Chapter 50: A Baby's Cry (1)

On the way home, Yoo Dahee kept shivering.

"What's wrong?"

"No. Isn't it really cold? My shoulders feel heavy too."

I didn't feel anything like that. Yang Juhee also looked in very good condition.

"Hey. Should we stop by the convenience store and eat some cup noodles? Young-won. Do you have any ramen at home? I'm thinking of cooking some when we get there."

It seems Yang Juhee wasn't satisfied with the spaghetti we ate earlier. The calorie consumption of a girl who runs hard on the playground must be enormous.

But from the conversation, it seemed Yang Juhee was planning to come to our house too. While my mom's away, our house has practically become public property.

But it wasn't such a bad thing for me either.

Although it's been quite calm for the past few days, I've encountered all sorts of ghosts before. Especially when I was alone at home, ghosts would just pop out.

"Auntie Ghost", "Double Mom", "Cockroach", and so on.

If everyone was together, I felt I could be a little less scared even if we encountered something frightening.

With that feeling, we bought three packs of instant ramen and were on our way home. Near Taekwang Villa, I could see something quite strange happening.

"Meooow-"

"Meow-"

"Meoow."

A bunch of kittens were gathered near our apartment building, crying. Yoo Dahee, looking slightly excited at the sight, said,

"Wow! Cats!"

Right. Cats.

I don't know who did it, but there were bowls full of cat food placed under the utility poles and cars near the house, and it seemed the kittens were having a feast because of it.

Yang Juhee frowned and got angry.

"Ugh, those crazy cat ladies. Why did they scatter cat food like this? With all this around, cockroaches never leave the apartment building! Go away! Shoo! Wah!"

Yang Juhee chased away the cats vigorously, either because she simply disliked cats or had some hostility towards cat ladies who mess up the neighborhood as a commoner.

Pitter-patter-

The cats ran away, their eyes gleaming ominously, occasionally stopping to glare at Yang Juhee.

Suddenly, I had an ominous feeling.

Cats were called mystical creatures in the old days, right? What if Yang Juhee, who bothered the cats, gets cursed by them?

Cat ghost. Such a thing might torment Yang Juhee.

Of course, Yang Juhee didn't seem to care at all as she climbed the stairs and skillfully entered our house's door lock password.

Click-

When we turned on the lights, a cockroach in the living room scurried with a rustle.

"Aah!"

I screamed, but Yang Juhee suddenly jumped out and smacked the cockroach with her palm, killing it instantly.

Wow, I've seen it before, but Yang Juhee doesn't seem to be afraid of anything.

Whoosh-

While Yang Juhee was washing her hands in the bathroom after killing the bug, Yoo Dahee turned on the water and prepared to cook ramen. But she looked a bit awkward, so I decided to ask.

"Dahee. Do you know how to cook ramen?"

In those dramas that girls like, you often see rich third-generation chaebol guys meeting poor girls and trying ramen for the first time, saying stuff like "I can't believe such delicious food exists!"

I thought those scenes came from the prejudice that rich people always eat good food and have never tried ramen.

It seems I had a bit of that prejudice too. Would Yoo Dahee, who probably has a personal chef at home, know how to cook ramen?

Crunch-

Yoo Dahee frowned.

"Young-won, you're funny. You think I can't even cook ramen?"

As she said that, her eyes were busy reading the instructions on the back of the ramen package.

"I told you I'd cook something delicious for dinner tonight. You just rest, Young-won. I'll make you some delicious ramen. It'll be so good, you'll be surprised."

When she said that, there was nothing I could do. I sat in my room, turned on the computer, and manipulated the status window.

"Status window."

[Status window details omitted for brevity]

979 points.

Very good. I had been pondering all day about what to do with this, so I decided to use the points now that I had some free time.

This is what I'm going to do.

Use 500 points!

Ding-

[Shop details omitted for brevity]

I immediately raised the shop to level 3.

It seems level 3 is the final level for the shop, as the word "MAX" was written instead of experience points.

Max level shop.

Although I used a hefty 500 points, I hoped it was worth it as I decided to unlock a new 'locked item' without stopping.

There was a condition that you had to reach shop level 3 to unlock new locked items like the treatment center and training center.

Ding-

"You use 80P to unlock a locked item."

"Mercenary Group is unlocked."

Mercenary Group? What's this out of the blue?

An item I never expected was unlocked.

I checked the text below to see a detailed explanation.

"In the Mercenary Group, you can dispatch the supernatural entities you've acquired."

"Dispatching costs 100 points."

Dispatching acquired supernatural entities.

At first glance, it didn't make much sense. But when I clicked on "Mercenary Group List" and looked at the details, it suddenly clicked.

"Mercenary Group List"

Curse of becoming a ghost after answering three times

Death game

Placebo effect

Ghost under the bed

Ghosts come when you talk about them

Death elevator

Electric fan ghost story

"Phew, there's a lot."

It seemed to be a list of the ghosts I've defeated so far.

Seeing these words, all the hardships I've been through flashed before my eyes. I've really been through a lot lately.

So how do I dispatch these? I clicked on number 7, "Electric fan ghost story".

Then text appeared.

"Please select a target from the list below."

Whoosh-

Quite familiar names were appearing before my eyes. Of course, it was identical to the list of players that could be put into the "Nightmare Corridor".

But what benefit would I get from dispatching these ghosts to these people?

As I was wondering what kind of system this was, I suddenly realized that I was in the mafia position fighting against the "Hero" and "Observer".

So, it means to send these ghosts to sabotage people who are thought to be "Heroes" or "Observers". Aha. Thinking about it that way, it made sense in many ways.

"Eek!"

Just then, I heard a scream.

It was Yang Juhee's scream. I hurriedly went out to the living room, where Yang Juhee, who seemed to have just finished bathing and was wearing a thin sleeveless shirt and dolphin pants with a towel around her neck, was frowning as if very flustered.

"What's wrong! What!"

"Hey! Look at that! What crazy girl puts this much water in when cooking three packs of ramen!"

Bubble bubble-

The water in the boiling pot was a bit much. Since the noodles hadn't been added yet, it could be fixed by boiling it down somehow.

***

"It tastes good."

Yang Juhee admitted that the ramen Yoo Dahee cooked was honestly delicious. It seems quickly reducing the broth was the right answer.

Slurp, slurp-

Anyway, we ate the ramen deliciously and went to our rooms to prepare for school the next day.

A heart-pounding happening under the same roof with pretty girls─

I imagined something like that for a moment, but nothing special happened.

Yoo Dahee and Yang Juhee went into my mom's room to sleep early. It seems the secret to good skin care is going to bed early.

Midnight.

Thinking it was a bit early to sleep, I turned on League of Legends. And played duo with Jung-seok. I thought it would be good to tell Jung-seok about the new "Mercenary Group" system too.

[Game chat omitted for brevity]

"Damn it."

Thanks to the newly acquired trait 《Strong Heart》, my gameplay was becoming bolder.

The problem was that it was just bold without substance.

We ended up losing the game. It was because our team's bot duo completely messed up the game.

The constantly crying kittens were also a problem.

"Meooow─"

"Meoow-"

These kittens. They're really crying a lot. Were there always this many cats crying?

Wondering what was going on, I went out to the living room, and Yang Juhee came out too, frowning like someone who just woke up and scratching the back of her head.

"Hey. Ha Young-won. Damn, why are the cats crying so much?"

"That's what I'm saying. Is Dahee sleeping?"

"I don't know. She wasn't in the room."

She wasn't in the room?

Did she go out to look at the cats because they were crying? I thought I'd go to the bathroom first, but when I tried to open the bathroom door, it was locked.

"Huh?"

"Meoooow-"

And I could hear a strange sound coming from inside the bathroom. A cat's cry from the bathroom?

"Hey. Juhee. Don't you hear a cat crying in the bathroom?"

Swish-

At my question, Yang Juhee put her ear to the bathroom door. Then she shivered.

"You call this a cat's cry? No, this is..."

What on earth is going on?

Whatever it was, it seemed best to open the bathroom door quickly.

I tried to find the "bathroom key" by searching around the house, but I couldn't remember where I put it. Soon, Yang Juhee said,

"Hey. Move aside."

Yang Juhee had a knife in her hand.

She skillfully inserted the knife between the door gap, and with a click, the bathroom door unlocked.

"That's awesome."

Picking locks, stealing things well, Yang Juhee was like a complete fantasy thief.

So cool.

Creak-

The door opened.

"Gasp! It's dark!"

I felt my breath catch at the dark interior of the bathroom. Of course, Yang Juhee nonchalantly pressed the light switch to turn on the lights.

Pop!

In the corner of the now-lit bathroom, something was crouched.

It was... Yoo Dahee!

"D-Dahee. What are you doing there?"

I asked cautiously. Then Yoo Dahee turned her head sharply to look at us and opened her mouth─

"Meooow-"

She made a sound like a cat!

I felt chills run from my feet to my head and was on the verge of fainting.

"Hey! Yang Juhee! Because you bothered the cats, you've been cursed by them! It's a cat ghost! Damn! A cat ghost!"

Yoo Dahee must have been possessed by a cat ghost!

I was about to foam at the mouth, but Yang Juhee offered a different opinion.

"Hey. What cat sound are you talking about? Listen carefully."

"Meow- Meoow, Waah─"

"See? It's not a cat, it's a baby sound. I heard this sound when we were leaving the church too."

"......"

Now that she mentioned it, it was true.

I thought it was a cat's cry, but listening carefully, it wasn't a cat but a baby's cry. I remembered hearing that cat cries and baby cries have similar wavelengths or something.

But a baby? What baby? Suddenly? This is even scarier. Damn.

Maybe a cat would be better! Just say it's a cat!

"Has a baby ghost entered Dahee's body now? What is it? What's going on?"

I grabbed Yang Juhee's arm and pulled, asking almost pleadingly.

Of course, Yang Juhee didn't know either.

"How would I know? Ah, let go. Let go. Should I just hit her hard? Wouldn't that work?"

Yang Juhee seemed to want to hit Yoo Dahee hard.

Would hitting her exorcise the baby ghost possessing Yoo Dahee? Honestly, I'm not sure.

I thought maybe we could remove Yoo Dahee's 《Possession》 quirk at the treatment center, but since Yoo Dahee hadn't played in the corridor, all her items were still full of question marks.

In this state, we can't even treat her quirk.

"Waah, Waaaah─"

Yoo Dahee making baby sounds. It was incredibly creepy, and I wanted to dash out of this place.

"This crazy girl! She's doing all sorts of weird things! Really!"

Pop!

Yang Juhee lunged at Yoo Dahee crouched in the bathroom. And she started punching her body hard!

Thud, thud thud-!

But it didn't seem to work, as Yoo Dahee cried even louder.

"WAAAAH─!"

It was almost like a scream. I had no choice but to cover my ears, and even Yang Juhee had to back away.

What should we do about this?

Suddenly, a good idea came to mind.

"Since it's a baby, wouldn't it pass on if we treat it well? Like breastfeeding! Juhee! Do something!"

Yang Juhee had quite large breasts. That size meant a baby wouldn't starve to death.

Of course, Yang Juhee gave a cold expression as if she found it ridiculous.

"What? Young-won, are you crazy?"

"No! I'm telling you we need to do something!"