Dispatches from the Graduate School of Ghost Stories - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Urban Legends and Graduate School Presents (18)
Supremely rational and healthy
When people think of researchers, they often imagine pristine white protective suits, masks, and mysterious reagents being mixed in beakers.
But not all researchers work in science and engineering.
The three who gathered here belonged to the absurdly named Urban Legend Support Department, so their grasp of scientific knowledge was somewhat lacking.
They watched animals hopping toward them with split abdomens, thinking only of how to beat them back physically.
Yoo Jong-hwa coughed at the acrid smell that stung his nose, checking on his seniors’ condition.
“Ugh. Doesn’t your head hurt, seniors?”
“Oh, right. Formaldehyde! This is dangerous.”
It was the result of not thinking about what the old preserved specimens were made of.
No wonder the report said the Science Room should be avoided too.
So Hwi-yeong furrowed his brow at the acrid smell and muttered something, then pulled a full-face Gas Mask from his bag.
He handed the mask to Yoo Jong-hwa and explained how to put it on in a manner that was far from gentle.
“Insert the Filter Cartridge too.”
“Um… what’s a Filter Cartridge?”
Seeing the newcomer didn’t understand, the impatient Hwi-yeong grabbed Yoo Jong-hwa by the hair and forcibly fitted the Gas Mask on his head.
“Ow! I could’ve done it myself!”
“Korean spirit—speed things up!”
He could have actually done it himself. As Yoo Jong-hwa rubbed his head in grievance, he worried about Lee Ju-ho, who still had no mask on, and offered her his. “Senior, you should wear this. Now I’ll take a turn.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, Ju-ho. Put it on. Better safe than sorry.”
“All right. Then, Jong-hwa, could you swap with me for a moment…?”
Lee Ju-ho turned around from striking down the endless stream of animal corpses.
She rustled forward, pulled the Gas Mask over her head, and rushed straight to Yoo Jong-hwa. She seemed deeply uneasy leaving him with it. Watching her move with no sign of the headaches he was experiencing, Yoo Jong-hwa felt genuine admiration.
He’d heard that the Earrings his senior wore could enhance physical ability, but could they also protect against poisons?
Come to think of it, she’d drunk black tea that the principal had handed her and hadn’t seemed to suffer much at all.
He eyed the corner of the Science Room with sincere envy for Lee Ju-ho’s Earrings.
When Lee Ju-ho held the shovel, the Anatomical Model hadn’t budged at all. The moment Yoo Jong-hwa took it, the model began creeping forward.
“Why is the model only starting to move now?”
“Who knows. Probably just didn’t want to fight Ju-ho.”
The model’s half exposed the internal organs and blood vessels rendered in vivid red. Though the material was clearly plastic, its heart seemed to beat as if alive.
Moving with an unnatural, stuttering gait, the model approached them.
Through the suffocating mask, Yoo Jong-hwa inhaled sharply and swung the shovel at an egg-shaped object, its veins preserved in formaldehyde. The egg flew straight for his head but was intercepted by the shovel, shattering messily. With a very serious expression, Yoo Jong-hwa posed a question to the Anatomical Model.
“Does your ankle hurt when you walk, by any chance?”
“What nonsense is this.”
So Hwi-yeong rebuked him curtly, but Lee Ju-ho did not chastise him. She simply nodded quietly.
Yoo Jong-hwa worked hard to convince Hwi-yeong, waving his hands energetically at the model. “No, see, I worked as a Gym trainer for a long time.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re actually trying to get the model to exercise.”
“Your pelvis looks misaligned—it’s from poor posture. And you don’t seem to have any core strength.”
“Of course there’s no muscle. Half the body’s gone—can’t you see that?”
The Anatomical Model did not respond. Of course it didn’t. It had no vocal apparatus.
Instead, it suddenly moved with tremendous speed, rushed at Yoo Jong-hwa, and strangled him.
He struggled to tear off the rigid plastic arms, but as befitted an Urban Legend Phenomenon, the model’s strength was inhumanly powerful.
Fortunately, their side also had someone with inhuman physical specifications, so Yoo Jong-hwa’s choking did not last long.
“Member. You need to exercise.”
Lee Ju-ho approached with a calm face, grabbed the model’s shoulders, and pried it away from Yoo Jong-hwa.
The Anatomical Model turned one of its eyeballs completely outward and stared at Lee Ju-ho with its head twisted 180 degrees.
The model’s reaction didn’t surprise him. Some people who came to the Gym wanted to kill their trainer. So Yoo Jong-hwa paid no mind to having been strangled and spoke worriedly from behind Lee Ju-ho.
“By the time you think it’s too late, it already is. You need to start exercising now.”
“The human body is at its youngest today. The ‘you’ of today is healthier than the ‘you’ of tomorrow by one more day. Do your stretches often, and don’t just sit still during the day—move your body a little at a time.”
“Yes, it looks like you only move at night, so your muscles have become very stiff.”
Ignoring the two fitness-obsessed people trying to convince the model, Hwi-yeong industriously swept up the remaining specimens and crammed them into drawers. He held a long dustpan and broom that he’d found somewhere with practiced ease.
So Hwi-yeong sealed the drawers with Blue Tape, wrapping them over and over, and despised the humans endlessly exhorting the virtues of exercise.
“I hate you guys every time you do this.”
“Looking at you today, you could stand to build some stamina too.”
“I’m above average. Building more won’t make a difference. This is my best state.”
Hwi-yeong threw down the cleaning tools and lost his temper.
Ju-ho and Jong-hwa together grabbed the model and held it above their heads, then plugged it back into the stand where it had been.

The model thrashed its limbs in resistance, but the moment Lee Ju-ho adjusted its hunched shoulders with a massage, it grew docile.
“Your posture isn’t good at all. The footrest is a bit misaligned. Let me balance it for you.”
Yoo Jong-hwa displayed his kindness toward the patient who needed correction, offering practical assistance.
He glanced around the room, spotted a few thin wooden shims, and wedged them beneath the Anatomical Model’s stand.
The model, which had been tilting slightly, now stood perfectly upright.
“How’s that? Should I raise it any higher?”
The anatomical figure shook its head.
“People who work jobs that require them to stand most of the time often develop problems with their ankles and knees, so they visit hospitals.”
“I’ll teach you some Ankle Strengthening Stretches—you’ll need to do them regularly.”
Lee Ju-ho demonstrated a few motions and taught them to the model.
The mannequin, a plastic body stripped of muscular function, stared blankly at her.
“You think you can manage that?”
The anatomical figure nodded vaguely.
Yoo Jong-hwa held up his thumb with a satisfied smile.
“Right, you two. It’s good that you’re keeping it calm, but don’t let the Urban Legend actually end.”
The moment So Hwi-yeong finished his rebuke, both the front and back doors of the Science Room burst open with a sharp, violent screech.
“Hey! I told you to get out of here! I said to take it easy!”
At So Hwi-yeong’s shout, a strange sound began to echo from the distance—something crawling on its elbows.
Tap-tap, tap-a-tap-tap. Screeeeak.
“Not in here?”
Like the Urban Legends commonly told around town, the Dead Girl was deliberately opening every classroom door, searching for them.
The playful sound of searching for someone drew nearer—from the adjacent classroom, then to the next. The noise closed in instantly.
“Forget the masks, just run!”
“Wasn’t this supposed to be safe if we stayed here?”
Yoo Jong-hwa cried out in protest as he chased his seniors out of the Science Room.
Lee Ju-ho was already ahead, carrying So Hwi-yeong, and the senior—now comfortably settled against her—lamented to his junior.
“The Urban Legend’s already over! The specimens are all smashed, the model won’t move anymore. This is just an ordinary Science Room now. At least for today!”
“Then we can’t go to the Music Room either?!”
“That one still has the painting alive in it. We just sealed it—we didn’t burn it down!”
“But the piano’s done for!”
He had no idea what the standard was supposed to be. The model hadn’t been smashed to pieces—it was in perfect condition.
Was it a question of whether the Urban Legend still had the will to do something?
Were they saying the Anatomical Model had weaker resolve than Beethoven? What on earth were the criteria for an Urban Legend Phenomenon anyway?
Yoo Jong-hwa was running hard, indulging in the sort of existential worry fitting for a first-year graduate researcher. Lee Ju-ho, muttering apologies to So Hwi-yeong, maintained a pace a step or two ahead of him.
“Sorry. I didn’t know it’d end so quickly.”
“Hey, come on. We can’t do things like usual. We’re carrying luggage right now!”
“I know. Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Lee Ju-ho apologized a few more times sheepishly, then shouted toward Yoo Jong-hwa.
“Go to the fourth floor—that’s where the Restroom definitely is!”
“What if the fourth floor doesn’t appear?”
“Keep climbing the stairs until it does!”
It seemed too easy for him to say he wasn’t going to run.
When Yoo Jong-hwa felt as though he’d climbed roughly fifteen floors, he gasped for breath and stared up at the endless staircase stretching before him.
They kept climbing floor after floor, yet the classrooms on either side never changed—they were all the Library.
On the walls between floors, floor markers indicating their current level were properly affixed, but gradually the numbers began to look strange.
[2F/1F]
When they first started climbing the stairs, the sign had clearly shown them ascending from the first to the second floor—but now.
[4▷◀▣◐F/1F]
They could no longer tell where they were.
“This is wrong. I should’ve brought the Anatomical Model’s lower body!”
“Gasp, hah. Senior…! There really isn’t anything useful to carry in the bag?”
“……That Pink Fairy Doll that bankrupts parents……I’ve got that.”
“……I’ll just keep running!”
“Yeah, it’ll be over by seven! Jong-hwa! Just run for three more hours!”
Yet it was Lee Ju-ho who was actually doing the running, and So Hwi-yeong hadn’t even asked about her well-being. His manner was that of a pilot seated in a custom-built machine—utterly familiar.
Yoo Jong-hwa listened intently to the noise around him, worrying about how to pace his stamina over the next three hours.
Besides the sound of himself and Ju-ho gasping, the crawling footsteps of the ghost pursuing them were clear and distinct.
The ghost wasn’t panting like the person he’d seen on the day of his university interview. So this time it really was a genuine Thought Entity.
The crawling girl’s presence drew closer and closer, like a hunter slowly driving its prey toward a corner.
No matter how fast they ran, they would not escape. A powerful intuition seized him.
Yoo Jong-hwa breathed in ragged gasps, feeling his sleep-deprived body scream in protest. By now, even So Hwi-yeong’s voice nearby sounded muffled and distant.
“Hey, wait! Jong-hwa! Stop! The Fire Extinguisher Cabinet! It’s in the Guidelines!”
“I’ll hold off the ghost. Find the doll.”
The sudden urgency in his seniors’ movements made no sense to him. His confused mind could only focus on a voice calling to him over and over.
Come this way.
Yoo Jong-hwa started toward the floor where his seniors were, but his body pivoted sharply and he bolted down the stairs instead.
The ghost, whose eyes had locked with his, didn’t manage to snatch him, but immediately twisted around and gave chase.
“Hey! Where are you going!”
“Kim Jong-sik!”
Had the seniors not seen this?
His gaze was fixed on a hallway where a placard appeared—not the Library, but somewhere else.
He ran at full speed toward the familiar sign of 6th Grade Class 3.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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