I Became the Hidden Mastermind

027 – Space Behind the Pillar # 4

027 – Space Behind the Pillar # 4

We held our breath in front of the serpent like mice hiding from a cat.

I tightly sealed my lips, making sure not a single breath escaped.

About five minutes passed like that.

Creak, tick-. Tock, tock, tock.

Unnaturally bending joints and the sound of high heels disappeared into that dark corner.

But no one moved significantly or opened their mouth easily.

“It seems to be gone.”

I said, trying to refresh the atmosphere and wake everyone up. Then, Jeongseok cautiously exhaled, releasing his held breath and parting his lips.

“What was that just now? I couldn’t see well in the darkness. Did something faint move? What would have happened if we hadn’t hidden inside this trash can?”

“I don’t know. We wouldn’t have seen anything good.”

I pretended to be nonchalant as I peered around through the slightly opened lid of the trash can.

It was too dim to see anything clearly.

This is when the bag comes in.

I unzipped the zipper on the bag I was carrying on my back.

But the trash can was too dark, and I couldn’t see anything, making it inconvenient to find things.

“Yang Joo-hee, do you have a lighter?”

Gangsters, regardless of gender, often carry lighters.

Moreover, as far as I knew, Yang Joo-hee was a guy who smoked cigarettes.

“I do.”

“Turn on the light.”

Click, whoosh-.

The lighter that Yang Joo-hee had lit up the cramped trash can. How comforting a flame can be to one’s heart.

Of course, everyone’s faces reflected in the light of the lighter were tense and stiff with tension.

“Young-won, look at this talisman.”

Swish-.

While Yang Joo-hee and Jeong-seok’s attention was focused on the talisman, I relied on the light of the lighter and took out a flashlight from my bag.

“Having a light will help us move around.”

Ever since I fought with various spirits in the corridor, there was always a flashlight in my bag. It was for situations like this, and now was the time.

Click, click-.

While I was checking if the flashlight was working properly, someone grabbed my arm.

“You want to leave here? How about hiding first and observing the situation? I don’t know if it’s because of these talismans, but that ghost-like thing earlier didn’t seem to know that we were hiding here.”

Jeong-seok suggested hiding inside this safe trash can.

It was a very logical and sensible plan.

However, if my thoughts and expectations were correct… we surely couldn’t stay hidden in this dumpster for long.

And, as if proving my hypothesis, a change occurred.

“Ugh. What’s this smell? Did someone take a dump?”

Yang Ju-hee was in great agony.

Soon, Jeong-seok also started dry heaving, saying, “Ugh. Ugh.” The nauseating stench inside the dumpster was the cause.

Even holding my breath, the stench was so repulsive that it made my eyes water.

It was as if some malevolence was trying to force us out of this dumpster.

“Let’s get out. Get out. Out! I can’t take it anymore! Ugh!”

Jeong-seok, who had suggested observing the situation from inside the dumpster, was the first to scramble out.

Perhaps due to his upbringing as a young master, he had the least resistance to the stench.

Next, Yang Ju-hee bolted out, saying, “Ugh. Ugh.”

Yang Ju-hee was on the verge of vomiting.

I, on the other hand, was relatively unscathed. Anticipating that such an incident might occur, I had mentally prepared myself, allowing me to endure for a long time.

Also, I possessed the ability of “Breath Holding.”

It was a trait that allowed me to hold my breath 1.5 times longer than usual, a feature seldom used in everyday life, but…

“….”

In this situation, it proved to be a somewhat useful ability.

If I could endure the burning sensation in my eyes, I might withstand the stench in this safe zone.

“Phew!”

Of course, there was a limit to my lung capacity, and I had no choice but to jump out of the trash can.

Soon, Jeongseok, who was looking around from a dark corner, asked me.

“What the hell is going on, Hayoungwon? Do you know what this is? You seem calm, so explain if you know anything.”

Jeongseok’s deduction was sharp even in this situation.

I could consider myself somewhat experienced in this dark space.

But I didn’t know how much time we had, so I decided to explain briefly.

“We have to find an escape route from here. However, it won’t be easy to wander around like we did before, as there are monsters and ghosts.”

Even as I spoke, I kept an eye on my surroundings. I didn’t know when ghosts and monsters would come this way.

What worried me was the ghost we just passed. It was a little different from the ghosts I saw in “The Corridor of Nightmares.”

“…It had no face.”

Yang Juhee said in a small voice.

“That ghost we saw earlier. It had no face. It had no head. It was wearing red high heels. Its skin was extremely white, so clear even in the darkness.”

To observe the face of a ghost in such an uneasy situation. Yang Juhee’s courage was truly remarkable.

A ghost without a face.

Soon, Jeongseok chimed in.

“A ghost without a head? Hayoungwon, have you ever seen a ghost like that?”

“No. I’ve never seen it before. Anyway! What I want to say is that ghosts wander in places like this. However, there are hiding spots like this trash can scattered around. We can’t stay for long, though.”

The floor of death.

I thought it would be best to clearly define our goal in this strange space where we got lost.

“We have to find an exit from here. And we have to find our mom too. Let’s focus on these two things. But the most important thing is that we have to survive.”

“The Corridor of Nightmares” is a dream.

It meant there was a chance even in death.

But this bizarre space was not a dream.

If you die, it’s all over.

At least, I was convinced of that.

Swoosh-.

I picked up the phone that Jeongseok had thrown on the floor.

“What are you doing? Why that?”

I asked, and Jeongseok replied.

“There was definitely a horrible sound earlier, but now it’s quiet. And the high-heeled ghost we met earlier. It didn’t seem interested in the sound this phone makes. Maybe it can’t hear because it doesn’t have a head?”

Scratch, scratch-.

Then, the phone Jeongseok picked up started making an unpleasant noise again.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

And the sound of high heels hitting the floor echoed from around the corner again.

“Let’s avoid it for now! We have to avoid it!”

I led the seemingly absent-minded Jeongseok and Yang Joo-hee, running away.

# # #

Whether it was due to the experience of “The Corridor of Nightmares” or because there was a flashlight, I could easily find the room labeled “A-1” more than I thought.

“Let’s go inside for now!”

I didn’t know what kind of room it was, but it seemed much better than wandering the corridor without a plan.

“Hide in here! Jungseok! What are you doing? Hurry, hide!”

“Just a moment. Okay, it’s all good now! I was trying to leave my phone in this corridor!”

Swoosh.

As we opened the sliding door and entered, a space resembling a dusty laboratory appeared. Beakers and flasks were filled with red liquid, and the rusted sink was a place where a steady stream of greyish water dripped.

The broken desks and chairs seemed chaotic, but they looked like good hiding spots.

Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.

Waaahhh.

…Mom, mom…. Mom….

From the direction of the corridor, a continuous unpleasant noise could be heard. It was the sound emanating from the phone Jungseok had left in the corridor.

Drip, clatter, drip.

When the sound of the phone reached the peak of annoyance, a strange shadow began to pass by beyond the glass window of the sliding door.

Tick, tick, tick.

We clenched our mouths tightly and even held our breath, just like when we were hiding in the trash can earlier.

Please.

Please!

At that very moment when we fervently wished in our hearts-.

Swoosh.

The sound of the sliding door opening could be heard.

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

I was greatly startled.

When I hid in the “1-4” room in the nightmare corridor or in the “office,” the ghosts could not open the door. But this place was not a corridor, and this place was neither an office nor a classroom.

It meant that there might be a chance for the ghosts to open the door and come in.

What should I do?

What should I do if I come face to face with a ghost like this?

As my brain felt like it was about to burst, I pulled out the cutter knife from the pocket that Yang Ju-hee had put it in. I didn’t know why she was carrying such a thing, but the sound of the blade being drawn out was quite ominous.

I don’t know what Yang Ju-hee intended to do with it, but I prayed that such a thing would not happen.

Was it because my prayer worked well?

Thud, click.

I heard the sound of the door to the “A-1” laboratory closing.

Thud, thud, thud.

The eerie atmosphere disappeared into the distance, and the creepy and chilling sound of the phone that had been coming from the corridor also became as silent as a mouse.

“According to my guess….”

Jeong-seok’s voice pushed away the silence.

“According to my guess, when those ghosts approach, it seems like the sound comes from the phone. It might be reacting to some kind of wave or magnetic field that the ghosts have.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you ever heard of an EMF detector? There’s a hypothesis that when ghosts appear, they leave behind an unspecified electromagnetic field, and this device measures that.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about.

But I could understand the key point that Jeongseok wanted to make.

The phone notifies us of the ghost’s approach!

Shh…

As Yang Ju-hee put the box cutter back in her pocket, she asked, “But what if the ghosts hear the sound coming from the phone? They could follow us after hearing the phone sound.”

“That’s why I want to conduct an experiment… Honestly, I’m not sure.”

Jeongseok seemed a bit troubled.

In this situation, it would be even stranger to stay calm.

Yang Ju-hee also seemed unable to calm down.

Thump, thud…

It seemed like she was opening and closing the drawers in the lab, trying to find something.

“What are you doing?”

“I thought there might be something usable as a weapon. It would make us feel more secure if we had something to hold onto.”

I see.

Now that I listened, it did seem like a good idea.

But contrary to our desires, there was nothing in the lab that could be used as a weapon.

If only Jeong So-jin, who had the trait of “carefulness,” were here. She might have been helpful in times like this.

…No.

…If he were here, when the ghost appears, he would push me away, saying he’ll be the only one to survive.

Rather than assuming the unconfirmed, I decided to do something immediately.

As if my efforts bore fruit, I found a peculiar item in the laboratory drawer.

“Oh….”

It was a rolled-up canvas. More precisely, it was a torn page from a sketchbook, somewhere.

When I unfolded it, a drawing done with shaky skills appeared.

It seemed like the work of a preschooler, and the content of the drawing… it looked like a treasure chest.

“Could this be it?”

Yang Joo-hee pointed to a box placed in the corner of the laboratory.

It looked quite hefty, like a substantial cabinet.

There was a lock with a password on it.

Jeong-seok said, “For a 4-digit password, there are roughly 10,000 possibilities.”

Is this for real?

Do I have to fiddle with the lock a thousand times here?

I wondered if it was worth the trouble.

If Kim Geon-ho possessed the characteristics of “The Destroyer”… would all this effort be unnecessary?

Thinking such thoughts, I scrutinized the canvas depicting this strange box in detail.

There was nothing peculiar about it.

Just in case, I looked at the back, and there were numbers written.

“…Hey, Jung-seok. Try entering 1126 into the lock.”

“One, one, two, six. One, one, two, six.”

Jung-seok entered the numbers.

Click.

The lock opened.

We were able to open the box and found something inside.

“Crayons and a sketchbook?”

It felt like I knew where those loose sheets of paper came from.

Yang Ju-hee reacted.

“Oh, this is a Princess Sketchbook. I really wanted it when I was little. But I never got it. It was discontinued ten years ago, so I really wanted it…”

“Princess Sketchbook.”

The cover of the sketchbook had a princess character that young girls would like, with a dark red stain on it.

Underneath that stain, there was writing that seemed to be written with a marker.

“A-1 ───”

The letters were not visible due to the stain. I thought nothing of it and opened the sketchbook, flipping through the pages.

Then, I saw a picture of a tall building and many people gathered for a fireworks display.

There was also a description.

“Title: Fireworks”

“It looks so fun!”

“This is from the Osung Electronics building completion ceremony. I was six years old at the time. It was ten years ago, when our dad… was still a prosecutor.”

It seemed as if Jungseok was trying to identify the events depicted in the picture.

A sketchbook discontinued ten years ago.

A picture depicting events from ten years ago.

This sketchbook must have been an item used approximately ten years ago.

It was when he casually flipped through the pages with that thought.

“…What’s this?”

The pictures at the back were as gruesome as drawings depicting the emotions of a severely stressed child.

Some pages were filled with bright red pupils, or entirely covered in pitch-black strokes, and there were also chaotic writings scattered in an unreadable manner.

However, even such drawings became more organized as he turned the pages.

The remaining five pages were all sheets depicting a single object.

It was a drawing of an elevator seen from the outside.

“Title: Door”

“Let me out, I want to go out, want to see Mom, want to see Mom.”

…The elevator is a door? An exit door?

Suddenly, I reached a certain thought and recalled the advice from the status window.

“Advice from ‘Broken Watch’: Where there is an entrance, there is also an exit.”

There must be an exit where there’s an entrance.

But… they might not be different and could be the same.

Because there’s also the term “entrance/exit” (出入口).

“Hey, guys. Let’s go back to the elevator we came in. It would be good to collect our phones on the way.”

We came out of “A-1” and returned to the elevator we had come from.

“Is this the door?”

Jeongseok frowned.

Soon, Yang Ju-hee pointed with her finger as if she had discovered something.

“Look at this. Doesn’t it look like someone marked it with a crayon? On the elevator door.”

Where Yang Ju-hee pointed with her finger, there was a marking of “X”.

It was in such a low place that we had to bend our waists and knees and lower our heads to see it.

“Ha Yeong-won, Yang Ju-hee, look at this. There’s another marking here. It’s an arrow.”

Now that I looked closely, there was a marking with a black crayon on the low wall of this passage.

We couldn’t notice it at the time we came out of the elevator because we didn’t take out our flashlights.

Jeongseok said,

“An X usually means refusal or denial. It’s not an elevator-maybe that’s what they wanted to indicate. How about following the arrow for now?”

It was a moment when I was convinced by Jeongseok’s deduction in many ways.

I heard a voice that seemed to pierce my ears from far away.

“Ha Yeong-won. It’s here.”

“…Mom?”

I could tell that it was my mom’s voice. Even if ten people were speaking at the same time, I could distinguish my mom’s voice among them.

“Is it really Mom?”

I thought that my mom might be beyond that dark corner.

The phone, which was supposed to make noise when a ghost approached, remained silent.

“Ha Young-won. Here. Here.”

My heart was filled with relief and longing at the sound of my mother’s voice, which I had truly wanted to hear.

But Yang Ju-hee’s curse shattered that feeling.

“Damn, what is that!”

“Here. Here. The exit. Mom is going to leave through this exit. Even if you hear Mom’s voice, it’s not Mom. Mom has already left, so even if you hear this voice, never follow─.”

Rolling, rolling, rolling-.

Something imitating my mother’s voice was rolling towards us.