The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 92

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The Pursuer VI

10

Baekhwa Girls’ High School.

More precisely, there were quite a few signs that the “School Ghost Story” was the nest of the Void.

First and foremost, the scenery of the school was decisive evidence.

In the 89th turn, when my consciousness briefly touched upon the Lord of the Fairies, I saw the Hell of the Void, and its scenery was like this.

[The school was an abandoned building made of wood. The name Baekhwa flickered.]

[The sky was bright red. Broken windows, and birch trees with white bark extended into the school’s hallways, scratching their way through shards of glass. The school was impaled on a white stake, its body a wreck.]

No matter how I looked at it, it was the same as the school ghost story.

Of course, there were differences.

For example, the school’s name.

Originally, the Baekhwa in Baekhwa Girls’ High School meant “white flower.” Although ‘白’ (white) and ‘百’ (hundred) looked somewhat similar, they were clearly different characters.

[PR/N: Keeping the original characters here so easier to understand.]

But as I emphasized before, wordplay, or “playing with words,” is the basis of sorcery.

My theory was as follows.

The ‘white’ in Baekhwa was embodied by birch trees with white bark. Walking through the hallways of any building, whether new or old, you could see white birch trees sticking out through broken windows.

These birch trees embodied the concept of ‘white.’

The space once occupied by ‘white’ was eventually taken over by ‘hundred’, a homophone.

A simple wordplay.

Then what about the ‘flower’ in Baekhwa?

This was also simple. Despite eradicating 99 strange beings, there were only two things that did not revert to their original state at Baekhwa Girls’ High School.

The birch trees, standing like prison bars. And the red spider lilies blooming all around.

These bright red spider lilies had taken the place of the ‘flower’.

In reality, the strange beings had stolen their words, transforming ‘white flower’ into ‘red flower,’ and the world had been taken over by the Void.

No matter how many strange beings were eradicated, the name “Baekhwa” itself… the final sorcery of the strange being remained intact.

“This is my interpretation.”

“Wow… I never thought of it that way. I always wondered why the birch trees and spider lilies stayed the same while everything else returned to normal…”

Step. Step.

We were walking through an empty hospital. The ceiling, pillars, and floor were all bleached white, stretching endlessly.

Where we were. When we were.

Unable to anchor our senses, Yeohwa and I kept our awareness by talking to each other.

“The corridor just keeps repeating. Is there no exit…?”

“Hang in there a little longer.”

This was why pairs were important. Even if Yeohwa’s combat ability was much lower than mine, being together in the Void was far more advantageous than being alone.

The basic unit of the world formed by humans was not an atom, but ‘me and the other.’

“Hmm. Oh, right! Sir, how do we get rid of the birch trees and spider lilies? Can we just cut them down?”

“I tried, but they grew back.”

“Ugh…”

“They may look like trees and flowers, but they are actually strange beings. Most strange beings can be dealt with by force, but some are immune to physical attacks. For those, we need to find their weakness.”

“Weakness…”

This was why we used school desks as firewood for the victims’ funerals instead of birch trees.

Burning the body of a strange being seemed ominous. Toxic fumes from the desks were less harmful.

“But, considering all that… isn’t the weakness of the strange being ‘Baekhwa’ still unknown? It doesn’t move like other ghosts, and we don’t know what it is. Oh, does it have a weakness hidden on the 4th basement floor?”

“Close enough.”

Step. Following my footsteps, Yeohwa’s lighter steps echoed.

As I warned when we entered, Yeohwa matched my steps perfectly.

“Stop here.”

“Oh, yes.”

“You can move freely for the next ten steps. Find a comfortable position now. Make sure you take exactly ten steps.”

“…? What’s the point?”

“After ten steps, it will be exactly the 4,444th step.”

“…”

I opened the trunk and took out candles, placing them around us.

Soon, exactly 100 candles were lined up like a birch forest in the corridor. I sat in the middle of the candles, placing Yeohwa across from me.

Snap-

With a snap of my fingers, a hundred candles simultaneously ignited. It was an application of aura.

“Sir, this is…”

“Yeohwa, we’re going to perform a ritual now.”

“…”

“Have you completed your ten steps?”

“Yes.”

“You asked earlier about the weaknesses of the birch trees and spider lilies, right? The ritual we’re about to focus on will become that weakness. The ritual is simple. Have you ever told ghost stories with your friends on a summer trip?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Good. It’s just like that. You and I will take turns talking about the ghosts we’ve encountered, including the ones the other students have defeated. Altogether, there are ‘99’ strange beings. We’ll recount each of them.”

“…”

“Then you can start.”

“Ah, okay. Um, this is a ghost I saw myself. Recently, while walking on the 4th floor of the school, I heard a faint thumping sound in the distance…”

Quietly.

A ghost story flowed in a low voice. The hundred candles flickered, and the white hospital corridor lights hummed.

Between the red flames on the ground and the white flames on the ceiling, Yeohwa looked blankly at me.

“…That’s the end of my story.”

“Good.”

Snap.

With a snap of my fingers, one candle went out. A thin stream of gray smoke rose towards the ceiling.

“Oh…”

“Now it’s my turn. This is from my own experience. In the third stall of the men’s restroom at Baekhwa Girls’ High School, there’s a ghost named Hanako. If you enter that stall and spin around thirteen times…”

One. Two. Three. Four.

The candles went out one by one. Each time, a small puff of smoke was offered to the sky, and the dried-out candle wick emitted a black, foul odor. Yeohwa’s shoulders trembled.

Flicker-

Yeohwa noticed something strange around the 40th flame.

“…Sir, look. The corridor lights.”

“I know. Don’t worry.”

The hospital corridor lights were going out.

From a distance. One by one, at one-meter intervals.

The 4th basement floor of hell had no exits or windows. The hospital corridor that seemed to repeat endlessly turned pitch black as the lights went out.

“Let’s continue. It’s your turn.”

“…Yes.”

Flicker.

The darkness in the corridor was breathing, closing in. From both sides. Like footsteps following footsteps, every time we breathed, their breathing got a bit closer.

“This is a story I heard from a friend. It’s about a ghost named Krashu, which has no body but a head with only entrails hanging from it…”

Flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Flicker-

[Proofreader – Gun]

We picked up the pace with our stories. The footsteps of darkness quickened in response. Each time a light went out, Yeohwa flinched.

“My story… ends here.”

Before we knew it, the surroundings had turned cold.

The hospital corridor that seemed to stretch on endlessly now felt like it was only a narrow strip.

“…”

“…”

Flicker-

Only one corridor light remained.

Only one candle remained, the other 99 swallowed by the darkness, struggling to emit its last gasps of light.

“Alright. Now it’s my turn…”

“Sir.”

Yeohwa suddenly spoke up.

“You’re not really our school security guard, are you?”

“…”

“It seemed a bit strange. I’ve lived in the dormitory for a long time, so I know all the security guards by face. But I’ve never seen your face before. When we first met, I was too distracted, and you were in uniform with a flashlight, so I thought you were a newly hired guard… But when I asked the others, nobody knew you. Still, you’ve been helping us all along…”

I thought for a moment and then nodded.

“That’s right. I’m not.”

After all, the 4th basement floor wasn’t the school. It was shaped like a hospital. There was no need to continue the role-playing as the ‘school security guard.’

“I see. Then… why are you helping us?”

“To exterminate the void that has settled here. The school ghost story. The hell of the void.”

“The hell of the void…”

“But I’ll tell you about my identity tomorrow. For now, let’s focus on exterminating the strange being that has driven you to death. Can you trust me?”

“…”

Yeohwa’s orange ponytail bobbed like a flickering candle.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Good. Then it’s time for the last story. This is a ghost story from Japan. Have you heard of the ‘Hundred Stories’?”

“The Hundred Stories?”

A collection of Japanese ghost stories known as “Hyakumonogatari”.

“The method to summon this ghost is simple. People gather and light a hundred candles, taking turns telling ghost stories, one by one, letting them out with fire and smoke.”

“…”

“Yeah. Just like us now.”

The last candle flickered.

“According to the legend, when all 100 candles go out, the person who tells the 100th story dies.”

“Dies…”

“Or a ghost appears. We are already on the 4th basement floor of the underworld. Someone in the underworld can’t die again, so a ghost has to appear.”

“…”

“But this is where it gets interesting. In the original legend, the ghost that appears at the end of the 100 stories is called Aoandon, and it appears when a blue lantern is lit.”

Flicker.

I pressed the flashlight button, and a blue LED light swept through the darkness.

“But the ghost that will appear here is not Aoandon.”

“Then…?”

“The name of this school is Baekhwa, which means white flower. But as I mentioned before, the characters of Baekhwa were taken over by the ghost stories.”

I pulled out a brush pen and began writing on the white floor of the corridor.

“Void is an empty place. It takes over the original world’s place, making it a void, and then imprints its existence. So, the characters that replaced the original Baekhwa are…”

One hundred stories.

“…”

“In different countries, the usage of characters can vary subtly. In Japan, the concept of ‘story’ is expressed with the two characters (monogatari).”

I moved the brush pen.

“For example, the Arabian Nights, known as ‘One Thousand and One Nights,’ is translated in Japan as (Senya Ichiya Monogatari). In Korea, it’s simply translated as (Cheon Il Ya Hwa). So, the concept expressed with the two characters in Japan corresponds to one character, (hwa), in Korea.”

“So… the ghost story of ‘100 stories’ in Korean usage is…”

“Baekhwa.”

Literally.

The strange being that devoured Baekhwa Girls’ High School.

The true name of the ghost we’ve been calling the ‘school ghost story.’

The other identity of the exclusion god-level ghost I once called Endless.

“The leader of a hundred ghostly beings, ruling as the Hyakki Yagyo. The boss and the entirety of the 99 ghosts. The great void that devoured the original name of this school and thus consumed a part of the world. Baekhwa is the final ghost of this hell.”

Snap-

The candle died.

The light went out.

The darkness chuckled. The overwhelming scent of smoke was the body odor coming from the endless maw of the darkness.

Flicker.

A moment moved within the darkness. The universe was originally dark, so that was the inherent color of time and space.

A hundred extinguished candles grew instantly into a white forest. A forest of birch trees.

Fire sprouted from the white skin of the trees, turning into spider lilies in full bloom. The bright red flames transformed into the faces of fairies, and a hundred fairies laughed hysterically. Their laughter sounded like this:

Story becomes Flower, and Flower burns as Fire.

[PR/N: Characters for Story, Flower and Fire respectively.]

Burn, burn.

All things in the world are equally distant. Therefore, why wouldn’t a hundred stories become a hundred flowers and a hundred flames…

Coordinates. Time. Space distorted as existence warped.

“Sir—”

“It’s okay.”

I grasped Cheon Yeohwa’s hand firmly.

“I’m here.”

“…”

Yeohwa also held my hand tightly.

Thus, the coordinates were fixed.

At that moment, the multicolored flames of the universe stopped, and the fairies stopped laughing. The Milky Way flowed. Hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, the eyes of the cosmos all turned to look at us.

Then, I called out ‘its’ name.

“Endless Hell.”

All creation trembled.

– Unexpected contact.

– A possibility we never calculated before.

– Endless.

– The hell of Endless.

– A correct name.

– An incorrect name.

– This, too, is a kind of random number.

Colors breathed. Starlight danced a round dance.

– Who are you?

– An excessively large variable.

– How did you recognize our existence? How did you figure out our identity? How did you pinpoint our location?

The exclusion god that regarded this world merely as a vast laboratory, creating fairy terminals to send out for tutorial experiments, asked questions.

I lifted my chin.

“Are you okay, Yeohwa?”

“Yes. I feel a bit dizzy, but surprisingly fine. No, rather…”

Yeohwa untangled her fingers from mine and bent her waist. The shoelaces of her red and black basketball shoes tightened tautly.

“I feel great. I could sprint for 40 minutes straight. Anyway, that strange Milky Way is the one who killed our schoolmates, right? I’m going to kill it.”

“Great. Then let me show you the combat strength of a former school security guard.”

Boss fight.

Exclusion god-level threat.

Endless.

Combat initiated.

[Proofreader – Gun]