Chapter 48: Mujin High School (4)

[4. Absolute silence during class. Disrupting the teachers' mood is an extremely stupid choice. Monitor their temperament as closely as possible, and do not draw their attention.]

The shadow that had stopped in front of Su-myeon quietly peered down at his paper.

Every smiling face in the classroom was turned toward him.

Identical, hollow smiles.

No sound. No joy.

Just facial muscles drawn upward into the shape of a grin.

It was as unnerving as staring at the painted smile of a clown.

"......"

The weight of all those gazes was suffocating, but the Shadow Teacher examined Su-myeon's paper and moved on.

A clearly stamped period.

A single dot drawn in blood.

After confirming Su-myeon's blood writing, the Shadow Teacher collected the paper.

And where the sheet had been, a Rose Coin now sat in its place — an object already familiar to him.

One by one, the rest of the group's papers passed the Shadow Teacher's inspection as well.

Click—

Hwi-yeon picked up the Rose Coin that had appeared beneath her paper and placed it on Su-myeon's desk.

It seemed to be something he needed, and she had no attachment to an object whose purpose she didn't even understand.

'Thank you.'

As Su-myeon silently mouthed his gratitude, the Shadow Teacher finished inspecting the rest of the class.

Right on cue, the bell rang.

Class was over.

In a gesture that was eerily teacher-like, the shadow hurriedly concluded its farewell and slipped out of the classroom.

Su-myeon watched it disappear with an odd expression, then immediately turned in his seat toward Geon-su.

"How the hell did you survive this class before?"

The fact that Geon-su hadn't known the method bothered him.

Even if he had managed to avoid answering roll call, there was no way he could have escaped every instance of direct contact like this.

Being swallowed by the Shadow Teacher wasn't immediately fatal.

But just like answering when one's name was called, it was something that gradually gnawed away at a person's sense of self.

"Got swallowed a few times. Felt absolutely disgusting."

Geon-su tapped Su-myeon on the arm and said it with surprising nonchalance.

"It felt weird, but I don't think it actually did any real damage."

By contrast, answering to one's name had obvious consequences.

Every time someone responded, their condition visibly deteriorated.

Geon-su had managed to avoid the truly lethal threats, but he hadn't escaped every lesser hazard.

The fact that he had retained his sense of self for this long was, in Su-myeon's view, anything but normal.

Was it because he had spent so long living with illness and hardship in the real world?

He seemed to possess an unusually strong will.

"Let's get out together."

Su-myeon decided he couldn't leave Geon-su behind.

Abandoning someone who had retained this much reason and judgment would be unconscionable.

Geon-su might appear fine for now, but surely some part of him had already begun to crumble inside.

"......You really think that's possible? You saw what happens."

Even so, Geon-su's will seemed broken in more ways than one.

Make one wrong move and you could be brainwashed.

Or worse, lose a limb.

"Besides, even if I get out, I can't live a normal life like you guys."

A lifetime of pain.

A lifetime of suffering.

Having escaped that reality by falling into this ghost story, Geon-su had adapted to this place in his own way.

Perhaps the brainwashing had affected him so little precisely because his desire to leave was so weak.

For Geon-su, escaping meant nothing more than returning to illness and pain.

With that thought circling endlessly in his mind, the desire to escape had never truly taken root.

"I'll still help you guys, though."

But it wouldn't be easy.

One wrong move could mean death, or something even worse.

At Geon-su's words, Su-myeon thought for a moment, then pulled out the documents he had brought inside his sukajan and showed them to him.

"......What's this?"

"I'm an agent of the Unnatural Threat Governance Bureau. A government agency."

"An agent......?"

You're saying you're not actually a high school student?

Geon-su paused as if trying to process what he'd just heard, then looked through the documents Su-myeon had handed him.

The very first page was blunt and detailed.

[Safety Rules of The Infinite Campus]

1. Entry Methods

1-1) The third step on the third floor of a specific high school.

1-2) Stand in front of the third mirror in the third restroom on the third floor of a specific high school with a knife in your mouth at 3 AM.

However, the process of being pulled into the ghost story by something inside the mirror carries a risk of injury and is not recommended.

.

.

.

The neatly organized entries, laid out almost like an instruction manual, detailed the countermeasures for each class.

And the final item, number 10, contained a comprehensive escape method.

Geon-su skimmed through the document, then looked up at Su-myeon with shaken eyes.

Having survived inside this ghost story for so long, he could tell.

A significant number of the rules recorded in those documents matched the ones Geon-su himself had confirmed through sheer survival.

The contents were frighteningly close to the truth.

"We came here to find someone, but even setting that aside — we're going to rescue everyone we can."

Since the other students were presumably all real people who had fallen in from outside, bringing them back would constitute a meaningful rescue operation.

But forcibly dragging out people who had already lost most of their sense of self and become synchronized with this world would undoubtedly cause enormous trouble.

Hadn't they already experienced that when rescuing Hyeon-seok from Baekya Land?

Even with Hyeon-seok regaining his sense of self and running alongside them, the escape had been anything but easy.

That meant their priority had to be the people who still had their wits about them.

People capable of following them out on their own two feet.

"If you just stay with us, we can get out together."

Rescuing Geon-su alone would already make the operation worthwhile.

But they couldn't go back with only him.

The reason they had rushed into this place in the first place was Ha-min's friend, who had entered the ghost story only yesterday.

There was still a chance he was all right.

They needed to keep searching.

"We've got five people. Should we split up?"

Hwi-yeon, who had been listening to Su-myeon and Geon-su's exchange, spoke up.

"We should secure the escape route as quickly as possible while searching for more people to rescue at the same time."

Han-su nodded in agreement.

Ha-min wanted nothing more than to insist that he wouldn't leave until his friend was found.

But even he understood where the line had to be drawn.

The fact that the others — people who were essentially strangers to his missing friends — had come this far for him was already an extraordinary act of goodwill.

Asking them to remain here indefinitely would be unreasonable.

"Then take this with you, Han-su."

Since Su-myeon already had every rule memorized, he slipped the Infinite Campus safety guidelines into Han-su's jacket pocket.

"Hwi-yeon and I will look for the key."

Broadly speaking, there were two ways to obtain the rooftop key from Peter Pan.

Build rapport through conversation, earn hints from him, then use those hints to find and steal the hidden key.

Or kill Peter Pan and farm the key from him.

'If it can be farmed, that means there are two keys — the one he carries and the hidden one....'

If they could pull off even one of those methods, escape would become possible.

The more options they had, the better.

So Su-myeon decided to keep open the possibility of stealing the key Peter Pan currently carried as well.

"The other three, head to the science lab first and see if you can find Ha-min's friends."

Keep checking the Heartphone constantly.

Message us the moment you find anything or run into trouble.

Su-myeon finished with that reminder.

Cheshire, who had been silently watching the entire exchange, tapped Su-myeon's cheek again.

"Hey~?"

Geon-su's eyes widened at the sight of a doll that could move and speak.

Since Cheshire rarely bothered to stir, Su-myeon felt a prickle of foreboding.

What is it this time?

Thinking that, he reflexively hid his hand as he looked at the doll.

Cheshire stretched out one round cotton arm and pointed ahead.

"That kid keeps staring at you~"

"......"

Why did bad feelings always turn out to be right?

At Cheshire's words, Su-myeon slowly turned his head.

The "kid" Cheshire meant was none other than the infamous number 3.

Peter Pan.

He had the refined, handsome face of a model student, with neat features and a gentle impression.

Unlike the other students, he wore a natural, effortless smile as he gazed at Su-myeon.

And the moment their eyes met, he even gave him a playful wink.

"......Everyone who needs to go, go."

Su-myeon forced an awkward smile in return and spoke.

The science lab was dangerous in its own way, but the classes themselves were manageable as long as the rules were followed.

Peter Pan, on the other hand, was an intelligent being capable of conversation.

He was far more likely to create complications.

And for matters like that, Su-myeon — who had most of the rules committed to memory — was the best person to handle him.

"We'll message you if anything happens."

Lingering here would only waste time.

Reading the situation, Han-su rose from his seat and took the two boys with him.

After Geon-su left, Hwi-yeon moved into the seat beside Su-myeon and spoke.

"He's coming over."

I know.

I can see him too.

Damn it.

Watching Peter Pan approach them directly, Su-myeon's mind raced.

Peter Pan was, by default, friendly toward visitors.

Regardless of the methods he used, his goal was always the same.

To make visitors remain here for as long as possible.

To preserve this school as a fantasy Neverland.

An eternal world of children.

Peter Pan sat down beside Wendy in the seat in front of Su-myeon, turned all the way around, and looked straight at him.

"Hi."

......The boss of this ghost story had opened with a greeting whose intention was impossible to read.

***

Geon-su kept glancing back as they left Class 3-3.

The two people they had left behind weighed heavily on his mind.

"Is it really okay to just leave them there?"

"Su-myeon will be fine! Uh, probably. And Hwi-yeon should be okay too, right?"

Ha-min's supposedly reassuring answer only deepened Geon-su's frown.

It was true that the man called Su-myeon gave off an unusual air, and those astonishing documents were real.

But this was a place where common sense simply did not apply.

Was that level of confidence really justified?

With those doubts lingering in his mind, the three of them — Han-su included — headed straight down to the first floor.

"The farther down you go, it gets kind of...."

Geon-su swallowed hard, visibly tense as they reached the first floor.

He searched for the right word.

During the brief silence, Han-su supplied it for him.

"I know. It's disturbing."

Disturbing.

That was probably the closest word for it.

But even that didn't feel quite right.

"Everyone who tries to escape heads for the first floor first."

The students on the third floor were mostly those who had been trapped here for a long time.

The lower the floor, the more recently arrived the students tended to be.

And because of that—

"The atmosphere is... not great."

[Science Lab]

They reached the science lab just as the bell rang, signaling the end of break.

Han-su did not hesitate.

He stepped inside.

"......"

The room was filled with students whose eyes were unmistakably brimming with fear.

By now, everyone seemed to understand that wandering around outside only resulted in being dragged back.

Han-su, Ha-min, and Geon-su headed for the seats in the farthest corner at the back, just as they had before.

RATTLE—

"Mmph! Mmph! Nnngh!"

Along with the sound of a door opening came a muffled, desperate scream.

The Shadow Teacher entered.

And beside it came a grotesque creature.

Clutched in the creature's grip was a student, his limbs bound and restrained.

'Security.'

Geon-su mouthed the word and pointed toward the grotesque creature.

Its wings were matted with sparse, tangled cobwebs.

Its outer skin had rotted and dissolved so badly that it seemed to be melting, dragging along the floor as it made its way toward the center of the science lab.

It dropped the bound student roughly onto the central table.

The other students, who had been barely suppressing their screams and frightened whimpers until then, scrambled out of their seats all at once and pressed themselves as far away from the table as possible.

[Dissection Lab]

The grotesque creature spread the bound student's limbs apart and strapped him spread-eagle to the table.

Meanwhile, at the front of the classroom, the Shadow Teacher wrote four chilling characters across the blackboard.

"...!"

Ha-min suddenly tugged on Han-su's sleeve.

Han-su had been staring at the student on the table, his brow furrowed with helpless frustration at wanting to save him while knowing he couldn't.

He barely managed to tear his gaze away.

Ha-min stretched out a hand and pointed, whispering.

There, in the corner, curled up as tightly as he could, was another student.

It quickly became apparent that the student's uniform was the same as Ha-min's.

"That's him. My friend who disappeared yesterday...!"