Chapter 14

"Wow, this is like a living hell."

Mutants that could only inspire fear in humans were clustered together in a tangled mess. As they approached the three with their grotesque gaits, Aila lowered her body and growled.

"Han Tae-un ssi, you're not a complete stranger to combat situations, right?"

"Yes."

"This isn't a situation for tactics or anything, so feel free to attack as much as you want. It won't matter much if you accidentally hit me, Ayoung, or if I hit Han Tae-un ssi."

After finishing his words, Soram stomped on the hallway floor. He smoothly and swiftly closed in on the mutants, like a boat gliding across the water. Following behind him, Aila carried Ayoung on its back and dashed forward on all fours.

―Kakkakakakakkaka!!!!!

Leading the mutants was a Western doll holding a knife in one hand. Soram swung his inwardly folded blade outward with all his might. The doll, slashed across its torso by the sword, vanished into black smoke.

The sword rotated flexibly in Soram's hand. With that momentum, he sliced through both the ghost with a bright red mouth open down to its collarbone and the legless ghost behind it. If not for the mutants' horrifying appearances, it would have been as serene as pushing through tree branches.

At that moment, a ghost lying flat on the floor suddenly lunged at Soram. Soram swiftly spun his body.

"...Ah."

Two swords were thrust into the floor ghost. Soram's sword, which had quickly turned around, and Tae-un's sword, who had somehow approached right behind him. Their gazes met through the scattering black smoke.

"...I appreciate it, but you don't need to help."

"What are you two doing? Let's finish them off quickly and go up!"

Ayoung seemed to have adapted now, urging Aila forward ahead of Soram. In one hand, Ayoung held an adjustable restraint baton. When Ayoung extended the baton to attack distant targets, Aila bit and destroyed the mutants that came close.

"Oppa, aren't there too many of them?"

"I know, right? Did the kids gather on a rainy day and only tell scary stories?"

The mutants in a 4th-grade dungeon instantly vanished like smoke when attacked by a 1st-grade hunter, so the battle itself wasn't fierce. However, no matter how many they cut down, new mutants with different appearances kept appearing in their place, making it difficult for the three to advance.

If they were outside, more unrestricted attacks would have been possible. However, to avoid accidentally hitting the walls and windows with the tips of their swords, there were inevitable limitations to their attacks. If the three 1st-grade hunters went all out without restraint, they could even break through to the rooftop right away, but the building wouldn't be able to withstand it.

At that moment, Tae-un stretched out his hand and stepped in front of Aila.

"Jin Soram ssi."

"Yes?"

"Please step aside."

Tae-un spoke softly. And then.

Bam!!!

The cleaning supply box, kicked away, parted the hallway like the miracle of Moses and crushed the mutants into nothingness. The cleaning supply box, which flew out smoothly like a hockey puck gliding on ice, only stopped after crashing into the opposite wall with a bang! At that instant, cracks spread across the hallway wall, and a broom, now homeless from the shattered supply box, fell pitifully.

In an instant, dozens of mutants disappeared, and black smoke swirled like exploding fireworks. If hit by that cleaning supply box, even a 1st-grade hunter would have needed a cast at the very least. Soram, who had hurriedly stepped aside, clutched his heart and blinked.

"Hey, can't you give a more intense warning?!"

It's not like he's the son who used to say, 'Daddy, the stone is rolling away,' and if he speaks softly without any change in his voice tone, who would know it's an urgent situation?

"Didn't you hear me?"

"No, I heard you, but...! ...Phew, let's go for now."

Following the path created by the cleaning supply box in the middle of the mutants, the three ran forward vigorously, destroying the surrounding mutants.

As they dealt with the mutants rushing in from the right, left, and rear, the lead position changed periodically. Aila, who had been biting and tearing mutants, stepped back, and now it was Han Tae-un's turn.

Kwang!

"..."

Kwaang!!

"..."

...Was Han Tae-un always this strong?

He was holding the standard-issue sword in one hand but rarely used it. Instead, with his other hand, he grabbed the face of a zombie-type mutant. With a crunching sound, the zombie's skull was distorted.

Guhhhh... The zombie, making a distressed sound, was thrown onto the other mutants. Boom! When the mutant he threw crashed, it sounded like a huge rock falling, likely due to some ability he used. Along with it, about six or seven surrounding mutants were eliminated at once.

"Soram oppa."

"Uh... what?"

"Don't mess with Tae-un oppa. You'll be in big trouble if he hits you."

"...Thanks for the advice."

He was already recalling Tae-un's sigh from the helicopter earlier and feeling a tingling sensation in his arms and legs for no reason.

This time, Ayoung, who took the lead, eliminated a ghost-shaped mutant with its mouth torn up to its cheeks, shedding bloody tears. The restraint baton stabbed deep into the mutant's gaping mouth. As a hunter, she knew she had to deal with it as calmly as possible, but she couldn't help but let out an "Ahhh..." groan.

"We're almost there, almost there. Look, I can see the stairs. Just endure a little more."

"Haaahhhh, this is the 3rd floor, and there's still one more floor left."

"Doesn't it get better as you keep going? It's kind of funny with all the ghosts from the whole neighborhood mixed together."

"Not at all. That's why it's even scarier!"

The mutants that invaded this place imitated what students, around Ayoung's age, found terrifying. As such, the fear felt by Soram and Tae-un was quite different from what Ayoung experienced. If the headquarters had known that the dispatch location was a mimicry dungeon, they wouldn't have brought Ayoung along.

Still, a 4th-grade dungeon couldn't defeat three 1st-grade hunters. As Tae-un destroyed the last mutant in the hallway―a typical grim reaper with a blue face―the eerie noises from the hallway also ceased.

The three arrived at the end of the 3rd-floor hallway, at the stairs leading up to the 4th floor.

"Ah, it's a bit brighter up there at least."

As they climbed the stairs, the atmosphere gradually changed from the lower floors. Compared to the lower floors that resembled a scene from a horror movie, the upper floor hallway was noticeably brighter. Even so, there was still a slight hazy mist. Also, instead of grotesque sounds, there were noises that sounded like actual human conversations. Classroom sounds, conversation sounds, etc. Since all the school personnel had been evacuated, these sounds must have been made by the mutants as well.

"Something is coming."

A curtain-like object approached the three people who had reached the upper floor hallway. Upon closer look, it was a cloth with dozens of circles the size of kidney beans drawn on it. The transparent veil passed through Soram with a swoosh.

"...An OMR card?"

Even though he had dropped out of school, he still remembered this much. The mutant mimicking an OMR card passed through Tae-un and finally through Ayoung.

"Ahhh! Crazy!"

"Why?"

"Oppa, didn't you see? That, that..."

Ayoung pointed at the OMR card with a pale, disgusted face.

"Number 3 isn't marked, and the answer markings go up to number 46!"

"..."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Oppa... The Korean SAT only goes up to number 45..."

In other words, it meant that the test-taker had shifted all the answers from number 3 to 45. Soram, who had dropped out before taking the SAT, couldn't quite empathize, but even Tae-un slightly frowned.

"Ah, damn, it's a wrong mark."

Among them, Ayoung, a high school senior at the age most sensitive to test scores, made a disgusted face and shuddered.

"Now I'm certain this is a mimicry dungeon that has engulfed a high school."

It was filled with content that would be this terrifying to high school students.

The mismarked OMR card that returned was the first to be sliced by Tae-un's sword. Fortunately, the 4th floor didn't have scenes that evoked extreme fear like the lower floors.

"Then, shall we push forward the same way as before?"

"Yes. We just need to keep going until we reach the rift's point of origin, but... Han Tae-un ssi, wait, hold on a moment!"

Soram stopped Tae-un, who was about to pull out another cleaning supply box.

"That! It's effective, but I noticed the wall cracked a bit earlier. If we destroy too many surrounding objects, we might have to write an incident report. If we're unlucky."

Judging by Han Tae-un's enthusiasm, it seemed like he would really break through the wall this time. Even though Soram didn't care about anything in the world, he wanted to keep the destruction of the learning environment to a minimum.

"...Ah. I apologize."

Tae-un put down the cleaning supply box he was about to kick. His back, as he realigned it, wobbled awkwardly.

"It's not as tightly blocked here as before, so let's push forward one by one. Ayoung, be careful just in case. In principle, the closer we get to the center of the rift, the stronger the mutants become."

"Okay. It's fine. This floor is annoying, but it's not scary."

Soram spun his sword to steady his posture and stomped his foot. He intended to resolve the upper floors a bit faster to make up for the time they had lost on the lower floor due to the ghost horde.

"Oh, look, a report card is flying over there."

"Even I don't like that."

Soram clicked his tongue. The second fear of the people who had been in this space that became the dungeon's domain was academics.

A densely written test paper with red slashes all over its body approached, swaying. Its form was somewhat ridiculous, but it had more vitality than the lower floor mutants that crumbled as soon as a sword touched them. Moreover, when attacked from a distance, it nimbly dodged the sword's trajectory using its thin body, so they had to get much closer to attack it.

"Well, at this age, what ghost story would be scarier than the pressure of grades? If a ghost said it would help them study well, they would all follow it, geez!"

Ayoung also vigorously moved her body and tore up the SAT score report marked with grades of 1, 1, 7, 1, 2. Whoever it belonged to must have cried a lot at home.