I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 36: I have too many questions to ask

I instinctively gathered my strength the moment I identified the sudden intruder.

It was Piero. The final chapter’s boss enemy.

Piero possessed an extraordinary power that could even break through the barrier placed over the school.

Truly, the most troublesome foe.

"Oh dear, you seem quite startled?"

Piero tilted his head in amusement.

At his words, I realized I had made a mistake.

At this moment, I wasn’t even certain whether Piero was an enemy or an ally. Moreover, he might have known the original Ella.

Attacking him on sight would be an unnatural move.

I relaxed my stance and spoke, feigning nonchalance.

"It’s been a while since I’ve heard your voice."

"Indeed, it has. I've been quite busy lately. Not to mention, I haven't gone to see Mary. But... I see some unfamiliar faces here."

Piero’s gaze turned toward James and Maria.

They were outsiders, forcibly brought into this world.

For a moment, I thought he might have sensed something from them, but Piero simply turned his head away indifferently.

It was as if he had no interest in mere extras of the play.

"That doesn't matter. Hmm, now then, you all are..."

This time, Piero’s attention shifted to the children.

And then, I saw it.

The burning killing intent in his eyes.

Eun-jung and Ha-rim, sensitive to such things, recoiled in fear despite not knowing the reason.

Rage flared up inside me.

"Get rid of that look."

I raised my sword at Piero.

Piero, seemingly genuinely startled by his ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) own actions, waved his long arms in surrender.

"...Oh, my apologies. Please, forgive me! It wasn’t intentional."

With a snap of his fingers, four balloons floated up.

Then—pop! They burst, scattering various objects.

Toys, handheld game consoles—things kids would love—poured onto the ground. Was there any candy?

Kyung-min gasped in amazement.

"Whoa, this is a rare limited-edition item!"

"Consider it a gift of apology. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Ha-rim, there's no need to be scared either."

Piero's reaction was unexpectedly gentle. Something about it felt off.

"Now, now, Ella, why don’t we move elsewhere to talk? I have my own circumstances to discuss!"

A conversation with Piero.

This could be an opportunity to finally unravel some of the mysteries.

I glanced at James and Maria.

Maria remained on guard against Piero, while James was checking the demon gauge.

Sensing my gaze, James finally spoke.

"It’s best if you go for now. We’ll talk later. We’ll focus on finding our team members in the meantime."

So that was James’s decision.

I agreed. The best course of action here was to have a conversation. I needed answers to the countless lingering questions.

I followed Piero to a place where the children wouldn’t see us.

Questions floated in my mind like text prompts in a game.

Just like in a Tsukkomi-style game, I would systematically go through each option.

[Regarding the Killing Intent]

"I sincerely apologize. It just... happened. I don’t know why, but sending out killing intent toward the children feels like a natural 'rule' of sorts, something instinctual."

"But I have no intention of harming them!"

He made it clear—he had no desire to hurt the children. I could afford to lower my guard, at least for now.

The "rule" he spoke of likely referred to the game's natural flow.

Aside from the fact that he was originally a boss, there was no real reason for him to target the children.

Unlike Mary, who seemed intent on murder, Piero appeared to be aware of his own baseless hostility and was trying to suppress it.

Perhaps that was why he moved us to a different location—to avoid acting on that instinctive malice.

Now then, onto the next question.

[Regarding the Note]

"Ah-ha! So you saw what I wrote when I fell into that strange space because of the Elevator Creature?"

"At that time, I had only just broken free from the 'rule' of the game."

"I had become aware of the demons' existence and had started acting outside the world's predetermined flow."

"But then, I was ambushed by a demon and suffered severe damage. This scar is proof of that."

Piero lifted his arm for me to see. At first glance, it seemed like a simple injury.

But it didn’t take long to notice something was off.

"You’re being corrupted."

The phrase "it was too late" written on the note—was this what it meant?

"I sometimes hear unsettling voices. The corruption is still progressing. I need to do something before I completely succumb."

His words carried a heavy sense of foreboding.

If he ended up being controlled, things would turn disastrous.

"By the way, I appreciated the curtain."

"Ah, my pleasure!"

[Regarding Mary]

"Mary! A pure child. But her phone-based attacks are quite brutal, aren’t they?"

"She’s innocent but also quite ignorant, which makes her easy to deceive."

"It seems she’s slow to perceive the 'rules' of the game, and I still find it odd that you started acting before she did."

"You communicated with her a lot, didn’t you?"

"Well... not a lot, but thanks to Mary, I managed to get some information across."

"Do you know anything else about her?"

"She’s looking for someone. But it seems even she isn’t sure who exactly that is."

Alright, next.

[Regarding the Spider Woman]

"Ah, you mean Arachne. It’s a tragedy, truly."

"A tragedy?"

Piero shook his head grimly.

"Arachne was caught by the demon. She had become aware of the world's structure and tried to use her abilities for something... but that must have angered the 'half-demon' creature."

"I don’t know the details—you’d have to ask her directly."

Piero genuinely seemed regretful.

He muttered something about how he should have warned her sooner.

So that’s what happened.

Could the reason the spider creatures were trying to parasitize other entities be related to Arachne’s "attempt" at something?

I had suspected she wasn’t in her right mind, but to think she was targeted by a demon... that was terrifying.

Now, time for the most important question.

[Regarding the Half-Demon]

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"Why do you call it the Half-Demon?"

"Because it has no form."

"No form?"

"Exactly. Even when it attacked, it never once revealed itself."

Piero stroked his chin as he continued.

"I am Piero. Even if I cannot solve riddles, I am quite skilled at presenting them."

"And I smell something! The scent of a riddle! There must be a reason why that creature cannot reveal its form—or why it has none at all."

Suddenly, Piero flung both arms into the air, making an exaggerated gesture.

"And the clues lie in the Junk Demon we just encountered and in Shin Ha-rim's dream!"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Didn’t I tell you? I am Piero! I have a feeling about these things!"

His reasoning made no sense, yet I felt compelled to trust it.

If what he called the "scent of a riddle" was related to his own abilities, then it was worth considering.

In the game, his boss fight included a pattern where failing to solve a riddle resulted in instant death.

If this ability was tied to his instincts, I couldn't just dismiss it.

I had asked most of the important questions. Was there anything else?

...

[About Ella]

"What do you think about yourself?"

"Oh my, do you perhaps have feelings for me?"

"Shut up."

"Just kidding! Haha! But if I answer honestly, promise you won’t get mad?"

"I won’t, so hurry up and talk!"

Piero took a moment to recall his memories before speaking.

"...Ella, you had extreme emotional swings. Sometimes you were furious, sometimes you laughed excessively, and at your worst, you were deeply depressed. Your mental health was absolutely terrible! Even over the phone, I could tell!"

Even though I knew he wasn’t talking about me, I felt anger bubbling up. Should I kill him?

"Ah! You also had 'I’ll kill you' on the tip of your tongue all the time."

"......"

"But lately, you’ve changed significantly. It seems like having friends has been a form of therapy. Congratulations!"

Clap, clap, clap.

Of course, I wasn’t the real Ella.

And yet, for some reason, his words felt like applause meant for both "me" and "her."

Something inside me wavered.

...What was I like in the past?

"...."

"Are they precious to you? Those kids?"

"That’s none of your business."

"Oh my, pardon me."

Piero grinned, but his voice turned serious. He seemed ready to end the conversation.

"...It’s time for us to part ways. I’m busy keeping the Half-Demon in check. If we linger here too long, we might all get wiped out in one blow. Let’s both do our best in our respective roles!"

With a snap, a curtain descended over Piero’s head, hiding him from view.

His voice echoed from behind the curtain.

"Ella, I sense something special about you. Perhaps you’ll be the signpost leading to the right path."

"Change the flow, Ella."

"If you see the path going astray, shift the arrows to guide the travelers back on course."

"We are those who die but cannot die. Even in death, we must strive. And in those moments—"

"—they will be truly beautiful."

With a dramatic tada!, the curtain lifted, but Piero was nowhere to be seen.

"..."

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.

That concluded my conversation with Piero.

Ah—I forgot to ask if it was okay to place the artifact in his boss stage.

"Well, for someone who abandoned his own stage to wander around, I doubt he cares about a boss room anymore."

Even if he did, he’d probably allow it easily.

With the discussion over, I returned to the others.

James had already gathered his entire team.

Many of them were injured, but thankfully, there were no fatalities.

Efficient as always.

As planned, we placed one artifact and returned to the school.

The moment we arrived, the kids collapsed into sleep.

Everyone was exhausted after facing such a formidable foe.

After making sure the children were resting, I took a break as well.

I had expended a significant amount of energy this time.

So much so that my manifested body outside the mirror had started to blur.

I hadn’t noticed it while talking to Piero, but if I had ignored it any longer, I might have actually died...

I returned inside the mirror to recover, then patrolled the area.

James and Maria had planned to hold a meeting in the evening, but until then, there wasn’t much to do.

I carefully checked to make sure no more creatures had slipped through.

That’s when it happened.

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

The Cheshire Cat’s bell rang.

"...!"

The bell only rang when an entity other than myself entered.

Since the Toy Soldier hadn’t reacted, that meant the disturbance was near the clubroom.

Right now, the kids were exhausted, and James and Maria had used up a lot of their strength.

This time, it was best for me to handle it alone.

"What kind of entity is it?"

Another demon attack? No, even they wouldn’t attack twice in a single day.

The sound of the bell wasn’t loud, meaning the creature probably wasn’t too strong.

I opened the clubroom door.

Creak.

[...Ella?]

Ha-rim was standing there.

No—more accurately, something that looked like Ha-rim.

Ha-rim was supposed to be asleep.

There was no way she could be here.

A doppelgänger?

[...I’m sure I killed you. So why are you still alive?]

She muttered, staring at me in disbelief.

"What?"

[Why did you come out of the mirror? Why did you kill Kyung-min? Why? Why? WHY?]

"You’re speaking nonsense."

There was no doubt about it.

She was a doppelgänger.

In the game, doppelgängers were distinguishable from the real person by a single pixel-sized mark.

And sure enough, there was a tiny dot on her cheek that wasn’t on the real Ha-rim.

Moreover, the Ha-rim I knew would never have such a hollow, broken expression.

She wouldn’t look this... defeated.

If she had copied Ha-rim perfectly, she wouldn’t look like this.

Something was wrong.

[—Why do you keep invalidating everything I’ve done?!]

Before I could even finish processing my thoughts, the fake Ha-rim lunged at me.