Chapter 2484 – 2484. Devil’S Game
“To Mr. Seong Yu-jin.
We offer you a chance to change your life.
We invite you to the Devil’s Game.
The game will begin at midnight tonight.
There is no right to refuse.”
I looked around the envelope, but there was no sender.
‘Is this some kind of chain letter? What a loser with nothing better to do.’
It was strange that it was left on the stairs when there was a mailbox at the building entrance.
‘Well, the mailbox is full of debt collection notices, so I’ve been deliberately ignoring it. It just makes me feel uneasy when I see them.’
A sudden thought struck me.
The letter was openly placed on the stairs, yet there were no signs that the thugs had touched it. It was a letter with my name on it, so they would have tried to take a look.
‘I don’t have time for this. I need to run before they catch me.’
I had just impulsively killed someone. The realization made my heart pound. The uneasy beating was quite unpleasant. I felt like throwing up.
I threw away the black letter and went outside. The sky was still bright.
‘Where should I go?’
I have no family. I lost contact with my relatives and friends a long time ago. The factory owner and my coworkers? We weren’t that close. We only talked briefly while working. Especially the owner, he wasn’t a nice guy, not even as a formality. He was notorious for shorting the foreign workers’ pay.
‘That crazy bastard even tried to steal my pay because I made a mistake. …Thinking about it, it pisses me off. Should I go kill him?’
I am already a murderer who has committed murder. Killing one or two more people here won’t change anything. Or will I be called a serial killer, Seong Yu-jin?
‘If I make the Republic of Korea tremble as a serial killer, that would be quite an achievement.’
I’m still a bit scared, but I don’t think I can’t kill.
Beep beep beep!
A police car appeared.
I was startled and tensed up. I reflexively checked the alleyway. An alleyway I had never been to before. If I went in there and hid, wouldn’t I be able to avoid the police?
Fortunately, the police car passed by. It wasn’t even heading towards my place.
‘My place is a basement. Unless they come inside, the body won’t be discovered. It’s not like the body will immediately decompose and stink….’
It wasn’t summer yet.
It would be okay until the loan shark, feeling something was off, sent another thug to find me.
‘Damn it…. Where the hell should I go? I’m hungry too….’
Even if I wanted to go kill Park Tae-san, I wouldn’t be able to get into his apartment. If I contacted him, he would definitely ignore me. Since that day, Park Tae-san has been completely ignoring me.
‘I don’t want to die without even getting to sleep with Park Tae-san’s girlfriend….’
My hands trembled at the thought of murder. Fear. And excitement. Murder. I committed a crime that ordinary people can’t. The fact that I did it made me feel strangely elated. It felt like I had become stronger?
‘…I’ve crossed the line.’
A line I can never return from.
It’s just that my future has disappeared. My shitty life has just become even shittier.
Thinking that way made me feel a little better. Rather, I felt relieved. It felt like I could do anything.
‘This damn Korea… why are there so many cameras.’
Cameras that I didn’t even know existed were constantly catching my eye. There were even cameras inside the alleyway. If I stayed like this, I would probably be caught by the police tonight or tomorrow.
‘If I go down to the countryside, where it’s not Seoul, and live like a dead mouse, they won’t be able to track me, right?’
Wouldn’t becoming a natural man in a suitable mountain be a good idea?
‘No. Don’t be weak. Let’s go short and thick. Kill Park Tae-san, sleep with Park Tae-san’s girlfriend, and then commit suicide.’
I had no intention of living my life in fear of the police coming.
As I passed through the alleyway, I saw a small supermarket. I glanced inside and saw that there was no one there.
Grumble.
‘I’m hungry.’
My feet turned towards the supermarket. I just killed someone, so what’s a little theft?
‘I don’t know how to open the cash register…. Let’s just grab some ramen and food. They even have bags.’
They had everything.
Of course, they also had kitchen knives.
‘The thugs might come after me. And I need a knife to kill Park Tae-san.’
I grabbed five kitchen knives that looked decent. Taking more would be too heavy. I drank a can of cola and grabbed some ramen and hot bars. If it were a convenience store, they would have had triangle kimbap… unfortunately, the supermarket didn’t have any.
‘I’m so nervous that the owner might come. If the owner comes now… if I run, he’ll chase me… it would be better to kill him, right?’
Fortunately, the supermarket owner didn’t show up. I ate the stolen snacks and banana milk while walking. If I stopped, it felt like the police or the thugs would come after me.
I checked Park Tae-san’s Instagram.
A new post had appeared. It was a photo of him and his girlfriend at a Japanese ramen restaurant.
‘You fucking bastard.’
He wasn’t even in Korea.
How could the timing be so awful?
I couldn’t help but sigh.
‘……It doesn’t say when he’s coming back…. Should I go to a brothel? I have 50,000 won in emergency funds, would that be enough?’
Forget the police and the thugs, shouldn’t I lose my virginity before I die?
If all else fails, it wouldn’t be bad to find a beautiful woman and rape her.
‘But if I’m going to rape someone, it’s more advantageous to do it to a really pretty woman. Like… a celebrity.’
There was the problem of where to find a celebrity… but couldn’t I just wait in front of their agency building and then chase after them?
“Haa.”
What should I do?
I sat blankly in a deserted alleyway. I had nowhere to sleep right now. I took out my smartphone and went to a community site, which was the only joy in my miserable life.
「I just killed someone and I’m on the run.
I have nowhere to go….
What should I do? I have 50,000 won.」
「01: Wow! A murderer!」
「02: Turn yourself in and find enlightenment.」
「03: What kind of attention-seeking is this?」
‘Three comments already. These guys must have nothing better to do either.’
I wrote the post, but honestly, it was garbage. I wouldn’t have clicked on it if I had seen the title.
I spent time searching for things like how to escape after murder, murder sentences, brothel locations, celebrity addresses, and so on.
‘I need to save my smartphone battery….’
I couldn’t stop.
If I didn’t do this, I would go crazy with anxiety.
Time passed. I ate some raw ramen for dinner and roughly filled my stomach.
‘I don’t want to live with smelly homeless people… I should go into a suitable empty house and live there.’
I saw a few houses that looked like they would be empty.
Time passed meaninglessly… it was one minute before 12 o’clock.
The contents of the black letter I saw a few hours ago came to mind.
‘The game starts at midnight? I guess they’ll start without me. Well, the letter didn’t even say where the game would start. But who the hell sent that letter?’
No matter how much I thought about it, there was no one who would play such a prank on me.
The moment the clock on my smartphone hit 12:00.
I, who had broken the window of an empty house and sneaked in to lie down, jumped up from my spot.
The surrounding scenery had changed. Desks and chairs lined up in a wide space. There was a blackboard in front, and lockers and bulletin boards in the back.
“…A school?”
I muttered in disbelief.
What was even more absurd was that the sky was bright. The clock on the wall showed that it was 12 PM.
-Ding dong ding dong.
A broadcast sound came from the speakers on the ceiling.
-Hello, game participants. Welcome.
A distorted male voice.
-You will be playing a game with your lives on the line. If you win the game, your life will change for the better.
I had seen similar situations in manga before.
‘Am I dreaming?’
I clenched my fist tightly. I felt pain. Come to think of it, I had nothing in my hands. My smartphone was gone too.
-This game is about survival. If you survive for 3 hours, you will be the winners.
‘Survive? From what?’
I looked out the window. It seemed to be about 3 or 4 stories high. I could see an empty schoolyard. Beyond that was the school gate.
And there was nothing outside the school gate. Not figuratively, but literally nothing. Only darkness. The sun was shining brightly, but it seemed like the light didn’t reach outside the school gate. It was clearly strange.
‘Something like in a manga or drama is actually happening.’
Thump thump.
My heart was pounding, but my head was cool.
‘I did think that something like this might happen someday….’
What should I do?
Should I hide? If so, where?
Thump thump.
Footsteps echoed. I was startled and looked around. The only places to hide in this classroom were… the cleaning supply closet in the corner and under the teacher’s desk in front of the classroom.
‘Shit. Even if I were the culprit, I would definitely check those two places first.’
It was as if there was nowhere to hide.
‘I’ll fight. I’ve killed a person before. There’s no way I’d be afraid of this.’
Contrary to what I thought, my hands were still trembling.
Creak.
The back door of the classroom opened, and a huge man in black clothes entered. He was holding kitchen knives in both hands. He had a square face that looked like he was in his late 30s. Feeling strangely familiar, I threw a chair at him.
He didn’t dodge. He raised his arms to block the chair and approached me. He wasn’t running, he was walking. His steps exuded a sense of composure. It was as if he believed he had an overwhelming advantage in this fight.
No, he didn’t even see it as a fight. He was hunting.
I created some distance and threw chairs and desks at him. He tried to avoid them, unlike before, but… every single one hit him.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t dodge, but it felt like I was hitting him well.
‘Have I always been this good at aiming?’
I grabbed the end of a chair and lifted it.
For a moment, it felt like the world was slowing down. What should I call this phenomenon?
‘…It felt like this when I killed that thug too.’
I threw the chair. Just because the world slowed down didn’t mean my body became faster.
Thwack!
The man, hit by the chair, charged at me as if he couldn’t take it anymore. I, holding a chair, had a slightly longer reach than the man with kitchen knives in both hands. Instinctively, I measured the distance and swung the chair, beating him.
Sweat ran down my cheeks. I thought my body had been trained from working at the factory… but my body was tense, and I was already tired even though only a few minutes had passed.
“Kuaaaaaaaak!”
The man, enraged, screamed and charged.
It was the moment I gritted my teeth. The world slowed down again. I could see the direction the man was moving and the movement of his knives.
The most noticeable thing was the man’s knee. It was as if it was telling me to kick it. So I did.
Thud!
I kicked the man’s knee with all my might. He lost his balance and fell to the side. I dodged to the side and slammed the back of his head with a desk.
The man who fell to the floor didn’t move.
‘Is he dead? Or did he just pass out?’
Twitch.
The man’s body just moved.
My body reacted before I could think. I hit the man’s head repeatedly with the chair.
My attack only stopped after blood was gushing from the man’s head. All the strength drained from my body.
‘I killed that thug more easily… what is this guy?’
I took the two kitchen knives from the man’s hands and flipped over his body to check his belongings. I thought he might have a smartphone, but… there was nothing.
‘This face… where have I seen it before?’
I remembered.
Jang Hwi-chun, the serial killer who shook the Republic of Korea 10 years ago!
He killed a total of 17 people and made the Republic of Korea tremble. There were even rumors about him.
‘Why is a guy who should be rotting in prison here?’
I couldn’t figure it out no matter how much I thought about it.
‘Let’s move. There might be his colleagues.’
