Chapter 19

Hwaae High School (15)

“Wow, how did you do that? I never imagined cleaning up a ghost story would work like this.”

I didn’t know why those words suddenly crossed my mind, but I understood what had happened.

It was identified as waste produced during cleaning, so it disappeared.

Did the cleaning effect really have to be this thorough?

Still, it was fine. I had water stored in two other sinks. The plan would have to change, but I could refill the empty one in the meantime.

“Nooo!!”

The teddy bear screamed.

At the same moment, the kitchen counters that had been creaking ominously began sliding toward us at high speed, as though someone had shoved them.

Scrape—bang!

“Urgh...!”

The counters, made of marble and wood, pressed into us as though trying to sever us at the waist.

“I want to get out, but... I can’t pull myself free...!”

The pressure was merciless. It felt as though my pelvic bones were being forcibly twisted out of place.

But if I stopped here, I would become nothing more than a piece of meat cut in half at the waist.

With trembling hands, I grabbed the teddy bear by the head and shoved it beneath the stream of cold water.

“Pour the detergent directly onto it.”

We only needed enough water to soak it, so that wasn’t a major problem.

Crack.

An ominous sound came from somewhere near my compressed waist.

“Ha-ha-ha! Right there! That’s it! It hurts, doesn’t it?”

The teddy bear’s heavy limbs repeatedly struck the backs of my hands. Every time it punched the metal staples, my vision flashed white.

And then there was the crushing pressure against my lower abdomen.

But I clenched my teeth, shut out its voice, and concentrated solely on scrubbing the teddy bear as though washing it by hand.

It looked as if it had just emerged from a bath in sewage.

The more I washed it, the more its limbs and head—previously a cloudy gray or something close to brown—returned to their original color.

Surprisingly, it was cream-colored.

However, no filth came out of its abdomen, which presumably contained the rice and fingernail clippings. No matter how much I scrubbed, rubbed, and washed it, its stomach remained grimy.

As I thought, we need the salt water.

I couldn’t wait forever for Team Leader Yong.

Should I pour the tiny amount of salt water left at the bottom of the plastic bottle over it?

Just as I was considering that, I heard a familiar voice.

“Hey! I brought the salt!”

“Team Leader?”

Thud.

A heavy sack struck my back and fell onto the counter.

“I’ve got it!”

Myeong Haebin snatched it up and sliced it open with the box cutter she had taken from the teddy bear.

“I’ll fill the sink again. Give me a moment.”

“Use this!”

Team Leader Yong made his way through the wreckage of the kitchen counters, opened the cabinet beneath the empty sink beside us, and slid out a stainless-steel bowl.

Right. This would fill with water much faster.

Pure white salt carrying the scent of the sea poured into the bowl, followed by water.

Team Leader Yong had seemed completely uninterested while I cleaned this room, but apparently, he had been watching everything.

“Should I dissolve more?”

“That’s enough.”

A small amount of undissolved salt remained at the bottom of the rapidly filling stainless-steel bowl, but considering how much we had added, it was already more than sufficient.

The three of us firmly grabbed the struggling teddy bear and plunged it in headfirst.

“No! Blub—gurgle!”

Splash.

The moment the teddy bear entered the salt water, clouds of pitch-black filth billowed out and stained the water as if someone had poured ink into it. It was incomparable to anything we had seen before.

“Ugh...!”

The price of submerging my wounded hands in salt water was horrific.

My consciousness began to fade from the overwhelming pain, and I barely managed to hold on.

Another hand, just as covered in wounds, came down over mine without hesitation.

“Do I just press down on it?”

“You can wring it out completely!”

“Mister, this thing is really strong! You don’t have to hold back at all!”

Team Leader Yong climbed over the counter and joined us.

Not only was the teddy bear held completely submerged in the salt water, but it was also pulled, folded, crushed, and thoroughly washed until it could not move an inch.

“Blub—stop! Stop!”

The teddy bear’s abdomen, which had remained filthy no matter what we did, visibly began turning white.

Its ears, head, arms, legs, abdomen, even its tail.

We scrubbed and rubbed every part of it with our bare hands, extracting every last trace of the filth inside.

I felt the teddy bear’s strength gradually fading.

Finally.

“The game is—”

Over.

That was what I tried to say.

But my tongue stiffened against the roof of my mouth before I could form the words.

A bright light shone into the room from the wide-open doorway, flicking back and forth as though its owner had caught criminals in the act.

“What are you doing?”

The teacher making his rounds had not overlooked the commotion in the practical training room.

After all our shouting and splashing, had I truly thought we could avoid being discovered until the end?

I had been careless.

Under the “teacher’s” control, all three of our bodies stiffened until we could no longer move.

Just one more step.

No—just one more sentence.

My body, which had already reached its limit long ago, screamed in protest. Obsessive alarms blared as though filling every corner of my brain.

All students must be diligent and sincere.

All students must obey their teachers’ instructions.

Students must never dare to oppose a teacher.

Activities unrelated to one’s studies are subject to disciplinary action.

Warning upon warning, with still more warnings piled on top.

Crunch.

I bit down on the flesh inside my mouth, tearing away a chunk to steady my fading consciousness.

“Screw that.”

I was not a student of this school.

I never had been, and I never would be.

Disciplinary action?

Let them try.

If this damned ghost story could still come after me once it had ceased to exist.

I tightened my grip on the teddy bear as it tried to escape and crushed it down, as though pickling every last strand of stuffing inside its stomach with salt.

“The game is over.”

For one brief moment, time seemed to stop.

The teddy bear in my hands ceased resisting.

The force weighing down on my body suddenly lifted, and the space around us began to melt away.

It did not break or collapse. Instead, it scattered and turned transparent, like layers of artificially imposed color being peeled away.

My heavy eyelids closed and opened again.

What I saw was not the practical training room in the dead of night, but the school field.

The clean, cream-colored teddy bear in my hands dangled limply, as though it had never moved at all. Drops of salt water fell from it onto the dirt.

I haven’t rinsed it yet.

Bzzzt—

[Completion Requirement: Launder the One-Man Hide-and-Seek ghost story at Hwaae High School.]

[Complete]

We survived.

And at last, it was over.

It didn’t feel real. I didn’t even have enough strength to move my feet, so I must have stood there blankly for a while.

Someone spoke. I thought it was Team Leader Yong.

“The sun’s coming up.”

Beyond the front gate of Hwaae High School, dawn was breaking over a jagged horizon formed by buildings of varying heights.

For the first time, I felt as though I could understand Daecheonmyeong’s slogan, at least a little.

How strange.

Since when had the horizon stopped being level?

“Whoa—Senior!”

I remembered nothing after that.

“Ugh... Damn teddy bear... Enough already... Gasp!”

I kicked off the blanket and shot upright.

It had been a dream.

The place where I woke up was the room Daecheonmyeong had provided for me.

“Of all the dreams I could’ve had, why that one...? Huh?”

My gaze naturally fell on the hand I had raised to scratch my head.

The metal staples that had been driven deep into my hands had disappeared without a trace.

And that wasn’t all. The injuries to my ribs, forearms, and everywhere else had been completely healed. I felt perfectly refreshed, without so much as a lingering ache.

“There isn’t even a scar.”

My arms had healed without a single scar, just as they had when my severed arm was reattached. And it wasn’t only the physical wounds. My damaged hearing had returned as well.

I had practically been given a brand-new body. It was so extraordinary that it went beyond amazement and became frightening.

Normally, when a company treats you this well, it’s because they plan to work you just as hard.

Wait.

Had everyone else been healed too? What had happened to Jeong Dohyeon? Where was the teddy bear I had been holding? Had Hwaae High School truly disappeared for good?

I sprang to my feet and was about to rush outside barefoot when I caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall.

“...Ah.”

I looked horrendous.

My uniform was torn in countless places. I still had my socks on, my matted hair looked like a bird’s nest, and dried blood covered my body.

No matter how urgent things were, this was still my workplace once I stepped through that door. I couldn’t go out looking like this.

Knock, knock.

I knocked on the other bedroom door, but its occupant did not appear. Perhaps they were asleep, or maybe they had already left for work.

Just in case, I tried the handle, but the door was firmly locked.

At least keep the shared area clean.

I hadn’t even seen their face yet, and I already disliked them.

A short while later, I had showered, shaved, and even given the bathroom a quick cleaning. I was now fresh and clean.

I changed into the new clothes in the wardrobe. There were only trousers and a white T-shirt, though.

Wouldn’t they issue me another jacket?

No one was rushing me, but that only made me feel even more anxious.

“That took longer than I expected. I need to hurry...”

As I headed toward the entrance, the communal living room entered my field of vision.

It was a complete mess, littered with snack bags, crumbs, and empty drink bottles. Presumably, it was the work of the roommate using the room opposite mine.

I’ll clean up just that much before I go.

The name hanging on the door was... “Kang Dochae”?

“Seriously?”

In the end, I could only leave the dormitory with a clear conscience after throwing away all the rubbish and wiping up every crumb and stain.

What time is it?

Come to think of it, my room had no windows.

[7:12 A.M.]
Unread notifications from >[]: 1

“Did I sleep through an entire day?”

The unread notification was from the app.

[There are two responses available for output.]
[You may now view ??.]

I decided to check the ??, which had remained locked until the very end.

! Ate the school lunch and escaped from the cafeteria. (Achieved)
Reward: Improved digestive function + Tool Enhancement: Garbage Bags

[Tool Enhancement: Garbage Bags]
You can now throw away things that cannot ordinarily be discarded.
Scope: Every garbage bag used by Kim Hanmu

Of all things, why did it have to enhance garbage bags?

“What does it mean by ‘things that cannot ordinarily be discarded’?”

Anything became garbage once you put it in the bag. I had no idea what it meant.

Still, considering that the improvement to my digestive function had saved my life, the tool enhancement must have some genuine effect as well.

The questions could wait. Finding the people who had gone missing came first.

But... where am I supposed to go?

No one had told me when I was supposed to start work or where I needed to report.

I hadn’t even finished orientation, so how was I supposed to know?

For now, I stopped a couple of employees passing by. Their black uniforms had blue stripes, marking them as members of the Dismantling Division.

“Excuse me. Do you happen to know where the Cleaning Division’s office is?”

“The Cleaning Division? Did we have one of those?”

“Never heard of it. Did the company hire a new janitor?”

Oh, right. They had said the Cleaning Division was newly established. It was only natural that these employees wouldn’t know about it.

I should find Team Leader Yong first.

There weren’t many people I knew in this enormous company. I should be grateful that one of them was a team leader.

“Then do you know where Team Leader Yong is?”

“Ah... that team leader. He isn’t one of ours.”

One of theirs?

Come to think of it, I had been told that the Dismantling Division was divided into three teams.

Instead of the dog I had seen on Team Leader Yong’s uniform, the uniforms worn by these employees bore the image of a rat.

[The preceding passage—from the app notification to the employees’ rat insignia—is repeated in the provided Korean text.]

“We’re not exactly a lost-child service.”

“Hey, the janitor doesn’t know where to go. You should help him find his way.”

These bastards.

Being looked down on because of my occupation was nothing new, but that didn’t make it any less unpleasant.

“If you don’t know, forget it.”

“Try asking that dog over there. He might know.”

As I was about to turn away, the employees who had been mocking me seemed to spot someone entering the hallway and gestured toward him with their chins.

A uniform marked with a blue stripe. Brown hair. A pale face and refined features that would have suited an office worker better...

I had not known him for long, but his was a face I could never forget.

Jeong Dohyeon.

“Dohyeon.”

Hadn’t he died?

Was he alive?

I had taken only a few steps toward him when I became breathless. It was the sudden flood of relief.

“Me?”

But Jeong Dohyeon’s reaction was strange.

He pointed to himself as though he were seeing me for the first time, silently asking if I had truly meant him.

What was wrong with this man now?