Creaaak.
The light reflecting through the gap in the door stabbed at my eyes.
Inside, various objects shimmered, as if radiating their own presence.
Much like the nametag Jang Heo-un had given me.
‘Damn.’
As expected, the sight was even more bizarre and eye-catching than I had imagined.
After carefully shutting the storage room door, I immediately reached out toward the objects…
It seems I can’t take this item yet.
Ignoring the thought that popped into my mind like a notification, I rummaged through the shimmering items—buckets, mops, small whiteboards—and finally found what I was looking for.
“……”
It was a decorative brooch.
A somewhat clumsy-looking decoration made by laminating thick paper, as if handcrafted by an amateur.
Obtained a ‘Name Tag Decoration’!
Name Tag Decoration : A flower decoration that says ‘Congratulations on Your Graduation’. It seems to be modeled after Sekwang Technical High School’s official flower, the azalea.
Perhaps it’s intended as a gift for graduates?
I tucked the glittering ‘Name Tag Decoration’ into my pocket.
‘Got it.’
I now had the essential item to ‘attack’ this ghost story.
I continued exploring places that only students could access, verifying whether the information I knew from the exploration records matched reality.
I borrowed a book from the library, tapped on the piano keys in the music room…
‘If anything was even slightly off, it would be better to die and wake up quickly.’
Fortunately, everything aligned perfectly.
‘…Good.’
During this process, I avoided going to the fifth floor, where the ‘graduation ceremony preparation hall’ was located.
It wasn’t time yet.
‘When will the notification come?’
Taking a tense breath, I waited slowly…
And then.
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A tremendous roar struck my ears.
Would this be what a sound glitch feels like?
It was like the noise of hundreds of people scratching their nails against chalkboards—a maddening cacophony!
And I knew what it was.
‘…The monsters!’
The voices of explorers, who appeared as glitched monsters to me, were unmistakable!
The deafening noise of whatever they were saying to each other downstairs pounded not just my ears but my brain.
A powerful urge enveloped me.
‘So this is why they chased noisy ones first!’
At the very least, I wanted to eliminate the sound…
‘……! Calm down, calm down…’
I suppressed the overwhelming urge and refrained from running down the stairs.
Instead, I took a few seconds to quell my impulses.
‘Now, let’s move.’
Once I was fully composed, I proceeded carefully and checked the monsters at the far end of the fourth-floor hallway.
The monsters were confronting a student.
No, the situation was almost over.
The student was lying immobile on the ground, unable to move.
Yet, the monsters weren’t all retired.
‘Damn.’
I prepared myself.
One monster was still intact.
It stared at the student lying on the ground before turning to look at me.
And it stopped me in my tracks.
……
I saw it from a distance.
The monster that froze me in place.
Its face, horrifyingly melted, resembled a grotesque figure smeared like pixels.
But one thing was different from the other monsters.
‘It’s wearing a mask.’
And the mask was…
A goral!
‘…Go Yeongeun!’
* * *
“Wow.”
I’m the only one left.
Go Yeongeun caught her breath and leaned against the hallway wall.
In front of her lay (probably) the last student on this third floor, immobilized on the ground.
It seemed to still be alive, but she had no intention of killing it.
‘If I kill this one, there’ll be another blackout, and more will swarm in… ha.’
The civilians she had been escorting were all already dead.
‘At least the last three had nametags with them when they died…’
According to company protocol, even if someone dies, they can live their daily lives in reality.
Still, it was unsettling that the liquid in the Dream Essence Collector only refilled when a ‘nametag’ was obtained.
‘…Something’s definitely up.’
Go Yeongeun had somewhat given up on collecting nametags meticulously for a high-grade clear.
Instead, she subtly shared information about them with her companions and divided what she had.
And those people had just all died.
‘Ugh…’
Having worked at this company long enough to grow accustomed to gore-filled carnage, monsters, and ghosts, she wasn’t overwhelmed.
After all, she’d completed anatomy studies and cadaver practice without any trouble during her time at med school, so she’d always been strong-willed.
‘Thank goodness they didn’t actually die for real…’
She had become so desensitized that even thoughts like this came naturally now.
‘…Should I go upstairs now?’
Just as Go Yeongeun decided to catch her breath and start moving again—
Flicker.
Beyond the hallway…
Another ‘student’ appeared.
They were tall, wearing the somewhat disheveled uniform of Sekwang Technical High School, giving off the atmosphere of a delinquent.
‘Ha.’
Wow…
I can’t take this anymore!
‘Let’s just go.’
Surely, lasting this long should be enough to avoid any issues in her performance review.
Go Yeongeun felt so worn out that she wanted to rip off the ultra-powerful headlamp strapped to her head.
She was ready to wake up from this wretched nightmare… frёewebnoѵēl.com
Flicker.
…Wait?
‘H-Hold on.’
Under the dim light, she caught a glimpse of the student’s features.
Their face was calm, sharp, and composed.
“…Mr. Roe Deer?”
It was Kim Soleum.
At first, she thought it might be a lookalike student.
But even though they looked slightly younger than the face she was used to seeing, it was unmistakably them.
It was really Kim Soleum.
A chill ran down Go Yeongeun’s spine.
‘W-Wait a second…!’
What kind of situation was this?
Could it be?
If certain conditions were met in this ghost story, would someone get ‘corrupted’ and end up like this?
Turned into a student monster?
“Ah…”
Having worked for months, she knew enough about ghost story contamination to feel a surge of terror.
But in the next moment, she resolved herself.
‘I need to confirm this.’
If she woke up now and something had truly gone wrong, she would hate herself for running away.
‘It’s fine if I die and wake up from the dream anyway.’
Determined, she approached the hallway, trying not to blink both eyes at once.
The closer she got to the student standing still, the more certain she became that it was Kim Soleum.
‘…Even the rabbit plushie is gone.’
The keychain plushie he usually carried wasn’t with him, leaving Go Yeongeun with a strange mix of bitterness and sorrow as she moved closer.
Flicker.
The light flickered, but the flashlight secured on her head saved her from any trouble.
‘Just a little closer.’
She drew nearer.
But then—
Thud.
Suddenly, a burst of blinding light pierced Go Yeongeun’s eyes.
Her vision vanished temporarily.
The source was a flashlight in Kim Soleum’s hand.
It was set to flash a few seconds after being activated, momentarily blinding whoever approached.
Go Yeongeun couldn’t tell exactly what object had caused it, but she quickly grasped the situation.
‘A trap?! Set in advance?!’
A sudden wave of dizziness hit her, but she composed herself quickly.
‘It can’t be helped.’
What frustrated her was not understanding the strange situation in full.
But there wasn’t much time to dwell on it. The monsters were insanely fast.
In the next moment, she would die…
She didn’t die.
There was no pain or the floating sensation of waking up from a dream.
…She was fine!
‘What?’
As her eyes adjusted to the aftereffects of the flash, Go Yeongeun looked up at the ‘student’ in confusion and froze them with her gaze.
……
Kim Soleum, wearing the Sekwang Technical High School uniform, wasn’t looking at Go Yeongeun.
Instead, he was staring at the floor.
‘The floor?’
Go Yeongeun stepped back slightly, aligning her view to see both Kim Soleum and the floor simultaneously.
On the floor, words had appeared.
An A4 sheet of paper had been laid down, and writing was scrawled on it.
Ms. Goral?
“GAAAHHHH!!”