Chapter 87
"Now I'm Jung-seok! Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!"
Jung-seok, who had crawled into the science lab, started laughing loudly and finally grabbed Bong Ji-yeon. He tried to push Bong Ji-yeon into the hole.
"Get in! Hurry, get inside! Inside! You'll become one of us too. You too!"
"Kyaaah! You crazy bastard!"
Bong Ji-yeon screamed. Jung-seok was clearly a fake, just as Bong Ji-yeon had distinguished with her sharp eye!
I felt I couldn't just stand by and watch.
That's when Yang Juhee swung her baseball bat at Jung-seok with all her might.
"You crazy bastard! Let go of that!"
Crash-!
There was a sound of glass breaking, and Jung-seok's body shattered. He really broke into pieces like pottery or a window pane, scattering on the floor.
"I'm Jung-seok. I'm-"
The lips of Jung-seok, reflected in the broken glass shards, were still speaking creepily. I was so shocked that I stomped on it, crushing it.
"Get lost!"
Crash-
The atmosphere was enough to drive one mad. Bong Ji-yeon collapsed to the floor.
"Jung-seok, you bastard! Just try talking to me again! Really!"
Bong Ji-yeon was crying bitterly, shaking. The problem came next. A hand suddenly reached out from the science lab hole and grabbed Bong Ji-yeon's leg.
"Huh? Kyaaaaaah!"
Bong Ji-yeon disappeared into the science lab hole with a terrifying scream.
This was truly a nightmare.
About 5 seconds later, Bong Ji-yeon spoke from inside the science lab.
─Wow, it's really amazing in here. You guys have to see this too. No, wait. I'll come out first. Guys. Wait there.
Something was trying to come out into the corridor. Even though it was speaking with Bong Ji-yeon's voice, it didn't seem to be Bong Ji-yeon.
As I was getting dizzy with fear, Yang Juhee grabbed my hand.
"Hey! What are you doing! Let's run away for now! Quickly!"
Patter patter-!
Yang Juhee and I ran like mad.
We hadn't even found the altar yet.
The second floor was a really shitty place. I want to get out of here.
That was all I could think about, but a problem arose.
Thump thump thump thump-
The sound of someone stomping their feet hard was coming from the front of the corridor we were running through.
"The Dancing Ghost...!?"
The situation was that the dancing ghost was approaching from the front.
─Guys, where are you going? Let's go. Let's go into the science lab together.
─It's nice inside the mirror. Everything is sparkling.
The voices of Bong Ji-yeon and Jung-seok coming from behind. Caught between a rock and a hard place, I could only clutch my head.
"...We're really screwed."
I was as good as dead. I wanted to cry.
Yang Juhee spoke to me in this state.
"Hey! Ha Young-won! Get a grip! You're not dead yet! If we keep our wits about us, we can find my sister and end this terrible situation for you too!"
"No..., we don't have anywhere else to hide..."
"Hey. You take this. Pull yourself together."
Swish-
Yang Juhee held out something to me. It was the escape talisman she had been holding.
"Hey, if you give this to me, what about you...? You'll forget everything if you die, you know?"
"I won't die. And if I do..."
Squeeze-
Yang Juhee gripped the baseball bat tighter. Then she started running straight ahead with all her might.
"Yaaah!"
She let out a fierce yell. Finally, Yang Juhee came face to face with the Dancing Ghost.
The Dancing Ghost's arms and legs were elongated as if someone had forcibly stretched them, its eyes were hollow, and only its mouth was grinning.
It was a woman with very long hair and red-painted lips. The peculiar thing was that her hair was standing straight up.
"Uweuweuweuweuwe─"
"What are you saying, you fucking bitch!"
Whoosh, thud-!
The bat Yang Juhee swung boldly hit the Dancing Ghost's head.
Crack-!
The wooden bat broke, but the Dancing Ghost also fell to the floor. Seeing this, I shouted with joy.
"It worked! You knocked it down! Juhee! You did it!"
"......"
But Yang Juhee was silent. Yang Juhee slowly turned around and said to me,
"...Young-won, get out of here right now. And remember me."
Yang Juhee raised her hand as if saying goodbye.
Soon, Yang Juhee's hair rose into the air as if she had been electrified.
"Kkeugeuk- geugeuk..."
Crack, crunch, snap.
Yang Juhee started bending her arms and legs, moving her body unnaturally in all directions, and that's when I finally looked up. Something was protruding from the ceiling.
Its shape was so vague it was hard to see, but I should be able to see it if it's me.
I focused all my attention on my eyes and was able to make out what was protruding from the ceiling.
"Hahahaha!"
It was the upper half of a human body.
Something like the upper half of a human body was hanging upside down, grabbing Yang Juhee's hair with both arms and shaking it in all directions like a clumsy puppet show. The way it shook looked like it was dancing.
Thump thump, thump thump-
The upper body stuck to the ceiling watched, laughing as if it found it very funny and enjoyable, as Yang Juhee, suspended in mid-air, struggled wildly with her arms and legs, dying in an attempt to break free.
"Hahahaha!"
The face was so flat it was impossible to tell if it was male or female, with only the conspicuously hollow eyes standing out with pitch-black darkness.
"Hahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha!"
The laughter wasn't coming from the dancing person, but from the thing stuck to the ceiling. It was laughing at Yang Juhee, and at me, with its big mouth.
It wasn't a ghost like Gu Hyena. It was pure malice incarnate.
"Tick-tock tick-tock-. I'll suck your brain-"
"Come into the mirror."
"Hahahahahahahahaha!"
This place was where only mockery and malice existed, without any backstory or causality. The bottom of the abyss where even a speck of humanity is tainted with filth.
It was hell.
I had never felt so powerless before. I was scared and frustrated. I was so frightened and angry that tears started flowing.
"Just you wait, you bastards."
***
When I opened my eyes, it was morning. Something soft was moving on my body, startling me so much that I threw it.
"Oh my god!"
─Meooow-!
Looking closely at what flew away, it was a white-furred cat. The cat I had saved from a ghost before. It had a princess-like name.
Baekseol? Why was the white cat Baekseol in my room?
Only then did I remember that I had fallen asleep at Yoo Dahee's mansion on Friday night. It was to meet Chairman Cheon Dae-gon with Kwon Suho on Saturday morning.
"Baekseol, did you wake Young-won up?"
Just then, someone entered the room I was staying in, wearing slippers. It was Yoo Dahee.
Yoo Dahee, wearing a sky-blue dress that looked like pajamas under a brown cardigan, peeked into my room and waved her hand slightly.
"Young-won, good morning."
I silently watched the scene. I was still half-asleep, having just woken up from a nightmare.
Now I noticed my whole body was covered in cold sweat. My heart was pounding as if it were broken, and my throat was dry. But I thought there was something I needed to do before drinking water, so I asked.
"Dahee, did you have any dreams last night?"
"Me? I... dreamed about rabbits."
So she didn't dream about the Nightmare Corridor. As I thought, Yoo Dahee definitely wasn't in the corridor last night.
"Young-won, the housekeeper says to come down to the dining room for breakfast."
Yoo Dahee disappeared into the distance, her sky-blue dress swaying like a fairy's robe.
Through this brief conversation, I was able to come to my senses more clearly and felt frustrated. So I buried my face in the bed and screamed.
"Aaaagh!"
Last night's corridor run was a complete failure. Even though it wasn't the corridor run I had planned, but a 'random matching' variable.
Nevertheless, I had gained some confidence because most things had been going well for me these past few days.
My shoulders had been high, so to speak. But the second floor of the corridor wasn't as easy as I thought and was a terrible place.
A perfect defeat. I can still hear the mockery of the ghosts who laughed at me ringing in my ears.
Jung-seok, dead-.
Yang Juhee, dead-.
Bong Ji-yeon, dead-.
Unlike when I initiated the matching myself, no point settlement window appeared, so I had to open the status window directly to check my friends' quirks.
"Jung-seok – 《Golden Arrow》. The golden arrow of love makes people fall into romantic love. Some even give up their lives for that love."
"Yang Juhee - 《Intense Jealousy》. It is said that those who commit the sin of jealousy suffer the eternal punishment of having their eyes sewn shut, unable to see anything."
"Bong Ji-yeon - 《Doubt Disease》. Trust and love cannot dwell in a doubting heart. The fate of a person who can't let any belief take root in their heart is only loneliness."
Three deaths. Three quirks.
The points I currently have are 282P.
I needed at least 300 points to deal with the three quirks, so my current points were slightly insufficient.
I had secretly hoped that Bong Ji-yeon, who had been holding a talisman, might have escaped, but it seems she died mercilessly after being dragged into the science lab.
"Tsk..."
I'm screwed. I can only treat the quirks of two out of three people.
As I was thinking this,
Woof woof- woof woof woof- woof woof-
Kyaaaah!
"...?"
I heard loud dog barking from somewhere. And the sound of women screaming.
A woman's scream is really something that pierces your ears in any situation. They say there's some scientific reason why women's screams are particularly clear to the ear.
Anyway, that wasn't the important thing, and I rushed out towards the sound.
It was a room on the second floor. The mansion's housekeepers, in their pajamas, were aghast with half-tearful expressions.
"This is completely crazy!"
"Get lost! Get lost, you dog!"
"Grrrr, woof woof- woof woof woof-!"
The noonas were afraid of the barking dog. Had some rabid stray dog snuck into the mansion?
No. The identity of the thing growling fiercely on all fours in front of the housekeepers was none other than Kwon Suho!
"Woof woof! Woof woof woof!"
Kwon Suho was barking wildly on all fours like a dog.
I wondered what on earth was going on, then remembered that Kwon Suho had died in the Nightmare Corridor last night while possessing one quirk.
In other words, Kwon Suho had ended up with two quirks in reality. Weren't people with two quirks supposed to die?
"Status window."
I tried to open Kwon Suho's entry in the status window, but Kwon Suho's name had disappeared from the player list.
This meant I couldn't check his quirks or put him in the treatment center to cure those quirks.
"《Broken Clock》's advice. 《Quirks》 are strange phenomena that possess the body, soul, and mind. If someone possesses 2 or more quirks, they die. 《Quirks》 can be cured by unlocking the treatment center item in the shop and spending 100P."
I remembered the advice my trait had given me early on.
Death. Is this what death means, Kwon Suho turning into a dog?
"What's all this commotion first thing in the morning!"
"Ch-Chairman! Look at this guy!"
"He's gone crazy and trying to bite people! Kyaah! You pervert!"
Chairman Cheon Dae-gon, drawn by the commotion, came to the housekeepers' room and frowned at the scene.
He stared for a while at the growling Kwon Suho and the housekeepers who were afraid of him, then finally burst out laughing.
"The delinquent has really become a dog. Is Mi-ri here by any chance?"
"Yes, Chairman. I'm here."
Ms. Hong Mi-ri also entered the room. Ms. Hong Mi-ri looked at the growling Kwon Suho and made a quick assessment.
"At first glance, it might look like symptoms of schizophrenia or rabies... but it's probably not. It seems the contents inside have been reversed. If it's come to this, there's nothing we can do."
Reversed-
I had seen that story in last night's Nightmare Corridor. There was definitely something like that in the principal's letter found in the safe!
The reversal of ghosts and humans.
At this moment, I understood the fate of those who stack two quirks. Those who stack two quirks end up having their bodies completely taken over by ghosts.
Ms. Hong Mi-ri asked Chairman Cheon Dae-gon.
"Should we contact Gwanak? Their people would be experts in this kind of thing."
"No. Contact Director Kwon. He should take care of his own son."