I Became the Hidden Mastermind

033 – Courage Test #2

033 – Courage Test #2

“W moves forward. A is left. S is backward. D is right. And if you turn the mouse like this, you can change your perspective as if turning your head.”

The WASD control method was a story known to anyone who had played games on a computer.

But Yoo Da-hee seemed to know nothing about the controls, and I had to teach her step by step from the beginning.

Of course, I was fortunate to have a publisher named Jeongseok and a teacher, which helped me a lot.

“Now, give it a try. Press the Shift button to run, but be careful because your stamina gauge will decrease, forcing you to walk. Also, running will make your footsteps louder. Right now, it’s okay because you have the ‘Slippers’ item.”

Jeongseok, who roughly explained the controls, spoke to Yudahee as if she were someone who had just taken off the training wheels of a bicycle.

Yudahee slowly pressed the button, placing her thin, white hand on the keyboard.

“It’s fascinating. This is how games move.”

“Ghosts wandering the corridor often rely on sound and approach. It’s better to move quietly. If you think it’s dangerous, hide in places like lockers before they notice you.”

“Let me try!”

And so, the game began.

What will happen now?

All of us watched Yudahee’s game with great interest, staying one step away.

Maybe Yudahee has an incredible talent and will break through this dark corridor easily.

That thought only lasted for a moment.

“Oh- I died.”

She was caught very easily.

It was because she wasn’t familiar with the controls.

“Oh. I died again.”

And she continued to die.

Shouldn’t you master the controls before progressing in the game?

“You have to move the mouse and keyboard together. Dahi, when you move the mouse, stop using the keyboard. And when you control the direction with the keyboard, don’t move the mouse.”

“Yeongwon, could you lower the difficulty level for me? Or maybe use cheats or something?”

Jeongseok and I pondered and discussed how Yudahee could enjoy this game better.

Of course, Yang Juhee, who was watching this process, clicked her tongue as if she didn’t like something.

“Hey. Hey. Stop it. What kind of game is this? Let’s eat.”

Lunchtime came in no time.

We decided to order delivery food through an app.

We decided on the menu through a ladder game, and Yang Juhee ended up ordering a hamburger.

Ding dong-.

“The delivery must be here.”

We all ate the hamburgers together, feeling that way.

Why does time pass so quickly on holidays?

Just sitting together and chatting lightly makes the day so enjoyable, I thought as Yudahee wiped the sauce off her mouth with a tissue and asked.

“But by the way.”

Yudahee’s voice had a certain force.

It’s as if it grabs people’s attention.

“But why do you play a scary game, of all things?”

What does this question mean?

Is she asking why we chose a game that resembles “The Haunted Corridor”?

Or does she simply not understand why we play scary games?

Jeongseok spoke.

“Fear is a fundamental emotion that humans have. The reason we watch horror movies. The reason we play horror games is that it can be a training for emergencies that can happen in reality. This is the research content.”

Such is life.

It was a fact I didn’t know.

Yet Yudahee raised her eyebrows as if slightly puzzled.

“If there were an urgent situation in reality, would ghosts actually appear? I honestly don’t understand how being chased by ghosts in a game serves as any kind of training.”

Such is life.

Jeongseok added to the conversation.

“Tastes differ when it comes to genres. Horror games, like horror genres in general, do have a certain maniacal aspect. Anyway, now that we’ve all finished eating, shall we play the game again? What do you think?”

I was the leader of this group.

Jeongseok asked for my opinion, and I hesitated for a moment.

The reason we gathered today was to play and clear “The Corridor of the Abyss.”

The atmosphere became a bit strange, but still, it’s best to stick to the original purpose.

“Now, I’ll play the game.”

# # #

I decided to play the game myself.

Progress was swift, finding the exit of Episode 1 and smoothly transitioning to Episode 2.

Episode 2 was not just a dark corridor; it was a place where more ghosts appeared, and the background became a more gruesome setting.

It felt like hell, and even for me, finding the way was a bit challenging in the pitch-black darkness.

“Ah, darn. Keep dying.”

As I continued to die, everyone became bored.

Jeongseok was doing something on his phone, and Yangjuhee was watching variety shows on TV.

It was only Yoo Da-hee standing behind me who watched my game.

“Ah, I’ve already collected all the keys, so all I have to do is escape. It’s too dark to see anything. It would be great if I had a flashlight.”

“Yeong-won, if you go to the right here, there should be stairs. Try going there.”

It had been like this for a while.

It seemed that Yoo Da-hee wasn’t satisfied with just watching. She even gave me advice, even though she couldn’t handle the direction keys properly.

But just in case, I turned right and was truly surprised to see stairs.

“How did you know?”

“I didn’t know before. But this place reminds me of somewhere I know. If you go down the stairs, there should be an exit door.”

Sure enough, when I went down the stairs, there was an exit door, and I successfully escaped.

Now it was time to move on to Stage 3, but I ended up back at the loading screen.

The game was over.

“Hey, Jeong-seok. Is there no Stage 3?”

“Oh, that’s Early Access.”

“Early what?”

“It’s a system where you pay for an unfinished game and use the budget you obtained to complete the rest.”

There are so many different systems.

The important thing was that the game ended here.

What I learned from playing this game was that Jeong-seok was bad at horror games, Yoo Da-hee was a complete beginner, and Yang Ju-hee screamed her head off when she saw the ghosts in the game.

In conclusion, there were some benefits.

This game really resembled “The Corridor of Nightmares.”

And it was quite remarkable that Yudahee revealed the escape route in the end.

“Dahee, you mentioned that the background of this game resembles a place you know, right? Where is it?”

“Huh? Yeongwon, don’t you know? It’s Yeongji High School. Well… you might not know. To be precise, it’s now an old building since I’m a graduate. But the layout of the corridors and stairs is exactly the same.”

“You’ve been to the old building?”

When we were first-year students, we had classes in the new building.

I was a bit concerned about Yudahee claiming to have been to the old building.

“It was when I was an elementary school student. I went with the police. We were looking for something… Yeongwon, want to try turning on the game again? It might jog your memory about various things.”

“Hey! Yudahee! Stop lying all the time!”

At that moment, someone shouted with a thud.

Turning my head, I saw Yang Joohee, who I thought was watching a variety show, with a flushed face, bravely expressing her anger.

She seemed so heated that if you put an egg on her forehead, it might turn into a fried egg.

I was also surprised, as I hadn’t imagined the atmosphere would suddenly become like this.

Since both Yudahee and I had been bullied by strong-willed girls like Jungseok, in this situation, there was nothing to do but quiver.

Soon, Yudahee frowned.

“It’s not a lie. What lie did I tell?”

“It’s a lie, you know!”

Swoosh!

Yang Joohee angrily made a fuss and then quickly left the room.

Thump, thump, thump – I heard the sound of someone quickly descending the stairs.

“Yeongwon, I didn’t lie.”

Yudahee said, as if pleading for me to believe her.

Yahng Juhee, getting farther away.

I felt like there were two choices in front of me, and I had to quickly pick one.

“Hey, wait up.”

I decided to chase after Yahng Juhee, who was moving away.

I rushed down the stairs and found Yahng Juhee sitting in front of the villa on the first floor.

What could be going on?

“Hey, why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

I asked Yahng Juhee about her sudden acceleration.

Yahng Juhee seemed really angry, and it didn’t seem like she would open up easily.

“Juhee, Yahng Juhee. You have to tell me what’s going on. Something happened between you and Yudahee, right? What happened? You have to tell me. If you don’t speak, I won’t know.”

At first, I thought Yahng Juhee was just jealous of Yudahee, who was pretty and rich.

Friends like Yudahee, who were the epitome of properness, could sometimes be the target of envy for people like me and Yahng Juhee, who were from humble backgrounds.

But Yahng Juhee’s anger didn’t align with my initial assumption.

“Did Yudahee lie to you before? You kept saying she lied. ‘Kept’ implies continuity. She lied this time too. It means she lied before.”

Bam!

I questioned Yahng Juhee like a defense attorney in a dramatic courtroom interrogation.

Even I thought it was a brilliant deduction.

There was nowhere for Yang Ju-hee to escape the perfect proposal she had envisioned, so she eventually spoke.

“When my sister went missing, there was a witness. A girl of the same age as me. Her testimony was the only evidence that could find my sister.”

“….”

“The police and our family believed only that girl’s words and went through days of hardship investigating. They even extensively searched the school after hearing that she saw my sister at the late-night school.”

“But? So, what happened?”

“After about a week, that girl suddenly claimed she couldn’t remember anything. She changed her story as if she knew nothing about the incident, even though we tried using a lie detector, and it showed she truly didn’t know.”

“No…. So, was the one who didn’t know anything helping with the investigation by lying?”

“That’s Yoo Da-hee. I figured it out as soon as she entered high school. It was her.”

I see…

Yang Ju-hee and Yoo Da-hee had crossed paths in elementary school.

They had such a fateful connection.

“Why did Yoo Da-hee tell such lies?”

Is it possible for an elementary school kid to obstruct a missing person investigation with lies and confuse the investigation out of mere prank or curiosity?

If possible, it would involve some malicious intent. However, at least from what I could see, I couldn’t sense any malice from Yoo Da-hee.

Rather, was she not showing kindness to us?

“Yoo Da-hee is a liar.”

But what Yang Ju-hee is saying is undoubtedly a fact.

It’s truly a contradiction.

There is no separate sword and shield.

“I’m leaving. Frankly, just looking at your faces, I’ve endured a lot by being with Yoo Da-hee. I believe I’ve done enough. If you’re going to be with her in the future, don’t call me.”

Pod-.

Yang Joo-hee stood up from her seat.

And she couldn’t bring herself to stop as she disappeared into the distance.

If, on the third day of our mother’s disappearance, a witness appeared, and investigations were conducted based on that testimony, only for the testimony to be eventually revealed as a lie….

And if we never found our mom thereafter?

I recently learned that there is something called the golden time in missing person cases.

Within 24 to 36 hours.

If not found within that time frame, the probability of finding the missing person drops exponentially.

In other words, Yang Joo-hee’s family had wasted that golden time due to Yoo Da-hee’s lie.

“As worthy of anger as an enemy.”

Having experienced the disappearance of family, I sympathized with Yang Joo-hee’s feelings, so I couldn’t bring myself to call out to her as she moved away in the distance.

Child, sib. If I had known about this earlier, I might have just sent Yoo Da-hee back.

Swish-.

I went down the stairs and headed home.

Jeong-seok and Yoo Da-hee were waiting for me.

I asked Yoo Da-hee.

“Can you tell me about what happened during elementary school?”

It would be a cross-verification to hear Yoo Da-hee’s side of the story.

At that moment, Jeong-seok called me.

“Yeong-won, wait.”

In front of the entrance door.

Jeongseok spoke to me.

“It’s probably best not to ask about what happened in elementary school. I know well because I went to the same private elementary school as Yudahee… There was a big incident back then….”

“An incident?”

“Anyway, I can’t say it with my own mouth. Yudahee should be the one to tell you. I don’t know if she will or not….”