Chapter 84: Are you finally back home?

Spring and Winter simultaneously stiffened, turning their heads towards the direction the sound came from.

At the end of their gaze.

The wheelchair, which had been placed haphazardly in the middle of the room, was slowly moving.

“U-unnie… Th-that…!”

“Shh. Turn your head back forward. Pretend you didn’t see.”

Winter let go of the controller and, using both hands, held Spring’s head (wearing the VR headset) and turned it so her gaze faced forward.

Even amidst her fear, Winter faithfully followed the instructions written in the notebook.

Piik, Kkirik, Kkiiik-

The wheelchair creaked, slowly starting to approach the two.

That sound echoed in their ears like a scream.

Winter felt her heart pound as if it would burst, tightly clutching the notebook in her hand.

It’s sudden, but a notebook is also not a weapon.

“It said never look back…”

“…Yeah.”

“Bom, don’t turn your head, just move slowly like that.”

“O-okay…”

The two, with their backs to the wheelchair, slowly headed towards the rear exit.

Kkiiik, Piik-

Behind them, the horrible noise grew closer and closer.

[-Uh oh oh, right behind you…!]

[-Kraaaak! Look behind you! You guys are f*cked!!]

Just at the moment the sound reached right behind them.

“Uh oh…? The chat says we’re in danger…?”

Unable to contain her curiosity, Spring turned her head back.

“Hey, you sh*t…!”

Just at the moment the eye tracker recognized Spring’s gaze landing precisely on the wheelchair.

The old metal frame twisted grotesquely with ududuk! ppadeudeuk! sounds.

The noise stopped.

[Bom… Winter…]

What appeared before the two, along with an eerie voice, was a humanoid variant whose joints were grotesquely twisted.

[Into our arms… embrace…]

Its ‘head’…

[Become… one…!]

Resembled Spring and Winter’s avatars unusually closely.

“Kyaaaaak-!!”

“Aww, really!! I told you not to look back!!”

“But how can you not look back-!!”

“Just run!!”

Winter screamed, desperately pulling the doorknob.

Cheolkeok-

As soon as the door opened, the two mashed the buttons as if they would break the controller.

Kwang-!

As soon as the two ran into the room, the variant’s movements stopped as if by magic.

[Ah ah- Our cute and lovely younger siblings-]

[You won’t… get far? Eheheheh-]

Through the rapidly closing door gap.

A creepy smile appeared on the variant’s lips.

---

The two stood with their backs against the door of the room they had just escaped, panting heavily for a long time.

Finally calming their heartbeats in the darkness, the two looked at each other’s faces.

Spring’s eyes were moist, and cold sweat dripped down Winter’s forehead.

[-What’s with the smile at the end?]

[-Hmm… Not very scary (changes underwear)]

[-Upvote if you’re Spring who wants to quit the game right now LOL]

[-Made the game like total sh*t (high praise)]

[-But don’t the monsters vaguely resemble Spring and Winter??]

“Exactly!! Isn’t it really too much? Really too mean…!”

Spring, checking the chat window with tears welling up, finally burst into loud sobs, “Waaaang-“.

Winter gently patted the crying Spring’s back as if to calm her down.

“Let’s hang in there just a little longer. Huh? Let’s clear it quickly and go complain to Mama.”

Winter muttered resentfully to herself and slowly looked around.

Another long, dark corridor stretched out.

The corridor, extending long under the faint light.

Looked like a dark tunnel with no end in sight.

The walls bore scars like fingernail marks, as if someone had desperately struggled to get out.

The tiles underfoot were cracked and broken, and dark mold spread in every crevice.

“R-rather, doing a test of courage in reality would have been better…”

[-No, seriously, didn’t they just dimension-hop LOL]

[-Ah… Did they create a ‘world’…]

The two cautiously moved forward along the corridor with tense faces.

The rustling sound of stepping on debris strangely grated on their nerves.

Kkiiik-

Just then, a very small, faint sound came from the darkness at the other end of the corridor.

The two flinched simultaneously.

“…Bom, you heard that, right?”

“Y-yeah…”

Winter swallowed dryly and looked around.

Neither front nor back felt safe.

Teobeok, teobeok.

The sound of footsteps slowly approaching from behind echoes lowly.

An eerie feeling piercing her back flowed down her spine.

“Huuu… We shouldn’t turn back this time either, right?”

“Yeah. Don’t slow down, just look forward.”

The presence approaching from behind seemed to be testing the two, getting closer and closer.

As the sound of footsteps grew louder, the teardrops welling in Spring’s eyes also grew larger.

Teobeok… teobeok.

The footsteps stopped right behind them.

[…Found youuu-]

A cold breath seemed to touch the nape of her neck.

[Hide-and-seek game… about to stop now?]

[Then… you should come back home?]

In the heart-stopping fear, the two froze on the spot.

“…”

Winter silently took a deep breath, then barely squeezed out her voice.

“On the count of three, sprint with all your stamina, even if it uses everything. Absolutely don’t turn your head.”

One.

At Winter’s small whisper, Spring’s body stiffened.

Two.

The presence behind them began to let out a low, suppressed laugh.

It was a damp, gloomy sound.

…Three!

The two started running like mad towards the other end of the corridor simultaneously, without needing coordination.

Under the flickering fluorescent lights, the shadows of three bodies and four heads swayed violently.

[Why? Why are you running away?]

[Are you leaving, never to return?]

[Only you two will be loved?]

The voice of the pursuing presence grew louder and louder.

[We are the same as you.]

[Why were we abandoned?]

[Aak… Aaaaaak!!]

Finally, it turned into a mad scream.

“Shibaaaaak!! Bom, youuuu! Stop making weird screams!! Stop messing around!!”

“Kyaaaaak!! Unnie, you stop messing around! I’m really scared, hwaaang!”

“That’s not me! The one making weird noises, it’s not me!”

This too was Jina’s surprise.

With Rosy’s help, she neatly layered Spring and Winter’s voices onto the noise the monster made.

Like that, the two ran and ran frantically, eyes squeezed shut.

---

Ragged breaths and heartbeats echoed in their ears.

In the middle of pitch-black darkness, amidst a narrowing field of vision.

Spring and Winter, holding each other’s trembling hands, barely felt each other’s presence.

A room with the word ‘EXIT’ written in dripping blood comes into view.

This room must be the last one.

“Hweoeong… Really, if it wasn’t for Winter unnie, I wouldn’t have even made it this far…”

[-Uh oh… Don’t say things like that]

[-In horror movies, the ones who say stuff like that always die…]

[-Death flag ON]

Unlike the viewers freaking out over Spring’s jinx, Winter nodded with an exhausted expression.

Actually, Winter was thinking the same thing as Spring.

She felt that if it hadn’t been for Spring, she would have been the one collapsed on the floor crying.

Still, the end is in sight now.

Just as Spring and Winter steeled themselves and stepped towards the final door.

Even though they hadn’t pulled the handle, the door opened on its own.

As if it had been waiting for the two.

Faint light streamed into the dark room.

The moment they barely took a step inside.

The two froze solid.

“Aaaaak!! Unniiie!!”

Twisted into a horrific form.

A being, human yet not human, hung upside down from the ceiling.

Its inverted face was grotesquely distorted, almost unrecognizable.

Its elongated limbs dangled in the air, almost touching the floor.

[Finally… you’ve returned ‘home’?]

Clutching her heart that pounded as if it would burst, Winter slowly backed away.

[Our maknaes are truly pretty today too.]

‘I have to get out of here somehow.’

‘I have to get out, but…’

[So, so so so pretty…]

The door they entered through was already firmly shut.

“No… No no no sh*t really crazy aaaak!!”

The creature started slowly descending, making ttuk, ttuuk- sounds of bones breaking.

Even in the darkness, its abnormally white and pale skin stood out.

The laughter echoing mixed with the wind was bizarre.

“B-Bom! Last clue! I’ll draw its attention, you find the last clue quickly! Quicklyyy!!”

“…”

“…Bom?”

Spring, who should have been screaming louder than anyone, was unusually quiet.

Feeling something was wrong, Winter turned her head to look beside her.

“…”

“Bom! Hey, Bom! Snap out of it!!”

[-Oof LOL Bom LOL Fainted standing up LOL]

[-Lolㅋ This situation is seriousㅋ Shouldn’t laughㅋ Why am I laughingㅋ]

[-Flag collected -Complete-]

The two cleared the game one hour after that.

“This… is really a VR game?”

In an office of a high-rise building located in the heart of Seoul.

A woman sat on a sofa, quietly watching a tablet screen, the glamorous night view of Seoul visible beyond the floor-to-ceiling window.

On the screen, Spring and Winter, VTubers belonging to Cosmo Live, were engulfed in horror, letting out desperate screams.

[Anonymous donor has donated 10,000 won.]

[The realism is insane, isn’t this really linked starting to another world and sent them there??]

A voice message playing just then.

She slowly nodded her head as if agreeing with those words.

The ruined hospital interior unfolding in the background was so elaborate it would have been more natural to call it a movie set.

She paused the screen for a moment, zoomed in on a specific location, and closely examined the detailed texture of the corridor wall.

A stain visible through the crack in the peeled wallpaper.

A crack in the tile and a single weed pushing through the gap.

Seeing the state where even small details were delicately implemented, her brow furrowed unknowingly.

“This person, their skill is truly on another level.”

She had heard many rumors about ‘jinha_na’, the market disruptor who appeared like a comet in the 3D modeling industry.

She knew their skill in avatar creation was unparalleled.

But she hadn’t expected them to produce this level of quality in stage backgrounds as well.

At that moment, the landline phone on the desk rang.

She put down the tablet and answered the phone.

[Branch Manager, did you see the video I just sent?]

At the manager’s urgent voice, she smiled quietly.

“I was just watching it. Truly amazing.”

[At this level, wouldn’t it be alright to entrust Kamishiro Rei-sama’s stage direction to this person?]

“‘At this level,’ you say. In terms of skill domestically, they are an unrivaled person with no competitors.”

‘As expected of the person placed at the very top of the recruitment list,’ she thought.

Nise Live Korea’s Branch Manager, Yoon Se-yeon, laughed lowly.