Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 81
A tattoo sticker.
It was something the tattooist had given me as a bonus.
—Is there a symbol in here related to courage, or the boldness to step forward without fear?
In response to that question, the tattooist had recommended a design of a tomato tree….
And he had captured that design perfectly in a sticker.
The tattoo I was currently wearing on my neck.
“…….”
To be honest, I’d had a rough idea of the effect I was hoping for.
Something that would numb my fear centers, making all these supernatural occurrences stop being scary.
Like Team D… yeah.
…Like Deputy Manager Eun Haje and Assistant Manager Park Min-seong used to be.
I wanted to explore these terrifying supernatural phenomena with a composure so reckless it bordered on insanity.
But.
“……?”
I blinked inside the locker.
‘It… doesn’t seem to be doing much?’
I thought of the students who had been chasing me.
They were terrifying.
I thought of the crazed rabbit mascot I’d encountered in the theme park ghost story.
It gave me the creeps.
I thought of the ghost from the Window Ghost story that had sobbed like a human while pounding on the door.
‘……Scary!!’
No matter what I thought of, I felt a chill.
‘D-Don’t tell me I got scammed?’
Or maybe I’d applied the sticker wrong? I’d never used a tattoo sticker before, so I wouldn’t know.
But either way, it wasn’t a situation where I could check right now.
“…….”
Damn it.
Regardless, I had to move according to plan.
Now was my chance, while the ‘Teacher’ had disappeared from the 4th floor.
‘He must have gone downstairs.’
In the end, I swallowed hard and stepped out of the locker.
…The scene ahead would surely be gruesome.
The blood and remains of the recently deceased Assistant Manager from Team D would be scattered about. I had to brace myself before going out….
…….
“…?”
‘Tomatoes?’
Wait a second.
I walked quickly out of the Faculty Office and headed up to the 5th floor.
There….
The reason I had avoided the 5th floor until now was laid bare.
Aaaaaaagh!
The walls of the 5th floor were now plastered with pages from old yearbooks.
And the students in the photos were reaching out toward the outside with agonized expressions.
Aaaaaaagh!
Beyond the scraps of yearbook paper, I could see writhing masses of flesh.
It was a sight designed to inflict immense psychological pressure and panic on anyone who stepped onto the 5th floor.
The school had shed its skin to reveal a twisted, nightmarish otherworld.
Red lights throbbed where lamps should have been.
But….
They were tomatoes.
Ha.
Hahahaha!
‘No, this is crazy!’
Everywhere a human head should have been, there was a tomato!
It wasn’t that they didn’t look like people.
The figures in the yearbook photos? They all looked like people. People screaming in pain with distorted faces!
But I just felt like they were tomatoes.
The rational voice telling me there was no need to connect this to fear became my actual emotion.
Yes, that was exactly how it felt….
It was nothing.
‘Haha….’
As I walked further down the hallway, the yearbooks regressed further into the past, and the graduates were melted into the walls in shapes that were increasingly horrific and non-human.
Bizarre talismans and lumps of flesh pulsed on the walls and ceiling.
And then, the voices.
I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryforrippingthetalismandugupfromthebackyardIwaspreparingforthegraduationceremonyfor■■SchoolI’msorry……No no! The graduation isn’t a ritual it’s not a human sacrifice no no!! Please save me save m—
Lore breadcrumbs for the game’s world.
Listening to it now wouldn’t change anything for me.
I walked down that hallway with a feeling no different from a stroll in the park—no, perhaps even a bit more cheerful than that.
It was a little funny because everything was a tomato.
Then, at the end of the hallway, I stopped in front of a massive door to the right.
A neat, teal iron door.
In the midst of the 5th floor, which had become a grotesque demon’s den, this door alone remained perfectly intact.
It was the door to the Auditorium.
The place where the final chapter of this game unfolded.
[Only graduates may enter after knocking.]
I read the printed instruction on the A4 paper.
Since I was set as a student from Class 1-5, I wasn’t a graduate, right?
‘This kind of thing is a gimmick that opens if you have the item.’
And I already had it.
An object that one would normally only obtain in the final chapter after playing through the entire game.
[Would you like to use the ‘Name Tag Decoration’?]
Of course.
Knock, knock.
I pinned the decoration to my name tag and knocked on the auditorium door.
Then, the massive door before me slid open smoothly.
“…….”
Hundreds of third-years sitting in hundreds of seats turned to look at me.
This year’s graduates.
They were half-melted and fused to their chairs so they couldn’t leave, and black, ink-like tears were pouring from their eyeless sockets.
But….
I felt nothing more than a sense of pity.
Because, in this situation, pity was the only appropriate emotion.
‘They can’t harm me.’
Irrational fear had been replaced by tomatoes, and I walked along the path between the chairs.
Toward the large stage on the opposite side, where a banner for the graduation ceremony was hung.
Thump. Thump.
Behind my back, the graduates turned their heads to watch me with expressionless faces….
I stepped onto the auditorium stage.
Then, I grabbed the standing microphone set in the center of the stage and shouted.
“We will now begin the graduation ceremony.”
[Ding-dong-dang-dong]
As if waiting for my signal, bright and grand event background music began to flow.
The graduation music was playing….
At that moment.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
A scream tore through the auditorium.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
Like skin being peeled away, the normal appearance of the auditorium stripped off to reveal its grotesque, alien form.
The horrific sights I’d seen in the 5th-floor hallway manifested here.
As if in a final struggle, as if wanting to punish the one who sought to ruin everything, those images rushed at me.
But I was fine.
Because it was all just tomatoes.
The real danger started now.
‘Here he comes.’
To force the student who had started the graduation ceremony on his own back into his seat below the stage.
Step, step.
Step, step.
Stepstepstepstepstep
Stepstepstepstepstep
Step, step.
Footsteps were rushing up from below like crazy.
‘The Teacher is coming.’
It was fine.
‘I’ll have plenty of time to do what I need to do before he arrives.’
I pulled a stick-type auto-injector from my pocket and jammed it into my forearm.
The Happy Maker.
The ultra-potent disposable painkiller injected its neon liquid into my veins with a cute, artificial chime.
A comfortable, refreshing, and incredibly light vitality surged through my entire body.
Like a lie.
‘Good.’
At the same time, I popped two Nostalgia Candies into my mouth at once.
[Do not exceed three Can-dies at once!]
[You might fall too deep into Nos-talgia!]
Right. I was following the dosage.
I was now in a state of absolute comfort and perfection.
‘Phew.’
And now, time was up.
THUD.
Something squeezed through the gap in the auditorium door.
The ‘Teacher’ thrust in a hand that had become a monstrous limb fused with a chalkboard, tearing through the metal door itself.
Creeeeeeaaaaak.
The crumpled door fell away.
And then, his form was revealed.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
A massive human shape.
But it was only a silhouette.
It looked as if several teachers had been crumpled, mangled, and stitched together, then forced back into a human mold.
A flesh monster with an arm on its head, a head on its shoulder, and a shoulder on its knee.
It entered the auditorium with eerily polite footsteps….
Step, step.
Step, step.
Step.
Chalkboards, textbooks, student rosters, chalk, glasses, and the like were stuck haphazardly to various parts of its body, swaying out of place.
Standing on the stage on the opposite side, watching a sight that should have made me shudder with revulsion….
“…….”
Only a boiling sense of competitive spirit rose within me.
I had to break through that thing to go home and fill my collector….
‘Yeah.’
In this situation, what I needed wasn’t fear, but tenacity!
The tattoo on my neck burned hot, making my gut, heart, and head boil.
‘Ah.’
Now I get it.
The effect of this tattoo sticker is….
‘Exhilaration.’
A flood of adrenaline.
This exhilaration that makes me charge forward blindly once I have something I want to do, once I have a goal!
And the sensation that supports it, making me perceive everything as tomatoes!
‘I can do this.’
I gripped the auditorium microphone without hesitation and glared ahead.
