The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 86

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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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Episode 86.
“Ugh.”
Ptooey….
Sung Su spat out the sand that kept grating between his teeth and collapsed into the shade tent.
The Sahara Desert—an endless expanse of ruddy dunes stretching toward the horizon.
Having just wrapped the shoot, Sung Su handed the camera to his assistant and caught his breath.
“There’ve been continuous calls from your niece.”
Instead of the camera, a mobile phone was placed in Sung Su’s hand as he rested with water.
When he checked, there were countless messages from Se Hee.
“Ah. Was it a festival?”
Now that he thought about it, she’d mentioned something like that when he’d called a few days ago.
So Hee, who’d been resting beside Sung Su as well, came closer.
“A festival? What kind of festival?”
“Apparently your niece’s school is having a festival today.”
So Hee showed interest at Sung Su’s words.
“Come to think of it, your niece was preparing to be a model, wasn’t she? And….”
Ye Ji goes to the same school, doesn’t she?
Sung Su nodded at her words, which she’d deliberately lowered her voice to say quietly.
“Wow, I expected she’d get attention, but it’s really something else.”
So Hee spoke as she looked at Ye Ji’s work coming in just then.
As if a piece of a vast oasis had been cut out and brought here, the meticulous work was beautiful enough to captivate the eye once more.
The reason Ye Ji’s work drew the eye was very simple and straightforward.
Beautiful color and realistic depiction.
Her paintings weren’t difficult to understand.
And yet there was something mysterious about them nonetheless.
Within the natural light and colors, strangely, a certain emotion could be felt.
So Hee didn’t know much about paintings or such.
“But this kind of talent, this kind of skill—even someone like me can tell it’s well done.”
So naturally, she couldn’t help but succeed.
Besides, there was an incident that had put So Hee in quite a good mood.
That rival who’d always irritated her in some way, someone who seemed to come from a good family from birth and appeared so at ease.
She had subtly asked So Hee about Go Yo.
Of course, So Hee had played dumb and simply smiled mysteriously.
Sung Su, watching So Hee laugh somewhat gleefully, checked a photo in his mobile phone.
Among the many photos Se Hee had sent,
there were photos taken with Ye Ji.
Just as So Hee had said, Ye Ji was certainly a girl with uncommon talent.
But Sung Su found the sight of Ye Ji in the photo, fitting in with her friends like any ordinary high school student, more pleasant to see.
It was good to display talent, certainly,
“but after all, she’s still only eighteen.”
To fully enjoy those things that can only be experienced at that age.
That was a right of children as well.
At Sung Su’s words, So Hee, glancing at his phone, smiled warmly.
“……That’s true enough.”
And so, So Hee had no intention of spreading the information she’d learned by chance to anyone.
“She’s a kid worth looking forward to.”
Of course, for now, enjoying her own youth was the more important thing.
But what else could she do from here?
Even if it was a different field, So Hee felt anticipation.
***
The art department booth causing the biggest buzz at the Cheonglim Festival.
Ha Eun, a first-year, had just stepped past the entrance into a horror-themed escape room booth.
Her gaze landed on the corridor floor.
There was something piled up considerably.
Looking closer, various body parts of plaster busts were scattered about alongside unidentifiable debris.
Bang—
“None of you got bitten, right?”
At that moment, the front door of Sculpture Room 1 burst open with a sudden loud noise.
The senior who appeared gave a nonchalant question while sizing Ha Eun up.
“First-year? I’m Hyun Min, a second-year. Anyway….”
Even as he was saying this, a crunching sound came from one side of the corridor.
Then Hyun Min turned on the flashlight he was holding to shine into the corner of the corridor.
As the white flashlight beam pointed to one spot in the otherwise reddish corridor, gazes naturally converged there.
The place where they’d thought plaster busts were piled.
There, someone was rising up grotesquely, moving unnaturally.
Red caked on, hair matted wild.
A school uniform that was half-torn and filthy.
“Wow….”
This is so realistic…?
While Ha Eun was marveling for a moment, the zombie rising slowly suddenly rushed at them with heavy, thundering footsteps.
“Ahhh!”
Reflexively startled, Ha Eun screamed, and Hyun Min pulled them deeper into the studio.
Once they’d closed and locked the first classroom’s front door, the zombie that had charged smashed its body against the door repeatedly.
“Shh!”
Hyun Min quieted Ha Eun, but zombies that had already heard the light and sound were gathering at the front door.
Four zombies appeared—how, no one knew—and knocked intermittently against the front door: thud, thud.
“The zombies respond to light and sound, so find something to lure them with and let’s escape through the back door.”
Hyun Min whispered, giving her a hint.
‘Oh, right. This is an escape room….’
Ha Eun finally came to her senses and began searching the classroom with her friend.
The windows were covered with plywood, and no light entered—a dark, dreary classroom.
Relying on the flashlight, they carefully placed their feet.
Inside, there were familiar easels and plaster busts, but
grotesque sculptures were positioned throughout.
Yes, just like those plaster busts.
“Wow…. Wahhh….”
Ha Eun let out a sound that mixed amazement and criticism simultaneously.
What on earth had been done to the plaster busts?
From inside a head with one side broken away, something strange was protruding….
“Ugh….”
Ha Eun involuntarily turned her head away.
The problem was how grotesque and realistic it all was.
She knew the paint had dried completely and wouldn’t smudge on her hands, but she still didn’t want to touch it.
And there was also the matter of the paintings hanging on each easel.
Absurdly dark and red, ominous paintings.
Red paint slathered roughly, inverted crosses, canvas filled with eyeballs….
“What a waste of talent…. A waste of talent, I tell you……!”
Ha Eun muttered irritably while surveying the area.
“Gah, can’t we just use this instead?”
Her friend, equally afraid to touch anything, pulled out her mobile phone.
It did emit light and make sounds….
“……You’re going to throw it?”
That’s too much commitment, junior.
Hyun Min slightly shook his head as if saying so with his eyes.
Meanwhile, Ha Eun, who’d been peeking at the plaster bust, gathered courage and reached out her hand.
In the grotesquely formed interior, she could see something black and plastic.
“Um, is this… this what I’m supposed to find?”
What she managed to pull out was a small digital timer.
When she pressed the button, a modest light appeared on the small screen.
“Yeah. That’ll do. Throw it down that corridor and slip into the next room.”
At Hyun Min’s words, Ha Eun set the timer for ten seconds.
Then she threw the timer toward the corridor they’d entered from.
As the small plastic made clattering sounds falling, the zombies turned their heads in response.
Beep-beep-beep-beep—
As the timer alarm went off, Ha Eun hurried into the next room.
Just as she rushed to lock the door and was about to sigh in relief,
the landscape of the room first caught her eye.
“Uh…!”
The second classroom was set up with an equally formidable arrangement.
The floor was entirely pristine white, and the walls were covered entirely with large, thick, opaque vinyl sheeting.
In crime movies, they use blue lamps to check for blood traces.
A similar blue light illuminated spots across the floor.
And under the blue light, some unidentifiable liquid gleamed with fluorescent brightness scattered here and there across the floor.
Those fluorescent colors felt exactly like real bloodstains, ominous beyond compare.
“Uh, uhh….”
She awkwardly avoided those smears with her steps and barely ventured deeper inside.
“Looks like vaccine research was done here. The vaccine is in the next room, but it’s locked in a safe, so you need to find the password.”
Putting aside the realistically arranged surroundings,
Ha Eun and her friend searched corners and crevices for hints.
It wasn’t difficult, but as they took in the well-decorated surroundings, the fear seemed to ease somewhat.
The moment she felt she was adapting,
“Aaahhhhh!”
A zombie-masked person suddenly leaped up from one corner of the vinyl sheeting.
As a result, Ha Eun, startled out of her wits, screamed and rushed into the final room.
“That’s excessive…. Excessive, I’m telling you….”
“Hurry, hurry.”
By then, even Ha Eun’s friend, who’d been excited at first, now wanted nothing more than to leave.
It felt like only minutes had passed, so why was she already so exhausted?
The final room had an eerie atmosphere that mixed the previous two.
Curtains placed here and there and vinyl sheets hanging from the ceiling blocked the view, increasing unease.
In the cluttered room, a large table sat in the center.
On it was a safe.
As Ha Eun approached it, she saw the backdrop positioned behind and suddenly stopped.
“…….”
“Password, password!”
Hurry, hurry.
Ha Eun gently grabbed her friend’s arm as she rushed to input the safe’s password.
Only then did her friend, following Ha Eun’s gaze and properly looking behind, clap a hand over her mouth.
The painting that filled the back wall was overwhelming.
As if some new creature had sprouted from the classroom wall itself.
Enormous eyes watched over them.
Overwhelmed by that grotesqueness, the two of them barely managed to input the password.
After all, it’s just a painting, just a painting….
Repeating this to herself, Ha Eun reached into the safe and grabbed the small medicine bottle.
Now I just need to leave…….
Snap—
At that moment, a hand burst out from under the table and grabbed Ha Eun’s ankle.
“Kyaaaaahhhh!”
As Ha Eun screamed as if she might faint, her friend screamed right along with her.
The problem was,
“Hey, wait!”
Hyun Min’s warning was useless.
Frightened, Ha Eun flipped the table right over, turning the surroundings into chaos, and ran out.
“……What.”
Left alone in the wrecked room were only Ye Ji and Hyun Min, who’d been hunched under the table.
***
Reporter Sung Jin Ho checked the view count on his article.
As expected, the exclusive interview had gotten quite a response.
It wasn’t just a matter of view counts either.
He was a reporter in the culture section with deep experience, particularly in the art world.
He’d received dozens of phone calls from people in the industry.
Given that Go Yo was such a mysterious figure, and that her debut had been at an international level,
people were calling to ask about the secret behind securing an exclusive interview with such a person.
Some even suggested he must have personal connections and demanded information about Go Yo, but since he knew nothing himself, he politely declined.
Meanwhile, Go Yo’s side had only expressed simple courtesy thanking him for the good article afterward.
They’d made no further contact or requests of any kind.
“What on earth does she do?”
It was actually surprising that a newcomer had an assistant handling business on her behalf.
It meant there was a foundation capable of supporting fixed costs for at least one employee.
Jin Ho was a person through whom no further connections could be made.
But it was clear this was a relationship too good to part with so easily.
It could be fleeting attention, but his instinct told him otherwise.
This person would become an even bigger topic of conversation—not fade away quietly like her name suggested.
‘……Should I look into it?’
It wasn’t that he wanted to expose her identity.
At least if he found out anything, he could maintain a connection with Go Yo.
If luck smiled and she viewed it generously, couldn’t he become a real acquaintance rather than subject to misunderstandings?
‘Anyway, knowing something never hurts.’
Knowing is power.
For a reporter especially, information was a crucial element.
With such thoughts, Jin Ho began digging through other domestic art industry articles.
Name, gender, age—he knew none of it, but one thing was certain:
There was no way such skill hadn’t been exposed somewhere before now.
There had to be a clue somewhere.
‘……What if she’s such a heavyweight that I can’t even approach her even after finding out?’
Though he hadn’t found any clues yet, Jin Ho harbored that small unease.
Certainly, Go Yo was an exceptional person with a grand plan.
***
“So what do we do now?”
At that very moment, Ye Ji was scratching the back of her head in front of the destroyed props.

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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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