Ch.45045 – Hallway Conquest Strategy 5

# 045 – Corridor Attack Strategy #5

Kang Bada said.

If we don’t stay quiet, “that woman” will come.

“Are you talking about the Shaman Ghost?”

Right now, I was more afraid of Yu Dahui than the Shaman Ghost.

I wanted to ask Dahui what she had done to Yang Juhui.

Why had Yang Juhui, who went up to the broadcasting room, disappeared leaving only bloodstains!

I was going crazy with curiosity and fear!

I was so close to losing my mind that it felt like stinging, itchy ants were crawling all over my skin.

But I couldn’t ask a single word.

Because Dahui’s palm was covering my mouth.

Time passed with all my senses operating sluggishly, as if time itself had stopped.

5 minutes. 10 minutes.

Actually, I’m not sure.

Anyway, after what felt like an eternity, Dahui finally removed her hand from my mouth.

“I don’t think she’s around. But we still can’t relax. That woman freely roams the first-floor corridor. If we stay in this broadcasting room, it’s only a matter of time before we’re discovered.”

“Who exactly is that woman? The Shaman Ghost?”

Since things had come to this, I decided to ask Dahui about everything.

I could say that this information would be forgotten after death, but there’s always a possibility.

If I manage to survive this journey, the benefits of this information would be enormous.

“…It’s not the Shaman Ghost. I don’t know her exact identity either. I’ve never properly encountered her. But she’s dangerous. If you meet her, you’ll definitely die.”

“If that woman is the third ghost… then what are you? Yu Dahui. What exactly are you?”

Dahui was like an onion—peel away one layer and there’s always another underneath.

I was nearly going crazy with curiosity and wanted her to answer honestly.

“Dahui. You promised to grant my wish. What exactly are you! Are you human? A ghost? What are you!”

Despite holding the lighter flame, Dahui’s face was barely visible in the darkness.

Those uncertain features stimulated my fear even more.

What exactly is she?

I was so curious that if I died now, I’d be too resentful to rest in peace.

Soon, Dahui grabbed my hand and slowly guided it inside her school uniform!

“Wh-what…!”

At the touch of smooth skin, I was more shocked than I’d ever been in my life.

It felt like my brain couldn’t properly process the current situation, stuttering in confusion.

I recalled that the human visual nervous system is quite inefficient, with most of the brain dedicated to visual processing.

In the darkness, with my sense of touch and hearing more pronounced than sight, my hand inserted into Dahui’s uniform became a kind of tongue, eye, and nose.

Thump, thump, thump-.

Under Dahui’s clothes, her heart was beating incredibly fast.

“How about it? Do I still seem like a ghost to you?”

Thumpthumpthumpthump-.

A heart beating firmly between something warm and soft.

Somehow, that heartbeat was almost as rapid as mine in my startled state.

With my mind half-dazed,

I felt like a butterfly melting away, fallen into a soft, tender hell.

Gasp-.

Startled back to my senses, I quickly pulled my hand out from inside Dahui’s clothes.

“Ahem. Dahui. The fact that you’re hiding something from me hasn’t changed. You seem familiar with this situation, and I’d appreciate if you told me the truth. If not—”

“…If not?”

If not, what would I do?

Hit her?

Suddenly, I found myself contemplating the person named Ha Yeongwon.

Could I genuinely hit a woman?

“If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll beat you up. I’ll really beat you up.”

This was almost like a spell I cast to reassure myself.

Dahui responded with a laugh: “Pfft-haha.”

“You’re lying. Yeongwon, you can’t do that. You’re a good person. Like the catcher in the rye.”

“No! I’m a really bad guy, okay? I’ll really hit you!”

“Wak!”

“Gak!”

I raised my hand and slapped Dahui’s cheek hard!

It was because I was so startled by her sudden shout.

Smack-!

The sensation against my palm was intense, and I was shocked at my own action.

Me, slapping a woman’s cheek!

Such a bold action must be thanks to my “Strong Heart” trait! I was being a real tough guy right now.

“Kyak!”

Dahui, clearly not expecting to actually be hit, ended up falling on her backside.

Though I was also surprised, what’s done was done.

I had warned her I would hit her, so it was Dahui’s fault for startling me.

“Tell me the truth now! What exactly are you?”

Dahui was like an onion—peel away one layer and there’s always another underneath.

I was nearly going crazy with curiosity and wanted her to answer honestly.

“…Wait. I’m genuinely shocked. I didn’t think you’d actually hit me. Ow, that hurts.”

“…I could hit you again! So tell me everything you know!”

I really want to live, damn it!

And I want to know what killed Yang Juhui!

I was almost at my breaking point.

Perhaps sensing my desperation, Dahui asked in a subdued voice:

“…Have you heard the story about dreams? A girl was studying for her final exams in a classroom. Then she realized it was a dream. So she said, ‘Oh, this is a dream. I don’t need to study.’ And all her classmates stared at her.”

Dahui’s sudden story.

It was a format I had heard before from Jeongseok.

“The girl’s dreams became increasingly vivid, more like reality. As if trying to hide the fact that it was a dream. Getting longer. More intricate…”

“S-so what?”

“As time passed, the girl began living between two worlds, unable to distinguish between dream and reality. In the end, which one was the dream…? This place? Or…”

It was an eerie story.

Was it about Dahui herself?

“Obviously this is the dream! So please, let’s just get out of here!”

Swish-.

Dahui, who had been sitting, stood up.

Then she pointed at the map I was clutching tightly.

“I’ll mark the location of the shrine on the map. But it won’t be easy. That woman will be guarding it. When someone touches the shrine, that woman starts moving. She’s already active.”

# # #

Swish-.

Dahui marked the map.

First floor women’s restroom.

“This floor’s shrine is here. I’ve seen it myself, so I’m certain. But there’s a high chance that woman is guarding it. To prevent anyone from leaving this school.”

Fortunately, the first-floor women’s restroom was very close to the broadcasting room.

But the “woman” Dahui warned about was likely to be there.

“Yeongwon. There’s only one escape talisman. Only one of us—you or me—can leave.”

Dahui’s voice somehow felt eerie.

Was she suggesting we should have a death match for the escape ticket?

For now, I should think about that later…

If necessary, with my superior physical abilities, I could just take the talisman from Dahui by force.

I asked Dahui:

“Dahui. You said you’ve been dreaming about this corridor for a while. Have you ever been caught by ghosts or died in this corridor?”

“…No. Not that I remember. I always escaped through the shrine in the basement.”

Is that for real?

She might have been a novice in the game “The Abyss Corridor,” but she was an expert in the real “Nightmare Corridor.”

Come to think of it, when playing “The Abyss Corridor,” Dahui had said, “How interesting. So this is how the game works.”

At the time, I thought it was just the impression of a girl playing a game for the first time, but thinking about it again, it was an exclamation comparing reality to the game.

Dahui continued:

“It was the same that day. I found the talisman in the basement. But somehow, that day, there were other people in this corridor besides me. Kim Geonho. Yang Juhui. Jeong Sojin. And… you. Ha Yeongwon.”

I felt my breath catch in my throat.

I knew exactly when “that day” Dahui was referring to was.

“I’m actually curious. Yeongwon. How are you all having this dream?”

So we both have questions… is that it?

I wondered if I should tell Dahui about the “Nightmare Corridor,” about my status window.

About the “Hero” and the “Watcher.”

It reminded me that I was like the mafia in a mafia game.

“…I don’t know either. Actually, I want to know too. Dahui, I thought you might know.”

I decided to be evasive.

Dahui responded with a nasal sound: “Hmm…”

I wasn’t sure if she accepted my answer.

Anyway.

We headed toward the women’s restroom on the first floor.

Neither the Head Ghost nor the Shaman Ghost were visible nearby.

In a way, it was fortunate despite our misfortune.

“Yeongwon. Are you really going into the women’s restroom?”

Dahui asked me.

It sounded like a joke: “You’re a man, are you really going into the women’s restroom?”

Does she have the mood to joke in this situation? Or is she joking because of this situation?

With a slightly trembling heart, I entered the women’s restroom of the old school building.

Unlike men’s restrooms, the women’s restroom had no urinals, just a row of stalls. The smell was worse than I expected, making it quite difficult to breathe.

“Is the shrine really here?”

I asked, covering my nose with my hand.

Dahui pointed to the fourth stall.

“It’s in the fourth one over there. We’re lucky. Judging by the absence of ghosts, it seems they don’t know where the shrine is. So they can’t guard it.”

Swish-.

I opened the door to the fourth bathroom stall.

And there it was—a truly bizarre shrine. While the one in the basement had a Buddhist-style seated statue, this one resembled a Western Madonna.

The head was still missing. But the talisman was clearly attached to the chest.

If I could just burn that talisman, I could escape.

But what if Dahui suddenly turns on me and goes for the talisman?

Just as I started to become wary of Dahui,

I sensed something unsettling in the atmosphere.

It could be called intuition honed from crossing the line between life and death many times, or a kind of spiritual ability or sixth sense.

So I instinctively turned my head.

And saw “it” standing at the entrance of the women’s restroom.

It was enormous.

It looked at least 2 meters tall, hunching its body as if folding itself to enter the women’s restroom.

It wore a bright red dress and was barefoot.

Its eyes were completely white with no black pupils, and it wore a bright red mask.

“R-red.”

How does a mouse feel when suddenly confronted by a snake?

I was experiencing that feeling vividly right now.

Literally every nerve and muscle in my body stiffened, making it difficult even to breathe.

Cardiac arrest.

Without my newly acquired “Strong Heart” trait, I might have suffered something like that.

“Oh, sh-shit!”

I came to my senses and grabbed the talisman.

The woman in the red mask grabbed Dahui. Then she opened her mouth impossibly wide, which seemed to snap Dahui back to reality.

“Yeongwon. This time, I’ll help you escape—”

RIIIP!

An unimaginably large mouth gaped open.

From inside came a murmuring like the screams of hell.

Crunch-crunch-crunch-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-.

Dahui melted into blood—

I could only watch as a person disappeared without a trace through the jaws of hell.

Yes. I saw it.

That was all I could do at that moment.

Thanks to that, I was able to see the vivid scar on the neck of that woman who was terrifying enough to give me a heart attack, and the butterfly shape fluttering across her face.

It was something very familiar to me and an extremely important clue.

The third ghost whose identity remained unknown because all witnesses died.

I’m going to meet it and still escape alive!

With trembling hands, I burned the talisman with the lighter flame.

Whoosh-!