Chapter 302:
Although they entered Eonhak High School to explore, no one knew much about the plaster statues scattered throughout the lobby and hallways. Kang Min-ah sacrificed her own hands to obtain information, but she did not know what caused these things or exactly how they brought about the teacher monster.
So it may have been because Jaeheon Lee let his guard down.
“…this.”
The teacher monster came right up to where Lee Jae-heon was hiding.
The small sigh-like exclamation didn’t seem to reach the teacher monster, and it just wandered around the desk where Lee Jae-heon was hiding.
‘Did you get caught because of that?’
Jaeheon Lee looked at the head of a plaster statue that was at least 1 meter away from me. Considering the nature of monsters that depend on sight, Lee Jae-heon could have been seen in the eyes of that head. Even though it is hidden under the desk, it is not completely hidden unless you are looking at it from above.
“….”
That kind of analysis aside, it seemed like a dangerous situation.
‘…Should I jump when I haven’t found it yet?’
From the looks of it, Hong Gyeong-jun, who was hiding behind the bookshelf, didn’t seem to have been discovered. The target seemed to be Lee Jae-heon himself, but I thought that if the teacher monster had not yet attacked and ran out while he was still wandering around looking for him, he might at least be able to hide in the B-building bathroom.
It was time to carefully prepare to run away.
“….”
“….”
Holy shit.
“…Ait-san, I’m surprised.”
Lee Jae-heon, who made eye contact with the monster teacher, immediately jumped out of his seat and ran out.
I was curious about the source of this bloody noise, but I didn’t look back foolishly. If I had to guess, I think the desk was probably destroyed when the teacher monster rushed at it.
But the teacher monster was running too fast.
‘I can’t go to Building B.’
Because the teacher monster was blocking the hallway, running away to the bathroom in Building B was an act of suicide. If he encountered another monster on the way or the bathroom was completely blocked, Lee Jae-heon would have his limbs shattered and be forced to sit on the desk. Running away from the classroom during class is also stupid.
‘The only place left is…’
He fled up the stairs to the fourth floor.
Kwasik!
“Ugh…!”
Ah, I’m surprised.
I heard something breaking from behind once more, but as expected, I didn’t have time to check. I was halfway up the stairs, grateful that Hong Kyung-jun had cleverly stayed quiet and not said anything.
“….”
“….”
“…Haa….”
The teacher monster was no longer coming up.
‘…I tried to hide in the bathroom if I had to, but I’m glad I did.’
This was because I remembered that, unlike the student monster or the plaster monster that was in the hallway the whole time, the teacher monster did not leave the floor except at the beginning and end of class. Even the student monster didn’t move to another floor.
Jaeheon Lee opened his mouth as he faced the monster teacher who was unable to climb the stairs and was staring at him from below.
“…Seeing as we were able to get up to the 4th floor, I guess the 4th floor team is still alive. “I will join that team, so it would be better for Detective Hong Gyeong-jun to stay where he is.”
His voice wasn’t that loud, but his words must have been heard well. The hallway was quiet now that even the teacher monster had completely stopped. Jaeheon Lee slowly moved away while staring at the monster teacher who was just staring at me.
Now that things were like this, I felt like I had to quickly join the standby team on the 4th floor.
“…It’s hard to make a living.”
* * *
It was class time again when the class bell rang and all the teacher monsters entered the classroom.
This time, leaving Jeong In-ho outside, Ha Seong-yoon and Kim Ki-jeong entered the grade room, avoiding as much as possible the gaze of the plaster statue hanging in the hallway or the monster teacher who often came out to check outside. And I blinked at the unexpected situation.
“…This….”
Kim Ki-jeong muttered as if he was horrified.
“What is this?”
“There really isn’t a single place that’s running smoothly.”
Ha Seong-yoon frowned.
“I thought there would at least be teacher monsters…”
I saw monsters coming in and out of the grade room before, but there were no monsters moving inside. No, there was no monster at all. Teacher monsters and student monsters.
“Instead of those guys, there are plaster statues like this.”
“It’s really creepy…”
Instead of the teacher’s monster, there were plaster statues of people on each desk. While the plaster statues scattered around the hallway resembled mannequin monsters, the plaster statues here were things that can be commonly seen in real life. Kim Ki-jeong, who was looking at the plaster statue on his desk, muttered softly.
“…Julien Agrippa Venus….”
“Yes?”
“These are the names of the plaster statues. That’s Arias and that’s the statue of Caesar. “I don’t know why there are things like that in the grade room and not the art room.”
“That’s…me too.”
Ha Seong-yoon nodded and looked back at Kim Ki-jeong.
“Do plaster statues have names?”
“yes? Of course it is. Those plaster statues are popular… Even if you are a student taking the art entrance exam right now, you will know their names by heart. Of course there is a name.”
“Then that must be a name tag.”
“Name tag? “What…”
I turned my head to follow Ha Seong-yoon’s gaze and saw a map of the grade room drawn on the whiteboard. It looked like it had been drawn with a marker, but the names that Kim Ki-jeong had muttered earlier were written in the square where the desk was marked.
“…Uh….”
“What kind of plaster statue did you say Julien was?”
“…Oh, that’s it. “He has a thick neck and a bent head…” “
But it says Arias there?”
“…what…?”
Right in front of the door to the grade room. And there was a plaster statue of Julien on the desk right next to the whiteboard, but the name tag corresponding to the seat had Arias written on it. Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking at it carefully, gently moved his feet and picked up the marker placed in front of the whiteboard.
“Let me fix it.”
“…I…maybe I don’t know much. As you know, I am majoring in music…”
“For that matter, didn’t you tell me your name right away as soon as you entered the grade room? When I look at it, it all looks the same. At least you know better than me… and if you have to, you can just run away, so don’t worry too much. “There’s no number on your wrist, right?”
As he said, thanks to Jung In-ho standing guard outside, there was no time limit displayed on their wrists. For some reason, there were no other monsters in the classroom, so I felt like I could try my luck at least once.
“Erase.”
“…Be careful….”
“….”
Ha Seong-yoon rubbed the written name with his finger to erase it.
“…There are no problems up to this point.”
He rewrote the name ‘Julien’ in the blank space.
“Even after this… there is no change.”
“Can’t we just stop here and head out? “Jung In-ho would also be scared if he were alone.”
“Hmm, isn’t it a pity? “Let’s just make a proper name tag and then leave.”
“Oh really…”
“What is the name of the plaster statue here?”
“…I’m Agrippa.”
“It’s written properly here.”
Although there were names that overlapped and some that did not, it did not take much time to correct only 10 name tags. Ha Seong-yoon, who had corrected everything with the correct name tag in 5 minutes, closed the lid of the marker and took a step back.
“Well, if you do this…”
As soon as he said that, he shouted! The sound of plaster breaking was heard.
“! Kim Ki-jeong, come behind me!”
“Aaaahhhhh…!”
“Just calm down a little…!”
However, despite all the fuss, there was no situation where a plaster statue attacked them. However, a small change occurred in the plaster statues placed on the desk.
“…That…”
“It’s the plaster mannequin in the hallway.”
The elegant and profound plaster statues that are often seen in real life have been replaced with plaster mannequin statues that can only be seen in the hallways of an underworld high school. Kim Ki-jeong and Ha Seong-yoon tried to calm their pounding hearts at the sight of the plaster statue, which had become smooth and had no eyes or mouth.
It was Kim Ki-jeong who spoke first.
“…What do you want me to do? “I can’t guess…”
“I’ve never seen a plaster statue this neat even in the hallway. It is a well-maintained plaster statue that is not broken anywhere. It must be different from the plaster statue outside that was treated roughly… What’s the difference between the two? Moreover, I don’t know what kind of thoughts this is the result of.”
“It’s because that art teacher is a pervert. Because he’s a pervert… As ordinary people, we can’t understand it. Oh, I really, really hate it.”
“I keep telling you, please calm down, Mr. Kim Ki-jeong. “There are no major problems so far.”
Ha Seong-yoon sighed and looked around. It was impossible to expect anything from Kim Ki-jeong, who was slowly running out of energy, so he rummaged through the grade room alone, and a document in a yellow supply box caught his eye.
“…This really… feels like a game.”
“Yes eh?”
“manual? well. “Commentary… there is something similar.”
He unfolded the documents for Kim Ki-jeong to see. It may not be visible clearly due to the distance, but it was enough to check the picture attached to the document.
“The name and description corresponding to the image are written next to it, but there are sparse spaces. This plaster statue at the top is ah… blank blank pa. The name is written on it. These are blank spaces marked A and B. “It seems like the name is completed by inferring the word that goes into the blank space in the alphabet.”
“…Isn’t this a game that only elementary school students would play…?”
“Well, what’s certain is that we didn’t play the game according to the rules. I think the first thing to do was to fill in the blanks on this piece of paper and then change the name tag on the whiteboard based on that. “We skipped this step because Kim Ki-jeong already knew a lot about plaster statues.”
“If you don’t follow the rules…”
“Seeing as there aren’t any sanctions, doesn’t that mean this is okay? “Let’s look around a little more in case there are other clues.”
Ha Seong-yoon searched every nook and cranny of the grade room and soon found a photo.
“….”
“…Mr. Ha Seong-yoon?”
“It would be best not to see this.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a photo of a student.”
Ha Seong-yoon’s face hardened.
“A picture of a dead… probably murdered student.”
“….”
“It would be better if you didn’t see it, right?”
“…Yes, yes, I won’t watch it.”
“That’s a good decision.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was fiddling with his earlobe with the hand that was not holding the photo, soon landed on the plaster statue on the desk. A common monster that can be seen anywhere in the underworld, like a wig put on a mannequin. A plaster statue modeled after it.
Ha Seong-yoon’s eyes, which were calmly scanning them, soon stopped at one place.
“…There is a plaster statue with the same hairstyle as the student in the photo.”
Straight bangs that cover the eyebrows and neatly cut hair that roughly falls to the shoulders. The ends of the hair have a faint light brown tint, perhaps because they have been slightly dyed.
“….”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking at the photo in turn, carefully stood in front of it.
“Kim Ki-jeong, please stand in front of the door just in case. “So you can run away at any time.”
“…Just us. “Can’t we just leave like this…?”
Kim Ki-jeong’s face, as he said that and gave strength to the door handle, soon turned white.
“It’s not open, it’s not open, it’s not open. this. why.”
“calm down. Take a deep breath and think of it as a simple game. “Isn’t it true that you can’t move on to the next stage until the game is over?”
“But in good conscience, there should be a logout button…!”
“Because life is not a game.”
“It’s a different story!”
“Anyway, I guess there’s not much I can do.”
Ha Seong-yoon held a heavy iron club that had once been used by a kidnapper who targeted Lee Jae-heon. The student in the photo that came into his sight had a large cave in on the right side of his head.
“…I feel really uncomfortable.”
Kwasik!
Ha Seong-yoon muttered softly and then struck the right side of the plaster statue’s head hard.
“! ah…!”
Inside the broken plaster statue was a gray key.
“It’s the key. “It was inside.”
“Now…!”
Kim Ki-jeong, who was about to say, “Let’s go out,” looked behind Ha Seong-yoon and collapsed.
“…Ugh huh. Ugh…!”
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong? “Why?”
After turning around, a female student came into Ha Seong-yoon’s field of vision, looking at us intently. Kim Ki-jeong didn’t see it, but she looked exactly like the female student in the photo Ha Seong-yoon found. What had been a plaster mannequin with only a head turned into a human corpse.
Its lifeless eyes, which were clearly dead, were staring intently at Kim Ki-jeong and Ha Seong-yoon.
“…ah.”
At that moment, numerous teacher monsters that were not visible when they first entered the grade room jumped out and rushed at them. Ha Seong-yoon groaned as a monster came from all directions, from under the desk in the grade room, from the cabinet to the ceiling.
“this…!”
He hurriedly knocked on the door, almost dragging Kim Ki-jeong, and Jeong In-ho, who was outside, opened the door just in time. As soon as he left the grade room, Ha Seong-yoon slammed the door shut. No sound was heard from inside the grade room filled with teacher monsters.
Kim Ki-jeong, who came out into the hallway, was also sitting on the floor, shaking.
“…I just…just…just….”
“Kim Ki-jeong, come to your senses. “What happened inside?”
“Just now… that was a corpse.”
“…A corpse?”
Jeong In-ho looked up at Ha Seong-yoon as if asking what he was talking about, but Ha Seong-yoon didn’t have the strength to answer. He pursed his lips a few times and then looked uncomfortably at the tattered plaster statues scattered in the hallway.
“…Ha Seong-yoon?”
“Let’s go back to the art room. “I found the key.”
“Was there a key in it?”
“I was in a very uncomfortable space.”
Plaster statue.
An art teacher who is obsessed with plaster statues. The body in the photo. victim. A plaster statue that resembles the student in the photo. A key that can only be obtained by breaking it.
“….”
Key to the art room….
“…I think I should leave right away once I check this.”
I don’t want to stay here anymore.
“Could you tell me what the situation was?”
“Would you like to see this?”
“It’s a photo. Why is this… ah.”
“Someone killed the child in the photo and took the photo. This is a hidden world, so it could be the result of someone’s thoughts being reflected. I don’t know if he really took the picture, but…”
“…”
Jeong In-ho, who was speechless, muttered.
“Did you say that Eonhak High School fully reflected the thoughts of the art teacher?”
“As soon as I return to reality, I think I will have to do something with that art teacher. I keep thinking that as a teacher, I am a person who does not even have the minimum qualities that a human being should have. “What if we created a space like this?”
“It’s creepy.”
A familiar voice reached Jeong In-ho’s ears as he muttered softly.
“Deputy Jeong.”
“…Boss?”
I looked around in surprise and saw Jaeheon Lee waving his hands near the stairs a little away from the grade room. Ha Seong-yoon, who also confirmed it, called him with a puzzled look on his face.
“Jaeheon Lee.”
It was a very unexpected appearance.
“No, why… why are you here?”
When Jeong In-ho, who had dragged Lee Jae-heon up from the stairs to the hallway, stuttered and asked, Lee Jae-heon’s expression as he trudged up the stairs subtly hardened. He answered, pointing to the many plaster statues lying around in the hallway.
“I got caught because of that.”
“You got caught? Could it be that he was hiding under a plaster statue…”
“Is that possible? Of course, I kept my distance and hid under the desk, but it seemed like I would get caught when I came into view of the plaster statue with the eyes. The teacher monster wouldn’t move away from me. “I tried to run away to the bathroom in Building B, but I was immediately caught… so I ran to the 4th floor.”
“The teacher monster didn’t follow you?”
“It looks like you can’t go back and forth between floors. I can’t come up because the stairs are blocked in the middle. “I couldn’t just stay in the lobby on the 4th floor, so I came to you.”
Kim Ki-jeong, who was looking at Lee Jae-heon with a white face, asked.
“Mr. Hong Gyeong-jun…?”
“I wasn’t caught until I came up. Even when that uproar broke out, you didn’t open your mouth, so as long as you don’t think about doing something stupid, you’ll be safe. “It was out of sight of the plaster statue, so there was no need to worry about getting caught like I did.”
“… Thank goodness… I’m so glad.”
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong, why are you looking like you’re about to die? “What happened?”
After saying that, Lee Jae-heon turned to Ha Seong-yoon and Jeong In-ho.
“…Looking at you now, neither of you look very good.”
“There is a reason for that.”
“Tell me.”
Lee Jae-heon nodded with a serious face after hearing the story of how he obtained the key to the art room storage room and the events that occurred in the grade room.
“You’re crazy.”
“It’s crazy.”
“I rarely use the word ‘crazy’ to describe other people, but this seems really crazy. “When I return to reality, I’ll have to discuss it with Detective Hong Gyeong-jun.”
“good idea.”
Despite Lee Jae-heon’s sudden appearance, they quickly rearranged their display and returned to the art room to put the key in the storage room.
“…Oh my…”
Passyuk.
The metal key turned into plaster and disintegrated and scattered.
“…What does this mean?”
Lee Jae-heon responded briefly to Ha Seong-yoon’s muttering.
“I don’t think it’s a real key.”
“The key you went through so much trouble to get was fake?”
“I don’t know what you’ve been through, but… I guess so? There are eight grade rooms in this school, and you only checked one of them. You won’t be able to ignore places like the science room or the music room…”
“You have to go through all of them and find the real key. “If you don’t insert it directly into the lock, you can’t tell if it’s real or fake, so doing that… it’s driving me crazy.”
“…First, it would be better to go outside and reorganize. “The situation is bad.”
That was the moment we talked.
“…uh?”
Student monsters started coming into the art room.
“Wait a minute, this can’t be right.”
“Are you preparing for class…? really? “No, this suddenly?”
“You have to leave now…!”
But unfortunately, Lee Jae-heon, Ha Seong-yoon, and Jeong In-ho were unable to leave the art room. Because when they were about to leave, the teacher monster came in through the art room door.
“….”
Standing at the teacher’s table, it was only staring at the survivors, not the student monsters.
“…the bell will ring soon.”
“There was Kim Ki-jeong outside. Will he be able to open the door in time?”
“Luckily, it looks like he’s still okay. Judging by the fact that the time isn’t displayed on my wrist… I could be hiding in the bathroom right in front of the art room. If I’m alone, I can probably survive for an hour, so I’ll be fine.”
“Then eventually.”
Jeong In-ho sighed and said.
“I guess I should take a class.”
They eventually had to push aside the two student monsters and take their seats at the art room desk.
A terrible ominous feeling ran down my spine.
