I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 114: An Ordinary Story
We headed to the karaoke room together.
The kids, clearly familiar with the process, paid in advance and even prepared drinks beforehand before entering the room.
It’s more spacious than I expected.
“...I can’t get used to this.”
“Why not?”
“It’s my first time coming to karaoke, so it feels awkward.”
I’ve never sung before, and my only friend...senior wasn’t really the type to sing either.
At my reaction, the kids just shrugged it off, saying it made sense for someone like Alice... Somehow it feels like the whole "old-fashioned person" setting is still sticking with me.
“It’s my first time too.”
“This body as well!”
Apparently, it’s also the first time for Jack and Red Riding Hood to come to karaoke.
They were young anyway, and in the past, they weren’t exactly surrounded by friends, so it made sense.
Phew, I’m glad I’m not the only one clueless here.
“Is Ariel not coming? What about Pinocchio?”
“Hmm, I thought he liked singing, but it looks like he’s busy. Pinocchio didn’t come because he’s pouring all his affection into a girl named Cashy.”
“Well, it can’t be helped~”
We booked a relatively large room and began pressing the controller buttons to reserve songs... This is bad.
I don’t know any songs.
Even if I’ve heard them before, I don’t memorize all the lyrics, so it suddenly became really awkward.
What am I supposed to do at a time like this?
While I was hesitating, Eun-jung’s reserved song started playing.
It was an idol-style song I’d never heard before.
Hmm, a dreamy and emotional type of music I’m hearing for the first time.
Was this one of the latest songs? Maybe I’ve gotten old, because I just can’t connect with it.
“...”
This is dangerous. I don’t know the lyrics, so I need to look them up. I need time to get familiar with them.
“Ahem.”
“!”
I immediately handed the controller to Red Riding Hood.
If I pushed myself to the very last turn, I’d be able to memorize the lyrics in time.
And right after, Red Riding Hood started looking around in a panic and passed the controller to Jack.
“Ughm...”
“!”
Jack also just stared blankly at the controller, then turned to look at me.
Why are you looking at me? I’m busy trying to memorize these lyrics, you know.
“Ahem.”
In the end, the controller came back into my hands.
You too?
What are these guys doing!?
I don’t want to spend my first karaoke experience like this.
I passed the controller back to Red Riding Hood, and Red Riding Hood passed it to Jack, and Jack passed it back to me.
In this infinite triangle of rotation, the next turn finally came.
The one holding the controller at the end was Red Riding Hood.
“Ugh...!”
Red Riding Hood gave up, hung her head, and, with trembling hands, entered a number.
[Three Bears]
The only song she knew all the lyrics to was a children’s song, huh.
I almost laughed, but this wasn’t the time for that.
Because of passing around the controller, I hadn’t had a chance to look up the lyrics.
Leaving Red Riding Hood’s tragic end behind, I exchanged glances with Jack.
Even while looking up the lyrics on his phone, Jack remained cautious.
I also looked up the lyrics and mindlessly pressed the controller buttons.
Then, the moment Jack let his guard down and looked away—
Swoosh!
As my turn came up, I quickly handed him the controller.
Entering a number had just been a fake-out. According to the unspoken national rule of karaoke—if the song stops, it’s bad—Jack had no choice but to sing, even if he wasn’t ready.
Even if someone calls it evil, it couldn’t be helped. I’d just respond with the logic that there’s nothing wrong with a demon doing evil things.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Jack weakly entered the number.
The song he would sing was:
[The Frogs by the Stream]
Thanks, Jack.
Thanks to you, I don’t have to sing a children’s song for my first time.
I successfully memorized the lyrics before my turn came, and although I was a bit embarrassed and stiff, I got praised for singing well.
However, I had overlooked one thing:
At karaoke, you don’t just sing once.
The only song I knew the melody of was the one I just sang.
And you can’t sing a song you don’t even know the melody to, even if you’ve got the lyrics.
But I couldn’t exactly say I wasn’t going to sing again.
Ahh... so this is what they mean by fate converging into one path.
Tick tick tick... [Mountain Bunny]
......................................
Alice and the Story’s Demons, singing their hearts out.
After about two hours had passed—
They were still singing nothing but children’s songs.
Soo-ho, who had drunk too many beverages, went to the bathroom.
Kyung-min followed him inside.
They finished their business and washed their hands while chatting.
“Those guys never get tired, do they?”
“Seriously.”
Their conversation continued as they dried their hands.
“Are you happy these days?”
“If it’s about hanging out with Alice, then yeah. What about you?”
“Same here. Where else would you get to experience something like this?”
Spending time with Alice is fun.
You get to experience rare things, full of thrill and excitement.
Seeing demons up close.
Roaming around from place to place.
Yoo Soo-ho could confidently say he enjoyed all of it.
“But still...”
But then came a more subdued tone.
Lee Kyung-min quietly listened to Soo-ho’s words.
“Overcoming things isn’t the only part of adventure, but... I often feel like I’m not much help.”
Yoo Soo-ho is a shield.
A big shield that protects the kids—and sometimes even protected Mirror Ghost Alice.
Among the attacks Soo-ho has blocked, very few would’ve been something a child could withstand.
Even so, he deflected them at an angle, disrupted them, blocked and dodged, using every trick he could to stand right between the enemy and his allies.
But the enemies Alice faces were far stronger than that.
Against something the size of a house, holding up a small shield would just get you crushed along with it.
Kyung-min understood Soo-ho’s words.
“Yeah... Maybe, like Alice said, we’re playing on a stage that’s way too big for us.”
It wasn’t much different for Kyung-min either.
His chains were still versatile and mobile enough to use, but the idea of restraining an overwhelmingly strong enemy was basically the same as doing nothing at all.
Now he could understand why Alice, in her conflict with Mr. Peter, said the enemies they would face were overwhelmingly dangerous—too much to overcome.
“I knew that going in... but it still feels bitter.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
It was something they had prepared for.
Since they’d managed to wedge themselves into a larger stage, it was only natural they'd face things like this.
Even if they had to go through worse. Even if it meant being even less helpful.
They still wanted to pursue ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) joyful things together with Alice.
Someday, their time to shine would come.
Thinking that, they left the bathroom.
“Do you desire power?”
“...What the—?!”
Red Riding Hood suddenly appeared beside them, having come out for some fresh air.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You seriously sounded like a real demon just now.”
Do you desire power?
That was a high-tier line for a demon.
Yoo Soo-ho said it admiringly, but Red Riding Hood’s response was lukewarm.
“That kind of hurts, you know.”
“Huh?”
It was probably because she wasn’t a born demon, but of course, they had no way of knowing that.
“What do you mean, ‘do you desire power’?”
Red Riding Hood fumbled in her sleeve and pulled out a small, round red object to show them.
It shimmered brightly—almost looked tempting.
“Would you like to see this? It’s a small red moon.”
A beautiful yet ominous full moon.
Red Riding Hood said that if they used this moon well, they could obtain the power they desired.
“If you use it, you’ll be able to transform into a werewolf. Then you’ll become really strong.”
“And lose your reason?”
“Unfortunately, yes. You’d be surrendering yourself to rage, after all.”
“Side effects?”
“Well... I guess you could say your memory wouldn’t stay intact.”
It wasn’t a bad proposal.
In fact, Red Riding Hood had already suggested the red moon procedure to the Organization, and it had been approved.
It was a process that allowed agents to transform into wolves during emergencies, giving them high resistance against physical and assimilative threats to life.
Through this, she had appealed to her superiors with a cooperative attitude and had earned quite a bit of freedom, similar to Alice.
In truth, what had really swayed the higher-ups was Alice’s earnest plea, rather than the red moon...
But Soo-ho stared fixedly at the red moon and soon said:
“Then I’ll pass.”
“Why is that?”
“Even if I get stronger by turning into a wolf, I won’t be as strong as Alice anyway.”
Even if he got stronger, it wouldn’t be enough to protect Alice.
That was objectively true.
But it wasn’t the only reason.
“I think memories are important. Because one day, they’ll become precious memories.”
“...I see. I wasn’t thinking. Memories... are precious things.”
Red Riding Hood sincerely nodded, painting in her mind the image of their still-cheerful faces.
Because for something to become a memory means...
------
Bored, lazy.
Eun-jung, Ha-rim, and I were loafing around in the club room.
Kyung-min had said he was going to cram school, and Soo-ho had gone to spend time with his younger sister.
Yeah. Even this kind of daily life is precious.
We’ve already dealt with two Dominators, and there’s also the schedule to go looking for the angel, so it’s kind of stressful figuring out what to do in between.
Rolling around~
Lying on a blanket on the floor made me sleepy.
Maybe I’ll just fall asleep like this.
“Hi-yah!”
Poof.
Eun-jung flopped down on top of me like we were playing hamburger, crushing me.
This girl never leaves me alone.
Not that I entirely hated it.
“Aliceee... isn’t there anything fun?”
“This kid again. Can’t you just sit still for once?”
“Hmmm...”
Ha-rim, saying Eun-jung shouldn’t bother Alice too much, pulled her off me.
She was pouting the whole time.
I’m gonna yank that lip.
“Alice. Now that I think of it—didn’t you mumble something a while back about some kind of mirror tour?”
“Huh? Did I mumble that out loud?”
“I heard it too.”
The Mirror World Tour.
Simply put, it refers to traveling through the Mirror World where the monsters reside.
To travel through my mirror, you need to have a low rank... because the Mirror World has the tendency to repel beings of high rank and eject them.
It’s similar to how I have to meet certain conditions to balance things when summoning powerful monsters into the real world.
Likewise, entering the mirror requires powerful beings to undergo a corresponding procedure.
But these girls are low-ranked, so they should be able to travel calmly through the mirror.
“Do you want to travel through the mirror?”
“Yeah!” “Yes!”
Ha-rim and Eun-jung answered confidently.
But—
“That’s a problem.”
Their eyes locked onto me, clearly asking, Then why did you bring it up in the first place if we can’t go?
They must be misunderstanding something.
I didn’t say it was impossible.
I said it was a problem.
“Why is it a problem?”
“...Well, let’s just say there are things in there that aren’t suitable for kids to see.”
“Now you’re treating us like kids...?”
“Alice, you’re a kid too. Just because you’ve got a developed body doesn’t mean you’re matu—”
Flick!
“Ow!”
This girl... Every single thing she says pushes my buttons.
Maybe it’s because I know she’s doing it on purpose to get my attention that I can’t ignore it.
Even that behavior has ended up becoming a kind of affection.
“Maybe boys would be better suited...”
“That’s discrimination!”
Eun-jung protested loudly.
Compared to her, Ha-rim calmly asked me,
“Only boys? Is it that hard to explain why?”
“Uhhh... It’s because it’s... sexual.”
“Sexual?”
Ha-rim and Eun-jung stared at me blankly after hearing that. Then they looked at each other and started begging me to explain.
Do girls like this kind of topic too?
“It’s not a big deal. When I became Alice, I absorbed new concepts of fear. It means there are way more entities in the mirror than the ones we’ve fought and defeated so far.”
“Does that include—?”
“Yeah. Sexual entities too. Trauma about sex, related crimes, ugliness. That’s also part of what exists inside the mirror.”
Originally, there weren’t any monsters related to sex.
But now that the limits of being a ‘game’ were gone, they must’ve appeared.
“Are those things bad?”
“No. They’re like my followers and friends, so they don’t have malice. But just like a cow stepping backward could crush a frog, there’s still an element of danger...”
Their faces still showed doubt.
But we’ve been through so much already. Are we really the type to get scared by vague, ominous possibilities?
To be honest, I’m not entirely against the idea of stopping the tour.
But with plenty of monsters still roaming outside, I don’t really want to lead them into a tour that carries added risks.
So I added one more thing:
“They look really gross. You’d probably get traumatized in multiple ways.”
Maybe a bit too much...
They’re not just grotesque and disgusting—they’re painful to look at.
“I thought we’d already overcome a lot of scary stuff, but they’re that bad?”
“Mm, if you ask like that, it’s kind of vague...”
By this point, the girls had probably figured it out.
That I was beating around the bush.
Ha-rim’s eyes began to narrow, so I confessed.
“Alright, alright. I just didn’t want to say it because it’s embarrassing—and I hate how pathetic I feel, getting flustered over a dumb little possibility.
Anyway, let me start by saying this: I’ve considered the possibility that you girls might develop trauma from stress during our adventures.”
“Hmm... not an impossible thing to imagine.”
“Right. If trauma were to form, I’d help you overcome it or train you to face it so you could continue your journey. And of course, you’d succeed.”
If someone developed trauma from a monster, they could defeat it.
If someone had a trauma about the dark, I’d give them the tools to protect themselves in that darkness.
They were strong and bold girls, but if you slash at someone’s vulnerable parts, it leaves deep wounds—so I felt it was my job to think of ways to help them heal.
“Okay... and?”
“Sexual trauma tends to appear strongly in relation to the opposite sex. It’s more common for males to fear females or for females to fear males than for males to fear other males.
Kids going through puberty often feel disgusted when they see the body of the opposite sex—it's one example.
What I’m worried about is, while a child who’s afraid of the dark might grow up and eventually overcome it, sexual trauma tends to last longer.
In other words, I’m worried you’ll see something weird and then never be able to get married.”
On top of that, for boys, even tension alone can prevent important parts from functioning when needed.
If trauma sets in, say goodbye to a healthy marriage.
“Isn’t that a bit much to worry about?”
Even if you say that, I’ve got no rebuttal.
Sure, even if they look really gross, these kids have seen plenty of creepy things already, so maybe they won’t be that affected.
Maybe I’m the only one imagining the worst-case scenario.
Maybe I should just let them have the Mirror Tour... It’s not like they’ll definitely run into a sexual monster...
While I was still thinking it over, Ha-rim seemed to catch onto something odd and asked:
“...? Then why is it only okay for boys to go?”
Ha-rim seemed to interpret the ‘sexual monsters’ I mentioned as just really gross-looking things.
They’re worse than that, honestly.
Also, I never said only boys could go.
What I actually meant was—if someone had to go, boys would be the slightly better option.
“It’s because ‘I’ can’t help girls.”
“And why not?”
Please don’t ask in that exasperated tone.
Just talking about this kind of thing with kids is already draining my mental energy.
I was seriously regretting bringing it up.
“When trauma comes from something sexual... how do you think I’m supposed to help them overcome it?”
Help them?
It seemed like a question Ha-rim had never even considered before, and her expression showed rare, genuine confusion.
She’d probably never thought she’d need help in that area in the first place.
“Alice usually believes that confronting things directly is the best way to handle them, so... wait—huh?”
You’re starting to realize it now, aren’t you?
To stop her from asking unnecessary questions, I added a little hint to point her in the right direction:
“And whose ‘body’ do you think I’d use to take responsibility?”
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
“...!”
Ha-rim, quicker on the uptake than Eun-jung, was visibly shocked.
Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at me in stunned silence.
Then she looked straight at my chest, so I turned away and covered myself.
Where do you think you’re looking!?
I’m pretty sure they understood exactly what I meant.
When it comes to overcoming trauma about the opposite sex... what else is there besides facing it directly?
“The chances of something like that happening are low, but... it still makes me uncomfortable. Got it?”
If something like that actually happened, it’d be dangerous.
We’d stop being just friends—in many different ways.
We decided to keep this whole conversation a secret from the boys.
After that, Ha-rim and Eun-jung never asked me to take them on a Mirror World tour again.
------
I was in the Organization’s isolation room, adjusting the double that would take my place for a while.
Then Jack asked me to come visit the Tea Party again.
Since Ariel hadn’t finished her preparations for the journey to find the angel, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I agreed and moved to Ariel’s domain.
“Huh? Jack. Why’d you bring Alice and the others here again?”
Apparently, Ariel hadn’t heard anything about other Story’s Demons coming.
She seemed confused, wondering why Jack had gathered everyone.
Then Jack gave me a wide grin and said:
“Let’s see who’s the strongest demon!”
Don’t tell me he gathered all the Story’s Demons just to compare power levels?
“Nope!”
All of us—Ariel, Red Riding Hood, me, and Pinocchio—rejected it unanimously.
“Boys always do that, huh? Can’t resist stuff like hierarchies.”
“It’s not really like that, okay?”
“...Why are you getting mad?”
Oops.
It’s not like I wasn’t curious... But that doesn’t mean I want to fight.
“What a pointless thing. I’m leaving.”
“F-Fight? I don’t want to fight anyone unless it’s a monster...”
Pinocchio left first, and Red Riding Hood looked awkward and unsure.
Disappointed by our reactions, Jack muttered:
“Meh... I guess Ariel would end up last anyway. Poor thing. Maybe we should cancel.”
“Hey.”
“But you said it yourself—you’re weak.”
“It’s one thing when I say it. It’s a whole different thing when someone else does.”
“Big talk for someone who’s just scared Alice will beat the crap out of her after taking down multiple Dominators!”
Jack was blatantly provoking her.
Ariel took a stance and came at me.
With a fish tail for a lower body, her martial arts stance looked hilarious.
“Bring it!”
“Why me?”
Immediately afterward,
Ariel summoned a really weird creature and used sound-based attacks, so I just retaliated.
“...Wow. She really is weak.”
“Right?”
Jack and I could only look at Ariel with pity.
Wasn’t she supposed to be busy preparing to search for the angel?
If we beat her up and leave her like this, won’t it mess up her schedule?
I tried to quietly slip out of Ariel’s domain.
Jack followed me out, apparently to see me off.
Or so I thought.
Actually, he seemed to have something he wanted to tell me.
“Jack, do you have something to say?”
Jack nodded.
He looked at me seriously.
“It’s about Ariel.”
“What’s with the tone?”
“...She’s really, really weak, right?”
She was.
Ariel’s strength was pretty low—even compared to Jack.
She could use her abilities, sure... But to be this weak? I didn’t think it was that unusual, but...
“If she does anything weird—beat her down. Got it?”
“...Why are you telling me this? Can you explain?”
“Yeah.”
............
“I understand now. Thanks, Jack.”
“Yeah. I’m counting on you.”
After finishing my conversation with Jack, I returned to the isolation room.
So... Ariel is in love with Mephistopheles.
And she harbors resentment toward me.
That was information Jack had naturally learned by living with her.
Haa... I thought she was one of the more normal ones, but she’s not so simple after all.
A few days later, while we were going about our daily lives, Ariel came to me and said she was ready to go search for the angel.
“Alright. Let’s go, then.”
