Ch.3003 – The Boy’s Abyss 3

# 003 – The Boy’s Abyss # 3

Jingle, jingle, jingle-

The strange bell sound grew closer.

I froze, eyes wide open, even forgetting to breathe.

It felt like all the blood drained from my body.

Jingle, jingle, jingle-

When the bell sound finally passed right in front of me, I saw something bizarre through the hole in the cleaning closet door.

If I had to describe its overall appearance, it was a woman wearing colorful clothes in the five traditional colors. I knew it was a woman because she had long hair, and pale skin rippled between the gaps in her disheveled top.

Her legs were white and slender, and her ankles were thin. The strange thing was that instead of socks, she wore something like traditional Korean socks.

Jingle!

In one hand, she held a stick covered with bells, and in the other, a candle. Her mouth was split open to her ears, with her tongue hanging down to her chin, which looked absolutely horrifying.

“Where is it can’t see can’t see it where is it can’t see can’t see where is it where where where.”

From her gaping mouth came a voice constantly searching for something. Like she was rapping, she repeated the same words without taking a breath, with an impossibly large lung capacity.

Looking more closely at her face in the candlelight, I saw that the area around her eyes was horribly mangled.

My heart sank when I saw the gaping holes where her eyeballs should have been.

…Shit, what the hell is that!?

She clearly didn’t look human.

A ghost, definitely a ghost!

I was so afraid my pounding heartbeat would be heard outside that I squeezed my eyes shut.

Whatever she was looking for, I hoped it wasn’t me!

Jingle, jingle, jingle…

Fortunately, this terrifying ghost or monster passed right by the cleaning closet where I was hiding.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if such a flimsy hiding spot would work, but it seemed she passed by because her eyes were mangled.

“……”

I stayed hidden in the cleaning closet for about five minutes after the bell sound could no longer be heard.

Honestly, I didn’t want to leave.

I thought that if I stayed here, daylight would eventually come, and police or rescuers would burst in to help me—such hopeful thoughts filled my mind.

“Ugh.”

But the stench of rotting mops in the cleaning closet grew increasingly unbearable. Even breathing through my mouth made me want to vomit.

What’s going on?

Something suddenly occurred to me, and I recalled the advice I had just seen.

“‘The Broken Clock’ advice: In the Nightmare Corridor, there are hiding places such as cleaning closets and lockers that can shield you from the horrors for a limited time. Who could have prepared these things?”

“Maybe…”

Maybe it’s because of the “limited time”?

You can’t hide in these places forever!

That must be it!

Screw that!

I’m going to hide here forever!

“Urgh, ugh…! Blegh…!”

I tried desperately to endure.

But I kept gagging, and I realized that if I stayed, the Bell Maiden might return and hear my retching.

What happens if the Bell Maiden finds me?

I don’t know, but it can’t be good!

Ah, damn it!

I don’t know what to do.

Creeeeak.

I finally emerged from the cleaning closet.

Miraculously, the stench that had been turning my stomach disappeared like a lie. I was worried the smell might cling to me, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

What kind of situation is this?

Have I finally gone insane?

That was certainly possible, but… something seemed familiar.

“…Status Window.”

“One day when you opened your eyes, you found yourself lying in a dark corridor.

Terrible sounds come from that dark corner, and an ominous presence draws ever closer.

You had no choice but to move forward to survive and escape this strange situation. Eventually, you will reach shocking secrets and bizarre taboos…”

This was clearly the “Nightmare Corridor” as the Status Window had described.

No one needed to explain why I was here.

I came here voluntarily.

Looking back, it was such a stupid thing to do that I wanted to strangle my past self, but what mattered now wasn’t that—it was surviving somehow.

What did it say about this Nightmare Corridor again?

“You had no choice but to move forward to survive and escape this strange situation. Eventually, you will reach shocking secrets and bizarre taboos…”

Escape!

If escape is possible, there must be an exit somewhere in this corridor!

Since I couldn’t hide in the cleaning closet any longer, I had no choice but to keep moving.

The one fortunate thing was that this hologram-like glowing Status Window illuminated the ground just in front of my feet. Without it, I would have died in the darkness.

“Huff…”

After catching my breath, I moved forward along this bizarre corridor, listening carefully to my surroundings.

Creak, creak-

The corridor floor was wooden and made annoying sounds with each step, but there was nothing I could do about it.

But the layout seemed quite familiar.

It looked like the corridors of Yeongji High School.

Maybe this is actually a corridor in Yeongji High School?

If my guess is correct, when I turn this corner, Class 1-D should appear-

“1-4.”

My guess was right.

But the details were slightly different.

It wasn’t Class D but Class 4.

Didn’t Yeongji High School divide classes from A to G using letters?

I think they originally used numbers for classes, then switched to letters when they started using the new school building…

“New school building… old school building…”

Right, this was the old school building.

The old Yeongji High building!

Suddenly I remembered that I had unlocked the “Old School Building” in the shop window.

The old school building that had been kept firmly locked to keep students out.

This was a corridor in the old school building!

That means there must be an entrance somewhere, and I can get out through there!

If the layouts of the old and new buildings are similar, there should be stairs nearby…

I moved slowly with that thought in mind.

But strangely, no stairs appeared, only an endless corridor that stretched on and on. It truly felt like a nightmare that wouldn’t end.

Jingle, jingle, jingle-

Ah-

A faint light appeared at the end of the corridor, accompanied by the bell sound again.

The problem was that there were no lockers or cleaning closets nearby where I could hide.

“……”

Determined to survive somehow, I looked around and spotted a classroom marked “1-4.”

Didn’t I just pass Class 1-4?

No, that didn’t matter now!

Slide-

Fortunately, the classroom door was open.

I hid among the many desks as the jingle-jingle sound spread through the corridor around me.

# # #

How much time had passed?

The bell sound gradually faded away.

A sense of relief and strange accomplishment washed over me.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad.”

Humans are creatures of adaptation.

I was able to look around with slightly more composure than before.

“……”

And I slightly regretted my actions.

Because I realized that this Class 1-4 was filled with talismans covered in reddish scrawled writing.

It was an extremely eerie and creepy place. I was genuinely afraid it might appear in my dreams.

But what was even more terrifying was realizing I wasn’t alone in the classroom.

Squeak, squeak-

The sound came from under the teacher’s desk.

It sounded like a monkey, or perhaps creaking wood.

Damn it…

Come to think of it, didn’t the Status Window say this?

In the Nightmare Corridor, there are hiding places such as cleaning closets and lockers that can shield you from the horrors for a limited time—

The term “horrors” bothered me.

If there were other terrifying ghosts besides the Bell Maiden wandering this corridor…!?

Flash-

At that moment, I made eye contact with a pair of bluish glowing eyes illuminated by my Status Window’s light.

I was so startled I nearly lost my breath, but it seemed the other party recognized me too.

“Yeongwon, is that you…!?”

It was a small but loud exclamation.

“Small but loud” might sound contradictory, but that’s exactly what it was.

Rustle-

Whatever was crouched under the teacher’s desk crawled toward me on all fours.

Only then could I clearly identify the source of the glowing eyes. It was glasses!

“Jeong Sojin…? Class president…?”

“Yeongwon…!”

Whoosh-!

Jeong Sojin, the class president of Class D and someone I had quite admired at the beginning of the semester, threw her arms around me.

“Yeongwon…! I’m so glad to see you…!”

The scent of cosmetics wafted over me, and something soft pressed against my chest.

Jeong Sojin had more size than I expected.

And the thought that even the honor student Jeong Sojin wore makeup gave me an ominous feeling.

“How do I know you’re really Jeong Sojin? Prove it!”

For all I knew, a ghost from this corridor might be trying to trick me!

I hastily pulled away and stepped back, and the person who might be Jeong Sojin or might be a ghost looked slightly stunned before laughing with relief.

“Pfft, Yeongwon, you’re really funny. Remember when we handed out textbooks together? We went to the storage room together. You moved all those boxes…”

That was true.

On the day of the entrance ceremony when classrooms were assigned, I had to move boxes containing textbooks with Jeong Sojin at the teacher’s request.

At that time, I was like a monk who had spent three years in an all-boys middle school, and being alone with a pretty girl like Jeong Sojin made me a bit nervous and excited… so I did something foolish like saying, “Sojin, if it’s too heavy, I can carry your box too.”

Maybe my manly and gentlemanly attitude would make Jeong Sojin like me and say, “Oh my, you’re such a nice guy!” and we’d become close, study for exams together, get married, have grandchildren… that kind of fantasy.

I know.

It was a stupid thought.

But anyone who spent three years in an all-boys middle school would end up thinking that way.

Anyway, she knew about that incident.

So she really was Jeong Sojin.

As I felt slightly relieved, Jeong Sojin lit a small lighter with a flick. Even a tiny flame can bring comfort to one’s heart.

“Yeongwon, we need to find a key! The entrance key! I don’t have time to explain everything, but to escape this corridor, we need a key! I know where the entrance is!”

A key.

That was quite a positive keyword.

Literally a key word.

“The key should be in the key cabinet in the faculty office! But I was too scared to go alone, so… Yeongwon, I’m really glad you came. Really…”