[2019, May 26th | Sunday, 6:30 PM]
[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts - 2]
[Ghost Story Points: 581]
[Causality Rate: 32%]
"Prez. I agree."
"oi, me too."
Gyeongwon and Dukhun were thinking exactly the same thing as I Was.
"Everything Prez is doing right now, gathering us together. Perhaps it's something that has been repeated over and over again, repeating itself throughout the eras."
Repeating throughout the eras.
I pondered on those words.
"If we're talking about an era, then of Course
"February 25th, 1999."
Gyeongwon cut me off and answered
immediately.
"The video stored on the counter computer, the one where this ghost story was first recorded."
"Yeah. That one."
"At least at that point. Or even before then, it means the Hero already existed."
As I listened to his reasoning, I fell deep into thought.
'About that video, I had heard the results of the Detective's investigation just before I died in the previous timeline.'
The incident of a man's self-harm that
occurred in the study lounge at that time.
Of course, we knew for sure, having seen the video, that it was the manager of that time who was entangled with the ghost story and caused the incident.
However, the study lounge owner the
Detective met only remembered it as a simple self-harm incident.
And since there was no mention of any other incidents before that, that was likely the first act of the ghost story that had taken root here.
Which means, February 25th, 1999. That's probably when this ghost story was first born.
And that meant, at the very least, the Hero existed in this world at that point in time.
"The Hero..."
Not me, but the end of the century in 1999.
A Hero from 20 years ago.
"..February 25th, 1999. Gyeongwon, look up this date."
"I'll do it right away. The laptop, please."
Gyeongwon suddenly stood up and came forward.
I left my spot in front of the laptop.
"Let's see, 1999..... February 25th...."
He quickly turned on the internet and started searching for information. We scanned the sea of information that filled the entire screen.
"....."
"..."
Tap- tap-
The sound of frantic typing echoed through the quiet room.
After a moment, Gyeongwon lifted his head with a slightly bewildered expression.
"It's not a special day, Prez."
"..Nothing? Like some big news in South Korea. Something impactful, like a big incident."
"Hmm, as you can see..."
He showed a densely packed timeline.
"Nothing but celebrities' birthdays and things like that...."
It was true, the timelines he showed me contained absolutely nothing.
The Korean Consumer Protection Agency surveyed the participation rate in the Anabada movement....:"
"....."
"..."
I read the screen carefully.
Then I muttered to myself as I looked at the data he showed me.
"That can't be. There has to be something....."
While looking at the densely packed
timelines and search results projected
on the Screen.
I suddenly felt as if a lightning bolt struck my mind.
"...!! ".
February 25th.
My eyes widened in realization.
Jinhee, who saw my expression, narrowed her eyes and asked abruptly.
"What did you find out?"
"... Graduation ceremony."
I muttered blankly.
"...We will graduate on February 25th, 2022."
".. What?"
"Graduation ceremony?"
There was no way I could forget.
It was the goal of the struggle I've been fighting so far, and the point where our activities would come to an end.
February 25th, Graduation.
"....."
A moment of silence passed.
Dukhun rubbed his belly and said with an awkward expression.
"..Hey, maybe it's fate. I also graduated around that time when I was in middle school."
"I graduated in early February...."
"Oh, me too."
The club members vividly remembered their middle school graduations, which were only a few months ago.
Soon, Jinhee sarcastically chided.
"You idiots, all graduations are supposed to be around that date."
"Is-Is that so...."
For us, in our first semester of high school, the graduation ceremony wasn't that long ago. It was just a few months back.
It seemed everyone remembered vividly.
I nodded.
Come to think of it, I graduated around that time too.
And I was scheduled to graduate on that date three years from now as well.
".That's right. February is usually graduation season for schools. Gyeongwon, show me that date on the calendar."
"Wait a minute."
Gyeongwon immediately opened the calendar app.
"February 25th, 1999. It's Thursday."
"A weekday."
I rested my hand on the desk and stared at the date on the calendar.
It just so happened to be the date of my graduation, and also the day the Demon King would be resurrected.
February 25th, 2022.
And the date in the video.
February 25th, 1999.
Was it just a coincidence that the dates were the same?
Or....
Did it imply something?
'A repetitive cycle.'
"Prez. Look at this. It's our school's
history."
Gyeongwon, whose thoughts quickly jumped from the upcoming graduation ceremony to our school, pulled up the Nakseong High School homepage right away.
"Look."
[13th Graduation Ceremony of Nakseong High School, February 1999]
"There are even photos. Look here....."
On the school website, in the section where you could explore our school's history, there were photos from each year's graduation ceremony.
[School History - A Visual Journey]
[Nakseong High School 13th Graduation Ceremony (February 25th, 1999)]
"Indeed. You're right, Prez. There's a date written here. February 25th, 1999. This was the day Nakseong High"
Unlike the sleek, modern school uniforms, the school uniforms were filled with somewhat outdated, old-fashioned design.
"It's 20 years ago, after all."
"Yeah...".
An old-fashioned, plain navy blue uniform.
I had seen it many times.
'..In my dreams....'
I had seen it so many times.
A ruined city.
The Demon King towering above.
And the Status Window before my eyes.
[The Demon King proposes a truce.]
[Would you accept?]
The guy with the sporty haircut who tried to stop me back then.
His clothes were torn to shreds, but he was definitely wearing a uniform very similar to this one.
"Prez, should we investigate further—"
"No. This is enough."
I raised my hand to stop Gyeongwon, who was about to search for more information.
"That's enough. Let's stop here for now.
We'll continue the rest during Friday's CA session."
"..What? But, Prez-"
"If we're going to dig into this, it'll take a lot of time. And right now, we're facing a ghost story that needs to be dealt with immediately."
I shook my head at Gyeongwon, who seemed deflated that he couldn't dig into it right away.
There would be plenty of time to dig into this after today's ghost story and tomorrow's competition were over.
If I started thinking about this, there was really no end to it.
Besides, time had already raced toward the evening.
If I remember correctly, the people at the boarding house would soon be heading out for dinner and drinks.
If that were to happen, things would get delayed again and time would slip away.
And I no longer intended to postpone it any longer.
Procrastinating is painful.
And the ones who suffer the most are the ones who procrastinate.
We had a set task to complete right now, and it was cancelling that drinking gathering.
"Thank you for your hard work. Go back to your seat."
I sent the reluctant Gyeongwon back to his seat.
Then I took my spot in front of the laptop again and stood before the others.
"This Friday during the CA session,
Gyeongwon will organize this part well and present it. Even then, it won't be late."
"...Right....."
"Got it...."
The members reluctantly nodded.
I coldly stopped them from thinking further.
They didn't understand because they hadn't experienced it.
The moment you slip up even once, you'll plummet straight into the abyss, that was the danger of this ghost story.
I sped up the work to prevent the ghost story from gnawing into our minds.
"First, we have to survive the ghost story right in front of us. Only then can we uncover the Hero's secret. Right? Got it?"
"Huuu.."
Jinhee wore a sulky expression. I chuckled softly.
I was grateful to Jinhee for many things.
"Okay. Since the conversation has strayed a bit. I'll finish the boarding house ghost story we were discussing earlier."
I grabbed the laptop again and turned on the PPT.
The club members looked disappointed, their interest waning a little by now.
I smiled like a teacher who's been talking about their first love and need to get back to the lesson, then went on to explain the rest.
"Even if you're not interested, listen. We were the ones who suffered through the night because of this. Now, the news."
[No money, sick, and can't study' Suicidal impulses spreading through boarding house areas.]
[Editorial] Society bears a large responsibility for the string of suicides among civil service exam takers]
["Im sorry, Mom".. The string of deaths of civil service exam takers who couldn't endure it]
"....."
It was all gloomy and sad news.
The members looked at the screen with grim expressions, letting out quiet sighs as they straightened up again.
"I'll read through and explain, so listen up. Remember the graph I showed you earlier about the percentage of long-term exam takers?"
"Yes"
"just like that, there are almost no people in Noryangjin who study once and pass the exam in one go. The nationwide average announced in the news is 2.6 attempts. Considering that those who take the civil service exam more than three times are called long-term exam takers, the gap
between the average anda long-term exam taker is incredibly small. This can't be seen as a normal ratio."
"....."
"There are many reasons for this, but since the number of successful candidates is fixed, the competition rate continues to increase. As of 2020, the civil service exam pass rate is 2.4%, meaning that over 97% of those who take the exam fail."
That's a staggering number.
Unless you give up early, you're destined to become a long-term candidate.
"So why are so many people flocking to the civil service exam? There are various social reasons for that too, of course, but since it's not directly related to solving the ghost story, we'll skip over it for now. The important thing is that this overwhelmingly high proportion of long-term candidates leads to all sorts of bizarre phenomena here in Noryangjin."
Young people in their twenties, melting away their youth preparing for the exam.
However, due to the abnormal structure that inevitably led to 97% failure, everyone naturally ended up being long-term candidates, and within that, various bizarre phenomena became rampant.
Some who came to study get busy making rice cakes, wandering through their own animal kingdom; others blow their tuition money on gambling, or get so addicted to games they practically live in internet cafés.
'Theft is rampant, and countless people become so utterly reclusive they don't even set foot outside.'
And this place, where all those indulgent acts were possible within a single building.
[Noryangjin Tower of Despair]
Someone once said, if you want to run an entertainment business, go to a boarding house area; and if you want to run a gaming business, go to an academy district.
Thus, the tangled web of Noryangjin's
strange phenomena was reborn under a single ghost story 20 years ago, tied together by the power of the Demon King.
And that ghost story, like a trap, lured young people into this place, trapping them inside.
"That's the ghost story we're all caught up in. The one I named Repeat Exam Taker Ghost Story'."
In other words, the long-term exam taker ghost story.
The ghost story that was floating around in Noryangjin.
Those pathetic people who came here to study but have more fun than actual working adults.
Deep within its walls, they exist in Swarms, especially those who have failed their exams six, seven, even eight times completely fail to come to their senses and continue to scrape by in those tiny study rooms.
"We'll destroy them. Tonight."
I clenched my fist.
The exam takers who can't pull themselves together, who only think about getting drunk and going to pound rice cakes, we'll smash them tonight."
First, we would start by stopping those
guys' drinking plans.
If they went out tonight, they wouldn't come back until dawn, and then everything would be delayed again.
If we wanted to round them up in one sweep, we first and foremost had to keep them trapped inside, so we needed to block that first.
"Listen carefully. What you guys need to do is....."
**
Knock knock.
"...."
Siyoung, who was just about to start studying, frowned at the knocking coming from the wall.
'Ah, shit. I was just about to Concentrate. The heck.'
Gong Siyoung, a long-term civil service exam taker, who'd been preparing for the 9th-grade civil service exam for five years.
She took off her strong prescription glasses and glared sharply at the wall.
She'd already been in a bad mood all day after she'd tried to hook up with a decent guy at the bowling alley during lunch today, only to hear he had a girlfriend.
So she spent the entire lunchtime bowling alone, then went to a café in the afternoon, and then watched Netflix to her heart's content in the evening.
She had already made plans to go drinking at night with her study group from the boarding house, but feeling like she wasn't studying enough, she Squeezed in some time to crack open her basic textbooks.
That's why she couldn't help but feel annoyed at whoever was interrupting this precious time.
Knock. Knock.
"....."
The knocking sounded again.
Siyoung frowned deeply.
'Whose room was that again?'
The knocking wasn't coming from the next room, but the one behind.
That is, the room directly across the hallway, sharing the same wall.
'Whose room was it again?'
After a moment's thought, Siyoung realized that the room was number 8.
'Wait. If it's room number 8 then....'
Her expression changed drastically.
Room number 8 was the boy who had rejected her in front of the bowling alley during the day.
It was the room where he was staying.
'...What the heck. Is this how you make
a move?..."
Siyoung immediately relaxed her expression.
She grinned and looked at the opposite wall.
And sure enough, the knocking sound came again.
Knock knock.
' I can't help it, damn it.'
The boy in room 8, maybe thinking about it later, was disappointed too.
Siyoung immediately chuckled softly hehe, narrowing her eyes.
'Yeah, everyone who sneaks in here is like that.'
Her eyes gleamed seductively.
'When we meet, I'll tease you.'
Poking you here and there.
I'll make you lose your mind.
I'll make you squirm, desperate for more pokes.
Because you humiliated me when you rejected me earlier today.
Siyoung, who had been quietly drowning in her naughty thoughts in the room, got up from the chair and climbed onto the bed.
Then, after seductively running her fingers along the wall, she responded in return.
Knock knock~♡
Then, the knock on the door rang
again.
Knock knock.
'Hoho, really.'
Knock knock~ ♡
Knock knock.
Knock knock~ ♡
Knock knock.
She had already enjoyed all the mature life of the boarding house, but the interaction across the wall somehow felt different and more intimate.
Knock knock~ ♡
Knock knock.
Knock knock~ ♡
Knock knock.
"Hoho, hohoho, hohoho.'
Siyoung caressed the wall with a flirtatious laugh.
Soon, she looked toward the other side of the wall and grinned slyly.
' i'll make you happy however you want.'
An express train of pleasure heading straight into a gutter life.
'A crazy trap that leads to heaven, from which no man can escape no matter how hard he struggles. I'll invite you to that flesh-colored abyss.'
Entangled, twisted up, completely out of your mind.
So drained and dazed that you forget why you even came here in the first place, what you came here to do, all gone from your mind.
'I'll have you pinned beneath me like that, trapped forever.'
Heh heh,heh heh heh heh-
With that thought, she knocked once more, an enticing aura accompanying the sound.
Knock knock~ ♡
Knock knock knock knock knock knock
knock knock knock knock knock knock
knock knock knock knock knock knock
knock knock knock knock knock knock
Siyoung flinched and stepped back.