Chapter 30
Chodam Park- West Gate (9)
“Since this is a ghost story, I know all sorts of things can happen, but... Senior, that anomaly you discovered really wasn’t a person, was it?”
At Myeong Haebin’s questioning, I searched my memory and held my hand around thigh height, waving it slightly.
“It was a white shadow about this tall. It seemed a little too tall to be a pair of shoes. That’s why I assumed it was an anomaly.”
“Could it have been a ‘white dog’?”
“A white dog?”
Myeong Haebin nodded, saying that was probably what it had been.
“Yes. They’re famous at our company. Sometimes, while you’re working, you’ll spot a white dog. They say trusting one will come back to bite you.”
Was that so?
Still, what she said aligned fairly well with what had happened. We had marked it down because we believed it was an anomaly, and the water-level gauge had risen as a result.
“We’ll have to be more careful from now on.”
“You said you don’t know what happens when the gauge fills completely, right?”
“If we knew that, we would have escaped already!”
The park around us had not changed any further.
There was only the overgrown grass and the dense fog.
“Then something else must have changed, like when it reached ‘High.’ Most likely an anomaly.”
That was only a guess, though.
And guesses had a way of being wrong.
As we passed the fitness area and approached the pond, Myeong Haebin spoke.
“Um... I’m not the only one thinking this, am I?”
Startled by her sudden voice, the tense Park Hyeonho flinched.
“You scared me. What is it?”
“There aren’t any anomalies! Not a single one! Ugh, what is this ominous feeling?”
The anomalies that had relentlessly grabbed at our ankles and tormented us were nowhere to be seen.
[Proper Environmental Guardians Campaign]
Let’s Keep Our Park Clean Ourselves
Regret Comes Too Late After Littering
Even the damaged temporary booth had returned to normal, as though everything had reverted to the beginning.
And then...
“Wow.”
Park Hyeonho let out a quiet exclamation as he parted a branch thick with leaves.
The still pond glittered beneath the bright moonlight.
Not a single piece of the garbage that had once littered its surroundings remained. Even the thick fog had vanished, leaving our view so clear that it felt as though our eyes had suddenly been opened.
“The water is incredibly clear.”
“...You’re right. It’s shallower than I expected.”
The pond was so clear that we could see its bottom. There were no garbage fish, much less anything as ordinary as fallen leaves or twigs.
It looked like a pristine pond that had been meticulously maintained.
“Then could we possibly drink this water...?”
I pulled Park Hyeonho back before he could entertain such a dangerous hope.
“Of course we can’t.”
“R-right. Of course not.”
Licking his parched, cracked lips, Park Hyeonho reluctantly backed away from the pond.
“It’s best not to take unnecessary risks.”
“I agree with Senior. Come on, don’t look so disappointed.”
Park Hyeonho continued glancing longingly back at the pond, but we dragged him along and crossed the stepping-stones.
“The convenience store is still closed, and there really weren’t any anomalies?”
“Yes! I checked several times.”
Now that we had nearly completed another lap, Chodam Park’s anomalies had vanished entirely.
If not for the vegetation and fog, the park would have appeared cleaner and safer than when we first entered it.
This was the first time.
There had never been a point when no anomalies existed in this park.
There had been no fork in the path during our first lap, and from the second lap onward, the temporary booth had caused trouble all day.
Can we leave now?
1. The exit is the west gate.
Could we finally leave through the west gate?
We had not actually solved anything, yet the mere possibility that we might no longer have to wander through this wretched park’s fog filled me with anticipation.
“Haebin, let’s head for the west gate this time.”
“Finally! Really?!”
Myeong Haebin, who had to be just as exhausted as I was, leaped into the air.
“What happens if we leave through the west gate?”
“We’ll be able to go home—”
Slowly, as though a camera lens were coming into focus, the space behind Park Hyeonho became clear.
[Chodam Park Gomyut]
The letters carved into the rough stone and painted over.
Those six characters I had seen so many times that I was sick of them.
“What’s wrong?”
Park Hyeonho followed my rigid gaze and turned around. His words died in his throat.
I shoved him aside and approached the rock, tracing it with my fingertips.
No matter how many times I looked, it was the same stone monument.
Something inside me collapsed.
“No. No, this isn’t right.”
When had we returned here?
No—we hadn’t even seen a fork in the path.
How long had we walked after passing the convenience store?
“Did we miss it because of the fog? No, we must still be near the convenience store.”
“Senior—no, Senior. Look at me.”
“We went in the wrong direction and returned to the beginning. Haebin, I made a mistake.”
I felt as if I were losing my mind.
I couldn’t tell whether it was a hallucination brought on by exhaustion and dehydration or whether I had simply gone insane.
Only one thought filled my head.
This situation was the worst.
It was the worst.
I said it was the worst.
I wanted to scream.
Myeong Haebin seized both my shoulders and forcibly turned me around.
“Senior! Look at me!”
“...Huh?”
I was breathing heavily.
Still on my knees, I stared up at Myeong Haebin, panting as though I had just sprinted at full speed.
“This isn’t your fault. None of us saw a fork in the path.”
I must have temporarily fallen into a state of panic.
“This is probably another trick by the park. You said it yourself—something else must have changed.”
“She’s right. Honestly, I-I wasn’t expecting much anyway.”
Park Hyeonho pulled a piece of candy from the bag around his wrist and pushed it straight into my mouth.
“I know you’re thirsty, but this is the only thing I can do for you.”
The sweetness that spread across my tongue was not the stale, exhausted odor that had been lingering in my mouth. The mingled flavors of butter and coffee roused my clouded mind.
Can we only escape using the method the convenience-store owner mentioned? Is that really the only way?
I removed my hand from the stone bearing the park’s name and crushed the softened candy between my molars.
“Thank you. Let’s set out again.”
“Right! At least all the anomalies are gone. Let’s consider that a step forward!”
But what if that step forward was taking us toward the edge of a cliff?
We returned to the same place again.
And again.
The endless walking.
Our clothes clinging to our bodies with sweat and humidity.
Our lips cracking apart.
Within this peaceful, pleasant park, now completely devoid of anomalies, we were slowly dying of thirst.
And there was only one oasis that a person suffering from extreme dehydration could find in this park.
Thud.
On the stepping-stones, where the water had risen to our ankles, Park Hyeonho collapsed into a sitting position.
“Hyeonho.”
“...doesn’t make sense...”
He was muttering something, but I could not hear him clearly, so I leaned closer.
“There’s water everywhere. It doesn’t make sense that we can’t drink even a single sip.”
“It’s dangerous.”
My voice was hoarse, as though even my vocal cords had dried up and withered.
Park Hyeonho looked up at me with unfocused eyes.
“Use me as a test subject. Maybe it’ll be safe this time too. Look at it. Look how clean it is.”
Park Hyeonho lowered his hand into the pond.
Ripples lapped across the surface each time he moved it.
The water looked so cool it was painful to watch.
It was a temptation.
A temptation that posed no risk whatsoever to me.
My head dropped, then rose again.
“Thank you. Really. I mean it.”
As though he could no longer endure the thirst, Park Hyeonho plunged his head into the water.
His throat bobbed again and again as he gulped it down, paying no attention to his black hair drifting and swaying like seaweed.
Bzzzt—
The vibration of the phone in my pocket felt almost like a hallucination.
The Rules section had been updated.
[Completion Requirement: Clean up the ghost story, Chodam Park ■ ■.]
- The exit is the west gate.
- If an anomaly has been discovered, use Gomyut. If none has been discovered, use the west gate.
- If you arrive at Gomyut, return to Rule 1.
- No change occurs without a cause.
Rule 4.
It was obvious.
No change occurred without a cause.
The convenience store had closed because we had purchased its merchandise, and the duck had come ashore because the pond had changed.
Then what did I have to do to move forward?
What change had to occur?
I already knew the answer.
I had heard it before.
Throw garbage into the perfect pond.
“Are you garbage?”
“What?”
The moment Myeong Haebin asked me to repeat myself—
Crunch.
Beneath the water, bone, flesh, and everything contained within them were crushed.
Blood stained the pristine pond.
Park Hyeonho’s body thrashed as his head remained submerged.
“Urgh! Save...! Puhah!”
His half-submerged lips bubbled as he tried to say something, but whatever lurked beneath the surface dragged his entire body away.
“S-Senior. What is that?”
The streamlined green figure biting into Park Hyeonho’s head was obscured by spray, blood, and ripples.
In an instant, Park Hyeonho was dragged to the center of the pond before his body suddenly shot into the air.
“Puhah! Save me...! Aaaagh!”
Splash—!
With an enormous burst of water, a monster’s jaws erupted from the surface. It clamped down on Park Hyeonho’s limbs and violently shook him from side to side.
It resembled a gigantic axolotl steeped in radioactive waste.
Its four legs, tangled with fishing lines, plastic bottles, and bags, were all different lengths and sizes. Its teeth looked like thick aluminum cans had been crudely cut apart and jammed into its mouth in overlapping rows.
Splash.
The monster snatched Park Hyeonho and plunged him back into the pond.
My reason screamed a warning, but my body was already leaping into the water.
The pond was deeper than it appeared, its water rising to my shoulders. Without hesitation, I forced my way through it toward the spot where Park Hyeonho and the monster had vanished.
“Hyeonho! Park Hyeonho!”
Bubble, gurgle...
Instead of an answer, the stream of bubbles rising to the surface abruptly stopped.
I expected a horrific sight—chunks of flesh and fragments of bone floating to the surface—but the pond became still, as though neither Park Hyeonho nor the monster had ever existed.
“Hyeonho! Can you hear me?”
No matter how loudly I shouted or how desperately I floundered toward the place where his last breath had surfaced, he was nowhere to be found.
I stared down into the absurdly clear water.
“Senior, don’t!”
Myeong Haebin realized what I was about to do and cried out, but my hands had already scooped up as much pond water as they could hold.
Gulp.
The water was so cold it made my head ache as it flowed down my throat.
I had done exactly what Park Hyeonho had.
I had entered the pond and drunk its water.
But the pond remained perfectly still.
“Why?! Why the hell?!”
I punched the surface, sending an innocent spray of water into the air.
“Puhah! Senior, get out. Come this way.”
Eventually, Myeong Haebin had to jump into the pond, seize my arm, and practically drag me back to shore.
Even then, the monster did not reappear.
“Cough, cough...”
My already depleted stamina had been completely exhausted. Unable even to stand properly, I practically crawled across the ground on all fours.
A warning sign stood before me in my exhaustion.
One image prohibited fishing, depicting a human face impaled on a hook instead of a worm. The other prohibited littering, depicting garbage being scattered about.
Why had fishing been prohibited?
Because that meant a fish lived in the water.
Why had the littering symbol specifically depicted garbage being scattered around?
Because it was food for the fish living here.
The thoughts that had been hovering uselessly around the edges of my mind finally fell into place.
“That monster ate all the garbage in the pond.”
A hollow laugh burst out of me like an uncontrollable cough.
“Ha... ha.”
Had I truly failed to notice any of it?
Of course not.
“I did something so stupid...”
I had known.
I had known that the “garbage” the convenience-store owner mentioned meant a person.
I had known that something lived inside this pond.
I had known that Park Hyeonho might be the garbage.
And yet, out of shallow selfishness, I had waited until Park Hyeonho touched the pond.
Only after it was too late had I done something foolish, trying to justify my failure to stop him.
“Are you all right?”
“I said it myself. I said I’d be less than human if I promised to go eat with him and then abandoned him. I knew. I knew it, you fucking moron...”
I hadn’t wanted to let Park Hyeonho die.
That was why I had pretended not to know, stupidly walking through this loop again and again as I searched for some other way out.
They called it ambivalence.
But what I had done was both neglect and encouragement.
I had waited until Park Hyeonho could no longer endure his thirst and stepped into the pond of his own accord.
I was the most disgusting piece of garbage here.
Nausea churned inside me, as if my guilt had turned my stomach inside out.
I wanted to vomit up every drop of water I had drunk.
I couldn’t breathe properly. My vision darkened, and pain tore through me as though someone had seized my heart and was wringing it dry.
“Haa... urgh.”
The app sent me a notification.
[ ]’s Notification
! Separate the two civilians. (Completed)
Reward: New feature update
[The new feature, Waste Separation, has been successfully installed.]
I could barely process the words.
I wanted to grab my phone and hurl it into the pond, but another notification appeared.
[We have a suggestion for you.]
It began with strangely familiar words.
[Would you like to separate and dispose of your guilt?]
[Y] N
The selfish bastard who wasn’t even human pressed [Y].