Chapter 15. A Dangerous Treasure Hunt (3) (1/2)

The fifth floor.

At the end of a corridor lined with various classrooms, there was a laboratory. Not one ray of light could escape from the resolutely-shut front door to the lab – only the soft rustling noises managed to intermittently leak out.

A certain teen boy was currently rummaging through the lab's interior. He cleared away the chemistry sets and other glass apparatuses on top of the tables and pulled out all the books stored on the bookshelves. He was desperately searching for something.

But, as time continued to tick by, the signs of anxiety slowly but surely crept into every little action he performed.

Kiik.

Suddenly, there was a noise.

However, the teen boy, Yi Sungjin, couldn't hear it due to the very fact that he was turning a table upside down at that same moment. He intensely glared at and looked through all the fallen and shattered laboratory apparatuses. And he moved on, not even slowing down briefly to express his disappointment. He continued to mutter, ‘Coins, I need to find more coins.’

He deliberately didn't switch on the light. He thought that it'd be easier to spot those clear-yellow coins if the surroundings were darker.

Tak…. Tak….

Again, there were foreign noises. It was soft and low enough to miss if one didn't pay attention.

Yi Sungjin didn't pay attention. His mind was full of thoughts of reviving his dead sister, Yi Seol-Ah. The Guide definitely said it – he would be able to bring his sister back to life if he got to amass lots of coins.

“Noona….”

The mental shock he received after witnessing the dead Yi Seol-Ah being pulled out was truly enormous. Although below her waist remained relatively fine, her upper torso was ripped to shreds and not much of her remained. Just thinking about his undeservedly murdered sister, his body seemingly shook off any hints of growing fatigue and regained its vigor once more.

It was said that the heavens would help those who helped themselves – he soon discovered an object gleaming softly inside a sink. Yi Sungjin's eyes shot wide open and he reflexively reached out.

Unfortunately…. he was in too much of a hurry.

“Ah!”

The coin that he worked so hard to find, slipped out of his grasp and fell to the floor. It rolled and slid under the desk. The boy instantly jumped down and reached out with all his might, finally catching the wayward coin before it disappeared for good. Only then did he catch his breath again.

Outside the lab's windows, the world had become pitch dark. Only the cold, uncaring moonlight seeped through the glass and faintly illuminated the interior.

“Whew….”

It was only one coin, but this was clear evidence that his concerted effort was not in vain.

Time was already well past midnight, yet he still had a long road ahead. He didn't have the time to worry about the Deceased and stuff. No, he had to find more coins. Lots more. Yi Sungjin clenched the lone coin in his hand tightly and gritted his teeth.

Tak….! Tak….!

Yi Sungjin was about to push himself up from the floor but froze up instantly when he heard the noise. The noise seemed to brush by his senses, perhaps tauntingly calling out to him. His arms became tense and taut. His hands pressing down on the floor felt the deathly chill and goosebumps spread all over him.

In an instant, fifty thousand different thoughts raced past his brain. The sixteen-and-a-bit-year-old teen boy very slowly raised his head. And when his sights were raised from the ash-colored floor just a tad, he forgot to breathe.

Just below the desk, he could see a pair of small feet, and above them, long, shapely legs. Legs, that trembled and stuttered as if they might falter at any moment.

Yi Sungjin was about to scream, but his eyes opened wider first before his mouth could leak out a sound. Although he only saw the lower half, he found it rather familiar, somehow. And when he recognized the blue skirt with dried blood on it, the boy's eyes opened even wider.

“N, noona?!”

The stuttering legs stopped. And they slowly spun around as if they were looking for someone.

“We with this hard to explain terror.

“Ssssuuuunnngggg-----Jjjjjiiiinnnn---aaahhh….. Hhhhuuuu…..”Plop.

Suddenly, ‘her’ neck skin wobbled and stretched like an empty sack. Only then did the boy understand the reason for the sense of disharmony – the ratio of her body parts didn't quite match up.

“N, noona….”

He wanted to ask. He desperately wanted to ask why her body looked like that. He desperately wanted to ask if she was really his sister. However, his voice refused to come out.

“Hhhhuuuurrrryyyy…..”

As if this thing wanted to tell him something, the abrasive and dirty voice continued to leak out. ‘She’ had completely turned around now and was facing him, and when Yi Sungjin saw the empty eye sockets, his deeply-held breaths exploded out from his lungs.

“Euh-hark!!!”

Would stitching together several worn-out mops resemble that thing? Within the many holes found on its skin, dried-up clumps of blood and rotting meat scraps were seemingly shoved in together.

The meshed and torn flesh seemed to have hardened after the bits were forced together to their supposedly correct destinations; the ripped skin seemed like it was sewn back together and was draped over whatever was underneath. It was truly a hellish, nightmarish appearance.

Piecing together the torn-away bits of limbs and flesh one by one would probably net a better looking, more palatable result than this.

“Euh, uwaaaaahhh!!”

Yi Sungjin unconsciously stumbled back, until his heels got entangled and he fell down on his butt. His legs madly kicked the air as he tried to widen the gap between himself and that thing.

It was then, the comparatively-normal looking legs stopped approaching him. ‘Her’ misaligned jaw that looked like it might fall off at any given moment began trembling up and down.

“L, llliiisssttteeennn….#$%@… Hhhuuurrryyy….”

Yi Sungjin's mind fell further into disarray. He thought that he'd be dead meat by now, yet why did this creature stop advancing? And, what was it trying to say to him?

It was here that a crazy thought popped up in his head. He summoned what little courage he could.

“….I, is it you, noona?”

“….”

“Noona? Really? It is you, noona?!”

“….Hhhuuurrryyy….. Ssstttaaannnddd….”

“….Hurry? Stand?”

While keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the creature, Yi Sungjin slowly got back up.

“Gggooo…. ooouuutttsssiiideee…. Fffiiinnnddd….”

“Go outside? Find? You mean coins? Are you talking about coins? Don't worry. I, I haven't given up, and I'm still looking for them! I'll definitely bring you back….”

The thing shook its head with some difficulty. It was as if it was saying that's not it.

“Iiittt…. cccooommmiiinnnggg…. Sssooooonnn…”

It weakly raised an arm somehow and pointed at the door.

“Cccooommmiiinnnggg…. ttthhheeeyyy aaarrreee…..”

Although it was hard to understand what it was saying, the boy still got to realize something. ‘She’ was saying he needed to get out before something else showed up.

“Noona!! It is you, right?!”

“….”

“I'll definitely bring you back to life!! That is why….”

“Sssuuunnnggg-----Jjjiiinnn---aaahhh….”

Yi Sungjin's tearful voice seemingly caused the thing's shoulders to tremble as well. From its empty eye sockets, blood-colored liquid slowly oozed out.

“Mmmuuusssttt….llliiivvveee…. Oookkkaaayyy…”

It was then.

Uing from somewhere outside the lab shook the corridor, hard.

*

“Mommy?!”

Shin Sang-Ah jumped up fright. Seol and Hyun Sangmin too wordlessly stared at each other.

“….Hey man, did you hear that?”

Seol nodded his head.

“Goddamn it! Why the hell can't they just come back after finding enough for themselves?!”

“Where did that come from?”

“Dunno. Could be from the fifth floor….”

Hyun Sangmin took off his cap and scratched his head.

Seol carefully slid open the door. The darkened corridor seemed rather ominous and eerie.

Although he had exited from the classroom, Seol had no idea what he should do now, since things were happening seemingly out of the blue. In the end, he chose to rely on his Nine Eyes once more.

The entire fourth-floor corridor was bathed in a green hue. Seeing this, Seol's gut feeling told him that the scream came from the fifth floor.

The three of them quickly climbed up the stairs. But, as soon as arriving on the fifth floor, they nearly collided into a teen boy running on the corridor. It was Yi Sungjin, and when he saw it was Seol, the boy's eyes opened wide.

“Mister Yi Sungjin? What's going on?”

“H, hyung!!”

Yi Sungjin suddenly grabbed Seol tightly.

“I, I saw her!! I saw noona just now!!”

“Your noona?!”

But, how could that be? Yi Seol-Ah was already dead. She was the first one to lose her life back in the assembly hall, after all. Seol carefully appraised the kid, but he didn't seem to be suffering from any form of mental duress.