Ch.196196 – The Labyrinth Called School 5

# 196 – The Labyrinth Called School #5

When Jeongseok awoke from his deep sleep, the familiar yet unfamiliar corridor scene came into view at once. The darkness that seeped into his skin like thick ink, the cold stone walls, and the creaking wooden floor felt almost nostalgic.

“…Finally!”

Would there be anyone who eagerly anticipates and wishes for a nightmare? Jeongseok was delighted to have entered a nightmare from which he couldn’t escape by human will alone.

He had returned.

“But… this is a bit different from my memory. Is this just a meaningless dream?”

Jeongseok picked up a burning candle hanging on the wall. He remembered that there shouldn’t have been anything like candles hanging on the corridor walls.

Flicker-.

Holding that faintly dazzling light, Jeongseok illuminated various parts of the corridor and soon vaguely understood why the corridor’s appearance differed from his memory.

A red pillar door stood tall in the first-floor corridor. There was a music room where piano sounds could be heard, and classrooms half-submerged in water looked exactly like underground caves.

“The spaces are mixed up.”

The Nightmare Corridor was a sequential place. Its characteristic was the progression through the basement, ground floor, second floor, and up to the third and fourth floors.

But the place before his eyes now seemed like all those floors were jumbled together. Looking at this place with no order or rules, Jeongseok formed several hypotheses.

“Was building Yeongwon’s clock with baseless rumors the problem after all? Perhaps implementing a nightmare with insubstantial rumors has this limitation.”

It was an incomplete and unstable place.

Jeongseok chose to move forward with the candle, imagining what might be waiting ahead. As he crossed the bright red pillar door, he felt momentarily dizzy.

‘A quirk is forming.’

Though he thought so, the dizzy feeling quickly settled down like sand sinking to the bottom in muddy water. Jeongseok realized he was unusually calm and collected.

“No quirk has formed.”

The torii’s function of giving quirks didn’t seem to be working.

Originally, the Nightmare Corridor was like a spiritual labyrinth created to prevent people from carelessly reaching Yeongwon on the fourth floor.

Since it had already been breached and the world had changed, it wasn’t strange that the corridor’s functions were broken and damaged.

‘Actually, there’s a high probability that what constitutes this corridor is our “memories” themselves.’

That’s how dreams work.

In dreams, humans cannot perfectly calculate concepts of time, numbers, and space. It was common for spaces to get jumbled or to lose the concept of time.

“This place is definitely a nightmare created based on our imperfect memories.”

Jeongseok reached that conclusion and explored the red temple-like place.

The metal fence with bells attached looked particularly familiar. Jeongseok recalled the memory of dying at the hands of the snake priestess here. Was it when his arms and legs were torn off like insects and he was strangled to death?

Rub rub-.

As Jeongseok touched his neck and entered the temple, he saw various drawers and boxes. Creak- Opening a box, he found something like small firecrackers inside. They were objects that would make loud noises when lit.

‘Why firecrackers?’

Jeongseok pocketed the firecrackers just in case.

As he continued moving forward, he noticed that the candle flame, which had never wavered until now, was flickering as if it would go out at any moment.

Soon, all the hair on his body stood on end, and he felt an unpleasant sensation like an ice-cold tongue licking the nape of his neck, chilling his brain.

It was a familiar sensation.

Jeongseok hid inside a nearby box. Looking through the slightly open lid, he soon saw something strange moving around the temple with cracking sounds.

“Are you here? There’s a suspicious person wandering around this school. Teacher will protect you, so come out quickly! Something terrible will happen if you follow the suspicious person!”

It was a voice that sounded exactly like Teacher Hong Miri. The gait and body shape like height also resembled Teacher Hong Miri.

But in Jeongseok’s eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, he could see the woman’s face.

The woman’s eyes were hollowed out, and her mouth was torn up to her cheekbones. The sickle in her hand was dripping blood, looking extremely ominous.

‘It’s a ghost.’

Jeongseok determined that the entity before him was a ghost. Perhaps it was something like the original version of the Woman in Red ghost that had possessed the Hong Miri and Hong Yeri sisters.

If he hadn’t hidden quickly, he would certainly have been discovered.

‘What happens if I’m discovered?’

Jeongseok imagined what would happen if he died in this corridor. It was difficult to predict what would happen in such an imperfect nightmare.

‘Death must be avoided.’

A world without a status window.

He thought that if he died in the nightmare, beyond just accumulating “quirks,” he might have his body stolen by those ghosts.

Roll roll roll-.

Soon, he heard something heavy rolling around.

“Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah!”

With a loud scream, something rolled into the temple where Jeongseok was hiding, and upon closer inspection, it looked very similar to Gu Hyena’s head.

‘In this world, Gu Hyena is alive. Then what is that?’

The Head Ghost existing despite Gu Hyena not being dead.

Jeongseok confirmed the hypothesis he had established earlier.

‘Indeed, our memories are the core and foundation of this nightmare. This is a corridor created based on our memories. That means… there must be even more terrible things here.’

An imperfect corridor. Therefore, an even more ominous place.

Jeongseok was so tense that his palms were sweating, and he forgot to breathe, suppressing any signs of his presence. The Head Ghost and the Woman in Red soon disappeared into the distance as if they had lost interest.

# # #

“It’s good that I survived, but I lost the candle.”

Having extinguished the candle with his fingers to avoid detection, Jeongseok was once again plunged into pitch-black darkness.

It was somewhat comforting that his eyes had become accustomed to the darkness.

Fumble fumble-.

While moving forward, feeling along the corridor walls, Jeongseok was careful not to step on the Head Ghost’s “hair.” In his memory, the Head Ghost was a monster that scattered its hair like traps everywhere, hunting humans who stepped on it to take over their bodies.

‘As expected, most are locked.’

Rattle-rattle-.

More than half of the classrooms in the corridor were locked. Some corridors were blocked by what seemed like transparent walls, as if they were games that had stopped mid-development.

However, places that had left strong impressions in Jeongseok’s memory still existed in this corridor. For instance, places like the “Faculty Office” on the first floor of the old school building.

Jingle-jingle-jingle-.

The moment Jeongseok discovered the faculty office, his heart pounded at the sound of bells that started ringing from somewhere. The “Shaman Ghost” also existed in this place.

‘If discovered, I die.’

Jeongseok chose to hide in the “Faculty Office” for now. Rummaging through the drawers inside, he was fortunate enough to find a flashlight and batteries that could provide light.

Jingle… jingle…

Only after the bell sound was no longer heard did Jeongseok leave the faculty office.

In front of him, he saw a classroom marked “1-4.”

Wondering if perhaps, Jeongseok slid open the classroom door and entered, noticing something like a small shadow wriggling inside.

A ghost?

Flash-.

The flashlight beam crossed with glowing blue eyes.

Jeongseok was so startled he almost lost his breath, but it seemed the other party recognized him too.

“Jeongseok, it’s really you…!?”

Rustle-.

What had been crouching under the teacher’s desk soon crawled out on all fours toward Jeongseok.

Only then could the boy Jeongseok clearly identify the source of the glowing eyes. It was glasses.

“Jeong Sojin?”

“Jeongseok! I’m so glad to see you!”

Jeong Sojin, the class president of Class D who had been pretending to be a missing girl, was overjoyed to meet Jeongseok.

While Jeongseok felt puzzled by this unexpected encounter, Jeong Sojin looked around and spoke softly.

“When I opened my eyes, I was in this place. I felt like I’d had this experience before, so I waited here. I had a feeling I’d meet someone in this place.”

Whatever the case, Jeongseok was relieved.

Even for the current Jeongseok, wandering alone in this pitch-black corridor was frightening.

“Let’s go. Others might be here too.”

Jeongseok decided to leave the corridor with Jeong Sojin.

But Jeong Sojin grabbed his arm.

“No. We need to wait for the Bell Maiden. Ghosts can’t enter this ‘Class 1-4,’ so let’s hide here first and then go.”

“Bell Maiden? You mean that Shaman Ghost?”

“Yes. From what I’ve observed, the Bell Maiden seems to patrol this corridor at regular intervals. So if we leave after she passes, we’re less likely to encounter her. If we leave now, we might run into the Bell Maiden who’s coming this way.”

Jeongseok felt something unfamiliar about his cousin Jeong Sojin.

While he was slightly skeptical, bell sounds began to be heard from far away, as if proving Jeong Sojin’s prediction.

Jingle, jingle, jingle-.

Despite hearing that ghosts couldn’t enter this “Class 1-4,” Jeongseok held his breath and felt his knees weaken.

Only when the strange presence in the corridor disappeared did Jeongseok finally feel relieved.

Jeong Sojin elbowed him in the side.

“See? She went to the left, so she won’t come around here for a while. Let’s go now.”

“Jeong Sojin, you’re quite impressive?”

Jeongseok felt very reassured to have found an unexpectedly reliable ally.

“What happened exactly?”

“I just have a sense for these kinds of hide-and-seek games.”

“Games?”

“Yeah! Jeongseok, you should have played games instead of studying! You’ve missed out on half your life.”

Jeongseok felt like he had become the protagonist of a strange joke when his cousin Jeong Sojin, who had dreamed of becoming a doctor, told him to play games instead of studying. And Jeong Sojin herself seemed to be experiencing an odd sense of déjà vu.

“Huh? Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve had this conversation somewhere before.”