The time I opened the old school building and the time Yang Juhee entered the actual old school building were exactly the same. Honestly, I don't think this is a coincidence. I actually opened this building."

Opening the second floor also affected the real world.

The earthquake. The earthquake that happens every time we open a new floor. I didn't think it was just a coincidence.

"There are no coincidences in what we're experiencing. It's all connected."

We walked together through the dusty basement of the old school building.

We reached a dead end, but due to the two major earthquakes, there was a crack in the wall. Whoosh- I felt wind blowing from that wall.

Maybe...

I swung the golf club in my hand.

Bang-!

"Ah, my golf club!"

Kwon Sua looked upset, but that upset look turned to shock.

Crumble-

As the dead-end wall of the basement crumbled, a new space appeared.

It was... a place similar to somewhere we knew well.

"1-D", "Teachers' Office", "Multi-Purpose Room".

"Why... why are there first-year classrooms in the basement too?"

Ms. Hong Mi-ri also had a stiff expression, as if she hadn't expected this.

Everyone looked uneasy, as if they had goosebumps. I felt the same.

"The school building rising above was just a deception from the start. This is the real first floor."

***

We walked through an incredibly old and worn-out place.

Everyone was silent.

They must have been overwhelmed by the secret space revealed in the basement of the old school building.

After walking for a while, we finally reached the real second floor.

On the second floor, there was a "Music Room", "Science Room", and "Principal's Office".

It was a familiar sight, and it felt like a woman with a long neck might come out from that dark corner at any moment saying "I'll suck your brain─."

I was so scared that I quickly hid behind Ms. Hong Mi-ri.

"Teacher. Don't you sense anything like ghosts? You have a long history with ghosts, right?"

Ms. Hong Mi-ri was a ghost veteran.

I asked if she might sense the presence of similar ghosts here, but Ms. Hong Mi-ri also trembled and shook her head.

"I don't know about that stuff. I'm scared of scary things too."

I see.

Everyone was terrified.

In Jung-seok's case, his breathing was so rough that his nose was making annoying snorting sounds.

"...Music Room."

As we passed by the music room, I got goosebumps for no reason.

I felt like there might be a ghost swinging back and forth, hanging from the piano. But fortunately, there were no ghosts in this basement.

Just then, Yoo Dahee shouted "Ah!" as if she had discovered something.

"That!"

Pop-

Yoo Dahee jumped into the music room.

While we were all confused, Yoo Dahee picked up something that looked like paper from the piano. It was a paper covered in a thick layer of dust.

"It's sheet music. Guys, there's sheet music here!"

What Yoo Dahee found was sheet music written on staff paper.

There were words written on it, but it was such an old object that they were hard to make out.

"─ Living ─ Symphony"

"They said if you play the piano, you can bind the rhythm ghost for a while. Could this be it? Let's take a photo for now."

Click-

I took a photo of the sheet music with my phone.

We could easily find the stairs going up to the third floor.

This second floor had exactly the same structure as the second floor of the nightmare corridor.

However, the stairs went even further down underground.

Following them, we saw a thick stone door. It was a door I remembered.

It was wide open, and a cold, chilly wind was blowing from inside. Because it was a basement without a speck of light, the darkness was just like the throat of hell.

"Our breath..."

While it was such a hot summer above ground that cicadas were falling from exhaustion, this place was as cold as a winter shadow. I could almost picture the space beyond this stone door.

"Buldan Temple... The shrine's name was Buldan Temple."

To think there was such a place in the basement of the school we were attending.

Just as an uneasy feeling was belatedly washing over me, someone vomited. 

Ugh-

When I turned my head, Yang Juhee was bent over the floor, spitting out vomit.

"Ugh! Uuuugh!"

"Hey! What's wrong all of a sudden!"

"Ugh. Uuugh! Ugh!"

Yang Juhee vomited as if she was trying to expel all the water in her body.

"Hey! What's wrong!"

Worried that she might have developed a quirk, I checked the status window, but it was fine.

I didn't know what it was, but Yang Juhee's condition had rapidly deteriorated, so I thought further exploration would be impossible. Just as I was about to hurriedly turn back.

"It's toxic gas. Gas trapped in a confined space is making people's condition worse."

Step, step-

Someone approached us from afar, holding a light. It was a man with a short beard, cynical wrinkles on his eyebrows, and messy long hair.

It's Mr. Kang Bada.

"Staying in this place for a long time is fatal to your health. The unique gas flowing here affects the brain, causing the hippocampus to shrink. Long exposure can even cause memory loss."

Tap tap-

Kang Bada tapped his temple with his finger and looked carefully at our faces.

I could notice that his gaze lingered especially long on Yoo Dahee's face. Looking at them like this, they didn't resemble each other at all.

"So everyone get out of here. And Ms. Hong Mi-ri. How could you bring children to a place like this? As a teacher."

Kang Bada seemed genuinely angry. But I was too surprised and taken aback.

To think we'd meet Mr. Kang Bada in this basement.

It seems further exploration is impossible. I looked again at the darkness visible beyond the stone door.

***

Back on the ground, at the height of the sweltering summer.

Flick-

Mr. Kang Bada lit a cigarette. The cigarette smell was intense, but that intensity snapped me back to my senses.

"Juhee, are you okay?"

"......"

Yang Juhee, who had been vomiting for a while, had a dazed look like someone who had lost their spirit.

Should we take her to the hospital?

"Since you didn't stay that long, she'll be fine after a while."

Puff-

Mr. Kang Bada exhaled smoke. He said.

"Like salmon."

"What?"

"The temple in this basement is called Buldan Temple. Originally, it wasn't a place for a temple at all, but some shaman forcibly built it. You've heard that people died and got hurt when this school was built, right?"

Is he talking to me?

I nodded.

"Yes. A shaman from Japan..."

Glance-

As I was speaking, I noticed Yang Juhee's expression. So when I trailed off, Mr. Kang Bada nodded.

"Right, a shaman from Japan performed a ritual, and then the accidents stopped and the school was completed- That's how it's known. The building built for that ritual is the temple down there."

Buldan Temple. The temple on the third floor of the corridor was related to Yang Juhee's grandmother.

"But the truth is, the ritual wasn't performed to build the school. The Cheon family was so greedy that they kept digging endlessly. They kept digging and dug up something they shouldn't have."

Flick─

Mr. Kang Bada carelessly threw away his cigarette and abruptly left. I wanted to chase after him and ask more questions, but Yang Juhee exhaled roughly.

"I remember. Sister... My sister must have disappeared into that basement! Because my sister and I had been to that temple before!"