Chapter 95: CHAPTER. 5 Dragon Palace Hospital (1)

1. Entry Method

Basically, refer to the night-shift rules distributed to the nurses within the hospital.

If the unusual clauses specified in those work rules are violated, entry into the ghost story becomes possible.

However, caution is required because it is unclear how far the affected area extends.

The hospital at night definitely gave off a different impression from during the day.

The lobby was still brightly lit, but no employees were in sight.

The emergency room was probably the only place still fully active at this hour.

When they went up to the sixth floor, where the pediatric ward was located, they were greeted by dim lights and the intermittent sounds of machinery.

The alien noises made by various medical devices as they carried out their respective functions. Electronic hums. Subtle disturbances.

Completely different people from the nurses they had seen during the day were sitting at the pediatric station.

“We were informed in advance.”

Though they regarded them with unfamiliarity, they made room for Su-myeon, Cheshire, and Ju-hee.

“But then the three of you are.... just going to stay here with us all night like this?”

Even so, the nurses could not hide their discomfort.

Especially because Cheshire apparently did not even want to sit in a chair, and had gone beyond sitting on the floor to practically lying down.

“I’ve been so sleepy lately....”

The human body. It’s so inefficient, and heavy....

On top of that, from the nurses’ perspective, he kept saying things that made them seriously concerned about his mental health.

At this point, Cheshire was more frightening than the hypothetical(?) person crawling around on all fours in the safety rules.

“Don’t worry about him, and you don’t need to pay attention to him. He’s just... someone whose chuunibyou came a little late.”

Even at Su-myeon’s attempt to reassure the nurses, Cheshire only snickered.

To be fair, unlike how he had been dressed during the day, Su-myeon was now wearing a flashy sukajan himself, so he did not exactly give off a particularly respectable impression either.

Ju-hee was barely managing to preserve a normal image for the group.

The nurses exchanged uneasy looks and returned to their work.

Su-myeon also went over the rules he had saved on his phone once again and leisurely waited for an opportunity to present itself.

If he had his way, he wanted to simply lie down like Cheshire.

But for timid Su-myeon, doing something that conspicuous was a little too much.

“Good grief, ma’am. I told you Su-chan has to start fasting from midnight.”

“It’s been twenty minutes, twenty minutes. Ah, just let me feed him this much!”

“If you keep doing this, he won’t be able to have surgery tomorrow either.”

The nurses’ hardships could be felt directly from the voices that rang out every so often.

It was a children’s ward, but apparently they often suffered because of the guardians rather than the children.

“You all have it rough.”

“No, actually, a day like today is pretty peaceful.”

After sharing the same space for several hours, the nurses seemed to have grown less uncomfortable around them.

They answered Su-myeon’s question in a much more relaxed atmosphere as well.

If possible, he wanted to resolve everything today. But perhaps the night would pass without any unusual phenomena at all.

By now, the team that had decided to go to White Night Land had probably already entered as well.

And so, time passed in an excruciatingly boring manner.

Riiing―

Su-myeon, who had unknowingly dozed off while sitting in his chair, opened his eyes at the sudden mechanical sound.

It was a call sound he had already heard several times, yet for some reason this one gave him a strange feeling.

“Oh? It’s here.”

The nurse’s words proved Su-myeon’s intuition correct.

Su-myeon got up from his seat and approached her.

“It’s an error call from Room 666? This is what you were waiting for, right?”

At the nurse’s words, Su-myeon nodded.

What an annoyingly ominous number.

The sequence of ill-fated digits appeared on the small digital display.

Riiing―

As though urging them to answer quickly. The sound rang again and again.

Ju-hee also approached Su-myeon and examined the display with a tense expression.

Su-myeon spoke to the nurses.

“...Could you clear the area for a moment?”

“Excuse me?”

The nurse asked back in surprise at Su-myeon’s request.

“Go upstairs. If you run into anyone, take them upstairs with you as well and rest there for just ten minutes.”

“Ah, but....”

Leave every patient room unattended for ten whole minutes without even a single nurse?

There was absolutely no way they could do that.

“Just ten minutes. Go upstairs, have something with the nurses on the floor above, and come back down. And absolutely do not come back before then.”

Ju-hee said the same thing and handed them the bag of snacks she had brought.

“The official notice. You remember it, right?”

Su-myeon emphasized it again. The official notice stating that they were affiliated with a government agency and that their requests were to be followed.

The nurse remembered it again and nodded with a hesitant expression.

Since it was only the floor directly above, it also seemed unlikely that anything serious would happen.

“Then if anything happens, please, call us immediately.”

“Of course. Go take a short break. Ah, I’ll have one of these.”

As Su-myeon sent the nurses out, he took one roll cake from among the snacks they had been given.

Even during all of that, the call sound continued without stopping.

“Go on. Quickly.”

Worried that the sound might stop, Su-myeon urged them again, and the nurses rose from their seats.

The sound of the nurses stepping onto the stairs echoed and gradually faded away.

At some point, Cheshire had also awakened and was sitting against the wall, while Ju-hee stood ready beside Su-myeon.

After confirming the two of them, Su-myeon pressed the receive button on the call unit.

Click―

When he answered the ringing call.

―My stomach... my stomach hurts so much....

The young voice of a boy came through the poor-quality receiver.

―My stomach, my stomach....

It sounded like an ordinary nighttime call from a child.

But soon, like a broken tape, it began rapidly repeating the same phrase.

―mystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurtsmystomachhurts

A voice speaking at a speed no human could possibly produce.

A faint hint of laughter was mixed into the breathless voice.

The grotesque sound instinctively raised goosebumps along his arms.

“.......”

And then it suddenly fell silent, as though the power had been cut.

Had the call disconnected? The thought had barely crossed his mind when.

Thk―

The instant he registered the silence, every light around them went out.

They were suddenly swallowed by darkness.

His eyes, not yet adjusted to the dark, could not see anything.

Su-myeon felt Ju-hee suddenly grab his hand.

“.......”

A terribly cold, small hand.

......Had Ju-hee’s hand always been this small?

***

Han-su undid the locks wrapped in several layers around the entrance to the Governance basement one by one.

When he headed underground, Mu-yeon and Hwi-yeon followed behind him.

〈 The Light of Happiness That Never Goes Out, Even at Midnight! 〉

― White Night Land Free Pass ―

The basement was littered with tickets just like last time, or perhaps even more than last time.

Han-su picked up several of the tickets scattered around.

“You need to pay close attention to the ticket issue numbers.”

They had to choose ones that did not contain 4, 6, or 13.

Hwi-yeon, remembering the rules Su-myeon had passed along, also looked through the tickets and selected some.

“But does this actually mean anything?”

“Su-myeon thinks it’s probably related to the admission wristbands you receive once you go inside.”

The admission wristbands had also been mentioned in the guidance rules.

Hadn’t it said that each color had a different effect?

“But even after doing that, the Chief still received a red one, didn’t he?”

“That....”

That was also the very reason Su-myeon had been unable to return here.

From the very beginning, White Night Land had seemed to distinguish Su-myeon’s identity in a particularly unusual way.

“He says there seems to be a rule that applies only to him.”

Su-myeon definitely differed from the others in many ways.

For instance, there was even his Heartphone code name.

Unlike everyone else, whose code names consisted of specific words, Su-myeon had a code made entirely of #.

On top of that, the Heartphone itself was a special feature that could only be used by those who had entered ghost stories together with Su-myeon.

“He’s different from everyone else, isn’t he?”

Su-myeon certainly seemed different even in their eyes.

They had received a great deal of help because of that, so Hwi-yeon accepted the matter concerning Su-myeon and began thinking about something else.

“Should we draw one for Mu-yeon too?”

“Ah.......”

Apparently Han-su had not thought of that either, and paused to consider it.

In the end, after thinking it over, the two selected one more ticket and placed it in Mu-yeon’s mouth.

“Then let’s enter.”

The two people and one beast opened the door leading deeper underground.

The damp, chilly, oppressive air peculiar to a basement immediately washed over them.

As the three waited for midnight, faintly cheerful background music began drifting into their ears from somewhere far away.

They registered the sound first, and when they raised their heads.

A brightly illuminated amusement park covered in dazzling lights stood before them.

“......?”

Han-su, who had already been to White Night Land before, looked around again in confusion.

Seeing his reaction, Hwi-yeon also felt a trace of unease and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

Even after Hwi-yeon’s question, Han-su looked around several more times before answering with a grave expression.

“......It’s changed....”

There was only one reason Han-su was so startled.

The amusement park, which had been modern when he came here last time, had completely changed in appearance.

It was now a run-down, small-scale amusement park resembling an American theme park from the 1990s.

An eerie flute melody continued endlessly, sounding as though it were being played from an old record.

The strange sense of foreboding carried by its peculiar notes was accompanied by a sharp cheerfulness, to the point that he wanted to tear his own ears off just to stop hearing it.

Han-su maintained his composure as much as possible and split the calming pill he had brought in half with Hwi-yeon.

“A lot has changed. It looks like we need to be careful.”

Hwi-yeon, also feeling somewhat unsettled, moved close beside Mu-yeon and swallowed the foul-tasting medicine.

Mu-yeon’s tail also drooped as he warily surveyed their surroundings.

She, too, had previously reviewed the various reports about White Night Land.

The reports had clearly said it was no different from any ordinary theme park one might see in reality, but what stood before them looked too decrepit even to be called a movie set.

The poorly maintained, rust-covered rides looked as though simply getting on them would be enough to contract tetanus.

“...It’ll be okay, right?”

For now, the two checked the direction they had come from.

The stairs that appeared to lead to the exit were still there.

“For now, as long as we don’t lose the exit and can return to it, we should be fine.”

Yet even as he said that, Han-su could not shake his unease.

Whereas the original amusement park had been a massive indoor theme park, this one was now a small amusement park sitting in the middle of an outdoor forest.

And yet the exit leading back upstairs was simply sitting there behind them.

It reminded him somewhat of the exit from The Mountain of the Red Cloak, and he also had the feeling that if they moved a little farther away, it might disappear like a mirage.

He did not particularly want to voice such an ominous thought, though.

“......For now, how about we look around a little, and if anything seems even slightly strange, we turn back?”

Hwi-yeon was feeling the same sort of unease.

Even if the decision made them look cowardly, it could not be helped.

Today, Su-myeon was not beside them to respond if an emergency arose.

They had no choice but to navigate the situation relying solely on their own judgment.

“For now, let’s take turns wearing earplugs for ten minutes at a time.”

With the flute sound continuing to scrape through their brains, Han-su handed Hwi-yeon a pair of earplugs.

Without complaint, Hwi-yeon blocked her ears first, while Mu-yeon took the lead in front of her.