Chapter 38: The Demon God Encounters an Uninvited Guest

The extra who could not be reached by the PD’s radio.

Rough breaths filled the inside of the hockey mask he wore.

It was only natural that the radio didn’t work.

Because his true identity was not that of an extra.

Earlier today, he had finally accomplished something he had only imagined for a long time.

He had taken the sashimi knife he’d bought and run through the streets.

As he did, the peaceful city was dyed with screams of terror.

He didn’t know how he had ended up here after that.

In fact, he didn’t even know how he had managed to pull off the rampage in the first place.

The world was full of things he didn’t understand.

Only one thing was certain.

A desire once awakened would not subside.

This time, he didn’t just want to hear screams; he wanted to see blood!

Screams, blood, and pain!

Ah, one more certain thing.

He still had the sashimi knife.

He had tucked it securely into his waistband, still in its sheath.

Ah, and another.

Upon regaining his senses, he realized this place seemed to be a school.

And one more thing.

It seemed there were people wandering around nearby.

One more.

Those people wouldn’t know that he was the culprit behind the stabbing spree.

“…….”

Recalling it all, there were quite a lot of certain things….

***

“Sun-woo-ssi and Yoon-seo-ssi, you two go in first. We’ll film your experience and then get the interviews.”

The staff member explained as they moved toward the main building after filming the shot at the front gate of the abandoned school.

“Yes, we’ll do our best!”

“I am looking forward to it.”

Yoon-seo and the Demon God replied respectively.

The staff member gave a thumbs up.

“Great. The director will edit it to be very entertaining.”

“Thank you.”

“Tell him that if he fails to do it properly, I shall punish him. It will be severe.”

The staff member stared blankly at the Demon God.

Coincidentally, he was someone who didn’t know much about Pantheon.

Thoughts like ‘Is this a concept? If so, what kind of concept is it? Why stay in character when the cameras aren’t rolling? And why stay in character with me?’ flashed quickly through his mind.

“Well, hurry up and head inside.”

Since it was just a one-time job together, he decided not to worry about it too much.

The staff member pushed the Demon God toward the door of the main building.

“Oh.”

“Ugh….”

Before the Demon God and Yoon-seo, a building filled with an eerie energy revealed itself.

The main building looked as if it had suddenly risen above the water fog drifting over from the reservoir.

Dim moonlight flowed over the dingy, discolored walls.

Yoon-seo let out a slightly frightened voice.

“I didn’t realize because we came here in such a rush to prepare, but this place is really…”

“Cozy.”

Yoon-seo shut his mouth.

He had learned that when something is absurd enough, fear tends to vanish a little.

“Let us go.”

The Demon God opened the door to the main building in a pleasant mood.

In the past, his cult used to use places like this as their headquarters.

He wondered how it would be to hold future fan meetings or fan signings in a place like this.

Of course, regardless of the location, it would all be over once he regained his strength and exercised his authority.

“Hmph.”

Entering the building, the Demon God entertained thoughts that would make the people at Origin leap in shock.

Crunch. He began to walk, stepping on scraps of paper scattered on the floor.

Yoon-seo watched the Demon God for a moment, shook his head, and followed.

“I, I have to work hard….”

The Demon God didn’t care at all about the darkness that others would find difficult to take even a single step in, and Yoon-seo moved by relying on him.

Toward their first destination, the biology lab.

And.

All of this was being observed by the PD through cameras placed throughout the school.

“The visuals are excellent, as expected.”

Even though the extras hadn’t appeared yet, the footage was coming out looking very frightening.

Writer Park Ji-hyeon had been sent to check on the hockey mask extra who wasn’t responding.

He felt bad about sending the writer personally, but it couldn’t be helped since they were short-staffed for a web variety show like this.

On the screen, Sun-woo and Yoon-seo were currently entering the biology lab.

“Alright, let’s create a good jump scare.”

***

“Sun-woo hyung, it’s that over there.”

“Oh?”

Upon arriving at the biology lab, they received a mission to find and read a letter from the hand of a human skeleton model.

The atmosphere of the skeleton model was remarkable.

Standing right in the center of the back wall of the lab, the skeleton stood grotesquely, reflecting the dim light.

Was it an illusion that its parted jaw seemed to be smiling slightly?

In front of that, even the most stout-hearted person would have no choice but to hesitate.

Snap.

The Demon God broke the skeleton model.

To be precise, he pulled the hand holding the letter so carelessly that the arm popped out.

“Sun-woo hyung!”

“…….”

The Demon God stared at it for a moment, wondering what to do, then asked Yoon-seo.

“Yoon-seo, are you able to fix this?”

“Pardon?”

Just by looking at his face, the answer was no.

But at that moment.

Opposite the skeleton, with the Demon God and Yoon-seo in between, a shadow resembling a person suddenly appeared.

An entity that hadn’t been there a second ago.

A black suit and a pale face.

“Hiiiiiiek!”

Yoon-seo screamed and collapsed to the floor.

Hollow eyes. This wasn’t makeup. There is a specific level that can be achieved with makeup. A real evil spirit had appeared.

They had to run.

However, Yoon-seo’s legs had cruelly turned to jelly.

The Demon God stepped in front of Yoon-seo.

“Hyung!”

‘Sun-woo hyung is trying to protect me—’

“You have arrived at just the right time. You, fix this.”

The Demon God calmly handed the skeleton’s arm to the extra and opened the letter.

Faced with such a natural command.

“Ah, yes.”

The extra dressed as an evil spirit answered reflexively.

It took about three seconds for him to suddenly snap back to his senses.

‘Wait, this isn’t right.’

When he had looked at his own face in the mirror, the makeup was so well done that he had been impressed with himself.

The production team’s strategy of creating tension with the bone model and then surprising them from behind had worked perfectly.

One member had collapsed in shock, but what was up with this guy?

The extra couldn’t help but stare at the Demon God.

And then.

“U-Uh, uh….”

An involuntary groan of surprise escaped him.

The mission letter had been written with glow-in-the-dark ink for the darkness.

Reflected in that faint light, the Demon God’s face was somehow cold and ominous, and above all, it inspired terror.

Even for an extra with enough courage to volunteer for an abandoned school program, it was impossible to stop the fear buried deep in the abyss of his heart from surfacing.

Bowing his body before a great demonic presence and singing a song of worship—

‘Wh-What is this? An illusion? Get it together!’

While the extra was trying to steady his mind, the Demon God finished reading the mission letter.

“It says to go to the floor above.”

He crumpled the letter and shoved it into the extra’s other hand.

Thanks to that, the faint glow from the letter disappeared as well.

Darkness should have returned.

‘What? Is there light coming from his eyes?’

The extra saw it clearly.

In this place devoid of any light.

An ominous red color was shimmering in the Demon God’s eyes.

The terror was real.

“Ugh.”

At that moment, PD Kim Ji-hu, who was watching the screen, stood up in surprise.

“Why, why is he like that? Why did he suddenly collapse?”

The extra had suddenly passed out. Was it a health problem?

However, an even more shocking scene followed on the screen.

“What? Why is he just leaving?”

Without paying any mind to the collapsed human, the Demon God left the biology lab for the next mission.

Even if it was a horror experience, he wasn’t a real ghost. He must have known it was an extra.

Beside him, the member named Yoon-seo was urgently shaking the fallen extra.

“Wh-What is this?”

‘Is that member Sun-woo actually a psychopath?’

– Yoon-seo, do not worry. He has merely fallen asleep for a moment.

– Oh? Really?

That wasn’t it.

Because the two people on the screen were having this conversation.

Sun-woo had sensed that there was nothing wrong with the fallen extra and moved on.

The PD also felt relieved upon hearing those words, but.

“Demon, please go to the biology lab and check on the evil spirit.”

He couldn’t leave a fallen person alone, so he called another extra to go to the biology lab.

And so.

When the extra dressed as a demon ran frantically toward the biology lab, the Demon God, who appeared before him, thought that filming was indeed a very hectic job.

Why was he running so busily?

“Ugh.”

The extra in the demon costume also crumbled upon seeing the Demon God in the dark hallway.

Beside the Demon God, Yoon-seo screamed.

“Hyung! This won’t do!”

“I told you, no? There is nothing wrong with his health. He is simply having a good sleep and will wake up.”

“It’s not that. Our content is going to be ruined at this rate!”

“Why is that? Did you not tell me to film it entertainingly? I am finding this quite entertaining.”

“It’s not about your entertainment!”

***

The moment even the demon extra collapsed.

PD Kim Ji-hu stood up in shock again.

“What? Is it because of Sun-woo?”

‘What is it about Sun-woo? I thought I saw a strange light earlier too.’

Something wasn’t normal.

Even now, he was just going his own way, paying no heed to the extra collapsed in the hallway.

“How do we manage this?”

Just as he was about to use the radio to consult with Writer Park Ji-hyeon, he saw the writer arriving on the third floor on the monitor.

***

That very third floor.

“Excuse me? You there in the hockey mask.”

Writer Park Ji-hyeon called out to the extra.

“Must kill. Must kill. Must kill. Must kill. Must kill.”

“Haha, you’ve got a great concept. I suppose it is scarier than just staying quiet.”

The hockey mask turned to look at the writer.

“But what are you doing here alone without a radio? Here, take this, and move to your position.”

The writer inadvertently grabbed the hockey mask’s forearm.

“What? Why are you so cold?”

The solid forearm was cold to the point that it was impossible to believe it was a human’s body temperature.

“Must kill….”

Suddenly, a voice that sounded like it was being scraped out reached her ears, sounding terrifying. Even if it was a concept, why did he keep repeating those words?

“Um, excuse me?”

“Must kill, must kill, must kill….”

Glistening eyes turned toward the writer. She got goosebumps instantly. Anyone could see that those eyes were not normal.

Shhh.

The hockey mask pulled a well-sharpened sashimi knife from behind his back.

“Aaaaaaaak!”

A scream echoed through the abandoned school.

And at that moment, everyone near the school heard the scream.

“What was that? What? What happened?”

Everyone looked up at the third floor in confusion.

And the Demon God was no exception.

“Ho?”

Yoon-seo looked at the Demon God with a face full of anxiety.

“Something must have happened.”

“It seems so. That was a fairly good scream.”

“Kyaaaaaaaa.”

The screaming didn’t end. Listening closely, it was a sound made while running away.

Yoon-seo felt a chill down his spine just from the scream.

Still, he couldn’t ignore the scream.

He looked at Sun-woo, the only person he could rely on.

“Finally, it is going to be interesting!”

“…….”

‘This hyung definitely has some kind of problem.’

He reached that same realization again, as he did every day.

Contrary to his words of enjoyment, the Demon God’s feet ran quickly toward the third floor.

“Kyaaaa!”

Soon, he found the writer running while crying, and behind her, the mask was chasing her mockingly while swinging the sashimi knife.

The Demon God shouted.

“Come this way!”

The mask shouted without discriminating his target.

“Must kill!”

The terrified writer looked at the Demon God and cried out.

“Save me!”

The Demon God also shouted.

“This is fun!”

“…….”

‘Of all the people to come help, why someone like him.’

Even in a life-or-death situation, the writer’s legs suddenly felt weak.

However, considering his own speed, the Demon God had already calculated that he could save the writer.

“Yoon-seo, take care of the writer!”

Then, as if switching places with the writer, he quickly stepped in front of the mask.

“Wh-What are you planning?”

‘Is he planning to die in my place?’

The writer turned her head.

An incredible situation was unfolding.

***

Watching the Demon God and the hockey mask on the screen, the PD also cried out in shock.

“What? What on earth is happening right now?”

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