I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 95: A comic book can be less brutal because it has an editor.

Homeroom had ended.

I quickly packed my things, knowing that Jack was waiting for me.

At that moment, despite his usual lack of presence, a certain classmate caught my attention.

"Huh? Takgu, what are you watching?"

"Ah—Alice!"

It was Takgu—the boy who had once been mesmerized by Lost, the anomaly pretending to be a virtual YouTuber.

He was staring at his phone, fixated on a video again, which made me suspicious.

The moment he noticed me looking, his face turned red.

When my eyes drifted toward his phone, he flinched and quickly hid it.

If he wasn’t watching something inappropriate at school, then that was a very suspicious reaction.

I furrowed my brows, ready to interrogate him.

"You..."

Before I could say anything—

[Kyaaaaaaa!]

A woman’s scream erupted from his phone.

With speed beyond human perception, I snatched it from his hands and checked the screen.

A 2D girl was on display, her hands clamped over her mouth.

She had changed slightly, wearing a new summer costume, but it was unmistakable.

It was Lost—that same anomalous entity.

"What the hell, is this thing still streaming? Hmm... should I scold her again?"

[Hiiik~! P-Please, big sis, have mercy on me!]

She clasped her hands together, pleading.

Just then, Kyung-min approached me.

"It’s fine. She’s not doing anything weird anymore."

"Huh?"

[T-That’s right! This is my purpose—my dream! I have no ulterior motives! I swear I won’t use any weird abilities anymore!]

"An anomaly talking about dreams? That’s... unsettling."

A dream, huh? That’s an amusing thing to say.

Should something like you even be allowed to have one?

Humans dream.

They carry their hopes inside them, stumbling along their paths in pursuit of something.

But if anomalies—beings that appear out of nowhere, without warning—suddenly start harboring dreams, then...

What should I think of that?

I admire those who face their fears, overcome them, and work hard.

That’s simply my nature.

But anomalies are different.

It’s like a predator, standing before a terrified human praying to their god—only to bow its head and offer a prayer of its own before feasting.

"..."

If I were a god, how would I look at that kind of beast?

"Alice... are you okay? Your eyes look terrifying."

Later, Kyung-min would describe my expression as resembling that of a judge eager to pass a death sentence on a despicable criminal.

But in reality, I was just lost in thought.

"What were we talking about again?"

"I was saying we should give her another chance. Alice... were you thinking of eliminating her?"

Hah. Looks like I got dragged into another world for a moment there.

But looking at this logically, Lost wasn’t that much of a threat.

She wasn’t exactly pleasant, but if she hadn’t been causing trouble, I could overlook her existence.

Still, Kyung-min suddenly defending her was... suspicious.

"...Kyung-min, mind showing me your YouTube subscriptions?"

"!!!"

Kyung-min jolted in shock.

Before he could react, I swiftly used the Pickpocketing Anomaly’s hand to snatch his phone.

Alright, let’s see... Since a guy’s search history is usually a sensitive topic, I’ll just check his subscriptions.

Scrolling through the list, I spotted something odd.

I shot Kyung-min a cold glare.

"I knew it. What’s this weird channel sandwiched between ‘Math is Love’ and ‘Ace Your College Entrance Exams’?"

Wait... An elementary schooler studying high school-level courses?

"Damn, we’ve been caught, Kyung-min."

Takgu buried his face in his hands in surrender, while Kyung-min scratched his head awkwardly.

"So that’s why you two are always hanging out..."

I hadn’t realized that Kyung-min, the studious type, and Takgu, the anime-obsessed otaku, were so close.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

When I shot them a glare, Takgu nervously whispered something to Kyung-min.

"Uh... do you think she found out about the manga I drew of her...?"

"Shhh! Alice has good hearing!"

"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW?!"

Haa... Whatever.

"I won’t scold you for watching Lost’s streams. In fact, I actually need her."

"...Huh?"

[Wha—?]

Takgu and Lost both blinked in confusion.

I leaned closer and whispered to Lost, whose digital face twisted into a nervous grimace.

"Didn’t you say you could access lost games?"

[W-Well... Some of them won’t run, though! You saw that last time...]

"But even if you can’t play them, you can still access their data, right?"

[Uh...]

Silence.

That was a weak yes.

Textbooks say silence shouldn’t be taken as confirmation, but the world isn’t as simple as a textbook.

"Alright then."

[Kyaaaaaaah?!]

Using my mirror, I captured Lost.

Takgu’s phone now displayed nothing but a blank screen.

"What just happened?!"

"She’s inside the mirror now. A little gacha☆ pull."

"That doesn’t explain anything...!"

Takgu looked completely lost.

I winked at him, and he shut up.

Hah. I guess I’d gotten close enough to him for that to work.

Most students outside the club still didn’t recognize me due to my cognitive interference device, but Takgu always greeted me from a distance.

So this... was a connection.

...It made me happy.

But Jack was waiting, so I couldn’t waste any more time.

Gathering the others, I returned to the clubroom.

Jack was staring intently at a small potted plant near the window, utterly absorbed.

So much so that he hadn’t even noticed us come in.

"Did you wait long?"

"...Twenty minutes isn’t that bad!"

Jack quickly acted like he had noticed us the whole time, answering cheerfully.

"So, what’s next?"

"We’re going to spy on their base."

Ha-rim’s words made Jack tilt his head.

"‘Their’ base?"

"You know—the masked people who gave you food."

"Ah-ha!"

The Laughter Alliance—a group claiming to spread joy.

At first glance, their goal seemed wholesome.

But... something about them felt off.

Even Eun-jung had basically decided they were a group of deranged murderers.

They claimed to spread laughter...

But how exactly were they planning to make people laugh?

I could only hope it wasn’t something too bizarre.

If they were truly legitimate, then a little espionage wouldn’t hurt, right?

With that in mind, we arrived at their building.

"Hmm..."

I linked my senses to the mirrors inside.

I could create my own mirrors, but that would make it obvious someone was watching.

This method was safer.

As I focused, Eun-jung watched me curiously before pulling a small hand mirror from her pocket.

I glanced at her questioningly—

And before I could stop her—

She licked the mirror.

"Hkk—?!"

BANG!

...What the hell?!

"Uwaaang!"

This girl and her pranks...!

I sighed and left the incapacitated Eun-jung behind, refocusing my attention on the mirror.

Slowly, the visual information from the mirror trickled into my mind.

Alright... let’s see.

The inside of the building...

It wasn’t fully remodeled yet, with some parts of the wallpaper peeling off.

But it seemed livable.

The entire place was dark—what, do these people not turn on the lights?

"Alice, what do you see?"

"Aside from the darkness, nothing special."

The others looked a little disappointed.

Seriously... What? Did they expect to see some kind of monster?

Their way of thinking had gotten really strange.

Though, since that was partly my fault, I didn’t bother pointing it out.

"So we have to go inside, then?"

"Isn’t that dangerous?"

"Adventure time...?"

The others debated among themselves, but I kept quiet, continuing to search.

Then, I noticed something strange.

"...It’s deep."

"Huh? What did you say, Alice?"

"I said, it’s deep. That’s weird... Even if this place has a basement, three floors underground is usually the max, right? But over there, there’s a small cosmetic hand mirror around the twentieth basement floor."

"...Twentieth floor?"

Gulp.

Someone swallowed nervously.

The kids had joked earlier about the place being suspicious, maybe even hiding a murderer...

But fear only really sets in when you realize the things you joked about might actually be true.

Like finding out the stranger you passed by was a serial killer.

Or realizing that the random spot you had a picnic in was an actual graveyard.

Nobody expected to be facing something this bizarre so close to home.

A heavy silence settled over the group.

"It’s worth investigating further."

The others nodded in agreement.

This time, I wasn’t planning on informing the Organization.

This was their adventure.

I wouldn’t let anyone take that away from them.

Unless, of course, it turned out to be something on the level of the Machine God—something that required a strategic alliance with the Organization.

"Alright, mirror, show me what’s inside..."

I created mirrors from a distance.

One for each basement level, reflecting their interiors.

To let the others see, I connected all the mirrors to a single, large one.

[Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha!!!]

[Kekekekeke~!]

[Hehehehehe...]

"What the hell is this...?"

Laughter.

Men, women, old, young—different voices, but all laughing together.

They never stopped.

Some of them had laughed so much that their voices had gone hoarse, barely making a sound beyond a wheezing hiss, like air escaping a balloon.

No matter how funny something is, this kind of laughter doesn’t happen naturally.

...Drugs?

"There are people gathered. And... something’s moving, like machines... like a factory."

Machine God...?

No.

I destroyed the Machine God.

Then what was this?

Just because it involved machines didn’t necessarily mean it was that thing.

As I focused on the machinery, I suddenly heard Ha-rim laughing.

I glanced at her, confused.

"...Pfft."

"Ha-rim? What’s so funny?"

"It’s just... look at that TV."

TV?

I checked the mirrors again.

The large mirror was displaying multiple locations at once.

Ha-rim pointed to a small, tucked-away section.

There, people wearing smiling face masks were laughing hysterically.

All while staring at a single television screen.

"Haha! Isn’t that program hilarious?! I swear, I feel like I’m gonna die laughing!"

Ha-rim’s laughter was growing louder.

But—her eyebrows were furrowed.

She was forcing herself to laugh.

Realizing that things were getting serious, I turned my focus to the television.

On the screen—

A black-and-white cartoon man, the kind you’d see in old Western children’s animations, was looking directly through the mirror at us.

His entire body expanded and contracted as he laughed.

No, literally—

Like something out of a cartoon, he dramatically inflated before shrinking back down.

It was absurd.

Only then did I realize—

My face had twisted into a scowl without me noticing.

This thing didn’t care about my reaction.

Instead, it was intensifying its control over Ha-rim.

I sneered.

"If you want to play, at least put your players on the board first."

Tying up your opponent and calling it a game?

That was the worst—both personally and as Alice.

And this thing was doing exactly that.

[...Uhihihi! UHAHAHAHAHA!]

"Ha! Guess you don’t understand words."

I pulled out a knife and slashed the mirror.

A sharp crack echoed as the television screen shattered.

The cartoon man flailed backward ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) in an exaggerated motion, as if stunned.

But despite the screen breaking—

His image remained intact.

...So the TV itself wasn’t his real body.

"Phew..."

Ha-rim clutched her stomach, letting out a relieved sigh.

Her expression twisted slightly as she rubbed her belly.

...Guess she almost had her navel literally dislocated.

"You. Who the hell are you?"

The man on the screen was still grinning.

He replied cheerfully.

[Hello! You can call me ‘Freeman’! Two fakes! And some fresh little ones! What are your names?]

Freeman.

A simple name.

I decided to humor him with an answer.

"You don’t need to know about them. My name is Alice. I don’t know why you’re calling us fakes, but I’m a demon."

"I’m Jack."

[Oh! My mistake! Now that I look closer, you’re mixed! Same energy as Mephistopheles!]

...Wait.

He just said something very interesting.

"Hold on... You know him?"

[Of course, friend! Whether I want to or not! You’d have to be blind not to know him—he’s had that much impact on the world!]

"..."

[Hoo! I can see you’re curious, little lady! Let’s chat over some cartoons, shall we?]

Freeman pulled out a comic book, waving it around.

A creature that knows about Mephistopheles...

And one that’s willing to talk.

I couldn’t let this opportunity go.

Normally.

"We originally came here looking for entertainment. But this? It’s too obvious a trap."

Something about this guy was off.

Was it just his personality? Or was he acting like he was relaxed?

Even when I released a fairly strong aura, he didn’t flinch.

There was no doubt—

He was hiding something powerful.

[Don’t you want to know about Mephistopheles?]

"..."

[Bam! Gotcha!]

Freeman made his own sound effect.

Ignoring him, I turned to the others.

"...What do you guys want to do?"

This was a personal matter.

And it could get dangerous.

The choice had to be theirs.

"Didn’t we decide to find Mephistopheles?"

"Yeah."

"Then let’s go!"

Ha-rim, our unofficial leader, answered without hesitation.

"Even though this is personal?"

"Don’t be cold now!"

Soo-ho chimed in this time.

I smirked and nodded.

"Alright! Let’s find out what these guys are really up to!"

We stacked our hands together—

But we were one short.

"Jack?"

Jack hesitated.

He looked like a lost puppy.

"Jack. What are you going to do?"

"Uhh... Um... This seems... kinda dangerous?"

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"Huh?"

"I mean, I might be strong, but I’m not an invincible demon like Alice! I don’t know what kind of freak this Freeman guy is, but you saw what he did to Ha-rim. So, uh... what I’m trying to say is... he might be really dangerous."

Jack was rambling.

If I were to sum up what he was saying—

"So, in short, you’re scared, Jack."

Jack instantly started scrambling for excuses.

Like a kid caught in a lie.

"B-but! But! Just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean I’m invincible! If I got hit by a bullet! Or, or a powerful bomb! Or some weirdo monster with a broken ability! I could totally die!"

I knew Jack wasn’t particularly strong among the Story’s Demons.

And from what I’d seen so far, he didn’t seem to have any special abilities, either.

From Jack’s perspective, he probably saw himself as little more than a really strong human.

Freeman, however, mocked him.

[Haha! Coward!! Go back and suck on your mama’s milk some more!]

Jack bit his lip, glaring at Freeman.

"I didn’t have a mother...!"

[What a pity!]

Soo-ho, seeing Jack’s shaken expression, patted his shoulder in reassurance.

"Jack, no one’s forcing you to come. If you don’t want to, you can back out. But we’re going."

Jack stayed silent.

So Kyung-min spoke up.

"Didn’t you say you wanted to go on an adventure?"

Jack looked at the others, gauging their expressions.

Then, as if coming to a decision, he nodded firmly.

"If you guys are going... fine. I’ll go too."

"Then it’s settled. Let’s head inside."

As soon as we entered, the air turned cold—like a winter breeze.

Eun-jung shivered, so I pulled a spare coat from my mirror and handed it to her.

"It’s warm."

"Good."

Should I take out a hat, too?

I was just about to when Ha-rim, who had already scanned the entire room at lightning speed, spoke.

"Nothing suspicious here. Looks like we have to head downstairs."

Damn, that was fast.

Then again, the place was still mid-renovation, so there wasn’t much to check.

"That Freeman guy—he invited us here, didn’t he? So why isn’t he greeting us?"

Kyung-min adjusted his glasses, finding it odd.

Freeman seemed like the type who craved attention.

And judging by his personality, he probably loved making ‘surprise’ entrances.

"Who knows."

I glanced toward the nearest television, wondering if Freeman was watching us through it.

Nothing.

"Hmmm..."

With no apparent threats, we crossed the abandoned karaoke bar and descended the stairs to the basement.

"This place gives me the creeps!"

"Well, yeah. Dark stairways leading underground always do."

A staircase descending into a basement always triggers a certain kind of fear.

The darkness makes it hard to see what’s below.

And more importantly—

Going down stairs is slower than running away.

If a long-armed monster were chasing you, you’d be easy prey.

That sense of helplessness only grows as you descend.

You realize that escaping quickly won’t be possible.

Even if you’re just going down to take care of some business,

It feels like you’re walking into a monster’s stomach.

Ah—

Maybe that’s exactly what this eerie feeling was hinting at.

That the act of descending was no different than walking into the jaws of a beast.

—A fear so strong, it gave birth to a ‘phenomenon.’

RUMMMMMBLE...!

The ceiling and walls of the stairway transformed.

Muscle. Flesh.

The staircase itself had turned into a living stomach.

The walls contracted, attempting to crush us as it swallowed us whole.

But—

Jack, the others, and I had already escaped.

We’d relocated to the lower floor using my mirrors.

The only thing that got crushed—

Was one single entity.

[Oh, wow! You caught that?]

If it had been anyone else, they would’ve been flattened to death.

Instead—

Freeman slipped out, paper-thin, before popping back to normal.

I scowled at him.

"You really have to be this childish from the get-go?"

[I just wanted to give you a little scare! Too bad, so sad~!]

"You promised us information on Mephistopheles. But instead, you tried to ambush us. Why?"

[I was just giving you a fun little prank as a greeting! Honest! Don’t look at me like that, it makes me sad! But as a peace offering, I’ll give you a little tour! So don’t be mad, okay?]

"And why should I trust you?"

[Sniff, sniff! Boohoo! This is so sad! I just wanted to show some fun cartoons to the kids!]

Freeman burst into tears.

Like an old-school cartoon, his tears gushed out like fountains, soaking the floor.

If he were human, he would’ve died of dehydration by now.

[Poor kids in this country, man! All they do is study and go to cram schools when they should be watching cartoons all day!]

"I mean, I somewhat agree. But what’s that got to do with you?"

[Everything! I love smiling faces! So I want to make as many fun cartoons as possible!]

...A bizarre statement, but I could tell he was completely serious.

‘Pursuing entertainment,’ huh...

Now this was getting interesting.

"Are you really trusting this guy, Alice?"

"I know he’s suspicious. I’m not fully trusting him."

"Then... should we just leave?"

Jack again.

More hesitation.

More fear.

What was it that made him so nervous?

I knew he wasn’t one of the strongest Story’s Demons.

But he wasn’t weak, either.

Most demons with half-baked power tend to get cocky.

But Jack was the opposite.

He was withdrawing even more than the humans.

Something had happened to him in the past.

I looked him straight in the eyes.

"If you don’t push forward, you won’t gain anything."

Jack’s heart thumped.

For a brief moment, he wavered.

[This way, bro!]

Freeman strolled ahead, his movements smooth like an old-school animated character.

His every step had a rubbery, flexible feel to it.

It was unnerving.

"Uh, Freeman?"

Eun-jung pointed to a small machine in the corner.

[Hmm? What’s up, kiddo?]

"What’s that weird machine?"

[Oh, that? That’s a factory that makes my assistants! This one’s broken, though. But there are plenty more downstairs! The raw material? Ink!]

"Assistants?"

[That’s right! Whether it’s animation or comics, you need assistants to make a proper masterpiece! So I produce them!]

"You mean those laughing people too?"

Eun-jung gestured toward the people still glued to the television screen, mindlessly shoving popcorn into their mouths.

Freeman hesitated.

[...Well, kind of!]

"Hey, can you stop dodging the question? What I want are clues. Information about Mephistopheles."

Eun-jung was the one who asked, but dragging out the conversation wasn’t a good idea.

I pressed a little unfairly, prompting Freeman to scowl at me.

[You're impatient! Fine, fine! Let’s have a little private chat. Hey, you over there!]

Freeman barked an order at the man wearing a smiling mask, who was wandering the hallway.

[Make sure to properly show these kids just how fun this place can be.]

"......"

[Now, let’s go.]

Freeman tore away the wallpaper on the side of the wall, revealing a hidden room, and led me inside.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about the room, but I didn’t bother pointing out why he felt the need to hide the door in such an over-the-top way.

I followed Freeman and sat down at the desk.

He handed me a cup, offering me a drink.

[Want a beer?]

"Isn’t it more common to offer tea?"

[Same difference.]

When I refused, Freeman simply upturned the bottle and poured the alcohol straight into his mouth, swaying slightly as if already drunk.

If I didn’t take the lead in this conversation, it felt like we’d waste too much time.

"I’ll introduce myself properly. My name is Alice. A human who became a demon because of Mephistopheles."

Freeman's eyes practically popped out in shock. They hovered in the air for a moment before he snatched them back and popped them into their sockets.

[A human? Now, that’s unexpected! I see... So you were different from the start.]

"What?"

[Ah, just satisfying a little curiosity. I’ve seen plenty of demons, you see. There are a lot of them. Most of them are low-grade creatures that can’t even speak.]

Different from the start, huh?

That must mean my existence differs slightly from the way lower demons are born.

In my case, I was a human who became a demon.

Ella’s body was a supernatural entity, but her soul was human, so it wasn’t an incorrect statement.

There were the supernatural beings that manifested from Alice as a concept and people’s fears.

I was born as a "Story’s Demon," a being created through a sacrificial seed, as Jabberwock had mentioned.

Freeman’s word—"different"—probably referred to the fact that my vessel was originally human.

But then, how were other demons born?

According to James, weak lesser demons could consume sacrifices and grow stronger by fulfilling their context, or they could be born entirely anew.

But I had never seen a "lesser demon" before.

And I had certainly never seen a demon just pop into existence out of nowhere.

The number of demons was supposedly increasing to the point that the Organization was struggling to manage them, yet I had never actually witnessed one being born.

The very concept of "being born" itself was strange.

Why did demons come into existence like that?

If they could be born just by fulfilling a "context," then who decided whether that context was valid in the first place?

It was all so vague.

Damn it. I was lost in thought again.

I needed to move the conversation forward.

"And?"

[You’re different. Yeah. That guy, Jack, was the same way. Things are about to get interesting. I’m Freeman! A passionate comic artist who loves freedom and fun!]

Freeman extended his hand for a handshake.

After being stabbed in the back so many times, I simply slapped his hand away.

"Alright, Freeman. Do you know where Mephistopheles is?"

[No idea! I’m usually too busy making comics! If that guy hadn’t been running around stirring things up, I wouldn’t have even known he existed!]

Running around stirring things up... Was he looking for that "Oz" Ariel had mentioned before?

"So you don’t know. That’s unfortunate."

Not being able to obtain the most crucial piece of information was disappointing.

Still, I could at least gather other clues.

I had no idea what this guy’s true identity was, but he seemed to know about Mephistopheles. I couldn’t afford to let this opportunity slip.

As I was thinking of my next question, Freeman suddenly asked me one instead.

[By any chance, do you know a demon with twin braids who laughs all the time?]

A demon with twin braids who never stops laughing?

"Sorry, but that’s a first for me. Though I do know a guy in a green military uniform who laughs boisterously all the time."

Just in case, I mentioned Peter Pan.

Freeman shook his head, indicating that wasn’t the one.

A demon with twin braids... That likely meant a female demon.

[That’s a shame. I really wanted to meet her.]

"Is she an important figure?"

Freeman stroked his chin at my question.

[Well, I definitely met her, but I don’t remember. I don’t have the power to go against the great flow of time, you see. Forgetfulness caused by rewound time. But thanks to that, time has protected me from death!]

"Is that supposed to be a riddle?"

His words made no sense, so I tilted my head in confusion.

Freeman, seeing my reaction, provided an even more cryptic hint.

[If you dream, you might understand.]

...I don’t.

"Let’s skip that. Can you tell me everything you know about Mephistopheles?"

[I don’t like having too many speech bubbles in my comics, so I’ll keep it short.

Mephistopheles doesn’t like how this world is crawling with monsters that go against its rules.]

"Why?"

[Well, who’d want someone running wild in their own house?

Even if they weren’t the homeowner!

That guy probably wants to tell them off, but what can he do?

There are some uninvited guests that are just too powerful!

So Mephisto started coming up with ways to fight back against those strong monsters.

And you guys are probably one of those ways.

Dumping the problem on someone else because he can’t handle it himself.

Man, that’s pathetic! His way of speaking is annoying as hell too! If he didn’t have that weird power, I’d have already beaten him to a pulp!]

"By ‘strong monsters’..."

At that moment, a single word flashed through my mind.

They were monsters who could bring about the end of the world on their own.

And this guy was talking as if he had actually met Mephistopheles.

[Ah... Some humans call them ‘Dominators.’]

I narrowed my eyes at Freeman.

He scratched his head as if realizing he had slipped up.

[Myself included.]

Silence filled the room.

I let out a sigh.

"Haa... Just when I thought things were going smoothly."

I stood up and gathered my strength.

Freeman grinned, but his expression quickly turned menacing.

"What’s your goal?"

[Just curious!

That guy, Mephistopheles, has been preparing countermeasures against various world-threatening phenomena.

He probably had a countermeasure in mind for finding the ‘departed Editor-in-Chief’ as well.

Ah! It’d be a disaster if the Editor-in-Chief returned! An absolute disaster! Creativity would lose its freedom!

Is the countermeasure that girl from my dreams? Or is it you?

I need to check, for the sake of true freedom.]

A massive power surged forth.

Standing before that power, I declared firmly.

"Then go ahead and check."

-----

After Freeman and Alice entered the room, a man who seemed to be Freeman’s subordinate guided the rest of us.

The man was entirely covered in black fabric and wore a smiling mask.

At a glance, he looked suspicious enough to put everyone on edge.

After taking a look around, we got a rough idea of what this place was.

This was a comic factory.

People of various body types were drawing comic books and animation.

I picked up one of the comics and started reading.

I asked Eun-jung to purify me with the bell, just in case there were any mental contamination effects from Freeman.

Eun-jung responded, "I like seeing Ha-rim smile, so I want to see it more," but from my perspective, being the one smiling, it was nothing but suffering.

Maybe I should stop tickling Alice from time to time.

“Hmm...”

The content of the comic was as follows.

A blind boy was sent on an errand by his mother to buy milk.

Since he was blind, he encountered life-threatening situations multiple times on the street.

Yet, the boy eventually managed to reach the milk store and successfully purchased the milk.

However, just as he was about to return home with it—

He was run over by a car and died.

People saw it and laughed. Among them, his mother was also laughing.

The comic ended with the line: "If she really didn't want her son to get hurt, she wouldn't have sent him on an errand in the first place, you idiot!"

“What the hell is this...?”

The unnecessarily gruesome illustration of the boy’s corpse was seared into my mind.

If the intention had been to evoke fear or horror, maybe I could understand.

But this was clearly drawn for comedy.

And that made it feel even worse.

The next one. And the one after that.

Every comic was filled with characters suffering in terrible ways.

It almost made me feel sorry for them.

Just because they were characters in a comic, did that mean it was okay for them to endure such torment?

That thought crossed my mind as I reached for another comic.

“Ah!”

I noticed a huge warning label on this one.

“What’s wrong, Ha-rim?”

“This one’s for adults!”

At my words, everyone perked up their ears.

The color of the label was red!

For some reason, my heart started pounding.

The warning label read:

[This content may or may not be suitable for viewers aged 29 and older. Well, whatever your age, if you want to look, go ahead.]

"Whoa!"

Jack crept up and snatched the book from my hands.

With an expectant expression, he cautiously glanced at the masked man before opening the comic.

Soo-ho and Kyung-min also pretended not to care but peeked over.

...Wait, isn’t it usually 19 and up, not 29?

“Uuueeeghhh!”

Jack suddenly gagged.

Soo-ho and Kyung-min also struggled to hold back their own retching.

“We need memory erasure... Memory erasure...”

“Oh god...”

“Eun-jung, purify! Purify us!”

As Eun-jung rang the bell, the boys’ faces regained some of their color.

“What the hell did you see?”

"Don't ask..."

When I asked Soo-ho, he just wiped his face and shook his head.

Just what kind of content was it?

“...Gulp.”

After glancing at the others, I quietly slipped the book into my bag.

"Did we go through all the comics?"

They were all needlessly brutal and full of mockery toward people.

Comedy, by nature, often involves ridiculing something.

Nowadays, more people feel uncomfortable with that, and comedy shows have a harder time because of it.

Even so, this was just too much.

If someone wanted to publish this, they’d have to classify it as horror or gore, not comedy. And even then, they'd have to fight a whole army of editors.

Personally, even if the characters weren’t real, watching them go through such horrific lives wasn’t something I enjoyed.

Comics definitely need editors.

"Next up... is the animation theater."

For the first time, the masked man spoke to us.

At the sound of his voice, Kyung-min squinted slightly.

“...?”

“Kyung-min, what’s wrong?”

“...That voice. I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

Mumbling, "Where was it?" he fell silent.

Regardless, the masked man continued guiding us quietly.

The place he led us to was filled with televisions.

All of them were playing animated cartoons.

I focused on one of the screens.

“A black-and-white cartoon.”

On the screen, a man was being chased by a serial killer.

He desperately tried to escape, but along the way, he slipped on a banana peel, got struck by lightning—one ridiculous misfortune after another.

After all that struggle, he was finally cut down by the killer’s blade.

There was no censorship or mosaic. The scene was raw and brutal.

I changed the channel.

The next one showed a man drowning.

Oddly enough, the character looked exactly like the one in the previous animation.

Was this a series?

I kept flipping through the channels.

As I switched repeatedly, I noticed something disturbing—

On the very first channel, the character was now looking directly at me.

I swallowed hard.

“Ye. Ye. Ye. Ye. Ye.”

The character opened and closed its mouth, repeatedly mouthing something.

Even as it was stabbed, it kept saying the same thing.

The next channel was the same. Even as it drowned, its mouth moved.

“Gi. Gi. Gi. Gi. Gi.”

“...”

“Ha-rim? You okay?”

“Wait a second.”

I flipped back to the first channel and carefully started going through them one by one.

As the character’s voice continued, a sentence formed.

Ye. Gi. Gat. Hyeot. Eo. Do. Wa. Jwo.

(I'm trapped here. Help me.)

“...Kyung-min.”

“What?”

The moment I called his name, the masked man, who had been standing still, suddenly lunged at us.

I spoke coldly.

"Restrain him."

“...!”

Chains shot out and wrapped around the man.

In an instant, he was bound tightly.

But then, his body began to swell, as if he was trying to break free.

The chains groaned with an unsettling creak...

And then—

CRASH!

The chains shattered.

But I wasn’t just going to stand there and watch.

I immediately grabbed a metal pipe that had fallen nearby and swung it at the man’s head.

Thunk. A black liquid splattered out—it was clear at a glance that it wasn’t blood.

This smell...

“Ink.”

He wasn’t human, that much was certain.

“Kyaaaaahhh!!!”

The man regained consciousness.

His body swelled even further.

Just as he was about to lunge at us, Soo-ho stepped forward with his shield raised.

“I—I’ll take care of this!”

Jack stepped in front of Soo-ho.

The man raised both hands, trying to slam them down on Jack.

But Jack responded with a kick, sending him flying.

With a loud boom, the monster crashed into the wall.

Splaash—! Ink splattered across the entire surface.

After confirming that the man had collapsed limply, Jack immediately smashed the TV.

“Huff... Huff... Th-Thanks.”

An exhausted man, who looked identical to the character from the cartoon we had just been watching, crawled out of the broken TV, gasping for breath.

“You’re welcome, but I get the feeling things are about to get urgent. Can you explain briefly?”

“This... This place... They use living people to create comics...!”

His face grew paler and paler until he collapsed.

He was still breathing, so at least he wasn’t dead.

“...That’s enough.”

I wanted to get him out of here immediately, but there were likely more people trapped inside other TVs.

I started smashing every television with the metal pipe.

A significant number of people emerged from the wreckage.

There was no way we could carry them all to safety.

In that case, I’d have to borrow someone else’s strength.

“What’s that?”

“An item Alice gave me.”

It was called Nurse Call.

A small, square block with a button on it.

Alice had explained that it could summon a Nurse Specter that responded to patients.

She also warned that if the user wasn’t a patient, they might be attacked instead.

I firmly pressed the button.

Immediately, a bandage-wrapped Nurse Specter rushed toward us at incredible speed.

“Take these people to the hospital entrance.”

The Nurse Specter assessed the people’s condition, then loaded them all onto a stretcher and bolted up the stairs.

Seeing so many people piled onto a stretcher made it look more like it was transporting corpses than patients, but I kept my mouth shut to avoid provoking an attack.

“Knew it!”

Kyung-min pulled the mask off the man who had attacked us.

He nodded to himself as if confirming a suspicion.

“What is it?”

“I took off the mask, and... this guy is the former owner of the karaoke place.”

So that’s why the voice sounded familiar.

“What’s he doing here?”

Eun-jung’s question had an obvious answer.

There was no way these monsters would legally buy a building like normal people.

He had probably been forced out and turned into their subordinate in the process.

Kyung-min quickly caught on to my thoughts.

But he denied them.

“No way. This guy posted a picture on Instagram today, saying he was on vacation in another city.”

“...?”

That was definitely strange.

Then what was this guy?

If he wasn’t a monster, then who was that grinning man in the Instagram photo?

Wait, more importantly—

“Kyung-min, why are you following the karaoke owner’s Instagram?”

Kyung-min just shrugged.

“It just popped up.”

...Kyung-min is weird, too.

“Then is this guy fake?”

Eun-jung poked the unconscious man’s face.

It was hard to tell.

To find the differences, we’d have to bring the other man here and compare them.

Judging by the circumstances, this one seemed like the fake.

“To verify for sure...”

“We’d have to use ‘Divine Power.’”

“Divine Power? Ah.”

Maria the nun’s ability.

If this guy was a demon or any other supernatural being, Divine Power would deal serious damage to him.

It was a force that clearly separated humans from non-humans.

If we could use it, that would be the best way to confirm.

“But how do we even use Divine Power? Should we go find a Bible and smack him with it?”

Eun-jung’s suggestion was tempting, but unfortunately, there were no Bibles around.

I turned to the person who was the most sensitive to Divine Power—Jack.

“Uhh... Jack. Do you know anything about Divine Power?”

“Of course! I almost died because of it once.”

Oh?

So Jack had actually been hit by Divine Power before.

That meant he probably knew what it felt like.

“What was it like?”

“It hurt! If Ariel hadn’t helped me, I would’ve been left with scars! But still, aside from the pain, Divine Power didn’t feel unpleasant. In fact, I thought it was a beautiful light.”

“I see... Hmm. But you don’t know how to use it, right?”

“Well, I am a demon, you know... Oh, wait. Didn’t you guys already use Divine Power before?”

...?

Jack’s sudden question confused me.

“What are you talking about?”

“When Neverland became unstable, that momentary flash of its true form appeared in the sky.”

Oh. He was talking about when I set fire to Neverland’s factory.

I vividly remembered Peter Pan’s fury as he stood before the burning factory.

Looking back, that was a pretty reckless move.

“At that time, there was a flash! I saw a faint golden light. That was probably Divine Power.”

Golden light...

The only thing that came to mind was my emotional reunion with Alice.

I had been crying, trying to hand Alice the necklace.

Peter Pan had attempted to interfere, but back then, I had been so overwhelmed with faith, happiness, and determination that I hadn’t even noticed.

The moment Peter Pan tried to snatch the necklace from my hand—

He was thrown back.

Bathed in a radiant golden light.

If that was Divine Power, then why was it connected to Alice, a demon?

Why hadn’t Alice been harmed by that light?

My head was starting to hurt.

I scratched my cheek and muttered,

"...Let’s put this on hold for now."