Ch.128128 – Flood 1

# 128 – The Flood # 1

“Did you feel the earthquake last night? I guess even Korea isn’t safe from earthquakes anymore. Should we reconsider immigrating to Canada? Canada. Don’t you think it would be nice and quiet there?”

Sua’s mother stuck out her tongue while cooking. She had been staying at Kwon Sua’s officetel since yesterday. It was because of the earthquake that had occurred last night.

“Huh? I didn’t feel any earthquake. And Canada? Sua never wanted to leave Korea. She’s always struggled with foreign languages.”

Sua’s father scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he sat at the dining table.

Woof-woof! Woof-woof!

The Shiba dog, Wangwangi, barked furiously at her father.

“Hey! You can’t bark like that inside! Oh my, why is he barking so much?”

Sua’s mother picked up the Shiba dog and placed him carefully inside the small pet fence set up in the house.

“Sua, I’ll have breakfast ready soon. Come eat.”

“…I… I’m not really hungry for breakfast…”

Sua’s voice trembled.

She wanted to sound calm but couldn’t manage it.

The reason for Sua’s distress was clear.

—You bitch. You seduced my brother. Die. Die. Die.

—You fox. I’ll kill your family and then kill you.

The ghosts were already seated at the dining table.

And from what Sua could tell, having seen such things since childhood, these were the kind that harmed people.

“……”

Women with their eyeballs gouged out sat at the table, opening their mouths wide.

Afraid to sit at the table with those things, Sua decided to put her acting skills to good use.

“Mom, I don’t want breakfast. I’m on a diet.”

“Diet? What fat do you have to lose? I made rice cake soup with dumplings this morning—your favorite!”

Her mother scolded her.

Her father, sitting at the table, chimed in.

“That’s right, Sua. What fat do you have to lose? Don’t go on diets. At your age, it’s important to eat well and build up your strength.”

“I get it. You’re seeing a boy these days, right? Did your boyfriend tell you to diet because you gained weight? Is that it?”

“Oh, Mom! He’s not my boyfriend! …Not yet…”

“What? Boyfriend? This dad hasn’t heard anything about that! Honey, what are you talking about? Sua having a boyfriend! Sua! What’s this about a boyfriend?”

“What kind of boy is he? Is he handsome? Is he rich? Just tell Mom.”

“A boyfriend! Sua is only a first-year in high school! Sua! This dad opposes you having a boyfriend until you enter university! I oppose it!”

—You fucking bitch, die. Die. Die.

—Hey. You can see me.

—33 days later, 150 people will die.

Sua couldn’t bear to stay in the living room any longer.

Woof-woof-woof!

The Shiba dog Wangwangi kept barking.

Scary and noisy shadows.

‘I think I’m going crazy!’

Sua chose to escape.

“Mom! Let’s go out for breakfast! There’s a delicious soup restaurant nearby. I suddenly want to eat that. Mom, let’s have breakfast together!”

Sua grabbed her mother’s hand and pulled her outside.

Sua’s mother turned off the heat under the boiling rice cake soup and laughed.

“Alright. Soup for breakfast? You have the exact same taste as your father. He would also ask to go out for soup even after I had prepared breakfast.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, really. Speaking of which, your father’s death anniversary is coming up soon. Since you’re taking a break from your idol activities, should we visit your father’s grave together this year…?”

“……”

Sua couldn’t bring herself to answer.

As Sua closed the door, her father waved from inside.

“Have a good time.”

Click.

After the door closed, the outside world was in complete chaos from the major earthquake that had occurred the night before.

Roads were overturned, trees uprooted, and signs had fallen, injuring people.

The news was filled with nothing but stories about the earthquake.

—Earthquake damaaaaaaage…

Of course, Sua couldn’t even watch the news properly.

Whenever she turned on the TV, horrible things would appear and jump out, forcing her to look away.

“My shoulders feel so heavy. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t sleep well due to the earthquake yesterday.”

“My head hurts.”

Sua quickly averted her gaze after looking at people walking on the street.

Black shadows were everywhere in the world.

They clung to people like black soot.

‘This is strange! Something’s wrong!’

Sua had been able to see unusual things since she was very young.

But that was at most once a week.

Now, however, strange things were everywhere, as if someone had dropped a container full of cockroaches, releasing them all over the place.

# # #

“Status Window.”

『Name: Ha Yeongwon Lv.5

Traits: 《The Broken Clock》 《Holding Breath》 《Strong Heart》 《Trait Enhancement》

Quirk:

Funds: 860 Points

Description: Time that had been stopped for a long time has started moving again. Inevitably experiencing various events and growing, you fear and simultaneously look forward to what will happen next.』

『Shop ◀ Click to open』

『Clinic ◀ Click to open』

『Training Ground ◀ Click to open』

『Mercenary Corps ◀ Click to open』

Since the status window appeared, I’ve found myself staring at these words whenever I wanted to calm down.

Looking at these words strangely boosted my confidence.

「Bloodstained Uniform: A tightly fitted school uniform. Someone’s blood is on it. If you possess it, you might see a special path.」

The description of Yang Dohui’s uniform that Yang Juhui had acquired caught my eye.

If you possess it, you might see a special path… I’m not sure what this means.

I shifted my gaze from the incomprehensible to clear numbers.

“We gained about 300P from this expedition, but we also lost about 300P treating our friends’ quirks, so it’s almost even… With the points from the rabbit money box and defeating the wall-watching woman… we’re still in the black.”

I now had 860P.

In the past, I would have happily pondered how to spend these points, but now they felt like a castle built on sand.

I’ve had to use large amounts of points recently. It seemed like I would continue to consume points rapidly in the future. Just looking around…

“Hmm.”

I tried my best not to make eye contact with the dark things wandering the streets.

“Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.”

There were quite a few “somethings” mixed in with the crowd, pretending to be human and mimicking human behavior, but clearly not human.

Looking at that back alley, there were all sorts of unidentifiable things mixed together…

—Gweeeeng.

Ugh, shit…!

I couldn’t even imagine what kind of ghost or animal sound that was.

Whatever it was, it had to be some terribly monstrous ghost.

Whatever they were, I thought I shouldn’t get entangled with the creatures filling the streets, so I hurriedly headed to Teacher Hong Miri’s office, our secret base.

At the office were Jeongseok, Yang Juhui, Yu Dahui, Kwon Sua, and Bong Jiyeon.

Everyone had dark circles under their eyes and dry skin.

Probably from the terrible night they had.

“Hey. That earthquake yesterday was because of something we did, right? Did we really open the third floor door?”

Jeongseok had been captured by the spider woman yesterday and died horribly.

So he seemed to have forgotten all those terrible and intense memories from yesterday.

The same was true for Yu Dahui and Yang Juhui.

I had gathered the pirate crew members to explain what had happened yesterday.

While I was slowly organizing in my head how to explain this, Yu Dahui opened her mouth while looking at her phone.

“Did you guys see the emergency alert yesterday? Isn’t it the first time you’ve seen them make a mistake with an emergency alert? I saw online that some people had trouble because they were directed to the wrong shelter.”

“You mean that flood warning message? I saw that too.”

Bong Jiyeon, who liked Dahui, quickly agreed with her.

The atmosphere was chaotic in many ways.

Yang Juhui, who yawned so widely her molars were visible, said:

“So, why did you call us here?”

“Obviously to talk about what happened yesterday… and what’s happening today.”

Chatter-chatter.

Using my well-practiced storytelling skills, I explained to everyone what had happened yesterday.

Opening the third floor. Using the shop on the third floor and dying. About the woman with eight arms and the man wrapped in bandages, and…

“Have you seen them too? There are ghosts all over the world. Not in this room, but…”

“……”

“……”

“……”

Everyone fell silent.

Had they all seen ghosts on TV or on the streets?

Kwon Sua, who looked the most upset, seized the opportunity to join the conversation.

“There… there are ghosts in my house too! There are ghosts in my house! I thought I was going to die this morning! Is it because that third floor opened? What on earth is going on?”

Kwon Sua said she had been troubled by ghosts since morning.

Ghosts that took the form of young girls, she said.

If asked whether what’s happening now is related to me opening and entering the third floor, honestly, I couldn’t give a definite answer.

Of course, if not for the third floor opening, there was no other explanation.

“This is hell!”

Kwon Sua cried out, almost in tears.

I deeply agreed with her words.

How terrifying it was to wake up this morning and find a ghost in my room too.

Fortunately, Giganoto ate it, but if Giganoto hadn’t been there… it would have been a horrific morning.

Shudder.

I tried to calm my trembling body and spoke with confidence to reassure everyone.

“It’s terrible, but it could actually be an opportunity. It seems like we need a ton of points to conquer the third floor. In that sense, we’re now in a situation with plenty of resources.”

To us, ghosts = points.

That’s what I thought as I tried to summon courage.

However, Jeongseok, as always, spoke coldly.

“I feel like events are increasingly getting beyond our control. Besides the earthquake, many things are happening that affect reality. Is it really okay to continue with the conquest?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean no one can guarantee what will happen next.”

I fell into deep thought at Jeongseok’s warning.

Just today, the news and internet were full of reactions from people injured in the earthquake and those who suffered from being misled by strange safety alerts.

I was trying to ignore such things, but if we explore the third floor further… if we open the fourth floor, no one knows if things might become even more uncontrollable than now.

“Hey, Jeongseok. If you’re that scared, you can drop out. I’m continuing.”

Yang Juhui growled like an angry fox.

I’ve never seen an angry fox, but if there was one, it would be like Yang Juhui right now.

“You said you found my sister’s uniform. We’re really close. We’re really almost there. And now you want to quit? I can’t accept that.”

Yang Juhui’s determination was firm.

Now that her sister’s uniform had been found on the third floor, she seemed to have no intention of backing down.

But even Yang Juhui, who was like this now, couldn’t move in front of the spider woman on the third floor…

“For now, let’s drive out the ghosts in Sua’s house and earn some points. And Juhui, I need to talk to you about something, so let’s step aside for a moment.”

I concluded that we couldn’t conquer the third floor without hearing why Yang Juhui was afraid of spiders. We needed to overcome our fears and move forward.