Chapter 15 And the Performance has began(3)
【7 minutes until the first rehearsal begins.】
“Haa!…….. Haa!”
Crack-
Crack, crack-
An eerie ripping sound sends chills down my spine.
While running, I slightly turned my head to check behind.
A strange sight unfolded where empty clothes were chasing us.
These aren’t staff members.
They’ve been chasing us for 8 minutes now, these hollow beings.
Collectively known as: <The Red Orchestra>
Their stage costumes, a blend of brilliant red and white, and the sound of their shoe heels make our nerves stand on edge.
Clack, clack.
Among the facts I know about them, the only good news is
Even though they’re orchestra members, their physical abilities aren’t much different from the staff members
Meaning they can be subdued.
As much as I wanted to leave those Red Orchestra members to R-team.
However, however.
There’s a reason why we haven’t tried
Subduing the Red Orchestra only works when they’re not holding their instruments.
It hurts. Ah it hurts! Hahaha! It hurts hurts hurts hurts ahhh!!
Die? I’m dead. I’m dead. Then shall we all die together? Let’s dieeee!!
Our instruments are speaking.
More precisely, they repeat the last words uttered by beings who were human until just moments ago as they transformed into instruments.
Unpleasant dissonance.
For us who were hearing these scream-like discordant sounds in real-time, it was truly maddening.
This is why.
The current horror story was upgraded from E-grade to B-grade.
=======
The ‘Red Orchestra’ moves directly to find their instruments among those who refused staff guidance.
They begin collecting instruments (humans) while wielding humans who have already been turned into instruments by the orchestra members.
The humans turned into instruments continuously scream. (Determined to cause continuous mental damage.)
*Individual instruments possess power exceeding C-grade items.
=======
The combat power of a Red Orchestra member holding an instrument equals that of a GRA deputy-level employee.
To explain some representative instruments.
Starting with the ‘double bass’ as large as an adult male that can crush any living being instantly like a hammer.
The axe blade attached to the violin body.
From the stock attached to the trumpet to the bizarre usage of human fingers as ammunition.
‘Shouldn’t this be called a weapon rather than an instrument?’ I wanted to voice my complaints, but kept my mouth shut.
Probably before I could finish stating those complaints, my body would be crushed by those ‘classical instruments’.
【1 minute until the first rehearsal begins.】
This long chase will also end in 1 minute.
……Haa!!
I breathed heavily. My breath was already up to my chin, and panting sounds leaked from my mouth.
Park Yeon-jeong, with his poor stamina, didn’t look like he could hold out for the final minute.
“This, this damn… terrible stamina!”
Everyone except himself was running hard ahead, avoiding the Red Orchestra.
In other words, I’m falling behind alone.
Already in a situation where it wouldn’t be strange to collapse at any moment.
This won’t do.
At this rate, I might be the first to become an instrument.
It huuuurts!
Eek!
It’s too close!
The axe blade violin now chasing right behind.
‘I tried to save it as much as possible.’
If I save it any longer. Truly pushed to the edge between life and death, where I might smell incense in my coffin.
Knowing this would happen. Just as I was about to light the lighter I’d been holding in my left hand.
Drop!
‘Damn!’
I lost strength in my hand for a moment and dropped the lighter on the ground.
It’s too late to run now.
They’re coming.
The lighter fell in the direction where the orchestra members were approaching.
I hastily stretched out my arm.
Grab!
‘Got it!’
The lighter I barely managed to catch.
Click.
Whoosh!
As soon as he successfully lit the lighter in one try. Park Yeon-jeong immediately brought the incense to it.
And looking at the burning incense, he shouted.
“Done……”
Slash!
Thud….
The axe blade swung with all its might stuck into Park Yeon-jeong’s crown, splitting an adult body helplessly in half like cutting a watermelon.
Choi Gang-in, who was watching this scene clearly with both eyes.
【We will now make an announcement.】
Pause.
At the voice echoing through the speaker, all orchestra members froze in place as if on cue.
“Everyone stop!!”
R-team, including Choi Gang-in, also stopped in place to observe the situation.
【We will proceed with the first rehearsal.】
【We would appreciate if the relevant orchestra members would gather in K-2 room.】
Click, clack, click, clack.
As soon as the announcement seeking the orchestra ended, the Red Orchestra showed signs of abandoning their pursuit and uniformly turning around.
While the civilians sighed in relief watching the Red Orchestra moving away from them.
There were also those who couldn’t.
The R-team members, including Choi Gang-in, couldn’t take their eyes off one bisected corpse.
They questioned his incomprehensible actions.
‘He gave up running away and suddenly rushed towards where they were.’
Why?
The question of ‘why’ just wouldn’t go away.
While they couldn’t grasp what intention drove him to such action.
……Smoke?
Smoke rising between the horrifically split appearance. And a familiar smell touching the tip of the nose.
It was that funeral incense smell they’d been smelling almost daily at the agency.
Step.
“……Dep, Department head!”
“It’s dangerous!”
Despite everyone’s restraint.
Choi Gang-in began striding towards the bisected corpse.
The R-team employees who witnessed this shouted and continued to try to stop him, but no one took a step forward.
Naturally, Choi Gang-in approaching a dead person’s corpse without any caution in the current situation was unusual.
“……”
While carefully observing the bisected body, Choi Gang-in noticed the incense held in the dead body’s left hand.
It was already almost burned down.
Choi Gang-in’s gaze focused not on the corpse sprawled on the floor, but on the incense.
“……No way.”
Regarding one possibility crossing Choi Gang-in’s mind, he thought it couldn’t be.
-Item.
Because this possibility was an absurd thing.
‘Was it my imagination……’
That inexplicable survival instinct he felt when first encountering this person.
Though he had silently followed until here due to that survival instinct, feeling as if he had to follow this person at that moment.
His death was truly meaningless and unsightly.
Thud.
As the completely burned incense ash falls to the floor. Choi Gang-in turned his head while frowning thinking about how to deal with the orchestra members’ attacks that would come.
Just as his head was starting to hurt.
“Department head! Behind! Look behind you!”
“……!!!”
At the shout of an employee, Choi Kang-in immediately twisted his body while placing his hand on the item at his waist.
Slash.
Something they witnessed with their own eyes where there was a body split in half.
“Ah, no. How……”
The body that had been split in half until just now began to crumble like burnt ashes.
And the person whose death they had clearly witnessed with their own eyes.
“Ugh… the taste of death that I never want to experience again.”
Appears without a single hair harmed, standing firmly on two feet before us.
Swallowing dry saliva, Choi Kang-in asked.
“…As expected, that scent. It was an item, wasn’t it?”
“……Yes.”
If they already know, it would be strange to hide it.
A suspicious person who knows about the agency and possesses items.
Now beyond being someone to be wary of, they must be curious about what kind of person this is.
“…’Taste of Death’ I know because I’ve seen some of our employees use it.”
The first item bought from the Ghost Story General Store.
Taste of Death.
=======
/Item List
Taste of Death.
(Death is always by our side.)
Highly recommended for those who want to experience ‘death’!
While the scent burns away, experience various deaths that your body can demonstrate.
When used: Out-of-body experience/slight dizziness.
*All physical damage that occurs while the scent’s smoke rises will be restored to normal when the scent has completely burned away.
=======
Park Yeon-jeong, who briefly dipped their toes in the river of death.
The intensely hot gaze of a middle-aged man who has been observing my every single action since coming back to life.
……It’s suffocating.
To hide signs of tension from the overwhelming pressure, I cleared my throat.
“…Ahem. Is there a problem……”
It was just a small movement to naturally continue the conversation.
“!!”
Swish!
But ignoring my pure intentions, Choi Kang-in’s gesture of placing his hand on the item at his waist.
Park Yeon-jeong was a little… no, very scared.
Almost fell down for a moment.
Did I make a mistake?
Thinking Choi Kang-in might attack, I tensed my body while taking out incense and a lighter, preparing to light it.
If R Team rushes in as a group.
Then…..
I considered the worst situation where I might have to take out ‘Thousands eyes’.
“……I apologize. I seem to have overreacted.”
“……It’s fine.”
A sudden apology.
‘Choi Kang-in, you…..’
Was he already old enough to have bipolar disorder?
But I won’t decline this treatment. Putting Choi Kang-in’s apology aside, Park Yeon-jeong immediately carried out what needed to be done.
“R Team, keep checking the surroundings! There must be civilians who have suffered mental damage.”
“Yes!”
Department head Choi Kang-in immediately went into quick situation management. Indeed, he’s the exemplar of leadership and the lucky person who will increase the survival rate in this ghost story.
After swiftly completing the command of the surroundings, Choi Kang-in turned his gaze back to me.
“……I have something I want to ask you.”
A gaze filled with gravity.
Looking at Choi Kang-in staring at him, Park Yeon-jeong thought that what was bound to come had finally arrived.
“I will answer within what I can tell you.”
Though I desperately wanted to explain my entire situation in detail and receive help.
If that happens, I would end up becoming an experimental subject for the agency.
Of course, the current situation of being caught by the ghost story gentleman isn’t something that can be viewed very positively either.
…Still, here under the system of ‘going home from work’, there exists partial freedom.
This place would be better… probably.
“Why are you helping us?”
The first question was quite a typical type of question.
What would be the model answer?
“…Because it was necessary. For everyone to escape from here.”
“……You’re not lying.”
Yes, I didn’t lie.
Since I myself am included in that comprehensive target of ‘everyone’, everyone’s survival leads to my survival.
“Then you–”
“Wait a moment.”
“!!”
Choi Kang-in was startled again when I interrupted the conversation.
At this point, Park Yeon-jeong, a society newcomer worried about future social life, wondered if his tone might sound confrontational to others.
The reason I just interrupted Choi Kang-in’s words was just one.
“Shouldn’t questions be asked taking turns… right?”
The one who has curiosities is me as well.
“……I apologize. I was being rude again.”
Again.
His behavior of trying to be excessively kind and polite again.
Though Choi Kang-in is said to be one of the few named normal people in this world view, he’s being overly formal with me whom he hasn’t talked much with since earlier.
This part bothered me.
“I wanted to ask why you’re being so formal with me.”
“……”
I didn’t try to beat around the bush deliberately.
I think a certain level of formality in relationships is necessary.
But such a precarious relationship where it seems like I might be attacked every time we speak could surely cause problems someday.
“I would appreciate it if you could tell me honestly.”
“…………”
Choi Kang-in’s silence was longer than usual.
But when that long silence ended.
“…Ghost story.”
“……”
“Because you are a ghost story.”
“……..?”
What? Me?
…Park Yeon-jeong = Ghost story?
He’s calling me a ‘ghost story’.
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