Ch.197197 – The Labyrinth Called School 6

# 197 – The Labyrinth Called School #6

“Sojin, let’s get out of here first. I think we should head to the broadcasting room.”

Students who chose adventure once again after leaving the classroom.

While walking through the corridor, the two discovered a strange door blocking their path. A door labeled “Multipurpose Room” right in the middle of the hallway. The building’s architecture was definitely abnormal.

Clank-.

The problem was that the entrance to the multipurpose room was locked with what appeared to be a solid padlock. They couldn’t proceed without finding a key.

Soon, Jeong Sojin remembered that the key to the multipurpose room was in the faculty office.

“If we go to the faculty office, we can get the key! Do you know where it is?”

“I’ve already been to the faculty office. I should have looked for the key then.”

Jeongseok chose to return to the faculty office with Jeong Sojin.

When they arrived at the faculty office, Jeongseok and Jeong Sojin witnessed something crouched in front of the door like a spider that had laid a trap.

It was the Head Ghost.

“Holyshittheheadghostisreallyscarycomecatchmeifyoucan.”

The Head Ghost was muttering incomprehensible things. Looking into those eyes like shattered glass, Jeongseok felt a chill run down his spine. Of all things, this creature was guarding the faculty office.

“It wasn’t here until just now?”

Whatever the case, they needed to remove that thing to enter the faculty office.

The problem was that the Head Ghost only reacted to people who stepped on its hair, which spread like a spider’s web. Either Jeongseok or Jeong Sojin would have to be bait…

‘……’

Suddenly, Jeongseok strongly felt Jeong Sojin’s presence behind him.

Lately, Jeongseok’s bad premonitions were never wrong, and he felt Jeong Sojin’s hands and legs moving rapidly.

I’m being pushed!

Just as his vision blurred at the thought, Jeongseok saw Jeong Sojin taking off her shoes and tossing them into the web-like hair with a thud-thud.

“You can lure that head like this. What are you waiting for? Take off your shoes too. My shoes alone won’t be enough to lure it far away.”

Thud, thud thud-.

Jeong Sojin lured the Head Ghost by taking off her shoes and throwing them into the web of hair. Soon the Head Ghost disappeared into the distance, and Jeongseok and Jeong Sojin were able to safely enter the faculty office.

And inside, they encountered a girl.

“You guys!”

“Yang Juhui!”

Yang Juhui was in the faculty office.

She glared at Jeong Sojin angrily.

“You! How dare you!”

“What did I do?”

“Huh?”

Yang Juhui couldn’t understand why she had been angry at Jeong Sojin. She had been furious as if Jeong Sojin had driven her to death, but thinking about it now, nothing like that had happened.

A very long time ago. It felt like something might have happened so long ago that she couldn’t remember, or maybe it hadn’t. Yang Juhui felt a strange sense of déjà vu and scratched her face awkwardly.

“Are you two the only ones who came?”

Swish swish-.

Trying to shake off her embarrassment, Yang Juhui looked around Jeongseok and Jeong Sojin and felt something was missing. As if something that should be there wasn’t.

“Is there someone else besides us?”

When Jeongseok asked, Yang Juhui remembered that the reason she had fled into this faculty office, escaping from the Head Ghost she had accidentally stepped on, was to wait for someone.

While she was glad to meet Jeongseok and Jeong Sojin, Yang Juhui felt slightly disappointed that they weren’t the people she had been waiting for.

“Here’s the key to the multipurpose room.”

Jeongseok carefully put the multipurpose room key in his pocket.

Now was the time to open the multipurpose room door and head to the broadcasting room. As the group of three walked down the corridor back to the firmly closed door, they found a sturdy male student standing in front of it.

“What? It’s Kim Geonho. Why are you here?”

Jeongseok frowned at Kim Geonho.

But Kim Geonho was overjoyed, like someone who had found an oasis in the desert.

“I’m not alone! Let’s get out of this awful place quickly! Hurry! Open this door! This door!”

“Hey! You thick-headed idiot! Be quiet! Are you trying to summon ghosts and get us all killed?”

Jeong Sojin shouted at Kim Geonho. Though he could barely contain his joy at meeting people after wandering these corridors for so long, he had to keep quiet.

“…I’ve spent two days in this corridor.”

“Two days?”

Jeongseok thought only three or four hours had passed since he woke up in the corridor. If Kim Geonho was telling the truth, the flow of time in this corridor wasn’t normal.

Yang Juhui spoke up.

“It’s common for time to get jumbled up in dreams. The same goes for building structures that keep repeating. People’s spatial awareness decreases when dreaming. It’s natural since part of the brain stops functioning. It feels like the same space is repeating.”

She sounded like a researcher, eloquently explaining complex concepts. Jeongseok, Jeong Sojin, and Kim Geonho were all surprised by Yang Juhui’s articulation and explanation, and Yang Juhui herself was surprised too.

“How do I know all this?”

Anyway, the important thing was to open the multipurpose room entrance before any ghosts arrived. While Jeongseok was inserting the key into the padlock, Jeong Sojin asked Kim Geonho:

“You’re good at picking locks, aren’t you? Why were you just standing there? Did you know we were coming?”

“No. I didn’t know you guys were around, but to pick that lock, I’d have to kick it and smash it, which would make a loud noise. And if there was a loud noise, I would definitely have died. For real.”

Kim Geonho was certain he would have died if he had tried to force the lock. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he felt it strongly.

Click-.

The padlock finally opened.

When they opened the multipurpose room door, another corridor appeared.

A shocked Kim Geonho collapsed like a broken pine needle and wailed.

“Why! What is this! Weren’t we supposed to be able to escape through the multipurpose room window? Why is there another corridor? This is just the same place repeating over and over! I’m going to die!”

Despite his size, Kim Geonho was terrified and even burst into tears. Just as he was overwhelmed with the desire to escape this corridor, Yang Juhui struck him hard on the head.

“Damn it, shut up! I told you earlier! It’s common for building structures to be weird in dreams! And if you look carefully, it’s not exactly the same structure. It’s slightly different.”

The corridor beyond the multipurpose room was slightly different from the structures they had walked through so far. As if to prove this, there was a sign labeled “Broadcasting Room” visible in the flashlight beam further ahead.

Broadcasting Room.

Jeongseok and Yang Juhui felt a strong desire to go there.

The problem was that the broadcasting room door was locked.

“Juhui, where do we get the key to the broadcasting room?”

“I don’t know. Wasn’t there one?”

Jeongseok and Yang Juhui tried to think of how to get the broadcasting room key. But searching through their memories, they had no experience of finding such a key.

Ding-ding-.

Just then, the sound of bells began to echo from the distance, and the boys and girls looked around for a place to hide. But there were no lockers or boxes visible in the area.

The only option was to open the broadcasting room door and hide inside.

Feeling there was no other choice, Jeong Sojin shouted:

“Kim Geonho! Break this door!”

“What?”

“Are your ears clogged? I said break this doorknob quickly!”

The broadcasting room had a round doorknob.

After looking around, Kim Geonho kicked the doorknob with all his might, thinking “whatever.”

Crack-!

The doorknob shattered.

Thanks to the completely destroyed doorknob, including the lock, the broadcasting room was unlocked.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-!

Just then, they felt the Shaman Ghost rushing toward them. Probably because of the loud noise.

“Get in! Get in! Hurry!”

Jeongseok was the first to grasp the situation, shouting as he leaped into the broadcasting room. The quick-footed Yang Juhui and the cunning Jeong Sojin also jumped into the broadcasting room.

“Wha-! Hey, you bastards!”

Kim Geonho followed belatedly, but the Shaman Ghost was already right behind him.

“Damn it!”

Even though he had entered the broadcasting room, Kim Geonho couldn’t hide anywhere and had to block the door with his back.

“Hee hee hee hee! Hee hee hee hee!”

The Shaman Ghost, laughing like a madwoman, pounded on the door with bang-bang-bang. It was clear that if he let go, the ghost would burst into the broadcasting room.

Kim Geonho thought his luck had run out.

Of all things, he had become the doorkeeper.

“Damn it all! Go! Go! I’ll hold this door, so do something! Anything!”

Everyone was surprised by the self-sacrifice of the delinquent Kim Geonho. But there was little time to be moved. They didn’t know how long Kim Geonho could hold out.

“What are we supposed to do here?”

Jeongseok felt confused.

He had come here thinking they needed to go to the broadcasting room, but suddenly he couldn’t clearly remember what they were supposed to do here.

The confusion was due to memories and time being jumbled in this incomplete dream. Yang Juhui felt the same way.

‘There must have been a reason we came to the broadcasting room.’

While they were deep in thought, Jeong Sojin’s glasses and the eyes behind those foggy lenses sparkled.

Jeong Sojin discovered a carpet unnaturally laid on the broadcasting room floor and pulled it.

Rustle-.

When she removed the carpet, a hole gaped in the broadcasting room floor.

“Let’s go down!”

Pop-!

Jeong Sojin jumped down.

Soon, Yang Juhui and Jeongseok also jumped down into the broadcasting room basement, heading toward the school’s underground, feeling as if their lost memories were returning.

###

Splash, splash-.

The basement was flooded with water up to their waists. Though it was quite unpleasant to wade through the dirty water, the group didn’t stop walking, believing the answer lay in the basement.

They arrived at a large open space.

There were three high school girls there: Gu Hyena, Yu Dahui, and the idol Kwon Sua. Gu Hyena and Kwon Sua brightened when they saw Jeong Sojin, Yang Juhui, and Jeongseok.

“You guys! You’re alive! Did you see? My head is up there! My head is here, but it’s also up there! What’s going on!”

“I’m so scared!”

Gu Hyena was terrified after discovering her head wandering around like a ghost.

However, Jeongseok and Yang Juhui didn’t care about that and only looked at Yu Dahui.

“Dahui, so you remembered that we were supposed to meet at this place.”

“I thought I might have forgotten.”

The broadcasting room basement was the gathering place for the pirates. They remembered this despite the confusing situation and finally gathered in one place.

‘What should we do now?’

Jeongseok recalled that they needed to go to the “Sea of Eternity” on the 4th floor.

How could they get there from here? While pondering this deeply, Yu Dahui, who had been silent, pointed to something located in the basement.

“I think we need to go there.”

There was something like a wall and a door in this basement.

It wasn’t in Jeongseok’s or Yang Juhui’s memories.

The same was true for Gu Hyena and Jeong Sojin.

But it existed in Yu Dahui’s memory.

“That’s a storage room door. To be precise, it’s a door seen from inside the storage room. I think if we open that door and go outside, we’ll probably reach the Sea of Eternity. But it’s locked. From the outside.”

A door locked from the outside.

They would need Kim Geonho to open it, but he was currently upstairs, blocking the Shaman Ghost with his body.

While they were pondering, Yang Juhui approached the door.

And she could sense a small presence on the other side of the wall called the ‘storage room door.’

“Is someone there?”

—Eek! W-who’s there!

It was a thin voice.

It sounded terrified, and it could have been either a woman’s voice or the voice of a boy whose voice hadn’t changed yet.

Whoever it was, if they could communicate, they might be able to ask them to open the door, so Yang Juhui thought this was fortunate.

“Who’s there? Please open this door.”

—…N-no! Daddy said I shouldn’t open this storage room door! Don’t even look at it!

“What are you saying! Open it quickly!”

—…No!

What kind of situation is this? While Yang Juhui felt momentarily dumbfounded, Yu Dahui sank into distant memories.

From a very long time ago, that hot summer, the sound of cicadas began to be heard.