Chapter 88
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Breaker II
Shin Noah
4
Once you've identified the anomaly's weakness—its "Vulnerability Point"—what becomes important next?
It's spirit. Momentum.
In sophisticated terms, it's "vitality" and "mental strength." In vulgar terms, it's "sheer stubbornness" and "guts." By unifying your mental state with sheer malice and audacity, you must push forward through evil and grit alone.
This is absolutely not a joke.
For instance, let me briefly recount the 90th iteration where I ran a Sixth International convenience store.
Though I never mentioned it separately before, even back then, not only human customers but "non-human customers" would frequently visit.
One night, a bell chimed—ding-dong. I immediately turned my head. The digital clock hanging by the door read 01:59.
"Welcome, custo——"
-Grrrooooh……
"——mer. Hmm, please take your time looking around."
A stench of rot whooshed in.
A pitch-black ghost was approaching, dragging its shadow sloppily along. Its footwork was so extraordinary that I wondered if I'd somehow laid down a film festival red carpet in my convenience store.
'Totally fucked.'
An extremely rational judgment was rendered.
Do you know the Pokemon called Slowpoke? Or perhaps the river spirit from Spirited Away?
A ghost that looked exactly like those was gliding around the convenience store before arriving at the counter.
Thanks to that, my sanity nearly cracked too. The store floor I'd meticulously cleaned just 5 minutes ago was now beautifully coated with sewage water the ghost had dripped.
-Wiiiiiine……
The bastard spoke.
"Excuse me?"
-Wiiiiiine, one. Kidney…… two. Heart, oneeee……. Lung, one. Fingers…… three. Eyebaaaall, oneeee, give it to meeee……
"……"
I was a self-employed businessman who always kept business ethics firmly planted in my frontal lobe.
This meant I was someone who didn't forget the five letters of "service spirit" even when dealing with such troublesome customers.
That's why I could smile brightly without a trace of ambiguity.
"Customer, do you want to get hit?"
-……?
"Want to get hit? Want to get hit?"
The ghost flinched.
I slapped the counter and actually took one step closer to the ghost.
"Do you see this floor right now? Huh? I can't tell if you have eyes attached to your face or not, so I can't really say anything."
-Urrgh……?
"It's all turned completely black like a sewer backed up. And the smell? We handle food products in our store, but the stench coming from your body right now is so severe everything's gone bad. You're going to take responsibility for this, right? I'm asking if you'll take responsibility, customer. Why no answer? Huh?"
That's right.
If there's an anomaly named "Troublesome Customer," then a "Trashy Shop Owner" must exist for the world's balance to be maintained.
"What? Stomach? Kidney? Heart? This bastard's completely delusional. Hey, pay up. Cleaning fee to make the floor clean again. Rag fee because I have to throw away the mop after wiping. Compensation fee because the entire food section needs to be replaced. Above all, laundry fee because your stench got on my uniform. All combined, that's the value of your existence, you bastard."
-Uuurgh……
"Don't have any? No money? You came into the store and wrecked the place even though you're broke? Ah, fuck! Hey! Call the police. I said call the police! No! From now on, I am the police, you fucking beggar bastard!"
-Urrrghhhh……
Sizzle.
At that moment, the anomaly evaporated. The sewage water and stench that had been spread all around the store disappeared along with it.
The digital clock still read 01:59.
The lesson to be gained from this anecdote was exactly one. Even if it's a powerful anomaly enough to make time hesitate for a moment, with knowledge of its vulnerability and fiery spirit, it can be thoroughly defeated.
Me, the undertaker.
Unlike some regressor bastard who ran away after taking a long vacation claiming love was hungry, I'm a human who always overflows with the spirit to flip off anomalies.
So that you can all pioneer your own routes someday, I think I'll introduce the "Anomaly Strategy Guide" of an expert in breaking through the void in more detail in this episode.
5
Step. I walked out of the duty room wearing a security guard uniform.
Flashlight in my left hand, trunk in my right.
On top of that, I'd equipped earphones and a small microphone. This was the full equipment set for properly conquering anomalies.
Judging by my current mood alone, I was Liu Bei grasping the Double Swords of Male and Female. With conditions met, the Central Plains' First Sword that would make even Lu Bu of the world tremble with fear and terror had descended.
-Grrroooh……, ……
-Hee, hee, hee, hee……
The moment I set foot, the ghosts undulating in the 1st floor hallway quietly distanced themselves.
Naturally.
"Ghost" was basically an anomaly based on human form. Not only did some ghosts possess their own intelligence, but most had at least the instinct to recognize the strong.
Originally, even if "Baekhwa Girls' High School" presented an unprecedented difficulty level among tutorial dungeons, I was a 117th-iteration regressor. For the anomalies, it would be a catastrophic disaster like Cthulhu suddenly descending on a beginner's village.
However, that didn't mean all the ghosts fled.
It wasn't that they were particularly bold—rather, some existed where it was awkward to escape by design.
Therefore, my footsteps first headed toward the school's boys' restroom.
"Hmm."
Squelch-
The soles of my shoes squished. This was because water had accumulated to about 0.5cm on the restroom floor.
Looking around, I could sense a faint bleach scent along with a strange stench. The smell of a bunch of human hair cut and soaked in water.
The faucet was stopped.
'This is definitely a spiritual spot without even looking.'
Why hesitate?
There were 4 toilet stalls installed in the restroom. I immediately knocked on the 3rd stall—knock, knock, knock—very politely.
"Ms. Hanako, are you there?"
-……
"Ms. Hanako?"
Silence.
I tilted my head.
"Hmmm."
-……
It was extremely suspicious silence.
The senses of a skilled anomaly hunter from the 117th iteration were whispering, "There's definitely a ghost here."
Even if they hastily locked the faucet, it was already too late once water had accumulated on the tile floor.
I was a human who generously trusted myself, so the answer was one of two. Either the ghost's original version was Japanese and couldn't understand foreign languages, or it was deliberately ignoring my words.
In this global era, the former was impossible. According to my intuition, it was the latter.
"Ah. Right. Look at my mind. Depending on the version, there were cases where just knocking alone didn't fulfill the appearance conditions."
-……
"Now. Shall we spin?"
Click. I locked the restroom door and performed a spin in place inside the stall.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven."
-……
"Eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen. Done."
I knocked on the door—knock, knock, knock.
"Ms. Hanako, let's play together. Ms. Hanako, are you there?"
-Yes.
The answer came immediately.
This was the fate of anomalies. Anomalies have their own "rules," and even anomalies aren't free from these rules.
Because anomalies can only exist in this world through those very rules.
An anomaly like the "Ten Legs" that possesses enormous "material destructive power" has as its trade-off the vulnerability of being able to be "materially destroyed."
The convenience store ghost "can appear as a customer at any convenience store when it becomes the Hour of the Ox (1-3 AM)." At first glance, it seems to transcend spatial constraints, but conversely speaking, it has the vulnerability of "only being able to exist in the role of a customer."
The restroom's Hanako ghost was the same.
The Hanako ghost "can exist anywhere if it's the 3rd stall of an unoccupied restroom." It's a type of residual haunting spirit.
Therefore, to people who enter the 3rd stall of a restroom, especially those who chant the spell, the Hanako ghost "must reveal itself."
What if it doesn't answer? It's the same as admitting it doesn't exist in the 3rd stall. Conquest complete.
The restroom ghost muttered in a trembling voice (of course, that was just my perception—in reality, it was an incredibly eerie ghost voice).
-Shall I give you red toilet paper…… or blue toilet papereee……?
"Aha. A collab case with red paper blue paper. Not particularly rare."
-Shall I give you purple toilet paper……?
"Oh."
The anomaly proposed a compromise.
According to some ghost stories, if you request "purple toilet paper," Hanako would retreat on her own. It was a type of strategy, an exorcism method.
But the ghost just now had proposed a ceasefire agreement on its own without me even reciting the strategy.
I was almost touched. What a kind ghost this was.
"Purple toilet paper isn't bad either. But what do we do here."
-……?
Zzzzip!
I opened the zipper of the leather trunk bag I'd brought with me. This trunk bag was also an anomaly, but I'll talk about that another time.
What's important now is that inside the trunk bag, there were 'red toilet paper rolls' and 'blue toilet paper rolls' sitting right there.
"I brought both red and blue toilet paper?"
-……
"It's the post-COVID era. In times like these when personal hygiene has become so important, you need to carry your own toilet paper to feel safe. Right? Hanako. Do you want some too? Want red paper? Want blue paper?"
-Purple toilet paper……
"There's no purple toilet paper, you bastard!"
CRASH!
I immediately raised my aura and stomped. The toilet bowl shattered into pieces, and white ceramic fragments scattered.
Rumble—water surged back up. But it wasn't just H₂O that surged back. A ghost in the shape of a girl draped in a red cloak also popped up.
I grinned.
"Found—you."
-……!
The ghost's form trembled violently.
This was the very good thing about "ghost-type" anomalies that were based on humans, unlike other anomalies.
Strong-weak-weak-strong. Weak before the strong, and infinitely strong only against the weak—this human, all-too-human characteristic, most of these ghosts possessed as well. The stronger the human characteristics, like "Ms. Hanako of the Restroom," the more pronounced this trait became.
Of course, most ghosts also possessed the troublesome trait of "physical immunity," but that didn't matter. Physical immunity could be broken if done right.
For example, like this.
"Caught you."
-……! ……!
Whirl. With red toilet paper in my right hand and blue toilet paper wrapped around my left, I grabbed Hanako the ghost's head firmly.
Even if the ghost is relatively free from physical force, "Hanako" uses the words "red paper" and "blue paper" to cause physical change—death—to toilet users.
This is how to use a vulnerability.
There's no one-way street in the world of anomalies. Everything is a two-way street. If they can interfere from that side, naturally this side can interfere using the same method if it works.
The result was the scene before my eyes. A restroom ghost hung dangling, tightly gripped in both my hands like a vise grip.
-……! ……! ……!
"Want red paper, or want blue paper?"
-……
"The correct answer was both. We're having a 1+1 sale this month, customer."
CRACK!
The ghost's face turned pale blue and then—pop—it burst. Then its entire body turned into red liquid and melted away without form.
Even though it was an anomaly resembling human form, I felt no sympathy whatsoever.
The reason was revealed as soon as the restroom ghost was exorcised.
The water that had accumulated on the tile floor turned red, and soon corpses were revealed like a village submerged by a dam.
"……"
The number of corpses in this restroom alone was 7.
If we count all the other restrooms, it would easily reach dozens. The students who were trapped in the "Baekhwa Girls' High School Tutorial Dungeon" knowing nothing would have been infinitely delicious weak prey to the anomalies.
I gathered the corpses in one place. They probably wouldn't rot until the void was broken.
"Hmm……?"
But while organizing the corpses, I found a suspicious object.
"…Talismans?"
Talismans were hidden here and there in the restroom. Behind the toilet bowl where the red paper blue paper ghost had popped out, in the cleaning tool cabinet, even under the sink. A total of 3.
If I were from after the 200th iteration, I would have been able to interpret every meaning contained in the talismans. But at this time, I had read the Analects, Mencius, Great Learning, and Doctrine of the Mean, but had not yet deciphered the I Ching.
Still, I could distinguish between talismans offering prayers and talismans laying curses. Originally, the intent of the characters written on the talismans was so blatantly obvious that it was impossible not to recognize them.
死. 死. 死. 死.
Even though the restroom had been hit by a water bomb, the bright red letters on the talismans glistened vividly like snake scales.
"Hmmm."
Quite ominous. Usually, fortune-telling shops that sell curse talismans only write "亡" (death/perish)—they rarely put "死" (death) on them.
I examined the talismans this way and that, scraped off the red letters with my fingernail, and even smelled them.
"…This is real human blood. Huh."
A talisman made with human blood letter. It was the most dangerous type of curse among curses.
Why on earth were such talismans hidden in a school restroom?
I filed away the question and put it in the closet of my mind, then burned all the talismans.
Then I took out paper and tape from my trunk bag and attached it to the 1st floor boys' restroom door.
[Patrol Complete]
It was a type of "safe zone" marker.
I don't know how many students are wandering around this area, but I hoped it would serve as even a small hint for survival.
"Good."
I moved again.
There was a reason I exorcised the restroom ghost immediately upon entering the "School Ghost Story."
Since ancient times, "the place for urinating" has been considered a kind of taboo by people.
The shrine where rituals are performed is the center of light (Yang), and the restroom is the center of shadow (Yin). It's a place humans can't avoid, yet it's still shunned as dirty.
This is why in the void, "the place for eating," "the place for sleeping," and "the place for urinating" always hold important magical significance.
In other words, one of the core axes of "School Ghost Story."
In contrast, science room ghosts, art room ghosts, music room ghosts and such were not important at all—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to dismiss them entirely.
'It would be nice to join up with Cheon Yohwa or the survivor group immediately, but figuring out the exact location in this distorted void is difficult……'
Step. The light from the flashlight I held swept across the pitch-black hallway.
The school space had stretched abnormally long, been copied, and twisted grotesquely. The sky outside the window was dyed bright red, and birch trees were breaking through the glass windows with white fingers, jutting out sharply into the hallway.
Countless anomalies would be lying in wait within that white shade.
I nodded. Then I straightened the [Security Guard Undertaker] name tag on my chest pocket.
'Then until I join up with Cheon Yohwa, I'll just subjugate every anomaly I encounter along the way.'
Brrrr……
Whether it was just my imagination or not, at that moment I felt the void of "School Ghost Story" trembling.
An infinite regressor telling a story.