I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game - Chapter 8

“Exterminate monsters and collect talismans?”¹

Kyeong-min asked.

“Yeah, you can call them freaks, monsters, or ghosts, whatever you like. Anyway, get a talisman so you can survive. I’ll tell you why we are collecting talismans later.”

Kyeong-min has a lot of questions, but he decided to ask only the most important things because he thought she would pull out a knife if he asked too many questions.

“But… What about those monsters?”

If a monster rush in like the guard did just now, they won’t last long. They are elementary school students. If they don’t have a gun, they can’t even inflict a single scratch on a monster. This was an objectively reasonable worry. Ella explained to him.

“There’s no need to specifically kill the monsters. Most monsters have a way to get rid of them. Of course, there are cases where special conditions or physical methods are needed, but at least the monsters living in this school have strategies. Using an analogy, it’s like riddles.”

Being able to kill it without any physical damage, Ha-rim imagined exorcists defeating monsters with supernatural powers. However, they do not have the means to do so. It wasn’t easy to figure out how they would do it.

“If it’s really dangerous, call Ella with the hand mirror, but you know if you call her for something trivial…?”

Kyeong-min nodded fiercely.

“…Isn’t Ella going with us?”

“Ella can’t deal with all of the monsters. She doesn’t have enough mirrors here, and she can’t use her power properly with that small hand mirror. Besides, if you can’t even do this in this world…”

“If not..?”

“Can you do anything more than just die?”

Ella shrugged her shoulders and said. Blocking the option of running away, only the choice of living or dying remains. It also sounded like a warning that if you do something boring like run away, you will be killed. Ha-rim said with a grim expression.

“Okay. How many do I need to collect?”

“A total of four. I just collected one, so there are three left? Don’t be so nervous, there might be some that are surprisingly easy? Now, go find the monsters. Disband!”

Ella urged them to go. Because the children were afraid of her, they could not resist and were kicked out of the class. However, two places were spoken to Ha-rim, who left the class last. 3rd floor men’s restroom, and kennel.

When Ha-rim looked back to ask what she meant, Ella had already disappeared.

Children watching each other in the hallway. From the gazes, Ha-rim felt the anxiety of her members. It’s fine. She spoke to her teammates and walked down the hallway.

“Where should we go?”

“…3rd floor bathroom, let’s go there.”

Kyeong-min had doubts about the strangely specific place, but he was convinced, thinking that the club president who had experienced the most supernatural spots would have a special sense of places where ghosts would appear.²

She went down the stairs and stood in front of the men’s bathroom. Suho and Ha-rim took the lead, and the rest of the team stepped in, being wary of their surroundings. There was a large mirror in the room. Everyone looked at the mirror reflecting themselves and thought that maybe Ella was watching.

Ella, where did she go? Nevermind, she should investigate the bathroom first.

“Let’s open the doors one by one.”

“Before that, wait a minute.”

Kyeong-min held up his glasses and stopped Ha-rim. He opened the notepad in his hand.

“It’s better to prepare first. About what kind of ghosts will come out.”

“Which ghost? Can you tell?”

Kyeong-min liked to gather information. Him, a member of the [Mystery Investigation Club], used the Internet to collect ghost stories and supernatural spots, which were written on this notepad.

“There’s no information about Ella, but it’s written about the monster that chased us before. It’s probably Slenderman from a foreign ghost story. Teleportation, skinny and tall. Besides, he has no face and even uses tentacles!”

There are many things that are difficult to see as a coincidence. Ha-rim realized what Kyeong-min wanted to say.

“Are you saying that those monsters are related to ghost stories?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure, but there’s nothing wrong with being careful.”

“…Well… There are ghost stories about bathrooms…”

What immediately came to mind was Hanako-san In The Bathroom, and the Red Tissue And Blue Tissue Paper ghost. Except for the two most famous, ghost stories in the bathroom are mostly unknow.³

“Hanako-san and the Red Tissue And Blue Tissue Paper ghost… Hanako-san, you mean the ghost that answers when you knock on the bathroom door, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if there’s a way to get rid of both of them.”

Red And Blue Tissue Paper ghost appear from the toilet bowl and asks “Do you want a red or blue paper?” If you choose a red paper, you will die covered in blood, and if you choose a blue paper, you will be strangled to death.

On the other hand, Hanako-san story isn’t clear if she kills people or not, and that the results differ depending on the region, but they’re in Korea, so it is quite vague.

“Mmm…”

Then Suho intervened.

“Wait, meeting Hanako-san requires a special ritual besides knocking on the door, right?”⁴

“What?”

“Isn’t that right? Ella said it was a monster inside the school. That means it must be a monster you can meet without doing anything.”

Kyeong-min nodded as if he had a point. Then, what narrows it down is the Red And Blue Paper ghost. Even if it’s not that ghost, it’s better to be prepared.

If you choose red paper, you will die, if you choose blue paper, you will die. How to do this?

-Using an analogy, it’s like riddles.

Ha-rim remembered Ella’s words. And a crazy idea came to her. A simple idea that a kindergartener would do. As Ella said, if it’s like a riddle…

“Hey guys, I have an idea.”

…

Ha-rim and the members carefully opened the toilet doors. First toilet, second toilet, third toilet… And stopped at the fourth toilet.

Toilet 4 gave off an ominous aura… Ha-rim felt that if there was a ghost, it would exist there. Suho opened the door.

There was a toilet. Four pairs of arms slipped out of the toilet and groaned uncomfortably. Eun-jeong was disgusted with the limp appearance, not paying attention to the crunchy joints.

[Would you like a red paper? Or would you like a blue paper?]

Suho answered without hesitation.

“Red paper.”

[Red paper… Red paper.]

“…”

[You already have it.]

After saying that, the ghost disappeared. Instead, a shining white talisman remained.

“It’s fortunate that this method worked! And the ghost was a Red Paper Blue Paper ghost!”

This was Ha-rim’s idea. Using the color light app, an app that was installed on Kyeong-min’s phone, Suho was illuminated with red light.

Suho picked red tissue paper, but his body was already stained with red light, so the ghost didn’t touch Suho’s body, and the white tissue he had taken, without knowing it, turned red due to the red light, so it seems that the red tissue paper he was supposed to receive was treated as already there.

Suho wiped away his cold sweat and was genuinely happy.

“It wasn’t like a fight at all, but we did it somehow!”

POV Switch – Ella

‘[Dyeing the body in the color of choice and having the corresponding tissue paper]. Ha-rim Satisfied these two conditions beautifully. Isn’t it just like a playable character?’

Thought Ella, who was hiding in the corner of the bathroom mirror watching the delighted children.

In the game, you have to paint your body with red chalk in the classroom, dissolve the leftovers in water, and dye the white tissue paper.

‘Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry.’

When an unexpected attack comes, like Slenderman’s, the children themselves had to learn how to respond.

Aside from being attacked, it’s time to be active, especially outside, and if there’s no mirror nearby, they’ll have to defeat the monsters by themselves. The help that a small hand mirror can give is limited.

If you can’t defeat even this easy monster, it’s hard to survive in this world.

“Ah.”

Ha-rim and I meet eyes.

Startle.

Are you really going to be so surprised every time our eyes meet?

In order not to spoil the happy mood, I raised my index finger and brought it to my mouth.

“…?”

I guess she didn’t understand, but anyway, since I’ve confirmed that the [Mystery Investigation Club] is trustworthy, I’m going to do my own job.

The destination is the 5th floor. It was easy to move up to the 4th floor by marking other mirrors on Ha-rim’s hand mirror, but on the 5th floor, you have to materialize yourself and go up.

There is a [Suicidal Wannabe] who is too dangerous to leave to the children.

‘I’m going to get rid of that guy.’