GDCG c276

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Chapter 276

Segwang Technical High School.

A bizarre horror game set in a high school you enter by falling asleep under a full moon.

From the name alone, I had assumed it would be connected to Segwang Special City.

I just hadn’t expected to run into it this soon.

[The doors are closing.] 

“…Shall we go.”

“Yes.” 

We stepped off the train first. 

The platform was clean and cool, and for now, there were no visible anomalies.

There was only one oddity.

Segwang Technical High School Graduation Ceremony

Exit 4 →

This A4 notice pasted onto the pillar.

But the problem was, it wasn’t the only one. 

The escalator at Exit 2 is under construction. Please use another exit.

The escalator at Exit 2 is under construction. Please use another exit.

Fire hydrant water shutoff notice

Train malfunction / G155■

If you lost a cat wallet, please contact the station office

A4 sheets and memos covered the pillars and walls.

They were too neat and informational to be advertisements, yet their handwriting and formatting varied wildly, as if written for completely different reasons.

Printed instructions.

Segwang Subway Line Map

- Segwang Station (Forest of Final Moments)

- Midnight Station (Body Casino)

- Hanbam Station (Hanbit Library)

- (Unregistered)

- (Unregistered)

- (Unregistered)

- (Unregistered)

The wiki updated.

Hanbam Station (Hanbit Library)

A subway station in Segwang Special City renovated by a public library.

Before the Day of Disaster, this area originally housed a technical high school and residential district, but was redeveloped into a library site.

Though the library had not yet officially opened and remained closed for years except for limited public areas, on the Day of Disaster, it opened its doors and generously provided knowledge and information.

Do not make it regret that decision.

…Ominous, like any proper ghost story.

But still.

“At least it doesn’t say people die horribly.”

“Yes.” 

After hearing the information I relayed, the group seemed slightly relieved.

“The ‘provides knowledge and information’ part still bothers me… Information in the dark isn’t always a good thing.”

“If it didn’t feel unsettling, it wouldn’t be a ghost story, Assistant Manager.”

“Fair point.”

Our project existed to understand Segwang Special City, per Director Ho’s goal. This station might offer something useful.

And besides.

“There’s another advantage.”

“Hm?”

“It looks like there’s no entry fee.”

“...!"

Ghost stories often inherit rules from their original concepts.

“And public libraries don’t charge admission.”

“Yes.”

We climbed the stairs from the platform.

After forests full of hanging corpses and a casino that stole body parts, no one expected anything normal at the concourse above.

‘Maybe it’ll just be more walls covered in A4 notices.’

But the moment we stepped up—

“...!"

—we saw something entirely unexpected.

“…A cave?”

Beyond the stairs stretched a tunnel made of bookshelves.

‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

Like something out of a classic fantasy illustration.

An artificial cave formed entirely from shelves.

Only the materials gave away its modern origin—composite boards, processed wood, aluminum.

Shelves from different sections seemed interlocked like a puzzle, forming the passage.

‘Were these brought from different archives…?’

Soft red lighting glowed from scattered lamps, illuminating the shelves. Books packed tightly together lined the walls, casting deep shadows into the corridors.

The shelves even reached the ceiling.

[Ah, it reminds me of a surrealist painting.]

[At the same time, it feels like a hidden exploration site from an old adventure tale. A place waiting for a friend's expedition! Though perhaps we’ve come at the wrong time.]

Exactly what I was thinking.

Compared to the mundane platform below, the dissonance was overwhelming.

“Hold.”

Section Chief Lee Jaheon tied a rope to himself and stepped into the bookshelf cave, rounding a corner—

—and returned unharmed.

“No traps confirmed.”

“Hoo.”

We decided to proceed.

Instead of a rope, we tied a thread to the stair railing and slowly unwound it as we moved forward.

Those with field exploration masks put them on, just in case.

And then—

“I brought yours too.”

“……Yes.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje handed a mask to Supervisor Park Minseong.

He answered in a slightly strained voice and put it on.

The familiar badger mask.

For some reason, my chest tightened at the sight.

‘But then…’

I turned to the only person without a mask.

“…..This is fine…”

The guard captain refused the mask offered by Section Chief Lee Jaheon and instead pulled out a worn dental mask, covering his face.

'......'

[How utterly pathetic!] 

Either way, we finished preparing and entered the ‘library cave.’

“Let’s communicate in writing for now, just in case.”

“Because it’s a library?”

“Yes.”

With pens and paper ready, we moved silently.

At the very back, I carefully unwound the thread, marking our path.

Step… step…

The shelves stretched endlessly.

Sometimes there were forks, but some paths were so narrow they looked like holes only animals could crawl through.

—Let’s stick to always going right.

—Agreed.

At certain choke points, Section Chief Lee Jaheon even walked in front like a shield.

We advanced, stopped, checked our surroundings.

And then—I noticed one thing.

Between the tightly packed shelves, through a small gap where books were missing—

There was a window.

“….!"

I cautiously looked through it.

Pitch black.

Like a moonless night where you couldn’t see a step ahead. Clouds filled the sky, and there wasn’t a single streetlight.

Only one source of light beyond it.

Segwang Technical High School.

The nameplate at the school gate.

It looked… wrong.

I leaned in, trying to see more beyond the glass—and stopped.

A hand gripped the back of my neck.

“......"

—Stop.

Right.

Yeah. Reckless curiosity in a ghost story is suicide.

‘Unless you want to collect another bad ending.’

Even if death meant waking up in reality, disappearing was another matter entirely. That was the kind of thing only the research team would enjoy.

After giving a brief report, I continued forward.

…With unease lingering in my chest.

"......."

"......."

But nothing else appeared.

No signs, no floor indicators, not even an exit.

‘…How big is this place?’

Its endlessness crushed your sense of reality.

Like a suffocating dream you couldn’t wake from.

And then—

—Why aren’t there any library rules?

We’d been exploring for at least forty minutes, but there was absolutely nothing.

No bloodstained shelves. No warped book spines. Nothing.

Only the impossible structure of shelves stretching endlessly overhead.

—Badger, go touch a book for us.

—That’s a joke, right?

—Of course.

Right. We couldn’t act recklessly either.

At least Supervisor Park Minseong had settled down—past the panic, confusion, and relief—and now moved with practiced composure.

But…

‘…It feels like the old D Team.’

As if he were unconsciously ignoring that he now belonged to the security team, he acted exactly like he had back then. 

Like he’d gone back in time.

'.......'

The security captain is strangely bothering me.

I kept glancing at the security captain as he walked slowly, staring at the floor, and nearly bumped into him.

Hoo.

But the security captain was still looking down at the ground.

'...!'

—Is there something on the floor, by any chance?

"......"

The security captain slowly, almost drifting, scribbled something down in messy handwriting.

—It seems like there might be.

I instinctively lowered my head.

In the dark corridor, if I traced my gaze along the floor barely visible between the shadows of bookshelves and books….

There was a strange pattern.

"......!"

After tapping a teammate’s shoulder to signal them to wait a moment, I hurriedly nudged aside the books near the floor and fully revealed the pattern to examine it.

What emerged within the dim glow and darkness of the mood light was….

 

 

 

"......."

What is this?

For a moment, I wondered if the shadows had kept me from seeing it properly, but the instant I lowered my body, I realized.

It was a trick.

‘…The viewing angle!’

I immediately crouched down again. I needed a sharper angle—enough to compress the pattern vertically. Bending down further, pressing my head almost against the floor and lifting only my eyes to look….

I could see it.

Make no sound with footsteps

“…..!!"

I found it.

‘Library Usage Rules.’

And then, one after another, the realizations followed.

The posture required to properly read this sentence.

Lying flat on the floor, pressing your head close, and lifting only your eyes slightly to read it….

‘A bow.’

You had to take a posture like offering a bow.

Like a slave—or something insignificant—prostrating itself before something impossibly powerful and great.

'.......'

I recalled it.

The “basic information” about this station that I had carelessly skimmed over while focusing on the wiki.

The train’s announcement.

—Repository of knowledge, a resting place for citizens, the Sanctuary of ■■. Passengers heading to Hanbit Library, please disembark at this station.

Sanctuary of ■■.

‘…Damn it.’

A cold sweat slid down my spine.

It seemed that in this place, there was something… that demanded a bow.

***

[To greet a rare and precious guest who came all this way with such an outdated and petty method! What a sense of humor that wouldn’t yield even a drop of content…. If this were a live broadcast, I’d kick them out and call in an understudy.]

[Friend, do we really need to humor such a rude being?]

Unfortunately, we did.

‘If we don’t, we’ll just die or go missing while exploring….’

Swallowing a sigh, I moved forward.

After that chilling realization—‘there is an unidentified owner of this library’—the “usage rules” written on the floor that we discovered while retracing our path were as follows:

Make no sound with footsteps

Do not fall asleep

Suppress your breathing

Leave after obtaining one thing

Harbor curiosity

Do not descend underground

—This keeps getting added and it feels more and more off

I strongly agreed.

‘Creepy.’

There was no immediate sign that our heads would be severed, but our steps grew more cautious.

At the very least, like a proper library, it clearly demanded silence.

‘The rules won’t keep increasing forever, right?’

For now, we decided to keep moving slowly until we encountered a corridor where the same rules were repeated.

Step.

It was an exploration filled with tension—so careful we couldn’t even make a sound with our footsteps, our necks stiffening from the strain…

[Hmm. They say patience is a virtue, but repeated scenes are dull for the audience! Mr. Roe Deer, how much longer do you intend to “endure” and repeat the same actions?]

…That.

‘There is something that’s been bothering me.’

[Oh!] 

Harbor curiosity.

This rule.

‘Could it be that if we harbor curiosity, the path itself changes?’

A suspicion—that if we held curiosity about certain information, the path might connect to where that answer lay.

‘…As long as it’s not too extreme, it’s worth trying once.’

In the end, I “harbored curiosity” in my mind.

Not something too extreme—just a spatial question related to this place.

—Where is Exit 4 of this station, the one said to connect to Segwang Technical High School?

Holding that question, I moved forward.

“......”

“......”

And then, another fork in the path appeared.

The group turned into the right path, and just as I, being last, was about to follow—

Thud.

I saw it.

From the left path, within the shadows of the dim lights, the silhouette of a human flickered.

'...!'

The black silhouette seemed to notice me and ran deeper inside, disappearing—dropping a book it had been pulling out.

And from that figure, I caught a familiar shape.

‘…A uniform?’

A sharp realization ran down the back of my neck.

I quickly tapped the teammate ahead of me and turned toward the left path. As I approached, the title of the book the silhouette had dropped became clear before my eyes….

<Masterpiece Horror Short Stories of the 2000s>

“…!!"

This.

—On nights when the full moon rises, if you read a certain book and fall asleep, you may awaken in a school at night.

The method of entering Segwang Technical High School.

And the name of the illegal text file used there….

—Collection of 2000s Masterpiece Horror Novels.txt

They almost matched perfectly.

‘Wait.’

Carefully, without touching the book, I checked the table of contents from the back cover first….

“You’re a bit impulsive.”

……!

“But it’s not bad. If you just stand around wasting time, even the opportunities you had will disappear. Even elite teams miss that sometimes—time is a resource, even in the dark.”

"......."

“Still, next time, wait until your team arrives before you act.”

The sound of someone standing up behind me.

A hand tapping my shoulder.

“Your mask… is that a deer?”

I turned my head.

“Hmm, hard to tell. To me, it looks more like a dragon.”

…….

“What nickname do they call you in your group?”

A staff member in a suit, wearing a wolf mask, was standing there.

 

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