I Became the Hidden Mastermind

034 – Courage Test #3

034 – Courage Test #3

Jeongseok said.

Yudahee was involved in a major incident during her elementary school years.

And this seemed to be a different case from the disappearance of Yang Juhee.

“I’m not comfortable talking about it myself.”

Jeongseok, who used to like explaining things, was showing a passive attitude this time for some reason.

I wanted to inquire further in various ways, but I thought Jeongseok must have a good reason for speaking like this.

Everyone has their own circumstances, after all.

Ding-ding.

I opened the door lock and went in, and Yudahee had already packed up her belongings.

“Hey, guys. I feel like I’ve been a bother. Sorry. I think I should go now.”

Is she planning to go back home?

Certainly, judging from the current atmosphere, it didn’t seem like she would be able to do anything else like playing games or something.

In the end, Yudahee also left home.

There are only two of us left, me and Jeongseok.

Until just now, the house felt noisy and cramped. But suddenly, it felt spacious.

“Wow, there’s always something going on. I didn’t expect Yang Ju-hee to scream like that and leave,” Jeongseok said.

It seemed like Jeongseok had no idea about the relationship between Yang Ju-hee and Yuda Hee.

I briefly explained what I heard from Yang Ju-hee, and Jeongseok was shocked.

“She made a false statement as a witness? Yang Ju-hee has a reason to be angry. But why did she have to do such a thing? What does Yuda Hee gain by lying to the police?”

Jeongseok also seemed to be at a loss like me.

Why would she do such a thing?

It doesn’t make sense logically.

“Maybe she had a desire to deceive adults and tell lies, like when we were elementary school students. Kids often play all sorts of pranks. It must have been the pure mischief of a child.”

That’s all I could guess.

But Jeongseok, who attended the same private elementary school as Yuda Hee, had a different judgment.

“As far as I can remember, Yuda Hee… she was the one who took care of rabbits and hamsters at school the most diligently.”

“Really?”

“She suddenly changed her mind… I think there might be a point to it.”

A sudden change of heart…

I suddenly couldn’t remember…

Come to think of it, isn’t there someone around me who’s going through a similar situation these days?

It’s our mom.

For three days, my mother’s whereabouts were unknown, and her memory and sanity towards me, her son, were so unstable that she seemed to forget me completely.

Yudahee’s statement about Yang Joohee’s disappearance was recanted.

And my mother’s memory loss.

What if these incidents, which seemed completely unrelated, were actually similar situations?

“Jungseok. When was that big incident you mentioned? Yudahee said she was involved in a pretty big incident when she was in elementary school. Can you at least tell me when that was?”

“…It was the summer of sixth grade. That’s when Yudahee started taking a driver’s car to school. I didn’t know she would continue to take a car to school until now.”

The summer of sixth grade.

I felt as if I could hear the sound of cicadas buzzing in my ears, and a sticky sweat trickled down the back of my neck, making me extremely uncomfortable.

Suddenly, in order to rid myself of the feeling of being thrown into the middle of summer, I spoke earnestly.

“Yang Joohee was attending Yeongji High School at the time of her disappearance. Even if it was a four-year-old case of a high school girl disappearing, wouldn’t it have caused a big stir? Shouldn’t it come up if we search for it?”

We searched the internet for missing persons cases in Gaeryong City, including cases of high school girls disappearing.

And then… quite a few cases came up.

Just earlier this year, a student from Yeongji High School went missing.

And five years ago, a student who had gone missing was found except for her head….

Four years ago, another student went missing.

“Successive cases of high school girls going missing in Gaeryong City”

“The police are still facing difficulties in the investigation….”

“This seems like Yang Joohee’s story. The articles were written in the spring. Joohee went missing in the spring. But if what you said, Jungseok, is true, then Yudahee’s incident happened in the summer. Their timelines don’t match.”

I thought Yudahee’s memory loss and the recanting of her testimony about the disappearance were due to a big incident she experienced.

But the big incident Yudahee experienced happened much later than the recanting of the disappearance.

I don’t know.

If you ask the people involved, they would probably know for sure.

But it’s such a sensitive matter, so it’s difficult to talk about it easily.

# # #

“But why are there so many disappearances in this city?”

It was a city that was ominous in many ways.

Perhaps because the city itself was a large network of veins.

“Is it the work of a serial killer?”

“No, I don’t think so. It’s a senseless case. They caught someone who was suspected of being the culprit. They even confessed to committing the crime. It had nothing to do with the other cases.”

Jeongseok pointed to the article about the “headless high school girl” case from five years ago.

He seemed to know quite a bit about it.

“But the culprit was released due to lack of evidence.”

Someone who confessed to the crime was released due to lack of evidence?

When I felt puzzled, Jeongseok spoke.

“I also think it’s something that shouldn’t have happened. At that time, our father was known as an undefeated prosecutor. But after he handled this case, he changed.”

I remembered that Jeongseok had dreams of becoming a prosecutor.

And joining the “Hayeongwon Pirates,” who exorcise ghosts, was his way of becoming the world’s strongest prosecutor who catches criminals.

I didn’t know at first when we talked about our future aspirations.

But now, it seemed like Jeongseok had his own complicated circumstances.

“And the head that went missing at that time still hasn’t been found. Remember when I saw a rolling head in the elevator and got so shocked that I fell over? I wondered if it was that head.”

“Was the high school girl you met in the elevator by any chance?”

“No, she looked different. This high school girl. She was the sister who lived next door to us. If it was her face, I would have definitely recognized it. It’s someone else.”

Was Jeongseok a witness to the murder of the sister who lived next door, with only her head missing?

His father, who was a detective, handled the case until the culprit was caught and released.

What should I say…

Just four people gathered at our house today, but I learned too many unexpected things, and my head felt like it was throbbing.

We were just planning to play games, eat chicken, and talk about ‘The Corridor of Nightmares.’

Severed heads…

Soon, something flashed in my mind.

“Oh, right. Jeongseok, what about what English teacher Hong Miri said? Isn’t it suspicious?”

“The English teacher? Well, it’s definitely hard to drive a sports car with a teacher’s salary. No matter how you think about it, it’s suspicious. She might come from a wealthy family.”

“No, not that.”

I told Jeongseok about what happened to me not long ago.

Blood flowing from the neck.

The difference in color between the face and body.

Swish-.

Soon, Jeongseok took out documents from his bag, which he brought today.

“Could it be related to the twin experiment?”

‘Twins are truly remarkable.

The development of sisters – Yeri and – over the past five years has stood out among the children in the facility. Especially the aptitude of the younger sister – as the overseer is beyond expectations.'”

“There’s a unique mole on the younger sister’s body that the older sister doesn’t have. Even if they are twins who share the same blood, does this difference create a level of distinction? Regardless, if they are sisters, they will surely lead us to something─”

“The experiment failed.”

“The names of the sisters are Yeri and… Miree? Hong Yeri and Hong Miree? Yeonwoo. It sounds like a story with sufficient credibility. Usually, you start with the older sister’s name. The younger sister mentioned here is Hong Miree…”

Jeongseok seemed to be deeply contemplating something.

Then he came to a conclusion.

“Here it says that the younger sister has a unique mole on her body. If we check it directly, can’t we clearly identify her identity? If it’s called a ‘unique mole,’ it must be distinctive enough to catch the eye.”

Let’s check if there’s a mole on Teacher Hong Miree’s body…

Is that even possible now?

“How do we do that? How do we check for the unique mole on the female teacher’s body?”

Jeongseok couldn’t come up with a plausible method for that.

Then, he said something.

“Do you know the rumor that Kim Geonho was hanging out with the English teacher in motels? If it’s true, maybe Kim Geonho knows if Teacher Hong Miree has a mole or not.”

“Ah, that seems like a fake rumor.”

“Are you a hundred percent sure it’s fake?”

A hundred percent sure?

If you ask that… it was again something they couldn’t know.

“They say Kim Geonho hasn’t come out of the school right now. No, even if he’s out, asking him whether the English teacher has a mole or not… it’s difficult. Anyway, while we’re on the topic, let me explain about the nightmare corridor…”

I told Jeongseok about the corridor of nightmares while I was at it.

Jeongseok was a trustworthy friend and intelligent.

“Is that for real? You can gather people in a place like the death floor of an elevator? Like a party player entering a dungeon?”

Quick on the uptake, huh?

He also mentioned that if you die in the corridor, you gain the 《Barrier》.

And if this 《Barrier》 overlaps twice, you die.

“Barrier… Does it have anything to do with my cousin Jung Sojin suddenly going berserk and not attending classes because she said her body smells?”

Jungseok’s deduction was spot on.

Just by talking about the Barrier, he speculated that Sojin was a player.

Did he get mad because he thought she was putting his cousin in a gruesome tale… When he was thinking that, Jungseok spoke.

“Interesting story. Maybe everything we’re experiencing is related to that ‘Nightmare Corridor.’ If we keep raising the ‘progress’ of it, we might find clues.”

Jungseok seemed not to care much about putting his cousin in the corridor.

But he seemed concerned about something else.

“That corridor thing. Can anyone enter it? Or is there a criteria in the player list? Do I have it too?”

“You… have it. I checked the list just now. Some have it, and some don’t. I don’t really know the criteria. Today, Yudahee was added too. Maybe it’s based on people I’ve met.”

Checking the player list again, Hong Miri teacher was also added.

When I found it fascinating, Jungseok made a fuss.

“You. Do you realize how amazing this is? You’ve become someone who can kill people without leaving any evidence in the world. Have you seen the manga Death Note? You’re like the protagonist there!”

“If it’s Death Note… writing people’s names in the notebook to kill them?”

“Yes! If you happen to have connections with the President of the United States. You might be able to put the U.S. President in that corridor and kill him. No evidence would be left!”

Thinking about it that way… it did seem possible.

“Indeed, it seems we were right about being on the Mafia or Imposter side of the Mafia game. And Hayoungwon, wouldn’t it be possible for you to secretly kill the culprit of this incident five years ago?”

The scene on the monitor, pointing with hands at the incident next door, was a textbook example for Jeongseok.

“Executing death penalties on those who have escaped the web of the law. It doesn’t make sense for someone who clearly committed a crime, with the victim not even forgiving, to confidently live on just because they repented in church.”

If this status window appeared not to me but to Jeongseok, I wondered what might have happened. Did people start dropping dead suddenly?

“Hey, Jeongseok. That’s too far-fetched. If you killed people like that, and then they turned into ghosts and all came after me? Then I’m the only one screwed. If the ghost of a murderer comes after me, I’ll really wet my pants.”

“…Well, that’s… that’s a different story. Ghosts…”

Jeongseok nodded as if he understood my story.

But still, his eyes showed a lot of contemplation about various thoughts.

Afraid Jeongseok might say something ominous again, I spoke like making a preemptive move.

“Originally, today, we were planning to explore the corridor. But with the atmosphere like this, it’s probably better to pass on it for today.”

Wooong-. Ding-dong-.

At that moment, my phone rang.

I wondered who it was, and it was Yudahee.

「Yudahee: I’m going to the old school building now, and I feel like I’ll remember various things if I go in.」

「Yudahee: But it’s a bit scary to go in alone. Will you come with me?」

Old school building…

Rather than entering the nightmare corridor, are we going to enter the real old school building with a real ghost teacher?

「ㄷㄷThat’s a bit ㄷㄷㄷ」

This is insane.

Why should I go to a place where ghosts might pop out even without entering?

Do I look like the kind of guy who, if asked by the pretty girl Lee Hae-won, the one the U.S. president would beg for a favor, would definitely oblige?

“Yudahee: If you come with me, I’ll grant you one wish.”

“Hey, Seok-ah. How about trying a courage test today?”