Chapter 34

Lord of the Mountain.

One of the most sinister, unsettling entries in <Records of Dark Exploration>.

* * *

A ghost story resembling the Jangsan Tiger stories that became popular on the Korean internet, but with stronger shamanistic and uncanny overtones.

A painted ghost claiming to have been killed by a tiger called the Lord of the Mountain relentlessly pursues its victims, changing forms in an attempt to bewitch them and lead them away.

One of the <Records of Dark Exploration> entries that spread by word of mouth in the first half of 20XX, following a flood of comments saying that simply reading it left people feeling disturbed or sick to their stomachs.

* * *

That description was accurate.

I generally handled written ghost stories fairly well, but this one left such a strangely unpleasant aftertaste that I had stopped reading several times.

The popularity of similar ghost stories, which made it feel somehow close to home, played a part too.

Most people had probably heard it at least once.

'The ghost story where someone devoured by a tiger comes back as a ghost to visit people they were close to....'

The spirits known as changgwi.

That chilling story in which the ghost must find another victim to take its place before its soul can pass on to the afterlife.

'Even thinking about it makes me uneasy.'

But if I thought about it calmly, there was a way to survive.

'C-grade is still a grade with documented, conventional escape routes.'

It wouldn't be easy, but that didn't mean there was no way out of this Darkness.

The problem was... the method was extremely grotesque, forcing people into unjust choices until the emotional agony and pressure choked them.

It was the kind of ghost story that delighted in drawing readers in and making them shudder.

* * *

Exploration Record #3

A man in his fifties downloaded a landscape painting from the internet that supposedly improved one's prospects for success.

The landscape was an ink-wash painting in a late-Joseon style. He testified that its depiction of mountains and mist at dusk was uncannily vivid even at low resolution.

After downloading it, he occasionally dreamed of wandering near the mountains in the painting. Each time, he felt strangely at peace and his concentration improved.

However, the dreams changed after an unexpected promotion at work.

He began hearing someone calling him from the mountain mist.

The voice said that repaying assistance was a scholar's duty. He heard sorrowful weeping, footsteps trudging along a mountain path, and animal cries.

Strangely chilled, the man turned and fled.

It then followed him, cackling and repeatedly saying, "You caught me, you caught me."

The dreams of fleeing repeated every night.

As the man moved farther from the mountains in the painting, the voices calling his name in every imaginable voice drew closer.

Then he realized he had fled so far in his dream that he had reached his own front door.

After waking from the dream in terror, the man immediately fled his home alone and moved into a hotel. He stated that he did so to evade the voice pursuing him and to keep his family from becoming involved.

But in that day's dream, the voice did not follow him.

Instead, he saw a pallid figure giggling as it slithered like a snake through the gap in his open front door.

The man said he only understood then.

The voice had not been following him. It had been trying to find his home and get inside.

Result: All three other members of his family disappeared. (Three unidentified bodies discovered at a nearby dam six months later.)

He later died by suicide while hospitalized for PTSD.

* * *

... That was the sort of story it was.

The worst part was being made to imagine the mental anguish of the people caught up in it.

And there was something even more troubling.

'... We're already too far gone.'

Already bewitched and lured here by a changgwi.

Evidence of having answered its calls several times.

Almost all the talismans gone.

These were the kinds of details that belonged at the end of a long exploration record, in a hopeless situation just before everyone died.

We had been driven to the very end of the line.

'This is driving me insane.'

I swept my hair back.

"Are you in a predicament, my friend?"

A predicament didn't begin to cover it. I felt like I could bathe in my cold sweat.

"Oh dear. Is it because of our unwelcome visitor earlier? Uninvited guests are always unpleasant. All the more so when you're somewhere you don't wish to be."

"Which is why I'd like to offer you a little advice. May I?"

Huh?

I looked down at my pocket.

"I'll switch off your spotlight, Mr. Roe Deer!"

"Then you can quietly leave this place without attracting anyone's attention."

"...!"

I remembered the astonishing supernatural ability this stuffed doll had demonstrated at the theme park.

That strange ability that erased my presence, allowing me to move without the blue mascot noticing me.

"All you need to do is quietly step out that door and go home. There's no better way to avoid a tiresome situation..."

"..."

There was a good chance I could deduce the correct escape route using <Records of Dark Exploration>.

So, as long as the changgwi didn't notice me, I might really be able to escape this ghost story easily!

'But....'

Wasn't that a single-person ability?

'Could you perhaps do it for someone other than me too?'

"For someone who isn't a friend?"

Braun's voice briefly warped as though I'd made an offensive suggestion, but he answered in the same cheerful tone befitting a broadcaster.

"Well, now. It might be possible, but I wouldn't take that risk!"

"Mr. Roe Deer, everything comes in a finite quantity. The more you share, the less you have left for yourself, wouldn't you agree?"

Apparently, using it on other people as well would reduce either its duration or its strength.

'So if I want to play it safe, it really is for one person.'

Still, abandoning the kids would weigh on the conscience of a modern citizen raised in the public education system...

Besides.

'Braun. If we can't bring Section Chief Lee Byeongjin over there with us... we're going to have a serious budget problem.'

"... Pardon?"

'We won't be able to buy the Blood Bathtub....'

Capitalism was holding me back.

"Oh... how can this be!"

"But, but if I switch off two people's spotlights, a perceptive audience member will easily notice! That would ruin the quality of the shot!"

Right.

'That's why I'll look for another way.'

Of course, if things got urgent, I'd have to send Braun an SOS and run so at least one of us could get out.

'Let's do as much as we can.'

"What a shame! Very well."

First, I rummaged through my pockets.

Fortunately, I'd transferred the items I always made sure to take to work when I changed into the security uniform, so I still had several kinds.

Smile Stickers, Alice's buff and debuff foods, and even Snow White's Apples.

I'd just lost the Blood-Drinking Tableware fork, but...

'They came as a pair.'

Right. I still had the knife.

I took the remaining piece of Blood-Drinking Tableware out of the thigh pocket on the opposite side.

And stared in surprise.

'... It's gotten bigger!'

The knife I drew out was no longer the size of dessert cutlery.

Delicate ornamentation had appeared on its handle, with something resembling a tiny red gemstone elegantly set on top.

It had clearly grown.

'Could the blood the fork drank have been shared with this one?'

They were a pair, after all.

"...!! I-is that one of the security team's suppression weapons?"

I didn't answer. Let Section Chief Lee Byeongjin keep his mistaken impression.

I carefully wiped the knife, now about the size of a utility-knife blade, on some fabric and placed it in my jacket's front pocket, within easy reach.

Please don't let me need it.

"I'll search the house, then."

"Ah... yes!"

As I started walking, the section chief hurried out of my path.

I stared at him as he stood there.

"...?"

"I'd like you to accompany me."

"What!? N-no. I-I've already looked everywhere..."

"Since you've already looked, I'm asking you to guide me."

"Uh, er... yes."

Section Chief Lee Byeongjin looked reluctant, but he watched my reaction and started walking.

Thank goodness. I'd avoided wandering around alone, getting terrified, screaming, and fainting.

"This, uh... was probably the kitchen. There wasn't anything to eat, though."

The old house was covered in rust, dust, and mold, with talismans plastered everywhere.

The sort of old, abandoned, uninhabited house you might glimpse far away on a mountainside while driving along a rural highway.

"Have you experienced any discomfort during your week here?"

"Well... I haven't felt thirsty or hungry..."

His face went pale.

"Th-the ghost, whenever the ghost comes every night, that's the only time I feel strangely drained..."

"Have you ever tried going outside during the day?"

"... I have, but no matter how far I walked, there was nothing but forest... I was afraid the sun would set while I was outside, so I kept coming back here."

His account matched the other exploration records.

In that case...

"Wh-where are you going?"

I headed to the end of a hallway with no doors.

Then I stopped at the dead end.

"I believe there's an upper floor."

"What?? No, there aren't any stairs leading up! I've searched everywhere this past week, and there isn't even a trace of a staircase—"

I summoned the remote hand.

Then I put the remaining piece of Blood-Drinking Tableware, the knife, in its grasp and sent it flying into the air.

Toward the ceiling, to be precise.

"Gasp!"

The knife lodged in a tiny gap in the ceiling, and something snapped.

Then, with a tremendous racket, the ceiling opened and an old ladder came crashing down.

'Attic located.'

"M-my goodness! As expected of the security team... Y-you see spaces differently from ordinary people!"

"..."

No.

I just read the exploration records...

The abandoned house always has an attic.

'Well, someone who knows there's something to find is bound to see things differently from someone who has no idea....'

Anyway, everything suggested that it did indeed lead to an attic.

'Wow.'

It looked incredibly uninviting.

'This feels like entering a room that opened all by itself in a haunted house.'

But by pretending to be security, I'd essentially volunteered to be the tank. In the end, I grabbed the ladder and climbed, feigning composure.

Aaaaaaagh.

'Please follow me!'

Unsurprisingly, he didn't.

'The security-team impostor will remember this....'

Trying to keep my legs from shaking, I barely made it into the attic, finished searching as quickly as possible, and scurried back down.

As though I'd finished quickly because I was competent.

'Phew.'

That looked natural, right?

"H-how was it?"

"Just an old attic. Nothing unusual, but..."

I held up my only find.

"This was sitting on an old low table."

It was an old book, its pages cut in a traditional style.

[A Way to Live]

"A-a way to live! Could it tell us how to escape?"

He could read Classical Chinese quite well.

I carefully opened the book, so old it looked ready to crumble.

Inside, it was all Classical Chinese too.

'Classical Chinese... all I've got is a level-two certification from high school....'

"Oh-ho. Fascinating material."

"...!"

Could he understand Classical Chinese too?

"Come now, Mr. Roe Deer. A competent Host such as myself can communicate with every audience in the universe... Well, nearly every audience."

I felt as though I'd just heard an utterly unreal statement, but this was what mattered.

'... Could you read it to me?'

"Of course!"

Good.

Braun briefly made the sound of a classic broadcaster with a fine voice clearing his throat. Then his voice abruptly grew aged and deep.

"'This is thy sole path to life.'"

THUD.

"'Fool who has been bewitched by a changgwi and set foot upon the Lord of the Mountain's burial ground! Darkness lies before thee, and a ghost clings to thy back.'"

I swallowed.

"'Do not answer. Do not open the door. Simply keep thy body clean and endure until the fifteenth day. When the full moon rises, go to the shrine and perform the ritual.'"

"'Then thou shalt live to see the rising sun. However...' "

I turned the page.

"'Once a changgwi finds someone for a tiger to devour, it pursues them with all its might. Thou art already bewitched by the tiger. Thou canst never escape.'"

"'The ghost shall linger at thy threshold, at thy bedside, beside thy sleeping head.'"

"'Therefore, become changgwi yourselves. You must capture someone to be taken by the tiger and die in your stead.'"

...!

"'The sacrifice must possess reason, have warm blood flowing through its veins, and be capable of speech. Only then can the changgwi be deceived.'"

"'Offer up the sacrifice and follow the narrow path to where the moonlight falls. There lies a small snake hole.'"

"'This is thy sole path to life. There is no other way.'"

"..."

"That's the end. Oh-ho, how intriguing."

I closed the book, frozen in place.

'... So this is what it was.'

In the exploration records, it had only been a line or two: "Selected a sacrifice by drawing lots, then performed the ritual. Stated that the chosen individual refused, so they tied them to a pole and dragged them along."

But seeing it for myself... it went beyond chilling. A strange psychological pressure bore down on me.

Something fluttered down.

At that moment, something slipped out from between the book's final pages.

"..."

A small paper business card.

When I picked it up, I saw writing scrawled on the back.

⧻⧻ Getting out tomorrow.

I turned the business card over.

Go Seonha

Department of History, Jugang University

Had this person read the book before me?

Meanwhile, Section Chief Lee Byeongjin, who could read Classical Chinese, appeared to be haltingly working through the text himself.

Then he recoiled in shock.

"A sacrifice... Th-this! Doesn't this mean one person has to die?"

"..."

"That's right! I-if just one person dies, everyone else can live!"

I didn't answer.

His eyes darting about, Section Chief Lee Byeongjin began rubbing his palms together and speaking anxiously.

"Um, but, w-well, we'll all die if we don't do it anyway, so..."

"So?"

"... Couldn't it be someone who deserves it? Someone who wouldn't have escaped anyway, I mean. Yes."

Was he describing himself?

But when I saw his expression as he gestured downward with his eyes, I understood.

'That bastard.'

He meant the kids.

"Honestly! Just one of the kids... They all would've died if you hadn't come, wouldn't they? We need to focus on getting ourselves out!"

"..."

"If just one of them dies and the rest get out alive, yes! Isn't that still a good thing?"

I never thought I'd hear this kind of bullshit in real life.

I could make allowances for the fact that he'd been trapped here for a week, panicking in terror of death, but...

'I still can't agree with that crap.'

I glanced at the Classical Chinese.

"A sapient being."

"Pardon?"

"This book says we must offer a being possessed of reason—a sapient being—as a sacrifice."

I tilted my head slightly.

"But can a child who hasn't yet reached adulthood be considered a fully sapient being?"

"Uh, er..."

"I don't believe so."

I fixed him with a quiet stare.

"Wouldn't an adult be the appropriate sacrifice as a fully sapient being? In that case... there seems to be only one."

"...!"

Under my gaze, he broke into a cold sweat, his pupils trembling as his mouth fell open.

"W-well, uh, er..."

I spoke.

"Me."

"... Pardon?"

"I seem to be the only eligible one. If we exclude the children and you, Section Chief, given your mental confusion after a week trapped here."

"..."

"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, I... I'm sorry."

"..."

"Talking about the children's lives like that... How did I become someone who says things like that... Ha, hahaha..."

Looking utterly dazed, the section chief sank to the floor.

"On the first day, it was my late father..."

His father had died of cancer in a hospital bed, and he'd been too busy working to be there at the end.

"But there he was, crying, saying, 'Byeongjin, let me see my Byeongjin's face.' Asking me to open the door."

"..."

"When I held out by hitting myself in the head, the ghost left, hurling every kind of insult and mockery at me. In my father's voice."

The section chief clutched his head and bowed it.

"Every single day, it comes once in the voice of a dead family member, friend, or neighbor...!"

His maternal uncle who had doted on him, his paternal aunt, a cousin who had died in an accident, a university friend, and even the neighbor's child who had been abducted and gone missing...

"Now it's dragging out every dead person I've ever known. I can't keep holding on to my sanity anymore... If hell exists, this must be it."

"..."

Hmm.

Come to think of it, the middle school kids hadn't even known there was a ghost knocking outside.

Even though they'd been here for two days.

'Was he practically standing guard at the door the whole time?'

I didn't know whether he'd done it deliberately, by chance, or because the ghost had bewitched him. Still, it felt strange to realize that his actions had ended up protecting the children's mental well-being.

I watched him for a moment, then nodded.

"If this is hell, that's all the more reason to escape."

"..."

"I'll study the contents of this book a little more—"

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

"...!"

The section chief and I turned toward the door at the same time.

"Just now..."

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

"..."

"..."

"Excuse me."

The voice had come again.