That night between 7 and 12.
At the eastern end of the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy, there was a building that was completely closed. The academy students called it the old research building.
It is rumored that the road around the old building has been closed down, but surprisingly, the security around it wasn’t great.
Maybe it was because no one thought anyone would willingly enter it.
Shh!
Five people were sneaking along the very back road of that building. It wasn’t that difficult to get in as the guards were only placed at the entrance.
The five people dressed in black secretly reached for the door. It was Mumu and his friends.
“Since there are no locks getting in isn’t that difficult.”
Hae-ryang said, looking around; hearing this, Tang So-so smiled.
“Of course. Most students don’t even come near this place because of the rumors about the ghosts of the kids who died here last year.”
“Right. But senior are you fine?”
“Me?”
At Hae-ryang’s question, Tang So-so looked at Mumu. In fact, when the incident happened last year, she didn’t really care about it because the accident happened in a place she wasn’t coming to and she didn’t believe in ghosts.
But,
“Oh my, I am a girl too, so of course I am scared. But Mumu is in trouble, and as a friend I need to help.”
She put her hands on her pelvis and coughed. She was the kind of woman who wanted to help Mumu in any manner.
“Thank you, So-so.”
Mumu smiled broadly, and at Mumu's smile, she covered her nose right away.
‘Too lethal!’
She was so excited that she almost had a nosebleed again. Damn her body… it had to be fixed somehow.
At that time, Jin-hyuk scolded Mumu,
“What kind of disrespect is it that you are calling a senior by their name? Sorry, senior. Mumu is a bit immature.”
“No no, we are just one or two years apart anyway, and what is with junior and senior? Call me by my name.”
“How can you say that senior?”
‘They are brothers but are so different.’
If Mumu was the naïve and free-spirited one then Jin-hyuk is the knowledgeable and polite one. If there was anything in common it would be their good looks.
Which was why So-so liked both the brothers.
‘Among the two good-looking ones you cannot pick the ugly one. Heheh.’
Jin-hyuk expressed his gratitude to So-so.
“Thank you again. It isn’t enough that you lended us the detox poison but also willingly came with us to help us find the seeds.”
At Jin-hyuk’s words, Hae-ryang’s shoulders dropped.
He had agreed to provide the information which he collected and even to lend the detox he had, but all his hard work was accredited to Tang So-so.
And Mo Il-hwa appeared in his eyes,
“Lady Mo?”
“…”
“Lady Mo~”
“What! What!”
Mo Il-hwa was constantly looking around. Hae-ryang frowned and then smiled at the sight of her stiff face.
“Lady Mo. Are you afraid?”
“W-what are you talking about? I am not afraid of the ghosts. I am here to help you all. Afraid? Why would I be afraid? I am not afraid of a single thing.”
And he wasn’t the only one who thought that. All who heard her words knew one thing.
‘She looks scared.’
But no one spoke about it; this was because if they made fun of her, they would surely get hurt for it.
It had been a few months since the old building had been closed and it seemed like no one came to manage it, so it gave off a rather gloomy feeling. The grass was already growing all over the place and spider webs were littered everywhere.
Hae-ryang asked everyone,
“Then what shall we do? It would save a lot of time if we start to search by spreading around and…”
“No!”
Mo Il-hwa cut his wods.
“Why?”
“I-I can go alone but what in case something happens? What if we divide into two or three…”
“Lady Mo. We don’t have much time.”
Jin-hyuk who was good at these things shook his head to oppose her,
“We have five people and if we split into groups of two and three it will also be a waste of time.”
Tang So-so nodded her head at this and agreed. This was the middle of the night and it wasn’t right to divide the group into two or three because they had to find the seeds before the roll call.
“Uh. Shouldn’t we have just asked where Miss Dan Baek-yeon’s lab was?”
Mumu scratched his head feeling sorry at Mo Il-hwa’s words. However, since he was the one who thought of sneaking in he couldn’t go to her and ask for the location.
“Then we scatter…”
When Jin-hyuk made the decision, Mo Il-hwa put her hands together and then spoke in a desperate voice.
“Sorry! Just one person come with me. It isn’t that I am afraid of ghosts I just hate walking around all alone.”
Seeing her like that, Hae-ryang smiled,
“Then it cannot be helped. I will go with…”
“Not you.”
“Uh?”
“You are coming on purpose to mess with me, right?”
Mo Il-hwa was expecting either Mumu or Jin-hyuk, but all Jin-hyuk did was fold his arms.
“I will go with Jin-hyuk.”
At this time, it was Mo Il-hwa who decided to go with him as he was more reliable. And he wouldn’t make fun of her in such a situation.
When Mo Il-hwa went close to him and linked her arm with Jin-hyuk’s, his body went stiff and his face red.
‘H… hand…’
It was weird because Mo Il-hwa was clinging onto him too tightly with her breasts touching him. Hae-ryang couldn’t help but feel jealous.
‘Young master Jin-hyuk I am jealous of you. If I could have been that person then…’
Hae-ryang glanced at Tang So-so and then sighed shaking his head. It was as if great expectations were destroyed.
She was strangely offended by it, but,
“Let’s hurry we don’t have much time.”
And at Mumu’s words, everyone began to start their search for the seeds.
The old research building had a total of 6 floors. It had 5 above ground and one underground.
Since the ground was divided into 4, it was decided that the upper floors would be searched first.
The 5th floor was Mumu, the 4th was Hae-ryang, the 3rd would be Jin-hyuk and Mo Il-hwa and the 2nd was for Tang So-so. Hae-ryang who was on the 4th was stroking his cheeks.
‘Ahhh. It feels so awful. Lady Mo.’
He thought that he would joke around, and so he said that the accident happened on the 3rd floor and that the ghosts were all on the 3rd floor and in the end got slapped by her.
“Phew.”
His cheek hurt, but he had to find the seeds. And the key was to find the former lab of Dan Baek-yeon. Hae-ryang slowly walked down.
Kik!
With each step, there was a sound of planks creaking. Since the place was left unattended for so long, it wasn’t oiled.
And that gave the eerie feel to all.
‘I think the atmosphere here is quite plausible’
He wasn’t the kind to be afraid of the dark, rather he thought that the darker something was the cooler it looked.
‘… is it really this cold?’
Hae-ryang frowned after walking a few steps. It was mid-spring so the night air shouldn’t be this cold so why was his hair standing?
It felt weird.
‘Maybe I am imagining it?’
With that in mind, he entered the first office. The moment he opened the door and took the first step,
Swish!
A wooden board on the ceiling fell and it barely fell an inch far from Hae-ryang’s foot. Hae-ryang who saw it gulped.
A wooden board with rusty nails pointing up, just laying on the floor.
‘… a coincidence, right?’
Something was making him feel weird. Hae-ryang shook the thought out of his head and made it into the office.
The inside of the office was quite messy as if the place was abandoned in a hurry.
‘It will be difficult to know who used this room’
It seemed like it would take some time to know it. Hae-ryang went inside and looked at the messy desk. While he was looking around, something black passed through the gap between the opened door.
Shhh!
Hae-ryang raised his head and looked at the door.
‘… what was that?’
It felt different from the normal feeling of someone passing. Hae-ryang gulped at it.
Meanwhile, at the same time, on the 5th floor of the building…
Mumu walked down the hallway and opened the door to an office.
He went in right away and started looking for the seeds. It was dusty and full of cobwebs and gave off a gloomy feeling, but Mumu didn’t even think about this.
At that moment, the large bookshelf behind Mumu shook.
And suddenly,
Kik!
It fell onto Mumu who was bending over. Coincidentally, inside the bookshelf which was about to fall weren’t just books but some sharp tools. And,
Kwang!
The bookshelf broke open into two with Mumu in the middle. And Mumu looked around.
The sharp tools were scattered on the floor unable to injure Mumu let alone wound him.
‘Why did it suddenly fall over?’
Mumu was puzzled at the sudden movement and began to search again. At that moment a black shadow on the ceiling was looking down at Mumu with bloodshot eyes.
The red bloodshot eyes rolled bizarre as they kept looking at Mumu.
“Uh?”
Mumu looked up only to find nothing on the ceiling. He definitely felt like someone was staring down at him from up there.
Mumu tilted his head.
And at the same time. On the 3rd floor. Mo Il-hwa was shivering next to Jin-hyuk who was searching the office.
“Yah. Isn’t it a bit strange here?”
“What do you mean?”
“It is cold in here; no more like a chill running down my spine the moment we entered this place. Look. Look here. I have goosebumps on my arm.”
At her words, Jin-hyuk took a deep breath.
He could understand that she was scared but since the two of them were here he wished the both of them could just search the place, but Mo Il-hwa would only glance around and not search.
Jin-hyuk shook his head and said,
“Lady Mo. There are no such things as ghosts. Don’t be too scared and just find the….”
“Ahh!”
At that moment, she clung to Jin-hyuk again. It was once again weird for him as her breasts would rub against his arm.
“Lady Mo. A little distance….”
“Di-did you not see it?”
“What do you mean?”
Mo Il-hwa trembled at Jin-hyuk’s question and pointed to a place. A place she was pointing to was where a skeleton was put up on a place as if it was treated with poison.
“What about it?”
“I swear red eyes moved inside that skull.”
“Uh?”
Jin-hyuk frowned.
He wasn’t sure if the skull was even a real one or just an item for decoration, but how could red eyes exist in skulls?
Jin-hyuk sighed and said,
“You must have imagined it.”
“No! Because suddenly, the eyes looked right at me.”
Mo Il-hwa appealed as if it was unfair that her words weren’t being taken seriously.
She too had wondered if she had seen something wrong at that moment but something was looking straight at her. And it most likely felt like those eyes wanted to kill her.
“Lady… would you just prefer waiting outside?”
Voice filled with irritation and anger, Mo Il-hwa shot back at Jin-hyuk,
“How can you not believe the words of a person? And in this situation how do you expect me to get out of the building by myself?”
She didn’t want to go back alone. Jin-hyuk couldn’t understand just what she was so afraid of. It was a moment when he was thinking that,
Shhh!
At that moment, someone with long and bloody hair had passed through the crack between the door.
It was just a fleeting moment, but Jin-hyuk’s body went stiff as his eyes met its.
“Yah! Yah! What is that?”
Seeing Jin-hyuk stiffen Mo Il-hwa was dipped in fear.
What was that?
It was then,
Whoooo!
A thud was heard from the ceiling along with a scream. And both of them looked upstairs with surprised eyes.
Hae-ryang couldn’t hide the shock of being on his butt and on the ground.
He was so startled that he almost started grabbing anything he saw and tossing them at it.
‘W-what is that?’
Hae-ryang felt goosebumps rise at the sight of something shimmering in front of him. After examining the office and one classroom he was back in the hallway when he saw something white and floating in the middle.
He went there because he wanted to be sure, but there was an unidentified person with a half-face melted looking right at him.
Embarrassed, Hae-ryang took out a dagger and threw it at him but it passed right through it.
‘W-what? A real spirit?’
He threw another dagger just to be sure and it was the same. Instead of hitting, they would pass right through it.
Obviously, there were more than twenty steps between, but now it was just ten steps.
And before long it wasn’t that far. The distance was narrowed in the blink of an eye.
‘No. there is no way things like spirits and ghosts exist…’
Thud!
At that moment, the ghost with a melted face was five steps ahead of him.
As the distance was narrowed the ugliness of the face was turned more and more clear and Hae-ryang’s heart began to pound.
“Wakkkk!”
And Hae-ryang screamed. He sprinted like a crazy man and ran. If this thing was really a ghost then it couldn’t be hurt with martial arts. So Hae-ryang headed for the stairs.
But,
“Uh?”
The stairs leading down had disappeared and only the ones upstairs were present.
‘W-what is this?’
He couldn’t understand it. in the meantime, when he turned around, the ghost was chasing him.
Har-ryang ran upstairs without another thought, he decided to run up and find Mumu but he went still.
“Eik!”
Hae-ryang doubted his eyes for a moment.
Kik! Kik!
A black man with red eyes? ‘He’ was approaching him at a high speed walking on the ceiling by using arms and legs which were bizarre bent.
‘!!!!’
Shocked, Hae-ryang stopped running.
‘D-Damn it!’
He was in complete shock unable to decide.
A ghost with a melted face was chasing him from behind and a monstrous creature was approaching him from the ceiling while running on the four legs, and the body was making weird sounds as the joints were creaking.
[Don’t go in because of the curiosity. Because there are ghosts in there.]
The words of his seniors flashed through his mind. Then was it true that ghosts actually existed in here?
He was confused about what to do.
A monstrous thing with red eyes walked up with a twisted body and looking back it felt like he was hearing something strange.
Kwak! Kwak! Kwak!
Behind the monster, he saw something running like a beast, on four legs!
“Wait!”
A familiar voice that returned the life to Hae-ryang.
Walking on the four legs by drilling holes in the ceiling was Mumu chasing the bloodshot red eyes monster.
‘… what is this?’