Chapter 26: The Ghost’s Memory and the Shattered Photo

I was about to grab the documents—those vessels of memory—and head to a bench near the field.

The system’s appearances had grown sparse, so I thought I could feign ignorance and skip the guardhouse route. But the system seized the opening without mercy.

[Quest: Explore the Guardhouse!]

Now even the quest instructions were just a string of words, not even proper sentences. A hollow laugh escaped me.

Still, unlike that time in Class 1-5, there was no need to get my hands dirty. I just had to find the logbook in the abandoned guard post along the way to the field. No complaints there.

The logbook contained a short, shaky scribble—likely written by the guard who’d discovered the body.

– At 7:23 AM, found a person under a bench near the high school field. First thought it was a drunk, so I went to wake them. Then I saw the blood pooled on the ground and called the police.

Just like that note before, it had nothing to do with the story’s progression. But the system forced me to find it, so I had no choice.

I’d gathered all the clues up to this point. Now all that remained was to view the memory and obtain the family photo needed for ascension. Yet, strangely, no quest prompt appeared.

During the first boss battle, around this stage, the system had announced it was time to see the memory and even displayed my exorcism progress. Was this different because it was the second one?

[Quest: Go to the bench near the field and glimpse the ghost’s memory!]

[Current Exorcism Power: 80%]

Only after I voiced this doubt did the system flicker belatedly, updating the quest and progress. As if it had forgotten and only remembered at my words.

Ever since entering the second boss battle, the system’s appearances had subtly decreased, its messages grown shorter, its operations seeming careless. It wasn’t my imagination.

Even now, if it had sensed such thoughts, it should have popped up instantly with a [Don’t think useless thoughts^^] to needle me. But the space before me remained silent.

“Dog shit is scarce even for medicine…” Ah, that proverb doesn’t quite fit. Still, the thing that usually floated right before my eyes had become infrequent, and it felt unsettling.

‘Whatever. Less of it is better.’

In any case, when I really needed it, it was no help—just a pitch-black entity scheming to mess with me. So if its appearances gradually decreased and it vanished entirely, that would be for the best.

Once I resigned myself to that thought, the unease disappeared as if by magic.

***

I didn’t know which file from the safe was the one the woman had come for, so I brought the whole bundle and scattered them beside the bench. Light flared again, replaying the woman’s memory.

This time, since everyone had already experienced it once, they watched without much surprise, quietly peeking at the memory.

The memory began with a happy family photo: she and her parents, cozy together. They seemed close. The woman exuded an aura of having grown up loved, in an environment without lack.

But that cheerful scene was momentary. She was on the phone with her father, heading to school in a lively voice. The moment she left the chairman’s office, she realized unfamiliar footsteps were following at a steady pace.

Spotting a bench near the field, she curled up and hid underneath. In an instant, she was killed—so swiftly she didn’t even realize she was dead. Then the memory ended.

“Ugh…”

Watching someone die never got comfortable. Compared to watching an illustration-based video—clearly a creation—the feeling was entirely different.

That abyss creature was a trash with not a speck of sympathy, so seeing it die only made me feel tired. But this time was different.

Even telling myself she was just a game character and I didn’t need to empathize did little to calm me.

The kids also couldn’t hide their bitterness at the memory, which was more gruesome than imagined. But Seo Yi-han, who composed himself first this time, quickly straightened things out, allowing everyone to shake off their thoughts.

“This time it’s the family photo, right?”

“Yeah… Considering it started with the photo-taking scene.”

“There was no photo in the chairman’s office in the old building, right?”

“Then let’s go to the new building!”

Yoon Soo-ah’s reasonable argument—”Where else would the chairman’s family photo be but in the chairman’s office?”—garnered unanimous agreement.

…I felt a pang of pity for my past self, who had overthought things and wasted time searching strange places.

The chairman’s office in the new building had furniture that looked brand-new. Unlike the old building’s furniture, which bore the clear marks of time, everything here was shiny and ornate.

Moreover, there was more than one room. The first door opened into what seemed like a reception area, with a large coffee table and sofa in the center.

“Oh, cookies.”

Kim Ji-ho spotted a cookie box lying on the coffee table, sat on the sofa, and opened the lid. Inside were plenty of butter cookies.

“…Should we eat them?”

“The chairman’s a piece of trash anyway. Let’s eat, let’s eat.”

I didn’t know how stealing cookies related to the chairman being trash. But surely, with his dignity, he wouldn’t report a few missing cookies to the police.

We each bit into a cookie and opened the sliding door behind.

Inside was the office, where a wooden desk finally came into view. Behind the desk—large enough for two or three grown men to lie on—the entire wall was packed with bookshelves.

Having attended a normal public high school in a remote mountain area where no such title as ‘chairman’ existed, I found it amazing that such a luxurious personal space could exist at a school.

Even the principal’s office, where I occasionally got called for a good fight, wasn’t this extravagant. At most, there were slightly expensive curtains fluttering at the windows, and orchids growing like weeds in the corner, tended by who knows who…

‘Whoa, a pure gold turtle.’

How much was that worth? A lump of pure gold, the size of an adult fist, stood stiffly on the desk.

“Is it real?”

“Would a chairman leave a fake out here to embarrass himself?”

“Guess he doesn’t care if someone steals it.”

The kids, apparently also visiting the chairman’s office for the first time, chatted while tapping the turtle’s head.

I joined them, rolling my eyes in awe, but I smartly pocketed the target item: the family photo.

In the photo, the woman from the memory smiled brightly, sitting between her parents.

The chairman couple exuded a characteristic authority even in the picture. The woman, by contrast, had a somewhat frail impression—perhaps not someone with a strong personality. She clearly lacked the vigor of her parents.

‘An only child?’

Then again, if there were other children, they’d have been in the photo too. It was nothing important, so I naturally dismissed the thought.

[Insight 15, Enter the final stage of exorcism power 100%!]

This time, the system window appeared on time, displaying the message. But compared to the previous boss fight, where it announced every time my stat increased by bits, there was still a strange disharmony I couldn’t shake.

‘Now it doesn’t even alarm me when my stats go up?’

[…]

If you have time to put three dots, just answer. Did it really want to hand over game management to a dog?

Still, aside from that suspicious system, things were going smoothly. I just had to give the family photo to the ghost and make it ascend.

Moreover, unlike the abyss creature, this ghost didn’t physically harm people. The poltergeist’s attack pattern was possession.

But with the talisman my mother gave me, I could prevent that to some extent. No major worries.

“I’m going to make it ascend now. Want to come along?”

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t asking you, Seo Yi-han. I snorted at his eager reply. I already had a strange belief that he’d follow me wherever I went, so I hadn’t even included him in the question.

Seo Yi-han immediately tagged along, and the others slowly followed. Whether out of curiosity or fear of being separated from me, I couldn’t tell.

I handed each kid a talisman and told them to hide it securely in their bosom. There were exactly five left—the ones I hadn’t used on the bathroom ghost and the abyss creature—so one per person fit perfectly.

“Same as last time?”

“Yeah. This time, the field.”

Seo Yi-han asked in a familiar tone, like someone who had experienced it once. Maybe because I expected everything to go smoothly, my tension was less than before.

We walked briskly to the field. The woman was circling in the rain.

Compared to the abyss creature, her visual wasn’t threatening. Her story itself was pitiful, so the kids showed some sympathy and approached cautiously.

Once we got close enough, I motioned the kids back and walked forward alone, carrying the family photo.

The woman kept circling the field, even as I came near. Raindrops passed through her body and fell onto the grass.

“Excuse me… This is your family photo. Please take it.”

I called out to get her attention, then carefully extended my arm, placing the photo into her embrace.

But the glass frame, which I naturally expected her to accept, shattered with a clamorous crash.

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