I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game

The hospital was farther away than I had thought.

I had encountered over 20 wolves on my way here, and my shoulders were sore from subduing them without killing them.

It was a lot, yet also not that many.

If they had formed a pack, I would have had to fight even more wolves.

...Don't wolves usually live in packs?

I gently touched the door, which had been left unattended for so long that it was covered in mold and dampness.

The unpleasant texture suggested that it had been in a similar state even before this situation arose.

I forcefully pushed open the old door. The sound of metal scraping, like something out of a horror movie, grated on my ears.

Upon entering the hospital, I realized that the air here was half dust and half silence.

In other words, it looked like there was nothing here.

I walked past the reception desk and headed toward the patient isolation rooms.

If the wolf transformation phenomenon had occurred, wouldn't people have tried to come to the hospital before fully turning into wolves?

Imagining a werewolf tightly bound and isolated, I opened the door in one swift motion.

Is there no one here?

"Nothing. But..."

The scattered wolf fur on the bed hinted that a wolf had been here.

Or... Perhaps it had been tied up.

I also noticed occasional bloodstains and unidentified drugs rolling around on the floor, which made me think that the first wolf I encountered might have escaped from here.

"This feels like solving a mystery game... If James, who went missing, also turned into a wolf, he might have passed through here."

Recalling the gun, fedora, and clothes James often used, I began searching for similar items.

Unfortunately, after rummaging through the entire patient room, I found nothing that seemed to belong to James.

I hadn't even thought of using the monsters, and while I was frantically searching like I was in an escape room, I noticed that it was time for the kids to return from school.

I opened a portal through the mirror and called the kids out.

"Alice, you're late!"

I had promised to open a portal when school ended, but an hour had already passed, so Eun-jeong pouted and scolded me.

"Sorry, I was looking for clues."

"By the way, where is this?"

"Troyes, France. A romantic city that still retains the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. But now it's covered in forests..."

"Really. There are so many trees!"

Eun-jeong approached the window and, without noticing how dirty the windowsill was, pressed her face against it and started admiring the view.

Her eyes sparkled at the fascinating sight.

But soon, she sensed the eerie atmosphere and quickly came back to me.

"So... How did this happen?"

Ha-rim was eager to get to the point.

When nervous, she tends to get impatient.

Ha-rim is the most flexible when it comes to dealing with supernatural phenomena, but she's also the quickest to get tense.

"It's Little Red Riding Hood's doing. Another Tale Devil. She created a vast forest and turned tens of thousands of people into wolves. James also went missing here." ɽᴀ𝐍Ô𝖇Ëṥ

"Uncle James?"

James had hardly interacted with the kids since I transformed like this.

Still, the kids exchanged glances as they seemed worried about James.

I could tell what they were thinking from the anxiety in their eyes.

"Kids, ominous thoughts can wait until we face the outcome. And if he turned into a wolf, there's a good chance he's still alive."

After all, because it is a monster, it is strong.

"That's true... Hmph! Okay. Let's find Uncle James and the devil Little Red Riding Hood."

Suho stretched once and spoke confidently.

I handed over the little information I had gathered here to the kids.

"When I first came here, I saw a wolf with a syringe stuck in it. Someone was experimenting on the wolves. Whether they were trying to cure or kill them."

"So that's why you came to the hospital."

As soon as Ha-rim heard this, she quickly realized that this place was worth investigating.

She opened the bag she always carried and started rummaging through drawers, closets, and trash bins.

It's amazing how something always comes out when she touches it.

A wad of paper, a syringe with a name tag, moldy bread.

"Ha-rim, your searching speed is getting slower..."

When I asked why she was picking up rotten bread, she said something about preparing for extreme situations.

I threw the bread out the window.

My beloved candy, confiscated for being unsanitary... Everyone might have forgotten, but I still remember!

It's from the time when I was Ella, but I've kept it in my heart all this time.

This is revenge!

"...Hmm."

Ha-rim, who had been stopped from picking up the bread, was now carefully examining something.

"Did you find something?"

"Yeah. But it's just a regular newspaper."

It was written in French, so of course, I couldn't read it.

Even though Ha-rim is smart, there's no way she knows French either!

"Hmm... Mysterious bodies found in a tavern... And a religious group wandering around at night..."

"What! Ha-rim, do you know French too?!"

"Huh? No. I used a mobile translation app."

"Oh."

I hadn't thought of that.

Feeling awkward, I silently read the newspaper next to Ha-rim.

It was mostly about everyday stories and criticizing politicians.

Same old, same old.

...There was also an article about a door-shaped artwork made by someone named Rodin being stolen.

They stole 7 of them. Their skills are good.

It probably has nothing to do with our situation.

"Alice~"

While we were reading the newspaper, Suho, Kyeong-min, and Eun-jeong, who had been exploring downstairs, called me.

"There seems to be a basement here?"

"A classic."

Basements have a devilish charm.

In horror movies, it's an unspoken rule that all the world's secret affairs happen in basements.

We headed straight to the basement.

"Let's see, it's full of medicine. Like a witch's potion, there's no label indicating the ingredients..."

Half excited, we entered the basement, but again, there was nothing particularly noticeable.

Just more wolf fur and syringes.

Nothing that would clearly tell us what had happened here.

Boring. As I pouted, Ha-rim pointed somewhere as if to console me.

"Doesn't it smell fishy?"

"There's seafood over there!"

Following the kids' gestures, I found a box with flies swarming around smelly fish.

Well, parts of fish, to be precise.

It looked like the skin of the fish had been cut off and stored separately.

It didn't seem like they were planning to eat it... And there were no signs of any experiments being conducted.

And for something cut off, the size was quite large... The original fish must have been the size of a tuna.

"..."

Every time I saw the fish flesh, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

It felt like I had seen something similarly fishy and unclean somewhere before.

Probably in Pinocchio's subconscious...

Boom-!!!

"!!! That loud sound just now..."

"Let's go out. Since the sound is fading, it doesn't seem like they're attacking us."

I stopped my train of thought and immediately turned toward the direction of the sound.

In this situation, the commotion was a clue rolling toward us.

Well aware of this, we ran outside without hesitation.

As we stumbled out the front door, about 20 meters away, a wolf much larger than any I had seen before was howling and attacking someone.

"That wolf is huge!"

The wolf, about twice the size of a car, swung its front paws, exuding an overwhelming sense of intimidation.

The person skillfully dodging its attacks was a man dressed entirely in black, holding a cane.

Even though he wore a fish mask, his build was large enough to tell he was a man.

"@#$@$ @@ $ 2 ##%$!!!"

He was saying something to us, but since it was in French, I had no idea.

We used a mobile translation app.

"Hmm... He's asking for help?"

"I could tell even without translation."

We couldn't just leave him like that.

Kyeong-min took out his book and quickly summoned chains.

He then grabbed the chains and started using them like a whip.

When an item with a set purpose starts being used in various ways according to the child's preference...

I couldn't help but smile faintly.

"Letting it escape would be easier, so restraining it would be stupid..."

Using the long range of the chains, he lashed out at the wolf from a distance.

Despite being made of something like steel, it didn't seem heavy as he swung it lightly.

Moreover, it seemed to have elasticity like a real whip.

What is this, really?

I had felt it during the time we were testing their abilities, but the kids' weapons had gone beyond their original forms.

Perhaps it was the result of moving beyond a small game and seeking fun on a larger stage with me.

Grrrrrr...

The wolf's reaction to being hit by the whip was anger.

If it were just a beast, it would have shown signs of retreating, but it was consumed by pure anger without any fear, charging recklessly.

Even though it had the form of a wolf, it was clear that it wasn't truly a beast.

"Urgh..."

Kyeong-min, who had intended to drive it away, looked troubled.

The wolf monster would keep charging unless directly defeated.

"Then..."

Ha-rim rummaged through her bag and combined some items.

What she pulled out was something called [Blind Killer].

To anyone, it was an ominous mass of tentacles that no sane person would approach.

It's a trap that's so easy to avoid that even the average person can sense it, and it's actually easy to avoid even if you can't see.

Though used as an item, it was originally a trap-type monster that lived on the ground.

Ha-rim casually lifted the creepy tentacles and hurled them at the wolf.

"Right. You won't notice an obvious trap."

The wolf, feeling no fear, walked right into the trap.

The tentacles stretched out and wrapped around the wolf, crushing it as if trying to squeeze it to death.

It seemed harder to crush than expected, as the tentacles anchored themselves to the ground and slammed the wolf down.

Leaving the unconscious wolf behind, we approached the man.

The man, who had narrowly escaped death, spoke to us, and we turned on the translator again.

{Thank you for saving me. I almost died.}

Hmm. As expected from a translator, the tone was awkward.

I hope no information was lost. I should avoid relying too much on the translator's performance.

{...At a glance, you're not ordinary people.}

"???"

"He seems to think we're suspicious."

Who's he to talk?

Though it's understandable that he's surprised by our use of strange powers, it's not something a man dressed as a plague doctor in modern times should say.

I asked pointedly.

"Who are you, wandering around here? Your mask is also very suspicious."

After using the translator to convey my words, the man replied.

{Personally, I find it more suspicious that you're wandering around here as if it's your home... First, I'm a doctor.}

"A doctor?"

{Yes. Do you know about the phenomenon of humans turning into wolves?}

"I know."

{I don't know why such an extraordinary event suddenly occurred, but I know that the government doesn't have the power to solve this problem. So, I'm trying to solve it my way.}

A doctor, huh.

The long-beaked fish mask might be a substitute for a mask.

He seems to consider the wolf transformation a disease and is trying to minimize contact.

Well, it's hard to tell if it's a respiratory infection or something transmitted through the skin.

"Really? It's commendable that you're risking yourself for a greater cause, but it might also be reckless."

{I have to. There's no one else.}

He showed me a necklace he was wearing.

In the center of the necklace was a miniature frame containing a photo of a young boy.

Hmm... This is.

{I will save my son with my own hands. I won't wait for someone else to come and cure him.}

That's a clear motivation.

I can't deny the courage of risking one's life for a loved one, so I might as well take him along and gather some information.

"...Alright. Then, is that hospital over there yours?"

{No. But I've used it. The wolves I've tried to treat are elsewhere.}

"Then can you take us there? We came here to solve this phenomenon."

The man nodded and led the way.

We followed him, whispering among ourselves.

"His son turned into a wolf... It's sad."

Eun-jeong said with a pitying expression.

But Kyeong-min seemed to think differently.

"But he's still a suspicious person. If something seems off, we'll have to subdue him immediately."

"Kyeong-min, are you a T?"¹

...

"A tavern, like a secret base."

{It's romantic. The nostalgia for secret bases from childhood clearly continues into adulthood. Or it could be a haven for drug dealers!}

"The latter seems more likely."

The place we followed the man into was a tavern connected to a secret passage.

It's unfamiliar in Korea, but it seems to be a space that exists abroad.

Or maybe not!

{Would you like some juice?}

"I was taught not to accept things from strangers."

I said while flipping my hair, acting aloof.

It also meant not to do anything unnecessary since we were still on guard.

{Well taught. But sometimes doing bad things is good. Even if it leads to hell, it's still good in its own way.}

When I refused, the man didn't hesitate and drank the juice himself.

It was infuriating how he seemed to be purely complimenting me.

Meanwhile, Eun-jeong asked for some and got a chestnut.

After we refused the drinks, the man quickly showed us the results of his efforts so far.

"...! They've partially turned back into humans!"

What he showed us were the wolves he had tried to treat.

Scattered among them were wolves with patches of human skin visible, glaring at us.

The wolves with returned skin looked like hairless cats, but those with only their skeletons turned back were indescribably grotesque.

It was hard to believe that an ordinary person could solve this bizarre phenomenon through experiments.

A supernatural phenomenon cured by medicine?

If this was caused by a simple pathogen rather than Little Red Riding Hood's power, the Institution that failed to solve it would be turned upside down and forever remember this as a dark past.

"But... This is."

{Does it sound more like an experiment than treatment? How can I make medicine without testing it on humans, when it only affects humans?}

They were wearing collars like identification tags and were confined in spaces barely large enough to lie down, like livestock.

It wasn't a pleasant sight, especially since they were once human...

As I took in each of them, I noticed a wolf that hadn't been treated yet.

Unlike the others, it was tied to a bed in a slightly larger space.

"That one."

Grrrrrr...

When I asked, the man answered clearly.

{That's my son.}

He must have wanted to give his own flesh and blood some special treatment.

A father's love, I guess.

What does it feel like to be a loved son?

I was lost in thought for a moment.

"Pssst~"

Then Ha-rim blew into my ear.

"Eek?! What are you doing! That tickles."

As I flinched and got angry, the man looked at us.

Ha-rim shrugged and pretended not to know, saying she'd show us something else and told us to follow.

The kids followed the man, but Ha-rim didn't respond and kept tapping my shoulder.

She wanted to investigate on her own.

"...It might be dangerous."

"Don't worry. I'll contact you right away. And... If we just follow this guy around, we won't get close to any secrets, right?"

Ha-rim's point was that if this man was hiding something from us, just following him around wouldn't get us closer to the truth.

Ha-rim's reaction isn't unreasonable.

He's wandering alone without even a self-defense gun.

And he managed to capture all these wolves? It doesn't make sense.

It's also strange that he's the only one unharmed.

I nodded to Ha-rim and whispered that if she found no clues, she should come back immediately.

"Okay! Leave it to me!"

She's so spirited.