Chapter 034
Sangun-nim.
One of the most sinister and unsettling entries in Darkness Exploration Record.
———————=
A Ghost Story that appears similar to the Jangsanbeom Ghost Stories that became popular on the Korean internet, but with a stronger shamanic and bizarre coloring.
The ghost depicted in the painting, claiming it was killed by a tiger referred to as Sangun, persistently changes its form and chases after victims in an attempt to bewitch and lure them away.
It was one of the Darkness Exploration Record entries that spread by word of mouth in the first half of 20XX, as review after review claimed that merely reading it made them feel bad or upset their stomach.
———————=
It was exactly that kind of thing.
I could usually read written Ghost Stories without much trouble, but this was one that had made even me stop several times while reading because it left behind such a strangely unpleasant aftertaste.
Part of that was because Ghost Stories similar to this had once trended, which made it feel uncomfortably familiar.
Probably everyone had heard of it at least once.
‘A Ghost Story where a person devoured by a tiger becomes a ghost and comes to find someone close to them….’
The so-called changgwi.
A chilling tale in which that ghost had to find another victim and pass its role onto them before its soul could move on to the afterlife.
Just thinking about it is enough to make me uneasy.
But if I thought about it calmly, there was still a way to survive.
If it’s C-rank, then it’s still a rank where a standard escape record exists.
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as if there were no way out of this Darkness.
The problem was… that the method was extremely grotesque and forced an unfair choice on you, so the mental agony and pressure made it feel like your throat was being crushed.
This was the kind of Ghost Story that delighted in making the reader immerse themselves and shudder.
———————=
Exploration Record #3
A man in his fifties downloaded a landscape painting from the internet that was said to improve one’s luck in career advancement.
He testified that the landscape painting in question was an ink-wash painting in a late Joseon style, and that even in low resolution, the mountain and fog depicted at dusk felt bizarrely vivid.
After downloading it, he occasionally dreamed of wandering near the mountain in that painting, and strangely, each time he did, his mind felt calm and his concentration improved.
However, after suddenly receiving a promotion at work, the dream changed.
He began hearing a voice calling to him from inside the fog on the mountain.
It said that, having received help, repaying it was the duty of a scholar, while the sound of sorrowful weeping footsteps walking along the mountain path and the cry of some beast could be heard.
For some reason, the man was overcome by dread and turned to flee.
Then it followed behind him, laughing shrilly as it repeatedly said, “You noticed, you noticed.”
The dream of fleeing repeated every night.
As the man fled farther and farther from the mountain in the landscape painting, the voices calling his name in all sorts of voices also drew steadily closer.
And then he realized that, in the dream, he had fled all the way to the front door of his own house.
Terrified, the man awoke from the dream and immediately ran out of his home alone and moved into a hotel. He stated that this was to avoid the voice chasing him, and also in case his family might get dragged into it.
However, that night in his dream, the voice did not chase after him.
Instead, he saw someone with a pale complexion giggling as they slipped like a snake through the gap in his open front door.
The man said that only then did he realize it.
The voice had not been following him. It had been trying to learn where his home was so it could enter.
Result: Wife and two children, excluding the man himself, all disappeared. (Six months later, three unidentified bodies were found in a nearby dam.)
Afterward, while hospitalized with PTSD, he committed suicide.
———————=
…It was this kind of thing.
What made it the worst was how vividly it forced you to imagine the mental suffering of the person caught up in the Ghost Story.
And there was something even more unsettling.
……We’ve already come too far.
We had already been bewitched by the changgwi and dragged here.
There were signs that we had responded to its calling voice several times.
The talismans were almost gone.
This was the kind of description that normally only showed up at the end of a long exploration record, in the desperate situation just before everyone died.
That meant the game had already been pushed all the way to the edge.
This is driving me insane.
I ran a hand through my hair.
“Is this difficult, friend?”
Difficult didn’t even begin to cover it. I felt like I was about to bathe in cold sweat.
“My, my. Is it because of that unwelcome visitor from earlier? Uninvited guests are always unpleasant. All the more so when you are in a place you never wished to be.”
“So I would like to offer you a piece of advice. Would that be all right?”
Huh?
I looked down at my pocket.
“I shall turn off your spotlight, Mr. Roe Deer!”
“Then you will be able to slip quietly out of this place without drawing anyone’s gaze.”
“…!”
I remembered the astonishing supernatural ability this plush doll had shown in the theme park.
That strange ability that had made my presence almost disappear, letting me move without being noticed by the blue mascot.
“You need only quietly leave through that door and return home. There could hardly be a better way to avoid a troublesome situation….”
“……”
There was a high chance I could infer the correct escape route based on Darkness Exploration Record.
So if the changgwi simply didn’t notice me, I really might be able to get out of this Ghost Story easily!
But….
Wasn’t that for one person only?
Could he maybe do it for someone other than me too?
“For someone who is not a friend?”
Brown’s voice twisted for a moment as if offended by the unpleasant suggestion, but, like the broadcaster he was, he still answered in a cheerful tone.
“Well now. I may be able to, but if it were me, I would not take such a risk!”
“Mr. Roe Deer, is it not true that everything has a fixed total amount, and the more one shares it out, the less remains for oneself?”
It seemed that if he used it on other people too, then either the duration of his power would be reduced, or its strength would decrease.
As expected, if I want to go safely, it’s a one-person option.
Even so, the conscience of a modern person raised under public education just wouldn’t let me leave the kids behind….
And besides.
Brown. If we can’t take Manager Lee Byeongjin over there with us… we’re going to have a major problem with our budget.
“…What?”
Then I can’t buy the Blood Bathtub….
Capitalism had me by the ankle.
“Ahh… that can’t be!”
“But, but if I turn out the spotlight for two people, a perceptive audience is bound to notice! Then the quality of the shot will be ruined!”
Exactly.
So I’ll look for another way.
Of course, if things got urgent, I’d have to send an SOS to Brown and make a break for it with at least one person.
Let’s do what we can first.
“What a pity! Understood.”
First, I searched through my pocket.
Thankfully, several of the items I always made sure to carry with me on my way to work had survived even after changing into the guard uniform.
The Smile Sticker, the Alice buff and debuff foods, and even the Snow White’s Apple.
I’d lost the fork from the Vampiric Cutlery just now, but….
It was originally a pair.
Right, the knife was still left.
I took out the remaining piece of the Vampiric Cutlery from the thigh pocket on the other side.
And I was startled.
…It got bigger!
The knife that appeared was no longer dessert-cutlery sized.
Delicate engravings had spread across the handle, and a tiny red gemstone-like ornament sat elegantly on top of it.
One look was enough to tell that it had grown.
Could it be that the blood the fork consumed got shared with this one.
Since it was a pair, after all.
“…!! Th-that, is that the Guard Team’s suppression weapon?”
I didn’t answer. Better to let Manager Lee Byeongjin misunderstand.
I carefully wiped the knife, now about the size of a box cutter blade, once on my clothes, then tucked it into the front pocket of my jacket where my hand could reach it easily.
Please don’t let me need to use it.
“Then we will search this house.”
“Ah… yes!”
As I started moving, the manager hurriedly stepped aside to let me pass.
I stared fixedly at Manager Lee Byeongjin, who had stopped in place.
“…?”
“I would like you to accompany me.”
“Pardon!? N-no, I already looked everywhere….”
“Since you have already seen it, I am asking you to guide me.”
“Uh, uh… yes.”
Manager Lee Byeongjin looked unwilling, but watching my mood, he moved his feet.
Good. At least I avoided the problem of wandering alone and getting scared enough to collapse.
“This was, um… probably the kitchen. There was no food, though.”
All throughout the old house, rusted, dusty, and layered with mold, only talismans were everywhere.
The kind of house you saw halfway up a mountain in the distance while driving down a provincial highway, old and abandoned, no longer inhabited by anyone.
“While staying here for a whole week, did you feel any discomfort?”
“Well… I never got thirsty or hungry…….”
The manager’s face turned pale.
“Th-the ghost, the ghost comes every night, and every time it does, only then do I feel strangely drained….”
“Have you ever tried going outside during the day?”
“…I have, but no matter how far I walked, there was only forest…… and I was afraid the sun would set while I was outside, so I kept coming back here.”
That testimony matched the other exploration records too.
If so….
“W-where are you going?”
I headed toward the end of the hallway where there was no door.
And I stopped at the dead end.
“I believe there may be an upper floor.”
“What?? No, there’s no staircase going up! I searched everywhere for a week, but there wasn’t even a trace of stairs—”
I summoned the remote hand.
Then I put the remaining piece of the Vampiric Cutlery, the knife, into that hand and hurled it into the air.
More precisely, at the ceiling.
“Hrk!”
From the knife lodged in a tiny crack in the ceiling, there came a sharp sound, as if something had snapped.
Then, with a loud crash, the ceiling opened, and an old ladder came tumbling down.
Found the attic.
“G-good heavens! As expected of the Guard Team…. Y-you see space differently from ordinary people!”
“……”
No.
I just read the exploration record….
Abandoned houses always had an attic.
*There’s bound to be a difference between seeing something when you know there’s probably something there, and seeing it when you don’t know at all…. *
Anyway, judging from the circumstances, that definitely seemed to be the entrance to the attic.
Wow.
It looked like somewhere I absolutely did not want to go.
It feels like going into a room that opened by itself inside a haunted house.
But I had already pretended to be Guard Team, which meant I had effectively volunteered to be the tank. In the end, I grabbed the ladder and climbed up, pretending to be calm.
Kyaaaagh.
Please follow me!
Unsurprisingly, he did not follow.
*My impersonation of the Guard Team will remember this incident…. *
Trying not to let my legs shake, I barely climbed into the attic, quickly finished my search, and hurried back down.
As if I had simply searched efficiently because I was competent.
Whew.
That had looked natural enough, right.
“H-how was it?”
“It was just an old attic. There was nothing particularly special in it, but….”
I held up the only thing I had found.
“It was placed on an old soban.”
It was an old book, bound in an old-fashioned style.
[活路]
“Es-escape route! Does that mean it contains a way out?”
You can read Classical Chinese pretty well.
I carefully opened the book, brittle enough that it looked ready to crumble.
Inside, it was all Classical Chinese too.
Classical Chinese…… the most I ever did was earn level-two certification back in high school….
“Hoh. This is interesting.”
“…!”
Don’t tell me he understood Classical Chinese too?
“My dear, Mr. Roe Deer. A capable host like myself must, by necessity, be able to communicate with all audiences in the universe…. Well, almost all.”
I was pretty sure I had just heard an outrageously unrealistic statement, but the important thing was this.
…Could you read it aloud for me?
“Of course!”
Good.
From Brown came the sound of a classical, good-voiced announcer clearing his throat for a moment, and then his voice deepened all at once, old and resonant.
“‘This is your one and only path to survival.’”
Thump.
“‘Foolish one, bewitched by a changgwi and led to set foot upon Sangun’s grave-site! Before you is darkness, and upon your back clings a ghost.’”
I swallowed.
“‘Do not answer, do not open the door. Simply keep your body pure and endure until the full moon, and when the full moon rises, go to the shrine and perform the rite.’”
“‘Then you shall live to see the sun rise. However…….’”
A page turned.
“‘When a changgwi finds someone fit to be eaten by the tiger, it chases them with all its might. You have already been bewitched by the tiger. You can never escape.’”
“‘The ghost will continue to cling to your threshold, to the pillow beside your sleeping head.’”
“‘Therefore, you too must become a changgwi. You must capture and bring one who will be taken by the tiger and die in your place.’”
…!
“‘The sacrificial offering must surely possess reason, have hot blood flowing through it, and produce the sound of speech. Only then can the changgwi be deceived.’”
“‘Offer the sacrifice and follow the moonlit path, and there will be a small snake den.’”
“‘This alone is your one and only path to survival, and there is no other way.’”
“……”
“That is the end. Hoh, interesting.”
Frozen stiff, I closed the book.
……So it was this kind of thing.
In the exploration records, it had only been mentioned in one or two lines as, ‘After drawing lots, they designated a sacrifice and performed the rite. The chosen person refused, and they stated that he was tied to a pillar and dragged away.’
But seeing it directly… it went beyond chilling and pressed down on a person with a bizarre kind of psychological pressure.
Flutter.
Then something tucked into the very last page of the book fell out.
“……”
A small paper business card.
When I picked it up, I saw scribbled handwriting on the back.
⧻⧻ Leaving tomorrow.
I flipped the card over.
Go Seonha
Department of History, Jugang University
Was this the person who had read this book before me?
In the meantime, Manager Lee Byeongjin, who could read Classical Chinese, seemed to be haltingly reading the contents of the book himself.
And then he recoiled in shock.
“犧牲物…… Th-this! Doesn’t this mean one person has to die?”
“……”
“Right! If just one dies, everyone else can live!”
I didn’t answer.
Manager Lee Byeongjin rubbed his palms together, rolling his eyes with an anxious voice.
“W-well, but, uh, if we don’t do it, then we all die anyway, so….”
“So?”
“…Then shouldn’t someone suitable be the one to die? Someone who probably wouldn’t have escaped anyway, yes?”
Introducing yourself?
But when I saw the expression on Manager Lee Byeongjin’s face as he flicked his gaze downward, I realized.
That.
He was talking about the kids.
“Honestly! If just one of the kids… if you, Mr. Guard, hadn’t come, they all would’ve died anyway, wouldn’t they? We have to focus on getting out ourselves!”
“……”
“If one of them dies and the rest live and get out, yes! Wouldn’t that still be a good thing!”
I never expected to hear something like this in real life.
I could take into account that he had been trapped here for a week already, feeling the terror of death and falling into a panic….
But even so, I can’t agree with bullshit like that.
I glanced at the Classical Chinese text.
“A rational being.”
“Pardon?”
“This book says the sacrifice must be one that possesses reason, in other words, a rational being.”
I tilted my head slightly.
“But can a child who has not yet reached adulthood truly be judged a complete rational being?”
“Uh, uh…….”
“I do not believe so.”
I fixed Manager Lee Byeongjin with a quiet gaze.
“As a complete rational being fit to be used as a sacrifice, wouldn’t it have to be an adult? Then… it seems there is only one.”
“……!”
The manager, receiving my gaze, broke into a cold sweat, his pupils trembling as his mouth fell open.
“Th-that, uh, um….”
I opened my mouth.
“Me.”
“……Pardon?”
“It seems I am the only one who qualifies. If we exclude the children, and you, Manager, who have been trapped here for a week and fallen into mental confusion.”
“……”
“But I don’t want to die. I’ll look for another way.”
I began examining the book again.
After a stretch of silence,
“Um, well… I’m sorry.”
“……”
“Saying I should use the kids’ lives like that, how did I become the kind of person who says things like… ha, hahaha….”
With a face that looked utterly vacant, the manager sank down where he stood.
“On the first day, it was my late father…….”
He died of cancer in a hospital bed, and because I was working, I couldn’t even be there at the end.
“But then that father of mine was crying, saying, ‘Byeongjin-ah, let me just see your face, our Byeongjin’s face.’ Asking me to open the door.”
“……”
“When I kept hitting my head and enduring it, the ghost left while mocking me and cursing at me in every possible way. In my father’s voice.”
The manager clutched his head and lowered it.
“Every single day like that, it comes once in the voice of dead family members, friends, neighbors…!”
His maternal uncle who had adored him, his aunt, a cousin who died in an accident, a university classmate, even a neighbor’s child who had been kidnapped and gone missing….
“Now it drags out every dead person I’ve ever so much as known by face, doesn’t it. It’s getting impossible to hold on with a sane mind any longer……. If there is such a thing as hell, it would be here.”
“……”
Hmm.
Come to think of it, the middle school kids hadn’t even known there was a ghost outside knocking on the door.
Even though they had been here for two whole days.
Had he been standing guard almost right in front of the door the whole time?
Whether that had been intentional, accidental, or because he was bewitched by the ghost, I didn’t know, but either way, it felt strange that his actions had ended up protecting the kids’ mental state.
I watched the manager for a moment, then nodded.
“If this is hell, then all the more reason we have to escape it.”
“……”
“I’ll study the contents of this book in more det—”
Knock knock knock.
“…!”
My face and the manager’s both turned toward the door at the same time.
“That just now….”
Knock knock knock.
“……”
“……”
Excuse me.
The voice had come again.
