It Seems I Must Go to Work Even After Falling into a Horror Story 081

Tattoo stickers.

It was provided to me as a service concept from [Moonlight Tattoo Shop].

– Is there a symbol related to courage or boldness without fear within this?

In response to that question, the tattooist recommended a tattoo design of a tomato tree for me…

And they encapsulated it perfectly into a sticker.

This tattoo that I now have stuck on my neck.

“……”

Honestly, it somewhat had the expected effect.

It felt as if the center for fear was paralyzed, making supernatural phenomena no longer terrifying.

Just like Group D… right.

…Just like the previous Assistant Manager Eun Ha-je and Chief Park Min-seong.

I wanted to boldly and fearlessly explore these horrifying supernatural occurrences, as if my daring had grown immensely.

However.

“……?”

I blinked inside the locker.

‘It feels… like it’s not working at all?’

I recalled the students chasing after me.

Terribly scary.

I thought of the crazy rabbit mascot I encountered in the theme park horror story.

Chills ran down my spine.

I recalled the ghost that knocked on the door, pretending to cry in the ghost story.

‘…Scary!!’

Anything I thought of sent shivers down my spine.

‘D-don’t tell me it’s a scam?’

Or did I stick the sticker on wrong? I actually hadn’t used a tattoo sticker before, so I wouldn’t know.

But either way, I was in a situation where I couldn’t confirm it right now.

“……”

Damn it.

Anyway, I had to move according to plan.

Now that the ‘teacher’ had disappeared on the 4th floor, this was my chance.

‘They must’ve gone down.’

Eventually, I swallowed and stepped out of the locker.

…Of course, it would likely be a gruesome sight ahead.

Blood and pieces from the Chief of Group D, who had just died, would be scattered everywhere, so I steeled myself and went out…

…

“…?”

‘Tomato?’

Wait a minute.

I hurriedly exited the teacher’s office and went up to the 5th floor.

There it was….

My reason for avoiding the 5th floor was laid bare.

Ahhhh!

The walls of the 5th floor were plastered with pages from old graduation albums.

And the students in the pictures had expressions of agony as they reached out towards the outside.

Ahhhh!

Beyond the torn-up scraps of the graduation album, I saw writhing masses of flesh.

An overwhelming psychological burden and panic factor for anyone stepping onto the 5th floor.

In fact, it looked less like a school and more like a grotesquely twisted underworld revealed in all its glory.

A crimson light pulsed where there should’ve been lights.

But…

It was tomatoes.

Ha.

Hahaha!

‘No, this is insane!’

Where there should be human heads, there were only tomatoes hanging around!

No, it didn’t particularly look non-human either.

The figures in the graduation album photos? They all looked like people. Their faces twisted in screams of pain!

Yet somehow, they simply felt like tomatoes.

The voice of rationality declaring there was no need to connect that with fear became an entire emotion within me.

Yes, just that kind of feeling…

It’s nothing.

‘Hahaha…’

The further I walked down the hallway, the more the graduation albums regressed in time, and the graduates melted into more horrifying, inhuman shapes, solidifying against the walls.

Strange charms and masses of flesh pulsed against the walls and ceiling.

And there was a voice.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I tore the amulet dug up from the schoolyard, I’m sorry, I’m a student of * school preparing for graduation, I’m sorry… No, no! Graduation is not a ritual, it’s not a sacrificial offering, no! Please save me, please!

It’s a game world plot hook.

It won’t change anything for me, even now that I’m hearing it.

I walked through that corridor with the same casualness as if I were taking a stroll down the street, or perhaps even a slightly more cheerful mood.

Everything was tomatoes, so it was a bit funny.

And at the end of the hallway, I stopped in front of a huge door on my right.

A neat, teal iron door.

This door, which stood firmly in that bizarre, twisted 5th floor, was…

The entrance to the auditorium.

The place where the final chapter of this game unfolds.

<During the Graduation Ceremony>

Graduates, please knock and enter.

I read the explanation printed on an A4 sheet.

Am I not considered a graduate since I’m set as a first-year student in Class 5?

‘This is the sort of gimmick that opens with an item.’

And I already have it.

An item I should have only obtained after playing through the entire game, right at the end.

Of course.

Knock knock.

I attached the name tag to my chest and knocked on the auditorium door.

Immediately, the massive door in front of me opened smoothly.

“……”

Hundreds of 3rd-year students seated in hundreds of chairs turned to look at me.

The graduates of this year.

They were half-melted into their chairs, unable to leave their spots, and black ink-like tears were pouring from their empty eye sockets.

But….

No feeling of sadness arose beyond that.

In fact, in this situation, it would be correct to feel only sadness.

‘They can’t harm me.’

The irrational fear was replaced with tomatoes, and I walked along the path between the chairs.

Toward the massive stage adorned with a banner for the graduation ceremony.

Plod plod.

The graduates turned to look at me expressionlessly as I walked…

I climbed onto the auditorium stage.

And with the standing microphone placed squarely in the center, I shouted.

“I will begin the graduation ceremony.”

[Cling- Dong- Dang- Dong]

As if waiting for my declaration, bright and grand background music for the ceremony began to play.

At that moment.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

A scream swept through the auditorium.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Like a shell being peeled away, the once whole appearance of the auditorium was stripped away to reveal a grotesque, malformed sight.

The horrifying scenes I had seen from the 5th floor hallway emerged.

It felt like it was a last-ditch effort, as they poured in images wanting to punish those who sought to ruin things.

But I was unfazed.

It’s all tomatoes.

And an even greater danger was about to arrive.

‘It’s coming.’

To pull down the student who had unilaterally started the graduation ceremony, back into his seat.

Patter patterPatter patterPatter patterPatter patter patter patter patterPatter patter

The sound of footsteps coming from below, climbing up madly.

‘The teacher is coming.’

It’s fine.

‘I’ll make sure to do everything I need to before they arrive.’

I pulled out a stick-type auto-injector from my pocket and stuck it into my arm.

Happy Maker.

The powerful single-use painkiller made a cute and artificial sound effect as the luminescent liquid within the capsule flowed into my veins.

Comfortable, refreshing, and infinitely light energy coursed through my entire body.

Like a lie.

‘Good.’

At the same time, I popped two Nostalgia candies into my mouth.

You shouldn’t take more than three Nostalgia at once!

I might end up drowning in nostalgia so deep!

Yeah, follow that dosage too.

Now I’m in a perfectly comfortable and flawless state.

‘Phew.’

Now, it’s about time.

Thud

Something pushed through the crack of the auditorium door.

The ‘teacher’ was inserting a distorted hand stuck to the blackboard into the door, tearing the metal itself apart.

Crack!

The door crumpled as it fell away.

And what emerged was…

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

A gigantic human silhouette.

But it was only a silhouette.

It looked as if various teachers had been crumpled up, mashed together, and forced back into the mold of a human.

A flesh monster with arms where its head should be, a head where its shoulders should be, and shoulders where its knees should be, making eerie sounds as it stepped into the auditorium…

Patter patterPatter patterPatter

Blackboards, textbooks, student rosters, chalk, glasses were all stuck haphazardly to its various parts, shaking around.

As I stood on the opposite stage, staring at such a grotesque sight, I couldn’t help but feel…

“……”

Only my competitive spirit bubbled up.

I had to break through that to return home, and to fill up my collection…

‘Right.’

This situation calls for persistence, not fear!

The tattoo on my neck warmed up, igniting a blaze through my stomach, heart, and mind.

‘Ah.’

Now I understand.

The effect of this tattoo sticker is….

‘Excitement.’

Overflowing adrenaline.

When I have something I want to do, when I have a goal, it makes me want to charge forward, flipping upside down with excitement!

And that sensation it provides, allowing me to feel everything as tomatoes!

‘I can do this.’

I confidently grabbed the stage microphone and glared ahead.