Chapter 35

The dressing room in the abandoned hospital of horror…

The room was bathed in an eerie green light, further accentuating the shadows. Sumire was a terrifying complement to the sight.

“Hhhaa…”

It was filled to the brim with props and costumes that were scary enough that the theme park could boast about it. While Sumire would also have been terrified herself, at this moment, an idea came to her head as she looked through the terrifying props.

‘…With these items!’

After digging through the mound of costumes, Sumire took a mask from one of the boxes—it was a zombie mask that was covered in bulging veins and patches of stringy hair.

“Clack? Claclack?”

Shin YuSung’s skeleton looked at Sumire and tilted its head in confusion. As it did so, Sumire placed the mask on the skeleton.

“Cla-clack, clack?”

“Wow…”

With the mask on, the skeleton looked like a monstrosity incarnate. Its skeletal body and now zombified face made Shin YuSung’s skeleton look much more terrifying than any of the usual ghosts that the theme park showed off in the House of Horrors.

Clatter. Clatter.

The death knight approached Sumire while she was dressing up the skeleton, rattling its own bones.

“My… mas… ter, if I can… help you with anything… please give… the order…”

The death knight knelt down on one knee in respect. As it did so, Sumire looked around the room, then exclaimed, “ah!” when she saw one of the props.

“Th-then! Mr. Death Knight, you don’t have a head, so… I-I’m sorry… can you hold this with you, then?”

What Sumire had handed over to the death knight was a mannequin head.

It was designed to look like a ghost with long hair and blood flowing out of its eyes. It truly completed the look of the death knight when it held the head in its left hand.

The props in the dressing room also managed to add an extra bit of flair to the other undead.

Proud of her work, Sumire wiped the sweat on her brow. Surrounding her were creatures of unimaginable terror.

Clopclopclopclop!

Several D Class students looked around, bemused, as they heard the sound of the skeletal horse’s hooves beating on the floor.

“Hm? What’s that sound?”

“Huh, huhh!?”

By the time they had figured out what the source of the noise was, it was already too late.

“Clack, claclack!”

“Defeat… the enemy! For Master’s… honor!”

A swarm of costumed undead descended upon D Class, with the skeletons and death knights leading the charge. The abandoned hospital, once peaceful, became the site of unmitigated chaos.

“Wh-what are those!?”

“Kyaaa! What the hell are those…?! They’re ghosts, right! Ghosts!?”

“Stop pushing!”

The students, completely terrified, began to run away, shoving each other aside in their haste; a few of them even sank to the floor.

“Those are all undead, right? Why are there monsters in the theme park?! Why?!”

“I-is this also part of the test?”

“Just stop them already!”

After gathering their bearings, the D Class students began to goet back into formation and tried to fight off the wave of undead monsters, but this only worked for a moment.

This was because the real disaster had not yet descended upon the abandoned hospital. That disaster was currently fidgeting and walking out of the mass of undead.

“Uh, uuu…”

Sumire looked around the hospital, which had turned into something like a scene out of hell. Squirming purple mana began to emit from her as she held the ring in her hands and began to chant.

“D-darkness… conceal the sun.”

The real disaster.

With the power of the artifact, necromancers began to appear in the abandoned hospital. Even if there was no sunlight, as they were inside the building, black clouds were steadily streaming out from the ring.

Whoosh!

The undead that were under the black clouds began to reawaken with new strength.

“Neigh! Cr! Eak!”

The skeletal horses raised their heads into the air.

“Claclack! Clack!”

The skeletons began to rattle their bones.

“This is the power… that our master has… bestowed upon us! Our thirst for blood grows!” yelled the death knight, red light spewing from its eyes.

The powered-up undead army began to push back the D Class students. They began screaming in fear.

“Kya! T-try to stop them!”

“They suddenly got a lot stronger!”

“I-I quit! I’m getting outta here!”

Sumire was leisurely reigning over the undead in the middle of the pandemonium. With protection from her subjects, she began to conquer the entire building.

But even with this overwhelming power in her hands, her attitude was still incredibly passive. She slowly peeked her head out from behind Shin YuSung’s skeleton.

“M-my undead… are winning…”

Even though Sumire’s Trait was classified as F-rank due to it being limited to undead monsters, she had been born with immense mana potential.

That talent was the biggest reason for why she could transfer over to Gaon Academy, a school where elite students gathered. She had fallen down to last place in the student rankings due to the fact that she had not been able to make a friend from whom she could borrow hair, but that was not the case anymore.

With Shin YuSung’s hair and the Immortal’s Ring, Sumire could take command of an undead army.

The advent of a real necromancer had come upon the House of Horrors.

Sumire daintily folded her hands and began to bite her lips as if she couldn't hold herself back.

‘S-Shin YuSung-ssi will… definitely like this, right?’

Even when she tried not to, the corners of her lips were quirking up.

“Hee, fufu…heehee…”

Sumire began laughing in a terrifying manner.

One of the D Class students who was knocked down on the floor looked at Sumire and began to shake their head in terror.

“Sh-she’s a witch…”

* * * *

Shin YuSung was trying to bring his specialty, his concentration, into focus. His palms were on the floor.

Boom. Booom. Stomp.

The more heightened his concentration was, the clearer he could feel things from his fingertips. What were, in the beginning, nothing but some dull vibrations began to faintly feel like footsteps trampling around the area.

‘It looks like the D Class students lying in wait are now moving towards Sumire’s direction.’

Sumire’s incredible prowess had made D Class focus on the defensive—her guerilla plan was a success.

“Now, it’s time for the long-range group to come back.”

Shin YuSung gave out the plan to the students next to him, who in turn nodded their heads. Of course, the ever-curious Renia carefully began to ask a question.

“Oh, um~ are we giving over the neutral grounds to D Class, then?”

“That area of the theme park is useless now. Since the number of people who are in their appointed places has decreased, only a few of them will cross neutral grounds to reach us.”

Renia decided to just nod at his words. No one in F Class knew just how Shin YuSung could tell where D Class’s troops were, but they decided to just trust him.

It was nothing to be surprised about, considering the fact that he was the savior of F Class who could lead them into victory over D Class.

“O-okay! We’ll believe you!”

“Tell us to do anything; we’ll do it!”

“Trust in YuSung only!”

The F Class members began to look at each other with passion lit in their eyes. Shin YuSung smiled and used his Pocket to contact Lee SiWoo.

“SiWoo. Bring everyone from the long-range group back here.”

– Huh? Okay! Gotcha!

Shin YuSung immediately ended the call with Lee SiWoo’s energized reply. He couldn’t afford to waste time on trivial things. The precious few moments that Sumire had bought them were like gold.

“You guys only need to do one thing.”

Shin YuSung pointed to the floor of the building and continued speaking calmly.

“Team up with the long-range group and protect the base.”

The F Class students were looking at each other as if trying to make sure that they had heard him correctly. Renia gulped and began to stammer her words out.

"Does that mean… er."

Shin YuSung replied to the question that was on the minds of everyone in the rest stop building as if it was matter-of-fact.

“We only need two people for the infiltration portion of the plan.”

Shin YuSung and Sumire would destroy the opposing team while everyone else from F Class would defend the base. It was a simple, reckless plan, but it was the one with the greatest chance for success.

“G-got it!”

“H-hey, you all heard what YuSung just said, right!?”

“Yeah! We just have to protect the base! Simple!”

Sumire’s guerilla plan had also reduced the numbers of the opposing team, which helped.

“Let’s do this!”

“We can win!”

F Class’s morale pierced through the heavens as Shin YuSung made his move.

* * *

* * *

The top floor of the abandoned hospital…

Jin MinAh was chewing on her lip and shaking. Due to the circumstances, she had somehow gotten the role of protecting the hostage from F Class.

“Goddammit. What happens if they take the hostage from us? Then it’ll be our fault that we lose.”

Sung IkHyun sighed at her mutterings.

“That’s why we need to seize this chance and claim victory… if Shin YuSung gets here, he’ll just destroy all of us.”

“And how are we going to do that? We don’t even know who the invader is yet…”

Jin MinAh began grumbling. Once again, Sung IkHyun sighed and pointed a finger towards the steel door.

“…Hoo. There’s no news from the reconnaissance group yet. I guess that means it’s my turn to go on patrol.”

“But Kang MinSu told us to protect the hostage.”

“Hey! Patrolling counts as protecting the hostage! Shouldn’t we do more than just sit here and do nothing?”

She began to roll that idea around in her head, slowly biting her lip, then glancing towards Lin Xiao.

“Ugh… what should we do…”

“If you’re so unsure about this, let’s just take the hostage with us when we patrol!”

Sung IkHyun finally lost his patience at her excessive worrying and began to lose his temper.

“Are you crazy!? What happens if Kang MinSu catches us out there?”

“Park HaWon is the leader of  D Class, not Kang MinSu,” he replied, a displeased expression on his face that Jin MinAh ended up succumbing to.

“Okay, then… if you find another reconnaissance group, try to bring them here, got it? I’ll be locking the steel door in the meantime.”

Sung IkHyun quickly nodded his head at the compromise that she had given him.

“Okay! Protect him well!”

He was definitely trying to do something useful to stand out.

An excited Sung IkHyun waved to his fellow classmate and went down the stairs. Jin MinAh then locked the door and let out a sigh.

“Ugh… he wants me to protect the hostage on my own…?”

Lin Xiao, who had been watching the two of them from the corner of the room, nodded his head as if approving of Sung IkHyun’s decision.

“It’s not a bad idea. In the case where all communication is cut off, the worst thing you could possibly do is twiddle your thumbs and do nothing.”

“That’s only if nothing happens to them, though.”

And ten minutes passed like that. Jin MinAh began to worry as Sung IkHyun had still not come back.

‘…Why isn’t he back yet? He’s already been out for a while. Who knows when the enemy is going to come?!’

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Right then, someone started thumping against the steel door. Jin MinAh narrowed her eyes, then walked up to the reinforced glass window placed in the door to check who was on the other side.

‘It’s Sung IkHyun.’

Her classmate was the one hitting the door.

For some reason, his face was as pale as a sheet of paper, and he was not saying anything.

“No one’s following you, right?”

Sung IkHyun weakly nodded, eyes clenched shut. Jin MinAh finally let him in.

Creeeak!

As the door swung open, Jin MinAh finally realized why he was so pale.

“You! Y-you’re…”

On the other side of the entranceway was a death knight, holding up the male student with one hand. Sumire stood behind them, fiddling with her fingers.

Thump!

The death knight threw aside the knocked-out Sung IkHyun.

Crash!

Sumire threw a glance towards the fallen student, then turned back towards Jin MinAh to make a request.

“Um, excuse me… do you think you could just black out like him?”

“What the hell are you saying?!”

Jin MinAh gave a little shriek and began to back away. As she did so, the death knight bowed its head as a show of deference to Sumire.

“Master… your… next orders!”

“Th-then, please make it painless…” she said, glancing at the other girl.

The death knight began to walk towards Jin MinAh with heavy strides.

“Ergh, shit! Aaah!”

The D Class student raised her weapon and charged towards the death knight, but the artifact-boosted monster was stronger.

Bam!

Jin MinAh was hit by the death knight’s own sword attack, flew through the air like a sack of potatoes, then hit the opposite wall.

Boom!

Sumire was more meticulous than she looked. She grabbed the fallen Jin MinAh’s Pocket and checked the remaining barrier value to see if it had been completely shattered.

“This palace has been taken care of, as well…”

Sumire looked around the room, only belatedly noticing the hostage, Lin Xiao. She hurriedly ran towards him.

“I-Instructor-nim!”

She freed him from his bonds.

As a teacher working at the Academy, Lin Xiao was sincerely shocked at Sumire’s incredible growth.

‘That Sumire… has become th-this strong?’

Shin YuSung immediately came to mind.

That boy had completely conquered Jewel Island and had destroyed the boss monster, the crystal golem, in the cave.

It seemed like his monstrous qualities had rubbed off on Sumire after she had started partnering with him.

‘I don’t know what Shin YuSung taught her, but it must have been really effective…’

Lin Xiao wondered if perhaps the boy was more suited to be an instructor than himself. Sumire began to giggle in a distasteful manner as if she could read his thoughts.

‘With all that I did during this exam… I’m sure Shin YuSung-ssi will praise me.’

Her aspirations were as small as the confidence she usually showed.