Surviving Among the Entities

Dr. Janus had said that an entity would be born today.
He had also stated that right after birth is the best time to tame them, so I entered the main building alone in an attempt to tame it.

‘How quiet.’

I walked down the silent hallway. While it was indeed quiet, after consuming the dried “Friendship”, it seemed the changes in my body also included the ability to hear inaudible things.

《You know? The statues at our school aren’t actually ordinary statues.》
《Really?》
《Our school’s founding chairman’s grandfather was a pro-Japanese traitor who sold out the country to Japan. The chairman, ashamed of that fact, mixed his father’s ashes when making the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin! As an act of atonement to Admiral Yi! But since his father was a die-hard pro-Japanese traitor, Admiral Yi became a samurai craving blood every night!》

These were voices completely different from those of ghosts, mechanical sounds, or entities.

《The statue of King Sejong is actually alive. He sits there every day, watching us study, but since we kept destroying Hangeul, he became enraged. At night, he captures anyone who enters and makes them take a dictation test. If you make too many mistakes, he executes the cruel ‘punishment of stakes’ by tearing off your limbs!》

《The book the girl is reading turns one page every day. If you fail to graduate before the book finishes… all the students enrolled that year will die! So don’t repeat a year and graduate quickly!》

《At night, ‘The Thinker’ statue moves. It tries to lure you into philosophical thinking, but if you fall for it, you’ll become the new ‘Thinker’ in its place while it becomes human! If you refuse, it’ll come at you with the speed of an Olympic gold medalist!》

It was information.
The students who had attended this school back when it was still functioning had gossiped about this.
Mere playful ghost stories that had been nothing but idle talk.

《In classroom 1-7, the history teacher who loved history too much is buried. If you enter that classroom at midnight, you’re forced to take a history test, and when you read the questions, you get transported to the era described in them!》

《There used to be a genius science teacher here. That teacher accidentally made an amazing discovery in the science lab that could have won the Nobel Prize, but they fell and hit their head, losing the results and forgetting how to recreate the discovery! After that day, no matter how many experiments they did, they couldn’t reproduce it, and the frustrated science teacher eventually took their own life! But now, if you enter the science lab late at night, their ghost appears and forces students to reenact the experiment! If you fail, you die!》

《There used to be a math teacher here who had lost their head. The teacher loved math so much that counting prime numbers was their hobby. But one day, they discovered the most perfect number in the world and wanted to tell everyone, but they died of a heart attack before they could! After becoming a ghost, the shock of death made them forget what that perfect number was! Even now, they occasionally appear at the school, asking what the most perfect number is, and if you can’t tell them, they’ll tear your body into as many pieces as that number’s prime factors!》

Could this be information bodies?
Not voices, but information flowing into my mind – I continued walking down the hallway while perceiving it.

《Our school had an incredibly strong physical education teacher! They drank steroids like water and ate protein supplements instead of rice, snacking on chicken breasts. Their physical abilities were at the level of a gold medalist! But they died of a heart attack during exercise. Now, if you go to the gym late at night, they sometimes appear and challenge students to a match! If you lose there, they’ll steal your body, so you absolutely must flee! No, if you try to flee, they’ll chase and steal your body anyway, so don’t go to the gym!》

《Our school had an art teacher who graduated from a famous art university. They were so skilled at art that if they saw a student’s painting who lacked talent, they would tear it up! Then one day, after tearing up another student’s painting as usual, that enraged student stabbed the teacher’s throat with a pen, killing them! Ever since that day, if you go to the art room, the art teacher’s ghost appears, makes you draw, and if they’re not satisfied, they’ll stab you to death with a pen!》

《Our school had a legendary student affairs teacher. The strongest teacher in the world, they visited a shaman wondering what they should do to become even stronger. The shaman said that eating the fresh flesh of students would allow them to absorb the students’ youth and vitality, becoming stronger. And the student affairs teacher put that into practice! In the end, it wasn’t until after dozens of students had been devoured that the police finally found and shot them to death. But now as a ghost, they’ve become even stronger and continue to prey on students!》

And when I reached the end of the hallway, I encountered information unrelated to ghost stories.

《Senior, congratulations on graduating.》
《Thank you.》
《But Senior, now that I think about it, why did you create the Ghost Story Club? You never actually made any ghost stories yourself. You even offered a cash prize to popularize ghost stories, so why didn’t you make any?》
《Because I love ghost stories.》

It seemed to be a conversation between a senior about to graduate and an underclassman.

《Ghost stories only have value when they’re unexpected, you see. A ghost story I create would be worthless to me since I would know all the information behind it. But ghost stories made by others are different. No matter how sloppy they are, I can use my imagination to fill in the gaps and enjoy them, right?》
《You really are unique, Senior.》
《Haha, then I should tell our junior a ghost story I made. How about this? That all ghost stories are actually real?》
《Eh, are you going to say something like ‘human imagination is infinite, and everything can be realized’?》
《No.》

The senior spoke.

《In this world, ghost stories, things like ghost stories, things greater than ghost stories, truly exist. I saw them when I was young. They are always by our side. So one day, you too will have to make a choice.》
《What, what choice?》
《Whether to confront and fight them, to submit to them, to make use of them, or to remain ignorant and meet an unlucky demise at their hands.》
《…Senior, you’re talking about ghost stories, right?》
《For your information, I plan to make use of them.》
《Senior Lee Hyeong-seok?》
《My name is no longer Lee Hyeong-seok. There are many ghost stories about names, right? So I’ve abandoned my name.》

His own name.

《No Named. Call me that from now on. Though who knows if we’ll ever meet again.》
《Senior.》
《Live well.》

The flow of information bodies ended.

“Hmm.”

No Named.

‘Dr. Janus said this place has a high density of information bodies.’

Did No Named know this fact?
Or was it merely a coincidental product?

‘A name I’ve never heard in any games.’

Perhaps there is a creator, but entities born from the hands of this unknown person are not implausible.

“That’s something I can ponder once I’ve survived here.”

At the end of the hallway, a door leading to another building welcomed me.
Passing through it, a high ceiling and waxed wooden floors greeted me.

『Ah, a student here to take the physical education exam! Come in!』

A massive figure over 3 meters tall with bulging muscles waved at me.

『The physical education exam is simple! You just need to beat me in physical competitions! There are a total of 10 events! If you pass 8 or more, the exam ends! Any other questions? Ah! But first, tell me your name!』

A gorilla’s muscles that could be easily crushed.
Beyond the realm of humans, his living muscle fibers twitched like monsters.

『If you fail the exam, your body will become mine to use! What a tender body! I’ll enjoy cultivating some muscles in it!』

An exam, huh?

“Hello there.”

It’s not that difficult a task.

“My name is Seung-hoon Lee.”

“Ddeuddaei!”

Lee So-hee let out a scream as she dashed forward. Her manager and other broadcasters accompanied her.

“Run away!”
“What was that just now!”
“The statue was walking!”
“Admiral Yi Sun-sin said ‘Chikkshow!’?”

The communications that had been cut off the moment they entered the school.
The walking statue they had immediately encountered upon arrival.
The Japanese-speaking statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and the frantically running Thinker statue.

[Damn it! Everyone, get into the building! Cheonmahyeonggong-to!]

And the strange old man in a suit firing a palm strike.

“Hugok, hugok!”
“Ddeuddae……”

Following the martial artist grandfather’s advice, the group entered the building and barely caught their breath.

“What was all that?”
“The martial arts grandfather, living statues, and even a traitorous Admiral Yi Sun-sin.”
“If only the broadcast had worked, it would have been a huge hit.”
“You crazy fools, is the broadcast what matters now!?”

Hearing the broadcasters’ natural responses, Lee So-hee’s manager, Lee Ye-seul, shouted at them.

“More importantly, what do we do now?”
“Ddeuddaei!”
“Ye-seul unni, what is Ddeuddaei saying?”
“She says we should hide here since the statues might attack again.”
“That sounds good.”

The group ascended to the upper floors of the building.

“But Ye-seul, do you understand So-hee’s speech?”
“After listening for so long, I can distinguish it. If the ‘ddeu’ is a semitone higher, it’s ‘ga’, and if it’s a ‘pa’ sound, it’s ‘na’, and so on – there are distinctions for everything. Going further, by converting the pitch, pronunciation accuracy, and emotional intensity into analog waveforms, I can discern the hidden language patterns within ‘Ddeuddaei’.”
“But, can you really hear all that?”
“I’m a music university graduate.”
“I don’t think even a music graduate could do that? Perfect pitch? Something like that?”

When they reached the top floor, they found a rather large classroom.

[Art Room]

The group’s footsteps halted.

“…I don’t want to go in there.”
“…Ddeuddaei.”
“…Something feels intense in there.”
“…I’m getting a bad feeling.”
“…In horror movies, they always die when they go into places like this.”
“…Yeah, if we’ve seen horror movies, we shouldn’t be doing things like that.”

The moment they all turned to leave, suddenly:

『Take your seats.』

The art room door opened by itself, and their six bodies floated up into the air.

『How unseemly, arriving late on exam day. Though I suppose that’s to be expected from the riffraff attending this trashy school.』

They were forcibly dragged into the art room as if being sucked in.
Before the ones forced to sit were canvases.
And at the very front of the classroom, a woman greeted them with elegant, dance-like gestures.

『It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m the art teacher.』

The woman with a pen stuck in her throat shouted.

『The exam will now begin! The subject is free! Draw a picture that satisfies me!』

Foaming at the mouth.

『Those who fail to satisfy me will have a hole opened in their throats!』

『This place seems suspicious.』

While walking down the hallway with the other agents, Shin Yeong-mun spotted a clean classroom and opened the door.

“Do you sense anything here?”
『No, it’s just clean unlike the other places.』
“Ah, I thought Agent Yeong-mun was using his ‘ability’.”

Shin Yeong-mun let out a wry smile.

『I can only use it once a month, and the effects are random, so I have to be careful when using it. Don’t put too much faith in it – it might not work properly.』
“Still, I believe in you.”
“Me too.”
“I believe in you too.”

There were no peculiarities inside the classroom.

『Shall we leave?』
“Hm? Why did you come in here?”
“Pardon? Huh? Why did I come in?”

According to protocol, at least one or two agents should remain outside as lookouts whenever entering a specific location in case of an emergency.
This time too, one agent should have stayed outside, but by the time they realized it, they had all already entered together.

‘The entity’s peculiarity!’

The moment that thought crossed everyone’s minds, they had already taken their seats.

『…The math exam will now begin.』

A middle-aged male ghost with a peeled head glared at the agents with a severely contorted face.

『The exam question is to state the most perfect number. The judgment will be made by this examiner, and if you state a number that is not perfect…….』

Blood tears streamed from his eyes.

『I will tear you into 97 pieces.』