I Became the Hidden Mastermind

028 – There’s Space Behind the Pillar # 5

028 – There’s Space Behind the Pillar # 5

Rolling, rolling, rolling-.

“Young-won. Even if you hear this voice, never follow. Here. The exit. Mom has already left─.”

“Damn it….”

The status window had advised me before.

There is a cause and effect in everything.

If there is a body without a head-.

It’s only natural that there is a ‘head’ without a body.

When the pale pupils and eyes met, it felt like all the blood in my body turned cold and my hair stood on end all the way to the ceiling.

“This damn it, kids, run away!”

I had to run away-.

But when I tried to run with that thought, a problem arose.

“Ow!”

It seemed like the tension had caused Jungsuk to lose his balance and fall over!

Jungsuk fell over, and his head was rolling towards him.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Here. The exit. Since mom has already left─.”

In a moment of desperation, Yang Ju-hee shouted.

“You bastard! What if you fall there! Ah, damn it!”

Shhh-.

Yang Ju-hee took out a cutter from her arms.

Yang Ju-hee, who ran so fast that she didn’t even think about what she was going to do with the cutter, stood between the rolling head and Jungsuk.

And she forcefully struck the head of the ghost with the knife.

“Die!!!”

Phew, crack!

“━Yeongwon-a━──!!”

The ghost screamed loudly. It was unfortunate that it called my name while screaming, as if a snake had coiled around its neck.

Rustle, rustle-.

It was also terrible to see the ghost’s broken pupils looking back and forth between Yang Ju-hee and Jungsuk.

I wanted to shake off this bad luck as if shaking off a leech, but there was something more important than that now.

“Hey! Get up! Let’s go!”

I lifted Jungsuk, who was lying on the floor.

Jungsuk, who had been squatting and watching this scene, also snapped out of it and got up.

“Foreverrr!!! What if you fall there!!! Damn it!!! We’re going to the exit!!! Mom!!!”

“Screw it!!!”

We fled with all our might, pushing away the sounds coming from behind.

Breathing heavily, our heads spun so much that it felt like our breath reached the tip of our chins.

# # #

I don’t know how far we ran.

But when the office with the sign “Director’s Office” caught the light of the flashlight, we didn’t exchange words or opinions. We just opened the office door and hid inside.

“Haah, haah, haah-.”

“Ugh, I’m dying….”

“Hey, can’t you guys run better now that you’re men?”

We gasped for breath like repaying overdue interest.

The only one who looked relatively unscathed was Yang Joo-hee, who seemed used to running.

Anyway.

We survived for now.

When the adrenaline that had been spewing from head to toe subsided, fear finally caught up. Our legs trembled at the realization that we almost died.

Thud, thud, thud-.

Now I noticed that Yang Joo-hee was bleeding from her hand.

“Hey, what’s that? Are you hurt?”

“Oh, damn. Looks like I got hurt when I stabbed the ghost’s head. Lost my knife too. Any usable weapons?”

Suddenly, Yang Ju-hee’s player sheet came to mind.

Name: Yang Ju-hee Lv.2

Trait: “Tool User”

Disposition: Brave

Inhibition: None

Possessions: Eternal Cutter, Zippos Lighter, Multipurpose Utility Key

An unstable and secretive hoodlum girl. She is bold, adventurous, and proactive in nature. In the dark and perilous journey, this girl will generally become a reliable companion.

“Tool User”: Can enter the corridor with a maximum of 3 tools. The durability of the tools increases by 1.5 times.

Possession: Eternal Cutter

Can momentarily stun with a single prick of the mystery. It disappears upon use.

Perhaps the habit of constantly seeking tools that could become weapons is due to this trait “Tool User.” Or conversely, the trait “Tool User” was developed due to the habit of seeking weapons or tools.

Just as inhibitions manifest according to a person’s physique, disposition, and temperament, traits may also manifest according to a person’s temperament and disposition.

Drip. Thud.

Drip.

Unable to simply watch Yang Ju-hee open and close the drawer of the “Director’s Office” with her blood-stained hands, I also joined in item farming.

This time, Jeong-seok raised the income.

“Here, there’s a first aid kit.”

Swoosh.

Jeong-seok took out a first aid kit from the drawer located below.

When he opened it, there were bandages and antiseptic inside.

“The medication has an expiration date. For disinfectants, I think it’s one year…. I’m not sure if it’s okay to use this disinfectant.”

Squirt, squirt, squirt-.

Ignoring Jungseok’s vague explanation, Yang Ju-hee sprayed the disinfectant on her wound as if she didn’t care about it.

Then she skillfully wrapped the bandage around it, thinking that if a general or an officer like Kang-woo was in front of her, she might feel differently.

After administering first aid to her right hand, Yang Ju-hee slumped into the chair in the director’s office.

Only then could I and Jungseok also sit down on the floor.

“Ah, she’s alive.”

“Kids, I’m sorry. My leg gave out in a situation I never expected…. I thought the ghost would be reported by my phone. Or maybe ghosts don’t affect the head….”

Jungseok apologized for collapsing when he saw the head ghost. It was fortunate that Yang Ju-hee had stabbed it with a knife, but if she hadn’t….

Looking at her right hand, which she had treated with a bandage, Yang Ju-hee also said something.

“So what do we do? Do we go back there and follow the arrows? Does anyone know the way back to the elevator we came in?”

Shake, shake.

I shook my head.

Jungseok, who had been holding out hope, also shook his head.

We had run away recklessly, so we didn’t have time to memorize the way.

A truly dire situation.

Just as the atmosphere was becoming gloomy, Jungseok, who had caused this disaster, explained to absolve himself of his mistake.

“Still, I did get some information. About that head ghost earlier. It seems to mimic what we say in random order. It imitated Young-eun’s mother’s voice and clearly said to escape through the exit. Even if you hear the voice, don’t follow it because it’s not really her. If this story is true….”

Clap-.

Yang Joo-hee clapped softly.

“So, it’s true that Young-won’s mom really escaped! Oh, I’m in pain. I clapped for no reason.”

Thinking that I should take Yang Joo-hee to the hospital as soon as this incident is over, I reminisced about the voice of my mom that I heard earlier.

It was definitely my mom’s voice.

My mom used a ghost as a medium to leave me information, like leaving a message—that’s how I see it.

“It seems like my mom knew that I would come through this strange passage. She sent a message saying she was trapped in the elevator. She must have thought I would come to find the elevator.”

I actually came here to find my mom.

Indeed, my mom knows her son well.

I met the head ghost and got hurt in various ways and lost a lot, but there was a harvest.

“My mom escaped from here. So we have one less goal. Now our goal is just to survive and escape from here. Let’s all make it out alive.”

“But Young-won, what do you have in your hand?”

Yang Joo-hee, who was touching her own hand, showed interest in me.

She probably saw the paper that was in my hand.

“Oh, this.”

Swiftly, I showed the paper to everyone.

It was something I found while looking for things that could be used as weapons in the principal’s office.

“It’s a photo. It’s a photo of the kids.”

Just like Jeong-seok said, what I found was a photo.

It was a picture of little children gathered together, and on the back of the photo was written “A-1”.

Could it be a picture of the A-1 class?

“Since there’s a picture of children, was this a kindergarten?”

Yang Joo-hee looked around.

It seemed somewhat reasonable to think that there could be a gloomy kindergarten like this.

The sketchbook of “A-1” that we obtained was drawn by one of the children in this picture.

What happened to that child….

But before that, let’s take a break for about 5 minutes.

# # #

“Hey, kids, look at this.”

Jeong-seok called us as if he had discovered something while rummaging through the principal’s office.

I wondered if he had found another picture.

“There are two more passages in addition to the entrance in the principal’s office. One is a passage that goes to the left, and the other is a passage that goes to the right. And both have arrows colored with crayons.”

Was it because he felt responsible for Yang Joo-hee getting hurt? Jeong-seok showed great enthusiasm as he explored the principal’s office, and eventually achieved results.

“It’s a fork in the road. Which way do you think we should go?”

Jeong-seok asked for my opinion.

In a situation where we have to split into two paths like this, it seems like he wants to hear the opinion of the leader of this team, which is probably me.

Yang Joo-hee said,

“What if we try both?”

That was also a possible solution.

Since I learned that Mom had escaped, a single discourse or idea had been dominating my mind.

Now that it had come to this, it seemed like a good time to experiment.

“Status window.”

I called up the status window.

And opened the store.

I had 363 points.

Enough points for a gamble.

“Guys, please pray for it to go well.”

I spent another 90 points.

Now, I had 273 points left.

Ping.

As if a capsule toy machine was coming to mind, round capsules began rattling. Rattle. Rattle-rattle. Rattle.

I wondered what would happen.

『The item has been placed in front of the entrance.』

『2250 steps to the east.』

“…Did it work? Seems like it did!”

People could muster strength even in a truly hellish environment when there was hope.

I was experiencing that firsthand now.

“Guys, I can get out! Let’s head east! It seems like the direction of the capsule machine is guiding us!”

When I first tried the capsule machine, I found the notification system telling me that the item was placed at the entrance intriguing.

I had pondered extensively on how I could make use of it, and now, this moment felt just like that, and my gamble seemed almost successful!

“Hey, guys. Let’s go.”

With hearts filled with a bright candle-like hope, we headed towards the “Director’s Office.”

The capsule I had purchased for 90 points was our lifeline, regardless of its contents.

“The arrow continues. But why is it drawn so low?”

Yang Ju-hee muttered as she looked at the crayon marks on the wall.

However, I had a feeling why these marks were so low.

“A child drew this. So, it had to be drawn low. Seok-ah, how about your phone? Can you still not hear anything?”

“I can hear, but… If we encounter a ghost here, it feels like there’s nowhere to hide.”

The corridor we were walking through was straight.

Endlessly straight.

When I thought we had walked at least 100 meters, Jung-seok said something that had been on his mind since we were in the elevator.

“I’ve been thinking since we were in the elevator. Maybe this place is some kind of parallel world, like different places within the same space.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“…It’s just a thought.”

Jung-seok also said meaningless things sometimes.

Perhaps he wanted to babble about anything to dispel his fear.

This eerie chill and darkness were something we couldn’t get used to.

“A parallel world…”

A nightmare corridor.

And this strange passage.

The two were very similar.

The fact that a ghost appears is also similar.

What could be the meaning or reason…?

They say there is always a cause for everything….

“Yeongwon. Mom. Exit. Here. No. Not Mom.”

Then we heard a thudding sound coming from behind us.

The problem was that the static noise was starting to get loud even on the phone.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The sound of high heels coming from the front we were facing.

And the sound of the ghost’s head coming from behind.

“…Damn, can’t run away.”

It was a desperate situation.

The only fortunate thing was that there was a box nearby.

Creak-.

When we opened the box, the inside seemed wide enough for two people to fit comfortably.

The problem is… that there are three of us.

“These three people can’t fit in here, can they?”

Static-.

Waaah-.

Mom… Mom….

“What should I do? Hayoungwon! What should I do?”

Jungseok cried out, holding his phone, not knowing what to do.

Straight passage.

Three people.

Two-person box.

Ghosts in front and back.

I made up my mind.

“Hey, you guys go in. Quickly!”

I decided to put Jungseok and Yang Joo-hee, who followed me all the way to this hell, into the box.

Both Yang Joo-hee and Jungseok were confused, but there was no time to explain.

“Hurry! I have a plan!”