Ch.108108 – Charge 3

# 108 – Charge # 3

Principal’s office. Music room. Science room.

Year 2 Class 1 through Class 7.

There was also an art room and a computer room.

And next to the computer room was something that looked like stairs.

“This is a map of the second floor. I’m sure of it.”

I was the only one who had survived and returned from the second floor.

I could tell with certainty that this was a map of the second floor.

“Hey, Jeongseok. Memorize this. Input it all into your head.”

“Got it.”

Acquiring a map of the second floor was a huge achievement for us.

“I’m sorry for cursing at it as a useless note.”

I don’t know who it was, but it helped us.

Could it be “Aquaman’s” party who had left many notes earlier? I suddenly wondered who these people were and why they had explored this old school building before us.

I thought it would be nice to actually meet them and hear their stories if they were still alive. Of course, that’s not what’s important right now.

“Guys, let’s go to the third floor.”

I encouraged everyone.

For some reason, I felt like we were nearing the end of our journey.

“The only items we can use are Juhui’s magic wand and the cross we took from Gong Yerin? We need to use them well when we meet ghosts.”

It was clear that no ghost from the second floor could withstand Yang Juhui’s magic wand.

We can do this.

That hope continued to rise in my chest.

“Let’s go!”

Thinking there was no sign of ghosts outside, I rushed out of the music room.

We needed to run quickly toward the third floor.

As we were running, the Dancing Ghost appeared before us.

Two-two, two-two-two-two-two-.

It was wildly swinging its arms and legs and stomping its feet, looking exactly like what I remembered.

I had fully expected the Dancing Ghost to appear, so I tried to steel myself. But even so, I couldn’t help but freeze in shock.

“Wait, that’s…”

Yang Juhui, who had almost always been brave in this corridor except on very rare occasions, was flustered. And for good reason—the being dancing in the corridor was… none other than Yang Juhui herself, with her joints bent in all directions.

“That’s me…?”

I was just as confused as Yang Juhui.

The Dancing Ghost was Yang Juhui.

How could this be?

“Hahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha!”

The ghost on the ceiling controlling the dancing Yang Juhui laughed until its throat might burst.

It was clearly mockery.

Stimulated by that laughter, I came to my senses and held out the cross I was holding toward it.

“Get lost, you bastard!”

“Aaaaaaaaahhh!”

To be honest, I had been half-doubting whether this cross would actually work on ghosts. But unlike my lack of faith, the upper body ghost stopped laughing and screamed when it saw the cross.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

It was a scream of intense pain.

“Serves you right, you piece of shit!”

The creature dropped Yang Juhui’s hair that it had been holding.

Thanks to that, Yang Juhui, who had been shaking violently as if dancing, collapsed to the floor.

I had many thoughts as I looked at Yang Juhui lying on the floor.

Whoosh-.

Suddenly, the cross began to burn.

“Ah, hot!”

I had no choice but to drop the cross as my hand felt scorched.

Whoosh-.

Having fulfilled its role, the cross burned away and disappeared.

Jeongseok grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey! We need to go! We need to go now!”

Jeongseok was right.

We needed to quickly leave this place and head to the third floor since we didn’t know when the upper body ghost would regain consciousness. But in the corridor leading to the third floor stairs was the Rhythm Ghost.

“Where are you? Children. Teacher will love you. Come here. Yeongwon. Can’t you hear teacher’s voice? Where are you?”

I had been wondering what the Rhythm Ghost, whom we’d parted with on the first floor, was doing, but it happened to be wandering around in such a place.

The Rhythm Ghost seemed to be searching for us, going through each classroom on the second floor. Since there was no way to bypass it, we would have to encounter the Rhythm Ghost to reach the third floor.

“…I’ll be the bait.”

Yu Dahui spoke as if she had made a big decision.

“I have a talisman. I’ll lure the Rhythm Ghost into that classroom over there and stall for as much time as possible before escaping. During that time, you guys go quickly.”

Volunteering to be bait.

It was a very brave act and seemed like a plausible strategy.

“Dahui, are you sure you’ll be okay? It’s really dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine. I can do it. There’s no one else who can do this anyway.”

That… that was true.

Among the three people holding talismans, Jeongseok was a coward. Kwon Sua was a beginner who didn’t even know what the Nightmare Corridor was. Therefore, the only person who could play the role of bait was Yu Dahui.

“The zoo was fun. Let’s all go together next time.”

Yu Dahui patted my shoulder.

It was as if she was encouraging me.

I wanted to encourage Yu Dahui too, but before I could, she quickly ran into the “2-4” classroom that was visible ahead.

And then she shouted from inside.

“Here! Here! Come here! Here! Long-necked ghost! Over here!”

“Heeheeheehee!”

Two-two-two-two-two-.

The Rhythm Ghost crawled quickly on all fours into “2-4.” Not missing that opportunity, Yang Juhui ran down the corridor first.

The rest of us, including me, also ran down the corridor, but I flinched when I heard Yu Dahui’s scream—”Kyaak!”—from “2-4.”

“Dahui!”

“Hey! There’s nothing we can do! Just run!”

Jeongseok kept pulling my arm.

He was right.

As Jeongseok said, there was nothing we could do.

I climbed the stairs to the third floor, hoping that Dahui had safely escaped using her talisman.

“Haa, haa.”

I was out of breath, but I couldn’t stop.

The third floor we arrived at was very different from what I had imagined.

# # #

The third floor was a place with a very high ceiling, unlike the first or second floors we had seen so far. The ceiling height seemed to be almost 4 meters.

And rather than looking like a school, it was built with stone like some kind of ruins, and a sturdy gate-like structure stood firmly locked in front of us.

We were all confused by the unexpected situation.

This massive door was all we could see of the third floor.

“Hmph!”

Yang Juhui exerted force as if trying to push the stone door, but it didn’t budge at all.

That’s when Jeongseok shouted as if he had discovered something.

“Hey! Look at that! There’s a talisman attached! On the door!”

Looking at the door as Jeongseok said, I could indeed see a talisman attached to the left part of the gate.

Anyone could see it was an ‘Escape Talisman.’ So this is where the third floor’s escape talisman was attached!

As I was feeling happy, Jeongseok’s eyes lit up as if he had discovered something more.

“But there are more square spaces next to the talisman. Three spaces. Including the space where the talisman is attached, there are a total of four square spaces. Coincidence? No. There have been no coincidences so far. A locked door. Talisman…”

Ah-.

Jeongseok exclaimed as if he had realized something.

“Could this be a door that opens when escape talismans are attached?”

I couldn’t understand what kind of reasoning led Jeongseok, with his “Computer” trait, to such a conclusion. But his deduction, as always, sounded very plausible.

“From basement level 1 to the second floor, there are three talismans in total, right? And there are three empty square spaces here. Plus one talisman already attached. Could it be that this door opens when four talismans are attached?”

“So what you’re saying, Mr. Jeongseok… is that these talismans not only send us home but also function like items that break the game’s seal?”

The gamer Kwon Sua quickly understood Jeongseok’s attitude.

Jeongseok and Kwon Sua.

We had two talismans.

Three talismans were needed to open the third floor.

I couldn’t help but deeply regret the decision we had made earlier.

“If we had known this, we shouldn’t have left Dahui behind. It means we needed Dahui’s talisman to open this third floor. Damn…!”

Who would have thought our choices would lead to such a mismatch?

As I was regretting, Jeongseok spoke.

“Hey. It couldn’t be helped. Still, finding the location of the third floor door and obtaining the second floor map made this journey quite meaningful. And we did get one talisman.”

Swish-.

Jeongseok detached the talisman that was stuck to the third floor gate.

And he handed it to me.

I took the talisman well and looked at Yang Juhui.

“You really don’t need it?”

“…I don’t need it.”

Three talismans.

Four of us.

If we escaped like this, only Yang Juhui would be left alone in this corridor.

And Yang Juhui, left alone… would eventually die.

It reminded me of when I first entered this corridor and escaped through a wet dream, leaving Yang Juhui behind.

I had promised to come back and save Yang Juhui then, but I couldn’t.

The current situation felt similar to that time.

“Then I’m leaving. Honestly, I’m at my limit. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

Jeongseok decided to escape.

It was understandable that he wanted to leave this place quickly after experiencing such a nightmare.

“Normally, we should go back down to the second floor and farm the computer room or art room, but honestly, I’m a bit tired. Is it okay if I escape first?”

“Yeah. Go ahead. You did well. Ms. Sua, you should leave quickly too.”

“I… I…”

Kwon Sua trembled.

Since arriving on the second floor, Kwon Sua had become noticeably quieter and seemed very depressed and struggling.

Perhaps because Kwon Sua, who had seen many ghosts since childhood, could feel how evil and terrible the ghosts on this second floor were.

“Then both of you exit at the same time. I’ll leave a little later.”

One, two, three-.

Rip.

With my signal, Jeongseok and Kwon Sua tore their talismans.

Now only Yang Juhui and I remained.

“Are you really okay with this?”

I asked Yang Juhui.

Yang Juhui, who was sitting with her back against the third floor gate, sighed deeply.

“What can I do if I’m not okay? The number of talismans is fixed.”

That was true.

In the end, one of us… had to stay in this place.

Yang Juhui said:

“That thing from earlier, the one being controlled by the ghost stuck to the ceiling. That was really me, right? It didn’t look like the Mirror Ghost imitating me. Do you know what happened?”

That… I didn’t know either.

Who would have thought that Yang Juhui, who should have died then, would still be here?

Yang Juhui said:

“Maybe when we die here, we really die once? Maybe we who wake up from the dream after dying are actually different people from who we are now?”

It was an uncharacteristically philosophical question from Yang Juhui.

“I don’t know. Now you should go too.”

Yang Juhui urged me to escape.

After worrying so much that I thought I might get alopecia areata from losing hair, I reached out my hand to Yang Juhui.

“No. You go.”

“…What?”

“You’ve never made it out alive before. I’ve never died before. So this time, you go.”

“Hey, why are you suddenly acting like this? It doesn’t suit you.”

“It’s not sudden. The truth is, you all got involved because of me. So this time, you remember me. How brave I was! How manly I was!”

“Saying you’re manly while your legs are shaking like that. Do you really not regret it?”

“I don’t! If you try to give it back, I’ll be angry!”

Yang Juhui smiled slightly.

But perhaps thinking she couldn’t overcome my manly resolve, she finally accepted the talisman from me.

“Then, I have something to tell only you, so lend me your ear.”

Was she going to whisper?

I brought my ear close to Yang Juhui, but suddenly something soft hit my cheek with a “chu-” sound.

While I was flustered, Yang Juhui said:

“Forget what just happened!”

Rip-.

Yang Juhui tore the talisman and disappeared like dust.

I was left alone on this strange third floor with a burning cheek.

I felt dazed in many ways.

Getting a kiss from Yang Juhui.

How long had it been since I received a kiss from a female student?

I did get a kiss from Teacher Hong Miri recently, but that teacher was over twenty years old… Hehe, it was funny.

But such joy was quickly pushed away by the desolation of being left alone in a dark and gloomy corridor.

In the end, I was left alone.

“…It’s too scary!”

What should I do now?

As I was thinking about how to die in the most comfortable way possible, text appeared before my eyes.

Ding-.

[Training Complete!]

[Ha Yeongwon – Training List!]

[Achieve Level 3 5/3 Lv]

[Achieve 5 Level 5 Players 5/5]