Chapter 122: Night Self-Study (4)

Su-myeon walked carefully, making sure his footsteps made no sound.

Du-pal and Ha-min slowly followed behind him.

The hallway was silent. Through the classroom windows, they could see nothing but rows of students' heads as they quietly studied on their own.

Every single one of them had their head bowed low, staring at empty desks without so much as a book on them.

“It's all just kids....”

They had yet to encounter a single Shadow Teacher or Tinker Bell guard.

Was this really right?

Su-myeon was confused, but perhaps he should simply be grateful that there was no immediate threat.

“We only have to watch out for Wendy, right?”

At Ha-min's cautious question, Su-myeon thought for a moment.

“For now.”

Su-myeon's answer was ambiguous, but even so, Ha-min and Du-pal looked relieved.

The three of them continued moving without making a sound until they finally reached the first floor.

Whether Wendy had already gone to another floor or not, she was nowhere to be seen even in the place where they had encountered her earlier.

“......The master of the ghost story is still the same.”

Peter Pan was still lying in the middle of the ruined hallway, giving off the disgusting stench of scorched flesh.

Ha-min deliberately looked away, while Su-myeon stared out at the schoolyard through the shattered hallway windows for a moment.

“.......”

It was pitch-black.

It had always been especially difficult to make out anything outside, but now it was as dark as a country road without a single streetlight.

Tick-

Tick-

And yet the sounds of clocks could still be heard.

What had happened to the crocodiles gathered somewhere beyond the darkness?

Who—or what—had they once been before changing into those forms?

Those creatures that constantly emphasized the passage of time....

“...?”

Su-myeon noticed an unfamiliar noise mixed in with the sounds coming from beyond the building.

It sounded like something wet, a clump of it dropping onto the ground....

“Su-myeon...!”

Startled when Ha-min suddenly yanked him backward, Su-myeon stumbled back.

At some point, his chest had been pressed so hard against the broken window bars lined with shards of glass that they had pierced him, blood already beginning to seep through his clothes.

When had he become that focused?

The moment Su-myeon lifted his head in confusion.

“Hey!”

This time, Du-pal lunged forward and hurled both of them away.

No one was stupid enough to ask why he was doing that in a situation like this.

Startled, Su-myeon and Ha-min quickly regained their footing and looked toward the window frame where the two of them had been standing just moments earlier.

There was a gigantic head there.

“Too......bad.......”

A massive head, as though the inside of its skull had been inflated like a balloon.

It split open into five sections like a flower and snapped shut over the spot where Su-myeon and Ha-min had been standing.

With a thick, sticky sound, the head closed again, and eyeballs that looked ready to burst free at any moment rolled around before fixing on Ha-min and Su-myeon.

“.......”

Then it slowly slid backward.

Quite literally, it disappeared completely into the darkness.

At the monster's sudden appearance, Ha-min's hands trembled as he clutched Su-myeon tightly.

Ha-min had a strong grip, and being grabbed so hard actually snapped Su-myeon back to his senses.

Du-pal and Ha-min would not recognize it, but Su-myeon knew.

That person just now—no.

That monster.

'That's Hook....'

What the hell had happened here after they left?

Swallowing his confusion and curiosity, Su-myeon started moving again.

The three of them headed for the infirmary in silence.

As though speaking about what had just happened might somehow make it chase after them.

Rattle- Clunk, clunk.

The three slipped into the infirmary and tried to lock the door, but unfortunately, that was impossible.

Su-myeon and Hwi-yeon had destroyed it back then.

In the end, only after quietly hiding themselves deeper inside the infirmary did the three finally let out a breath.

“.......”

In the silence, Su-myeon looked at Du-pal and Ha-min, both of whom were staring only at him, and realized what had happened.

Because he had stayed silent, the two of them had apparently ended up holding their breath along with him without even thinking about it.

“Ah, it doesn't look like it followed us, at least.”

Once Su-myeon spoke first, Ha-min finally let out a deep sigh as well.

Du-pal's expression, however, still looked grim.

“......It's not here.”

Just as Du-pal said.

The corpse of the Shadow Teacher they had expected to find here was gone.

Had it rotted away already? Or had it come back to life?

But neither explanation seemed likely.

Peter Pan's corpse was still lying exactly where it had been, after all.

In that case, it had to be somewhere.

“For now, time doesn't pass here, so I don't think it disappeared because it rotted or anything like that.”

Su-myeon said that in an attempt to reassure Du-pal.

Though the problem was that they now had to find where it had gone.

When Su-myeon told him that their method had not disappeared entirely, Du-pal immediately found something else to worry about.

“The library really is safer, right...?”

The group was currently split in two.

Han-su had been adamantly against allowing the group to split up yet again, but there had not been much choice.

Geon-su and Young-cheol needed to stay calm, both mentally and physically, so that the surgery could be performed immediately.

And Du-pal had wanted Han-su to stay behind and protect the two of them.

“They'll be fine. Han-su is with them.”

“...Right. Of course. Right.”

Watching Du-pal fret, Su-myeon's head began to throb.

He needed some kind of backup plan.

Or an item that could help them in this situation.

[Preparing to stock new merchandise....]

The message was still displayed on his phone.

After some thought, Su-myeon sent Bell a message.

[It's Su-myeon.]

How should he summarize the situation?

After thinking for a moment, Su-myeon continued typing.

[We're planning to operate on someone with a heart condition and bring him back to reality.]

If he wanted to persuade Bell, he needed to appeal to her curiosity and interests.

He went on to explain Cheshire's dulled sense of pain and the various other issues that might or might not be side effects.

There was no guarantee that the Beast would not suffer side effects just like Cheshire, either, and there was no telling what form they might take.

[This would be a good opportunity to find out whether organ transplantation is possible inside a ghost story, so please stock some useful items for us.]

Would that be enough to get her interested?

Bell did not read it immediately, so Su-myeon put his phone away in his pocket.

“Let's get moving.”

His racing heart had settled down, and their objective had not changed.

Su-myeon pulled out his gun and reloaded it.

Ha-min took a baseball bat from his inventory, while Du-pal took out a flashlight.

“......Doesn't this look like the kind of situation where I should get something too?”

He did have a point.

Looking at Du-pal, who still had not managed to obtain a proper weapon, Su-myeon searched through the various weapons he had packed in advance.

One might think he could simply hand everyone a high-powered firearm.

But Su-myeon was somewhat reluctant to distribute weapons like that when there was no way of knowing what might happen inside a ghost story.

If one of them lost their mind inside the ghost story, Su-myeon needed to be able to subdue them in return.

'If I'm the one who goes insane.......'

At that point, there really would not be much anyone could do.

For now, Su-myeon pushed the two of them forward.

“I'll give you something if I find anything suitable. Let's go.”

***

Han-su, Young-cheol, and Geon-su remained in the library in silence.

After checking the surgical tools one more time, Young-cheol found himself thinking.

'Still, this place is way better than Alice Hotel.'

The atmosphere was far more peaceful than he had expected, and they had found Geon-su and Du-pal much faster than anticipated.

They had seen one monster, but had it not been surprisingly careless?

At this level, it did not seem like such a difficult ghost story.

Knock, knock, knock-

“Do you need anything else?”

“Ah, no. I'm fine. Well, it does feel strange having to perform surgery with tools I'm not used to.”

At Han-su's question, Young-cheol smiled lightly and waved a hand as though to say there was no problem.

Geon-su, who had been sitting there with a tense expression while clutching Du-pal's phone and waiting for a message, raised his head.

Knock, knock, knock-

“.......”

All three of them lifted their heads and fell silent.

There had definitely just been some kind of sound....

Knock, knock, knock-

A knocking sound, like someone rapping a hand against wood.

But when they focused and listened again, one thing became clear.

“...That isn't coming from the door, is it?”

Knock, knock, knock-

No sooner had Geon-su finished speaking than the sound came again.

This time, all three of their heads turned in the same direction at once.

Toward the endless rows of bookshelves stretching out like a maze.

The sound was coming from deep within the darkness.

Knock, knock, knock-

The noise continued at the exact same rhythm, slowly drawing closer.

Knock, knock, knock-

There was no longer any way to dismiss it as their imagination.

A slow knocking sound.

Regular and mechanical.

“.......”

Young-cheol swallowed dryly and tried to roll up the surgical tools he had prepared, put them into their case, and store them in his inventory.

But Han-su suddenly held out a hand toward him.

“Did you bring plenty of spare scalpels?”

The reason he was asking was obvious.

Quickly understanding, Young-cheol selected one with a razor-sharp edge and handed it over.

“Ah, ahh....”

He was so nervous that he nearly handed it over blade-first, then recoiled in horror and quickly turned the scalpel around before passing it to Han-su properly.

Han-su flinched slightly as well, then gestured for Young-cheol and Geon-su to move back.

Knock, knock, knock-

Young-cheol's hands were trembling too, but even then, he made sure to pull Geon-su with him as he backed away.

“Contact Su-myeon.”

At Han-su's words, Geon-su flinched and immediately began typing a message.

Du-pal had left the phone with Geon-su, telling him to contact them no matter what if anything happened because he was worried about him.

His fingertips trembled, but Geon-su sent a brief message containing only the essential information.

[Su-myeon. Something showed up here.]

[In the darkness between the bookshelves.]

Knock, knock, knock-

The sound never stopped.

Something kept approaching from within the darkness.

Knock, knock, knock-

Geon-su and Young-cheol were so tense that they even held their breath.

Knock, knock, knock-

Holding a scalpel and hand axe, Han-su waited for the source of the sound as though he had already noticed something.

And soon Geon-su, staring intently at the bookshelves alongside him, realized it too.

What lay beyond the shelves was not darkness.

There was a mass of shadows clumped together, as though they had merged into one and become darkness itself.

[#REST: It appeared in the library?]

[#REST: Get out of there for now. We're coming.]

“S-Su-myeon...? Su-myeon says we should get out. He says they're coming here...?”

Geon-su spoke cautiously, but Han-su tightened his grip on the weapons in both hands as though he had already made up his mind.

Knock, knock, knock-

The darkness drew closer and closer.

A massive wall of darkness filled one side of the room as it gradually approached.

Countless eyeballs writhing within it squirmed white like maggots devouring rotten flesh.

“Ah....”

A faint sound, almost like a whimper, seeped out from it.

According to the rules Su-myeon had organized for them, there should not have been anything in the library.

Most students disliked the place, so the monsters had no reason to pay much attention to it either.

But why?

And why had all those shadows gathered here, fused together into a single mass?

There was no time to think any further.

Slash-

“Uh- Ah- Aaaaaah-”

Han-su boldly stabbed the shadow with the hand holding the scalpel.

An entire chunk of the shadow was sliced off and fell away, letting out a clumsy, distorted scream.

Young-cheol quickly scooped up the severed Shadow Flesh.

“Got it...!”

They had found the material they needed!

The bizarre sensation was horrifying, as though he were hugging a massive slab of freshly cut meat to his chest, but Young-cheol forced himself to ignore it.

What mattered was that they had accomplished their objective.

CRUNCH-

Then Han-su viciously brought the axe down into the mass of shadows.

“...Is it... dead?”

Young-cheol muttered without thinking as he stared at the hacked-up monster sprawled across the floor, and Han-su stepped backward.

Han-su himself was not sure whether the shadow monster was dead.

But he did know what Su-myeon would do in a situation like this.

“Let's get out of here for now.”

At times like this, the best move was to get the hell out first.

***

“You said nothing would show up there!”

Su-myeon wanted to argue with Du-pal, whose voice was full of worry for his son.

'...That's why I left Kang Han-su with them!'

But Du-pal was probably only half in his right mind at the moment.

Su-myeon simply let it go in one ear and out the other as he ran, when his phone vibrated again.

Thinking it might be another message from Geon-su, Su-myeon pulled out his phone.

[New merchandise has arrived!]