Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Hey. What are you doing—”

I was about to tap Han Siwoo on the back when he suddenly clamped a hand over my mouth.

“Mmph...!”

My eyes widened at the unexpected action.

Han Siwoo gave me a desperate look, then motioned with his eyes toward the corner beside us.

What kind of joke is this now?

I looked in the direction he was indicating, clearly annoyed.

What... is that?

For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

My thoughts completely stopped.

I stared blankly ahead and slowly blinked, wondering if I had somehow imagined what I was seeing.

But the scene in front of me didn't change.

What I saw was some bizarre creature...

Eating a person.

It seemed to walk upright like a human, but there was absolutely no way it was human.

Even at a rough estimate, the enormous creature had to be more than two and a half meters tall.

It had no hair.

Its entire body was packed with muscle.

And its skin was green.

It held a human arm in one hand and was tearing into it as if it were nothing more than a piece of meat.

A freezing shiver ran through my entire body.

I swallowed the fear rising all the way to my throat and desperately tried to organize my chaotic thoughts.

CG?

Or maybe a hologram?

I gathered every bit of knowledge and experience I had accumulated throughout my life, desperately trying to come up with the most realistic explanation.

But then—

Crack.

That horrifyingly vivid sound came again, crushing every possibility I had tried to come up with.

It didn't matter what that thing was.

Every one of my senses was screaming the same thing.

Run.

That was when it happened.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?”

Lee Dohyeon's voice suddenly came from behind us.

My heart nearly dropped out of my chest.

I was so startled that I instinctively covered my own mouth, terrified that I might scream.

—Krrrk?

The monster that had been eating the person must have heard him.

It turned its head toward us.

I thought my heart had stopped.

I held my breath.

Fortunately, Han Siwoo had also covered Lee Dohyeon's mouth, preventing him from making another sound.

—Chweeeeeek.

A strange noise, like a mixture of a snake's hiss and a reptile's growl, crawled into my ears.

Goosebumps spread across my skin, and every hair on my body stood on end.

My pulse thundered in my ears.

I was almost afraid the monster would hear my heartbeat.

Trembling, I squeezed my eyes shut.

The silence was fragile, like a sandcastle that could collapse with a single kick.

When it heard nothing else, the monster returned its attention to eating the person.

Crunch. Crunch.

The unmistakable sound of bones being chewed made me slowly open my eyes again.

But the sight before me was even more horrific.

I never imagined there would come a day when I would see the inside of a human body like this.

Can we escape...?

The monster was only a few dozen centimeters away from us.

If we didn't make any footsteps, maybe we could get away without being noticed.

I swallowed hard and was about to turn my head when something entered my vision.

Creak.

Like a rusty robot, I slowly forced my neck to turn.

I stared at the corpse the monster was eating, unable to believe my eyes.

Professor...?

Most of the face had already been torn apart, making it impossible to identify.

But I could see the mint-colored shirt the professor had been wearing earlier.

I bit my lip hard.

My trembling lips wouldn't stop shaking.

Tears gathered in my eyes.

What is that?

What the hell is that thing...?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

There's no way this is some kind of movie shoot.

I almost wanted to cry.

Then someone tapped my shoulder.

I nearly screamed.

It was incredibly fortunate that I already had my hand covering my mouth.

“Shh.”

I carefully turned my head.

Han Siwoo was pointing behind us with his index finger.

Understanding his signal, I quickly nodded.

I glanced back at the monster, worried that it might have noticed us.

Thankfully, it seemed completely focused on devouring the corpse and showed no interest in our direction.

Barely daring to breathe, we slowly and silently retraced our steps.

Only when we had put some distance between ourselves and the monster did the breath I'd been holding finally escape.

“Why do you guys look like that? Was there something over there?”

“Hey! Shh, shh!”

Kang Woojin greeted us with that question, but Lee Dohyeon urgently covered his mouth.

He grabbed him roughly and dragged him toward the lecture room.

“Mmph...! Wh-What the hell!”

Kang Woojin frowned deeply.

Lee Dohyeon gave him a grave warning.

“Keep your damn voice down. You have no idea what we just saw over there...!”

“Mmph! Ah, whew! Why are you suddenly covering my mouth?!”

Kang Woojin shoved Lee Dohyeon's hand away and rubbed his mouth roughly, clearly irritated.

“Let's go back to the lecture room first.”

Han Siwoo and I nodded seriously in agreement with Lee Dohyeon's suggestion.

Seeing our expressions, Kang Woojin's face also became serious.

“What? Why...? What's wrong with all of you?”

He kept asking questions all the way back to the lecture room, but no one answered him.

None of us were in the right state of mind to do so.

While Han Siwoo opened the lecture room door, I glanced toward the other classrooms.

Now I had a rough idea.

I understood why every door had been locked.

Just like the other lecture rooms, the moment we entered ours, we hurriedly locked the door behind us.

Click.

Only after confirming that the door was locked did I collapse onto the floor.

“Fuck... What the hell was that thing?”

Lee Dohyeon seemed to have lost all strength too.

Still gripping the doorknob, he crouched down on the floor with his face twisted.

What exactly had that monster been?

A movie shoot?

Some massive event?

If it was the first, then that movie was definitely going to be a huge success.

If it was the second, then the event had certainly succeeded in shocking us.

But if it was neither of those...

“What the hell happened?!”

Perhaps thinking we were intentionally leaving him out, Kang Woojin struck his chest in frustration.

Lee Dohyeon roughly rubbed both hands over his face, showing his own frustration.

But he was clearly terrified too.

The tips of his fingers were trembling slightly.

“I don't fucking know. I don't know, okay...?”

“If you don't know, then you shouldn't have started talking in the first place. Why are you swearing at me?”

Their argument was getting more heated.

I understood how they felt, but this wasn't the time for us to fight among ourselves.

For all we knew, that monster might hear us.

I was about to get up and stop them when someone else stepped forward first.

“What's wrong with you guys?”

It was Kang Haneul, the class representative from our department.

She looked at us in confusion.

Her words seemed to remind Lee Dohyeon of something.

He hurriedly moved away from the door.

“Everyone, get away from the door. Just in case!”

“What do you mean, 'just in case'? At least explain what's going on properly.”

Kang Haneul looked back and forth between the grumbling Kang Woojin and Lee Dohyeon before focusing on Kang Woojin.

“Hey, you tell me. Did something happen outside?”

“I don't know. I didn't see anything. Those three went out, saw something, and came back with their faces completely white... Wait. Is this some kind of event?”

Han Siwoo finally spoke.

“It's not an event. And it's definitely not a joke.”

“Then what is it?”

“Ha... I'll just tell them.”

Lee Dohyeon roughly ran his hands through his hair and looked around at everyone inside the lecture room.

The others watched him with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance, waiting for him to speak.

Finally, he spoke through clenched teeth.

“Whether you believe me or not is up to you. But I'll give you one warning. Do not go anywhere near this door.”

“Then tell us what the hell is going on! How are we supposed to decide whether to believe you if you won't even say anything?!”

“I was just about to—”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The door right beside us suddenly began to shake.

Everyone stopped talking and stared at it.

Then a desperate voice came from the other side.

“P-Please save me! Please! Please open the door...!”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bangbangbang!

No...!

We absolutely can't open that door.

That monster we had seen earlier was definitely out there.

The fear I had barely managed to suppress began creeping back up.

I bit my lip hard.

“Wh-What...?”

Realizing that something was seriously wrong, nobody dared to move carelessly.

Perhaps the strange situation itself had caused everyone to instinctively hold their breath.

I inhaled shortly and spoke in a low voice.

“Don't open the door. No matter what. Unless you all want to die.”

“D-Die?”

Someone looked at me in shock.

Still, everyone slowly began moving away from the door.

Thank goodness.

Of course, I knew.

You were supposed to save someone who was in danger.

You weren't supposed to sacrifice another person just to save yourself.

That was the morality we had been taught.

But I couldn't do it.

I didn't possess enough morality to open that door and risk my own life for someone whose face I had never even seen.

More precisely...

I simply didn't want to.

I wasn't some overwhelmingly righteous person.

And unfortunately for whoever was outside...

My own life was more important to me.

I carefully looked around at everyone.

I was afraid someone might refuse to believe me and open the door anyway.

Those of us who had actually seen the monster knew what was waiting outside.

But among the people who hadn't seen it, there was always the possibility that at least one person would act on their own.

But it turned out I had worried for nothing.

Everyone stood frozen in place, staring at the door as it continued to shake.

Not a single person approached it.

My eyes, which had been scanning the room, returned to the door.

The faint sound of sobbing continued from outside.

The pounding against the door gradually grew weaker.

“Please... Please...”

Those words continued weakly, threatening to fade away at any moment.

But there was nothing I could do for that person.

All I could do was hope they somehow escaped from the monster safely.

That hope was never fulfilled.

“N-No...!”

The sobbing turned into a scream.

The knocking stopped completely.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

CRUNCH.

Beyond the solid metal door, something sounded like bones being violently snapped apart.

THUD!

Scrape—

Scrape—

Something heavy was dragged across the floor.

At the same time, heavy footsteps that didn't sound human moved alongside it in an uneven rhythm.

Until those sounds completely disappeared...

No one.

Not a single person...

Said a word.