Ch.107107 – Charge 2

# 107 – Charge # 2

Rattle-

Yang Juhui pulled out the blade of a thick industrial utility knife and lunged at the Rhythm Ghost.

Stab-!

“Die!!!”

The Rhythm Ghost, with the utility knife piercing its long neck, writhed like a vicious snake and let out a scream so terrible it made me want to cover my ears.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

This scene was already a nightmare in itself.

I wanted to cover my ears, but I couldn’t just stand there in a daze.

“Ms. Sua! Now’s our chance! You need to get up quickly! Hurry! Get up now!”

I helped Kwon Sua, who had fallen down, to her feet.

We needed to escape quickly.

But where to?

With a ghost from the second floor coming down to the first floor, where were we supposed to run?

The hiding place on the first floor, “1-4,” was far from here.

I thought quickly and made a decision.

“Let’s go to the second floor! To the principal’s office! The evil spirits couldn’t enter the principal’s office! If we just break the mirror, it’s safe! Hurry! Let’s run away! Everyone up to the second floor! We need to get to the principal’s office!”

We ran frantically.

Unlike the first floor with its randomly changing structure, the layout of the second floor seemed mostly fixed, as I was able to easily find the location of the principal’s office.

Bang-! Click-!

After closing the door to the principal’s office, we all caught our breath.

We didn’t forget to break the mirror in case the Mirror Ghost might appear.

Crash-!

“Whew, I’m out of breath. Ha Yeongwon. Why did the Rhythm Ghost suddenly come down to the first floor? Why?”

As I frowned at the situation I couldn’t understand, Jeongseok spoke.

“There’s no rule that ghosts from the second floor have to stay on the second floor. Think about the journal we got last time.”

“Someone’s Journal: The ‘Dancing Ghost’ that should be on the second floor somehow came down to the first floor. Aquaman was badly injured, and Darth Vader and I decided to retreat.”

Right, there was such a journal entry.

At that moment, Yu Dahui, who was the only one among us not catching her breath, said:

“Maybe… it’s because of the talisman? When the Head Ghost was around, removing the basement talisman would make the Head Ghost come up to the first floor. And when we removed the first floor talisman… the Red Mask appeared.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, maybe the talismans were sealing the movements of the ghosts on each floor. Maybe the second floor ghosts became free because we removed the second floor talisman?”

“Oh!”

Yu Dahui’s words sounded very plausible.

Gu Hyena’s head started moving when we removed the basement talisman.

Hong Yeri, the Woman in Red, appeared when we removed the first floor talisman.

And when the second floor talisman was removed, the second floor evil spirits began to run wild freely.

It was a very reasonable guess.

“So what do we do now? Should we just escape?”

I wanted to just leave this place.

But Yang Juhui had a different opinion.

“Hey. Let’s keep going since we’ve come this far. I still have my magic wand, and Yu Dahui has her bell. We also have the cross we took from Gong Yerin. It would be too wasteful to leave now.”

Yang Juhui was very aggressive and full of adventurous spirit.

And she also seemed to have made a big decision.

“And if things get bad, you guys can leave. I don’t need a talisman anyway.”

Giving up ownership of a talisman.

This was a very significant decision.

“Juhui, are you serious? You’re willing to die again?”

“I’m serious. We can’t keep running away forever. I need to find my sister. Even if it’s just her corpse!”

She seemed genuinely serious.

Now, except for one person, the other three could survive.

I was so moved by Yang Juhui’s words that I proclaimed like an orator:

“Guys, let’s go up to the third floor. Let’s go to the third floor, find new items, and secure up to four talismans.”

Whatever, if I died, I could just spend 100 points to cure my quirk.

However, Yu Dahui’s status window hadn’t been revealed to me yet, so I couldn’t put her in the clinic.

And the same went for Kwon Sua, who got caught up in this today.

“You two, Dahui and Ms. Sua, keep these two talismans. And Jeongseok, you take one. Jeongseok, make sure you escape before dying this time. Don’t die stupidly like last time.”

I could see the eyes of Yu Dahui, Jeongseok, and Kwon Sua sparkling with various emotions as they looked at me.

Was it respect for their leader?

“Hey, are you going to be okay?”

Yang Juhui asked me.

I nodded.

“No. I’m not okay.”

I had 784 points.

It was enough to treat any quirks that might develop in me and Yang Juhui.

Knock knock-.

Just then, someone knocked on the principal’s office door.

—Hey guys, are you in there? Open the door quickly!

It was Bong Jiyeon’s voice.

Was Bong Jiyeon here too?

Bong Jiyeon knocking on the principal’s office door on the second floor.

It was similar to the previous random matching situation.

While everyone was silent, Jeongseok spoke:

“We need to verify. Bong Jiyeon. Tell us the name of the guy you like right now.”

—Do… do I really have to say it myself? Jeongseok, open the door right now! Hurry! I’m so scared! Open the door quickly!

“Just tell us the name!”

—…Jeongseok! There! I like you! So open the door!

A shy confession in this situation?

I was worried that Jeongseok, who was devoted to Bong Jiyeon, might go crazy and open the door.

But Jeongseok frowned even more coldly and spat out his words like gum:

“No. The person you like right now isn’t me, it’s that oppa. You’re not Bong Jiyeon. Judging by how you’re imitating a person, you must be the Mirror Ghost, right?”

……

The sound of Bong Jiyeon knocking on the door from outside became very quiet.

It seems it really was the Mirror Ghost.

“…Is it gone?”

I slightly tilted my ear toward the quiet outside.

Of course, Jeongseok was terrified.

“Hey, that’s an ominous line.”

I knew that too, but how could I be so picky in such an urgent situation?

Eventually, a problem arose.

—Hey. Open the door, you guys. Going to a trashy high school and trying to exclude me, the mayor’s son? You think you’re something special just because I hung out with you?

—Yeongwon, please open the door. You like me too, don’t you? If you open the door, I’ll do something nice for you. Open the door now! You losers! I said open the door!

The voices of Jeongseok and Bong Jiyeon could be heard from outside.

Bang bang bang, bang bang bang-.

The sound of knocking on the door was very loud.

—Hey, Ha Yeongwon. You’re not better than me in any way, so why are you the pirate crew captain? I could have done better. You just got lucky!

—You think you’re the only one seeing other guys? All the other girls do it too! They’re all secretly contacting oppas behind your backs! Yang Juhui even went to see a movie with an oppa who rides a bicycle last weekend!

They were even spewing malicious words that were hard to ignore after hearing them.

Yang Juhui got angry at the voice that sounded like it was squeezing out malice from its gut.

“What nonsense! I went to the zoo last weekend!”

Everyone’s nerves seemed to be on edge from the stories coming in familiar voices.

Soon, Jeongseok said:

“Last time, didn’t you say that the Mirror Ghost captured and killed me and Bong Jiyeon? So the Mirror Ghost is probably imitating us to try to divide us. By spouting nonsense.”

I knew those shouts were plausible nonsense.

But we didn’t have any good solutions either.

Just as I was wondering if we should just hope they would back off, Yu Dahui pulled something out.

“How about using this?”

Jingle-.

It was bells attached to a stick.

“Bell of Exorcism: When shaken, a clear and beautiful sound spreads widely. When rung by someone with aptitude, it can drive away evil beings once.”

The shaman’s bell!

Yes, if we used that, we might be able to drive away the ghosts outside the door.

Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling-.

Yu Dahui shook the bell up and down repeatedly.

A clearer and sharper sound than expected filled the principal’s office.

The voices of the fake Bong Jiyeon and fake Jeongseok shouting at us from outside were drowned out by the bell sound, and they became completely quiet.

Whoosh-.

The bell, perhaps having fulfilled its role, turned to powder and disappeared.

If we had to leave this principal’s office, now would be the perfect time.

# # #

“Guys, there’s no one here. Come out quickly.”

Peek-.

Yang Juhui, who had peeked her head out of the principal’s office, gestured to us.

After using the bell to drive away the ghosts outside, we also stepped into the corridor.

“Guys, let’s look for the third floor now. And if you see the science lab, never go in. If you go in there, you’ll all die. That’s the Mirror Ghost’s lair.”

I gave everyone a stern warning.

I wanted to avoid being wiped out on this second floor like in the previous random matching.

“Those who have talismans, tear them and escape immediately if necessary. I’ve seen cases where people died without escaping despite having talismans because they weren’t careful. There’s no worse way to die than that.”

So, Ha Yeongwon Pirates set off on the second floor again.

Thud, thud, thud-.

Maybe because there were many of us, our footsteps echoed loudly in the corridor.

Five people.

Perhaps because of our numbers, I felt somewhat reassured.

“There’s the music room.”

Jeongseok stretched out his hand.

As he said, the music room was visible.

“How about going in and rummaging around? After seeing Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon’s party, I realized that farming useful items is really important in this place.”

Jeongseok’s opinion was very reasonable.

There must be plenty of items in this old school building that we haven’t discovered yet.

Among them, there would surely be many things that could help us conquer this dark nightmare.

However, I was reluctant to enter the music room.

“The Rhythm Ghost was there.”

When we first met it, the Rhythm Ghost was hanging by its neck above the piano in the music room. The thought of having to enter such a place made me a bit scared.

“Want to pass?”

Jeongseok asked.

I thought briefly, looked at everyone’s faces one by one, and then shook my head.

“No, we should go in while we have the chance. Who knows when we’ll get another opportunity like this? Whatever. Let’s go into the music room.”

Slide-.

As we opened the door and entered, we saw a spacious classroom with a piano in the corner and lots of desks.

“Um, I’ll keep watch. I’m confident in seeing ghosts. I hated this ability and wanted to live normally, but now I think my eyes can be helpful!”

Kwon Sua offered to keep watch in the corridor.

It was quite reassuring to see her trying hard to do her part despite how terrifying this unfamiliar situation must be for her.

The four of us, excluding Kwon Sua, rummaged through the music room.

Then Yu Dahui spoke as if she had found something concerning:

“Guys, look at this.”

“There was a beautiful young pianist.

She was disheartened by her skills that weren’t improving, and something took root in that empty heart.

The pianist invited colleagues she envied to her home one by one, cut off their heads, and ate their brains.

The pianist’s skills improved dramatically afterward, and the melody that spread from her fingertips drove listeners mad like cold moonlight.

On the day before a famous competition, the pianist, whose criminal acts were exposed, hanged herself on her piano just before being arrested.

That piano was purchased by a wealthy person and placed in a school’s music room.

The piano sound that comes from the empty music room every night.

It was a melody created by the blood dripping from the corpse that had hanged itself, striking the keys.

This was the identity of the ‘Suicide Symphony’ that made listeners commit suicide—or so it was speculated, but all these were meaningless conjectures.

It’s all useless.

The Piano Ghost is pure evil, with nothing known about its origin or how to exorcise it.

If there’s only one strategy, it’s just to avoid her and reach the third floor.”

“This pianist is talking about that long-necked ghost, right?”

At Yu Dahui’s question, I became quite troubled.

To think that the only way to deal with the ghost was to go to the third floor.

“If they’re going to leave a note, they should at least leave a helpful hint. They’re just getting people’s hopes up for nothing. Ugh. Reading this was a waste of time.”

My expression soured.

Then, on a hunch, I flipped over the note Yu Dahui had found.

There, I saw what looked like a roughly drawn map.

“Oh, shit! It’s a map of the second floor!”