The kindergarten teachers stood in abundance atop the colorful, cheerful stage.
It looked as though an event was about to take place, but what they surrounded was an executioner’s block.
A black execution scaffold.
At the scaffold, a black line extended straight ahead.
At the end of the line were assembled body parts.
Both legs, both arms, thighs, waist, chest, neck, and finally, a head.
The moment the head appeared on the stage, the parts merged, and Assistant Manager Eun Haje exhaled deeply.
Then, looking at the teachers surrounding her, she clenched her teeth.
G O O D B Y E !
The teachers clapped gently with smiling faces.
Likely holding back a stream of expletives, Eun Haje’s face was pale as she moved her feet.
Not by her own will.
The black holographic ropes forced her limbs to move, guiding her toward the scaffold amidst the crowd of teachers.
And then…
‘This is the moment.’
Did you know?
Of course, any contact with the teacher chosen as the Hangman was strictly forbidden.
Any attempt to rescue them, even a last handshake or an item exchange, was prohibited.
Even if someone tried to risk a penalty, their actions would be blocked just before the attempt.
So, the only opportunity to act was during one specific moment…
[The Hangman is ascending the scaffold! This is what happens when you guess correctly!]
When Eun Haje appeared on the stage and began ascending the scaffold, at the exact moment she passed directly beside the ‘teachers’.
Tuk.
One teacher gave her something.
Supervisor Park Minseong, perfectly disguised as a kindergarten teacher, handed something to Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
Since Eun Haje’s arms and legs were bound by ropes, she couldn’t use them. Only small, movable parts of her body were functional.
For example…
Her mouth.
The ‘something’ handed over in passing disappeared into Eun Haje’s mouth in an instant.
As if nothing had happened.
Eun Haje continued walking, expressionless, and finally stepped onto the gallows.
This is where the second critical moment came.
[Now, let’s begin the execution.]
‘Braun!’
Now!
– Understood.
– Let’s see your mask in a whole new light! Reframing the familiar…
I frantically looked up at Eun Haje.
No change.
Thunk.
The black holographic rope around her neck gained physical form and texture.
[Hangman~!]
And then, it pulled upward.
‘Damn it.’
I wanted to avert my gaze so badly, but I forced myself to watch, pretending to be unaffected.
The rope pulled with a disturbingly immense force, and then—
Ting.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…
The headless body tumbled down from the stage.
Thump.
The lifeless body part fell right in front of me, and I caught it.
It was limp, devoid of any signs of life.
Then, it gradually faded until it completely vanished.
[The game has ended!]
[New teachers, please wait for your evaluation!]
“Ah, it’s finally over.”
“So you won the bet, Supervisor Roe Deer. Man, how’d you stop anyone from guessing twice?”
The other staff, who had been waiting at the back per the kindergarten’s instruction to ‘watch the Hangman’s final moments in the playroom’, approached with relieved sighs and complaints.
“Ah, is this your first time seeing a team member die?”
“Honestly, Eun Haje wasn’t the kind of person who’d live long anyway.”
One of them gave my shoulder a light pat.
“Well… don’t take it too hard, okay? She’s dead now.”
I smiled.
“…What?”
“Why are you smiling…?”
“She’s not dead.”
“What, what?”
“Huh?”
They stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
But then.
“Ugh, what is this?!”
Screams erupted from those who looked up at the stage.
Not because they saw Eun Haje’s severed head.
Rather…
“This, this!”
One of them pointed at the stage with a trembling voice.
“Why… is it a hand?”
Exactly.
“But, but it was definitely a head!”
I looked at Eun Haje’s severed left hand lying on the stage and chuckled.
I never thought I’d laugh at the sight of a severed body part, but I couldn’t help it.
It worked!
– Ah, what a remarkable piece of craftsmanship!
– And what an amusing idea—switching the head and hand.
Exactly.
The plan was to switch Eun Haje’s head and hand while concealing it from everyone’s eyes.
So during the execution, instead of her head, one of her hands would be severed!
– Using hands or feet to substitute for other body parts is a classic stage trick.
Braun, muttering about doing this only for a friend, was unexpectedly brilliant in this moment.
But this isn’t over yet.
For the Hangman to ‘escape’, they have to die and leave as a corpse.
If Eun Haje had somehow survived the execution, the system would have noticed and enforced another way to follow the rules.
So…
– All I have to do is place this plum-sized apple in her mouth, right?
Supervisor Park Minseong had been essential to the plan.
While disguised as a teacher, in that fleeting moment that Assistant Manager Eun Haje passed by, what he had slipped into her mouth was none other than a Snow White Mountain Mini Apple.
It was an item I carried, designed to induce ‘death-like sleep’.
‘It was a stroke of luck that the wrist storage upgrade let me carry a whole apple instead of just juice.’
That’s why I was able to give these instructions.
– Assistant Manager, when the apple enters your mouth as you ascend the scaffold, swallow the final piece just before your wrist is severed.
– What?
– It will happen in that moment… That’s all.
Eun Haje followed the instructions to the letter.
At the exact moment when her wrist—mistaken for her neck by everyone—was severed, Eun Haje swallowed the last piece of the apple.
This put her in a state identical to death.
Her body, now indistinguishable from a corpse, was recognized as having been ‘executed as the Hangman’ and successfully ejected from the ghost story.
Exactly.
Outside that outcome, no other possibility could have worked in this situation…!
…Success.
“Ha…!”
I pressed my hands against my face.
Even so, I wanted to leave and confirm his survival as soon as possible.
What if someone mistook the body for a corpse and transported it away?
It felt too early to feel catharsis or relief. I just wanted to get out of here quickly.
[The evaluation is ready!]
Thankfully, the TV displayed the final signal.
Soon, it would announce which participants contributed to completing the Hangman word and which didn’t, assigning penalties or granting a pass accordingly.
From the looks of it, no one seemed contaminated enough to fail escaping.
“Roe!”
As the teachers on the platform disappeared, Supervisor Park Minseong finally jumped down from the stage.
“W-We did it, right?!”
“Yes.”
“Waaaah!”
The supervisor collapsed onto the ground in relief and joy.
“It was worth squeezing into that gap…”
Even though his face was pale, Park Minseong grinned earnestly as he finally removed the camouflage equipment.
“Supervisor, you didn’t guess a letter, so you’ll probably get another penalty…”
“Ah, I can handle up to the second one.”
As we had discussed earlier, the supervisor nodded, accepting the consequence.
“Honestly, it doesn’t feel great, but… well, taking one penalty for missing a correct answer is way better than letting the Assistant Manager die! I’ll stop at the second—there’s no way I’ll get a third, so I’ll be fine…”
[Goodness. Ding! Wrong!]
Wait, what?
[New teachers must remain at the bottom of the platform! Stepping onto the stage is prohibited.]
[As a penalty, you must read the handbook aloud for 10 minutes!]
Park Minseong looked back up at the spot he had just stepped down from.
“…Ah.”
The platform.
“I’m
And then, he was dragged away.