Chapter 60: Horror Lodge (1)

Yeongji High had many troublemakers. Kwon Suho's group was one of them.

I had a slight connection with Kwon Suho's group through my involvement with Bong Ji-yeon.

I was a bit tense, wondering if they might pick a childish fight with me this week. Fortunately, nothing like that happened, and I was able to enjoy a relatively peaceful week for once.

Mom also said she'd be discharged from the hospital and come home this weekend. It means my daily life is getting back to normal.

Of course, one might ask if you can call a life full of ghosts and nightmares "normal". But for me, just not having incidents break out or blood being spilled was enough to feel stable.

It was also good timing because I had to prepare for the final exams. Having to study while fighting ghosts? Now that's a real horror story.

Anyway, with that feeling, it was Friday night before the weekend.

The cooldown for entering the corridor had just ended, so it seemed like a good time to put farming parties into the corridor. Assembling these entry members was more fun than I expected.

Looking at the player list after a while, there were quite a few changes.

The levels of "Yang Juhee" and me, "Ha Young-won", had increased.

[Status window details omitted for brevity]

I had become level 3. It didn't seem like much had changed from becoming level 3, though.

[Yang Juhee's status details omitted for brevity]

Yang Juhee had also reached level 3. She also had the trait 《Fast Legs》, probably from completing training in the training ground. And looking closely, her previous trait 《Tool User》 had changed to 《Tool Expert》.

It's a change in traits according to level!

The difference from before was that the tool durability increased from 1.5 times to 2 times. And the sentence "You can handle acquired items better" had been added. How interesting.

[Jung-seok's status details omitted for brevity]

Jung-seok's entry had also been unlocked.

Jung-seok had a very typical character sheet, fitting for someone named Jung-seok (which means "orthodox" or "by the book" in Korean).

If there was anything unexpected, it was that this guy's personality was described as romantic. No, thinking about it, even this couldn't be called unexpected.

The chivalrous life of not being able to forget his first love, Bong Ji-yeon, and jumping into a group of ghosts. The life of a punisher dreaming of becoming the world's best prosecutor to eradicate all criminals. This is impossible without romance.

Anyway, I was able to update Jung-seok and Yang Juhee's status windows.

Now, what I need to do is… Push my friends into the Nightmare Corridor.

By the way, today is the turn of the "Farming Party". The "Farming Party" was an exploration team led by our class president, Jung Sojin.

This was Jung-seok's idea, suggesting we alternate between operating the "Farming Party" and the "Conquest Party". The "Conquest Party", for reference, was a party centered around me, Ha Young-won, exploring to conquer the "Nightmare Corridor".

[Corridor entry details omitted for brevity]

First, I definitely need to include Jung Sojin. She'll probably bring back items again.

I gave Jung Sojin a "Luxury Bag", a "Map", and a "Flashlight".

[Item descriptions omitted for brevity]

Good. Good. It looks reassuring just seeing it.

Now, who should I fill the remaining spots with?

I thought deeply and made a decision.

***

『Congratulations! You have safely returned from the Nightmare Corridor』

『Calculating rewards for 2 survivors and 2 deaths.』

[Reward details omitted for brevity]

"Oh, shit... What's this?"

Saturday morning. 6 AM.

The text floating before my eyes chased away my sleepiness. It was because someone had survived the Nightmare Corridor.

『2 deaths acquire quirks.

Park In-bae ◀ Click to check

Park Eun-jeong ◀ Click to check』

[Quirk descriptions omitted for brevity]

Park In-bae was a bully in our class. Park Eun-jeong was the ugly sister in Kwon Suho's gang.

I had sent these two into the Nightmare Corridor as part of the exploration team yesterday, and they died.

Up to this point, it wasn't surprising. It was something I had expected. But what made me tense was the two survivors.

"They survived...?"

This was an event I hadn't anticipated. It could be seen as a kind of unfortunate accident.

Jung Sojin, who I sent as part of the "Farming Party", survived? How on earth did she survive? Did she survive for some unknown reason because I let her carry too many items? Or is Jung Sojin just that competent?

"We're screwed."

This could be a variable for future events. It means Jung Sojin remembers what happens in the nightmares.

Of course, Jung Sojin probably has no idea that I, Ha Young-won, am the one sending her into these nightmares. I checked the character sheet of the other person I sent with Jung Sojin.

[Hong Mi-ri's status details omitted for brevity]

"Oh, shit..."

Here was the variable in this journey. I had included Ms. Hong Mi-ri in this farming expedition. It was to acquire Ms. Hong Mi-ri's character sheet and conduct various experiments.

I wanted to experiment with what would happen if Ms. Hong Mi-ri, the ghost "Red Woman", entered the corridor as a player… But Ms. Hong Mi-ri easily escaped the corridor, and because of that, Jung Sojin probably escaped with her. That was the extent of my guess.

"What's with all these question marks?"

Ms. Hong Mi-ri's player sheet had many question marks. Her level wasn't visible, her disposition wasn't visible, and one of her traits wasn't visible.

Ring ring-

It was already 7 AM, time for the alarm to go off. I washed up quickly so as not to be late for the time I was supposed to meet everyone.

Ding dong-

While I was drying my hair, someone rang our doorbell.

"Is that you, Jung-seok? You know the code. Just open it and come in."

Beep beep beep-

Jung-seok, like Yang Juhee, knew our front door code, but maybe because he was a polite friend, he didn't just open and come in.

"Hey. Young-won. How did the Farming Party you sent yesterday go? Yesterday was the day to send the Farming Party, right? Did they bring back anything useful?"

Jung-seok expressed his curiosity. I told Jung-seok what I had just found out, and Jung-seok seemed very surprised.

"...They survived? Why?"

It was like the expression of Schrödinger facing a cat that survived in a box full of poison gas. Until this morning, I probably had the same expression. But Jung-seok quickly regained his composure.

"It's not like we didn't expect something like this might happen someday. The important thing is that we absolutely can't reveal that we're the ones putting people into the corridor."

Right. Even if people survive, as long as we pretend we don't know anything, there's no immediate danger.

I wrote Ms. Hong Mi-ri's ghost teacher sheet in a computer notepad and showed it to Jung-seok.

"There are a lot of question marks. I've memorized it, so I'll delete this."

Click.

Jung-seok deleted the notepad containing the information. He said,

"It's probably because of the level, right? In RPG games, monsters with higher levels than me are sometimes marked in bright red or with question marks. I think it's because the teacher's level is higher than yours?"

That's a reasonable thought. I actually thought the same about Ms. Hong Mi-ri's question marks.

"That means if I level up higher than Ms. Hong Mi-ri, I'll be able to see more information, right? To level up... I need to enter the corridor or fight ghosts."

I felt the desire to level up. But to do that, I'd have to encounter ghosts, which was terrifying and horrible!

"So did you get any items? You know how important items are, Young-won."

At Jung-seok's question, I recalled the new item I had acquired.

[Someone's Journal: The 'Dancing Ghost' that should be on the second floor has somehow come down to the first floor. Aquaman was badly injured, and Darth Vader and I decided to retreat.]

"Hmm."

Jung-seok frowned and pondered at the text I had written in the notepad. When I first checked this item, I probably had the same expression.

"It seems like an item that wouldn't be useful to take into the corridor. But it contains a lot of information. This 'Dancing Ghost' here must be a ghost on the second floor, right? It's a type of ghost we don't know about."

"We know nothing about it. I can't even guess. A dancing ghost, huh."

Suddenly, I remembered that the placebo ghost that possessed Yang Juhee had said that dancing ghosts were scarier than regular ghosts.

It seems that even more terrifying ghosts are lurking on the second floor of the corridor, which we haven't opened yet. But why did a ghost that should have been on the second floor come down to the first floor?

"What could Aquaman and Darth Vader be? Young-won. What do you think?"

Jung-seok asked. I thought for a moment.

"Aren't they movie characters? But they can't be the actual movie characters. I think they might be nicknames. Maybe they're the people who left the 'Map' item we got?"

There was one outline that was becoming clearer as we explored the corridor. It was the point that there were people who explored the corridor before us.

'Aquaman', 'Darth Vader', and 'the person who wrote this journal' are probably them.

Beep, beep beep-

Just then, I heard the sound of our front door unlocking.

"Hey. Are you guys ready? Let's go quickly. Gaeryong Mountain. Young-won. Why are you still in your underwear? Hurry up and get dressed. Geez, what are you trying to show me?"

It was Yang Juhee. Yang Juhee was wearing a yellow tracksuit like Bruce Lee, which suited her well.

Bong Ji-yeon was there too. Bong Ji-yeon was wearing pink hiking clothes.

"Dahee hasn't come yet?"

Today was the day for all the pirate crew members to hike Gaeryong Mountain.

[I buried the rotting flesh at the rocky site of Gaeryong Mountain. All I need is the head. I am the keeper and liberator. I will faithfully carry out my assigned duty.]

It was because of this hint I had obtained in the corridor earlier.

Something is buried at the rocky site of Gaeryong Mountain. If we could just find it...