Kirik! Kirrik!
A terrifying creature with bloodshot eyes which were wide open as if they would be torn apart ran from the ceiling, and Mumu was chasing after it.
Hae-ryang, who was frightened by the ghost he had encountered, was stunned by this.
‘… feels like the situation has changed here.’
Why was Mumu chasing after this monster-like creature? He was really puzzled by this.
Suddenly, the monstrous creature which Mumu was pursuing reached the ceiling where Hae-ryang was.
“Gasp!”
Flustered, Hae-ryang immediately crouched down, and right when they were about to collide, the monster disappeared like smoke.
Shhhh!
‘W-what was that?’
When the monster disappeared, Mumu, who was chasing it, stopped with a sad expression and immediately pulled his hands away from the ceiling and jumped down.
Tak!
“It is gone again.”
Mumu scratched his head, and Hae-ryang asked,
“Mu… Young Lord Mumu… what just happened?”
“I don’t know. That thing kept spying on me, so I wanted to talk with it, but he ran away a couple of times, so I threw it to the ground, but he escaped again.”
“Huh? Threw it to the ground?”
How can a ghost be knocked onto the floor?
Even a dagger thrown at it had passed right through it. He didn’t think physical force could work on it.
But,
‘Ah!’
Hae-ryang turned back and remembered that half-face melting ghost following him. But there was nothing behind him.
No, something was vibrating on the side of the stairs and then disappeared, like it was hiding.
‘… what is it?’
He couldn’t understand it, despite being lucky.
Hae-ryang leaned against the wall as his legs gave out and said,
“Haaa… what was that just now?”
“Wasn’t it a human?”
“Uh? That was a human? It was walking on the ceiling with broken looking limbs.”
“It was very strange. I wanted to ask if he knew where Master Dan Baek-yeon's lab was.”
“… you followed it on the ceiling to ask that?”
Hae-ryang wasn't sure if it was a ghost or not. However, Mumu wasn’t afraid of it, so he had followed Mumu, and in some ways, this worked out great.
Mumu asked,
“Were the flower seeds on the 4th floor?”
“A-ah. I didn’t check all of them. After looking at a few rooms, a strange man with a half-melted face began to chase me….”
“So you ran away?”
“Hmm. Sorry, I was too shocked.”
He wondered if anyone wouldn’t have been surprised to see that thing. No matter how much he thought, it felt like a strange existence.
‘I’m in no position to make fun of Lady Mo.’
If it hadn’t been for Mumu, he would have peed his pants. Hae-ryang himself couldn’t bear to look at his face anymore.
“Young Lord Mumu… I am sorry but is it fine if we walk together? To be honest, I don’t think I can stay alone anymore.”
There was no way he would go alone when his attacks didn't work. And so he joined Mumu.
At the same time on the 2nd floor of the building…
Tang So-so was searching one of the classrooms with a regretful expression. Come to think of it; if she acted scared like Mo Il-hwa, maybe she could have gone with Mumu.
‘Ahh. I’m a fool.’
She had thrown away a good chance.
She was in such a hurry to help that she didn’t think of it.
‘Uh?’
Since she thought it was unfortunate that she hadn’t thought of this in time, she wondered if this maybe was Mo Il-hwa’s plan?
Even if she was afraid of ghosts, it felt like she was exaggerating in an attempt to get her hands around a man.
‘Isn’t that true? But her face, she really looked piss scared.’
These were useless thoughts, and so Tang So-so shook her head. After all, the subjects she was into were Mumu and Yu Jin-hyuk.
Every time she thought of Mumu, she would get excited and get nose bleeds.
‘How can a man with a beastly body have such a pretty face? Hahaha.’
Flinch!
Tang So-so hurriedly turned her head and looked at the wall. Hanging there was a scroll painting of a general wearing armor; she thought it was strange.
‘I thought someone was looking at me.’
There was no way a general in a painting could look at her. And so she turned her head, thinking she imagined it.
At that moment, the eyes of the general moved.
‘!?’
Tang So-so’s eyes widened seeing this; it was no illusion.
The eyes drawn in the picture were moving around. It might be surprising, but Tang So-so was frowning at this thing.
‘No.’
She intently stared at it, walked up to the hanging scroll, and pierced the two fingers right at the eyes.
The eyes moving around suddenly turned into smoke and the scroll went back to its original form.
“Sniff.”
She took back the finger that pierced the eyes, put it to her nose, and frowned.
‘Now my turn.’
The faint smell from her fingers, She had smelt this before.
She was of the Tang family; even without any antidots, she was highly resistant to any poison, so she wasn't worried about poisons, but this felt different.
It felt like no antidote would work.
‘I need to go meet the kids,” She thought and hurriedly ran out of the classroom.
As she walked out, a black shadow fell out of the scroll.
At the same time, on the 4th floor, Jin-hyuk picked up the dagger, which had fallen on the floor, and said to Mo Il-hwa,
“Seems like the dagger of Hae-ryang, right?”
“Really? But why don’t I see him here?”
Hearing the screams and clattering from the upper floor, they hurried there. However, the floor where Hae-ryang should have been was silent.
‘If the dagger had pierced this deep then he must have aimed for something. What was he trying to do?’
Did he throw it at something he had confronted? However, both sides of the fight weren’t on this floor, and it was difficult to know what had happened.
“What is this? Can there really be ghosts?”
“There cannot be such….”
At Mo Il-hwa’s words, Jin-hyuk tried to deny it, but he made eye contact with a bloody woman passing through the crack of the door. He could never forget that.
This was a horrifying feeling, a shock so great it felt like his body would never move again.
‘Ghosts…’
He wasn’t sure how to handle this. And Jin-hyuk shook his head to deny it.
If there was such a thing, even if not here, he should have seen it in his life before now.
‘Right. This has to be an illusion.’
In the moment of denial, Mo Il-hwa pointed to somewhere with a pale face.
He looked there to see a monstrous creature standing in the middle of the dark hallway. It was a creature with half of its face melted.
‘!?’
Jin-hyuk, who felt shocked at the sight, doubted his own eyes.
‘Is that really a ghost?’
Thud!
He was bewildered, but this creature was approaching them from the end of the hallway. He couldn’t believe how fast this ghost was moving.
It looked like this ghost could use light footwork.
“Yah… Yah! Ru… run!”
Mo Il-hwa grabbed onto his hand and kept repeating it. This thing had to be a ghost.
Jin-hyuk nodded stiffly, wondering if denying this would even work for him. He wanted to get out of this place, and it was then.
Thud!
Before he could escape, a monstrous creature appeared right in front.
“Eik!”
Mo Il-hwa reflexively pulled out her sword from the waist and was ready to unfold it towards this ghost.
Chachachachcha!
The sword flittering about like a butterfly, rushed at the monster, but…
Shhhhh!
The sword technique brushed past the body as if simply swinging through the air.
“H-How?’
She was shocked. At that moment, the melted face monster closed in on them and opened its mouth, muttering something.
The jaw felt like it could fall off at any moment, and the skin seemed like it would rip from opening the mouth. Everything on the creature was so ugly looking that it felt threatening.
‘G-Ghost!’
They were so scared that their bodies had gone stiff.
“Ugh!”
Jin-hyuk was equally surprised, but he turned his body and kicked the monster hoping it would get hit.
‘Eight Foot Torture Technique, Round Star Kick’
His leg turned around and aimed right for the neck. He had the force to cut through the neck in an instant.
However, his kick went straight through the body.
Shhh!
‘uh?’
Jin-hyuk wasn’t flustered at this and continued to unfold techniques, and two times his leg went through. It was like nothing existed. At this, Jin-hyuk questioned.
‘Why?’
Something felt strange.
The fact that this thing could be looked at but couldn’t be damaged. This made him think calmly.
Maybe they were seeing things, hallucinating.
Phat!
Jin-hyuk stepped back half a step and said,
“Lady Mo, this might be an illusion….”
Pak!
At that moment, something grabbed his shoulder, and he looked back to find something with bloodshot red eyes holding onto him with bizarre broken arms.
‘How?’
He thought this could be an illusion, but now he could feel it—these creepy feelings.
“G-get your hands off Jin-hyuk!”
Mo Il-hwa, terrified of what was holding Jin-hyuk, swung her sword at this thing but then….
Thud!
“Ack!’
Something grabbed Mo Il-hwa’s ankle, making her fall to the ground. Confused, she looked at her ankles.
‘…’
She thought she was losing it. In the distance, a long-haired faceless woman covered in blood, with her waist stretching out from the stairs grabbed Mo Il-hwa’s ankles. It felt like her heart would fail it was beating so fast.
Pak!
And the ghost which had grabbed the ankles was trying to take her somewhere.
“L-lady Mo!”
Jin-hyuk tried to release the hands pressing him down, but the hand seemed so strong that he couldn’t do anything, and he couldn’t even touch the hands holding him down.
But these ghosts, they could touch them!
‘Damn it. what can I even….’
It was then.
The ghost with long hair holding the ankles of Mo Il-hwa went stiff with its chin hit on the floor. He could see the black eyes of the ghost.
‘What?’
He was puzzled, but the ghost with long hair floundered like a shocked person and then nailed itself to the floor, trying to use its strength. It felt as if someone was trying to hold it to the ground. But in the end, the ghost staggered, unable to move.
Wuuh!
The ghost moved back with arms fluttering and waving as if it was asking for help; it looked absurd.
But soon, the ghost disappeared, being sucked into the dark stairway. Mo Il-hwa was confused and mumbled.
“W-what? Did it get taken away?’
“… looks like it.”
Jin-hyuk saw it. And the hand pressing him down had disappeared, and when he looked back up, the blood-eyed monster was no more.
And the half-melted face one too vanished,
“Just what…”
He couldn’t understand this and then heard someone’s happy voice.
“Caught it!”
Jin-hyuk and Mo Il-hwa looked at each other at the sound of a familiar voice and cautiously approached the stairs.
The long-haired ghost was dragged through there, so they had to be careful, but then they saw something shocking as they turned.
“… that is the one from before?”
Where Mo Il-hwa pointed, there was a long-haired ghost waving her hands around, with Mumu pressing on the nape of her neck with his massive arms.
And next to him was Hae-ryang with an expression of disbelief.