Chapter 6
Yang Juhee wore an expression of pure ridicule. "A favor? Young-won, you're asking me for a favor?"
Even in this mess, she still wanted to act all arrogant and prickly? This psycho bitch. If I'd known where the multipurpose room was, I would've ditched her in a heartbeat.
"What kind of favor? What could my Young-won possibly want from me, huh?" Yang Juhee crossed her arms and stared at me, the look on her face saying go on, I'm listening.
"It's not something I need right this second. I'll ask for one thing later. I can't tell you what it is yet, but can you promise you'll do it for me?"
"What the hell is this guy talking about? How can I promise when you won't even say what the favor is?"
"Just promise me! It's hard to explain right now. But if it comes down to escaping this place, I might really need your help...? Think of it like my secret trump card."
"Haha..." Yang Juhee laughed. But her face quickly hardened into a scowl.
"Ha Young-won, do I look that fucking easy to you just because I'm stuck here with you? Normally you couldn't even make eye contact with me, and now you're asking me for a favor?"
***
A strange alarm suddenly rang out. Ting-ring-. Ting-ring-ring-. When I turned my head, every electronic clock in the staff room was announcing exactly one in the afternoon.
One in the afternoon... Seriously? How could it be this dark?
Yang Juhee, who had flinched at the sound of the clocks, swept her hair back from her forehead with a shaky hand.
"Fine. I don't know what the favor is, but I'll do it. I don't want to stay in a shithole like this any longer."
"Perfect. Then let's get out of here."
***
"Jung Sojin said she saw three ghosts in total. Is that true? Besides the bell woman and the hair ghost, there's one more? Do you know what it is?"
I asked Yang Juhee about the remaining ghost, but she simply shook her head like none of it rang any bells.
"No, I only saw that shaman bitch and the floating head. Isn't Jung Sojin just lying?"
Apparently the two of them had been together until the hair ghost incident. If Jung Sojin had seen it, Yang Juhee should have seen it too. Was Jung Sojin making it up like Yang Juhee said? Or had she encountered the third ghost after they split up?
There was another thing I was curious about.
"What about Kim Geonho? Where did he go?"
"Don't even bring up that asshole. He always strutted around acting like a tough guy, but the second he saw a ghost he pissed his pants. Probably shit himself too. Gross."
Yang Juhee hurled every insult she could think of at Kim Geonho, who had grabbed Jung Sojin's hand and bolted. As far as I knew, Kim Geonho had a thing for Yang Juhee. Or more accurately, he lusted after her. Lust and affection were two different things, after all. Yang Juhee had never really liked him to begin with, and now she seemed to despise him completely.
Either way, we had no idea where Kim Geonho was. He was probably somewhere in this corridor, but we didn't know where he'd hidden or what had happened to him.
After walking for a while, I managed to solve two questions at once. The first was the location of the multipurpose room.
"It's the multipurpose room! Young-won, it's the multipurpose room!" Yang Juhee shouted with pure joy. The words "multipurpose room" must have looked like an oasis in the middle of the desert.
I couldn't share her happiness, though. A large amount of blood was splattered across the floor in front of the door. A pair of shoes lay abandoned nearby—Balenciaga sneakers, the kind Kim Geonho always wore. But when I looked closer, there were more than just shoes. If you gathered all the pieces, they might have formed a complete human puzzle.
"This..." Yang Juhee started to say something, then stopped. She turned her eyes away from the sickening metallic stench and examined the lock on the multipurpose room door. There were clear marks where something had smashed into it repeatedly.
"They must have made a ton of noise trying to break the lock. Something probably heard it and came over. That's why it ended up like this."
"Was it that bell bitch? That shaman whore!"
Had the bell woman done this? Did people end up in pieces when she caught them? No. I didn't think so.
"The bell woman's bells ring loudly from far away. There's no way Kim Geonho wouldn't have noticed. It sounds like it's deliberately warning you to run after you hear it."
"That's true. But there's something else that's bothering me."
"What?"
"Ha Young-won, you seem way too calm compared to how you were back in the classroom. Your head's working perfectly. That's not like you at all. ...Are you a ghost?"
Did I seem too calm? I'd been desperately trying to suppress my fear and focus on surviving. When I thought being suspected would only be annoying, Yang Juhee spoke again.
"Want this big sis to check if you're the real Young-won by grabbing your dick once?"
"Hey! Don't you dare!"
"Huh, it really is you. Whatever. Let's say Kim Geonho died here. Honestly, I just think he got what he deserved. If it wasn't the bell woman, maybe the hair ghost did it?"
No. I didn't think it was the hair ghost either. I'd seen up close what happened to people caught by it. The hair ghost didn't have the physical power to rip someone apart like that. After considering every clue, only one conclusion remained.
There was something else in this Nightmare Corridor—something different from the bell woman or the hair ghost. Something so horrifying that even someone with Kim Geonho's build couldn't escape it.
"The third ghost Jung Sojin mentioned...?"
The moment I reached that thought, a chill ran down my spine.
Yang Juhee pounded on my arm. "Hey, open it! Hurry! Open the multipurpose room right now! Quick! Quick! Quick! Quick!"
Click-. The key turned, the lock released, and the door creaked open with a groan.
Our breathing grew ragged from tension and anticipation—impossible to tell whose it was—when—
"Huh...?"
Someone let out a dumbfounded noise. It was Yang Juhee.
"The multipurpose room... where's the multipurpose room...? Multipurpose room... Where is the multipurpose room...."
Yang Juhee looked dizzy, like her mind was spinning at the corridor that had appeared beyond the door. Just as I'd feared, opening the multipurpose room door hadn't led to the multipurpose room. It led to another corridor. When I shone the lantern we'd taken from the staff room, I saw "1-4" written on the classroom nearby.
"Aaaaaagh! It's the same fucking corridor!"
Yang Juhee collapsed to the floor, completely losing her mind as curses poured from her mouth. When the hope you'd been clinging to shatters, this is how badly a person breaks. In a way, it had probably been inevitable. There had never been any real confirmation that the multipurpose room was the exit.
"Fuck!"
The problem was that a despairing Yang Juhee was now shouting every curse she knew at full volume. It was easy to imagine what would happen if we stayed here.
"Hey! Yang Juhee! Snap out of it! The exit might be past here! It might look the same but it could actually be a different corridor!"
"Is this because of me...? Because I didn't listen to Mom...."
Yang Juhee seemed beyond saving. Of course she was in despair after realizing she couldn't escape this nightmare corridor. Whether it was my imagination or not, I thought I could hear the faint jingle-jangle of bells in the distance.
I briefly considered leaving her here. But I needed Yang Juhee to escape. The moment I realized the true nature of this corridor, I became certain of that. I couldn't give up on her.
"Hey. Yang Juhee. Get your shit together!"
Slap-! I crouched down and smacked her cheek hard.
"Ah—"
Yang Juhee looked stunned by the unexpected blow. Her face said she'd never imagined I would actually hit her. That dazed expression quickly twisted into rage, and she lunged at me.
"You son of a bitch!!!"
She was like a wild tiger. It looked like she was attacking because she knew I was the one who had dragged her into this nightmare corridor as a player. But that probably wasn't it. She had simply given up.
I was different. I hadn't given up yet. On the contrary, the multipurpose room clue had given me a thread of hope, and courage was surging through me.
Unfortunately, Yang Juhee was a much better fighter than I expected, and I was getting my ass handed to me one-sidedly. Ah, fuck, that hurts! She just nailed my solar plexus and ribs! If this kept up I was going to get beaten to death!
"Hey! Wait! Wait a second! Ack! We can escape this corridor! I've thought of a few things and it's actually a simple trick! We can get out of here! But first let's get away from this spot!"
I hoisted the struggling Yang Juhee up and carried her into the "1-4" classroom. Then I said,
"Listen carefully. This is all fake."
"...What? What are you talking about?"
"Everything here is a dream! First of all, the time in this place is completely messed up!"
Time flows differently in dreams and reality. What feels like a brief moment in the real world can be years inside a dream. The fact that Yang Juhee, who disappeared yesterday, had already spent two days here had been a subtle hint. There was even more proof.
"Status window."
『Name: Ha Young-won Lv.1
Trait: 《Broken Clock》
Funds: 0 Points
Description: Once promising, you now spend your days in meaningless routine, just killing time. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.』
My funds were at zero points. For reference, I gained 1P every day at exactly midnight. Yesterday afternoon I had spent 100 points to open the shop, then earned 1 point at midnight. I used that point to ask for advice about the Nightmare Corridor. That's why I had zero. But the clock I saw in the staff room had already passed noon by a long shot. If it had truly passed midnight, points should have been added to my status window. That was the normal outcome.
"The fact that the corridor keeps repeating is the same. When people dream, their sense of space gets worse. It's only natural—parts of the brain stop working. That's why it feels like the same space is looping. Haven't you seen the movie Inception?"
Above all, I had one decisive hint. This place was called the Nightmare Corridor. What was a nightmare? A bad dream. In other words, the location itself had been openly telling us from the beginning that this was a dream.
Which meant—there was a high chance I was actually lying asleep in my room and morning hadn't even come yet!
"This is all a dream!"
"What? Ha, shit... Yeah. A dream.... If it's really a dream like you say, what do we do? Do we have to die...?"
"No. Just in case, we should hold off on that for now."
Normally, a lot of people woke up from nightmares the moment they died in the dream. But I had no idea how death experienced inside this Nightmare Corridor would affect the real world. Honestly, I didn't want to die. It was seriously fucking terrifying.
"But I definitely know a way to wake up from a dream. I have a talent for forcing myself awake right before I have a wet dream, you know?"
"What...!?"
"A wet dream. When guys have erotic dreams, sometimes they ejaculate without realizing it. I have a talent for waking up before that happens and stopping it. It might sound like bullshit, but I swear on everything. If I'm lying, I'll lick your feet."
"...What the..."
Yang Juhee's face flushed bright red, then turned pale.
Jingle, jangle-.
From outside came the sound of the bell woman wandering around. "Whereareyouwherewhereareyouwhereareyouwherecantseeitmyeyes cantsee whereareyouifyourehereyoucantbenegottagoherewhereareyouwhere."
But right now the bell woman was the least of my worries.
"I tried to have a wet dream by myself. But given the situation, it wasn't working. I think I need some stimulation. That could be visual, or tactile, or auditory..."
"So what the hell are you saying...!" Yang Juhee shouted, trying to push away her anxiety.
I was completely serious.
"...Um, first, can you take off your shirt?"
"Wow..."