Chapter 38 – Chapter 38- Hallucination Labyrinth

I felt the sunlight filtering through the window and opened my eyes.

I always woke up at six o’clock, naturally.

I quit my cafe part-time job, but I still woke up as usual and got up.

“Ah, are you awake?”

As I was awake on the bunk bed, someone suddenly opened the door and greeted me.

Darae.

After finishing her shower at this early hour, Darae was blowing white steam with a towel wrapped around her neck.

He was a very strange guy.

Due to the nature of the academy where classes start at 9:00, my waking up at 6:00 was unusual, too.

Darae would wake up faster than me and come back after showering.

Let’s ask Darae, who has been sincere every time for two weeks already, why I wake up so quickly.

Darae coughed and gave an honest answer, ‘Wake up early in the morning and tidy up your body is good for your mind’.

Other guys would laugh at it, but it was understandable to some extent when Darae always wore an improved hanbok and used an old accent.

Seruk. Seruk.

Coming down from the bunk bed, I too prepared to wash.

As I approached the sink and tried to wash my face, Darae was stroking my red hair.

As usual, Darae skillfully grabbed her hair and lifted it up, perhaps trying to fix my hair with her hairpin.

Suddenly, a white nape caught my eye.

After finishing the shower, I couldn’t take my eyes off the figure with water droplets forming on it. I don’t know why.

Darae, who was holding a hairpin in his mouth, blinked his eyes as if he noticed my gaze.

“…Why but?”

I scratched my head embarrassingly at Darae who mumbled and spat out an answer.

“No, nothing.”

Darae smiled softly as if she was bland and lifted her hair up with a hairpin.

However, seeing that slightly crooked appearance, I approached Darae from behind and told Darae.

“Wait a minute, I think I screwed this up wrong? I’ll fix it.”

“Please.”

Grabbing the fluttering hair of Darae and putting on her hairpin.

Suddenly, I realized how long hair Darae had.

It’s not like a man, but when I thought of Darae’s face, which was prettier than most women, I thought it was worth it this time too.

“… Sniff.”

Maybe it’s because the white steam came up after I straightened my hair.

A sweet smell crossed my nose.

A subtle sweet, clean scent.

I lowered my head involuntarily at the addictive smell and put my nose to the nape of the chin, which was the source of the smell.

“Huh.”

“… Hyaaak?!”

Darae jumps up and runs away from me.

“Wh… What…?!”

Darae trembles with a flush on his cheeks.

I was taken aback by the unconventional reaction and told Darae.

“No, I just thought it smelled good. I wondered if I was using some kind of body lotion.”

“Ah… I don’t use anything. I just use soap.”

“Really? It smells too sweet for that?”

As he sniffed the sweet smell that still lingered in his nose, Darae flinched.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

I shrugged and headed for the bathroom in the corner of the room.

Darae looked at my back with a dissatisfied expression, as if he didn’t like me.

* *

“Today we have a practical class, boys.”

Afternoon class.

I was listening to class while feeling somewhat drowsy from the feeling of being full from lunch.

The teacher suddenly explained to us.

“Today’s practical class is a hallucinatory maze. Have you all heard of it?”

To that question, Cha-ryeok Kim raised his hand and answered.

“I do not know.”

The teacher looked at Kim Cha-reuk, who raised his hand proudly with his bald head reflecting the light of the fluorescent lamp, and said with an awkward smile.

“Then, before going to practical class, I’ll briefly explain. This psychedelic labyrinth is a practice with dungeons appearing all over the world as a motif.”

The teacher took a piece of chalk and drew a large circle on the board.

“Once upon a time, Kang Lee-jun from the Shadow family and Lee Si-ah from the Imoogi clan sacrificed their lives to create the world.”

Suddenly, the names of my father and mother popped up.

Naturally, my concentration increased, and I listened to the teacher’s words with interest.

“Most things are the same as in the other world, but a few strange places have been discovered in this world.”

A teacher drawing a large x on top of a circle.

“Because it’s an artificial world created by mixing positive and negative energy, places where the combination gets twisted sometimes appear. That’s what a dungeon is.”

Dungeon.

If we had played the game at least once, we would have been tilting our heads at the familiar name, but the teacher told us as if that was right.

“In this dungeon, bizarre creatures are created, and new things are born when the turbid positive and negative energies are mixed. And today, we are going to practice in a hallucinatory labyrinth where you can experience this dungeon indirectly.”

“Oh oh.”

An exclamation burst out.

Doing dungeon practice in a hallucinogenic maze.

I was already excited about the content that looked interesting even at a glance.

Miho must have noticed my excitement, and watched me happily while wagging his tail.

“Okay then, let’s all line up in the hallway before we move.”

Following the teacher’s instructions, we lined up in the hallway and headed to the practice area.

A building in which the number of floors is not divided, and only one large building is built together.

Upon entering, a monster greeted us.

“Hello everyone.”

Round eyes, transverse pupils.

A curved horn sprouting from the forehead.

A middle-aged man, who could be guessed to be a goat-related monster, approached us with a recognizable smile.

“I’m Pan running this training building. Pan of the Pied Piper clan. Today I’m in charge of monitoring the hallucination maze so that you can finish it safely and unharmed. I hope you enjoy the experience.”

“Everyone heard it, right? I’m Mr. Pan, who is well versed in hallucinations, so don’t worry and act.”

Our teacher nodded to Miss Pan and left the building.

Teacher Pan, who naturally took over our class, lined up our class in a row, and then she led us into a small space in the building.

“Now, when you enter here, you will automatically enter the maze. The starting place will be far from everyone, but as you wander through the maze, you will meet friends. The purpose of this practice is to clear the dungeon through cooperation and various methods. .”

The children entered the space one after another.

In the middle, though, Kim Cha-yeok’s body was too big, so there was a disaster where Teacher Pan pushed Kim Cha-yeok’s back.

Except for that, everything went smoothly into the maze.

Soon my turn came.

I gulped and looked at the unknown space beyond.

Psychedelic labyrinth.

I couldn’t even imagine what was to come.

Perhaps noticing my nervousness, Teacher Pan patted me on the shoulder and gave me words of encouragement.

“Don’t worry, it’s a dungeon tailored to the students’ abilities.”

“Yep.”

I nodded and vigorously moved my feet across the space.

Soon after, with the feeling of being sucked into somewhere, I moved.

I was taken aback when I saw the hallucinatory maze unfolding before my eyes.

“Yes…?”

What is this?

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.

However, no matter how much I denied it and blinked my eyes, the sight in front of me was still the same.

“Is this a psychedelic maze?”

I muttered vainly.

* *

The shadow family, Dangju Kim Ji-hye.

Kim Ji-hye put a stylish nameplate carved out of obsidian on her desk, and Ji-hye Kim wrapped her head around her.

“Fuck.”

No matter how many times I’ve grabbed my head, the hair stretched out in all directions.

And the dark circles under her eyes showed how tired she was.

“There is no end… No end…”

Kim Ji-hye snapped her fingers, and she naturally put her cigarette in her mouth and lit it.

Kim Ji-hye, who smoked her cigarette with her thick lips, exuded her decadent charm, but Kim Ji-hye, who had no way of knowing it, spat out her swear words and gulped down her coffee.

“Shit.”

Kim Ji-hye, who woke up her brain with caffeine and nicotine, even for a moment, looked at her documents piled up like a mountain in front of me.

“Fuck.”

Again, the profanity was spat out.

However, as the head of the family, Kim Ji-hye, knowing that this was what she had to do, grabbed her fountain pen again.

Square, square.

The sound of a pen passing over the paper echoed.

Kim Ji-hye, who had been mechanically reading the documents for a while and repeating her signature, raised her head as if an idea suddenly came to her mind.

“Secretary.”

“Yes, Wisdom.”

When Kim Ji-hye called, a person walked out of the dimly shaded corner.

The neatly dressed woman bowed her head to Kim Ji-hye.

As if that was familiar, Kim Ji-hye spoke her words to her with her blunt expression.

“Call Kang Kang-jun’s schedule today.”

“Yes, Bocchan-nim ate a fairly balanced diet with side dishes of sausage and beef radish soup for breakfast, brown rice and milk, and in the morning he took a class on the basics of the five elements.”

“Okay.”

There were a few things that were too detailed to be skipped over.

Kim Ji-hye put down her pen and silently focused on the content.

That’s how Kang Han-joon’s story related to the morning ended. After talking about lunch. Then, let’s go to the afternoon class.

The secretary brought up a story about her practice.

“This afternoon, the young master is participating in an exercise called ‘The Hallucinatory Labyrinth’.”

“A psychedelic labyrinth…”

Kim Ji-hye tapped her cigarette, recalling her psychedelic labyrinth.

It was clearly a hallucinatory practice space where you could experience a dungeon.

She was concerned that the dungeon boss she designed was a bit strong, but she wondered if Kang Kang-jun would somehow pass it.

After carefully checking Kang Han-joon’s schedule, he was satisfied and was about to start working on the paperwork again.

Jihye Kim felt something suspicious.

It was because something in her chest stirred.

Like, when she left her cell phone at home.

As she was retracing her thoughts, feeling uneasy about something, Kim Ji-hye accidentally dropped her cigarette.

“Wait, a hallucination maze?”

“Yes, it is a psychedelic labyrinth.”

“… Shit!”

Kim Ji-hye spat out her swear words, and she hurriedly took out her cell phone.

Kim Ji-hye, who made a call somewhere, found out that the person on the other side of the phone didn’t answer the call.

Annoyed, she threw out her cigarette.

“Why are you like that? Headmistress.”

Feeling puzzled by her sudden appearance, her secretary asked Kim Ji-hye.

Kim Ji-hye screamed as if asking because she didn’t know.

“Kang Han-jun, this bastard won’t hallucinate.”

“Yes…?”

“Because of his eccentric constitution, Kang Kang-joon is immune to hypnosis, illusions, and hallucinations.”

Kim Ji-hye called again to the contact number written on the board.

Obviously, it seemed that this guy’s personality would somehow get over it.

Kim Ji-hye was impatient with the thought that something unusual might happen if she wasn’t careful.

And then.

The sound of something tearing in Jihye Kim’s arms resounded.

When the sound of tearing her prized possession in her arms, Kim Ji-hye crumpled her expression and took it out of her arms.

Charm.

Seeing the talisman torn in half, Kim Ji-hye jumped out of her desk without hesitation.

“Call the principal.”

Kim Ji-hye said to the secretary with her hardened face.

“Right now, run into the psychedelic maze.”