Breakdown V
After that, the operation to exterminate the 'School Ghost Stories' proceeded smoothly.
Cheon Yo-hwa and I continued to patrol the school. Whenever we found survivors, we immediately transferred them to the 'safe zone.'
The survivors shed tears of gratitude.
"The ghosts... aren't coming out?"
"We can use the bathroom freely!"
"Thank you, guard oppa!"
"Oh, but there are corpses... Well, we've seen plenty of corpses by now, so it doesn't matter."
"Shit, these cup noodles taste fucking amazing..."
Since the first to third floors were largely declared 'safe zones,' there was plenty of space for the students to stay.
The main concern was providing food and maintaining hygiene for hundreds of survivors... As for hygiene, I had plenty of supplies packed in my trunk, so that was covered.
The real problem was food.
Although my trunk, obtained in the 115th cycle, boasted a capacity comparable to a subspace, it was only as large as an ordinary library. It wasn't the romantic, mansion-sized library often seen in fantasy novels.
Fortunately, Korea had experience overcoming food shortages, having once been one of the poorest countries in the world (though this applied to only 50% of the country). Therefore, we were quite adept at quickly resolving food crises.
"We'll use the cafeteria."
"Ugh."
Cheon Yo-hwa was horrified. She had a natural talent for expressing words like 'dislike' and 'contempt' with just her facial muscles.
"You mean the cafeteria on the first floor? That's... I've only been there once, but there are so many ghosts."
"Of course, there are many. Didn’t you know? Ghosts always gather the most in bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens."
"No, I didn't know..."
The dominant anomaly haunting the cafeteria at Baekhwa Girls' High was the 'Human Flesh Restaurant.'
1. The cafeteria served meals daily.
2. However, the meat used in the meals was actually mixed with human flesh.
3. Those who ate the human flesh became rapidly addicted and started craving more, eventually turning into cannibals who could only consume human flesh. If they didn't eat human flesh for even a few days, they went insane.
Anomalies related to human flesh often appeared in the void.
Especially in voids where 'massacres' had occurred, these anomalies were highly likely to appear. It was no exception in the 'School Ghost Stories,' where hundreds had already been slaughtered.
The void was a harsher environment than the South Pole. When faced with the dilemma of "Will you starve to death tomorrow, or go insane after one to three months?" even the most seasoned awakeners would weep and resort to cannibalism.
However... the 'School Ghost Stories' were a bit different.
"Student, the school's meals weren't that great, were they?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Dinner was alright, but breakfast and lunch were really bad. It made living in the dorms hard."
"Then what are you worried about? The meals are all served separately on stainless steel trays, right? Even the serving dishes are all separate."
"What?"
"If you only eat the side dishes that are clearly vegetables, you're safe. From now on, breakfast and lunch will be the main meals for the students."
If eating human flesh makes you go insane, then just eat everything else but the human flesh, right?
In most voids, it was hard to circumvent the 'Human Flesh Restaurant' anomaly with such tricks.
Korea was notoriously tough on vegans. The void restaurants in Korea specialized in dishes like spicy pork stir-fry, hot pot, and pork cutlets, targeting animal protein lovers.
Unless there were dishes like aglio e olio, which didn’t include meat, or hamburgers where the patties could be easily removed, it was quite difficult to separate meat from the menus of most void restaurants.
However, 'schools' and 'military' were different.
These two institutions, unlike other regions, respected life so much that they were genuinely considerate of vegans.
In my view, the 'Human Flesh Restaurant' anomaly in Baekhwa Girls' High was merely a convenient nutrient source.
"You could use anomalies this way..."
Cheon Yo-hwa was astonished as she received meals from the shadowy cafeteria ghosts.
"If you shed your prejudices, you'll find that many anomalies can be quite useful."
"Ugh, is that so... Oh. Stir-fried anchovies taste good. It’s so good it’s scary! Guard ahjussi, are you sure this is okay?"
I glanced at Cheon Yo-hwa’s profile. The student council president was staring at her meal tray with a complex expression.
Suddenly, I recalled our first meeting, specifically the conversation we had at the school gate in the 5th cycle when I recruited Cheon Yo-hwa.
-Cheon Yo-hwa’s abilities are very powerful. Whether it’s turning dead bodies into zombies or living people into zombies, I’m not sure.
-...Bodies?
Back then, Cheon Yo-hwa couldn’t properly recognize the word 'bodies.' Probably the same for 'human flesh.'
Brainwashing for survival.
If you think about what the 17 survivors had to eat to stay alive for four years, it’s a simple issue.
In reality, the Baekhwa Girls' High guild members were all addicted to human flesh, going mad if they didn't consume it at least once every four days.
"...My idea isn't that great. If more time had passed, the students would have reached the same conclusion."
"Ugh. Us?"
"Of course. And this solution isn’t permanent. Eat as much as you can while you can. I’ll also keep as much long-lasting food as possible."
"...?"
My prediction was spot on.
A week later, the menu in the school cafeteria began to change slightly.
"Huh? Ahjussi. Doesn't it seem like there are more meat dishes?"
"Hmm."
Anomalies lived and moved.
In terms of life's pace, anomalies were much more urgent and desperate than humans.
While humans took thousands or tens of thousands of years to slowly evolve, filtering out mutations in the web of time, anomalies could mutate as a species in just a single day.
As a result.
"Oh no. Two-thirds of the dishes are meat..."
The side dishes on Cheon Yo-hwa's stainless steel tray were exceedingly luxurious.
Chicken drumsticks, beef soup, meatballs, boiled pork. The only non-meat dishes were vegetable curry, white rice, and salad.
In the past, such a meal could have been posted online with the title [The level of high school meals these days, real or fake?] garnering praise and jealousy from the older generation.
"Throw away everything except the vegetable curry, rice, and salad."
"Yes... Sniff, what a waste!"
Cheon Yo-hwa looked teary-eyed as she threw away the side dishes into the waste bin.
"Yesterday, someone couldn’t resist the cheese pork cutlet and took a bite. I scolded them harshly, but I understood their feelings..."
"One bite might be fine. But if you keep eating two, three bites, it’s over. At least we have curry for now. Soon, there'll be nothing but plain rice."
"Ugh. The nutrition is terrible. It’d be great if we had protein supplements..."
It was clear that the food situation would deteriorate quickly.
But we hadn't been idle during this time.
We increased patrols and searched the entire void, resulting in the rescue of over 150 survivors.
The 'School Ghost Stories' were almost exterminated. The school building, which had oddly expanded to 13 floors, returned to its original four-story structure. The playground and dormitory were also restored.
...But over 500 corpses were found as well.
Compared to the future of previous cycles where only 17 survived, the route of the 117th cycle was significantly better.
Thanks to accurately identifying the victims' locations, future cycles fared even better.
But let’s focus on the story of the 117th cycle for now.
"Ahjussi, is the funeral over?"
In the playground, wooden desks and chairs were piled up and burning like a campfire. The wood wasn’t the best for a bonfire, so the smoke was thick. But the flames were well-controlled, rising straight into the sky.
It was a decent rope to guide the souls to heaven.
"Yes, it just ended."
"Hehe. Did many of our kids cry again?"
"Crying is good. Just like laughter knows no borders, tears have no nationality."
Cheon Yo-hwa stood next to me with her hands behind her back. The sky over Baekhwa Girls' High School, tainted by the void, was always blood-red.
The red spider lilies surrounding the school buildings were equally red. The only things that escaped the redness were the white birch trees, which formed white iron bars imprisoning the school.
No matter how many anomalies we exterminated, the spider lilies and birch trees never disappeared.
"Yeah. Holding a funeral seems to have eased their minds. You even collected all the ashes. These days, I see kids wearing necklaces with their best friends' ashes inside."
"To give to their families when they meet them?"
"Yes. Even if they can’t deliver them, the talisman still has meaning."
"It must be hard for kids your age to care about the dead's feelings. You’re commendable."
"Ha ha... Oh, here, take this!"
Cheon Yo-hwa handed me a rice ball. It was white rice with stir-fried anchovies wrapped in seaweed.
The number of 'non-meat side dishes' had drastically decreased. So, some students had formed a cooking team to recreate meals from the cafeteria.
"Thank you."
Of course, this was still a grand feast for me.
By tomorrow, even the stir-fried anchovies would be gone. The day after, the rice would turn into Bolognese pasta.
While we had stored food with relatively long shelf lives, there was a clear limit. At most, it would last four days.
The hourglass of the 'School Ghost Stories' was rapidly building a pyramid in the desert.
Cheon Yo-hwa looked up at the blood-red sky.
"Ahjussi, when can we finally get out of this hell...?"
"Tomorrow."
Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes turned towards me.
"Tell the other students to wait near the school gate, ready to escape at any moment. Yo-hwa, come with me."
"......"
"By tomorrow, we’ll cut out the heart of this void."
We searched every corner of the school: dormitory, academic building, old building, playground, auditorium.
Naturally, we slaughtered all the anomalies.
The total number of anomalies exterminated by me and some students was 99. Exactly 99.
It was a near-miraculous achievement, but the blood-red sky of the 'School Ghost Stories' still remained. This meant there were still anomalies hiding somewhere.
And I had a good idea of where this secret hideout was.
"It's underground."
Cheon Yo-hwa blinked.
"Underground? There isn’t really a basement in our school... There are some semi-basements used as small storage rooms, but that's it."
Indeed, there were no stairs leading from the first floor to the basement in any building.
Yes, stairs.
As you all might have guessed by now, the premier means of transportation in the void wasn’t stairs.
"Yo-hwa, we're going to take the elevator."
"Elevator? Where is there an... Oh. No way?"
It was the ‘no way.’
Cheon Yo-hwa and I packed supplies and moved to the old building. Although it was called the old building, it was still used as a club building and wasn’t that old.
There was a service elevator installed in the old building.
Dumbwaiter, lift. There were many names for it, but students just called it the service elevator.
It wasn’t built for people, but it was still a good 'elevator,' wasn’t it?
"Okay, you go in first."
"No. I always thought about what it would be like to go in there whenever I saw it... Ah! Ahjussi, no! It’s too small! It's so small! Really small... Oh? Surprisingly spacious..."
"In the void, physical space means little."
Thud, clunk.
After squeezing into the elevator and turning on the flashlight, I saw something surprising: elevator buttons.
[B001] [B005] [B009] [B013]
[B002] [B006] [B010] [B014]
[B003] [B007] [B011] [B015]
[B004] [B008] [B012] [B016]
Twitch—
One wall of the elevator was covered in buttons.
As the flashlight shone on it, Cheon Yo-hwa wriggled behind me.
"B-Basement level 16? Are there 16 floors underground that we haven't explored? No way! That’s impossible! Ahjussi, this can’t be done in a day or two..."
"Ah, don’t worry. In such cases, it’s the form, not the numbers, that matter."
"Yes?"
"Look at the buttons. There are four rows vertically and four columns horizontally. This is just a way to represent the number 4."
"Oh..."
"Press one. Anywhere is fine."
"O-Okay. I'll try."
Cheon Yo-hwa extended her finger and pressed the button for the 12th floor.
Clunk! The elevator jolted. Cheon Yo-hwa let out a small scream and grabbed my shoulder. Clunk, clunk...
At that moment, the elevator buttons blinked red.
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
[死444] [死444] [死444] [死444]
The red light from the buttons filled the entire elevator with a bloody hue.
"......"
Cheon Yo-hwa swallowed hard.
Though it was just regular LED lights, the red light seemed to ooze like a viscous liquid. The red light from the buttons seeped down and stuck to both of us.
Clunk!
The elevator rattled like an old ship docking at a pier.
Then, the door slowly descended, revealing not the false fourth floor above ground, but the 'fourth basement floor,' the true meaning of the 'underworld' in the school ghost stories.
"Come out slowly. And every time I take a step, make sure to take a step. Don't take more or fewer steps."
"O-Okay. This place is..."
Cheon Yo-hwa cautiously stepped out of the elevator, looking around.
There was no need for long observation.
"A hospital...?"
Because every scene was identical and endlessly repeating.
The white hospital corridors and ceilings. There were no patients or doctors, and the hospital beds, eerily clean, lined the corridor. Every bed had a clear IV line hanging like a suspension bridge. The corridor was infinite.
――I had seen this exact scene before, albeit briefly, in the 89th cycle.
‘Infinite Void.’
Yes.
The 89th cycle was when I witnessed the Infinite Void.
The prison, school, hospital, swimming pool, movie theater—scenes from the screen chaotically intermingling and overlapping. No, a scene of madness.
‘...So this is the main base.’
The main body of the Apostle of the Infinite Void.
It had nested in the fourth basement floor of Baekhwa Girls' High School, in the Infernal Hell.
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