I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game

"It went that way!"

Pointing to the place covered by bushes and flower pots, Eun-jeong exclaimed.

The monster, who was caught, stretched its long neck and attacked her.

However, Suho, who was waiting behind her, strikes it with his shield.

Confused by the unexpected attack, it tries to run away in a hurry, but its body is tied to a chain rising from the ground.

It is the effect of Kyeong-min's artifact, [Book Of Restraint].

While observing the captured monster, Kyeong-min opened his notebook and checked something about it.

"Hmm... It seems to be a youkai called Rokurokubi... It appears to be closer to the living side."

Hearing that, Ha-rim rummages through her bag.

What she took out was an item in the form of a syringe obtained from a nurse monster in a hospital.

It had the effect of exorcising small and weak monsters.

She gets closer and sticks it into the youkai.

It struggles as it suffers, but the children sprinkled purifying salt as if it wasn't over yet.

Finally, Suho hit hard with his shield, and the monster was completely eradicated.

"Did we do it?"

Clap clap clap.

I applauded and praised them when I saw what they did.

Children who have become full-fledged exorcists.

The nape of my neck is getting chills for no reason.

I told Ha-rim, who put the fallen item in her bag, that we should go back soon.

Upon hearing that, the kids smiled like workers who had just finished their job.

The daily life of farming items.

Mary might be around here, so we walked carefully.

The children have grown up and the supply of items is going well.

But... Something bothered me.

Maybe it was natural.

The original story is twisted, the Devil is after us, and the bosses move randomly.

The only thing I can do when I don't know how to defeat the Devil and whether it's okay to kill the bosses is to pick up items.

However, now I have no choice but to wait for "them" to come, so it's frustrating.

The thing that bothered me more than anything was the promise.

I glanced at Ha-rim.

A promise to make an adventure to navigate through a hopeless future.

It's a promise I might not be able to keep.

If I was like before, I would have resigned myself and felt sorry.

But now I can't afford to give up.

It's because in this short time, the option itself to go to a hopeless future has disappeared because of the children.

In a corner of my mind, I kept saying to myself that I had to do something.

It seems that Pierrot is fighting the Devil directly... Does he even know how to fight it?

Acting passively is not the answer.

I also have a variable... A big variable that will change the flow...

Noticing my serious expression, the kids stare at me.

And they whispered something among themselves.

She looks to be in a bad mood. It seems like they are trying to find a way to solve that.

Then they come to a conclusion. Suho approaches me. Then he turned around and leaned.

"...?"

"Get on my back, Ella."

So suddenly?

When I looked at him with a questionable face, he gave a thumbs up.

"My little sister likes when I do this."

No matter how small I am, my height is taller than that of normal girls, I am as tall as Kyeong-min, who is a boy.

I didn't think I'd be treated like a younger sister... But since I've never been carried by anyone, my curiosity was piqued.

Without saying a word, I leaned on Suho's back.

"..."

"Are you feeling better?"

Oh oh...

What is this stability? It's warm and makes you feel relaxed.

I pressed my body a little closer and whispered in his ear to thank him.

"Yes. Thank you, Suho."

"Uh... Um... I see."

'Somehow, it feels different from my sister...'¹

Suho's cheeks look slightly red. Am I heavy?

When I asked, he shook his head saying no. It's not me, so it's fine.

But it's dangerous outside, so it's not okay if Suho, the shield, and I, the protector, are like this.

I slipped down and looked around.

There is nothing dangerous.

I think I can be at ease.

After the reconnaissance, Kyeong-min caught my eye.

Because he was still looking at his notebook.

A notebook that he has been constantly writing down both outside before and here now.

Curious, I asked him if he could show me his notebook.

He happily handed me it.

There were many sparsely worn pages.

It looks like it was written with great effort.

The information written in the notebook is about a toilet ghost, a rabbit monster, a frog monster... The monsters we saw before and those that Kyeong-min himself had searched.

And there were an article about me too.

At the time, most of the comments were that I was scary, and it was only written that I moved between mirrors.

And on one side, the word "pretty" is written in small letters.

Kyeong-min seems to have forgotten that he wrote it.

He was startled.

I slightly raised my eyebrows and teased.

"Am I pretty?"

"That's!"

"Hm? What's pretty? Can you tell me?"

When I laughed at him, Kyeong-min scratched his head and said,

"I... I think your eyes are pretty..."

I was speechless.

Because I didn't know what to say to be honest.

...It's embarrassing.

The girls are reacting the same way.

The atmosphere became strange, so I cleared my throat and looked at the notebook.

I took a quick look, I already know everything... No, wait.

Among the many ghost stories, I saw an unfamiliar name on a relatively clean page.

[Smiley Face].²

What is this? Is this a joke too?

I've never heard of anything like this.

"What is this Smiley Face?"

I asked Kyeong-min.

Then, he raised his glasses and answered.

"Ah, that's a ghost story that spread recently before we landed here. It's a monster that appears in video chatting."

I had never heard of such a ghost story.

It's not even a monster that appears in this game.

"..."

My senses are telling me.

This is a clue that will affect the huge flow.

I asked Kyeong-min to tell me more about the story.

To sum up his explanation, Smiley Face is a monster that appears on video chatting sites.

It has the shape of a person, but it is said that the eyes and mouth are torn like a smiley emoticon.

While video chatting, the other person's screen suddenly reflects a strange world and a smiling man appears saying "Tada".

It is said that after the appearance of Smiley Face, no matter who were in the video chat, he would tear out their eyes and mouths and suddenly disappear.

Is this a recent urban legend...

There were a lot of ghost stories like this. There is also names that comes to mind right away.

But [Smiley Face] itself is completely new to me.

When I looked into what was a monster before, a monster was an abstract being that only has a form limited to this world... But can such beings exist outside?

...A great idea came to mind.

'If there are monsters out there, how will the fear of seeing them affect the world?'

First, let's take Jangsanbeom as an example and hypothesize that there are monsters outside as well.

[Hypothesis 1]

If the Jangsanbeom really exists, the fear caused by the rumors spread by those who witnessed it would be materialized in this world.

In other words, the original version of the Jangsanbeom monster we defeated exists outside.

[Hypothesis 2]

The Jangsanbeom we defeated in this world is the culprit in the ghost story. For some reason, it came over to this world

In the case of [Hypothesis 2], the other monsters we defeated were also playing outside.

I came to this conclusion before, but it was dismissed because monsters that are close to non-monster phenomena are not well explained.

What remains is [Hypothesis 1].

The hypothesis that there is an "original" for the monsters we defeated.

It doesn't make sense realistically. I can't believe that such monsters exist!

However, right now, my body is also of a monster, so it was not unbelievable.

What if Smiley Face really existed?

"Kyeong-min, does Smiley Face's attack only target one person?"

"Huh? Hmm... No, I heard that it appears even during a video chat with up to four people."

I see, that means...

"There's something we need to do."

"What?"

"I'll find the Smiley Face."

As soon as we returned to school, we used the computer in the computer room.

"This is a mouse."

Kyeong-min, this kid...!

I wonder if I will live in sorrow like the ghosts of the old days by treating me like an old person.

Should I change my clothes or something?

...Can I change it?

I roughly listened to Kyeong-min on how to use a computer and tried to access the Internet.

The internet was working, just like the electricity in the school.

However, no matter which site I went to, only broken text and images were visible.

If I write something in a community and try to upload it, the upload button itself can't be pressed.

Even when I run a game, it gets bizarrely distorted.

"Hmm... Is it some kind of filter?"

"It's too early to conclude."

Thanks to that, we can't communicate with other people or even check information from the outside.

It was to the point where I wondered if there really was such a thing as "outside".

The feeling that something is intentionally blocking it.

I was fully aware that it was impossible to communicate with the outside world through normal routes.

But what if we borrowed the power of Smiley Face?

According to Kyeong-min's explanation, the world reflected on the screen where Smiley Face appears is always different.

An ordinary beach. A family home. Or a world of bizarre landscapes.

He stays there, disappears from its own screen, and at the same time appears on the victim's screen and try attacking them.

What's interesting in this is that the landscapes Smiley Face appears isn't somewhere were you can connect to the internet.

However, Smiley Face calmly chats with other people?

I can't help but imagine that it's his ability at work.

If I can find the chatroom he is...

"Kyeong-min, how do I meet Smiley Face?"

"I heard it only appears in random matching."

Should I just leave it to chance?

It is possible to access the site, so I connect and try video chatting.

Matching success.

However, the screen does not appear and the chat doesn't come up.

It's a failure.

Random matching again.

Failed again.

"Do you want to continue?"

"Yes."

Kyeong-min continues to try random matching as I tell him to.

It doesn't work.

"...Ha-rim, take out all the loot you got the other day."

She made a surprised expression at my words.

The loot I mentioned are from the [Luck] series.

Most of them are disposable, so once you use them, you can't use it again.

She seemed to ask if she could use here all the items we had worked hard for.

I answered with a serious expression.

Seeing my serious face, Ha-rim's expression became serious as well.

She took out the items from the bag.

[Raffle Ticket], [Talisman Against Evil], [Cat Doll], [Pig's Head].³

I placed them in a circle around the computer.

It looked like a ritual was going on.

Tension began to rise in the air.

The other kids began to realize that this isn't something light to do out of curiosity.

Ha-rim, who has a luck artifact, sat down and grabbed the mouse instead of Kyeong-min.

Click click click.

No success yet.

The items didn't activate in the first place.

...Are the items in this world unable to affect the outside?

Otherwise, Smiley Face is fake.

Because it's going on under the assumption that Smiley Face exists in the first place.

My face looked bad. Ha-rim soothingly said.

"I'm not sure exactly what Ella is trying to do, but it's very important, right?""

I nodded.

"Yes, it is very important."

She smiled and led my hand towards the mouse.

"Then let's not give up. I will try again and again."

I looked at her face. Once again, the promise of that time comes to mind.

A promise to turn the scary things they will experience into an adventure.

A heavy responsibility to change the flow, atmosphere, and theme of this game.

It's impossible.

There's nothing I can do.

How can I change the world that was originally like this?

It was a law that adults had to give up and accept when things were impossible.

I mean, still.

It's possible to work in groups.

Even if it becomes meaningless.

I thought so.

I clicked and continued using the mouse.

Click click click click!

Keep pressing the random matching button without stopping.

The speed and intensity of the clicks increased.

I thought the mouse might get broken.

Everyone looked at me like a person who had a heartache because things didn't go right.

Like a child against a herd.

It's as if I was forcibly grabbing something that doesn't work and twisting it.

I was behaving unpredictably.

Then, a strange power enveloped the surroundings.

Uoong-

The items started to react.

Items that only vibrated a little now rattle and show off their power!

Ha-rim realized that his necklace also reacted.

Crackle... Uoong!

The necklace and the items emitted light at the same time.

Bright, too bright! Desks, doors, curtains shakes!

Everything shakes.

And the wind blew towards the computer!

"Woah?!"

"There's a lot of light coming out!"

"This is a classroom, where's the wind coming from?"

Unusual things are happening.

The light gets brighter and brighter.

As my vision was completely obscured by light, I felt a strange power within me.

...The light fades.

We looked at the monitor

4 screens were randomly matched.

In the first and second screens, a man in a prison uniform and a man in a special forces uniform were paired respectively.

On the third screen, it was us.

At the 4th, there was a monster with torn eyes and mouth like a smiley emoticon.

We succeded.

What made me smile in particular is the background of the first and second screens.

Even if they try hiding it, it doesn't look like a house background. A laboratory?

Is it an isolation room?

"What the hell is that girl?"

"Unexpected circumstances have occurred... Bzzz... I understand. Prisoner number twenty-one

. Stand by."

A man who receives a call from somewhere and orders to wait. The man in the prison uniform pointed somewhere and said.

"Fuck it if it's an unpredictable situation! I'm going to be like that bastard!"

"Shut up twenty-one."

It's the same outfit as "them" that I saw in the game.

It was so cliché that I couldn't believe it, but it's such a setting!

I obviously only wanted to communicate with the outside world.

It would have been great if I could have contacted them, but I didn't even try because it was such a slim possibility.

But I never thought this would be the result!

I opened my mouth to the confused people.

"Hello everyone!"⁴

I see my reflection in the screen.

Laughing evilly.

"I want to request a rescue, can you call the person in charge?"

They only show up at the very end.

They died without knowing why.

The mysterious machines they left behind.

What I need to do change all of that is this.

Invite them to this Wonderland.

Faster than the original!