I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 124: Collapse of Illusion

It had been a month since Carol disappeared.

I couldn’t find a single trace of her anymore.

The fact that Bellman hadn’t reappeared likely meant Carol was still somewhere in this world.

But where are you, Carol...? Maybe my sorrow reached the children, because they started worrying about me too.

Wanting to at least let it out, I told the kids everything that had happened.

“So that person named Carol... you never found her in the end?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. She’s probably somewhere we just can’t reach.”

“That must’ve been really hard for you.”

“Yeah... Honestly, it hurts. I think I got overconfident after winning so much lately.”

“Alice. You don’t need to blame yourself like that. You were caught off guard, that’s all. If you’d been properly prepared, it would’ve been over in a flash!”

“Yeah. If the conditions had been right, we could’ve taken her down. And if something like this happens again, we just have to beat it. We’ll find that Carol person too.”

“...Thanks.”

They were all doing their best to cheer me up—how could I just stay sad?

Still, emotions don’t always go the way you want them to.

Maybe I should take a walk to clear my head.

“In that case, how about going here?”

Kyung-min handed me a photo.

“This is... Japan, right? Why there?”

It was a photo of a Japanese shrine.

I wondered why he was showing this to me.

“Look closely. What do you think that gate-looking thing is?”

“That’s a torii. A gate that separates the realm of gods from the realm of humans.”

“A division between worlds.

If this person called Carol still exists somewhere in this world, I thought she might be in a mysterious space like this.

Sure, it’s all superstition—but what if it’s not?”

I understood what Kyung-min was trying to say.

Yeah. With how overflowing the world is with mysteries that are giving the Organization a migraine, we can’t say for sure that this kind of superstition is fake.

“...There’s no guarantee Carol is there, but going to investigate as a sort of walk might not be such a bad idea.”

“Exactly! Sadness won’t help us solve anything, so let’s move forward with energy!”

“...Hehe... Thanks.”

It was a suggestion made with me in mind.

I didn’t want to turn it down.

I decided I’d put aside the sadness of Carol’s disappearance for now and spend time with the kids.

“Wait—are we actually going to Japan? Hold on, give me a second to pack! I need to swing by home for my passport and...”

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Eun-jung hurriedly shoved a bunch of snacks into her backpack.

Not that it was necessary—we were going to travel via mirrors anyway.

By utilizing the Photo Ghost, we could even trace the coordinates of mirrors that had been accidentally captured in photos online.

Alternatively, we could summon mirrors at regular intervals and move through them—way faster than flying.

Both methods counted as illegal entry, though.

“You don’t need to pack anything.”

“Really? Then I’ll just grab my dad’s camera!”

After school, in the afternoon—

I opened a mirror straight to Japan using the Photo Ghost.

The scenery beyond didn’t honestly look that different from here.

Maybe because it was in a remote area.

Well then, should we step through?

“Up we go.”

We arrived in Japan through the mirror.

We could’ve gone straight to find the torii, but since this was also meant to be a walk, taking our time wouldn’t hurt.

“Hey, Alice. Do you... feel anything?”

“Feel what?”

“Like, Japan’s supposed to have a ton of yokai, right? Shouldn’t you be able to sense them?”

“Hmmm.”

Now that he mentioned it, quite a few of the ghosts I use are Japanese yokai.

Maybe it’s because there are just so many, or because they pop up in media a lot.

I should try using Korea’s Geoseunsae or Eoduksini sometime too... It feels like I’ve only been borrowing ghosts from other countries.

“...Hmm. I don’t really see anything in particular.”

“Lame...”

Sometimes, even in Korea, you’ll see ghost-like things walking around on the street, so spotting a yokai or two here wouldn’t be that strange—but it looks like there aren’t any here right now.

Or maybe the Organization already caught them all.

With no yokai in sight, the kids’ eyes naturally drifted to the street scenery instead.

“Ugh, it’s so remote. There’s nothing fun-looking here.”

“Still, the slightly different landscape is kind of cool.”

“Think they’ve got maid cafés around here?”

“Kyung-min...” “I was joking. Why so serious?”

I kinda want to visit a maid café at least once.

Though it’d be super overwhelming for someone introverted like me... having a cute person serve me snacks might not be so bad.

“I mean, Alice’s outfit even has an apron. Isn’t that kind of maid-like?”

“How’d you come to that conclusion? It’s totally different!”

“Zzzip.”

“Even if you go ‘zzzip’ with your mouth, I’m not saying any maid lines!”

I tugged on Eun-jung’s cheeks as she tried to ask something ridiculous again.

If I got caught up in this kid’s pace, I’d probably end up calling someone ‘Master’ before I knew it.

She’s always acting dumb and messing with me.

“Hey, it’s a Japanese convenience store! Let’s go inside!”

“We don’t have yen though?”

“Then we’ll just look... Gasp. Look at this.”

“What is it? ...Gasp! That’s a dirty magazine!”

Huh. I’d heard that Japanese convenience stores carried commercial smut magazines, but I thought their numbers had dropped... I guess they still have them.

Still, it’s kind of lewd to look at this first instead of the food.

The models are practically naked!

Men, I swear!

“Oh my. If this is your taste, should I take off my socks for you?”

“Stop teasing me!!”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

While I was busy teasing Kyung-min and Soo-ho, I suddenly froze.

Crap. I don’t usually mess around like this in front of the girls!

I’d let my guard down for a moment.

“Ahem!”

I quickly hid behind the boys to escape Eun-jung’s smug grin and Ha-rim’s blushing gaze.

The kids looked at me like they couldn’t believe it, but... come on, guys, protect a fellow man when he’s struggling.

After that, we wandered the streets for about two hours—laughing, teasing each other, and taking breaks—until we finally figured out the location of the torii we’d been looking for.

It was apparently on a mountain in the distance.

We decided to walk the rest of the way rather than use the mirror.

“Just sightseeing like this is so fun. The weather’s perfect. The sky’s clear. I feel truly happy.”

“Me too!”

“It would’ve been even better if I could’ve bought a manga.”

“You wouldn’t be able to read it anyway—it’s all in Japanese.”

As we talked, we basked in the warm, sunny air.

With the weather so perfect, it really felt like a dreamlike day.

...

“A dreamlike day?”

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The moment Alice thought about that phrase—“a dreamlike day”—she remembered the words of the man who’d posed as an agent... the head of the Organization.

What he’d said to her when he handed over the key.

“This is a key that only opens on a certain day and after a specific time.”

“What do you mean by ‘a certain day’?”

“The day when the world becomes dreamlike. When that day comes... I believe you’ll naturally understand what those words mean.”

And sure enough—

The key he had given me began to glow faintly, as if it had activated.

If it was glowing now...

Alice stared at it and thought:

The biggest event yet—something that had never happened before—was about to begin.

And that premonition was correct.

The atmosphere of the world shifted completely.

The transformation happened in an instant.

If one were to describe this phenomenon in elaborate terms, it could be said like this:

Stories. Legends. Urban myths. Fantasies.

They all originate from the imagination, passed from mouth to mouth.

If unlucky, they drift through the air and fail to be passed on—eventually fading away like mirages.

But isn’t that fragile, fleeting nature kind of beautiful?

Perhaps ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) what makes the world beautiful... is that it’s destined to disappear like a fantasy.

All things dark and terrifying, every beautiful story, even the songs we once hummed—just like everything else—will eventually vanish.

The moment is beautiful. And so very, very sad.

Those that truly exist may never understand that feeling.

This was the phenomenon of eight billion mirages silently dispersing.

The inversion of reality and fantasy.

Collapse of Illusion: Begin.

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