Chapter 76

For once, Baek Saheon doubted his one remaining eye.

'Am I dreaming?'

Well, yes, he was dreaming. A nightmare inside a ghost story... No.

No!!

Until a moment ago, he had merely been pissed off.

'I came because I heard there was an item with powerful brainwashing effects in this school's faculty office...'

Seeing all these interested parties gathered here, he had simply seethed to himself that the information evidently hadn't been so exclusive after all.

'... Just wait until we get to work tomorrow.'

Fine, so he had gritted his teeth and updated his hit list with the person who had sold him that supposedly exclusive tip.

He had still been confident.

In fact, he had thought this tense standoff between the two factions would be easy to exploit.

'One little push and this whole place goes to hell, right?'

Whether he turned them against each other or brought in monsters to wreak havoc, he figured he could grab the item and get out.

Just as he had climbed this far by using the idiots around him as bait at every crucial moment.

He could even tolerate the weakling from his intake in the bison mask choking back sobs. He looked useful.

But...

'What the hell is that bastard doing?'

Baek Saheon stared ahead, dumbfounded.

An employee with a familiar face, dressed in a black school uniform, stood confidently beside the Disaster Management Bureau people as if nothing were amiss.

He wore the same iron badge as they did and held a strange, toy-like pistol.

... Kim Soleum!

"Agent Grape."

G-Grape??

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He certainly hadn't been wearing any of that equipment when Saheon had seen him in the classroom earlier. No...

'Why is a Daydream Inc. employee standing on the other side like he belongs there?!'

"It looks like everyone's trying to secure something. Could it be what we were looking for?"

"It may well be."

He was even making natural, Bureau-style conversation...!

The Daydream employees beside Saheon whispered as they watched.

"Those two don't look like ordinary agents."

"Do you think they're high-ranking? Looks like someone called them in, doesn't it?"

"..."

Beside him, Jang Heoun gaped, whipping his head back and forth between Saheon and Kim Soleum.

Apart from Saheon, he was the only employee here who knew Kim Soleum well enough to remember his unmasked face.

Even through the mask, his astonishment was palpable.

Then he looked straight at Kim Soleum and opened his mouth, apparently about to acknowledge him!

'Yes. That's it!'

You do it for me!

"Uh... um."

"Would you consider simply backing down?"

"Pardon?"

But this was Kim Soleum they were dealing with.

That... "Agent Grape" cut Jang Heoun off before he could acknowledge him, then surveyed the employees with a solemn expression.

He continued in a persuasive voice.

"There's no telling what horrific consequences may result when individuals possess dangerous objects in a supernatural disaster like this. As you've no doubt experienced yourselves, something that looks good here doesn't necessarily produce good results."

Somehow, his voice sounded very...

Convincing.

"... Even now, there are monsters roaming outside."

"..."

Kim Soleum spoke with pleading eyes.

"Please, I ask you to yield so that we can save more lives."

You?

Saheon got goosebumps.

But Jang Heoun blinked, then slowly opened his mouth as if entranced.

"Th-then... this time, we could let them—"

This crazy bastard!

"...! Hey! You're a rookie! Who are you to say that?!"

"You keep your mouth shut."

The employees snapped out of it and unleashed a torrent of complaints.

Baek Saheon didn't know it, but this was only possible because they had brought mental-defense items strong enough to partially resist the Silver Heart Badge's influence.

Of course, it wasn't a pretty sight, and the agents opposite them whispered among themselves.

"Their corporate culture is garbage too."

"No kidding. That agent really does have a way with words, though."

"..."

He was actually winning the agents' approval...!

'Who the hell is that bastard to pretend he's an agent...?'

No, wait.

At that moment, a realization struck Baek Saheon like lightning.

'W-was he... actually a Disaster Management Bureau agent all along?'

Looking closer, the government employee beside him was the same bastard Saheon had met at that insane murder lodge!

Company-issued masks also disrupted the perception of people who weren't company employees, so the man didn't seem to recognize him, but...

'... No way.'

Had the whole thing been staged?

Kim Soleum had been a Disaster Management Bureau spy from the start?

A chill ran down his spine.

At the same time, though, he felt he had gained a new card to play.

'Then if I expose that bastard...'

Just then, he met Kim Soleum's eyes.

Kim Soleum grinned and tapped his own chest.

Then he mouthed a word.

'Debt.'

"...!"

-You owe me

The words he had written when he left the emergency flashlight behind.

'Y-you crazy bastard, you're the one who owes me...!'

Was he telling him to shut up and cooperate if he wanted that debt repaid?

How could a debtor turn around and threaten his creditor... No!

'Fck, forget that!' *

Baek Saheon gritted his teeth.

His side was outnumbered now.

'There are more people on the agents' side.'

At this rate, the field explorers aiming for a high-scoring clear would likely just back down and give up the item.

Then he wouldn't be able to disrupt anything. The opportunity itself would vanish!

'I'd be better off...'

"..."

After some deliberation, Baek Saheon made his decision.

He needed that item.

... Absolutely.

He also knew that his Exclusive Equipment, acquired with the hefty upfront investment of a thousand points, was securely attached to the sole of his shoe.

He had painstakingly chosen the parent equipment to make it...

A lethal weapon designed to sow confusion.

Owner: Baek Saheon

Registered Equipment Description: Equipment in the form of a three-color ballpoint pen. Pressing the end launches the pen tip, which explodes like a firework.

Created in Qterw-E-99.

Savoring the pressure of the slender cylinder against his sole, Baek Saheon deliberately turned to Jang Heoun and spoke.

"Excuse me."

"Yes?"

"Doesn't it sound like there's something strange..."

Then, without missing a beat, he fired at Kim Soleum.

"...outside?"

He aimed for the head.

'Die!'

Die instantly.

That way, even after waking from this Darkness, Soleum wouldn't realize who had shot him.

'That bastard's bound to have a name tag anyway!'

After going to the trouble of putting Soleum in his debt, he couldn't let him discover that he had ruined this situation.

'I'll pin it on some other bastard.'

The employees at this company were all about equally rotten anyway.

Baek Saheon allowed himself a discreet, triumphant smile.

A silent rush.

The tip of his Exclusive Equipment shot from his sole and silently pierced Kim Soleum's head...

... Or didn't?

Kim Soleum casually twisted his head aside, dodging the pen tip.

"...?!"

Kim Soleum glanced at Baek Saheon.

'Do you know how many times I've read the instructions for your Exclusive Equipment on the wiki?'

He already knew the loading motion, too.

'You tap your left heel twice.'

He had been preparing for this ever since they became roommates, so in a way, that reflex was only natural.

He hadn't expected anything better, so he wasn't even angry, but...

'Can't let him push me around.'

At that moment, Kim Soleum grinned at Baek Saheon.

'I know perfectly well you fired that.'

And now you're f*cked.

"..."

A chill ran down Baek Saheon's spine.

His conditioned fear rose to near-panic levels.

Still, his goal of creating chaos had succeeded.

"Urgh!"

"...!"

The ballpoint tip struck a locker behind Kim Soleum and exploded in every direction.

In an instant, light, noise, and smoke filled the faculty office.

"... Who was that?!"

There was no point keeping their voices down anymore.

With this much commotion, the "students" would come after them even at the cost of a little property damage. In other words...

They would swarm here soon.

"...!!"

"Flashlights."

Everyone crouched low and pressed against the walls. Having their vision obscured by smoke was the worst possible condition in this nightmare school.

'Which bastard did it?'

Just before survival overtook finding the culprit in everyone's priorities...

'If it's come to this...!'

He would at least take what he'd come for!

Baek Saheon lunged for the table.

Second-Year ■■■'s Fountain Pen

He grabbed the item and stuffed it into his pocket.

Then he smoothly rejoined the employees and rushed out of the faculty office with them.

The agents inside, who were forming a defensive square without any blind spots, only realized what had happened once the haze thinned a little.

The fountain pen and the employees had disappeared together.

"...! Damn it!"

"Those Daydream Inc. bastards...!"

Suddenly, they were all taking the blame.

'Well, would you look at that.'

Only Kim Soleum, who had been watching Baek Saheon the whole time, had seen what happened.

But the situation was too urgent to talk about it.

["A fatal incident has occurred in the third-floor hallway."]

["The deceased student is second-year Kim Sora."]

The Daydream Inc. employees had shot one of the students dead on their way down the hallway.

"... Ha."

The power went out.

* * *

Five seconds of darkness.

Flashlight beams swinging wildly.

Screams.

Corpses.

'This is fucking insane.'

With so many people and monstrous creatures, this was straight out of a B-movie splatter horror.

A different kind of terror from the suffocating silence of earlier.

"Aaaaagh!"

"That thing! At the window!"

"Blood! Blood!"

"Give us supp—hgh..."

As hair-raising scenes of brutality unfolded all around me, I was somehow managing to spot students trying to enter the faculty office through gaps in the haze and freeze them in place.

It felt like playing some horrific defense game.

Or being trapped in a horror game with no other option left.

"Go!"

The one saving grace, perhaps, was that the agents were attacking so aggressively that I drew almost no aggro.

But that had its limits, too.

A blink.

The moment blood splashed into my eyes and forced me to blink, a student's hand froze like a hook above my head.

"...!!"

I hastily backed away.

... It had nearly punched through my skull.

My hair stood on end.

'Hah...'

My heart felt ready to drop out of my chest.

'No.'

This was a quagmire.

'It's beyond what one flashlight can cover.'

As far as I knew, the numbers varied between runs, but there were at least twenty students on each floor.

And if we killed a student and triggered an announcement?

["A fatal incident has occurred in the second-year faculty office."]

They would come again.

Along with five seconds of darkness for a moment of silence.

'It'll never end.'

Most likely, everyone would die here and the exploration would end. So...

'I'll use this chance to escape instead.'

I gritted my teeth.

I'd find people on another floor and join them.

The haze was thinning, and the blackout had just ended...

A flicker.

'... Now!'

I crossed the faculty office, now a scene of blood, entrails, and violence, and slid toward the door that had been open all along.

At that moment—

"Grape!"

"...!"

As the haze cleared from my vision, I saw Agent Bronze.

He was holding a masked employee in a standoff, and that mask was...

"Eek."

"Quiet."

A bison mask. Team Y, the Cleanup Team.

'That's Jang Heoun.'

He hadn't managed to follow the other employees out...!

"Restrain him with this...!"

The agent tossed me an item that looked like handcuffs.

He wanted me to restrain Jang Heoun, presumably. He mistakenly thought I'd come over to help him.

But I'd already decided to cut everyone loose...

"R-run, Mr. Roe Deer!"

"...!"

Damn it.

Startled by his own shout, Jang Heoun clapped a hand over his mouth.

He'd called out my mask's name.

"... Roe Deer?"

"No, um..."

One look at the agent's face told me everything.

'He knows.'

Damn it. In that case...!

I quickly got a proper grip on the handcuff item the agent had offered me.

Then I put it on him instead.

"...?!"

The cuffs expanded, restraining the agent's mouth and arms, and a silver chain emerged from them into my hand.

"Mr. Bison, let's run."

"Y-yes...?!"

Then I rushed outside, dragging Jang Heoun and the agent with me.

Aaaaaagh!

["The moment of silence is over. May the deceased rest in peace."]

We escaped the faculty office's chaos and raced up the stairs like mad.

One or two entities followed us out, but the renewed commotion in the office made them turn back.

"Please keep watching above us."

"Yes!"

Jang Heoun answered quite promptly and looked up the stairs.

'Whew.'

Halfway up the stairs, I watched the students disappear without following us up, then turned my head, wishing I could wipe away my cold sweat.

And met the eyes of the person bound at the end of the chain I was holding.

Disaster Management Bureau Agent Bronze was glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me.

"..."

Things being what they were, I had no choice.

'Time to con him...!'

Faster than I ever had in my life, I began constructing a carefully calculated sob story.