Ch.106106 – Charge 1

# Chapter 106 – Charge # 1

“Who are you people! Suddenly appearing in a crowd! What’s going on here!”

Gong Yerin angrily demanded answers from us.

Strictly speaking, it was Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon who had suddenly appeared to us.

It seemed there was some kind of gap between our groups.

I wanted to ask various questions to fill this gap.

I spoke seriously to Gong Yerin.

“Yerin, we’re people too. This situation is sudden, and everyone’s just confused. Do you think we want to fight with you? There might be a compromise, so let’s talk honestly.”

I appealed to her sincerity.

It’s not like I was doing this because I wanted to.

Whether my appeal worked or her attitude changed when Wang Jahyeon’s name came up, Gong Yerin hesitated before speaking.

“…We’re the chosen ones. We find items in this strange school, get out, and sell them or exchange them for money.”

“Find items and exchange them for money? How?”

“I don’t know much about that part. Jahyeon handles all that. I heard he sends them to Seoul. Huiyeon and I just help people leave the school and collect items.”

“What about Wang Jahyeon? Does he also explore the school?”

“I told you earlier. Only chosen people can enter here. Of course Jahyeon can explore with us.”

“Where is he now?”

“We don’t always come together. Seems he couldn’t come today.”

For a moment I wondered if Wang Jahyeon had a Status Window like mine, but from Gong Yerin’s explanation, that didn’t seem to be the case.

However, I could tell they had considerable experience with this “random matching.”

Perhaps Wang Jahyeon knew how to be frequently selected for random matching.

I still didn’t understand how that was possible.

Because he was a “chosen one” as Gong Yerin said?

“Having people in this school isn’t good in the first place. Don’t you even know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Jahyeon said this school is like a hole in a dam. If you stick your finger in it, the hole gets bigger and eventually causes a flood. He said that as more people enter this school, dangerous things from deep inside overflow outward. That’s why we sent people out whenever we saw them. We were doing a good thing!”

Gong Yerin firmly believed what she was doing was right.

“Wang Jahyeon told you that?”

“Yes. Jahyeon is truly amazing. A real chosen one. So don’t think about harming or messing with him. If things go wrong, everyone will die!”

“Putting that aside… have you seen any ghosts while exploring this first floor?”

“We saw them. We drove them away.”

They drove away the high school ghost Gu Hyena?

How is that possible?

“How?”

“Feel my chest.”

Feel her chest?

As I hesitated in confusion, Yang Juhui stepped forward.

Swish-

Yang Juhui discovered a strange object between Gong Yerin’s chest and underwear.

It was a wooden cross smaller than a palm.

“With this, even ghosts can’t move. They just run away. Jahyeon gave this to me too. Do you know it’s the only one in the world? He gave it only to me.”

A cross powerful enough to make Gu Hyena flee.

It was an extraordinary item.

“Why only to you? Not to Lim Huiyeon?”

“Because Jahyeon likes me more. It’s a secret from Huiyeon, but Jahyeon and I are already dating.”

Gong Yerin showed a somewhat proud expression.

Then Jeongseok asked as if he was curious about something.

“Lim Huiyeon was carrying something like a compass?”

“That compass tracks talismans.”

A compass that tracks talismans?

It seemed to have a similar function to the paper crane Yu Dahui carried.

I could now understand how they had survived in the corridor.

“Have you been to the second floor too?”

“No, Jahyeon told us never to go to the second floor. You shouldn’t think about going there either.”

So they hadn’t gone to the second floor even with the cross and compass.

“I’ve been completely honest. Now it’s your turn to be honest. Who are you? I’ve never seen five people wandering around together. It doesn’t seem like you fell in by accident.”

The arrow of questioning turned toward us.

I looked at Jeongseok.

He shrugged his shoulders. He probably meant for me to do as I wished.

“We’re people who are trying to go up to the second floor that you don’t visit.”

“…What? Why would you do that?”

Gong Yerin looked confused, unable to understand.

Then, as if she suddenly realized something, she frowned fiercely and shouted.

“I get it! It’s you! You’re the ones widening the hole in the dam! You bastards! It was you! Aaaah! You tricked me! Jahyeoooon! Aaaaaaah!”

Gong Yerin suddenly started going berserk.

She didn’t seem like she would cooperate with us anymore.

“Hey, she’s too noisy. Let’s put her in a locker for now. Yu Dahui, grab her legs.”

Yang Juhui lifted the noisy Gong Yerin and stuffed her into a box visible in the distance.

Inside the box, Gong Yerin struggled and made noise, but it was clear she had no way to escape on her own.

“We should probably deal with her properly…”

Jeongseok muttered anxiously.

Yang Juhui responded to him curtly.

“Then you do it.”

“……”

Jeongseok closed his mouth.

None of us, including myself, wanted to personally finish off a classmate.

# # #

I spun the compass around.

The needle pointed at me, who was holding the talisman.

“So this finds the nearest talisman. Since I’m holding a talisman, the needle keeps fixing on me, which is a bit awkward. But it seems like a good item when there’s no talisman around.”

Yu Dahui’s paper crane had the disadvantage of having to constantly follow it.

That was both an advantage and disadvantage.

It would be a big problem if we lost the paper crane.

But with this compass, we didn’t have to worry about that.

It was a truly useful item when there was no talisman to track.

While searching for a shrine on the first floor, Jeongseok, who had been deep in thought, spoke.

“After hearing what Gong Yerin said, I’ve figured it out clearly. Wang Jahyeon’s group has different goals from us. They’re hindering our exploration of this corridor. They’ve been killing people under the pretext of sending them out.”

The goals of our party trying to conquer the corridor and Wang Jahyeon’s party trying to drive people out of the corridor were clearly different.

We were like water and oil that couldn’t mix.

Kwon Sua joined the conversation.

“B-but they said exploring this corridor more would make the world dangerous. They might be right, don’t you think?”

Exploring the corridor makes the world dangerous—

That might be true in a way.

After I opened the first floor, and then the second floor, there had been various changes in Gaeryong City. If I continued exploring the corridor… no one knew what might happen.

But I couldn’t stop exploring either.

With the variable of “random matching” now in play, passive activity had its limits. I never knew when I might get involved and die after accumulating two quirks.

Rather than that, it was better to see this corridor through to the end.

Also, I had the “Status Window.”

This special function was created to help me conquer the corridor, no exaggeration.

I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed to want me to reach the end of the corridor.

We found another talisman in the women’s bathroom on the first floor.

We now had two talismans.

Five people.

Now it was time to tackle the second floor.

“Let’s quickly get one more talisman from the second floor, then come back down to decide who gets to return alive. Or we could even try conquering the third floor. The old school building has three floors, right?”

When seen from a distance, the real old school building had three floors.

First floor for first-years, second floor for second-years, and third floor for third-years.

I couldn’t be certain, but this nightmare corridor should also have a third floor.

If we conquered from the basement to the third floor, we could obtain a total of four talismans.

“But I’ve never been to the second floor. What’s it like?”

Yu Dahui trembled.

She must be nervous.

Honestly, I was nervous too.

The only people here who had experienced the second floor were me, Jeongseok, and Yang Juhui.

And Jeongseok and Yang Juhui had died miserably on the second floor.

There was no guarantee today would be different.

“There’s the Mirror Ghost, the Rhythm Ghost, and a ghost that makes you dance. They’re all no joke. So from now on, we need to be really prepared. Whew…”

I exhaled deeply.

After regulating my breathing for a while, I chose to enter the second floor.

Today’s random matching had many twists and turns, but what we needed to do hadn’t changed.

Thump, thump-

We all went up to the second floor.

Kwon Sua trembled.

“Isn’t it really cold…? The air feels different…”

Kwon Sua was right.

The air on the second floor was different.

But something amazing happened.

“Ugh, what the hell.”

Right in front of the second floor staircase stood a headless shrine.

To find a shrine so immediately?

If this was the case, did we even need to struggle on the second floor?

“This is amazing. Yes, there should be some lucky moments in life too!”

My life lately had been a series of misfortunes.

To balance that, there should be some lucky moments in life.

We removed the talisman from the shrine and went back down to the first floor.

“This is amazing.”

Three talismans.

I felt full even without eating.

That’s when Jeongseok asked.

“Aren’t we going to explore the second floor more? Since we have talismans, it might be good to proceed further. Worst case, three people can escape.”

Jeongseok’s opinion always made sense.

We didn’t know much about the second floor.

Currently, we had five people.

Three talismans.

Perhaps today we could uncover the secrets of the second floor and even reach the third floor.

As I was thinking this…

“Tick-tock-tick-tock-.”

A familiar and terrible sound rang in my ears.

I turned my head.

There, the long-necked Rhythm Ghost was looking down at the first floor from the second floor staircase.

“Found you. Found you. Found you! Come here! Teacher will suck your brain! Brain! I’ll stick my tongue in your ear and suck out just your brain! Yeongwon! Come here!”

Thud, thud, thud-

I heard the sound of the second floor’s Rhythm Ghost coming down to the first floor.

I was extremely confused and panicked.

“Hiiiii, shit what is this! Hiiiiiii!”

Weren’t second floor ghosts unable to come down to the first floor?

Why was a second floor ghost suddenly coming down to the first floor!

“This fucking shit is cheating! Guys, run! Let’s run! Run!”

I shouted like a half-crazed person.

We had to run away first.

But the Rhythm Ghost was faster than I thought.

It crawled on all fours like a dog, and at this rate, it would catch up to us.

“What is thiiis! What is thiiis! What is thiiis! I’ve never seen a ghost like that! Hiiiii! Hiiiii!”

Kwon Sua screamed wildly.

Had she gone mad at the horrifying sight?

Eventually, thud- Kwon Sua fell down.

“Hiiiii! Hiiiiiii!”

The idol screamed pitifully like a deer caught in a trap.

Seeing that sight made my hair stand on end.

“Get up quickly! Hurry!”

“I-I can’t get up! Mommy…! Hiiiii…!”

Damn it!

Should I abandon Kwon Sua like this?

As I was thinking that, Yang Juhui moved quickly.

“Die! You long-necked bitch!”

Yang Juhui’s fingertips flashed.

It was the industrial utility knife that had once pierced my chest.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”