WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 52: Radio Mountain Lodge Murder Case (3)
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‘How could a named character be here?’
As I crossed ghost stories, I had formed one hypothesis I felt fairly certain about.
For example, Langwidere Gallery centered on the gallery ghost story. I met people from D Corporation, but they were extras, mob characters whose names never appeared even once on a wiki or in a ghost-story post.
The same went for the Pop-up Mall. With The Mirror of the Otherworld taking center stage, Pebbles Mart had only manifested the underground Safe Zone and part of the Surface Manual. The truly insane monsters and customers of Pebbles Mart, along with ghost stories that used its more detailed rules, hadn't appeared.
In other words, my hypothesis was that when multiple ghost stories merged, if one took the central role, the rest only held influence as side branches.
Even if Radio Mountain Lodge Murder Case had begun because of a Home Shopping package tour invitation, if it was operating as an independent ghost story, it should be the one at the center.
That meant every other ghost story, whether SOSA, Home Shopping, Helical, or goblins, should only be side elements. No named characters should appear.
But the named character who had appeared was far too major.
I couldn't let that frail, nervous-looking impression fool me. That bastard could switch images as completely as Superman and Clark Kent.
He was exactly the sort of character found in comics and novels. The narrowed-eyed character secretly strongest in the setting, the one who looked weak but was actually hiding his power.
A lunatic who showed his face in every company and story in the setting through the trait of being everywhere and nowhere.
Sihyeon of D Corporation. Now You See of Humanin Corporation. Mr. Look and Up of Wondertainment...
‘Judging by that civil-servant-looking outfit and smiling image, his current identity must be Moses, the branch director of the Anomalous Phenomena General Information Management Bureau.’
Anyway, my ghost-story center hypothesis had fallen apart, so I needed a different approach. Keeping my smile as steady as possible, I looked over the people and the named character one by one.
‘Stay calm. I was invited, and... they’re characters in the mountain lodge ghost story...’
That wasn't true! Damn it!
They were obviously normal people who were alive! Ordinary people who'd been dragged into a ghost story! Why was this happening to me?!
My modest dream of watching the characters act out their little play within the mountain lodge stage had taken a direct hit and vanished. No wonder it had seemed as though Hertz was laughing in my ear.
One person who had come to experience a ghost story.
Five civilians who'd been dragged here without knowing why.
And one named character from fiction whose reason for appearing here was completely unknown.
‘I need to find out why the named character is here and bring this ghost story to the ending I want.’
Ha.
I could do this.
I dropped onto the old leather sofa in the middle of the living room.
“Shall we introduce ourselves? My name is Seon Jaehyeon. It'd be nice if you'd already introduced yourselves, but I don't know your names, so I'd appreciate it if you told me.”
“W-who are you? Did you bring us here?”
The man in the suit stepped forward as though to protect the others. It looked like he and... that person who was well past forty were serving as the group's buffers.
“If I'd brought you here, would I be sitting around like this? I'd have rung the third bell and cut your throats.”
“Then what are you, and how did you get in through th-there? It hasn't opened this whole time, so we...!”
“Because I was invited.”
“Invited? Then we...”
I pointed at the half-collapsed sofa again and smiled.
“Sit down. I'll explain.”
“He seems like an expert. Why don't we hear him out?”
Moses said with a weak grin, egging them on. I appreciated it, but... After hesitating, they sat down one by one and introduced themselves.
“Then... do you know what happened to us?”
When Lee Eunseong asked cautiously, I gave them the broadest business smile I used when dealing with clients.
“Yes. I'm a field expert. You don't have to believe me. But I can't guarantee your lives. I can promise that I'm the only one here who can get you out alive. I don't know what you were doing before, but that wasn't wise either.”
I needed to sound confident. The classic “Don't side with me, and I won't care if you get stabbed” tactic. It struck at the basic fear that if they didn't follow me, they'd be left behind alone.
“Then... do you know how to get out too?”
Good. Once one person came around, the rest would be easy. The moment more than half of them leaned my way, the others would feel like they were losing out by refusing to follow.
“Yes. I know how to get out.”
“Isn't this some trick to split us apart?”
“Then what, are you going to have a knife fight with me? You shouldn't pick up those things over there.”
My gaze moved to Kim Minjae's dislocated wrist.
“T-that's not what I meant.”
“Then do you have a better idea?”
Kim Minjae finally fell silent. Thank goodness. Looking at that face, they seemed to have quite a temper. I'd been worried they might start a fight.
“Let's go over it from the beginning. There are probably five chairs at the dining table. And there are seven of us. Did any of you see some writing up there?”
“There was a piece of paper. It said to exclude the uninvited person...”
“That's right. Now that we've entered, we're being forced to play a game set by this house's owner. You could call it a death survival game.”
I held up one finger.
“First, the radio will demand one death at a time. The form differs each time, but this rule is probably telling us to kill the uninvited person. If someone dies, the rest survive for a day.”
“Then you're saying one of us has to die in the end?!”
It would be troublesome if they reacted like that already. I continued regardless.
“The second rule is something you learn after the first killing. I said this was a death survival game, right? This game is musical chairs. Even if someone dies today and we get through it, we can't leave.”
The most famous version of the Radio Mountain Lodge Murder Case starved five people to death over ten days.
“Once someone dies, the radio will play again. Four, then three, then two. It repeats until only one person remains. It's like reenacting Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.”
“Th-then what if nobody dies and we somehow hold out?”
“You'll die anyway. That's the kind of ghost story this is.”
“A ghost story?”
“Yes. I don't know whether you've heard of Radio Mountain Lodge Murder Case. Even if not, there are plenty of similar stories. If this were a dream-type ghost story, you might wake up unharmed. Unfortunately, this is real. If you die here, you really die. The same goes for injuries. So you should act carefully.”
Since they'd already seen someone bewitched by a book and dislocate their wrist, they seemed willing enough to accept the idea of a ghost story.
“There's nobody here who knows ghost stories better than I do. Trust me, and you can get out of here alive. Do you want to live, or do you want to die?”
The expert appeal. The responsibility appeal. Perfect. Now was the time to seize control properly.
As long as Moses didn't interfere. When I glanced sideways, Moses was still watching me with that faint, frightened smile.
I quickly turned away before our eyes could meet. I didn't know what Moses was planning, but it would be fine as long as Moses didn't learn what I was thinking.
“Looking at the commotion earlier, you must've tried opening and banging on things all over the place. Nothing worked, right? The doors won't open. Only the things we need will be provided when we need them. Since it opened the dining room, it seems to be encouraging us to fight with kitchen tools like knives and hammers.”
“Th-there was... a p-person in the refrigerator with that person...”
Thanks for telling me that. I would absolutely never open the refrigerator. I desperately looked elsewhere to erase the gory image forming in my mind.
“But the most absurd part is that it doesn't actually matter who you kill.”
“What? But it said the uninvited person.”
This ghost story wanted a death survival game from the start. Its core was the unfairness of deciding that anyone was uninvited and hanging one person. Distrust in humanity, cracks between people, escalating deaths, and the chilling thought that you might be next.
“Everyone, let's break free of your assumptions. What is the standard for an invitation? An invitation is when someone asks you to come to a particular place, right? Did anyone receive an invitation and come here?”
Nobody answered. It bothered me that even Moses kept their mouth firmly shut, but I continued.
“Strictly speaking, none of you were invited. You were kidnapped. Even wedding invitations include an address. How can being dragged somewhere with no address count as an invitation?”
“Th-then is that why you said the game would continue?”
“Yes. Because everyone is uninvited. You can kill anyone, really. Then the next day, you panic, wondering, ‘That person wasn't the one?’ and start killing each other. That's this ghost story's appeal... no, its horror feature.”
“Wait.”
Park Chaeyeong interrupted me, face pale.
“You keep saying ‘you all.’ You're speaking as though Jaehyeon doesn't apply.”
“Because I was invited.”
I didn't know whether taking out the invitation was a good idea. But if I was going to take a gamble, this was the moment. I needed to know what Moses was thinking.
I took out the invitation and slid it in front of them. They didn't want to touch it, but leaned over as far as they could to read it.
“And if you came out of the refrigerator, I expect you must have something like an invitation as well.”
“Who knows? Maybe I do.”
“If you don't, you fit the definition of an uninvited person rather precisely.”
“You said everyone was uninvited earlier.”
“We can decide who's more uninvited. At least the others are better than a suspicious person who won't even reveal their name or identity.”
Moses, who had been hanging back with a slippery smile, wiped it away and let out a sigh. In an instant, a cold expression appeared as if a mask had been switched, then a genial smile covered it again.
“Please understand. Those people really tried to kill me earlier. I had no choice but to be defensive.”
“I understand. Can you show us now?”
Moses took a small ticket-like item from their chest and set it on the table.
“I'm Moses from the Information Management Bureau. We use this ticket when investigating anomalous phenomena. Strictly speaking, I wasn't invited. You could say I'm a civil servant sent to investigate an anomalous phenomenon.”
A fictional civil servant from the Ghost Story World, of course. At this point, I almost missed the real civil-servant title held by the Ghost Story Records Corporation. Still, when people heard the words civil servant, they were bound to lean toward Moses...
“Investigating? Then you came to save us?”
Just like that. But I already knew the answer to that question.
“Perhaps.”
Moses merely grinned.
After all, the Anomalous Phenomena General Information Management Bureau wasn't a respectable public institution like the Ghost Story Records Corporation, one that saved people or resolved ghost stories.
It was a lunatic institution that instead encouraged ghost stories to remain where they were and periodically eat people.
The reason was simple. The SOSA setting was struggling to prevent a certain future in which surreal entities would bring about the end of the world.
The Anomalous Phenomena General Information Management Bureau had chosen to let surreal entities run wild as much as possible, as long as humanity didn't go extinct. That was how it prevented a greater apocalypse.
To avoid a large-scale disaster, those lunatics actively herded people into cute little ghost stories like this and lovingly raised them.
‘I have absolutely no intention of adding a real murder case to my relaxing ghost-story experience.’
“We came out to investigate a phenomenon we'd never seen before. But since Jaehyeon here seems to know it very, very well... perhaps we should trust him?”
Look at those eyes. They were openly testing the waters while saying they would interfere...
“Y-yeah! Then what do we have to do if we don't want to die?”
Riding the momentum, Kim Minjae panted while clutching their wrist.
“Right... We can't just watch each other and starve to death here.”
Im Hojun asked cautiously as well.
I leaned deeply into the back of the sofa.
“We are...”
I had already decided on the first answer I would give.
“We're going to set fire to that dining room and kitchen.”
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