A tattoo sticker.
It was something the <Moonlight Tattoo Shop> had given me as a bonus.
—Is there a symbol in here related to courage, or the boldness to act without fear?
In response to that question, the tattooist had recommended a tattoo design of a tomato tree….
And they had put that very design into a sticker.
This tattoo I’m currently wearing on my neck.
“…….”
To be honest, I did have some expectations for its effect.
That it would paralyze my fear center, making all these supernatural things less terrifying.
Like Team D… right.
…Just like Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Supervisor Park Minseong used to be.
I wanted to explore these terrifying supernatural phenomena with such composure and lack of hesitation that one might wonder if I’d lost my mind.
But.
“……?”
I blinked inside the locker.
‘It doesn’t… seem to have much effect?’
I thought of the students chasing me.
They’re scary as hell.
I thought of the crazy rabbit Mascot I met in the Theme Park ghost story.
It gives me goosebumps.
I thought of the ghost in the Changwi ghost story that sobbed and knocked on the door while pretending to be human.
‘……It’s terrifying!!’
Everything I thought of was chilling.
‘C-could it be a malevolent spirit's trick?’
Or did I apply the sticker wrong? Since I’d never used a tattoo sticker before, there was no way to know.
But either way, it wasn't a situation where I could check right now.
“…….”
Damn it.
Regardless, I had to move according to plan.
Now that the ‘Teacher’ had disappeared from the 4th floor, this was my chance.
‘He probably went downstairs.’
In the end, I swallowed hard and stepped out of the locker.
…Of course, the scene before me would be gruesome.
Since the bloodstains and fragments of the Team D Supervisor who died just moments ago would be scattered about, I should prepare myself mentally before going out…….
…….
“…?”
‘Tomatoes?’
Wait a minute.
I quickly left the faculty office and headed up to the 5th floor.
There….
The reason I had avoided the 5th floor all this time was laid bare.
Aaaaaagh!
The walls of the 5th floor were now plastered with pages from old graduation yearbooks.
And the students in the photos were reaching out with pained expressions.
Aaaaaagh!
Beyond the scraps of paper from the graduation yearbooks, writhing masses of flesh could be seen.
A factor that caused immense mental strain and panic for anyone entering the 5th floor.
In fact, it looked more like a bizarrely twisted Otherworld than a school.
Red light pulsed from where the light bulbs should have been.
But….
They’re tomatoes.
Ha.
Hahahaha!
‘No, this is insane!’
Everywhere a human head should be, a tomato was hanging!
No, it wasn't that they didn't look like people.
The people in the yearbook photos? They all looked like people. People screaming in pain with distorted faces!
But I just felt like they were tomatoes.
The rational voice telling me there was no need to connect that with fear became a direct emotion.
Yes, that was exactly how it felt….
It was nothing.
‘Haha….’
The further I walked down the hallway, the further back in time the yearbooks went, and the graduates were frozen against the walls, melting into even more horrific, non-human shapes.
Strange Talismans and masses of flesh pulsed on the walls and ceiling.
And the voice.
I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryfortearingupthetalismanIdugupintheschoolbackya rd.Iwaspreparingforthegraduationceremonyof■■School.I’msorry… No,no!Thegraduationceremonyisnotaritual,it’snotasacrifice,no!!Pleasesave me,pleasesav
It’s the game world’s lore.
Nothing changes just because I hear it now.
I walked down that hallway with a feeling no different from taking a stroll down the street—no, perhaps even a bit more pleasant.
It was actually a bit funny because everything was a tomato.
And at the end of the hallway, I stopped in front of a massive door to the right.
A neat, turquoise iron door.
This door, which alone maintained its original form in the middle of the 5th floor that had become a bizarre den of monsters.
It was the door leading to the auditorium.
The place where the final act of this game takes place.
<Graduation Ceremony in Progress>
Graduates only. Please knock before entering.
I read the instructions printed on an A4 sheet.
Since my setting is a 1st-year student in Class 5, I’m not a graduate, you say?
‘This kind of thing is a gimmick that opens if you have the Item.’
And I already have it.
An object that originally could only be obtained in the final chapter after playing through the entire game.
Would you like to use ‘Name Tag Decoration’?
Of course.
Knock, knock.
I pinned the Name Tag Decoration to my chest and knocked on the auditorium door.
Then, the massive door in front of me slid open smoothly.
“…….”
Hundreds of 3rd-year students sitting in hundreds of seats turned to look at me.
This year’s graduates.
They were half-melted and fused with their chairs so they couldn't leave their seats, and tears like black ink were pouring from their eyeless sockets.
But….
No emotion beyond pity welled up.
In fact, in this situation, pity was the only appropriate thing to feel.
‘They can’t harm me.’
Irrational fear had been replaced by tomatoes, and I walked along the path between the chairs.
Toward the massive stage on the opposite side, where a banner for the graduation ceremony was hanging.
Thump, thump.
The graduates turned their heads and stared expressionlessly at my back as I walked….
I stepped onto the auditorium stage.
And then, grabbing the standing microphone set up in the middle of the stage, I shouted.
“We will now begin the graduation ceremony.”
[Ding-dong-dang-dong]
As if it had been waiting, bright and grand ceremonial background music began to play in response to my declaration.
The graduation music is playing….
At that moment.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
A scream tore through the auditorium.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
As if its skin were being peeled off, the normal appearance of the auditorium was stripped away, revealing its bizarre, Aberration form.
The horrific scenery I had seen in the 5th-floor hallway appeared.
As if making a final struggle, as if wanting to punish the one who sought to ruin everything, those images rushed toward me.
But I was fine.
Because it was all tomatoes.
And the greater danger started now.
‘It’s coming.’
To force the student who had started the graduation ceremony on his own into a seat below the stage.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump
The sound of footsteps rushing up frantically from below.
‘The Teacher is coming.’
It’s fine.
‘I’ll do everything I need to do before he arrives.’
I took a stick-type auto-injector out of my pocket and plunged it into my forearm.
Happy Maker.
That super-strong disposable painkiller made a synthetic, cute sound effect—tiring—as it injected the fluorescent liquid from the container into my veins.
A comfortable, refreshing, and incredibly light vitality circulated through my entire body.
Like a miracle.
‘Good.’
At the same time, I popped two Nostalgia Candies into my mouth at once.
Don’t exceed three pieces of candy at a time!
You might fall too deep into nostalgia!
Right. I’ll follow those instructions too.
I was now in an incredibly comfortable and perfect state.
‘Whew.’
Then, time was up.
Boom
Something squeezed through the gap in the auditorium door.
The ‘Teacher’ inserted a hand that had mutated by fusing with a chalkboard, tearing the door itself as he distorted the metal.
Riiiiiiiiiiip
The door crumpled and fell away.
And then, his form was revealed.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
A massive human shape.
But it was only a silhouette.
It was as if several teachers had been crumpled and mashed together, then forcibly shoved back into a human-shaped mold.
A flesh monster with an arm on its head, a head on its shoulder, and a shoulder on its knee.
It entered the auditorium with oddly neat-sounding footsteps….
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump
Chalkboards, textbooks, student rosters, chalk, glasses, and the like were messily attached to various parts of its body, swaying out of place.
Standing on the opposite stage and watching that sight, which would normally make one tremble with its grotesqueness….
“…….”
Only a fighting spirit boiled up within me.
I have to break through that to go home and fill the Collector….
‘Right.’
This is a situation where tenacity, not fear, is needed!
The tattoo on my neck burned hot, making my stomach, heart, and head boil.
‘Ah.’
Now I get it.
The effect of this tattoo sticker is….
‘Elation.’
Surging adrenaline.
This elation that makes me flip my lids and charge forward once I have something I want to do, or a goal!
And even the sense that makes me perceive everything as tomatoes to support it!
‘I can do this.’
I boldly grabbed the auditorium microphone and glared forward—
Slice
I dodged.
No, actually, I was hit, but instead of my neck being taken off, my right hand was halfway gone.
“…!”
I was a bit surprised, but there was no pain.
No mental shock either! It just felt like watching a tomato get crushed.
The courage where reason overcomes instinct.
And a burning motivation.
‘I will succeed no matter what.’
…Did you know?
Actually, this horror game isn't action-based.
Basic physical coordination is required for chase sequences, but it's fundamentally a puzzle and deduction game.
And the player, a student, uses the various abilities obtained while progressing through the game in this final act.
While neutralizing the Teacher’s attacks like a puzzle, one had to hold onto this microphone and endure until the graduation song ended.
But for me, an explorer, that progression was impossible.
‘Because I’m just wearing a borrowed school uniform, I’m not a real student.’
However.
‘I can respond in this way.’
I pulled out the glass hand cannon and fired.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
The transparent little pistol I’d received from the Disaster Management Bureau agent proved its power.
The Teacher screamed in pain as the bullet hit his shoulder.
But practically speaking, it didn't seem to do much damage.
‘It wasn't that high-grade of a piece of equipment anyway.’
It didn't matter.
‘The point was to throw off his aim…!’
Slice
My left foot was taken off by a flying, rusted chalkboard.
“…!”
Still, I didn't move. I just stood there, holding the microphone.
The blood that burst out soaked the stage.
“…….”
Right. It’s impossible for human strength to dodge or defeat that monster’s attacks. I’m not Section Chief Lizard, after all.
Well, it’s not like there weren't other ways.
‘I can just give up.’
Thud.
The rest of my right hand vanished up to the wrist.
I didn't care and fired the glass hand cannon again with my left hand.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
YOU-SHOULD-LISTEN-TO-THE-TEACHER-AAAAA-SIT-DOWN-IN-YOUR-SEAT-I-WILL-CONDUCT-THE-GRADUATION-CEREMONY-AAAAA!
Again.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
My left thigh was blown apart.
I endured.
Slice
Both my legs were gone.
‘I’m out of bullets.’
I slid downward and grabbed the standing microphone.
Slice
My left hand, which had been holding the pistol and the microphone, was taken off.
But my clinging body was hugging the pole of the standing microphone.
Slice
I pulled myself up the microphone with my remaining left elbow.
Blood splashed violently onto the base.
“…….”
And….
Oh?
The graduation music stopped.
‘Now!’
At the same moment the ‘Teacher’ raised a chalkboard with his bizarre flesh once again.
I shouted into the microphone.
“Congratulations on your graduation.”
…….
Instantly.
The auditorium filled with holographic pixels that looked like a flurry of flower petals.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh
The screaming Teacher melted and disappeared, and the bizarre Aberrations covering the auditorium also vanished as if they were being burned away.
Even the chairs that were holding the students.
Waaaaaaaah!!
The 3rd-year students, now free, rushed out of the auditorium in a burst.
Their eyes were now a blur of tears and joy.
Originally, in the ‘Bad Ending,’ they would all become the Teacher’s minions and leave the auditorium like zombies, killing all the remaining explorers….
‘……This time, the ending changed.’
I looked up.
As the auditorium curtains were drawn, warm yellow and red light seeped in softly from outside the window….
It was dawn.
“…….”
A pop-up appears.
Happy Ending 02
: Graduation of Liberation
So it’s an ending.
And then, an evaluation of my final act play appeared at the bottom.
Happy Ending 02
: Graduation of Liberation
Score Evaluation: A
I checked the Dream Collector.
Shimmering golden liquid was filling up…. A color as enchanting and deep as the one from the Tuesday Talk Show.
—A or higher.
‘I did it.’
A thrilling sense of achievement washed over me.
I smiled as my consciousness faded, swallowing the last piece of candy on my tongue.
Now I’ll wake up.
No, I’m going back to the me lying in bed. After successfully clearing the ghost story and getting out!
‘Good.’
Falling into a comfortable sleep, to wake up in the morning….
…….
…….
…….
…Am I back?
Huh?
The Educational Manual seems to be inside my tattoo again! Should I take it out?
Wait a minute.
Since when did I start hearing this voice?
No, I’m not hearing it….
I’m the one saying it.
…….
Since when.
Had the Educational Manual remained inside my tattoo?
Why did I start naturally brushing off the Teacher’s "proper thoughts" that would pop up out of nowhere?
Why did I suddenly dismiss the Fox Counseling Room—which I’d thought ‘I should go there after the next exploration’—as if it were nothing, saying I was worried about side effects?
Why did I come to think of the chilling, unknown intelligence I’d summoned as a ‘Good Friend’ as my most comfortable acquaintance?
Without any biological repulsion or wariness?
…….
……!!!
‘No.’
I can’t let myself be Eroded like this!
But the doubt is already fading. As the effect of the Nostalgia Candy wears off, the current me is reclaiming my place!
The Contamination is rushing in…!!
I struggled within the hazy sense of floating as I woke from the dream.
‘Kim Soleum!!’
Remember.
Remember!!
You’re contaminated right now…….
“Gasp.”
Wow.
“I thought I was going to die.”
I opened my eyes, drenched in cold sweat.
A deep sigh of relief escaped my lips.
‘Anyway, I did it.’
But at the same time, I felt a chilling sensation, as if I’d forgotten something…….
—…….
—You’re awake…, Friend.
…….
…!!
‘Aaaaagh!’
I hurriedly sat up and immediately rescued Braun, who was about to be flattened under my pillow!
‘That was close.’
“Sorry!”
With that, I sprawled back out on the bed. My fatigue and comfort overlapping, I gave a wide grin.
At any rate… it seems I’ve returned safely!
Discussion