I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 20: Somehow, I had a feeling today would be unlucky

We had arrived at an old, gray building.

Even when I played the game, I had the same thought—it was such a bleak place.

A perfect cube, with no windows, no building name, no graffiti—nothing.

I always assumed the developers just didn’t bother putting effort into it.

Do your job properly, devs.

There was only one entrance—the front door.

Ha-rim stepped forward and grabbed the doorknob.

Click.

[The door won’t open. You need a key.]

That kind of text might as well have appeared on the screen.

I stepped out of the mirror, ready to smash the door open.

“Ella, wait!”

Before I could strike, Ha-rim pulled out a key from somewhere.

As expected of a playable character—her item-picking skills were top-tier.

Still, I wasn’t about to let that stop me.

I adjusted my stance, ready to punch the door down anyway.

“Why are you trying to break it when we have a key?!”

You kids wouldn’t understand.

The frustration of searching every corner of a stage just to find some stupid key or solve some dumb puzzle just to open a door...

Click!

While Soo-ho was still trying to stop me, Ha-rim had already unlocked the door.

...This betrayal.

I stared at her, betrayed, but she avoided my gaze.

“I just... thought breaking the door wasn’t the best idea!”

Guess I had no choice.

We stepped inside.

The inside of the building was surprisingly furnished, unlike its empty exterior.

There were many cozy, home-like pieces of furniture, which created a strange sense of disconnect.

The building had three floors.

Each floor had three rooms on the left and right, all decorated like children’s bedrooms.

The three mirrors the kids had brought were placed on each floor, making it easier for me to supervise.

Before anything else, I checked each room.

If any spider entities were hiding, it’d be a nightmare.

...No spiderwebs, no lurking horrors.

Clear.

Our enemies this time were Sandman and Boogeyman.

Sandman was a legendary figure known for sprinkling sleeping sand into people’s eyes to help them rest.

Not a malevolent entity in folklore.

But the unknown is always terrifying.

The Boogeyman, on the other hand, was a child-hunting entity.

It hid behind doors, inside closets, under beds—always waiting to scare children.

A monster invented by adults to frighten kids into behaving.

You could say he was every child’s worst enemy.

“Is everyone ready? Then, start the music box.”

Ha-rim opened the small music box sitting on the drawer.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

The moment its lullaby began to play, I felt uneasy.

Lullabies were meant to put children to sleep.

But this one wasn’t gently coaxing—it was forcibly compelling.

Flicker. Flicker.

The building’s lights blinked—then shut off completely.

The only illumination came from glow-in-the-dark stickers of the sun and moon, stuck to the walls.

Creak...

A door at the far end of the first floor slowly opened.

Standing inside was an old man in pajamas, his eyes bloodshot.

Sandman.

His thick, bushy beard covered most of his face.

Without a word, he reached into his beard and pulled out an hourglass.

He placed it in the middle of the hallway.

Then, he silently retreated back into his room.

The hourglass sat in plain view.

“Everyone, take your positions.”

Ha-rim stood in front of a door.

The kids each picked up a piece of furniture as makeshift weapons.

...

A single grain of sand fell inside the hourglass.

“Start.”

The floor began to fill with sand.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

-----

There were five rooms on this floor.

Among them, we had to find and flush out Boogeyman and Sandman.

I opened my notebook.

The strategy guide Ella had given us was written inside.

Sandman’s hiding spot on the first floor: the bed in the ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ room with a sun symbol.

I forcefully threw open the door and yanked the blanket off the bed.

Beneath it, Sandman lay hidden, his bloodshot eyes glaring up at me with deep, bitter resentment.

I swallowed hard.

The weight of his hatred was suffocating—it felt endless, as if it could drag me down into the abyss.

Then, without a word, Sandman vanished, turning transparent.

And suddenly—

An overwhelming drowsiness washed over me.

It felt as if, if I fell asleep now, I would never wake up again.

The music box’s lullaby urged me to sleep.

Staggering, I forced myself out of the room.

Next, I had to go to the room with a moon symbol—one of the three marked with a moon, a lantern, or a bonfire.

Boogeyman’s hiding spot was the opposite of Sandman’s.

Sandman hid on the bed, but Boogeyman hid underneath it.

My mind was hazy with sleep, but without hesitation, I peered under the bed.

A pale-faced man grinned up at me, his arms and legs disturbingly long and insect-like.

Rather than hiding under the bed, it looked more like he had been shoved and crumpled inside it.

[-!!!!!!]

He suddenly screamed, jolting me awake.

My clouded thoughts cleared in an instant.

Then, moving on all fours, Boogeyman scrambled up the stairs, fleeing to the next floor.

Thump-thump-thump.

My heart pounded faster and faster.

It felt like, if I didn’t do something soon, it would burst inside my chest.

I sprinted after him, heading upstairs.

But the sand piling up on the floor slowed me down.

Looking closer, I realized—the sand wasn’t just sand.

It was forming hands.

And those hands were slowly shaping themselves into human forms.

Thud!

A sand hand grabbed my leg—only for Soo-ho to slam it down with his shield.

It was strange. Sand shouldn’t feel pain.

But the hand writhed and recoiled as if suffering.

Kyung-min and Eun-jung lifted furniture, doing their best to keep the sand creatures at bay.

Taking advantage of the opening, I charged forward.

—Ding!

Eun-jung saw me running and rang her bell, making my body lighter.

Much better—I could run properly now.

Second floor.

Now, I had to find Sandman again.

If we found Sandman, he would try to put us into an eternal sleep.

To counter it, we had to find Boogeyman first—his screams would jolt us awake.

But Boogeyman’s sudden screams made the heart beat dangerously fast.

To calm it down, we had to find Sandman again.

It was a cycle.

I checked my notebook.

Sandman’s hiding spot on the second floor: the wardrobe in the room with a pillow symbol.

I threw open the wardrobe.

Inside, Sandman twisted his face into an unsettling grimace.

Blood-red tears dripped from his eyes.

Clutching a pillow, he tore it apart, sending stuffing flying everywhere.

His glare warned me—if I disturbed his sleep one more time, he would kill me.

Then, he disappeared again.

Sleep crashed down on me.

By the time I stumbled out of the room, the other club members had already made it to the second floor.

At the stairwell, they were fighting back human-shaped sand creatures.

Then, I caught Ella’s gaze through the mirror.

She smiled slightly.

She was telling me—I was doing well.

But I had to hurry.

The next location was the room with an alarm clock symbol.

I rushed inside and opened a box in the corner.

Inside, Boogeyman was crammed inside, twisted and crushed in on himself.

Giggle. Giggle.

[-!!!!!!]

His screech pierced my ears.

I jolted awake.

Then, still inside the box, Boogeyman bounced and tumbled upstairs like a ragdoll.

I immediately chased after him.

Third floor.

This time, among the six rooms, two doors had been left slightly ajar.

At first glance, it looked like Sandman and Boogeyman had forgotten to close the doors as they entered.

I opened my notebook.

Third Floor: Ignore the open doors. Proceed to the hidden seventh door.

Following the strategy guide, I entered and exited the first room on the left three times.

Then, I entered and exited the second room on the right once.

The rooms I had stepped into had vanished, replaced by solid walls.

Instead, a new door appeared on the floor of the hallway.

I glanced at Ella in the mirror, then opened the door.

Beneath it lay a deep, pitch-black pit—like a sewer hole, ominous and foreboding.

I had zero intention of going down there, even as a joke.

From the darkness below, something stirred.

I listened carefully.

[Death to the child who disturbs sleep.]

[Death to the child who does not sleep.]

A massive shadowy figure slithered upward.

A writhing, black mass surged forward, its bulging body covered in faces—the faces of Sandman and Boogeyman.

Upon closer inspection, it had legs.

Eight of them.

A grotesque, sticky creature, dragging itself forward, trying to snatch me with its many limbs.

[KIIIAAAAAAAAACK!!!]

The faces split apart, revealing a disgusting, writhing tongue.

It flicked out greedily.

I stumbled backward, horrified.

The creature lunged from the pit, jaws wide open, intent on swallowing me whole.

“Hungry? How about this?”

Ella suddenly appeared from behind me—

—and shoved the cherry ice cream directly into its mouth.

The monster gulped it down without hesitation.

And then—

[KIEEEEEEEEEK!!!!]

It convulsed violently, as if sulfuric acid had been poured into its throat.

I turned to Ella, horrified.

She had almost eaten that thing herself?!

Feeling guilty, she avoided my gaze, pretending to be innocent.

Calmly, she stepped forward and sliced off the faces of Sandman and Boogeyman.

Thick, dark red blood oozed out in sickening waves.

Ugh.

How could she do something so gruesome and act so casual about it?

“Ha-rim. Give me the notebook.”

I handed it to her.

Ella then pressed the blood-soaked pages against the creature's corpse, staining them completely red.

She muttered, “So, fairy blood isn’t all that special after all.”

The monster dissolved into smoke, its remains absorbed into Ella’s body.

According to her, this would extend her time outside the mirror.

I still didn’t understand how that worked.

Step. Step.

One by one, the club members arrived on the third floor.

Now that the monster was gone, the sand had disappeared too.

Ella announced, “That’s it for today. Let’s head back.”

This time, there were no unexpected interruptions—thankfully.

Now, all that was left was returning to school and recovering from our exhaustion.

-----

I looked at the red-stained notebook in my hands with satisfaction.

This was another success.

I had let the kids handle most of the fight to build their experience.

And they had done remarkably well.

Especially Ha-rim—her section of the puzzle was easy to mess up, yet she pulled it off flawlessly.

We started heading back the way we came.

No surprises.

No unexpected events.

Today felt good.

I was in a good mood, and I hadn’t spent much time materialized, so...

Maybe this time, instead of guiding them from inside the mirror, I’d walk outside?

I stepped out of the mirror, inhaling the fresh air.

“I’ll take the lead,” I told the group.

“Ella~! Don’t go too fast!” Ha-rim called after me, sounding worried.

Who was worrying about who here?

I waved off her concerns and led them past the fork in the road.

And then—

"......."

Something was standing there.

Something that shouldn’t be here.

...

Slowly, I made a subtle hand signal behind my back, telling the others to halt.

Ha-rim read the signal and stopped the group.

Tension filled the air.

Once I confirmed the kids had stopped, I turned my gaze back to her.

A small girl, wearing a hat decorated with sunflowers.

She stared at me with a vacant expression.

Ah, fuck.

Why the hell is she outside the boss stage?!

I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

She tilted her head at my silence—then finally opened her mouth.

“Hello, Ella.”

I forced a smile.

“...Hello, Mary.”