Chapter 44
Clang!
The bat came down mercilessly on its target, striking the floor with a shriek.
The target was, of course, me—the designated outsider.
“Outsiders are forbidden from entering except during designated hours.”
Ignoring Imina, who was wearing a school uniform, the Security Guard charged at her with gleaming eyes.
Imina rushed at the Security Guard and kicked it in the back of the head.
“Go into any classroom, put on a school uniform, and come back out!”
“Then what about you, Team Leader…!”
“It won’t be hard to keep it occupied and stall for time, so hurry!”
The Security Guard, which had just been struck in the head, hesitated for a moment, then turned and fixed its red pupils on Imina.
“I’ll be back as quickly as possible!”
I gritted my teeth and headed down the corridor to the right.
The only reason Imina had volunteered to act as bait was me.
My priority now wasn’t to worry about her safety, but to find a school uniform and become a student.
[3-3]
Screech—bang!
I threw the door open and charged inside.
There was only one Security Guard per floor. Since it had already spotted me, there was no reason to be careful about my behavior.
The classroom looked like an ordinary classroom from the early 2000s.
Wooden chairs and desks with no height adjustment, chalk and a blackboard, an old TV, and lockers lining the back wall.
The problem lay elsewhere.
Every desk that should have had a few empty seats was occupied by a student.
[Shhhhh.]
The moment I opened the front door and entered, their gazes turned toward me.
+++
School uniforms can be obtained inside classrooms.
The number of school uniforms found in a classroom has been confirmed to range from a minimum of one to a maximum of ten, and appears to be proportional to the number of desks without a student seated at them.
When students are seated in the classroom, they ask questions of anyone who enters, but have been confirmed not to take any further action unless the entrant responds.
When every desk is occupied by a student, the school uniform is always found inside a locker.
No cases have been reported to date in which a school uniform was absent from a classroom.
However, in some cases, the person who opened a locker was reported to disappear without a trace.
The cause of this phenomenon remains unknown, and the survival of those who disappeared has also not been confirmed.
++++
I closed the door and walked toward the lockers.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I didn’t have time to be cautious around things that wouldn’t harm me as long as I didn’t answer them.
[Do you know your dad is still alive?]
[Do you know where your mom and little sibling were buried?]
[There’s a doggy door out of the school. Want me to show you?]
The little brats went straight for the family insults, as expected. More importantly, how did they know I was looking for my family?
I suppose that was why the report said they wouldn’t harm me as long as I didn’t answer.
They were questions that seemed to see right through me from the very beginning. No wonder I couldn’t warm up to entities; every last one of them was unpleasant.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The intervals between the sounds coming from outside grew shorter.
I had to quickly pull a school uniform from a locker and change in front of the students.
[But his head’s already gone screwy. Isn’t he about to answer soon?]
[I have the answer sheet for the exam. Want it?]
[Want me to tell you which locker has the uniform?]
The students laughed as they brought up only the things I wanted to retort to or answer.
If Team Leader hadn’t taken care of me in the duty room, I might have become an unrecorded case the moment I entered the classroom, and the thought sent a chill down my spine.
Crunch.
Even now, all I could do was bite my lip to keep my mouth from opening on its own.
A faint metallic taste spread across the tip of my tongue.
I stiffened my neck and tongue, resisting as hard as I could, and barely reached the lockers.
I had to find a school uniform in a suitable size as quickly as possible.
I opened the first locker. I heard the laughter of the girl in the front row.
It contained abandoned milk cartons that had been left to rot.
I opened the second locker. I heard the laughter of the group of boys in the back row.
It contained a pair of glasses secured with a padlock.
I opened the third locker. Every girl in the classroom laughed.
It contained pieces of textbooks torn to shreds.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
I opened the fourth locker. Every boy in the classroom laughed.
It contained gym clothes stained with blood here and there.
I opened the fifth locker. Everyone in the classroom laughed.
It contained the head of a male student with a pained expression.
I was so startled that I almost made a sound.
[What a shame.]
[He’s useless even after dying.]
Pure—no, not pure at all—deliberate malice.
Just as I was about to turn my eyes toward the next locker to dispel the unpleasant atmosphere.
I became aware that my eyes would not leave the male student’s head.
[Ah… ugh… ugh….]
The focus returned to the male student’s previously unfocused eyes, and his pupils turned toward me.
Our eyes met. It was resentful. It resented being the only one in this state.
It needed someone in the same situation—or in an even worse one.
Unfortunately… this time, the target was me.
The head slowly opened its mouth. In time with its movement, my own mouth began to open as well.
[Ah… ugh… ugh….]
An unintelligible sound seeped from its lips.
I forced my neck and tongue stiff and resisted as hard as I could, but my strength gradually began to fade as if it were inevitable.
Everyone who had disappeared without a trace must have ended up like this.
“Ugh….”
Just as a breathy sound, like air escaping through a hole in its throat, was about to come out.
Tap tap tap.
As the sound of wood striking wood came from near the teacher’s podium, my vision turned black.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
When I opened my eyes again at the metallic sounds made by the Security Guard.
The only thing left where the male student’s head had been was a Hahoe mask cracked in several places, and the students in the classroom had disappeared.
If there was anything else that had changed from before.
[不義之財 必有其禍.]
The Chinese characters meaning “Ill-gotten gains must bring calamity” had been written in bold letters on the blackboard.
Perhaps a morality teacher had come and gone.
My best guess for now was that using the male student’s head to provoke me into answering had violated the rules, and that the classroom’s rules had broken down because they couldn’t withstand it.
Crack.
Someone came to mind when I saw the Hahoe mask breaking apart, but that was theoretically impossible.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Of course, I would have to verify whether my guess was correct after getting out of here, so I hurriedly opened the next locker.
A short while later.
“Found it.”
When I opened the twelfth locker, a neatly folded boy’s school uniform appeared.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too small or too large, so I took off the suit I was wearing and changed in one go.
“Team Leader, I’m done!”
When I opened the classroom door and headed into the hallway, I saw Imina confronting the Security Guard.
“…Not bad… haa, you came quickly? Ugh!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The problem was Imina’s condition after buying time for me.
Her breathing was ragged, her posture was disheveled, and both arms hung limp.
She seemed to have taken several attacks from the Security Guard while I was looking for a school uniform in the classroom.
Imina couldn’t use her abilities. A student couldn’t defeat the Security Guard. An entity didn’t get tired.
“Tag me in! Go into the classroom!”
I rushed toward the Security Guard, overtaking the staggering Imina.
“What are you? Why are you butting in while an adult is scolding someone? What do your parents do?”
“I don’t have any, you old bastard.”
Clang!
I barely dodged the bat coming down on my head, then picked up the flashlight it had dropped and threw it at its face.
The flashlight I threw without any finesse struck the Security Guard in the chest with a thud, then fell back to the floor.
In that opening, Imina headed toward the classroom I had come out of.
“You need to be taught a lesson.”
“Sorry, but the days when school guards ranked above students are over, you fossil.”
A bat filled with murderous intent flew straight for my head.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Since its target was so obvious, I barely avoided the attacks by backing away little by little.
Back then, the adults at schools would hit students on the head with all sorts of tools whenever they lost their temper.
The Security Guard was no exception. I never thought I’d live to thank the era of corporal punishment.
Clang!Clang!Clang!Clang!Clang!
But, as if to prove that the Security Guard before me wasn’t human, the speed of its swings gradually began to increase.
Of course it did. If it hadn’t, Imina wouldn’t have allowed herself to be attacked.
“Come in!”
But unlike Team Leader, I wasn’t in a situation where I had to keep confronting it indefinitely until someone found me a school uniform.
I ran toward the classroom, following Imina’s voice as she called me from the front door of Class 3-3.
“Stop right there. Come here. Where do you think you’re going?”
The Security Guard pursued me closely, its eyes shining with a blood-red glare, but I managed to get into the classroom before it could grab me by the nape of my neck.
“……”
The Security Guard stared intently at us for a moment.
“You bastards.”
It spat out a curse with its face twisted hideously, then disappeared into the darkness.
“Phew.”
“Are you all right?”
“Fortunately, I don’t think anything’s broken. The uniform looks good on you.”
Imina gave me the smile she always showed.
But that alone wasn’t enough to hide her disordered breathing or her trembling fingertips.
“Should we call for backup?”
“Would they come if we waited about three days?”
“You can’t say they aren’t coming like that.”
“Still, now all we have to do is take the exam.”
Even as she continued speaking, Imina repeatedly poked my cheek with her trembling hand.
“Do things ever break into the classroom?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then let’s rest for a while.”
After confirming that Imina had sat down in a chair and was catching her breath, I turned on the gallery.
Brats whose blood hasn’t even dried yet, laughing at something someone else has already claimed, lol [44]
If that bastard looks like he’s about to set the gallery off, should I give him an upvote? [22]
Gallery bro… in the end… *eumjeokching…. [15]
Looking for a walkthrough in the gallery is common sense, after all.