Chapter 243
Theatrical Regression Life
Episode 243:
Every time the underworld preyed on the survivors, it did not devour all the crazy people in the world. It was a system in which a limited space, such as an area or a room in a building, was arbitrarily designated as a rider nearing annihilation and the people inside were devoured. No matter how qualified you are, if you stay out of bounds and donât get eaten, you wonât become a regular member of the underworld.
Also, the number of talented people who can be preyed upon by the underworld is limited. No matter how close a regular member is, if the quality of the psychopath is significantly low, he or she will not be eaten.
ââ¦uh?â
However, in the case of Eonhak High School, where the Park siblings are enrolled.
âWhat what what?â
âUhâ¦? uh? uh? uh? uh? uh?â
âWhere the fuck am I!â
Last time, it was not a space designated by the secret world, and Park Da-young and Park Da-hoon were not in it. They went out of their way to celebrate Park Da-hoonâs birthday and stopped by a cafe in another area.
However, at this time, the Park siblings were taking classes at Eonhak High School, and there were definitely friends there who had the qualifications to become regular or sub members.
ââ¦Oh crazy.â
Park Da-hoon, who had been swallowed up by the underworld while sleeping face down, looked around.
The total number of students in the 2nd grade class 10 he was in was 22. Among them, there are about 10 friends who came to the underworld along with Park Da-hoon. No, I counted correctly again and there were 9 people. There were people I was close with, there were people who were embarrassed, and there were people whose faces turned red, but out of those 9 people, there were only 2 who came to their senses to some extent
.
ââ¦.â
Park Da-hoonâs gaze immediately turned to the phrase in the frame decorated on the blackboard. I didnât look there with any particular intention, but it was the result of avoiding my gaze from the strange harmony created by the students fluttering around like crazy and the dressed mannequins staring at them intently.
And in the frame that had written [Class motto: Letâs eat a good breakfast.] until just a moment ago, there was a new phrase in a neat font. It was a phrase so neat that it made me sick.
[Rule 2. Please remain seated during class.]
ââ¦Holly.â
Please save me.
Da-hoon Park quietly closed his eyes as he watched the monster that looked like a teacher rushing towards the rampaging students. With the sound of bones breaking and flesh splashing, something lukewarm splashed onto his cheek. There was nothing more to see than blood.
âAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
�
âHee hee hee hee heeâ¦â
Even in the meantime, I can hear a moaning sound, so it looks like heâs not dead.
âIt looks like Iâm going to die soon.â
He carefully opened his eyes and, as if he had grasped the situation, muttered softly as he looked at the two people sitting in place with their mouths closed, the classmates tied tightly to chairs with their limbs broken and their bones exposed, and the mannequins continuing their work as if nothing had happened.
âFuck youâ¦.â
Mayday, Mayday.
Are you alive, my little bastard?
* * *
A total of 16 people were somehow gathered together using the classic method of starting a fire and making smoke. The survivors moved steadily and moved to Eonhak High School, where Park Da-young and Park Da-hoon would be.
Hong Gyeong-jun looked at Lee Jae-heon and asked.
âAre you saying there is a place where communication is possible?â
He nodded in response to a question from a detective he hadnât seen in a long time.
âWhen you say that, the other side of the world seems like a remote mountainous area where no radio waves can reach, but⦠it does exist. âItâs crazy hard to find.â
âWhere is it?â
âItâs school.â
Although it is one-way, once you make a call within the school, you can communicate anywhere. If the timing was right and I contacted the survivors I had not currently met within the school, I would be able to clarify who had not been eaten by the underworld this time.
ââ¦Are you sure youâre talking about where weâre going now?â
âYes, thatâs right.â
Jaeheon Lee rubbed the corner of his mouth and added a word.
âOf course, the place I am going now is not the same building as the one I know, but the purpose of its construction is the same, so I think I will be able to talk on the phone.â
Of course, it was a story that he made up appropriately by recalling the contents of the novel rather than something he learned from his own experience, but Hong Gyeong-jun and Jeong In-ho, Ha Seong-yoon, and Kang Min-ah, who were listening to the story nearby, nodded.
âThen⦠if you call there, you might be able to find people who are in the other world but havenât joined us.â
âThere are definitely a lot of loopholes in the method of confirming the location by making smoke. In fact, even now, some survivors are worried that itâs not that they didnât come to the other side of the world, but that they couldnât join because we couldnât find them.â
âIâm also worried about my boots.â
As Kang Min-ah said that, she looked at Vivian, who was at the back of the survivors.
The people who gathered around Jeong In-ho, excluding Ohseong employees and Yoon Garam and Ha Seong-yoon, who were members of the existing team, were not as many as expected. The youngest Choi Min-hong and Jang Seo-ah. Lee Yoon-byeol and Jindal-rae Munsan-gun take care of them. Even though he doesnât say anything, Kim Ki-jeong walks cautiously, looking around intently as if he is worried about them. Hong Gyeong-jun and Kim Yeon-woo visited right before Ha Seong-yoon joined. And Vivian.
Seo Jang-hwa, who always accompanied him, was nowhere to be seen.
âIf you listen to the story, it seems true that he wasnât a regular member, but he was still anxious.â
âBian also seemed very anxious. âHow can he be a regular member and not Janghwa?â
Yes, surprisingly, Seo Janghwa was a sub member.
âSong In-myeong is my friend and he has a difficult family life, so I thought he might be crazy.â
Lee Jae-heon savored his appetite.
I thought it wasnât normal to quickly make up your mind after finding out that you had a serial killer as a close friend, but I never thought that he wouldnât be a regular member. As Vivian said, the words âSheâs a regular member, why arenât you?â come out naturally.
To be honest, Vivian, who always talks about âpretty and kind wordsâ, is a crazier person than Seo Jang-hwa. Itâs a really bad world. Vivianâs face was pale as she stood at the back of the group, wary of her surroundings, wondering if Lee Jae-heon was the only one who thought that way.
âBut if he was in the hallway right in front of the classroom and disappeared⦠it would definitely be difficult to say he was a regular member. âThey also said that the door was open and they were checking to see if it had been there the whole time.â
âBian and Janghwa were probably very surprised. âWhen I asked at the last meeting, what should Bian do if he is left alone in reality⦠we were talking about that topic.â
During the conversation between In-ho Jeong and Min-ah Kang, Jae-heon Lee blinked at Vivian.
ââ¦even though I was very surprisedâ¦â
I think I was too well prepared.
ââ¦I think the manager is also looking at that weapon.â
ââ¦Ha Seong-yoon too?â
âItâs a visual that you canât help but look at.â
Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heonâs eyes were focused on the ridiculously large saw Vivian was holding. In addition, the hatchet held by Kim Ki-jeong and the blue hammer held by Munsan were all weapons brought by Vivian. I was even more curious about how those heavy things were carried and why they were with Vivian.
And when we listen, the answer that comes out is spectacular.
âI heard they were using something borrowed from the craft and sculpture department.â
ââ¦Vivian clearly said you majored in Western painting.â
âThatâs right, student Janghwa was like that too. The crazy friend that started with Song was also a Western painting. âIn the first place, werenât you wearing an apron with paint on it last time?â
âI thought it was decoration. Honestly, itâs really just decoration. If you look at the three studentsâ ferocious physical appearance, no matter how much you think about it, it definitely does not belong to Western paintingâ¦â
âThere are various people in the world.â
âWhat on earth is there to use saws, axes, and hammers in a Western painting class?â
âYou said you have a lot of close friends in the plastic arts department.â
âWhat does that have to do with using tools like that in Western paintings?â
âFor Western painting, there is no law that requires you to use only brushes and paints.â
âCould it beâ¦?â
The two menâs questions were resolved when Vivian, who heard their story, answered them herself.
âOh, I was weaving a canvas. Starting with the wooden frame and covering it with fabric on top⦠They say to make it now and use it later. âItâs a graduation exhibition.â
âDo you usually use a big hammer like that when making canvas? âIsnât it for polishing stains?â
âYes, I know thatâs not true, but there werenât enough hammers in the Western painting building for the number of students, so I brought those at least.â
âDo you normally learn how to make canvas in Western painting classes?â
âNo matter what, I usually donât start with wood as a frame⦠but I sometimes do work that vaguely overlaps with the formative side. Perhaps because the professors were close to each other, they tried various things with each other. That doesnât mean itâs completely outside the genre of Western painting itself, but it feels like itâs not really âat allââ¦â
âOh my god.â
âYouâre already receiving a lot of criticism among students. âYou still donât understand.â
His face was still calm, but his voice was that of someone who had a lot of resentment toward the professor. They say that the complaint reaches the head of the department, but they are all in the same situation and are just ignoring it.
âItâs good that Song In-myeong didnât kill the professor or the department head.â
I heard that before he dropped out, he was a little out of the ordinary, but he lived as an ordinary student earning credits. To be honest, it wouldnât have been easier for him to kill everyone and accept a new professor. Although it could not have been done due to practical problems.
âItâs okay because we are interested in this area, but other motivations are dying out.â
ââ¦.â
Well, it looks like this person is just satisfied. Itâs not that there are no complaints, but should I say that I have accepted the reality? Jaeheon Lee nodded without saying a word.
As we walked and talked like that, the survivors had already reached Eonhak High School.
ââ¦Somethingâ¦.â
âIt looks like you canât get out if you go in.â
âThatâs it.â
The last time I came to see the Park siblings, I didnât know where the neat and shiny building had gone, but in its place stood an ugly building that looked like it wouldnât be strange to call it a prison.
The clean white paint on the schoolâs walls had peeled off and stood high in the sky, the end of which was pointed as if it were a spear. The beige bricks that made up the school building were stained with all kinds of dust and moss and crumbling here and there, and the modern rectangular building was curved in odd curves, making it difficult to even find the entrance.
ââ¦.â
Jaeheon Lee raised his head and looked at the sky.
ââ¦is the sun setting?â
The sky is gradually turning gray, increasing the anxiety of the survivors.
âNo matter how much I think about it⦠I donât think it will be easy to get out once you get in. The same goes for that mannequin dressed as a security guard standing at the front door. âIt seems like it would be a burdensome space for everyone to enter at once.â
âThen shall we divide into a standby team and an exploration team? I also need a place to rest. âEveryone is exhausted because they walked quite a distance.â
âThen letâs split into teams. The standby team will find a shelter and build a fire to prepare for the night, while the search team will check if there are any survivors inside the school. âIf you can make a phone call, we will contact you quickly.â
The members of the search team that were selected were Lee Jae-heon, Yoon Garam, Ha Seong-yoon, and Hong Gyeong-jun.
ââ¦is it okay if I stay in the standby group? As expected, the manager must protect these peopleâ¦.â
âI canât be left out in a situation where I donât know how the rules of Unhak High School work. However, no one can keep the standby level. We also have kindergarten students. âThere are more non-combat personnel, so I hope In-ho Jeong can protect them.â
The protagonist nodded his head at those words, but had a disapproving expression. I thought it was probably due to the excessive sacrificial spirit that Jaeheon Lee showed last time and the injury this time. Lee Jae-heon, who was planning to keep his wits about him this time, cursed internally at the protagonistâs reaction.
âWho cares about whom when it comes to chicks?â
Lee Jae-heon, who was about to criticize the worry by saying it was nonsense, immediately changed his mind. Isnât it said that no one knows the future? Although he simulated all kinds of situations in his head, he did not show the protagonist at all.
âDo not worry too much. âIf I can, I will contact you as soon as I have time.â
âAll right.â
âIf we ask for help, please organize an additional search team to enter the school in advance⦠If not, justâ¦.â ââ¦.â âNo, no. Iâll be back right away
.
â
In the world, this is called a âdeath flag.â
Approximately 30 minutes after entering Eonhak High School, Jaeheon Lee successfully retrieves this flag.