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 centimeters 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 me 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 time, 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 me.
I had a wall in my heart.
This front door also meant 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 Medium’s voice.
Grrrr. Grrrr.
A bizarre, metallic 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 me.
[Do you think this door will protect you?]
It was a threat.
Of course, it didn't sound like a mere threat.
“…….”
Only then did I realize.
Although that door was protecting me sturdily for now.
The moment 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 hammer.
My head began to ring with pain and fear.
At the same time, I felt a bizarre pair of eyes staring at me.
“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 astonishment.
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 me 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 me into the legend.
There must be a reason for that.
‘There's something.’
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 me.
In this process.
I discovered nothing.
There was nothing.
“…….”
There must clearly be something.
The reason that door exists, protecting me from that evil spirit.
Since there's something, it wouldn't have been able to put me perfectly into the legend.
I thought desperately, but the memories of the haunted house were of no help.
“What is it?”
I have to find something.
It might not be the haunted house.
“Then the dream where the Medium 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 memory of that time came back to me.
However, I saw that record on the police station's CCTV.
When I went to the Hanok house myself, nothing had happened to the Medium.
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 remembered that first moment 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 memory is missing.
Before the elevator door opened at the very end back then, I did something.
What was it?
I definitely did something.
Standing on the sofa, watching the rising water, I thought quietly.
Stay calm.
The memory will return.
“Ah...!”
Only then did it come back to me.
“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 time, 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 moment and a spine-chilling cold was felt.
The killer spirit, who had transformed into a human, was smiling.
That expression kept coming back to me.
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 moment.
“Did you think I wouldn't remember this?”
Roll, roll, roll.
That round something 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 came to mind.
“What was it?”
The clothes I wore in the dream.
They were the same 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 something 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 something.
The true identity of the object from the elevator urban legend.
It was.
“An eye.”
It was an eyeball.
I was holding someone'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 mental shock remained.
Because a much more unexpected object than I had imagined had appeared.
I became dazed for a moment.
“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 bloomed 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 seemed 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 mere 30-centimeter 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 me.
Squeeze.
I gripped ‘Naksha’s Eye.’
It was a moment of life or death.
I agonized over and thought about the best possible way.
The opponent was an evil spirit trying to drown me 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 me.
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 me.
I felt the water scattering.
Shhhhh.
The water was moving away from my surroundings.
It was the first time this had happened.
I realized.
‘Naksha’s Eye’ had become a part of me, and my entire body had become the medium.
The power of that spiritual item was amplified within my body.
‘The sight of the water being unable to reach me.’
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 metallic 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.