Chapter 50

[6. How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know? How did you know?]

An unfamiliar voice came from behind him.

Han-su had lost count of how many times something had ambushed him from behind by now, but goosebumps still prickled across his skin.

His back was against the wall — no.

More precisely, against a display cabinet.

There was no possible way anyone could be standing behind him.

"How did you know?"

And yet something inside the display cabinet at his back muttered the words again.

Their necks stiff as rusted screws, the three of them slowly turned around.

Dozens of severed human body parts floated in formalin jars on top of the cabinet.

"...."

But among them, there was nothing capable of speech.

Looking more closely, Han-su saw that the cabinet itself, fitted with steel doors like a filing cabinet, had a narrow ventilation slit.

Just as he cautiously leaned in to peer through it—

Thud.

Another knock-like impact reverberated from inside, making them all take a step back.

There was definitely something in there.

Han-su carefully folded the safety rules he'd been reading and slipped them back into his pocket.

Geon-su, true to someone who had survived in this place for so long, merely stiffened his expression.

On the surface, at least, he remained calm.

"......Have you ever seen what's inside?"

Han-su asked Min-jun and Geon-su, who had been trapped here far longer than he had.

Min-jun, whose mouth was still covered by Ha-min's hand, shook his head.

Geon-su answered while looking like he was prepared to turn and bolt at any second.

"I've never opened it either."

If he'd been the kind of person who carelessly opened anything he found in a place like this, he wouldn't have survived even a single day in one piece.

"...."

Han-su wanted an answer, but there was no one else to ask.

The students around them were still staring at the floor, as though terror had stripped them of their ability to think.

No one interfered.

No one offered them any information.

Han-su was still wrestling with the urge to open the cabinet when—

THUD!

Another tremendous impact came from inside.

And at last, unable to withstand the force, the cabinet door burst open.

"...!"

Han-su and the two high schoolers flinched back, the latter practically clinging to one another by now.

Something tumbled out of the cabinet and landed directly in front of Geon-su.

It was an anatomical model with its abdomen split wide open, just like the student who had been dissected earlier.

The model hit the floor with a dull thump, as though its body were made of plastic or rubber.

It trembled as if trying desperately to say something.

Geon-su cautiously nudged it with his foot and rolled it over.

"...."

There wasn't a single drop of blood.

The skin and muscles of its abdomen had been completely cut away and fixed open, as though the body had been mounted for display.

It was a gruesome sight.

Yet the instant they saw its face, the expressions of the two terrified high schoolers changed.

"Park Ian...?"

"Ian... Park Ian, is that you?"

At the sound of their voices, Han-su understood immediately.

Whether this was fortunate or unfortunate, he couldn't say.

But the other student Ha-min had been searching for appeared to be this anatomical model.

"How did you kn... how di........"

The model muttered like a broken recording as its limbs twitched.

Its eyes rolled wildly, as though rejecting the rigid body they were trapped inside, before finally fixing on Ha-min.

"He sees everything!"

The words tore from its throat with the last of its strength.

Then the model went rigid again, utterly spent.

There was no longer any time to hesitate.

Han-su immediately hoisted the anatomical model onto his shoulder and ran out of the science lab with the three high schoolers.

***

Su-myeon was flustered.

How much did Peter Pan, effectively the master of this ghost story, actually know?

And just how far did his power extend?

That was something Su-myeon couldn't be certain of.

The only thing he knew for sure was the rules governing this place.

"Answer me. Hm? Answer me. How? Hm? How did you know."

Peter Pan pressed him for an answer, his pitch-black eyes gleaming with madness.

Through the Eye of Truth — so intensely that a sharp pain stabbed through Su-myeon's left eye — he saw the being before him swell and writhe, transforming into something beyond description.

An invisible pressure settled over Su-myeon's shoulders.

But he didn't panic.

Instead, he calmly recalled the safety rules he had written down.

The rules for staying safe in the Infinite Campus.

Item six.

6. Rules for Circumventing an Encounter with Peter Pan6-1) Lure the clock crocodiles from the playing field indoors.

   Care must be taken to avoid being bitten by the clock crocodiles' teeth.

   6-2) Approach him with childlike innocence and win his favor.

   The more one behaves like a child, the greater the kinship Peter Pan feels and the more he lowers his guard; this method is recommended.

   It may allow one to learn the whereabouts of the key.

   'What I can actually manage right now....'

   Su-myeon swallowed against his dry throat, then answered.

   "If you're curious, that'll be five coins."

   He could practically feel Hwi-yeon turning to stare at him, her movement so stiff it seemed like her neck should have creaked.

   His face burned with embarrassment, but Hwi-yeon surely understood exactly what he was doing.

   Even if none of them had memorized every rule he'd written, they had all read through them several times.

   There was no way she wouldn't remember this one.

   Borrowing Belle's line, Su-myeon resolved to cast aside all shame.

   "Come on. Where's the fun if I just tell you for free? If you're curious, give me something. Shouldn't we at least make a bet?"

   At Su-myeon's words, Peter Pan stopped dead.

   The crushing pressure vanished in an instant.

   At the same time, Peter Pan's grotesquely distorted true form — so warped it hurt just to look at — began to subside.

   Seeing Peter Pan blink at him with a noticeably gentler expression, Su-myeon breathed an inward sigh of relief and continued.

   "How about hide-and-seek?"

   "Hide-and-seek?"

   Peter Pan echoed the words with obvious interest.

   "That's... true. Just being told outright... would be dull, wouldn't it?"

   Hwi-yeon joined in, delivering the line with all the emotion of someone reading from a textbook.

   Su-myeon had thought having a trained agent with him would be reassuring.

   Unfortunately, she seemed completely useless in situations that required acting.

   Peter Pan, however, didn't appear to care about her awkward delivery in the slightest.

   He grinned.

   Apparently, he liked the idea of hide-and-seek quite a lot.

   "It's been a really long time since I played that. Sounds fun."

   Su-myeon had successfully redirected Peter Pan's attention.

   For the moment, it seemed they might actually be able to get out of this classroom.

   And, along with that—

   Perhaps even escape the ghost story.

   [#BELL : There's someone there who can help you.]

   Su-myeon looked down at the message that had suddenly chimed on his Heartphone.

   The moment he'd entered this place, he'd sent his location along with a greeting just in case.

   Belle's reply couldn't have arrived at a better time.

   Someone who could help....

   After thinking for a moment, Su-myeon poked Wendy, who was sitting quietly in the seat in front of him, and asked,

   "Since we're doing it anyway. Do you want to join too?"

   Wendy, who had been listening to everything with a blank expression, turned toward him in confusion.

   "Why would I....."

   "Why not? The more people in a game, the better. Right?"

   At Su-myeon's deliberately childish remark, Peter Pan nodded, looking even more pleased.

   "Of course. The rules?"

   Something about hearing the word "rules" from Peter Pan's mouth struck Su-myeon as strangely ironic.

   He had always thought of himself as someone who merely followed rules or organized them.

   And yet lately, somehow, he kept finding himself in the position of creating them.

   It wasn't something he'd ever intended.

   He simply refused to let the opportunities that came his way slip through his fingers.

   "When the next period starts, I'll hide for twenty minutes."

   Then Peter Pan would seek.

   The rules of hide-and-seek were simple.

   "You get thirty minutes after that to look for me. If you find me within that time, you win. If I manage to stay hidden, I win."

   To those obvious rules, Su-myeon added one extra condition under the guise of making the game more interesting.

   "Finding Wendy or Hwi-yeon doesn't count. You only win if you find me."

   Peter Pan listened quietly to every condition Su-myeon laid out.

   All the while, he wore a smile whose meaning was impossible to read.

   Then he nodded without a single objection.

   "Good. Then the winner gets to ask a question, right?"

   "That's right. In exchange, the loser has to answer honestly, no matter what."

   Su-myeon made that point perfectly clear to Peter Pan.

   If he could just stay hidden for thirty minutes, he'd be able to ask where the key to the rooftop was.

   If he managed to accomplish his other objectives during that time, even better.

   And if he couldn't, leaving with only the students they'd already found would still make this rescue operation a success.

   "Then... what about class?"

   Once it seemed that the bet between the two had been settled, Wendy cautiously raised a question.

   Anyone who left freely during class would be punished.

   So within the confines of that rule, how exactly would Peter Pan play the game?

   Within the game itself, the characters only ever followed their predetermined scripts, so this was something Su-myeon had never been able to test.

   "...."

   That was another reason he'd proposed the game.

   He wanted to learn how entities who ruled over a ghost story could bend its rules.

   As Peter Pan fell silent, apparently considering the matter, Su-myeon slipped in the bait.

   "Isn't it about time for lunch?"

   In the Infinite Campus, time never progressed beyond three o'clock.

   The days were far too short.

   The clock would reach 3:59 as the sun began to set—

   and then, in the very next moment, return to exactly three o'clock.

   But as far as Su-myeon knew, nothing in the rules explicitly stated that time had to behave that way.

   If so—

   Couldn't that limitation be broken?

   At Su-myeon's words, Peter Pan blinked.

   And the light outside the window, until then stained a deep crimson, began to turn white.

   ***

   Han-su and Ha-min, who had fled the science lab carrying the anatomical model, also turned to look out the window.

   Bright white light streamed through the glass, stretching in long bands across the hallway floor.

   Only the sky had brightened.

   The world beyond the school remained completely invisible, as though painted over in pitch-black darkness.

   Even so, that small change alone seemed to thin the ominous atmosphere hanging over the building.

   "Why... is the sky....."

   Even Geon-su, who had survived here for so long, had never seen anything except sunset.

   They all froze at the sudden change.

   Then the bell rang again.

   "Hurry up and decide where to go!"

   Snapping back to his senses, Geon-su urged them on frantically.

   Break was over.

   Wandering around carelessly during class time was dangerous.

   Han-su stepped forward, intending to lead the kids away, but—

   "........"

   Every closed classroom door flew open at once.

   Students poured into the hall.

   A rising tide of muttering voices spilled from the classrooms as the students began moving together in a single direction.

   But the atmosphere was completely different from the break they had experienced on the third floor.

   "Nonono, I don't want to...!"

   "Happy art class! Todaywetearyourskinintoshredsandpullouttheheartinsideandcrushitontothedrawingpaper...."

   Even at a glance, the atmosphere here was far more disturbing than the break on the third floor.

   It was every bit as chilling.

   And yet Su-myeon had said that this side of the school was actually less deeply affected by the ghost story.

   That there would be more children here who could still be saved than on the completely brainwashed third floor....

   "Th... this? What is this? This has never....."

   Happened before.

   As Han-su looked around, Geon-su muttered in bewilderment.

   For someone who had survived all this time by thinking of nothing but obeying the rules, a sudden change like this was bound to be disorienting.

   Han-su turned to Ha-min.

   "Your school. Where's the cafeteria?"

   At Han-su's question, Ha-min let out an "Ah!"

   There was only one time when students poured out of their classrooms and rushed together in the same direction.

   Lunchtime.

   "Second floor. It's past the bridge leading to the annex. The way those kids are going right now."

   The bridge connecting the annex to the main building was on the second floor.

   The students were heading there now, and once lunch period ended, they would presumably return the same way.

   Simply understanding what was happening seemed to calm Geon-su down a little.

   After checking on him, Han-su adjusted the student-turned-anatomical-model on his shoulder and pulled out his phone.

   As though it were the most natural thing in the world, the time displayed on the screen had changed to exactly 12:00.

   And there was one new message from Su-myeon.

   [Su-myeon : Where is everyone]