GDCG c289

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Chapter 289

The sound of footsteps heading toward the library was fast, frequent, and quiet.

Our group—made up of two students in Segwang Technical High School uniforms and four others in various uniforms from different high schools—moved while holding our breath. 

With desperate, exhausted expressions that no ordinary students should have worn. 

We moved while avoiding the writhing limbs and breathing of the victims attached to the walls and floor. 

Then— 

“The floor.” 

At Agent Bronze’s words, everyone’s gaze shifted downward. 

“Look at the floor.” 

"...!" 

The flesh had started writhing again. 

Everyone’s footsteps immediately quickened. 

At least one thing was fortunate. We did not need to go upstairs. 

“Here!” 

At the very end of the first floor. 

Following me, we stopped before the lone sliding wooden door and opened it. 

The place Lee Gyeol and I had visited while returning from Hanbit Library. 

[Library Room] 

Creeeak.

With a short sound, the inside was revealed. 

Like Hanbit Library, it was a place lined with bookshelves packed with books, yet its structure carried the grounded realism of an actual school library. 

And then— 

“This bookshelf.” 

I immediately found the exact shelf. 

The single bookshelf beside the window—when the hidden book was discovered, it would slide backward and become a passage leading to another section of Hanbit Library…. 

“…A passage connected to a supernatural phenomenon inhabited by an immensely powerful existence.” 

But— 

“Wait, this… doesn’t seem to open during the new moon.” 

"......"

“Transfer student, the book’s gone.” 

We could not open the passage hidden behind the bookshelf. 

On the day the ghost story 'Within the Black Shadow' was active, the very book that allowed access to Hanbit Library simply did not exist on the shelf. 

For a moment, my heart went cold, but I immediately forced myself to think straight. 

'Even so, the fact that this school exists inside Hanbit Library hasn’t changed.' 

And neither had the fact that there used to be a passage behind this bookshelf leading into Hanbit Library. 

“It’s okay.” 

I hurriedly pieced together a conclusion in my head as I spoke. 

“If the passage isn’t appearing right now… then how about this instead? We hide the talisman exactly where the passage is supposed to appear.” 

“…! Hide it directly where the passage overlaps? Behind the bookshelf?” 

“Yes.” 

“That’s not bad. Grapes really does come up with good ideas. Then agents, let’s put some muscle into—” 

“Section Chief, I’d like you to move the bookshelf to the side.” 

“Yes.” 

Without any preparation whatsoever, Section Chief Lee Jaheon immediately lifted the bookshelf and set it aside. 

“…Mr. Lizard, are you still not interested in changing jobs?” 

“No.” 

“What a waste.” 

Even while speaking almost jokingly, the agents’ expressions remained serious. 

Agent Bronze hurriedly looked at the wall revealed behind the moved bookshelf. And I saw it too. A metallic rectangular compartment—the exact same kind Go Yeongeun had hidden me inside back at Casino Station. 

That! 

“I think we can put it inside the fire hose cabinet!” 

“The fire hose cabinet…?” 

“Yes. Then it’d be perfect—” 

But I fell silent after seeing the agents’ expressions. 

No way. 

“To me, it just looks like plain white wallpaper.” 

"......."

“I can’t see any fire hose cabinet.” 

Damn it. 

Apparently this too was an element not implemented into the game, making it invisible to people who had entered 'Within the Black Shadow' as errors. 

“It’s fine. Just like with the backyard, someone who can see it can do it.” 

I immediately reached out my hand. 

“Give it to me. I’ll—” 

Where is it? 

"......."

Kids, where are you? 

I came back again. 

The game’s over, so why can’t I see you? 

We moved without even breathing. 

The glass lantern was passed into my hands. I hurriedly hugged it against myself and opened the fire hose cabinet, making space inside it. 

“If there’s dust or soot, wipe it clean first.” 

My hands frantically searched through the inside of the cabinet, gathering dust. 

Behind me, I could hear the agents moving as if guarding the outside—but I couldn’t even bring myself to turn around. 

Foundyoutoolate 

Quickly, quickly. 

“Use the cleanest part possible. Wipe everything off your hands with the inside of your sleeve. Hurry. Thoroughly.” 

The whisper was so faint it was almost inaudible. Holding my breath, I brushed the dust from my hands….

There you are ?? 

A grotesquely twisted voice—

Began dominating the school once more. 

Too late. 

Agent Bronze placed his scar-covered hands upon the glass lantern and consecrated it. Then fully handed it over to me— 

Foundyoufoundyoufoundyoufoundyoufoundyoucannothideagainimalreadyinsidealreadyopenthedoorifoundyou 

…….

There

you

are

I turned around. 

Outside the library room door—

…….

There was nothing there. 

"......."

"......."

The ominous sensation, the groans of people and the flesh pulsing throughout the school as it awakened again—all of it remained. 

And yet strangely, the monster itself was nowhere to be seen. 

'Huh?' 

At that moment— 

Tricked

nothere 

'...!'

Trickedtrickedtricked

Youuntieditthenbounditagainthatscheatingnoitsanewruleletmegodontpushmeawayletgoofthedoorletgoofthedoor 

The voice shrieked as though tearing apart. 

The school trembled. 

A vibration ringing out from above. 

Flash. 

A faint blue glow dimly seeped in from outside the window. 

It was only a trace of light scattering down from somewhere above, yet I recognized it immediately. 

'The torn talisman.' 

The same light that had once emanated from the 護 (protection/help) character on the back of the library checkout slip, where we had attached the remaining half. 

Let

go

Youletgoofthedooritsuselessyouletgoofthedooritsuselessimalreadyinsideiamyouiam….

Who is Park Hongrim? 

“Grapes.” 

“.......”

“Team Leader Hong is holding it back.”

A hot hand gripped my shoulder. 

“Do it. Stay calm, and hurry.” 

I nodded.

Then I barely managed to wipe the soot from my hands onto my sleeve, received the fully consecrated glass lantern, and placed it into the open fire hose cabinet. 

We can do this. 

“Hold the talisman and wait for a moment. Until there’s a reaction.” 

Suppressing my anxiety, I clenched my hand. Now— 

[Ah, it’s the climax, my friend.] 

…….

Braun? 

[Once the very last procedure is completed, this high school will once again be hidden and preserved within the library. It will become a sort of private archive section!]

As always, the host-like cadence unique to him carried an oddly cheerful tone. But—

'Wasn’t Braun… definitely unable to follow us in here?'

Until now, he had not spoken a single word.

And then suddenly.

[Mr. Roe Deer, oh, Mr. Roe Deer… you are making this Braun feel sentimental. Does it not remind you of the days when we journeyed together on adventures, relying on that cotton-stuffed body of yours? So much has changed since then.]

[And in an urgent episode like this, is not the silence of an advisor also a necessary element? Haha, we may omit admiration for this veteran host’s choice for now. Now then….]

[More importantly, my friend.]

A gentle voice. 

[Is there not something you have overlooked?]

…….

‘Something I overlooked.’

A chill ran down my spine, and I immediately checked the talisman. 

It was fine.

Then what was it? What had I forgotten? 

[A hint! Excellent. It is hint time. Now then, let us recall once more what this Braun said….]

—Once the final procedure is completed, this high school shall once again be hidden and preserved within the library. It will become a sort of private corner! 

"......."

I looked down at my clothes. 

A Segwang Technical High School student.

This contaminated identity that, somehow, refused to be lifted.

‘Wait.’

Then if the ritual through the talisman was completed like this….

I, too, would be hidden within Hanbit Library. 

As a student of this high school. 

……!!

“Yu—”

But I stopped before I could finish speaking.

So what was I supposed to do about it? If the contamination could not be undone anyway, then I had to go through with it. 

It was not as if I would die.

‘If I wait until rescue comes….’

No, even if not, I could search for another method after this was over. 

‘It’ll work.’ 

It was fine. Fine…. 

And then. 

“The light is turning on.” 

Inside the fire hose cabinet, I watched the strokes of the talisman finally begin to glow. 

Blue light slowly spread outward from the center as it completed itself. 

My heart calmed. 

‘Good.’ 

If there was no solution right now, then there was no point saying unnecessary things. 

Instead, I spoke to my classmate. 

“With this, the students will be safe. Don’t worry.” 

Lee Gyeol looked at me. 

“And you’re included among those students too?” 

“…Yeah.” 

My classmate alternated his gaze between me and the talisman before shaking his head. 

“No.” 

“…!” 

“You’re not really a transfer student, are you, Kim Soleum.” 

My classmate reached out and grabbed the glass lantern inside the fire hose cabinet.

“You were just a student from another school borrowing my uniform.”

Whoosh.

Without warning, I was shoved away from the fire hose cabinet. 

In the hand of the Segwang Technical High School student who pushed me away with his other hand at the same time, the glass lantern shone along the stroke without breaking. 

“Grapes!” 

“Wait—” 

I grabbed the others and turned back toward Lee Gyeol. 

My classmate spoke calmly. 

“Let’s say I got my uniform back now. It was a lie from the start anyway.” 

“...!” 

He declared: 

“You’re not a student of this school.” 

…….

I lowered my head. 

The Segwang Technical High School uniform was no longer there. 

Instead, I saw the familiar uniform of my old school. 

‘Ah.’ 

I hurriedly raised my head again. 

The fire hose cabinet that had been on the wall was gone. 

Now that I was no longer a student of this school, I could no longer see it. 

And then…. 

“Thanks for taking me to the infirmary.” 

own uniform again as he reached his hand into somewhere invisible within the wall, grinned at me. 

“…See you again.” 

The dokkaebi fire erupted like an explosion. 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH…

Blue flames swallowed and burned everything. 

The ominous sound of distorted game beats vanished, erasing the classrooms and hallways covered in flesh, wrapping around the entire school and casting it into the shadows of the flames. 

My vision turned completely white. 

***

I opened my eyes. 

Light tickled my vision, and the school grounds at midday spread before me. 

And then I heard music. 

Piano. 

Nocturnes.

To the sweet, slow melody of Chopin’s Nocturnes drifting gently onward, the view of the first-floor hallway came into sight. 

Students were lying across the floor. 

Just like the school we had visited through Hanbit Library—the school that was not from the night of the new moon. 

But there was one decisive difference. 

They were fast asleep. 

Daytime. 

An early May afternoon bathed in warm sunlight, quiet greenery outside the windows casting soft shadows across the hallway. 

Comfortable resting spaces had been prepared. 

Gym mats, blankets, gym uniforms, keyring dolls, slippers—every kind of soft and comforting thing could be seen beside the students lying in the hallway. 

Some slept holding hands with friends, some slept wearing comfortable gym clothes. Occasionally, one even slept with earphones still in. 

A shared naptime enjoyed together. 

…….

Even the empty spaces scattered here and there had now been filled. 

The students from other schools had been laid there. 

Those who had been devoured by the flesh covering the school, who had thrashed their limbs in agony, who had fused together with the school itself—they had become part of the high school. 

But now, they had been gently accepted into the spaces between the students. 

‘Ah.’ 

My vision rose upward as though someone were guiding it. 

Up the stairs, showing the peaceful sight of students sleeping soundly in their naps, until it reached the very top floor. 

The fifth floor. 

Even in the hallway before the auditorium, where the teachers and fragments of long-term residents had once been, students lay sleeping. 

But from their appearances and a few belongings, I recognized them. 

Iron badges. 

Agents. 

Near the auditorium doors, sleeping beneath the sunlight, I recognized the face of Agent Gomyeong. 

My vision continued to rise…. 

It showed the auditorium doors, firmly shut and perfectly intact. 

There was no one there. 

Only the shattered glass lantern and the talisman, torn through the middle, hanging from the doorknob and glittering beneath the sunlight. 

As though they had fulfilled the duty entrusted to them. 

The credits rolled.

The ghost story nightmare of the new moon.

This was the conclusion of 'Within the Black Shadow'.

 

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