Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 81

Tattoo sticker.

A gift from <Dalbit Tattoo Shop> as a service.

– Is there a symbol related to courage, or boldness without fear, within it?

The tattoo artist recommended a tattoo design of a tomato plant…

That was faithfully put onto a sticker.

This tattoo I’m wearing on my neck now.

……

Actually, it had roughly the expected effect.

As if the central nervous system that feels fear was paralyzed, various supernatural things didn’t seem scary.

Like Team D… yes.

…like Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Supervisor Park Minseong before.

I wanted to explore this terrifying supernatural phenomenon calmly and boldly, to the point where I felt my guts were spilling out.

However.

……?

I blinked in the locker.

‘The… effect seems to be nonexistent?’

I recalled the students chasing me.

Terribly scary.

I recalled the crazy rabbit mascot I met in the theme park urban legend.

My skin crawls.

I recalled the ghost pretending to be a person, sobbing and knocking on the door in the Changgui urban legend.

‘……Scary!!’

Whatever I recalled was creepy.

‘C-Could it be a scam?’

Or did I put the sticker on wrong? I’ve never actually used a tattoo sticker before, so it’s possible.

But either way, it’s not something I can confirm right now.

……

Damn it.

Anyway, I need to move forward with the plan.

‘The teacher’ disappeared from the 4th floor; now’s my chance.

‘They must have gone down.’

Finally, I swallowed my saliva and came out of the locker.

…Of course, what awaits me will be a terrible sight.

The bloodstains and remains of the Team D Supervisor who died just before will be scattered, so I need to mentally prepare myself before going out…

…….

“…?”

‘Tomato?’

Wait a minute.

I quickly left the teacher’s office and went up to the 5th floor.

There…

The reason why I’ve avoided the 5th floor all this time is laid bare.

Aaaaaaaaaack!

The walls of the 5th floor are now plastered with pages from old graduation albums.

And the students in the photos are reaching out with painful expressions.

Aaaaaaaaaack!

I saw lumps of flesh wriggling beyond the scraps of graduation album paper.

A factor that causes immense mental burden and panic to anyone who enters the 5th floor.

Actually, it looks less like a school and more like a bizarrely distorted other world.

A reddish light pulses where the lights should be.

But…

It’s tomatoes.

Ha.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

‘No, this is insane!’

There are tomatoes where human heads should be!

No, it’s not that they don’t look like people.

The people in the graduation album photos? They all look human. People with distorted faces screaming in agony!

But they just feel like tomatoes.

The rational voice that there’s no need to connect it with fear becomes pure emotion.

Yeah, that’s exactly how it feels…

It’s nothing.

‘Ha… ha… ha…’

The further I walked down the hallway, the further back in time the graduation albums went, and the graduates melted into more gruesome, non-human forms, hardening on the walls.

Strange talismans and lumps of flesh pulsed on the walls and ceiling.

And a voice.

I’msorryI’msorryItoreupthetalismanIduguptofromthebackoftheschoolI’msorryIwaspreparingforthe■■schoolgraduationceremonyI’msorry…no,no,no!Thegraduationceremonyisnotaritualnotasacrifice,no,no!!Pleasehelpmepleasehel…

It’s a game lore hint.

It doesn’t change anything that I’m hearing now.

I walked down the hallway with a feeling no different from taking a walk in the streets, or perhaps even more pleasant.

It was kind of funny because everything was tomatoes.

And I stopped at a huge door to the right at the end of the hallway.

A neat teal iron gate.

This gate, which alone maintains its original form in the bizarre den that is the 5th floor, is…

The door to the auditorium.

The place where the final chapter of this game unfolds.

<During the Graduation Ceremony>

Graduates only. Knock before entering.

I read the explanation printed on A4 paper.

I’m a 1st-year class 5 student, so I’m not a graduate, right?

‘This is a gimmick that opens if you have an item.’

And I already have one.

An item that you would normally obtain only after playing through the entire game and reaching the final chapter.

Would you like to use the ‘Name Tag Ornament’?

Of course.

Knock knock.

I pinned my name tag to my chest and knocked on the auditorium door. 

The enormous 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 half-melted, fused with their chairs, unable to move, and shedding black ink-like tears without eyes.

But…

I felt nothing beyond pity.

In this situation, pity was the only appropriate emotion.

‘They can’t harm me.’

Irrational fear had been replaced with tomatoes, and I walked down the aisle between the chairs.

Toward the enormous stage at the opposite end, where a graduation ceremony banner hung.

Thump-thump.

The graduates turned their heads and stared expressionlessly as I walked…

I mounted the stage in the auditorium.

And gripping the standing microphone in the center of the stage, I shouted.

“I shall begin the graduation ceremony.”

[Ding-Dong-Dang-Dong]

As if waiting, bright, majestic background music for the ceremony began to play in time with my declaration.

The graduation music began…

At that moment.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Screams tore through the auditorium.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

As if a shell were being peeled away, the auditorium’s normal appearance was stripped away, revealing a bizarre, monstrous form.

The horrifying sights I’d seen on the fifth-floor corridor appeared.

As if in a final death throe, as if wanting to punish whoever was ruining things, the images flooded my senses.

But I didn’t care.

It’s all tomatoes.

And the greater danger was about to begin.

‘They’re coming.’

To bring the student who had unilaterally started the graduation ceremony down from the stage.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

Frantic footsteps climbing from below.

‘The teacher is coming.’

It’s okay.

‘I’ve done everything I needed to before they arrived.’

I pulled a stick-type autoinjector from my pocket and plunged it into my arm.

Happy Maker.

The ultra-strong disposable painkiller emitted a *ting-a-ling* sound, artificially cute, as the luminous liquid inside the container was injected into my veins.

A comfortable, refreshing, incredibly light vitality flowed through my body.

Like magic.

‘Good.’

Simultaneously, I popped two Nostalgia Candies into my mouth.

Candy should not exceed three at a time!

Nostalgia might overwhelm you and make you sink deeply!

Right. Following the instructions.

I was now in an incredibly comfortable and perfect state.

‘Whew.’

Now the time has come.

Thump

Something forced its way through the gap in the auditorium door.

‘The teacher’’s deformed hand, with a chalkboard stuck to it, reached in, warping the metal and tearing the door itself.

Screech-screech-screech-screech

The door crumpled and fell away.

And what was revealed.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

A giant human form.

But only a silhouette.

As if several teachers had been crumpled and stuck together, then forcibly pressed back into a human mold.

A flesh monster with arms growing from its head, a head on its shoulder, and shoulders on its knees.

It took strangely precise steps as it entered the auditorium…

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump

Chalkboards, textbooks, student registers, chalk, glasses, and other things were haphazardly attached to its various parts, swinging incongruously.

Watching that horrifying sight from the opposite stage…

“…….”

Only a fervent eagerness boiled within me.

I had to break through this to get home and complete my collection…

‘Right.’

In this situation, it’s not fear, but determination that’s needed!

The tattoo on my neck burned hotly, spreading the heat to my belly, heart, and head.

‘Ah.’

Now I understand.

The effect of this tattoo sticker is…

‘Excitement.’

Overflowing adrenaline.

This excitement, that makes you want to lunge forward when you have something you want to do, when you have a goal!

And the sensation that supports it, the one that makes everything feel like tomatoes!

‘I can do this.’

I grabbed the auditorium microphone firmly and stared straight ahead.