Chapter 15
‘There might be more than one ghost.’
It was sothing unimaginable.
To think there could be more ghosts than the one I saw in that haunted house urban legend.
If multiple ghosts appear in an urban legend... would I be able to handle it?
“There’s a famous haunted house nearby.”
The dium seed to know already.
She didn't bother asking for an explanation.
“There are places ghosts like. Dark, damp, and secluded.”
“Places people don't visit often.”
“You're quick on the uptake.”
“Well, I've survived urban legends a few tis now. I ought to have developed so survival wits.”
I was, in my own way, the dium's assistant.
In fact, this case was also the first urban legend I was officially taking on.
“Let’s go at night.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s the ti when ghosts are most likely to appear.”
A haunted house in the dark of night.
And knowing full well that a ghost is there.
A bleak feeling made my knees go weak, but she sat calmly on the wooden porch, drinking hot tea.
“You're okay, right?”
No.
I wasn't okay at all.
However, until now, I had been alone within the urban legends.
This ti I would be with the dium, and it was our first field assignnt together.
Perhaps.
Perhaps it might be okay?
“It's tonight, right?”
“Yes, we have to catch it before it moves.”
Sip.
dium Lee Yeon-hwa savored her warm tea and waited calmly.
For night to co.
For the hour of the ghosts to arrive.
“Let’s go.”
The dium appeared, having straightened her white hanbok.
I stared at her blankly.
“Is there anything we need to prepare?”
“I’ve got everything.”
She took out Naksha's Dagger and showed it briefly.
“I could go empty-handed, and I have other spiritual items, but this is easy to carry around.”
I nodded.
However, I still hadn't told her.
That I had eaten the ghost's eye—that is, Naksha's Eye.
For so reason, I didn't want to say it.
“Hm? Why?”
“Nothing.”
“How trivial.”
dium Lee Yeon-hwa turned her head and walked away.
We had to hurry before the approaching night deepened.
“Can you drive?”
“I don't have a license.”
“Get your license when you have ti.”
“I don't have a car. Besides, I have narcolepsy, so I might fall asleep at the wheel.”
“…….”
dium Lee Yeon-hwa made a face that said, ‘True.’
She shrugged as if there were no other choice and walked toward her destination.
“I'll drive. Wait outside.”
“Yes.”
A mont later.
She appeared in a car with a massive engine roar.
But why?
Was it a red convertible?
“Ms. dium.”
“Yes?”
“The car is quite flashy, isn't it?”
“It's a lease.”
She replied quite nonchalantly.
Of course, she seed like a quite spiritually powerful dium, and since she was famous for reading couples' fortunes well, she seed like a person of considerable wealth.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No.”
I awkwardly climbed into the car.
The convertible sped smoothly through the night streets.
The wind blew fiercely, rcilessly tossing my hair, and the dium's long hair also whipped violently like a ghost's hair fluttering.
We crossed over the Han River bridge, which was filled with colorful lights, and headed toward a secluded mountain sowhere.
“Where are we?”
“It’s here.”
The area beyond, illuminated by the car’s headlights.
There stood a single house that looked like a collapsing ruin.
“The place you saw in the urban legend....”
Tension washed over at her words.
It was because this was the first ti I had ever co to the actual stronghold of a ghost seen in an urban legend.
This ti, it wasn't just a simple haunted house experience.
Because the dium was a person who had co here to hunt the ghost.
“Are we going in?”
“I suppose we should.”
She spoke nonchalantly.
Her tone was chanical, like an office worker doing overti.
“I could just wait outside.”
“No.”
The dium was firm.
“You have to go in too.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re the assistant. Is there anything free in this world?”
To think I'd be going to et a ghost right from the start.
A reluctant expression naturally ford on my face.
“Hmm.”
The dium saw my expression and nodded as if she understood well enough.
“Up until now, you were inside an urban legend. Don't you want to know? If it’s similar to reality.”
Honestly.
I wasn't curious.
However, the dium seed to know sothing.
Whether or not there was a discrepancy between the urban legend and reality.
“Ghosts don’t appear in reality very often. Since they are beings with only forms remaining, they mostly appear in dreams. That’s what urban legends are.”
“Then what about now?”
“You won’t see the ghost. So don’t worry.”
Thud.
The dium grabbed a flashlight and got out of the car first.
Then she began to walk forward without hesitation.
The car’s headlights were on, but sohow being alone was even more eerie.
“Wait for .”
I ended up following the dium into the haunted house reflexively.
Creak.
I heard the sound of the unstable floor.
It was similar to the situation in the urban legend I saw.
Debris strewn about in disorder.
Even the scenery of the ruin I saw in the legend was truly identical.
“Yu-chan, this is the place, right?”
“Yes. It’s exactly the sa.”
“I thought so. Because urban legends are also made with the imagination. The easiest way is to bring a scene from your mory exactly as it is into the dream.”
“Exactly as rembered?”
“Yeah. Because dreams are an extension of reality.”
Dreams are an extension of reality.
Is that why people dream of the past that happened in reality again?
It wasn't the ti to be lost in thought and contemplation, but I kept looking around and comparing things with the situation in the urban legend.
“I really can’t see any ghosts.”
“I said you wouldn't see them, I didn't say there weren't any ghosts?”
Goosebumps broke out instantly.
The dium had stopped in her tracks a while ago and was staring intently at sowhere.
My feet also stopped.
“Over there....”
The dium slowly opened her mouth.
“It’s on the ceiling.”
“Pardon?”
“Shh.”
She put a finger to her lips, signaling for caution.
“It's as you said. The ghost here is on the ceiling too.”
“…….”
“Those bastards rarely appear in reality, but they do hide. If they open their eyes, there's a glint like a beast's eye-glow. They'd be caught by then, so they keep their eyes closed.”
A quiet silence.
Only the dium's whispering voice could be heard.
“Instead, it keeps its ears open. To hear who's coming.”
Silence was a precursor to terror.
I couldn't say a word.
“Waiting to see what kind of prey arrives. Because a haunted house will beco a ghost's human hunting ground.”
Bone-chilling words.
The dium was completely imrsed in this situation.
“Even now, it’s listening to everything we say.”
My heart seed to stop; words wouldn't even co out.
I just stayed quiet.
I was only waiting for this mont to pass.
“…….”
A tension so thick it was hard to even breathe.
A fear that felt like my heart would stop.
In that state, I felt as if adrenaline was pumping like crazy.
“That’s enough.”
She finally spoke.
As if she had shared a wordless conversation with the ghost, the dium nodded.
“Let's go.”
“Yes.”
Carefully.
I walked outside cautiously, making as little noise as possible.
“Phew.”
A sigh burst out as soon as we left the haunted house.
While I was shaking off the cold sweat, the dium was calmly making the next preparations.
“The bastard was hiding the whole ti.”
“Did you fail to find it?”
“In reality, ghost forms are mostly hard to pin down. So their power tends to be weak.”
The dium's gaze turned cold.
“It's different within an urban legend, though.”
I stared at her silently.
“No one goes without sleep. No one goes without dreaming. A ghost waits for its desired victim to fall asleep. It enters by turning that person's dream into an urban legend.”
She spoke in a whisper, as if sharing a secret.
“To kill them there.”
The dium's tone was frigid.
Dreams did not belong to humans.
They were hunting grounds where ghosts attacked by turning them into urban legends.
“So it's hiding on the ceiling and won't show itself.”
“And?”
“The bastard saw us in the last legend. It surely recognized us. I felt it just now. Since a ghost can see in all directions even with its eyes closed, it seems to be staying quiet.”
I felt as though everything had been exposed.
Only then did I understand the situation.
“Then what should we do?”
“The bastard will wait now. For us to fall asleep.”
“And if we dream?”
“The ghost will turn it into an urban legend. It will drag us into it.”
The dium's eyes changed into those of soone entering a battle.
“Then now, we...?”
“There’s no other way. We enter the urban legend.”
Thud!
I felt a shock as if I’d been struck by a hamr.
Enter an urban legend?
Forcibly, once we fall asleep?
“The bastard will try to devour us within the urban legend.”
“Then what do we do? It's dangerous to enter an urban legend.”
“If you don't sleep, you won't dream.”
“How can I not sleep?”
“That’s why you have to survive the urban legend.”
The dium spoke as if stating a fixed law.
Since we were already in the ghost's sight, the bastard was simply waiting quietly.
To calmly drag us into its urban legend.
“We’re going into the legend anyway. Let’s make the first move.”
“Pardon?”
“I have spiritual power. I can use it to enter the domain of the urban legend.”
Because she was a dium. She was an ability user who could fight within a ghost’s urban legend.
But I was different.
“Kim Yu-chan.”
“Yes.”
“Fall asleep quickly.”
“Pardon?”
I doubted my ears.
Just where was she telling to fall asleep right now?
I was bewildered as to why she would say such a thing when falling asleep ant being sucked into the urban legend imdiately.
“Let’s enter the urban legend.”
“Um. Can’t you just enter the urban legend by yourself, Ms. dium?”
“The opponent doesn’t seem to be an ordinary ghost.”
dium Lee Yeon-hwa stared at the haunted house where the ghost was.
“The bastard used another ghost. To latch onto you first. And just now, it was watching. As if staring at prey.”
It was a cunning ghost.
Even down to the cruel sche of using another ghost as a front.
This ghost was different.
I could even feel the talent of a killer spirit that couldn't be easily caught by ordinary thods.
Sigh.
There was no turning back.
Since I was already targeted by the ghost, I would enter the urban legend the mont I fell asleep.
If I entered defenselessly, I'd be finished before anyone knew.
There was no choice.
Seriously.
It feels like I’m going in as a at shield.
No, it’s more likely that’s exactly it, which made even more anxious.
“It’ll be okay, right?”
“Just do as I told you last ti. You be the eyes behind my back.”
The dium nodded and signaled with her eyes.
My whole body trembled with foreboding, but it would only get more disadvantageous as the night deepened.
Will it go well?
This is practically our first ti working together in an urban legend.
“I’ll be watching closely. There’s nothing to fear.”
“Yesss.”
The dium took out Naksha's Dagger from her shirt.
“If you hold a spiritual object, you can bring it into the urban legend.”
I had already seen the dium’s skills.
The sight of her stabbing the ghost without hesitation with the dagger.
Not even the ghost’s short scream could shake her determined gaze and resolve.
“Now then, sleep quickly.”
For the first ti, I regretted having narcolepsy.
Because the feeling of falling asleep knowing I’d enter an urban legend was not pleasant at all.
I lay down quietly in the back seat of the car.
[The ghost's domain is shifting.]
I entered the urban legend.
It was the haunted house legend.
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