".... You're telling me to shoot the guy."
"Yes."
"Well, it's not that I can't do it, but.."
The Detective slipped a hand into his pocket and fidgeted, as if he needed a cigarette.
I nodded in understanding and stepped outside the café before continuing the conversation.
The doppelgänger Detective sat on a bench outside the café and looked at me while blowing out cigarette smoke.
"If I shoot your doppelgänger and it ends up dead, what are you going to do about the body? It would be like a murder happening right inside the school."
"It's okay. Actually, if a murder were to occur, the clubroom is the most optimal place. When I use the Space Expansion function, all the tiles get reset, so there won't be a single piece of evidenced remaining. And I can just throw the body into space."
"Seriously. I can't believe you're saying that place is actually the best spot for doing something like that."
"Yes. But it probably won't be eliminated that easily. From what I've heard monitoring through the club members, that guy is already at the stage where he can even use the Status Window. So even if we kill him, there's a high chance he'll regress."
A method of cleverly twisting and exploiting loopholes in the system to
attack.
That's exactly like something the Demon King would do.
At the same time, a sense of crisis welled up inside me.
"....Too early."
I thought that after sending two ghost stories of an S-rank anda B-rank at the same time, he wouldn't be able to send any more until at least the school break.
The interval between two ghost stories
had become much shorter than I expected.
Soon, the doppelgänger Detective, having finished smoking, slowly nodded his head.
"Alright, I understand. Honestly, I still don't get how I can keep appearing and disappearing like that everywhere. But since you say I can do it, I'll give it a try, On Monday morning at the clubroom...Hmm..."
"Practice it in front of me first. That way, I can figure out what kind of ability it is and make plans to deal with my own doppelgänger."
In the end, I spent the entire day testing abilities with the fake Detective.
And one of the things I found out was that the doppelgänger from the ghost story could indeed appear and disappear without a trace whenever it wanted, but that was only possible when no one was watching, just like it was told in the story.
"Did you just see that? I went to your school in a flash and came back. How did that happen?"
"Yes, I saw it. I think it's probably just like the story says."
In the story, the doppelgänger would always disappear when you turn your head after passing by, or it would vanish after turning a corner when you chase it.
And as expected, I walked briskly around a few corners with the Detective, and at one point, the Detective disappeared and then
reappeared.
After that, through several more tests, I confirmed that he couldn't move if his hands and feet were tied and he was in a situation where escaping was impossible, and he was somewhere too far. With that confirmed, I finally set my plan in motion.
***
"Now it's Monday morning."
"Yeah."
The doppelgänger Detective looked at his stolen gun with a complicated expression.
"The serial number is definitely different from the gun I originally used. Since I was someone who always carried my own gun, I haven't been investigated yet, but if the full
inspection had started on Monday, it
would've only been a matter of time
before I got caught."
"Yes. Now just go, shoot him, and come back. Once that guy is eradicated... you know the rest, right?"
"I know."
The doppelgänger Detective tapped his own forehead with the gun.
"If that guy gets eradicated just by being shot, then I'll kill myself right away. Then the doppelgänger combo ends there. Ghost story solved."
"Wait a minute. Maybe we should consider the option to coexist."
The real Detective Park Gangwoon, who had been listening from a distance with his back turned, tilted his head slightly.
"Your doppelgänger is the type who doesn't want to die, so if he finds out he's a ghost story, he won't try to eradicate the Demon King. It can't be helped. But my doppelgänger has willingly admitted to everything, so if we just get together—"
"There's no need for that."
The fake Detective raised his hand to cut off the conversation.
"We don't know what might happen later if we do that, so it's better to eliminate any future complications in advance."
"..."
The future trouble that needed to be eliminated was himself.
The fake Detective turned his head back and continued speaking.
"If that guy dies when shot like that, that would be best. But if he dies and time goes back."
"Then just wait until it does. Leave what happens after that to me."
"There's nothing to leave to you anyway. Once you go back, I won't even remember any of this."
The Detective took out a cigarette and drew a deep drag.
And then, he quietly stared at the real Detective, who was standing at a distance with his back turned, and suddenly opened his mouth.
"I want to have a word with that guy one last time."
"Yes, Detective! Put on a blindfold. This person says he wants to talk to you."
"Thank you."
The fake Detecüve threw away his cigarette and walked toward the real Detective Park Gangwoon.
"I need to have a conversation with myself."
***
[Joon is here.]
[There's a case. Find me when you get
back.]
[Bang-!]
[Thud-]
The sound of Lee Joon dying, heard from beyond the prepaid cell phone connected to the doppelgänger Detective.
At the same time, a system message appeared before my eyes, and a rumbling roar began to be heard from the sky.
[You are dead]
[You restart irom the previous checkpoint.]
[Loading.....]
Rumble- rumble-
Clouds drifted by rapidly, as if the end
of the world was approaching.
It might have been something that always happened, but since this was from after I died, it was a sight I was seeing for the first time.
"Such a magnificent sight, Joon."
"Yeah. I guess it always rewinded like this."
"There's one thing I need to ask you before you go back."
The real Detective Park Gangwoon, who had been waiting beside me, looked at me with a serious gaze.
"I just had a little conversation with my doppelgänger earlier. I realized I really
need to say this."
"What is it?"
"It's about the evidence that my fake
stole."
The Detective placed his hand on my shoulder.
"He wished you could re-investigate those Cases.'
".....!?"
"I can't return them to the police headquarters now, anyway. And this is
a wish I've always had."
The Detective nodded as if to say it's true.
"Those cases that remained permanently unsolved. When you have time, I want you to re-investigate them one by one based on those pieces of evidence. Of course, I'll help too."
"..."
After thinking for a moment, I nodded just before time went back.
"..Yes, I understand. I will do it for
you."
"Thank you."
Whoosh-
***
After that, everything went smoothly.
I could have locked him in a coffin right away, but since he was my doppelgänger, I decided to give him one last chance.
"We need to make those two work together. Have them pair up and stay together throughout this weekend."
"Is there a reason for that?"
"If I just tell him, he'll grit his teeth and deny it. So I'm providing him with one piece of evidence after another to convince him, while making him chase the doppelgänger ghost story himself."
"How do you plan to make that happen?"
"First, we need to give an opportunity for Lee Joon and the Detective to investigate together."
Along with the fake Detective's words,
'Find me when you go back,' I've already laid the groundwork that he was entangled in a ghost story.
Now, something that would serve as a trigger, an object that would make Lee Joon come scurrying back to the Detective again as soon as he saw it.
We just needed to send some object related to the ghost story that the two of them could recognize at a glance.
Anything would have been fine, but among the evidence items the fake Detective had stolen, there was one that was just right.
"The camcorder. It's a case we both know. As soon as he sees it, he'll contact the fake Detective, and he'll also feel the connection and start investigating Without reporting it."
"It fits perfectly."
And through Gyeongwon, information
related to the ghost story was presented to him, but not too directly.
Instead, throughout the entire process, we made him choose and decide for himself.
And when they finally arrived at a point after going through what they believed to be a thorough process of reasoning and judgment, the clues and evidence pointing to the criminal they have been chasing all along instead pointed back to themselves.
If he still couldn't accept it even after going that far, there was no other way.
The only option left was to stuff him in a coffin and seal him away.
"Let's go."
"Let's do that."
We picked up the package and set out on the plan.
***
[Don't. Make. Me. Laugh. You. B*stard!!]
"He really can't be reasoned with."
As expected, he was me.
I let out a sigh and looked at the Detective.
The Detective nodded and immediately pulled the trigger on my head.
Click- Bang-
[You are dead]
[You'll restart from the previous
checkpoint]
[Loading...]
***
"Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it, you
f*cking b*stards! Aaaaargh!"
"The tape fell off his mouth. This time,
wrap it around tightly about five times."
"Mmph! Mmmph! Mph! Mmmph-"
"Tap tap tap"
"... Goodbye, Joon...."
After the members stuffed the guy into a coffin, Hayoon and Jinhee moved the coffin from the loading clubroom and threw it into space.
We gathered again in the even more spacious clubroom and looked at the
window through which the guy had been thrown away.
Now only the deep blue sky was reflected there.
"But I feel a bit sorry for him, Joon.."
Sunah looked at me with a sympathetic expression.
"To be this miserable..."
"I know, right. I felt a bit sorry while hitting him and insult him, you know."
Jinhee scratch her head.
"Is it really necessary to do that?"
I had deliberately asked them to send him off in the most miserable way possible, and the club members, meeting my request, sent my doppelgänger off with expression of
joy on their faces.
After putting the prepaid phone I had been using until now into the trash can, I picked up my phone that was lying on the floor and explained.
"There was a reason I asked you to behave that way. I wanted you to send him off without the slightest mercy, so that he'll truly resent every one of you. Then I wanted to see how he would respond when he had to spend the next three years of his life without you by his side."
"Prez will see that?"
"Yes."
I nodded and approached the window.
Then I opened the Store window and ordered the same product once again.
"Paulownia wood coffin. Size 180cm.
Purchase."
Pop-
[Purchase has completed.]
Thud.
The heavy sound of the wooden coffin falling in the hallway.
The members looked back and forth
between me and the coffin in the
hallway with bewildered expressions.
I looked at them and nodded.
"I'm getting into the coffin too. Exactly
the same way."
I dragged the coffin inside, slowly took
a deep breath and lay down inside.
***
Even though the lid hadn't been closed yet, just lying here changed the hum of the sound; the inside felt like a completely different space from the outside.
After placing both hands neatly on my belly, I opened my mouth toward the members who were looking down at me with worried expressions.
"I've always wondered if there ever came a day when i fought with all of you and we went our separate ways, and I met a true death without even the power to go back in time... what kind of reaction would I have."
"Now is the chance. The moment to see my worst ending."
Right now, my doppelgänger hates the members to death, and he would definitely cut off his relationship with them.
And since he was a ghost story from the moment he came into heing. even If he returned and became he CIub President again, he would have no reason to defeat the Demon King.
So how would I have acted, I wonder?
With no club members left to correct me, and no reason left to save the world, would I still carry out my mission as the hero and make that noble sacrifice?
'Or would I simply, true to my nature, run only toward survival?"
As I finally nodded, Gyeongwon released a little bit of nitrogen into the coffin.
Inside the coffin that was sent into space along with my doppelgänger, there was the same kind of nitrogen spray canister instead of an oxygen respirator.
In this world, there is something called
the 'diver ghost story'
It's about a diver who went underwater and, intoxicated by nitrogen, began to see hallucinations of being rescued.
And if my prediction is correct, that ghost story would surely come to us.
From the Demon King's perspective, he thought the doppelgänger ghost story he had gone to the trouble of sending was sealed away into space without any chance to move, and that was the end of it. But if we weave it back into the diver ghost story here, an opportunity would arose.
"For me, it's a perfect opportunity, isn't it?"
During the Dream Within Dream incident, even though we were different people, our consciousnesses were briefly linked together just because we all lost consciousness at the same moment.
What more, now it was none other than myself.
Just like back then, we both sank into
unconsciousness at the same time.
Now, the Demon King would weave
together me and the guy drifting through space once again as a ghost story and start round two.
'Do it. Hurry up."
It was a chance to kill my doppelgänger mentally.
Soon, the members closed the coffin lid, and the light instantly disappeared.
Inside the pitch-dark coffin, all that could be heard was the faint sound of the nitrogen spray leaking weakly.
I slowly closed my eyes.
A confrontation with myself, taking place inside the coffin.
Now, once again, we would fight within
the illusion.
***
"....."
I slowly opened my eyes and lifted my head.
Crimson sunset poured in through the
open coffin lid.
As I moved my eyes slightly and looked around, I realized I was in the clubroom.
Through the window, the sun was already setting lazily, and I was lying alone inside a coffin with no lid in the dim clubroom.
I slowly looked around and muttered.
"...Did I succeed?"
There was no way the club members would abandon me like this in a coffin and just leave the clubroom.
My body was still lying down in reality, and I have now entered another reality created by the ghost story.
'It still feels real.'
I raised my body and examined my limbs.
Just like during the Dream Within Dream ghost story, this place didn't look fake at all; it was a completely vivid reality itself.
However, just like back then, my sense
of time compared to the real world was likely very different.
I straightened my clothes, stepped out
of the clubroom, and sent a message to the members on KakaoTalk.
[Lee Joon: I woke up in the clubroom
alone. Where did you all go?]
Then, a reply came immediately.
KakaoTalk~
[Ahn Gyeongwon: We tried the nitrogen poisoning ghost story but failed, we woke you up, Prez, but you said you wanted to sleep more, so we just left you there.]
[Lee Jinhee: You just woke up now? lol]
[Yoon Sunah: Are you okay, Joon? Doesn't your head hurt from the nitrogen?]
'So that's how it's handled.'
I let out a chuckle, then left the school.
***
After that, time passed quickly.
There were times when I closed my eyes and opened them to find that several days had passed, and other times when I went to sleep for the night and woke up to find that a week had gone by.
It was all because I kept reminding myself every day that this place was an illusion. If I hadn't, there were many times I would have lost my grip on sanity and just lived letting things flow as they were.
...But honestly, why hasn't he come looking for me soon? It's already the day of the closing ceremony.'
Maybe I wasn't involved in the ghost story together with him, but had ended up tangled in it alone.
Worrying like that, I headed home on the day of the closing ceremony.
As I was passing along the least crowded road among the routes I always take home from school, I suddenly noticed a black, tinted van parked by the roadside ahead.
...He's finally here.!
I let out a small chuckle and adjusted my bag.
Kidnapping.
Figured as much.
"....."
Even if he killed me, I'd just regress, so he would probably just kidnap me and lock me up in some psychiatric hospital instead.
"Hopefully it's a hospital where the logic of money still works.'
With a strangely willing heart, I slowly walked up to the van, and as expected.
Just as I was passing by, the door suddenly swung open, and a group of men jumped out, grabbing me and puling me inside in an instant.
I felt a sharp sting in my neck as a syringe was injected, and I slowly closed my eyes.
**
"Hey. You were going on about giving me some chance to admit I was fake and all that show-off nonsense. Was it fun? You b*stard."
"....."
"Who do you think you are to decide whether I get a chance or not? I'm real too. I'm a person. Don't treat me like I'm someone it's okay to treat as worthless."
When I came to, Lee Joon was standing in front of me, insisting on his own existence.
I nodded inwardly.
'You're right. You're real.'
So from now on, everything you do is exactly what the real Lee Joon would do.
I'll watch it all to the very end, and figure out exactly what kind of person I am.
Soon after, he struck the back of my head sharply and began pouring out accusations and resentment toward me.
I felt my head tilt to the side, and slowly, I let my consciousness slip away again.
***
After that, I was always dazed and under the influence of medication.
When I came to my senses, two months had already passed, so I slowly began to wake myself up, blinking my eyelids slowly.
"...At this point, I suppose he has let his
guard down.'
I wiggled my toes.
My body had weakened considerably,
having spent the past few months lying down under the influence of medication.
But it didn't really matter.
After all, every condition of mine was only limited within the world created by this ghost story.
If anything, I'd welcome it if being drugged made time pass faster.
Just then, my assigned young female nurse came in to take care of me and removed the gag from my mouth.
My assigned nurse gently wiped away my saliva and patted me, as if comforting me.
"Since you've only been on nutritional
supplements for several months now,
we're going to remove the gag and let
you chew some food for a while. But you must not do anything unnecessary,okay?"
The nurse shook a syringe filled with medication in front of me, as if warning she would stab me with it if I did anything strange, and flicked out the air bubbles with a soft tch.
I nodded to her command blankly with half-open eyes.
The nurse smiled slyly, almost teasingly, as she prepared the food.
"Aww, good boy. There we go, that's it. Food's coming in now. Say ahh"
The nurse scooped food onto a spoon
and pushed it to my mouth. As I obediently ate, she patted my head, praising me for being good.
I chewed slowly, letting the food spill onto the bib as I mumbled in a dazed voice.
"..fifth... sİxty million won..."