Trigger WARNING: This chapter contains description of extremely gorey content. Readers, please be advised.
⑥ Detective Jang Gihoon
“The victim is Detective Jang Gihoon. It’s you.”
Bang!
“There is a limit to nonsense, a limit!!”
He suddenly shouted, slamming hard on the desk.
“I was keeping quiet because your homeroom teacher is here, but you just keep spewing nonsense!!!”
“Shut the hell up!!”
I also snapped back at the same time, unleashing all the anger and frustration I had been holding in.
“You think I’m a pushover just because I held back? Raise your voice one more time and see what happens!!”
Sunah gripped the boxcutter tightly and raised it.
Jinhee also took a big step toward me, glaring at the detective.
“……”
Even Dukhun silently blocked the doorway with his large frame.
The detective glanced around with a hardened expression, then swallowed his anger and fixed his glare on me.
“…You’re threatening an active-duty South Korean detective right now—”
“Doesn’t seem so? Just making sure a criminal doesn’t get away.”
“……”
Trembling as if in anger, he brought up what he was saying earlier.
“…..The culprit is Detective Jang Gihoon. But the victim is also Detective Jang Gihoon.”
“……”
“…..You’re saying I’m investigating to find the killer after killing myself? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
“…Yes. That’s how it is.”
I nodded with a shameless expression.
But the gears in my head were spinning quickly.
‘Why did I choose Detective Jang Gihoon as the victim?’
It’s the same logic I used earlier to pick the culprit.
‘Elimination method.’
First, check the number of people in the school.
From the teachers to the students, and even the cafeteria and administrative staff, it has already been confirmed that everyone who should be present during the check was alive and in their place.
In that case, the identity of the corpse wasn’t someone from within the school, it’s obviously an outsider.
And here, inside this broadcasting room, if we eliminate everyone affiliated with the school, coincidentally, only one person, an outsider, remains.
The detective right in front of me.
He’s the only outsider here.
Therefore, the body lying in the first-floor hallway was none other than Detective Jang Gihoon standing before us.
“You killed Detective Jang Gihoon.”
“Seriously!”
Bang, he slammed the desk again.
“Does that make any sense, huh? Does that make any f*cking sense?! How the hell do I kill myself!”
“That would only make sense if you really were Detective Jang Gihoon.”
“……!!!”
In that moment, his eyes widened, and at the same time, the others’ pupils also dilated.
“Oh, my God…!!”
“What, what……!!?”
Everyone let out a loud gasp in shock.
Gyeongwon nodded, sweating profusely.
“Th, that’s what you meant, Prez……”
“……”
The detective gritted his teeth, trembling uncontrollably at my absurd logic.
“Th-This…..”
Suddenly, he put his hand in his pocket, swiftly pulled out his wallet, and threw it at me.
Thump!
Sunah flinched but quickly stepped forward, taking the hit for me.
The detective’s leather wallet hit Sunah’s school skirt and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
“Pick it up and check the ID. Right now.”
“No, thank you.”
“Check it!!!! Compare it with my face!!”
“Don’t pick it up, Sunah.”
I stopped Sunah, who was about to bend down and pick it up for me, then kicked the wallet aside with my foot.
“No need for that.”
“……”
“I know better than anyone else that the person standing in front of me right now is Detective Jang Gihoon himself.”
“T, this is… seriously……”
He clenched his fists tightly, trembling uncontrollably.
“Are you kidding me now….. You just said it wasn’t me, and now you’re saying it is… Nonsense, a bunch of nonsense……”
“That depends on what you define a person as.”
I looked into his wide-open eyes and quietly said to myself.
‘Status Window.’
Pop-
《Status Window
Name: Jang Gihoon
Age: 36
Title: Young Detective
Disposition: ???
Special Ability: None
Quirk: ???
Understanding: 0/100》
“The person in front of us is indeed Detective Jang Gihoon.”
“……”
“But at the same time, he is not Detective Jang Gihoon himself.”
As evidence of that, despite having clashed emotionally with him all day today, my understanding of him hasn’t increased at all.
“Hmm, are you saying he’s imitating him, Prez?”
“It’s a bit different from imitation. But… what’s certain is that this man killed him, and ‘became’ Detective Jang Gihoon himself.”
“……!!”
“What, what do you mean…!!”
“Wh-what… what’s happening right now…!!”
Everyone was making expressions of complete confusion.
In the small, cramped broadcasting room, the gazes of ten people all turned toward him.
“…I, I have become Detective Jang Gihoon.”
He trembled, his eyes fixed on the ground.
“…So what you’re saying is, I actually killed Detective Jang Gihoon and am pretending to be him, is that it……?”
“It’s more than that.”
It’s more than imitation.
He has possessed Detective Jang Gihoon.
“This, this p*nk……”
He glared at me, then suddenly clenched his jaw, biting his lip hard. After a moment, he flashed an evil smile and opened his mouth again.
“…Then go ahead and yap all you want, you childish little brat.”
Then he spread both arms wide and raised them up.
“If I’m not Detective Jang Gihoon, then who the hell am I standing here~?”
“……”
“Go on, answer me. Answer me now.”
“……”
“If I’m not that person, then who am I?”
“Who are you?”
① The cult leader of the Dogma of Void, In Taesang
② The Chairman of Clover Corporation, Chun Seungja
③ The girl from the cult, In Hayoon
① The cult leader of the Dogma of Void, In Taesang
“W-What did you saaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
At my answer, the homeroom teacher jumped up in shock, yelling loudly.
“Are, are you saying that’s true!!!!!! What do you mean by that……!!!!”
“……”
“Wh-Why…..!! What the hell are you!!!!!!!!!! Talking about all of a sudden…….!!!!”
“……”
“Why is that name coming up now—!! Why— Ah, ah…?”
After a moment, the homeroom teacher looked around the quiet broadcasting room, then suddenly covered his mouth with a look of realization.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“Who is that?”
The detective looked at me with a blank expression and asked.
Instead of answering, I slowly glanced around at the people in the broadcasting room.
Science teacher Han Ari, Vice Class President Lee Chaerin, and church girl Joo Yeseul.
The three ordinary people all have bewildered expressions on their faces.
The only one showing an excessive reaction was the homeroom teacher, who had his mouth tightly shut and was turning his head away.
[Your understanding of the character Park Damim has increased by 5.]
‘…The three girls aren’t from the Dogma of Void.’
I can rest easy about these people in the future school life.
“….P, Prez. Why is that name coming up here…..”
As I remained silent, only observing their reactions, Gyeongwon nervously asked me.
Sunah turned to me, whispering with a worried expression.
“Joon… I don’t think that’s the right answer… Let’s try again……”
I nodded in agreement.
“I was just testing. Let me say it again. Your identity is—”
② The Chairman of Clover Corporation, Chun Seungja
“Chun Seungja!!! That person!!!! That person is here!!!!!”
At my answer, Gyeongwon suddenly shouted in panic, looking around the broadcasting room in shock.
“Where!! Where!!! Where is he-”
Then, with a sudden realization, Gyeongwon looked at me.
“…P, Prez, you were just testing, right?”
“Yeah.”
People in the broadcasting room looked at me with skeptical eyes.
This time, I quickly observed the others.
Unfortunately, no one was reacting strongly this time.
Except for Gyeongwon next to me.
Sunah turned to me again, whispering with a worried expression.
“Joon… I don’t think that’s the right answer either… Why don’t you try again……”
I nodded.
“I was just testing it again. Let me say it again. Your identity is—”
③ The girl from the cult, In Hayoon.
“……”
Hayoon lowered her eyelashes and coldly stared at the floor.
People slowly looked at me with expressions of boredom.
Gyeongwon was the only one who looked around flusteredly and tried to infer the meaning of what I said.
“…No, that’s not it. It couldn’t be Hayoon, I was just about to say something else.”
I quickly raised my hand in protest.
“……”
“Because Hayoon is right here. Right? Isn’t that right?”
“……”
“It can’t be Hayoon, because she’s right here. That’s exactly what I was about to say. Really.”
Gyeongwon wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and burst into an awkward laugh.
“Ah, come on~ Prez… Stop keeping us in suspense and just tell us the answer already~!”
“Alright.”
I slowly raised my finger and pointed at the detective, declaring loudly.
“This morning, the detective came to the school to investigate the latex monster. After finishing the investigation with the homeroom teacher and checking around the school, he was killed by you. Then you, the culprit, pretended to be the detective and hid on the 4th floor. You then jumped down to the 1st floor with the body and broke into the hallway. When you were caught by Teacher Han Ari, you went out through the hallway window again, waited for a while, and then naturally inserted yourself into the investigation to clean up the murder. Your true identity is—”
④ The second mystery of the 7 Mysteries of the School – the human anatomy model in the Science Lab on the 4th floor.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The air in the broadcasting room froze at that answer.
“……”
“……”
The members of the Ghost Story Club and the homeroom teacher looked at the detective with tense expressions.
And the three normal people present still looked confused, not understanding what I was saying at all.
“……”
The detective, still with his arms stretched wide, was simply glaring at me.
“As you said earlier, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors have too many eyes in the classrooms, making it impossible to jump down. The only floors where that’s possible are the 4th or 5th floors.”
“……”
“Then, if we think about what’s on those floors in relation to the identity of the culprit, the answer becomes pretty clear.”
The 4th and 5th floors. What’s kept in there?
There’s no need to even think about it.
We had been caught up in some incident before, and we had frequently gone back and forth between the 4th and 5th floors.
Naturally, the Science Lab on the 4th floor and our clubroom on the 5th floor came to mind.
“If something killed a person and then impersonated them, at the very least, the original form of that ‘something’ would have to look somewhat like a person.”
“……”
“That’s when I remembered. What’s there on the 4th or 5th floor that looks somewhat like a person?”
“……”
“That’s the human anatomy model from the Science Lab on the 4th floor, you.”
I pointed my finger at the detective.
He glared at me with his eyes wide open.
“Then, all the questions are answered. The reason the body was so severely mutilated. The reason no other police officers showed up. The reason you’ve been oddly hostile toward me.”
“……”
“First, the severe mutilation of the body. That must be because you took parts of his body which are necessary to become Detective Jang Gihoon yourself.”
That amount of which was necessary means at least until the system recognized that thing as Detective Jang Gihoon.
‘What is a person?’
If the body of one person is divided into a 49:51 ratio.
Which side will the system recognize as the person and display the Status Window for?
…At least, I thought, the side that only had the skin left, which could be mistaken for a doll, wouldn’t be the one the system recognizes as a person.
“Why aren’t there any other police officers? Because the detective came alone in the morning to investigate Friday’s case just casually. As for why you’ve been hostile toward me? That must be..…”
I paused for a moment as I was about to explain that part.
Thinking about it, it seemed a bit strange.
If the goal was to kill me, that could have been possible at any time.
And even if the goal was to kill me socially, there’s no way he, merely imitating someone, could have put me in prison according to the proper investigative system.
“……”
“……”
The detective, still with his arms stretched wide and glaring at me, and I, staring back at him with the same intensity.
In the tense broadcasting room, a long time passed.
“……”
“……”
“…H-Hey. Hey, over here.”
In the silence, the homeroom teacher, unable to hold back any longer, slowly approached, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
“Well, at least say something, will you… Hmm? Why is that you……”
“……”
Despite the homeroom teacher’s words, the detective just glared at me, his eyes wide as if they were about to pop out at any moment.
“……”
“… Uh, over here. Huh? What are you doing? Look here-”
The homeroom teacher, who was approaching us, suddenly flinched in surprise and slowly backed away.
“……”
“… Joo, Joony….”
“… Yes.”
“Human anatomy model, it is….”
The detective was still glaring at me with his eyes wide open.
No, wait.
He hadn’t been glaring at me all this time.
The face I had thought was just glaring at me fiercely was actually the original expression of a human anatomy model with no eyelids.
“Huh, huh……”
“Wha, what……”
Teacher Han Ari, Vice Class President, and Joo Yeseul were all huddled together with their mouths covered, trembling uncontrollably.
Even the members of Ghost Story Club flinched and quickly stepped back.
“……”
“… Wha, what… What is this……”
“J, just now… he was talking normally……”
The young detective, still with his arms stretched out and his eyes wide open, remained frozen in place.
Slowly, blood spreads through the shabby fabric of his clothes.
Then, something spilled out from between his clothes and fell to the floor at his feet.
“Ah, aahhh—!!!!”
Teacher Han Ari screamed at the sight and then fainted again.
“Ugh, ughhhhh!”
“Haa, aaahhh-!!”
The rest of the people, horrified by the contents spilling from the detective’s clothes, retreated even further.
Plop, thud, thud—
Everyone clung to the walls in terror, watching as the scene unfolded around the detective standing at the center of the broadcasting room.
“That, that’s……”
“Ugh, ugh……!!”
Vice Class President Lee Chaerin covered her mouth and retched.
Joo Yeseul clasped her hands together as if she was praying and lowered her head deeply, trembling as she muttered something under her breath.
“… Joo, Joon……”
Sunah flinched and rushed to my side, trembling.
Under the detective’s clothes, who was still frozen with his arms outstretched, red things poured down onto the floor.
They were the internal organs of Detective Jang Gihoon, which he had been carrying inside his body all this time.
Thud- Thud-
“Haah…..!!”
“Cra, crazy……”
♬ ♪ ♩ ♬
Just at that moment, my phone rang out.
☏ Detective Park Gangwoon
It was Detective Park Gangwoon, the assistant of our Ghost Story Club.
In the tense atmosphere of the broadcasting room, I slowly answered the phone.
Dud-
“… Hello?”
[Joon! Listen carefully to what I’m saying now!]
The detective shouted in a very urgent voice.
[It’s a ghost story! The incident on this side is a ghost story!]
“……!!”
I raised my head in shock.
[The initial cause of the accident is indeed terrorism, as Clover revealed! Someone planted a homemade bomb on the road! Kill yourself immediately and go back in time! Just go back and tell me the location and time! There’s no time to waste!]
“… Yes, I understand. Thank you.”
I hung up the phone and walked past the now-frozen detective, or rather, the human anatomy model that had been pretending to be a detective, and walked towards the panicked club members and declared.
“I’m going up to the rooftop to kill myself now. Don’t let anyone touch this anatomy model.”
“Uh, uh… I understand……”
“Leave it to me……”
Gyeongwon and Dukhun answered while trembling.
I also turned to Jinhee and Hayoon and reminded them firmly.
“Remember. Don’t let anyone touch it.”
“…Okay.”
“…What the f*ck……”
Jinhee spat out curses while looking at the spilling organs, but then motioned for me to go.
“Please take care of it. Then.”
As I opened the door of the broadcasting room and stepped into the hallway, Sunah quickly scurried after me.
“J, Joon……”
“Sunah.”
Sunah grabbed my sleeve, and we quickly hurried down the stairs together.
“I-It’ll be okay. Jinhee and Hayoon are inside… everyone’s keeping watch…”
“…Yeah. I think it’ll be okay too. Thanks for coming with me.”
“Yeah…….”
To kill myself now, I have to go to the rooftop, which is one floor higher than the 5th floor.
And the rooftop key is kept in the administration office.
We hurried down to the administration office in the west hallway on the first floor.
Even as we moved, my mind was constantly racing, trying to make sense of the current situation.
‘… What’s going on? That was a ghost story too?’
The black sky outside, and the murder case inside.
Does this mean two completely different ghost stories have collided at the same time?
‘… This is the first time this has happened. But why……?’
I slid open the door to the administration office and strode straight to the key storage cabinet.
“… Oh my god, what the hell is that?”
“Oh my… What the…”
Fortunately, the few staff members in the administration office were all distracted, gazing out the window.
We quietly grabbed the key labeled rooftop and hurriedly left the administration office.
Just then, the bell for 6th period rang.
♬ ♪ ♩ ♬
Soon, students began pouring out of the classrooms, murmuring in a flurry.
However, unlike the usual lively noise, there was an uneasy tension in the air, with everyone’s murmurs filled with anxiety.
“Hey, hurry up! Let’s go outside and see!”
“If we go to the 5th floor, we can see it better……”
“Whoa, the body is still there. When are they going to clean this up?”
Students hurriedly passed by the mound of white cloth in front of the teachers’ office on the east corridor, visibly startled.
I don’t know what happened, but it seemed there was no one guarding the body anymore.
“Let’s go, Sunah!”
“Yeah……!”
We passed the noisy students and climbed the stairs again.
Amidst it all, the anxious whispers of passing students continued to echo.
“Crazy, this is insane… Is the world ending?”
“Quick, call your parents…”
“Whoaahhh!! What is that…”
As the students screamed, Sunah continuously turned her head in alarm while following me.
We pushed through the students and kept moving, climbing the stairs to the 2nd, then the 3rd floor, and onward.
Eventually, we arrived at the 4th floor.
Suddenly, Sunah called me after seeing something.
“Joon… over there…”
When I turned around, I saw plastic model organs scattered messily across the corridor in front of the Science Lab on the 4th floor.
Those were the organs that were originally inside the human anatomy model.
It seemed the thing switched its organs with Detective Jang Gihoon’s.
“…Let’s go up.”
I glanced at it once and then started climbing the stairs again.
At this point, it didn’t matter anymore.
“Haa, haa.”
“Huff, huff.”
We went up one more floor from the fifth floor and reached the metal door on the 6th floor, which had a warning sign that read [No Entry].
I inserted the key I had taken from the administration office and unlocked the door.
Creak-
The rooftop beyond the metal door, and in the distance, the view of ShinLim Neighborhood beyond the sports field, entered my vision.
“…Crazy.”
I cursed under my breath and quickly ran toward the rooftop.
“Haa, haa……”
“Huff, huff……”
What is that?
Something far away.
Beyond the chaos…
Beyond the realm of space, something of unimaginable size in the shape of a human, was gazing down at the ground from a straight angle.
“Haa, haa……”
Sunah ran beside me, ready to jump off together.
As I ran, my breath was heavy, but beyond that, looking at the sky of ShinLim Neighborhood, my heart raced even more from fear.
I have to kill myself.
I have to kill myself as soon as possible.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud-
Sunah and I sprinted across the rooftop, running full speed.
And together, we jumped up into the air with all our might.
“Uh, uh…..!!”
“Kyaa, kyaaaaaaaah……!!”
At the same time, a message appeared before my eyes.
Pop-
[You have come across and survived a B-rank ghost story – 7 Mysteries of the School ② ‘Human Anatomy Model’ in the Science Lab.]
[You have succeeded in uncovering the identity of the human anatomy model and destroying its original body!]
“……!!”
“Gyaaaaa……”
As I heard the screams of Sunah as she fell beside me, my face turned pale at the message in front of me.
What the.
Why is this appearing now?
[You have earned 70 Ghost Story Points.]
[You have earned 10% bonus points for each contributing member.]
[Contributing members (5 members): Ahn Gyeongwon, Oh Dukhun, Yoon Sunah, Lee Jinhee, In Hayoon]
[You have earned an additional 50% bonus point on total earned 85 points, 43 points]
[Current Ghost Story Points: 173 +85 +43]
Ping~
[Current Ghost Story Points: 301]
Falling together through the empty air.
Staring at the system message before my eyes.
My gaze barely drifted toward the blackened sky of ShinLim Neighborhood.
A black sky filled with ominous energy and a blood-red moon.
A colossal god, large enough to obscure that moon, sat cross-legged floating in the air, silently gazing down upon us from beyond the universe.
[————-]
At the same time, some kind of creatures with wings poured down from the clouds and covered the ground.
Whooooooooooshhh-
As I watched disasters pouring down from the sky like rain, my face landed on the ground before I could even begin to comprehend what was happening.
[You are dead.]
[Restarting from the previous checkpoint.]
[Loading……]
