I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 23: The protagonist of the original work

Ha-rim lured the Jangsanbeom away, while Kyung-min, Soo-ho, and Eun-jung were facing off against the woman wearing a red mask.

Kyung-min, upon seeing her mask, immediately recognized the type of monster she was.

There was no mistaking it—if the monster wore a red mask, it could only be [Red Mask], after all.

Moreover, she was holding scissors, so there was no room for doubt.

As Soo-ho tried to step forward to stop the approaching Red Mask, Kyung-min held him back.

"Calm down. Right now, the priority is to run."

Soo-ho, exposed to danger, was only thinking about protecting himself from the enemy in front of him.

Once Kyung-min spoke, he finally felt his racing thoughts settle.

"Eun-jung, are you okay?"

Kyung-min checked in on Eun-jung, who might have been in panic.

Having already experienced many monsters, Eun-jung had toughened her heart and confidently responded, "Yeah!"

Before running, Kyung-min kept his eyes on Red Mask.

She had only been approaching, but had yet to attack.

Why?

Sensing his gaze, Red Mask took off her mask, revealing her mouth, which was split all the way to her ears.

Eun-jung instinctively hid behind Soo-ho.

[Do you think I'm pretty?]

Ah, so that's why she was stalling.

"Uh... well..."

Kyung-min thought to himself that no matter how he answered, it would probably lead to death.

In the urban legend, if you say the woman is ugly, she kills you out of anger, and if you say she's pretty, she will try to make you like her, tearing your mouth open.

So, what if he avoided answering altogether? Kyung-min hesitated, pretending to think carefully.

"Uh, well... if you look closely... um... just a sec... hmm..."

He fiddled with his glasses, trying to stall.

[.........]

"Your jawline is nice, and... hmm... this style is... quite..."

He even pretended to search the internet for trending styles, despite the lack of connection.

[.....]

"Wow, you’re really pretty! Well, sort of, but also maybe not? Objectively speaking, it’s..."

As he kept speaking, Red Mask, who had been silently listening, seemed to grow angry and swung her scissors.

[Die.]

"Run!!"

The stalling tactic had failed!

Kyung-min realized that he wasn’t as good at coming up with ideas as Ha-rim, who usually thought of clever solutions on the spot.

"Let’s go to the classroom! There was another salted spot Ella set up!"

"Right! There was!"

With Eun-jung’s bell effect still in play, they were faster than Red Mask, though she was still much faster than an ordinary person. But compared to them, she couldn’t catch up.

They quickly entered the classroom that had the salt protection.

Screech! Tap!

"This should be safe for now."

Kyung-min swallowed nervously, staring out of the small window in the door.

Outside, Red Mask stood, staring at them with an eerie expression, scraping the wall with her scissors before walking away.

They were safe, for now.

"What about Ha-rim? We need to help her!"

Eun-jung said, nervously fidgeting with her fingers. Kyung-min adjusted his glasses and replied.

"I think so too, but not right now. If we rush out, we’ll run into Red Mask again."

Soo-ho, who had been ready to jump into action, thought Kyung-min had a point and took a deep breath, suggesting they wait a few minutes before heading out.

"Isn’t there a way to deal with Red Mask?"

Soo-ho muttered, causing the group to fall into thought. They wished Ha-rim were there, as she would have surely come up with a solution immediately.

"Ah."

A minute later, an exclamation escaped from Kyung-min’s lips.

Soo-ho looked at him, asking if he had a good idea.

"I think I do."

"Really?"

Soo-ho’s face lit up, his eyes full of hope as he looked at Kyung-min.

"Yeah, I know."

But Kyung-min’s eyes seemed a little cloudy as he spoke.

"It’s about a story from an orphanage where children with disabilities were gathered, and they {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} all died together."

.....

"What?"

Kyung-min’s voice became more ominous as he continued.

"The villagers thought the disabled children were cursed, so they poisoned their food. The kids started vomiting and crying, eventually dying. The woman who took care of them cursed the villagers with tears of blood. There’s a rumor that she made a pact with a demon. It’s a tragic story... People saw the struggling children and the village burned as everyone fled."

"What the hell are you talking about?! Get a grip!"

Soo-ho shook Kyung-min violently, but Kyung-min showed no sign of regaining his senses. Eun-jung urgently rang her bell to try and cleanse him.

"...But, no one survived. It was like being trapped in a spider's web, with the children dying one by one. Later, the corpses rose from their graves, and they looked like spiders with eight legs..."

Even the cleansing didn’t seem to work. Then, Eun-jung pointed at the top of Kyung-min’s head. It seemed like something was there. Eun-jung had good instincts. That meant...

Soo-ho’s shield narrowly missed Kyung-min’s head.

There was a thunk, and it sounded like something had collided with something invisible.

Squinting, they realized there had been a transparent presence right above Kyung-min’s head.

Kyung-min had been possessed. The presence seemed to struggle before disappearing.

It turned out that the possession had led the spirit to manifest as a monster.

"Cough! Cough!"

"Kyung-min, are you okay now?"

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Kyung-min, pale and gasping, said he almost suffocated and nearly died.

Just now, again, a monster. Once more, a monster. There were too many monsters. What was the peace we had up until now?!

He even began to wonder if someone had intentionally summoned these monsters.

Supporting the still struggling Kyung-min, I cautiously peered my head outside the classroom door to assess the situation.

Whoosh!

"Ugh?!"

Bang!!!

Suddenly, a flowerpot flew toward my face. Soo-ho, barely managing to close the door in time, noticed that various junk in the hallway began to levitate and float around.

"...What is that?"

"Probably a poltergeist..."

"This is insane..."

-----

[Creeeek! Creeeek!]

Laughing children were wandering the hallway. From their height, they appeared to be around the same age or younger, but what kind of monster were they?

I realized that, like Ella, attacking monsters wasn’t the way to deal with this one.

The only way to get rid of it was the same as last time—finding the monster’s weakness.

But I still didn’t know the identity of this monster.

To make matters worse, there was only one paper talisman left.

There was still the Jangsanbeom upstairs, and using the talisman this way was beginning to reach its limit.

I gave up trying to figure out how to defeat this new monster and decided it was best to just go downstairs and join the others, moving cautiously.

Bang!!!

At the sound, the bodies of the children swayed dramatically.

‘Just now...!’

A loud noise and the children’s bodies swaying... Did the sound affect them?

And upon closer inspection, some of the children were wearing the school’s physical education uniforms.

Just like the Rabbit Ghost before, this monster was clearly tied to the school.

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"..."

Let me think.

I’m sure I can recall something from the past that might help.

The necklace faintly glowed.

[Survival]

It was nighttime. I had called Kyung-min and Soo-ho to the clubroom to prepare for the school festival.

Each club was required to run a booth during the festival.

I wasn’t particularly good with my hands, so the only thing we could do was gather ghost stories and compile them into a small ghost storybook.

Eun-jung hadn’t joined us yet, as she had recently become part of the group. The club had originally been a reading club.

Agreeing to Kyung-min’s suggestion to finish quickly and go out to have fun, I came to school that night, working on the ghost storybook until the teacher gave us permission.

That was when I overheard Kyung-min muttering something unexpected.

"What’s surprising?"

"Well... I heard that the sounds of kids laughing and talking during the day get stored in the corners and can be heard at night. I thought it was just pseudoscience, but I believed it..."

"Wow, that’s a scary story. Let’s add that to the ghost storybook!"

We added the story to the book.

...

This is it!

I turned on my phone and played loud music, placing it on the floor.

The kids, hearing the sound, immediately stopped laughing and ran toward me.

But as they got closer, their bodies swayed and then scattered, disappearing completely.

Since this was a sound-based monster, if I drowned it out with more sound, its existence would be negated.

I thought to myself that this wasn’t a bad idea. I might be able to use it again if a similar situation comes up.

One down.

Grrrrr...

"Ah."

I wasn’t invisible anymore.

And since I had played loud music, it was only natural that the Jangsanbeom would be able to pinpoint my location.

I should’ve moved immediately, but now it was too late.

[I told you your uncle wouldn’t take care of you.]

The Jangsanbeom charged toward me.

I had no time to grab my phone, so I just ran.

I tried to use the same method to dodge it, but my speed was slower.

On the other hand, the Jangsanbeom was only getting faster.

The effects of the bell and the notebook were wearing off. At this rate, I was definitely going to get caught.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the last paper talisman.

Could this method work again? But I had no choice. I prepared the talisman in my hand.

[!!!!!!!!]

The Jangsanbeom roared. I’d heard that a beast’s tongue had bones and that it could make a unique sound, which would freeze anyone who heard it.

My hand froze, and I dropped the talisman.

Should I pick it up? What would I do after?

In reality, even if I hadn’t dropped the talisman and used it, I wouldn’t have been able to avoid the attack. It was too late to dodge.

It was a mistake from the start.

Then what should I do? What should I do now?

In this extreme situation, a sudden idea flashed in my mind.

It was a clever idea, but also extremely risky.

Maybe I would end up dying foolishly by trying this.

But there was no time to hesitate.

I have to survive.

Surviving is the best option, no matter what.

My mom told me that before she passed.

I’ll make this work, so please forgive me for doing something reckless.

I opened the window in the hallway.

It’s now or never.

The Jangsanbeom was about to pounce on me when I jumped out the window.

I saw the ground.

Thud!!!

......

I’m still alive.

"I did it!"

Looking outside, I saw the Jangsanbeom, now covered in blood.

The key was the frog eggs I had in my bag.

I had obtained them from the frog-like ghost I often encountered outside.

Every time Ella dealt with a monster, frog eggs appeared, and I had been carrying them around, uncomfortable with the idea of it, but intentionally prepared in my bag.

Though it was unsettling to think of them as real eggs, they weren’t living things, since they came from a monster.

Anyway, frog eggs had the ability to swap the position of the target.

I had used them before when I fought against [Turbo Granny].

What I did was simple. After jumping out of the window, I threw the frog eggs at the Jangsanbeom.

[Luck]

As the necklace glowed, the frog egg flew in an arc and hit the Jangsanbeom. Its position swapped with mine, and the confused Jangsanbeom fell, not knowing what had happened.

My heart was still pounding. If the Jangsanbeom had dodged the frog egg, or if the necklace hadn’t reacted, I would have ended up like that.

"Ugh..."

Thinking about it now gives me chills.

But I survived, and that’s what matters. I shouldn’t tell the others about this. It wasn’t exactly normal behavior...

However, the belief that I had to risk danger to survive hadn’t changed.

Two down.

I muttered to myself as I retrieved the talisman and phone and decided to go find the others.

Thud, thud.

With bravery and quick thinking, Ha-rim survived again, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.