The tattoo stickers.
It was something I got as freebies from the <Moonlight Tattoo Shop>.
– Are there any designs related to courage or boldness—symbols of fearlessness?
In response to that question, the tattoo artist recommended a design of a tomato tree…
And that design was preserved as stickers.
This is the tattoo I’m currently sticking on my neck.
“……”
To be honest, it had some of the effects I expected.
It felt like the fear-processing part of my brain was paralyzed, making paranormal occurrences less frightening.
Just like the D-squad… Right.…Just like Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Supervisor Park Minseong before me.
Their guts seemed so out of place it felt like their bravery bordered on recklessness as they fearlessly explored these supernatural horrors.
But.
“……?”
Inside the locker, I blinked.
‘It… doesn’t seem to have much effect, does it?’
I recalled the students who had chased me earlier.
Absolutely terrifying.
I thought about the crazy red bunny mascot I encountered in the theme park ghost story.
It sent shivers down my spine.
I thought about the ghost who pretended to be human, sobbing and knocking on the door in the changgwi ghost story.
‘…Terrifying!!’
No matter what I thought of, it chilled me.
‘C-Could this be a scam?’
Or maybe I applied the sticker wrong? After all, I’ve never used a tattoo sticker before, so I wouldn’t know.
But either way, it wasn’t something I could verify right now.
“……”
Shit.
Either way, I still had to proceed as planned.
Now that the ‘teacher’ had vanished from the fourth floor, this was my chance.
‘They must have gone downstairs.’
In the end, I swallowed hard and stepped out of the locker.
…Of course, the sight before me would be gruesome.
The bloodstains and flesh chunks of the newly assigned D-squad supervisor—who had just died—would be scattered, so I braced myself as I stepped out…
……
“……?”
‘Tomato?’
Wait a second.
I quickly left the faculty office and headed up to the fifth floor.
There…
The very reason I avoided the fifth floor was laid bare before me.
AAAACK!
The walls of the fifth floor were now plastered with pages from old graduation albums.
And the students in the photos wore agonized expressions, their arms reaching out toward the outside world.
AAAACK!
Beyond the torn fragments of the graduation album, writhing chunks of flesh were visible.
The fifth floor itself was a source of immense psychological burden and panic for anyone who entered.
It looked less like a school and more like a grotesquely twisted alternate reality.
The places where light fixtures should have been pulsated with a red glow.
But…
Tomatoes, huh.
Ha.
Hahaha!
‘No, what? This is crazy!’
Where there should have been human heads, there were tomatoes attached!
No, it wasn’t like they didn’t seem human.
The people in the graduation album photos? They still looked like people. Faces distorted in pained screams!
But somehow, they just felt like tomatoes.
It made no logical connection to fear, and this rational voice transformed directly into an emotional reaction.
Yeah, that’s exactly how it felt…
Like nothing at all.
‘Hahaha…’
As I walked further down the hallway, the graduation albums went further back in time, and the graduates melted into even more grotesque and inhuman forms, solidifying into the walls.
The walls and ceiling pulsed with strange talismans and chunks of flesh.
And voices.
I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryfortearingupthetalismanIdugupintheschoolbackyard.Iwaspreparingforthegraduationceremonyof■■School.I’msorry…No,no!Thegraduationceremonyisnotaritual,it’snotasacrifice,no!!Pleasesaveme,pleasesavThis is all just game lore.
Hearing it now wouldn’t change anything.
I walked down the hallway feeling almost cheerful, as though I were on a casual stroll.
Everything being tomatoes made it a little amusing.
And at the end of the hallway, I stopped in front of a massive door to the right.
A neat teal-colored iron door.
It was the only thing maintaining its original form in this grotesque fifth-floor maze.
It was the door to the auditorium.
The place where this game’s final chapter would unfold.
<Graduation Ceremony In Session>
Graduates only. Please knock before entering.
I read the printed note on A4 paper.
Am I not considered a graduate since I’m set as a first-year in Class 5?
‘This kind of thing is just a gimmick activated by an item though.’
And I already have it.
Something you’d normally acquire only after fully playing through the game and reaching the final chapter.
Would you like to use the ‘Nametag Ornament’?
Of course.
Knock, knock.
I pinned the nametag ornament to my chest and knocked on the auditorium door.
Then the massive door before me slid open smoothly.
“……”
Hundreds of third-year students sitting in hundreds of seats turned to look at me.
This year’s graduates.
They were partially melted and fused with their chairs, black ink-like tears streaming from their eyeless faces.
And yet…
I felt no emotion beyond pity.
In this situation, that’s all I should feel.
‘They can’t harm me anyway.’
Irrational fear had been replaced with tomatoes, and I walked along the path between the chairs.
Toward the giant stage on the opposite side, adorned with a graduation ceremony banner.
Step, step.
The graduates turned their heads to stare at me expressionlessly as I walked past them.
I ascended the stage.
Grabbing the standing microphone installed in the center, I shouted:
“Let the graduation ceremony begin.”
[Ding- dong- daeng- dong-]
As if on cue, bright and grandiose event music began to play in response to my declaration.
The graduation march starts to play…
At that moment—
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Screams erupted in the auditorium.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
As if peeling away a façade, the intact appearance of the auditorium was stripped away, revealing its grotesque and distorted true form.
The horrific scenes I had witnessed in the fifth-floor hallway emerged before me.
As if in a final outburst of fury, the imagery seemed to lash out, eager to punish the one disrupting its order—me.
But it didn’t faze me.
After all, everything looked like tomatoes.
And the greater danger was just about to begin.
‘It’s coming.’
The sound of crazed footsteps storming up from below to forcibly drag the student who dared to start the graduation ceremony without permission back to their seat.
StepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStepStep
The sound of footsteps barreling upward.
‘The teacher is coming.’
It was fine.
‘I’ve done everything I needed to before it arrives.’
I pulled a stick-type auto-injector from my pocket and jabbed it into my arm.
Happy Maker.
The ultra-potent, single-use painkiller injected its neon-colored liquid into my veins with an artificial, cheerful wave.
A wave of comforting and refreshing vigor coursed through my body, light as air.
As if it were a lie.
‘Good.’
Simultaneously, I popped two Nostalgia Candies into my mouth.
Take no more than three at a time!
Nostalgia might overwhelm you and drag you under!
I even followed the dosage instructions.
Now, I was in the best and most perfect state imaginable.
‘Whew.’
The time had come.
BANG
Through the crack in the auditorium door, something forced its way in.