Chapter 13
Thump, thump.
The sound of pounding on the front door continued, but gradually subsided.
I knew.
“Who you are.”
I saw it in the dream I had during the day.
That ghost’s face.
That face, with a long tongue over 50 centiters long spilling from its mouth.
Pale, yet in a way, almost wondrous.
Even that horrific expression.
Drip.
The unidentified droplet that fell on my shoulder.
Only then did I realize the identity of that damp, moist thing.
It was saliva dripping from the ghost’s long tongue.
As if licking its chops at the sight of prey.
The bastard had been looking down at like that from the ceiling.
“It’s you, isn’t it? That bastard.”
[…….]
Pretend not to know the ghost.
The first rule had been broken during the day.
But I was keeping the 0th absolute rule.
‘Do not fear the ghost.’
I was keeping that in mind.
And so, the decisive evidence I found.
There was a separate, definitive reason why I was certain that what was outside the door was a ghost.
“It’s flowing on the floor.”
The liquid soaking the floor.
I knew that damp liquid seeping past the front door.
Drip.
Drip.
Because it was sticking out its long tongue, the ghost’s saliva was flowing.
Roughly twenty minutes had passed since we began our confrontation.
In that ti, enough saliva had flowed to soak the floor and seep under the front door.
“It’s you. The ghost from the ceiling.”
The front door was a door protecting .
I had a wall in my heart.
This front door also ant that I hadn't fallen prey to the bastard’s clutches yet.
And so.
I can face the ghost.
[…….]
A brief silence passed.
[Do you want to die?]
It wasn't the dium’s voice.
Grrrr. Grrrr.
A bizarre, tallic voice flowed out, as if phlegm were boiling in its throat.
It was a voice so strange and horrific that it sent an instantaneous shiver through .
[Do you think this door will protect you?]
It was a threat.
Of course, it didn't sound like a re threat.
“…….”
Only then did I realize.
Although that door was protecting sturdily for now.
The mont my heart weakened, that door would break.
That was why the bastard had been pounding on it like crazy.
Bang, bang.
As if striking with an iron hamr.
My head began to ring with pain and fear.
At the sa ti, I felt a bizarre pair of eyes staring at .
“Ghost.”
The saliva coming through the crack in the door.
The sense of dread I hadn't noticed earlier began to grow gradually.
The bastard was flicking its tongue and drooling all over the floor.
So that it would gradually rise inside.
As if trying to turn the room into a swimming pool.
“Huh?”
The speed was faster than I expected.
The saliva that had entered through the crack was already pooling and rising on the floor.
I recoiled in shock, but the saliva the ghost spilled was flowing past the entryway floor and toward the living room.
Horror and astonishnt.
The malice possessed by the ghost was that much beyond imagination.
Unable to leave, unable to wait.
I was being driven into a corner.
Squish, squish.
I climbed onto the sofa in the living room, but the floor was already filled with the liquid the ghost had spilled.
In urban legends, a ghost's obsession surpassed imagination by that much.
It wasn't the haunted house where it originally resided; it had crossed over into my dream and was orchestrating an urban legend.
That was the ghost's malice.
It was an evil spirit.
“Phew.”
I was in danger of being victimized without being able to move a muscle.
The space to flee from the rising water was gradually shrinking.
I thought, repeating the absolute rule to myself.
‘Do not fear the ghost.’
I calmly sorted through the situation.
I diligently examined the place I was in.
I thought there would be a way to create a reversal.
“There will be.”
I thought.
What if the bastard had truly plunged into an urban legend?
Then there's no way it would be blocked by a front door like this.
Evil spirits can create urban legends.
If it's blocked at the door without having managed to plunge into the legend.
There must be a reason for that.
‘There's sothing.’
I thought desperately.
And I retraced everything one by one.
In the haunted house.
I stepped on debris and made the sound of footsteps.
The ghost that whispered in my ear and drooled had now latched onto .
In this process.
I discovered nothing.
There was nothing.
“…….”
There must clearly be sothing.
The reason that door exists, protecting from that evil spirit.
Since there's sothing, it wouldn't have been able to put perfectly into the legend.
I thought desperately, but the mories of the haunted house were of no help.
“What is it?”
I have to find sothing.
It might not be the haunted house.
“Then the dream where the dium was stabbed?”
Her chest pierced by the flying dagger.
That sight of her lying in the courtyard, her white hanbok stained like a red flower.
The mory of that ti ca back to .
However, I saw that record on the police station's CCTV.
When I went to the Hanok house myself, nothing had happened to the dium.
She was safe.
“Not this either.”
I was lost in thought again.
Thinking it over, I recalled the first instance—the one I wanted to recall the least.
“The elevator urban legend.”
I rembered that first mont of terror.
It was etched like an imprint I could never forget.
Back then.
The sight of the grandfather and the middle-aged man dying and screaming like zombies.
The killer spirit disguised as a human in that worst of urban legends.
Even the smile he wore.
Finally.
I recalled the door opening with a brilliant light after finding the answer.
“Wait.”
One mory is missing.
Before the elevator door opened at the very end back then, I did sothing.
What was it?
I definitely did sothing.
Standing on the sofa, watching the rising water, I thought quietly.
Stay calm.
The mory will return.
“Ah...!”
Only then did it co back to .
“I picked it up.”
I recalled the object that had rolled across the elevator floor after I exposed the evil spirit.
Roll, roll.
I had picked it up subconsciously.
At that ti, there was indeed a peculiarity.
When I revealed the true identity of the killer spirit in the elevator urban legend.
When the interior grew dark for a mont and a spine-chilling cold was felt.
The killer spirit, who had transford into a human, was smiling.
That expression kept coming back to .
That strangely staring gaze was the last thing I saw before the bastard vanished.
I didn't know it then, but I now realized the identity of the sense of incongruity I felt at that mont.
“Did you think I wouldn't rember this?”
Roll, roll, roll.
That round sothing rolling along.
The object I had picked up pointlessly at the end.
“That thing.”
Was it a trophy?
I had inadvertently ended up with that object I saw in the urban legend.
And I had heard a strange sound.
『You have acquired *** .』
I hadn't checked what it was and just shoved it into my pocket.
That event I had been overlooking now ca to mind.
“What was it?”
The clothes I wore in the dream.
They were the sa clothes I had actually worn yesterday, and it was inside that pocket.
Where was it?
Because I had sweated a lot and worn them during the urban legend, I felt grimy and had put them in the laundry.
The clothes were in front of the washing machine on the veranda.
“The veranda.”
I hurried down from the sofa.
Wading through the squelching water on the living room floor, I ran to the veranda.
Right on top of the laundry pile was the clothing in question.
I hurriedly searched the pockets and felt sothing touch my fingers.
The object was there.
Squeeze.
A small object, like a hard candy.
I clutched it in my fist and pulled it out.
Slowly.
Opening my hand, I looked at it.
“Ah....”
A round sothing.
The true identity of the object from the elevator urban legend.
It was.
“An eye.”
It was an eyeball.
I was holding soone's eyeball in my hand.
『You have acquired ‘Naksha’s Eye’.』
That was it.
I had obtained ‘Naksha’s Eye’ in the urban legend.
It was the eyeball of Naksha, the killer spirit said to be the worst urban legend designer in history.
“…….”
The ntal shock remained.
Because a much more unexpected object than I had imagined had appeared.
I beca dazed for a mont.
“An eyeball....”
Why I was in possession of this?
Whether I received it as a reward for finding the answer in the elevator urban legend.
Whose eyeball this unidentified object belonged to.
Whether it really was ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
All sorts of questions blood in a muddle inside my head.
“First of all.”
I clutched the eyeball in my hand.
A room where water was rising on the floor.
Because the only thing I had now was this one thing, ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
“What should I do?”
I didn't know how.
But I thought this eyeball was the only possibility.
Eye.
Eyeball.
It wasn't a normal shape.
It was yellowish, and parts of it even seed to be rotting.
“…….”
The water spilled by the ghost rising from the floor.
It was gradually rising within the room.
I felt anxiety and restlessness; it was a situation where I couldn't do anything with ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
I decided to test one thing.
I slowly pointed ‘Naksha’s Eye’ downward.
As I tried to touch it to the splashing water on the floor, an unexpected reaction occurred smoothly.
The water was avoiding a certain radius around ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
“Huh?”
I had never seen such a sight before.
The common sense that believed flowing water could not be gathered or contained was shattered.
It’s possible because this is a dream.
Because it is a world where miracle-like things are possible.
I realized that if I had an object, an item, it could be done.
“This is it.”
I found a way.
However, the range over which ‘Naksha’s Eye’ blocked the water was a re 30-centiter radius.
I could only push the water back by about the length of one arm.
“In that case....”
If this object has the power to push water back.
If I can only survive by using this properly.
I must choose to make that power a part of .
Squeeze.
I gripped ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
It was a mont of life or death.
I agonized over and thought about the best possible way.
The opponent was an evil spirit trying to drown by filling this space with water.
The will and power to stand against it.
That was what I needed.
Slide.
I slowly raised Naksha’s Eye to my face.
The goal was to make that eye a part of .
There was only one way.
Hesitation and waiting were luxuries.
Without delay, I moved ‘Naksha’s Eye’ toward my mouth.
And.
I did exactly that, as if it were a predestined future.
“…….”
The eyeball vanished.
As if it had never existed from the start.
『You have absorbed ‘Naksha’s Eye.’』
Splash.
The water soaking beneath my feet.
But when I made it a part of .
I felt the water scattering.
Shhhhh.
The water was moving away from my surroundings.
It was the first ti this had happened.
I realized.
‘Naksha’s Eye’ had beco a part of , and my entire body had beco the dium.
The power of that spiritual item was amplified within my body.
‘The sight of the water being unable to reach .’
Watching that mysterious sight, I slowly began to walk.
As if performing the Miracle of Moses.
The water spilled by the ghost was splitting to the left and right.
Step.
I stopped, standing blankly.
I parted the water and walked slowly.
The place my steps headed was the front door.
I stood still, facing the ghost that was peeping through that small hole in the door.
At last, I thought.
That I could face the ghost on the other side of that door.
Absolute rule.
‘Do not fear the ghost.’
Keeping that in mind, I slowly grabbed the door handle.
Creak.
As I turned the doorknob, a tallic sound was heard.
Without hesitating, I opened the door that had been firmly closed.
And.
I could see outside the door I had flung wide open, and
feeling the magnificently pouring light, I saw an unexpected sight.
It was an unexpected sight.
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