Chapter 23
While Ha-rim lured Jangsanbeom, Kyeong-min, Suho, and Eun-jeong confronted the woman wearing a red mask.
As soon as Kyeong-min saw her mask, he knew what kind of monster she was.
As for her identity, as the appearance suggests, it's [Red Mask]1
Besides, she even holds scissors, so there is no room for misunderstanding.
As Suho moved to block the approaching [Red Mask], Kyeong-min stopped him.
"Calm down. Running away is the priority."
Suho was only thinking about protecting the group from the opponent in front of them because his thinking was dull due to being exposed to danger.
When Kyeong-min stopped him, it was only then that he felt the blood rushing to his head subside.
"Eun-jeong, are you okay?"
Kyeong-min asked Eun-jeong, who might have panicked, to make sure.Eun-jeong has trained her mind by experiencing strange things, so she can respond with courage! She answered.
Kyeong-min looked at the red mask before running away.
She just approaches and doesn't attack.
Why?
The [Red Mask], feeling the gaze, took off its mask and revealed a mouth torn up to the ears.
Eun-jeong instinctively hid behind Suho.
[Am I pretty?]
Kyeong-min guessed she didn't attack because she wanted to ask this.
"Um... I mean."
He thought he would die no matter what he answered here.
In the ghost stories, if you say she's ugly, she'll get offended and kill you, and if you say she's pretty, she'll make you look the same.
So how about avoiding the answer? He awkwardly took the time, pretending to be troubled.
"I mean... Hm... If you look closely... Hm... That... Wait a minute... Ahem..."
He's fiddling with his glasses for no reason.
[...]
"If you look carefully at the straight chin... No... This style... Quite..."
He even pretended to search the Internet for trendy styles, even though he didn't have connection.
[...]
"Wow, it's really pretty!... It may or may not seem like it... But looking at it objectively..."
[Red Mask], who had been listening quietly, swung the scissors as if angry.
[Die.]
"Run away!!"
Time wasting doesn't work!
Kyeong-min thought he was good at coming up with ideas like Ha-rim.
"Let's go to the classroom! It was the only other place where Ella sprinkled the salt!"
"Right, that place!"
They are in a state of being speeded up as allies of Eun-jeong. The red mask was also much faster than a normal person, but it was nothing compared to them.
The children entered the classroom with the salt sprinkled.
Slide click.
"It will be safe here for now."
Kyeong-min gulped and looked at the small window on the door.
The [Red Mask], staring blankly at them from the outside, scratched the wall with the scissors in her hand and went back.
Survived.
"What about Ha-rim? We have to help!"
Eun-jeong said, fidgeting with her fingers. Kyeong-min answered as he fixed his glasses.
"I think so too. But after a while. If we leave immediately, we will run into the red mask again."
Suho, who fixed his shield in order to jump out at any moment, also judged that his words made sense.
The shielder took a deep breath, calmed down, and suggested that it would be good to leave in three minutes.
"Is there any way to defeat it?"
As Suho murmurs, the children fall into thought. At a time like this, they wondered if Ha-rim would have come up with an idea right away.
"Ah."
One minute later, an exclamation flowed from Kyeong-min's mouth.
Suho asked if he had any good ideas.
"There is."
"Really?"
Suho's face brightened. He looked at Kyeong-min with expectant eyes.
"Yes, I know."
However, Kyeong-min's eyes were strange. The pupils are blurry.
"About the case of a group death of children in an orphanage that used to house kids with disabilities."
...
"...What?"
Ominous words kept coming out of Kyeong-min's mouth.
"The villagers thought that the handicapped children were disgusting, so the food has been poisoned. The poisoned kids vomited, cried and then died. The woman who looked after them cursed the villagers as she shed tears of blood. Rumor has it that she made a pact with the devil or something? Huh. It's really unfortunate. I saw people struggling like bugs, the village was set on fire and people fled."
"What the hell are you talking about! Wake up!"
Suho shakes Kyeong-min wildly, but he doesn't show signs of coming to his senses. Eun-jeong hurriedly tried to purify him with the bell.
"...But none of them escaped. They were caught like bugs in a spider's web and died one by one. Later, the bodies of the dead came up from the graves, and they looked like spiders with eight legs..."
Kyeong-min isn't even listening. Then, Eun-jeong pointed at the top of his head. She seemed to gesture that there was something there. Eun-jeong has good senses. Then...
Suho's shield brushed right above Kyeong-min's head.
Then bam! There was a noise and the sound of hitting something.
When Suho narrowed his eyes, he was able to recognize a transparent object on Kyeong-min's head.
He was possessed. The existence suffered and then disappeared.
Being possessed by a ghost is a common ghost story, so it manifested as a monster.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Kyeong-min, are you okay now?"
He gasped and said with a bluish face that he almost died.
A monster appeared before, this time it's a monster again. There were too many. What happened to the peaceful time just now?
Kyeong-min even thought that someone had intentionally summoned the monsters.
Suho put his face out of the classroom together with Kyung-min, who was still in pain, and carefully examine the situation.
Swoosh!
"Eh?!"
Swoosh!
Suddenly, pollen flew towards them. Suho, who managed to block it by closing the door, confirmed that the clutter in the hallway floated up and down.
"...What is it now..."
"Perhaps a poltergeist..."
"I'll go sit down..."
POV Switch - Ha-rim
[Crackle! Crackle!]
Laughing children are wandering the halls. Looking at their height, they seem to be in the same age or in a lower grade. What kind of creature is it?
Differently from Ella, I can't get rid of monsters by attacking them.
The only way to defeat it is to dig into loopholes like last time.
However, I still don't know their identity.
To make matters worse, there was only one sheet left.
The long-legged tiger is on the upper floor, but I'm gradually reaching the limit by using almost all the stickers.
It was at the moment I gave up on finding a way to defeat him and decided that it would be better to just go down and join the group.
Bam!!!
At the same time as there was a loud sound, the body of the ghost children shook greatly.
'Just now...!'
A loud sound and swaying body...
Are they affected by noise?
And when I looked closely, there was a kid wearing a gym uniform that is only used at our school.
"..."
Think carefully.
I'm sure I can come up with a solution from my past memories.
The necklace shone faintly.
[Survival]
It was night. I called Kyeong-min and Suho to the club room to prepare for the school festival.
This is because each club had to operate a booth during the event.
Since we weren't particularly good with our hands, all we could do was collect ghost stories and make a small collection.
Eun-jeong joined recently, so she wasn't there at the time. It was originally a reading club.
I agreed to Kyeong-min suggestion to finish it in one day and go play, and I came to school at night and compiled all the stories until the time the teacher allowed.
Then I heard Kyeong-min muttering something unexpected.
"What's so surprising?"
"Just... They say that the sound of children laughing and talking during the day is manifested at night."
"Wow, that's a scary story. Let's put that in the ghost story collection!"
We put that story in the book.
...
This is it!
I turned on my phone, played music loudly and set it down on the floor.
Hearing that, the children stopped laughing and ran towards me.
However, as they approached, their bodies shook greatly and then scattered, disappearing completely.
Since it's a monster made of sound, if you bury it on noise, its very existence will be denied. That's not a bad idea in my opinion. If a similar situation arises, I might be able to use it again.
One done.
Growl...
"Ah."
I was no longer transparent.
Besides, since the music was playing loudly, it was only natural for it to pinpoint my location.
I should have moved right away, but I messed up.
[Uncle told you in advanced that he would not take care of you.]
The Jangsanbeom ran towards me.
I fled recklessly without even having time to pack my phone.
I thought trying getting rid of him in the same way before. But my speed was slow.
Or rather, Jangsanbeom speed is too fast.
The bell and notebook effects worn out. As it is, I will be caught for sure.
I first took the sheet out of the bag. A sheet with only one sticker left.
Will this method work again? But I have no choice but to do it. I tried to remove the sticker from the sheet.
[!!!!!!!!]
Jangsanbeom roared. This beast has a special organ in its mouth, allowing it to make a sobrenatural roar, and its said that if you hear it, your body stiffens.
My hands froze and I dropped the sheet.
Do I pick it up? What do I do after picking it?
In fact, even if I had used it without dropping it, the roar would have already been unavoidable because of the distance.
Wrong answer from the start.
So then? What should I do?
My head, driven to the extreme, came up with an idea.
It was an ingenious plan, but at the same time too risky for something that came to mind out of nowhere.
It's a plan that I wouldn't even know if I would die in vain.
Still, there is no room for hesitation.
I have to live.
No matter what happens, living is the best.
My mom said that before she died.
Forgive me for being so reckless, because I will definitely succeed.
I opened the hallway window.
Do ir die.
The moment the tiger tried to attack me, I jumped out of the window.
The ground is visible.
Thud!!!
...
Still alive.
"I did it!"
Looking out of the window, I saw a bloody Jangsanbeom
The secret to my plan was the frog eggs in my bag.
It's an item I got from a strange frog we often met outside.
They came out every time Ella fought, so it was inconvenient to carry it around, so I even prepared this bag.
It's unconvertable to think that it's a real egg. However, since it's a monster, life will not be born.
Anyway, frog eggs had the ability to change the location of the target the host hit.
There was a previous situation of using it when fighting [Turbo Granny].
What I did was simple. After jumping out of the window, I threw a frog egg at Jangsanbeom.
[Luck]
At the same time as the necklace glowed, the egg hit the tiger while drawing a weird curve, and him, who swapped positions with me, fell without knowing why.
My heart is still racing. If Jangsanbeom had avoided it, or if the necklace didn't activate, I'd end up like him.
"Urgh..."
When I think about it, chills run down my spine.
It's because I lived. Better not tell this to the others. Because this wasn't a normal behavior for anyone to see....
Nonetheless, the idea that I have to take risks to survive didn't change.
That makes it two.
I muttered that and decided to retrieve the sheet and phone and find the others.
Step step.
With courage and sense unlike a child, I survived this time too.
Like it was natural.