Stepping Stone

After materializing my body in the bathroom on the 4th floor, I came out into the hallway and went up the stairs to the 5th floor.

The calm before the storm. Climb all the stairs and he will be there.

It is fortunate that the children stopped on the 4th floor when they ran away from the guard. Otherwise, one person might have died.

Climbing all the stairs, I can see a human figure hanging danglingly in the middle of the hallway on the 5th floor. A monster looking like a corpse that seems to have committed suicide by hanging itself with a rope. [Suicidal Wannabe].

Stepping into the hallway, the monster speaks.

[Let's Die.]

[How can I live in this world when I am bullied, can't study, and my parents hate me, let's just die comfortably.]

At the same time, countless ropes descend from the ceiling. Like snakes, they aimed at my neck.

Slash.

I cut one of the ropes with my knife and ran to him. Materialization has a time limit, so I have to finish it quickly.

[You know you have no future if you don't go to college, right?]1

So many ropes came out that covered my field of vision. It was impossible to cut these countless ropes one by one, but avoiding them was possible if you knew the pattern.

If you look at the floor of the hallway as a combination of square tiles...

'There is a gap in the 9 o'clock tile at my location'

9 o'clock, when I threw myself away at a tile, the nooses passed by just barely.

Indeed, the pattern seems to be the same as the game. A trivial mob that is not even a boss, boasting a level of difficulty that pissed me off. How many saves have I loaded because of this guy... You're dead.2

'If you move quickly to the next one at 1 o'clock, pay attention to the time difference and move to 12 o'clock'

His reaction intensifies when he sees me passing through the ropes like a rat.

Either way, the distance gradually closed. He prepared the final berserk pattern, but I had no intention of waiting for it.

Thump!

The hallway was filled with an unbelievable heavy sound of a weak girl's leg kicking the floor.

After absorbing other monsters, I used my increased physical abilities to throw my body at the creature, skipping the pattern.

I flew straight to him and swung my knife.

Slash.

What I cut was the rope strangling him. The monster who fell to the ground had a seizure and screamed.

[Can't die, failed, failed, failed, failed!!]

"You don't exist. So you didn't die."

[No, I committed suicide because I was bullied by Choi Mi-young and my grades were low.]

"A student named Choi Mi-yeong does not exist at this school. There never was and there isn't now"

[Liar.]

"You know you have to be alive to commit suicide, right? Besides, what suicide because of poor grades? This is elementary school."

[...Lies.]

"Why do you keep lying, is this all you can say? Sigh, what is this? I thought you were a [Suicidal Wannabe], but you are just an idiot? If you're going to lie, you have to be plausible. Even getting caught and crying. Idiot. I'm in a bad mood so go away~"

[...]

After a silence, he turned into smoke and was absorbed by me.

Materialization time increased again.

A cliché made up of a school ghost story in which a student commits suicide.

A fake student ghost who forcibly took the place of a school ghost story. That was the true nature of this monster. It is possible to eradicate it by interfering with suicide and denying its existence itself.

Could all the children have been able to avoid such a wide-area attack by telling them how to dodge it? Not at all. Half of it was possible because my body was of a monster.

By the way, it would have been much easier if I had used Slenderman's teleportation, but I can't use it.

Is it because I'm less adaptable? I thought that if I absorbed this monster, I would be able to somewhat fly like the ropes, but nothing came out.

Maybe the other monster's skills can't be used.

In the first place, monster fighting doesn't even appear in the game, so it's strange to expect it.

Time will tell if it's possible or not.

I picked up the talisman and one special item left behind after the monster disappeared and returned to the mirror.

Now let's go back to the children.

POV Switch - Ha-rim (A while back)

Ella, who had been watching us from the corner of the mirror, disappeared.

'Did she stay by our side in case we were in danger?'

I doubted that Ella was going to keep her promise this time.

Although it was what I asked for, I didn't expect that she would help us so easily. It was a far cry from the one who lied to us at the mansion.

When I saw the diary in the mansion, I thought that maybe she just wanted a "friend", which I'm half-sure. But why would she want to kill us?

Could it be that killing people is considered "playing"? She might have thought that trying to kill us was a game between friends. Ella is both a monster and a child.

If so...

"Ha-rim, why are you so quiet?"

Suho asked as if there were monsters in the mirror. His face was serious because we were in a situation that wasn't strange even if it was true.

"Ahaha. I got the feeling that Ella was watching..."

"...It might be."

Kyeong-min said that if it were a ghost, hiding and watching would be as natural as breathing.

To him, Ella is a terrifying ghost. Whenever the word Ella was mentioned, he was the most agitated.

I understood Kyeong-min's reaction. No wonder, he was directly tormented by Ella, and even threw a wine bottle at her, so he must be thinking that he would be the first person to be killed if she got angry.

"If she's really watching, isn't that a warning to catch another ghost quickly? We better hurry."

I and the kids agreed with the idea. No one thought Ella's patience would be good.

"Let's go to the kennel next."

Again, a strangely specific place. Kyeong-min intends to follow the president's words, but among the four, there was one mysterious monster that only Ha-rim didn't know about, so he decided to tell her.3

"By the way, there is one place where we found a monster"

"Huh? Where?

"When we tried to go down the floor on the stairs opposite were we came in, there was a terrifying corpse monster. I don't think you've met it... It's really disgusting... Urgh..."

He wasn't affected too much because he saw it in such an urgent situation, but when he thought about it again, it was the first time in Kyeong-min's life that he felt so disgusted.4

The other members also had a bad complexion. They reacted like that just by thinking about it. They thought it would be better to be chased by Ella.

If Ella gave me the locations, why did she only said two places? There are three talismans left, and since I just got one, now I have two. It seems that there's only two monsters left.

"Let's think about a strategy and then go there. A corpse... Was there anything unusual about it?"

"It was a mutilated corpse, as if it had been gnawed by a small animal. I met it while being chased by the guard, so I don't know much else."

Suho answered instead of Kyeong-min, who still had a bad complexion. Since it is a small animal, there was one that came to mind.

"It's an small animal that gnaws... isn't it a rat?"

"If it's a rat... that definitely fits the image. But, are there any ghost stories about rats?"

At Suho's words, Kyeong-min opens a notepad while fixing the slipped glasses. However, the more he flipped through the notepad, the more vague his expression became.

"...I don't have any guesses this time around. Rats that carry diseases. Pied piper. Rats that eat fingernails and turn into humans. To say those are ghost stories...."

It's pretty vague. After a moment of silence, when he couldn't come up with an idea, I suggested it.

"I guess I'll have to see it for myself this time."

The members nodded. I stood on the stairs on the other side of the second floor guided by the members. If I go down there, I'll encounter that monster, right?

"Be careful, Ha-rim."

Giving an okay gesture to Eun-jeong, I quietly went down the stairs.

Then, a muttering sound came directly from below. I stick my head out and observe the source of it.

What I saw was a corpse that had been mutilated and devoured to the point of nausea. A human-shaped piece of meat with holes drilled and eaten. Urgh. I barely endured the retching.

I gave a detailed look. He was about the same height as me and wore a nametag . It couldn't be seen properly because he was covered in blood, but the words "on duty" were clearly visible.

[Tosun-ah, Sando-ah, let's eat. Today, I secretly brought carrots from the garden... If I get caught...]

"...?"

After that, something came out of the corpse's mouth. It's a rabbit. A rabbit with a red mouth. It met my eyes.

[Kieek!!!!]

Rabbits began to come out of the corpse's mouth without stopping. I ran away from the screaming rabbits.

"Everyone run!"

"Aaaaaagh!"

The rabbits drool and chase after us. No matter who gets caught, nothing good will happen. So we ran nonstop. But I shouldn't just run away. I have to find a way to do something.

"Was there any ghost stories about rabbits?!"

"There isn't! But I heard about them raising rabbits in the kennel before!"

It's the first time I've heard of it, but Kyeong-min is good with information. The kennel is also the place Ella told me about. Rabbits and breeding grounds. I realized that there is a big connection between the two.

"Let's go to the kennel!"

"Okay!"

We started running towards the kennel, which was empty.

Strangely, there were many surveillance cameras installed, so it was noticeable. And why was the school raising rabbits?

We tried getting out of school. However, the speed of the rabbits was faster than expected.

Even if we look for clues in the breeding grounds right now, can we respond if there is a rabbit right in front of our nose?

"Cafeteria! Let's go by the cafeteria and block the rabbits!"

The kennel is behind the cafeteria. There are no disruptions in the route. Besides, I heard that the cafeteria door is open for teachers who come out during vacation.

I kicked the cafeteria door and got inside. At the same time, the members who entered together closed the door and blocked it.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Ugh... We can hold on! Ha-rim, we'll be blocking it. You find a clue!"

"Got it!"

The moment I was about to leave through the back door of the cafeteria, Eun-jeong said.

"I don't know if it will help, but the nametag on duty is in a box when you go out the back door! Whether it's the meal number or the vegetable garden number, they all use it!"

"Okay!"

When I came out of the cafeteria, I saw the kennel. However, the breeding grounds, which were supposed to be empty, was crowded with countless rabbits swarming like cockroaches. For the first time, I hated rabbits.5

"What are you eating?"

There were unidentified meats in the rabbit's feeder.

'Calm down. This is a riddle and a ghost story at the same time. Just find out the flaws in the structure... Like the Red And Blue Tissue Paper ghost...'

I organized the clues so far. Rabbits, devoured corpses, food, on duty, a kennel that is no longer in operation, and lots of surveillance cameras.

"..."

There are many surveillance cameras in the kennel because children are at risk.

I can't see any dangers now, but there are a lot of cameras.

In the past, there were risk factors. That is, an event that occurred before.

Does it have to do with the kennel's closing?

"Okay..."

The focus is on our school rather than the usual urban legends. If a story that only circulates among students at our school is considered a ghost story... Let's try to connect it with the nature of the school.

The principal of our school always emphasized safety, saying the first priority is safety and second priority is safety too.

That is why safety is the number one teaching in each classroom.

The principal emphasized it even during the training, and because of that, the tedious training time was prolonged, so we all cried out.

Our homeroom teacher rebuked us for complaining as this was needed after a person from our school disappeared in the past...

"That's it!"

The puzzle fits. If a student at the kennel goes missing, it makes sense that the breeding grounds has a lot of surveillance cameras! If it was the principal's personality, he would have abolished the operation of this place.

What matters is the reaction of the students. So absurd rumors were created. The missing child was on duty at the kennel. So, what if there was a ghost story about a child being eaten by a rabbit? And it's these rabbits who reproduce that ghost story.

'Even if I think about it, it's a ridiculous idea, but wouldn't it work somehow?'

I put the nametag "on duty" that was next to the back door of the cafeteria. I picked up a broom that had been rolling around and pulled out all the meat from the feeder with it.

The rabbits who had been disturbed from eating ran wildly as if they were angry.

At this time, I found carrots that hadn't been there before. As if doing it right, it seemed to lead me to the right answer.

"Come on! Eat!"

However, the rabbits do not eat the carrots even if given. What should I do...

I, who was worried, had an idea.

"Tosun-ah, Sando-ah, let's eat. Today, I secretly brought carrots from the garden."

[...]

The rabbits disappear one by one. And there were only two rabbits left, but they were gentle, normal rabbits. They came over and ate the carrots.

As a result, there were no rabbits who coveted meat, and no one on duty was killed or ate by them.

"Is it done?"

As if in response, a white talisman suddenly fell down. After picking it up, the rabbits that was eating the carrots were also gone.

"...With this, there is only one talisman left. Ah, is everyone okay?!"

What if they got hurt?

I hurriedly returned to the group.

There are broken doors and children stuck together. And there was Ella, who was roughly wiping off a liquid presumed to be rabbit's blood from her knife.

Ella's red eyes met mine.

"You're here~?"

For some reason, I thought that Ella's red eyes were pretty.