GSGW c254

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Chapter 254

Let's summarize.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon was trapped inside a ghost story about a boarding school that conducted classes for "groom training."

He had even been selected as a groom candidate.

And as preparation for the wedding, they were drawing a bucket of blood from him every night, so he was expected to collapse in four days.

And lastly ….

—…The wedding is also four days later.

“That is correct.”

This's insane.

‘Why are you so calm about it!’

In truth, even he must know that in this type of ghost story, the wedding is an ending handled as censored content!

I suppressed the feeling of the back of my neck tightening.

No, actually there was no need to suppress it. Right now I simply existed as a consciousness system connected inside Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s head, so I had no body. …Leaving aside the fact that it wasn’t even a human body to begin with.

Anyway, first things first.

Blood.

—Space Shopping Mall, I mean… could you receive an item from ‘us’ to at least replenish the blood you’re lacking?

“Yes.”

Why!

…Of course, as expected of Section Chief Lizard, there was a rational and logical reason.

“If the blood collection carried out through the current method proves insufficient in effect, the probability is high that it will issue instructions for actions with an even greater risk of death.”

In short, from the ghost story’s perspective, it might become ‘Why isn’t this working? I should try another method,’ and suddenly it might do something like draining all the blood in a single day….

‘That makes sense.’

Though it still made a sigh slip out.

[My friend has to spend time for such a passive and creativity-less knife wielder!]

……?

‘Braun!?’

Why here… wait a second. Even in Segwang Special City, Braun had been judged as part of my consciousness system and accompanied me on the VIP shopping at Space Shopping Mall.

And this time as well, I had only sent my mind into Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s body using an item made by the aliens who ran Space Shopping Mall.

There was a high chance it was a similar mechanism.

If so… had he received the same judgment?

[Oh, correct. Mr. Roe Deer! A very wise deduction.]

Y-yeah.

The problem is.

“Mr. Roe Deer.”

Section Chief Lee Jaheon knew Braun very well….

After all, he was the alien reptile who had responded to my item usage and blown half of Braun’s studio apart.

“Is that remark coming from the host of the Late-Night Talk Show Darkness?”

—That… is correct.

“I see. Do you require advice?”

—…Um. Would the advice be along the lines of telling me to detach him?

“Yes.”

[Oh, how unsurprising. The discernment and eloquence of a rude knife wielder who terrorizes a studio and attempts to kidnap the crew!]

My stomach felt like it was starting to ache….

‘No, in a mad ghost story that’s about to split open a trainee’s soles to install soundproofing because their footsteps are too loud, what even is this….’

—……For now, Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s current situation is more urgent, so I would like to discuss that matter later.

“Yes.”

After all, at this rate you were going to die in four days at most.

This was maddening….

After calming Braun down, I suppressed a groan and thought.

‘It looks like Section Chief Lee Jaheon has absolutely no intention of handing over control of his body.’

In any case, the conditions here were far too different from what I had prepared for.

I had come to take a proxy test so he could pass the groom class experience, but instead of merely passing he had even become a groom candidate, which meant he had to escape as an official trainee.

‘That changes things.’

Rather than choosing the correct answer sheet for this groom class ghost story, the chances of rescue would be higher if I dug into the structural loopholes behind the answer sheet.

I checked immediately.

First of all… the Darkness Exploration Records had only written that according to the boarding school’s policy, you couldn’t leave the bedroom.

—Is it perhaps difficult to leave the bedroom at night? If it is difficult, please also explain the reason why.

“Yes. At night structural irregularities are observed within the building, and in areas without irregularities there are watchers.”

In other words, the boarding school at night was a twisted labyrinth where the structure warped here and there, and on top of that, there were patrolling dorm supervisors. A nightmare.

—Have you ever tried going out yourself? If you have, I would appreciate it if you could tell me your objective and destination.

“Yes.”

And Section Chief Lee Jaheon did not open his mouth.

‘…What?’

But the next moment.

Lee Jaheon ‘told’ me.

‘…!’

The sharing of a mass of information.

No… should it be called memory, sensation? Unrefined visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory… sensory information values were entering my thought system.

Just like my own memories.

I was moving silently through the corridor of the dark boarding academy.

The curtain moved, and at the moment a patrolling dorm supervisor tried to reveal themselves from between it, my body flipped upside down and clung to the ceiling, avoiding their gaze.

Controlling the strength of the body so as not to damage the ceiling lights, I slipped my hand into the grooves of the bricks and moved again. My destination was the main gate.

I knew.

During the experiential training of this boarding school ghost story, if it seemed like you might fail, you could attempt escaping through the main gate as a last resort.

On rare occasions if it succeeded, you would wake up near your registered address… that fact could also be found in the <Darkness Exploration Records>.

The same could be found in the Daydream Inc. database as well, so it could be inferred from the context that Section Chief Lee Jaheon had attempted this method based on that information.

But the thing is.

I didn’t actually need it.

‘…I just knew.’

Naturally, I understood that Section Chief Lee Jaheon—‘we’—had made the judgment based on similar background knowledge.

Because it had been shared with me.

A horrifying sense of unity.

—…Do ‘we’ share information like this?

“Yes.”

Did alien reptiles constantly go through this process?

That was certainly not a type of information transmission modern humans could experience. No, rather than transmission, it was the unification of experience…….

Even in the middle of that, my memories were reorganizing.

After a long, suffocating game of hide-and-seek combined with the appropriate use of force, I….

I reached the location of the main gate.

From the bedroom to that location, it had taken 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 14 seconds. If sleep were abandoned, another attempt would be possible.

But we knew it wasn’t necessary.

Because in the place where the main gate had been, there was…

I suppressed a curse.

Because there was only a wall.

Night search terminated. Return to bedroom.

This damned boarding school had sealed off every official entrance.

So that no one could leave, and no one could enter.

‘Feels like the final chapter of a horror game.’

It seemed likely that after accepting all the groom candidates, it had entered some kind of ritual phase.

While preparing for the "wedding."

‘Is that why the trial training ended?’

And even if someone broke the doors or tried escaping through a window ….

The surroundings of the boarding school were encircled by fog, cliffs, and a forest where the sound of the sea could be heard from somewhere, and every explorer who fled toward that area disappeared.

That was the ending.

In other words, a high-grade ghost story that was poorly compatible with Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s usual specialty of physical exorcism.

But there was an even bigger problem here.

‘…This never used to happen.’

Section Chief Lee Jaheon—Employee D—falling into a situation like this was something I had never read about in the <Darkness Exploration Records>.

Was it a butterfly effect?

Because I had entered, the composition of D-Team had changed, and perhaps the crisis of Section Chief Lee Jaheon dying had newly appeared.

…This doesn't feel very good.

All the more reason to cooperate in escaping the ghost story.

—Thank you for kindly informing me.

“Yes.”

Soon, Lee Jaheon began drawing blood.

It was better to draw it now and at least get some sleep rather than doing it in the morning, but it still made me anxious.

‘The amount is too much.’

…Really, the hand visible in front of me seemed even paler than before.

A sense of danger regarding survival.

Because we shared the same body, it felt even more vivid.

‘I need to create an escape route as quickly as possible.’

As my mind blurred together with Lee Jaheon lying down to sleep, I resolved to gather information tomorrow….

And the next day.

[The menu is rather old-fashioned.]

What was served at breakfast was lily of the valley, apples, and… boiled brains.

The entire brain sat there plainly visible, covered in an apricot-colored sauce.

‘Please.’

Fortunately, it looked smaller than a human brain. Ha ….

Feeling like I wanted to burst into tears, I tried to ignore the taste of the brain. At least I didn’t have to cut it myself with my own hands… I wasn’t sure whether that counted as fortunate ….

‘Focus ….’

I tried to collect other pieces of information captured within Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s field of vision.

First… the trainees.

The silhouettes seated around the long table easily numbered over twenty, but they could be distinguished by their clothing.

Roughly fifteen wore tough shirts and trousers that looked even more modest than the pure and simple formal uniform worn by groom candidates.

‘Those must be the trial trainees.’

People who had been swept into the ghost story.

Since no new trainees were accepted, it seemed likely that those who had failed the previous round were continuing to repeat the trial training.

…I could also tell that more than seven of them were in states of physical mutilation that were little different from torture, and that some of them were even forced to perform those acts on themselves.

Within the calm and quiet atmosphere of the boarding school meal, grotesque scenes had slipped in as if they were nothing unusual.

‘…Ha.’

It was a strangely peaceful sight, which only made it more chilling.

'......'

Stay calm.

Imagining the act of taking deep breaths, I shifted my focus to other information within my view.

This time, another direction.

‘The groom candidates.’

Those wearing the same style of uniform as Section Chief Lee Jaheon sat at the head of the table, conversing gently….

…Their faces looked oddly blurred.

No, not just their faces—the brain seemed to refuse to interpret any information beyond their uniforms.

As if a filter had been placed over them.

[Oh, Mr. Roe Deer. Isn’t that the trait of this knife wielder?]

A trait?

[Here we find one reason why this reptilian fellow never understood art and aesthetics.]

[It is a sensory system that interprets only what they themselves judge necessary. Oh, what an arrogant and primitive method!]

Wait.

So the reptilian aliens from Space Shopping Mall… simply didn’t perceive sensory information they considered unnecessary.

‘Isn’t that basically contamination prevention?’

Filtering out harmful things before accepting them.

Come to think of it, I had never once seen Section Chief Lee Jaheon suffering from contamination, or even showing signs of being influenced by a ghost story.

It seemed that was a trait of ‘ours.’

‘No wonder!’

Feeling one of my questions resolve itself, I first turned my gaze away from the groom candidates.

‘So those ones aren’t human ….’

Indeed, among facility-type ghost stories like this, there were often cases where the place had never been intended to operate for humans in the first place. Like the exhibition ghost story, 'The Mansion of the Blind.'

…Was that why, until now, no one had been selected as an official groom candidate rather than merely passing the trial training?

Perhaps Section Chief Lee Jaheon had passed the selection because fundamentally he wasn’t an ordinary human either, but a reptilian alien.

'......'

For now, okay. Remember that.

Next, I focused on the tall, slender silhouette seated at the very head of the table.

The dorm supervisor.

The educator of this boarding school.

—Section Chief, would it be relatively safe to ask the educational dorm supervisor questions about the wedding, as long as they are not persistent? Please blink once for yes and twice for no.

Lee Jaheon’s vision slowly closed once and opened again.

Affirmative.

—Then please ask this question.

The educational dorm supervisor looked at me kindly.

I filtered out the potential explosive questions.

First, direct questions about the bride were excluded.

—Mm… it seems they consider that rude… someone who went in together with me… had their mouth sewn shut with a crochet needle… as a form of discipline ….

Questions that dug too deeply into the school itself were also excluded.

—Ah, someone once kept interrogating them about who operated the boarding school and ended up expelled. They were probably listed as missing in the forest… there were even rumors they’d been paid extra by the research team to ask those questions.

So instead, I chose a more personal question—something a trainee could plausibly ask.

—Is it possible for a groom candidate to fail and be unable to stand at the wedding?

Lee Jaheon spoke my question.

And the educational dorm supervisor kindly and sternly gave an answer.

But I cannot explain it in conversational language.

The supervisor was clearly responding to me through sound, yet the thoughts and descriptions were expressed like a long recollection written in a classical diary.

It was a truly strange coercive force, and it was similar to that moment when I, trying to communicate through smoke, couldn’t produce proper sentences.

Yet fitting the theme of the text called the groom class, the supervisor’s words were received inside my mind in this elegant and flowing manner.

It was….

A gentle explanation that every groom candidate except one would fail.

'...!'

—Then what happens to the groom candidates who fail?

The educational dorm supervisor answered kindly. As though soothing the anxiety of a trainee worried about failing to become a groom, the supervisor once again emphasized the generous motto of Saint Anticus Boarding School.

Encouragement and assistance.

Just as they taught the virtues of a groom with utmost effort, even to applicants of the trial training who were not yet official trainees.

Even now, when the groom candidate seats were already completely full, were they not still waiting until the trial applicants finished their training?

They, too, would all attend the wedding.

The groom candidates who failed were the same.

No, the supervisor even said that in the case of the candidates, they would take on an even more important and honorable role at the wedding.

—May I ask what that role is?

The supervisor readily described it.

They would become the wedding’s commemorative gifts.

They would be beautiful works of art representing the groom’s growth, and as a part of that art, they would remain together throughout the ceremony as an important component of the wedding.

And when the ceremony ended, they could be distributed to the guests as return gifts.

As eternal keepsakes to remember the wedding.

……

……

—Thank you.

The supervisor praised my polite gratitude and requested that the groom candidates offer words of blessing.

Thus, amid the graceful well-wishes delivered by the groom candidates who had just finished breakfast, I thought.

‘We’re screwed.’

So if you failed, you became a commemorative gift, and if you passed, you became the groom.

Becoming the groom would obviously be better, but no matter how I thought about it, it felt like people would say something like, ‘Actually becoming a commemorative gift would have hurt less.’

No, whichever one you chose, it was a pity….

‘Damn it!’

During the break after the morning class ended, I urgently asked Section Chief Lee Jaheon to go alone to the restroom and then asked him.

—If we fail to escape before the wedding day, do you have any intention of launching a dokkaebi fire bombardment?

Because honestly, that seemed like the clearest answer.

Looking at it now, people were going to die anyway. If he simply blasted the place with holy fire and threw everything into chaos, at least a few might survive.

‘Then couldn’t we just go to a safehouse?’

But ….

“No.”

…?!

—Is there another reason besides the possibility of casualties?

“Yes.”

—Please explain.

“Yes. It is because abandoning the Lee Jaheon unit would be more economical for us.”

—......

Wait a second.

—What do you mean… by economical?

“The location where Section Chief Lee Jaheon is currently isolated has had its connection point with reality closed, making the input of energy difficult.”

……

“If we were to track the location and conduct a holy fire bombardment under these circumstances, we predict that the cost would exceed the value of Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s status and physical body.”

So.

It seemed that because every method of entering this place had disappeared, it would actually cost more than when I escaped the late-night talk show.

But if that was the case,

—Doesn’t Section Chief Lee Jaheon also earn plenty of money from Daydream Inc.? Considering future value.

“It can be replaced with a cost cheaper than a holy fire bombardment.”

—......

It was a strange judgment.

Those alien reptiles who called themselves ‘we’ seemed to treat Lee Jaheon—an individual belonging to their collective—as though he were merely a small part of the whole….

Even Lee Jaheon himself.

Like a single bee within a vast hive, or a cell within a gigantic organism.

Was it because all experiences and information were shared?

[It is a concept called a hive mind, Mr. Roe Deer! Of course, it is a piece of twentieth-century science-fiction imagination, but doesn’t it seem quite plausible?]

[Of course, it also means that someone as interesting and colorful as you cannot be expected to understand those fellows, my friend!]

……

I didn’t know.

But.

—Section Chief.

The one I wanted to rescue was Section Chief Lee Jaheon of D Team.

—You do want to live, right? I mean you personally, not ‘us.’

There was a brief silence.

And then.

“Yes.”

Good.

—Then let’s do our best.

I desperately turned my thoughts over.

I combined the information I had obtained today. Trainees, groom candidates, the supervisor, questions, the wedding, us….

Us.

The filtered vision when looking at the groom candidates.

—…Section Chief. Are you perhaps in a state where you are not easily contaminated? Compared to ordinary Daydream field exploration teams, I mean.

“Yes.”

…If that was the case.

‘Something did come to mind.’

[Oh!]

This really sounded like a crazy idea, but ….

—If you are reluctant to hand over control of your body to me, would it be possible for you to carry out actions as I request?

“Yes.”

—Thank you.

—First, starting tonight, please stop drawing blood. And ….

And… well.

Feeling like I wanted to swallow hard, I continued.

—Would you consider temporarily handing over control of your body to someone other than me?

“Who is this ‘someone else’?”

Well.

About that.

—…The host of the late-night talk show, Braun.

[Oh?]

It sounded insane, but this was the best option.

 

/tn. random thought but what happened to Kang Yihak, that goldigger... did I forget something??

 

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