Ch.183183 – 4 : 17 2

“Okay. Everyone’s here. Me, Jeongseok, Yang Juhui, and Kwon Sua.”

The four-person party had gathered in the basement.

While everyone was checking their items, Jeongseok looked around at the party members and quietly asked.

“What kind of team composition is this?”

“Feels like we’ve got the full squad assembled.”

Soon, Dahui and Teacher Hong Miri joined us as well.

Dahui had entered this corridor through the “Wooden Mask,” and Teacher Hong Miri had come through the “Baby’s Finger” that she received from me.

So now we were a six-person party.

“Everyone’s here except Jiyeon.”

Dahui chuckled at our crowded group. It would have been nice to bring Bong Jiyeon along too, but she was half-possessed by the Gandara Shaman, so it was better not to risk any unexpected variables.

“Hyena, this might be the last time we meet with you.”

“You’re going to save me too, right? It’s been a long time.”

The high school ghost Gu Hyena, imagining her future where she would come back to life and move around, hugged herself tightly and shuddered. Seeing this, Teacher Hong Miri clicked her tongue.

“Ugh, scary.”

She was a scary ghost herself, yet she found other ghosts frightening? Actually, when I first saw Gu Hyena, I nearly wet my pants too.

She was the Head Ghost.

She was the absolute embodiment of despair, but now she’d become nothing more than a weak high school girl. Enemy characters who become allies always seem to lose their combat power dramatically—exactly what happened here.

Anyway.

We all decided to obtain the talisman and head to the second floor.

The reason for going to the second floor was to acquire the “mirror” in the science lab.

“I think that mirror will be a tool to seal the demon. If we trap the demon in the mirror, we can easily open the door to the fourth floor.”

Jeongseok, who had prepared for today in various ways, laid out our strategy. Go to the second floor to get the mirror, then to the third floor to seal the demon in the mirror.

A simple yet difficult plan.

“Let’s go then!”

As I raised my clenched fist, everyone raised their fists high with cheers like “Oh!” or “Yes!”

Though we were all born in different places and lived different lives, we had gathered here with one heart and one mind to conquer the corridor. It was truly amazing and miraculous.

“…Who are those guys?”

“There’s a lot of them.”

“Tsk, let’s run away.”

On the first floor, where we went to obtain the talisman, we encountered what appeared to be a group of looters. They were intimidated by the sight of our group of six.

Above all, the gun in Teacher Hong Miri’s hand seemed particularly threatening.

Numbers are power. If our group had been smaller, a fight would have broken out, needlessly wasting resources. Thanks to the power of our “group,” we easily broke through the first floor where the looters were lurking.

The problem was the second floor.

The evil spirits on the second floor wouldn’t cower or be intimidated just because our numbers were greater. In fact, sensing our presence, an evil spirit emerged from the music room.

It had a giraffe-like long neck, its mouth corners were torn wide open, and its eyes were filled with disgusting malice.

“Yeongwon, you’re back?”

No matter how many times I saw it, I couldn’t get used to its appearance.

Blood was dripping from its mouth, and in its hand was what looked like someone’s head—probably one of the looters from the first floor who had recklessly come up to the second floor and fallen victim.

“Yeongwon, let me taste your brain. Then I can achieve enlightenment.”

“Fuck off!”

Compared to that brain-eating evil spirit, the high school ghost Gu Hyena was truly adorable. Of course, even evil spirits have weaknesses, and there are things that even ghosts fear.

Click.

Teacher Hong Miri loaded her gun.

The powerful gun that could cut off the Gandara Shaman’s arm would have cost 5000P if we had to purchase it normally.

Firing this gun would surely kill that ghost. But with only six bullets, it seemed wasteful to use it on a mere evil spirit.

For that Rhythm Ghost, it would be better to use something more effective.

“Dahui! Now!”

“Okay!”

Dahui pulled out an item from her pocket.

It was a round, soft-looking object about the length of my index finger.

“Lizard tail!”

Whoosh.

Uttering a strange spell, Yu Dahui threw the item into the air.

Soon, with a poof sound, the item exploded into a cloud of dust. When it cleared, a Giganoto—a dinosaur lizard slightly larger than my palm—appeared.

—Boom-boo-boom-pow.

Pababat!

The Giganoto lunged at the Rhythm Ghost. It clung to the ghost’s body, crawled up its neck toward its head with a rustling sound.

The Rhythm Ghost was terrified, like a slug sprinkled with salt.

“Aaaah! Aaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaah!”

Serves it right.

And now was our perfect opportunity.

“Everyone, now’s our chance! Rush in and hit it!”

I charged toward the suffering Rhythm Ghost.

Soon Yang Juhui darted forward, and Yu Dahui also rushed in wielding a thick wooden stick.

Thud-thud-thud—the girls hit the Rhythm Ghost with fists, feet, and tools. Seeing this, Jeongseok seemed to gain courage and joined in, and even the timid Kwon Sua charged forward.

Dududududududududu—

“Aaaagh~”

Now we were tormenting the ghost that had tormented us so much. The price for a dead soul trying to mess with living people was steep indeed.

After being beaten by us for a while, the Rhythm Ghost gradually shrank until it became about the size of a small child. Just as its small, pathetic appearance became surprising, it fled.

“Eeeng!”

“Don’t run away!”

Yang Juhui shouted with rage.

However, I grabbed her shoulder to calm her down.

“It’s okay. We’ve beaten it enough.”

—Boom-boo-boom-pow.

Sssssss—

Having fulfilled its role, or perhaps because the item’s duration had ended, the Giganoto’s body became blurry and eventually disappeared.

This was the end of Giganoto’s help on this journey, but it had achieved excellent results.

“Giganoto really came through.”

When I wake up tomorrow, I should give Giganoto some cherry tomatoes as a treat.

With that thought, we all headed to the science lab on the second floor. Strangely enough, we could hear Jeongseok’s voice from inside.

“Guys! Don’t come in here!”

Of course, the real Jeongseok was right beside us. This was the Mirror Ghost mimicking Jeongseok’s voice.

Previously, it had tried to lure us with “Come into the science lab!” Now, feeling threatened, it was telling us not to enter, which was quite amusing.

Yang Juhui, holding the magic wand, rolled her shoulders and got fired up.

“I’ll go in and clear it out. Come in when I signal.”

Rustle-rustle.

Yang Juhui crawled through a hole in the corridor into the science lab. Crash-crash. The sound of breaking glass and Jeongseok’s screams could be heard, and after about 30 seconds, Yang Juhui said:

“Come in!”

Rustle-rustle.

We all followed Yang Juhui into the science lab. The horribly shattered glass fragments made the scene look like the aftermath of a gas explosion.

Yang Juhui was bleeding from injuries caused by the broken mirror fragments, with small pieces of glass embedded in the back of her hand and neck.

“Are you okay?”

“Just scratches.”

She was truly tough. Thanks to Yang Juhui’s toughness, we were able to successfully take over the science lab.

There was a mirror made of metal in the science lab, or more precisely, it was the lid of some kind of coffin.

“How do we carry this out?”

The entrance to the science lab was just one small hole, barely big enough for a person to crawl through.

Meanwhile, the coffin lid was quite large, making it difficult to move through the hole. While everyone was pondering, Yang Juhui took out a glove from the designer bag she had acquired earlier.

“With this, couldn’t we break down the science lab entrance?”

“Destroyer’s Glove: A round leather glove. Protects your hand when hitting people or breaking objects. Can open locked boxes without keys, but the glove disappears after use.”

The science lab entrance was firmly blocked with what looked like wooden boards. It seemed like it would be difficult to break without something like a huge construction hammer, so I wondered if those gloves could really destroy them…

# # #

“It’s done.”

With the gloves on, Yang Juhui punched the boards repeatedly and opened the science lab entrance. Although the gloves were torn and destroyed in the process, they had served their purpose well.

If we hadn’t received the gloves from the delinquent ghost Kim Geonho, we would have had to struggle tremendously to open the science lab entrance.

It was truly satisfying to know that everything we had done so far wasn’t meaningless.

“One! Two!”

Jeongseok and I lifted the coffin lid.

But being pure metal, it was incredibly heavy.

“Argh! It’s crushing me! Hey! Jeongseok! Lift properly! Properly!”

“It’s tilting toward your side! We need to balance it!”

No joke, it must have weighed well over 100kg.

It was too heavy for weak Jeongseok and me to lift, and only after Kwon Sua, Teacher Hong Miri, Dahui, and Yang Juhui all joined in could we barely lift the coffin lid.

“Sideways! Walk sideways! Everyone sideways!”

It was somewhat funny seeing us walking awkwardly like crabs, carrying the heavy load.

The corridor conquest scene I had imagined was something more cool and professional, but in reality, everything we did was amateurish, not exceeding high school level, making it comically improvised.

But isn’t it fine as long as we’re heading in the right direction, even if we look a bit ungraceful?

Wobble, wobble—

That’s how we carried the incredibly heavy metal piece up to the third floor stairs. Trying to climb stairs while carrying something as heavy as a refrigerator was absolute torture.

“Argh! It’s tilting backward!”

By the time we reached the third floor, we were already exhausted. And I don’t know if it was just my imagination, but the metal piece seemed to be getting heavier.

“Ugh! Nngh! Everyone, put in a little more effort!”

Especially Kwon Sua, who was particularly weak at physical labor, was making unidentifiable sounds in her struggle, and watching her somehow made me feel energized.

So this is how people feel when they get strength from watching their idols.

Finally reaching the third floor.

While everyone was taking a short break, completely drained even before crossing the torii gate, I opened my status window to check my points.

‘840P. Enough to release all six of our quirks and still have some left.’

Feeling confident, I headed straight for the fourth floor door on the west side, as I remembered.

An old temple connected to a cave.

At its entrance stood an onmyoji with no face, just a gaping mouth, who seemed relaxed as if he had been expecting us.

I said to him:

“I’m going to defeat you and pass through the door.”

Grin. The eyeless onmyoji silently opened his mouth wide in a smile.

Swish. When he extended his six fingers and pointed at us with his index finger, Yang Juhui, standing next to me, flinched.

“What is this?! What’s happening?!”

White fur rapidly grew all over Yang Juhui’s body as her size shrank.

When I came to my senses, Yang Juhui had vanished, and in her place, among the collapsed school uniform, was a white cat.

—Meow.

“Yang Juhui… turned into a cat?!”