Ch.130130 – Flood 3

# 130 – The Flood # 3

“You want to go inside this building?”

Teacher Hong Miri rushed to the school after receiving my call.

After the students’ disappearance incidents, the old school building had been completely sealed off and secured, but Teacher Hong Miri had a key that could open it.

While fiddling with the chains and padlock securing the main entrance of the old school building, Teacher Hong Miri asked again.

“You really want to go in there? It’s been abandoned for so long, there must be many hazards. If you get cut by glass shards or rusty nails, you could get tetanus.”

The old school building was an abandoned ruin.

It was filled with all kinds of garbage and might be crawling with disease-carrying pests like cockroaches and rats.

But I was in a state of being controlled by some kind of inspiration.

“There might be more basement levels below this old building, Teacher. We need to go underground.”

“More basement levels? I’ve never heard anything like that.”

Teacher Hong Miri scratched her eyebrow as if this was the first time she’d heard such a thing.

But seeing my determination, she eventually unlocked the padlock.

Creeeaaak—

When she opened the main entrance, which hadn’t been opened in who knows how long, it made a dull and unpleasant noise as it swung open.

Whoooosh—

The wind blowing from inside the building unpleasantly licked my face.

Buzz-buzz-buzz-buzz—

Buzz-buzz-buzz-buzz—

It was a summer afternoon with cicadas chirping loudly.

But inside the old school building, it was dark, damp, and cool like a winter night.

Grip—

I tightened my hold on the golf club I’d brought from Kwon Sua’s house.

Then I addressed everyone.

“Let’s take a photo first before we go in. Just in case.”

Click!

One group photo taken.

Creating a save point made me feel a little more at ease.

“Guys, let’s go in. It’s just my guess, but this school has more basement levels. Let’s keep going down. Underground. The terrifying underground…”

The last time I came to the basement of this old school building, I had an experience so frightening I thought my liver would fall out.

But now there were seven of us including Teacher Hong Miri, and with this many people, honestly, there was nothing to fear.

There are things you can’t do alone but can do together.

That’s exactly what I was trying to do now.

Thud, thud, thud—

We entered the dark basement, illuminating our path with our phone lights.

It was a damp and humid basement.

Looking around, Jeongseok asked.

“When we came last time, we didn’t find any stairs going further down. Do you still think there’s a deeper basement below this one?”

“We didn’t have the second floor opened back then.”

I spent a large number of points to open up to the second floor of the old school building in the shop.

This might sound confusing now, but…

“Remember that day early in the semester when I opened the first floor of the old school building, and Yang Juhui, Kim Geonho, and Jeong Sojin went inside the suddenly opened building and disappeared? Jeongseok, you should remember.”

“At the beginning of the semester?”

“Yes. The time I opened the old school building and the time Yang Juhui actually entered the building were exactly the same. Honestly, I don’t think this is a coincidence. I actually opened this building.”

Opening the second floor also affected the real world.

The earthquake.

The earthquake that happens every time a new floor is opened.

I didn’t think it was just a coincidence.

“There are no coincidences in what we’re experiencing. Everything is connected.”

We walked together through the dusty basement of the old school building.

Eventually, we reached a dead end where the wall had cracked, probably due to the two major earthquakes. Whoosh— I felt wind blowing from that wall.

Maybe…

I swung the golf club in my hand.

Bang!

“Ah, my golf club!”

Kwon Sua made a sad face.

But that sad expression quickly turned to shock.

Crumble—

As the dead-end wall collapsed, a new space appeared.

It was… a place similar to somewhere we knew well.

“1-D,” “Faculty Office,” “Multipurpose Room.”

“Why… why are there first-year classrooms in the basement too?”

Teacher Hong Miri wore a stiff expression, as if she hadn’t expected this either.

Everyone felt uneasy, as if a chill had run down their spines.

I felt the same.

“The school building that rises above ground was just a deception from the beginning. This is the real first floor.”

# # #

We walked through an incredibly old and worn-down place.

Everyone was silent.

They were probably overwhelmed by the secret space revealed in the basement of the old school building.

After walking for a while, we finally reached what seemed to be the real second floor.

The second floor had a “Music Room,” “Science Lab,” and “Principal’s Office.”

It was a familiar sight, and it felt like a woman with a long neck might appear from one of those dark corners at any moment, saying “I’ll suck your brain—”

I was so scared that I quickly hid behind Teacher Hong Miri.

“Teacher, don’t you sense any ghosts? You have a long history with ghosts, after all.”

Teacher Hong Miri was experienced with ghosts.

I asked if she could sense the presence of fellow ghosts here, but she shook her head, trembling.

“I don’t know about that. I’m scared of scary things too.”

I see.

Everyone was terrified.

In Jeongseok’s case, his breathing was so rough that his nose was making annoying snorting sounds.

“…Music Room.”

I got goosebumps as we passed by the music room.

I felt like I might see a ghost hanging by the neck, dangling above the piano.

But fortunately, there were no ghosts in this basement.

Just then, Yu Dahui exclaimed as if she’d discovered something.

“That!”

Dash—

Yu Dahui ran into the music room.

While we were all confused, she picked up what looked like a piece of paper on top of the piano.

It was a paper covered in dust.

“It’s sheet music. Guys, there’s sheet music!”

What Yu Dahui found was musical notation written on staff paper.

There were words written on it, but it was so old that they were hard to make out.

“—Funeral—Sonata”

“They said playing the piano could temporarily bind the Rhythm Ghost. Maybe this is it. Let’s take a picture.”

Click—

I took a photo of the sheet music with my phone.

We easily found the stairs leading to the third floor.

This second floor had exactly the same structure as the second floor of the Nightmare Corridor.

However, the stairs led even deeper underground.

Following them down, we saw a thick stone door.

It was a stone door I remembered.

It was wide open, and a cold, chilly wind blew from inside.

Without a single ray of light, the darkness was like the throat of hell.

“Breath…”

While the ground above was so hot with summer that cicadas were falling from exhaustion, this place was as cold as a winter shadow. I could almost visualize the space beyond this stone door.

“Buldansa… The shrine’s name was Buldansa.”

To think such a place existed beneath the school we attended.

As an unpleasant feeling belatedly rushed over me, someone vomited. Ugh—

When I turned my head, Yang Juhui was on the floor, throwing up.

“Ugh! Ugghhh!”

“Hey! What’s wrong all of a sudden!”

“Ugh. Uggghhh! Ugh!”

Yang Juhui was vomiting as if trying to expel all the water in her body.

“Hey! What’s wrong!”

Wondering if she might have developed a quirk, I checked her status window, but it was normal.

I didn’t know what was happening, but Yang Juhui’s condition had rapidly deteriorated, so I thought further exploration would be impossible. Just as we were about to hurriedly turn back:

“It’s toxic gas. Gas trapped in a confined space that makes people’s condition worse.”

Thud, thud—

Someone approached us from the distance, holding a light.

It was a man with short stubble, pessimistic wrinkles on his eyebrows, and unkempt hair.

It was Mr. Kang Bada.

“Staying in this place for too long is fatal to your health. The unique gas flowing here affects the brain, causing the hippocampus to shrink. Prolonged exposure can even cause memory loss.”

Tap tap—

Kang Bada tapped his temple with his finger and carefully examined our faces.

I noticed his gaze lingered especially long on Yu Dahui’s face.

Looking at them now, they didn’t resemble each other at all.

“So everyone get out of here. And Teacher Hong Miri, how could you bring children to a place like this? As a teacher.”

Kang Bada seemed genuinely angry.

But I was too surprised and bewildered.

I never expected to meet Mr. Kang Bada in this basement.

It seems further exploration would be impossible.

I looked once more at the darkness beyond the stone door.

# # #

Back on the ground.

At the height of the sweltering summer.

Flick—

Mr. Kang Bada lit a cigarette.

The cigarette smell was intense, but that intensity snapped me back to reality.

“Juhui, are you okay?”

“……”

Yang Juhui, who had been vomiting for quite some time, had a vacant look in her eyes, like someone who had lost their spirit.

I wondered if we should take her to the hospital.

“She’ll be fine after a while since you didn’t stay there too long.”

Exhale—

Mr. Kang Bada blew out smoke.

He said:

“Like salmon.”

“Pardon?”

“The temple in this basement is called Buldansa. Originally, it wasn’t a place for a temple at all, but some shaman forcibly built one. You’ve heard that people died and got injured when this school was being built, right?”

Is he talking to me?

I nodded.

“Yes. A shaman from Japan…”

Glance—

As I was speaking, I became conscious of Yang Juhui. So when I trailed off, Mr. Kang Bada nodded.

“Right, a shaman from Japan performed a ritual, and then the accidents stopped and the school was completed—that’s what people know. The building constructed for that ritual is the temple down there.”

Buldansa. So the temple on the third floor of the corridor was connected to Yang Juhui’s grandmother.

“But the truth is, the ritual wasn’t performed to build the school. The Cheon family was so greedy that they kept digging deeper and deeper into the ground. Endlessly digging until they dug up something they shouldn’t have.”

Toss—

Mr. Kang Bada carelessly threw away his cigarette and abruptly left.

I wanted to follow him and ask more questions, but Yang Juhui exhaled roughly.

“I remember now. My sister… My sister definitely disappeared into that basement! Because my sister and I had been to that temple before!”