Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 78
Episode 78
The dark fourth-floor hallway.
Students stood in a row like mannequins.
And among them, I moved my feet, having already calculated the range where their hands could reach.
‘Whew.’
First, I unfolded the item I had kept folded in my pocket and wrapped it around my vital areas.
‘Armor’ purchased from the Alien Shop.
Packaging 12B357na.
The loose wrapper settled inside the high school uniform I was wearing.
‘The Nostalgia series doesn’t heal wounds or contamination sustained while it’s active.’
Better be more careful from now on.
I moved forward cautiously, taking care not to overlap with the dolls’ territories.
Since I occupied less space, it was actually a bit easier. Moving alone like this might actually offer a higher survival rate on the 4th floor.
“…….”
I wondered if Agent Cheong and Jang Heo-un made it safely.
‘They’ll probably prioritize regrouping with the others.’
The agent wasn’t a fool enough to go to the 5th floor with only two people, so they would likely search for people on the 4th floor.
Judging by the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he would take Jang Heo-un prisoner or anything.
‘Even if he does, I’ve really done all I could, colleague….’
Walking all the way to the end of the hallway.
“Phew.”
I arrived back at the stairs I had climbed earlier with my colleague and the agent.
And….
I began to head back down the stairs.
[3F]
I was backtracking the path I had come from.
Why?
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really need the information items scattered throughout this school.
‘Because it’s already all in my head.’
It was no different from having already obtained and seen everything.
I knew everything up until the moment this urban legend would end.
Why the school became like this, what the theme of this ghost story was, and exactly what these students were.
Therefore, there was only one thing I practically needed.
‘The key item that will serve as the key to a max-grade clear.’
And I was going to get it now.
‘By now… what I need should have been “created."’
I stopped at the landing.
The 3rd floor below was deathly silent.
“…….”
Because everyone had become a corpse.
Under the bright lights, the blood-soaked bodies, brutally slaughtered, were vividly revealed.
It seemed most of those wearing uniforms on this floor were dead.
‘Even if there are surviving agents, they would have moved elsewhere.’
And it seemed almost all the students who swarmed the Faculty Office had been judged unable to move and were announced in the death toll broadcast.
“Whew.”
Aside from the gore, it was a horrific feeling, as if I were standing in the middle of a disaster scene where dozens of people had died.
‘Calm down.’
This is a dream…. It’s all a dream….
I repeated it to myself as I continued down the stairs. I checked both ends of the hallway and the Faculty Office opposite me in rapid succession.
Then, I spotted my target.
Blink.
In that brief moment I turned my gaze.
A student whose posture had changed was inside the Faculty Office.
“…!”
Of course, they weren’t chasing me.
That student entity was already in too miserable a state for that.
Both arms were broken, one leg had an open fracture, and the stomach was covered in blood.
However, there was enough ‘consciousness’ left to slightly tilt their head toward me….
“…….”
I looked around.
‘No sign… of other students appearing.’
Good.
I headed for the Faculty Office.
I walked right up to the student collapsed near the front door.
With bleached hair and piercings, they looked like a typical delinquent, but that vibe was gone due to the severity of their injuries.
“…….”
Wow, this really feels like madness.
I grabbed the ‘student’ with both hands and hoisted them up.
“Heave.”
If I carried them on my back, they’d be out of my sight, so I slung them over my shoulder like a sack.
‘This is insane.’
Carrying a dozens-of-kilograms killing machine like this was no small feat for my mental state.
Still, my physical condition was quite up to the task. The Nostalgia Candy was still rolling around in my mouth.
‘And… the destination is here.’
I had a route mapped out in my head.
Now that this carnage had broken out, students would be scarce on the 3rd floor, but I moved quickly just in case.
I held my flashlight in my mouth and moved forward, touching the wall.
The high-powered flashlight lit up the entire hallway brightly, blackout be damned.
Even so, the smell of blood was suffocating.
Still.
[Infirmary]
The destination was in sight.
Rattle.
I quietly dropped the Name Tag my colleague had shoved at me onto the floor, then opened the door and entered the Infirmary.
I saw three beds lined up near the window, hidden by curtains.
Shadows of people were already visible behind two of them.
“…….”
I moved my feet slowly.
As I passed, a notice on a whiteboard attached to the Infirmary door caught my eye.
Students injured during exercise, please lie on a bed and wait until the school nurse arrives!
“…….”
It felt strange.
‘That’s it.’
That was the very clue… that made me continue writing the exploration records of this urban legend.
The 12th exploration record left by a predecessor.
Exploration Record #12
Assistant Manager Kang Ji-woo entered the Infirmary and, following the instructions, laid the injured person (Assistant Manager Park Cha-on) on an empty bed.
No special events occurred.
Afterward, everyone died due to a student entity that chased them into the Infirmary. Clear failed.
Ever since I read that, I saw a gap.
‘It felt like the previous writer left it intentionally.’
The explorers are ‘students from another school’ in this ghost story setting.
It means they are outsiders.
So….
—What would happen if I laid down a real Segwang Industrial High School student?
The imagination branching out from that question created the impulse for me to write the 13th exploration record….
‘My heart was pounding.’
And it was pounding now, too.
With something I couldn’t identify as tension, fear, or anticipation.
After a deep breath, I pulled back the curtain of the remaining bed that had no shadow.
I laid the student on the clean cot that was revealed.
The lines of the exploration record I had written overlapped in my mind.
Exploration Record #13
(Omitted)
Employee ■■■ succeeded in luring only one injured student entity along with a civilian.
After restraining, entered the Infirmary and laid them on a bed.
During this process, the subject’s name tag was not removed.
The student was in an awkward posture, though I might have been able to move their joints if I forced it.
I pulled the blanket over them and stepped out of the Infirmary for a moment. I waited for several dozen seconds in the blood-stained hallway, suppressing my thumping heart.
‘And after this.’
After the wait, I lightly knocked on the Infirmary door and entered….
Witnessed the injured student entity lying on the bed in a gym suit, having received appropriate first aid.
It was exactly as written.
“…….”
Feeling something between awe and horror, I approached the only bed without its curtain drawn.
The bleached-haired student I had brought was lying on the bed in a relaxed posture, wearing a gym suit.
Bandages and splints had been applied.
They didn’t particularly look at me.
‘From here….’
In the original exploration record, I wrote that I found it ‘while thoroughly searching the surroundings.’
Rattle.
I immediately opened the nightstand next to the bed.
Inside was a neatly folded school uniform.
[Segwang Industrial High School]
It was the uniform of the student lying on the bed.
Buttons missing or frayed parts couldn’t be helped, but strangely, the blood and filth seemed to have been washed clean….
‘Ha.’
My heart hammered against my ribs.
Without looking back at the student on the bed, I hurriedly grabbed a piece of A4 paper from the Infirmary and wrote.
I’m borrowing the uniform for a bit.
- From the transfer student who brought you to the Infirmary.
I folded the paper neatly and put it in the drawer where the uniform had been, taking the uniform out instead.
“…….”
Turning my head, I saw the student lying there in their gym suit with their eyes closed.
They looked as if they were sound asleep.
‘It’s done.’
I quickly changed.
After throwing my original high school uniform out the Infirmary window, I began to put on the ‘borrowed’ Segwang Industrial High School uniform.
Since we were of similar build, it fit reasonably well.
Once I finished putting on the old-style uniform.
Rattle.
“…….”
The sound of a drawer opening came from behind me.
Turning my head, I saw a reply on the note I had left in the drawer.
What grade and class are you?
“…….”
I swallowed hard and wrote with a trembling hand.
The same profile I had written on the back of my high school photo to enter this place.
And the name of the class where I had opened my eyes.
1st Year, Class 5.
In that moment.
The whole world went dark.
“…!”
A darkness as if there wasn’t a single point of light covered my eyes for a moment, and then, as they adjusted, they dimly revealed the outlines of the world.
Emergency lights, and the faint glow of an LED clock barely distinguishing the space… the school’s Infirmary.
And.
Tap, tap.
“…!”
Someone tapped my shoulder.
I turned my head.
The student who had been sitting idly on the bed was tapping my shoulder.
The bleached-haired student naturally withdrew their hand from my shoulder.
Yes.
Naturally.
With movements that were all too human, they took the A4 paper and pen I was holding, moved their bandaged arm to scribbled something, and held it out.
A transfer student?
Unlucky bastard.
Then they lay back down on the bed.
Naturally, as if a person were inviting sleep.
“…….”
I stood up with a stiff face.
Rattle.
I walked out the Infirmary door.
The world was still dark.
But everything seemed strangely clear….
A state of awakening where even the dust floating in the air seemed visible.
A strange certainty seemed to emerge from the uniform and settle in my heart.
“…….”
Walking into the hallway, I picked up the Name Tag I had dropped when entering the Infirmary and tucked it into my pocket.
[■■■]
The Name Tag glowed strangely, unlike before. Moreover, even though it was dark and splattered with blood and filth, I didn’t feel an unusual amount of fear.
However….
I saw something at the far end.
“…!”
Things were peeking their heads out from the 2nd Year, Class 7 classroom.
The silhouettes were definitely human.
But their entire bodies were writhing disgustingly.
Like a real-life manifestation of digital artifacts, they were as horrific as ghouls from a horror movie.
The things, draped in various rotting school uniforms, looked like errors incorrectly implemented in the world….
And the moment they looked at me.
“…!”
I froze.
