Chapter 22: A Lingering Uncertainty

I briefly entertained the thought of smashing his head in right here.

As I clenched my fist, Seo Yi-han turned to me with a sharp glare.

For a moment, I felt like he’d caught my violent intentions, and I flinched guiltily.

But instead of accusing me, he spoke in a gentle voice.

I mean, even if that bastard is perceptive, there’s no way he’d know I was thinking about clocking him. That would make him a psychic.

“We need to take care of that virgin ghost too, right?”

“Uh…”

Though she wasn’t a virgin ghost but a lingering spirit, it wasn’t wrong by gender, so I didn’t correct him.

Explaining the intricacies of lingering spirits to them would be a hassle.

Besides, all the boss ghosts here were essentially lingering spirits anyway, tied to the school grounds.

They also seemed to have their own territories to some extent.

The Hungry Ghost had the new faculty building, specifically the fourth floor. That lingering spirit had the playground. From the Hungry Ghost’s behavior, I figured they could leave their areas but would return after a while.

Thinking like that made me realize these beings were more like game monsters than the ghosts I’d seen in real life.

They respawned only in set areas, returned to their spots when de-aggroed, and had set strategies.

‘It’s just like a virtual reality game raid.’

I brainwashed myself into thinking that, if only to forget that strange dream I had. Or at least, I tried to.

But even as I kept telling myself it was just a stupid dream, I felt an urge to ask Seo Yi-han, “Is your name maybe Yoo-han? Do you want to go to the same college as me?”

In the end, the persistent curiosity overpowered the subconscious warnings. I lightly elbowed Seo Yi-han to get his attention.

“…I bet you and your grandfather are worried.”

I thought that was a clever enough deflection.

To him, I was a childhood friend of ten years. If I suddenly asked about his brother’s name out of the blue, the system would definitely pop up and deduct my Insight stat. Last time, it had taken a big chunk, and I couldn’t get it to 20 before the first boss fight.

I’d cursed that system, but it was better to accumulate all the stats I could. That was my creed from countless games.

‘Stats are better stacked high than not at all.’

Since I hadn’t maxed out in the last round, I’d missed out on identifying the final boss’s name and weakness instantly, but whatever. You never know when they might come in handy.

Fortunately, Seo Yi-han didn’t seem suspicious. No warning window appeared.

“Right. If the time outside school is also 3 AM… then my brother must be jumping around calling the police.”

“That… Yoo-han hyung?”

“Yeah. You know how my brother is.”

Seo Yi-han didn’t deny the name ‘Yoo-han.’ Instead, as if to prove we both knew his brother well, he mentioned his personality and closed his eyes.

“He’s a bit overprotective, isn’t he?”

A face flashed through my mind: that Yoo-han guy, venting about how he raised his late-born brother. Judging by the fact that Seo Yi-han’s parents hadn’t shown up at breakfast, they either lived far away or were gone.

So naturally, even if that brother bickered childishly with his much younger sibling, it was clear how much he doted on him.

When I muttered as if I knew it all, Seo Yi-han rarely showed annoyance but agreed. And watching him, I thought:

Maybe I hadn’t just entered a game world. Maybe I was truly, royally screwed.

The moment I became sure this wasn’t a random dream but part of my memories in this world, a thousand possibilities tangled in my head.

In the game, there was no character named ‘Lee Jae-yoon.’ So logically, I shouldn’t be attending this school. But I’d roughly accepted that as the system’s handiwork when I entered the game—making me a high school student instead of a college student to fit the setting.

I did find it odd that they kept my family details intact as ‘setting,’ but the sheer absurdity of being ‘in a game world’ overshadowed those minor elements.

But that dream was different. It felt like I truly existed here, like the memories were my own.

Hearing ‘You did this~’ from someone else is different from recalling it myself. Why did I have memories that clearly happened in this world when I wasn’t from here?

‘If I had to guess…’

Since the system gave me limited info, I used my imagination to form a few hypotheses.

First hypothesis: A separate entity named Lee Jae-yoon existed in this world but just hadn’t appeared in the game. Second hypothesis: My original world was fake, and this was real.

If the first was true, the dream memories weren’t mine but that ‘Lee Jae-yoon’s,’ which made sense.

But then, when I entered, that ‘Lee Jae-yoon’ disappeared, and I replaced him… That was unsettling, and I had no way to know without the system telling me, so I dropped it.

‘The second one is less creepy… but.’

At least I wouldn’t be stealing someone’s place. But if it were true, my identity had a serious problem.

I’d lived for twenty years, and it was all an illusion. I had to start over in an unfamiliar world with no proper memories from age eighteen. I’d taken the college entrance exam and got into my dream university, but it was all gone.

‘…Do I have to retake the exam?’

When my thoughts reached there, I couldn’t help but call out to the system. Fortunately, after a desperate mental call, a red window appeared.

[The ‘Logout’ content will be unlocked during the final boss battle.]

It kindly answered my unasked question, though it raised even bigger ones.

At least the existence of a logout function meant my original world was real. The second hypothesis crumbled as soon as it formed.

So was my original body dead? What exactly was logging out? I asked again and again, but got no response. Still, given its annoying track record, I was grateful it answered at all.

But I knew this bastard was adept at playing word games, so I wasn’t reassured. What if worse shit awaited me than I expected?

I wasn’t one to dwell on things, but with my life and return on the line, I couldn’t pretend ignorance. I became so anxious that my head throbbed.

Cold sweat poured down my face as I let out a low groan. Startled, Seo Yi-han rushed over, grabbed my wrists, and looked me in the eyes.

“Jae-yoon, what’s wrong?”

“…Suddenly a migraine. I’m fine now.”

“You’re sweating cold from pain? Should I go to the nurse’s office for painkillers?”

This guy was overly dramatic. I twisted my arms free and shook my head.

“I said I’m fine. Let’s focus on how to deal with that ghost first.”

I jerked my chin toward the window, and their faces instantly turned pale. But looking at the playground ghost, my mind cleared.

Unless I wanted to be trapped at school at 3 AM forever with ghosts, I had to progress the story. My worries would naturally resolve once I cleared it.

Focusing on the immediate task steadied my resolve. Whether it ended well or badly, I had to tackle things step by step. My tangled thoughts cleared.

Seo Yi-han seemed to understand, shifting his gaze to the window.

“Should we do the same as with that male ghost?”

“Do we have to search the old faculty building again?”

“But that ghost… unlike the last one, I can’t tell when she died.”

Han Bo-bae observed the spirit with narrowed eyes and concluded.

The suit she wore had a classic design, making it impossible to pinpoint the era. All I could guess was that she was likely an office worker—a useless speculation.

Going to the old building was the right call anyway, and with the system’s help, I could lead them there without issue…

But rather than having them rely entirely on me, it was better to let them make guesses and sharpen their situational awareness. That would save trouble later. The recognition blur effect was only temporary.

Given the system’s nature, ‘temporary’ probably meant only until this boss fight. After that, I wouldn’t know the content either, so the blur effect was unnecessary.

I chimed in to help their reasoning.

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