STRGS 10

Chapter 10

Mangryang Tunnel No. 2 (5)

Clang-clang-clang-clang!!

Honk!!

The bus ran almost like a runaway train. Because it was tearing through a tunnel that was not very wide, the side of the bus scraped against the tunnel, sparking flames, and every time that happened, the vehicle warning alarm shrieked noisily.

“Eek!”

A woman hanging onto the handle in front of her seat screamed. It was impossible to leisurely fasten a seatbelt, and every time the bus lurched, everyone screamed as their bodies floated into the air and tumbled around.

All I could do was hang on with my whole body and tightly grip the steering wheel, which was spinning like crazy while making scrap-metal noises. The bus was nearly slipping out of control.

“It’s going to catch us!!”

Crash! The rearmost window of the bus shattered. Shards blew into the bus. The roaring sound tore through our ears. As the barrier disappeared, the voice of the monster began to pierce our ears vividly.

Come back come back come back come back I won’t let you go this is still our land become one with us and stay here

Save me don’t go alone I’m lonely don’t abandon me come back come back come back come back come back come back come back come back come back

“W-We have to stop the bus. Those people haven’t boarded yet. We have to stop the bus—”

“Grab this person! Don’t!!”

“Don’t listen to that!! Cover your ears, quickly!!”

The seating area was pure mayhem itself. Someone was crying, and someone was trying to go outside. Joo Jae-gyeong, beside me, barely managed to overpower the person trying to enter the driver’s box.

Crack. Cracks were forming on the side windows of the bus as well. If even the front window broke, it would be over. Then even the mirror wouldn’t hold up. I tried to somehow align my gaze with the mirror set horizontally.

Ignoring the wide-open front window of the bus and keeping my eyes only on the mirror was no easy task. Especially when the bus was shaking like crazy. But I had to do it.

Just as the talisman reflected in the mirror regained its original form,

Just as the black thing exposed to strong light appeared as a grotesque lump of lingering-attachment flesh,

The tunnel reflected in the mirror was a completely different landscape.

A tunnel carved out of stone, dug out by human hands one by one.

A tunnel without a single proper light, packed with Chinese characters instead of Hangul on the guide signs.

Reflected in the mirror, we were driving through the Mangryang Tunnel from 100 years ago. The bus sped along as its sides crumpled left and right through a narrow tunnel that a modern large bus could not pass through. A few windows could not withstand the impact and blew out.

The archaic Hangul and Chinese characters densely filling the wall turned into sounds. It felt as if my eyes were going to burst. The tunnel gradually turned red. Did my capillaries burst? No. Bloodstains were spreading. Countless handprints and bloodstains continued endlessly on the tunnel walls.

I want to go home.

My lungs hurt so much.

When can I get out.

I’m hungry.

Are you not taking us?

‘Ah, no. My head.’

Beep—

In an instant, a high frequency filled my mind to numbness. All sounds were pushed away in a flash like white noise. Even to my dizzy mind, it was a familiar high frequency. The 3 AM PM radio was making as much noise as it possibly could.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one hearing it this time. The people who were tangled up in the back trying to stop each other seemed to snap out of it, calming down one by one.

‘I have to break out now.’

The bus shook violently as it passed through a pile of stones, and a sound of the side of the vehicle body tearing echoed in the curve section. The tunnel began to narrow in a flash.

“Everyone, get down on the floor!!”

Screeeech-!

No sooner had I spoken than the roof of the bus was torn off. At the same time, an impact like leaping over a speed bump at full speed shook our bodies. Right above our heads, the arms of the flesh lump caught up.

Human bodies grew recklessly from the fingertips clinging to the bus, gripping the back seats of the bus.

‘Where is it? How far do we have to run? The tunnel should be almost over!’

I gripped the steering wheel so hard that blood was on the verge of bursting from my palms. The scenery ran endlessly inside the small mirror. The stones grew increasingly rough, narrow, and—

‘A dead end?!’

Instead of light, the dead end of the tunnel opened its pitch-black maw. No. That can’t be. Mangryang Tunnel opened, so an end must appear!

“Mr. Joo Jae-gyeong! Please look at what is visible inside the mirror!!”

What I cannot see, but a suitable person can see. Joo Jae-gyeong leaned his body into the box, almost crawling.

“What do you see?!”

“The outside!! There’s a mirror! Th-The mirror inserted strangely—!”

Found it. The exit.

I pressed the accelerator hard enough to touch the floor. If we don’t break out at once, we might drag that thing outside the tunnel with us.

“The mirror, how is it inserted!”

“Th-The mirror is stuck in the ceiling, looking at the floor!”

“That’s it! We’re going to exit the tunnel now. Everyone, brace for impact!!”

The numbers on the dashboard exceeded 200 and began spinning out of order. The arms clinging to the back seats were torn off along with several seats. The dead end drew closer and closer. The short distance stretched out like slow motion,

700 meters,

300 meters,

50 meters,

10 meters,

Bang!!

A heavy impact struck above the bus. Along with a roaring sound heard from above, the vehicle body tilted so greatly that it nearly flipped over, then was thrown to the side as if flung away. Frictional noise, the sound of something bursting, the bus sliding sideways.

Thud!

The bus stopped. To be exact, the bus lay on its side.

‘I-I thought I was going to die……………’

My stiffened hands, which had gripped so tightly, wouldn’t separate from the steering wheel. It felt as if all the muscles in my body had been dismantled and stuck to the bus.

Dim evening light poured into the bus. The bus lay sideways, with only the front part that could land accurately at an angle in the tunnel sticking out.

The front window was cracked, and the dashboard and mirrors were all shattered, but the ceiling and back seats that had clearly been broken and blown away were intact. The fallen people began to get up one by one, almost crawling.

Ssssssh—

The broken bus door opened, making the sound of leaking air. Along with the muggy air, the sound of insects crying was heard from afar.

“We… seem to have survived.”

I crawled out through the bus door. Because the entrance door faced the ceiling and the bus lay on its side, we had to lower ourselves while holding on to one another.

I felt the solid asphalt floor. I stumbled a few steps further and picked up my phone. Data was working.

The hesitating people each pulled out their own phones. At first with hesitation, then sluggishly, and before long faster and faster. Then smiles of joy and relief spread across their faces.

“W-We made it out!! We made it out!!”

“It’s the outside!!”

“We survived!!”

Without anyone starting first, people cheered at the top of their lungs and embraced one another. I looked back at the tunnel. No sound could be heard from the inside anymore. Inside the tunnel where all the lights were off, a light flickered on.

The green light of the traffic signal blinked, blinked, blinked, and then turned into a red light. The red light stayed in that spot for a few seconds and then vanished. The inside of the tunnel began to be visible.

Mangryang Tunnel was completely stripped away.

‘…Can the people who disappeared in the ghost story really not return?’

When I thought of the students who had devolved into one of the faces crying out miserably after being eaten by the flesh lump, my heart grew heavy. I could have saved them. I should have stopped them more strongly.

‘Still, I survived thanks to 3 AM.’

If it weren’t for the high-frequency support at the end, I might not have been able to speed up and would have gone crazy.

Depth Meter Collection Status: 2 completed out of ■■■

1. Bloodwater Valley

2. Mangryang Tunnel

A new reward has been unlocked!

One more slot on the Depth Meter was finally filled. A new reward, what could it be? There are more occasions to use physical strength in ghost stories than I thought. Isn’t there an item that could cover that? When looking at novels or comics, people get over-specced items around this point.

Regrettably, it seems I am not the protagonist of such a novel. No status window suddenly appeared, no gacha machine popped out into midair, nor did an awesome weapon make an appearance.

Instead, when I opened the radio app, instead of the <Under See a in maintenance! moment! service you> that had been flowing out mockingly all this time, a new notification sound came out along with a fanfare.

<Congratulations! The by has one radio upgraded version!>

I did all the hard work, so why is the radio the one getting upgraded? When I tapped the radio app, a small explanation window popped up like an update tutorial pop-up.

<However, <If <The Not Please a able adjusting all always and be better broadcast, broadcast.〉 broadcasting. but button catch closer core depending for frequency! frequency.〉 friend friend’s get is listen location may might not note of on optimal press priority radio radio, send side simply still stories story story, story. that the time, to top want will you your>

Beside the radio dial shape used for tuning frequencies, a Post-it note icon popped up. The frequency was set to 0300.

‘Until now, did it enter the message board to talk because of a lack of features?’

From the appearance of the chain letter at first to the malicious macro, it hadn’t talked using ordinary conversation methods and language. It was only by using a spectrogram that it barely managed to speak autonomously.

‘As I collect stories, maybe this guy gets stronger too……………’

It feels like raising a digital pet in a bonsai game. When that thought occurred to me, I thought it was pretty insignificant and quite cute.

“How do we go home from here now? Should we call a taxi?”

“Will this be covered by insurance?”

“How do we contact the bus company… wait, is it right to contact them?”

At the sound of people’s voices, I also put down my phone for a moment and returned to them. The bus lying in the tunnel looked on the verge of scrap metal to anyone’s eyes.

In fact, if things had gone normally, the bus would not have been able to make it out here. The bus from Seoul bound for Yeosan itself would likely have become a structure that disappeared from the system. It would become impossible to know who the people who boarded were as well.

The problem was that we desperately found a way and broke out. Bus fragments remained, people remained, and the bus operation schedule remained.

“They won’t ask us to pay for it, right?”

I examined the bus driver’s license that was attached in front of the bus. The name, face, and license number were all erased. To the person whose name I wouldn’t even know, I offered a brief condolence.

“Well…… if the bus company doesn’t want to engage in a messy lawsuit, won’t they bury it under the surface appropriately?”

The bus company will handle it on its own. Since there won’t be anyone who believes in a ghost story.

“We called a taxi, where are you going?”

“Ah, I am going to downtown Yeosan City. Aren’t the rest of you going to Yeosan as well?”

“We were, but we’re just going to cancel today’s schedule and go to Seoul. That student over there and I are heading up.”

People gathered with those going in the same direction one by one and called taxis. I was the only person going to Yeosan City. It was understandable. They probably wanted to go home quickly.

‘I want to go home too. If it weren’t for work, I’d be going.’

Finally, the taxi arrived. People nodded to each other and quickly disappeared inside the taxi.

‘Hm? What’s this.’

As I was about to get into the taxi, I felt something heavy in my pocket.

‘This is… a stone.’

What came out of my pocket was definitely the stone wrapped in the talisman that I had shoved deep into the driver’s seat box.

‘Hmm, it looks a bit different though.’

When I lifted it to eye level and looked closely, a subtle difference from the one repaired on the bus could be seen. First of all, there was no trace of the stone having been split, and a white string was tied around it instead of a talisman. Chinese characters identical to those written on the talisman were engraved on the stone.

‘…Could this be the reward?’

When I poked the stone, a strange warmth was felt. As expected, I shouldn’t throw it away. I’ll put you in the collection box too. I shoved the stone back into my pocket and got into the taxi.

“Driver, please go to Hana Galleria. As fast as possible.”

‘I don’t know if I can make it by the meeting time. Should I postpone the meeting to after lunch?’

Moreover, because I had sweated profusely on the bus, my clothes were a mess as well. Indeed, it would be right to drop by a sauna, wash my body, and buy a change of clothes. I picked up my phone and began typing a text message.

[There is a problem with the road on the way, so I think I will be a little late. How about having lunch together? I will come pick you up below the mall.]

The moment I was about to press the send button, the phone rang. It’s MD Pop-up. What is it? I was just about to send a text.

“Yes, hello. This is Assistant Manager Seon Jae-hyeon.”

As soon as I answered the phone, a sniffling sound was heard. A bizarre sound like a young child weeping.

“…Hello?”

[…going to.]

Was MD Pop-up’s voice this young? I don’t think so.

I had an ominous premonition.

“Who is this?”

[…If you go there, you’ll die.]

Along with the sniffling sound, a laughter that felt like it would tear my eardrums apart like scratching glass echoed like a scream.

[If you go there, you’ll die!!! So don’t come! Don’t come!! If you come, I’ll kill you!!]

……What is it this time, seriously.