NoveLight ™
No Braun
“What… what is this?”
“This… this thing moved!!”
Looking at the plush doll’s hollow interior, where there was no silver coin, it seemed the Good Friend ritual was nullified. Or perhaps, because this was a dream, it truly appeared to be just a lifeless doll.
“Stop!”
Now wasn’t the time to be theorizing. Focus! Pull yourself together!
You’re inside a ghost story right now!
“Look over here!”
I snapped my head in the direction of the shout.
In the dim corner of the classroom, someone screamed.
They had been poking at one of the “students” who sat frozen at their desk, motionless like a wax figure. But now that wax figure was…
“Over there!”
It had vanished from the desk.
Following the terrified finger of someone whose face had turned pale, my gaze landed on the back door of the classroom.
Standing there, holding the door, was the missing student.
Expressionless.
Slowly scanning the classroom.
“…”
“Hey, you’re just joking, right?”
There was no response.
Not a single movement.
“Wait a second.”
One brave soul approached and waved their hand right in front of the figure’s face.
The “student” didn’t blink. They stood there, perfectly still, as if frozen in time, but undeniably lifelike.
“They’re not breathing. This isn’t a person; it’s a mannequin…”
“How does a mannequin just move on its own? Maybe they’re holding their breath really well?”
“Yeah, this must be one of those reaction-prank shows, like on variety TV or YouTube.”
No.
Obviously, there were no cameras here. No production crew hiding to scare people.
Instead—
Ding-dong-dang-dong.
A cheerful announcement played through the school speakers.
“Students of Sae Kwang Technical High School! The graduation ceremony will begin shortly. Please gather in the auditorium.”
“Graduation ceremony…?”
The voice was lively and orderly, exactly what you’d expect from a school announcement.
“Should we go check it out? This is so weird.”
“Hey, are we in our high school forms? Whoa, this is like some kind of dream!”
A few people, deciding it was just a dream, started chatting casually, their tension melting away.
For now, it wasn’t exactly terrifying.
“It doesn’t feel real yet.”
After all, they were back in their high school appearances. Most people would find a sudden regression like that more nostalgic than unsettling.
And though a nighttime school is a classic ghost story setting, the presence of many people, combined with the faint moonlight filtering in, made it feel strangely romantic rather than ominous.
But…
“Hey, look at this mannequin kid. Take a closer look.”
Someone approached the immobile student near the back door.
They gestured toward the figure’s outstretched hand.
“This pose… it’s like they were about to lock the door.”
Thud.
The curtains on the windows slammed shut.
“Ahh!”
“Holy crap!”
The automatic curtains closed with a loud crash, plunging the classroom into pitch-black darkness.
Just for a moment.
Flicker.
After a brief delay, the classroom lights flickered back on.
“Oh, thank god.”
“Looks like they were just trying to turn the lights on… huh?”
A pool of blood spread across the beige classroom floor.
“Wha… wha-wha-what…?”
Following the blood trail upward, they saw…
A person lying near the back door, their neck completely twisted backward.
Blood gushed from the grotesque angle, pooling between the floorboards. Their eyes were wide open in disbelief, frozen in shock.
“AAAAAHHHHHH!”
“OH MY GOD!!”
It had begun.
Dark Exploration Record / Ghost Story
“In the Shadows of Darkness”
Summary:
A ghost story where reading a specific text file and falling asleep leads to awakening in Sae Kwang Technical High School at night, where non-human entities relentlessly pursue victims until death.
Attempts to locate this school in reality have failed. It is confirmed to exist only as a paranormal phenomenon within South Korea.
Yes.
In this nightmare of a ghost story, the only way to escape is through death.
Leaving the school alive isn’t an option.
And then, there’s the ghost story’s most infamous hallmark—encounters with something inhuman.
“Th-th-that person!!”
One of the screaming participants pointed shakily toward the back door, at the student figure still standing there.
But now, there was one key difference.
“There’s blood on their hand.”
“…”
Everyone’s gaze froze on the figure.
It was true.
The mannequin-like student still held the door, but their fingers—now slightly curled as if hiding something—were smeared with blood.
“….”
The group’s attention shifted back to the twisted corpse near the door.
There, behind the snapped neck, were bloody fingerprints.
“Aahhhh!”
“Oh my god! H-help! HELP!!”
And then—
Flicker.
The lights blinked again.
The student figure didn’t move while being watched.
But the moment everyone’s gaze shifted—
When the lights blinked back on—
The mannequin had moved.
The person who had been pointing at the figure… was gone.
Instead, they were now lying on the ground, their torso crushed beyond recognition.
Thud.
Their limp hand dropped uselessly to the floor.
“Aah…”
“…”
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!”
Panic. Terror. Madness.
“W-we need to attack it now! Someone, hit it! Do it!!”
“Y-you do it, then! Don’t scream at me!”
Flicker.
“…Hic.”
Another corpse appeared.
One of the shouting participants had been impaled upside down into a desk. Only their lower half remained.
“…”
“…”
A suffocating silence.
The figure at the back door now stared directly at the remaining survivors, a faint smile on its face.
“…!!”
“S-s-stay back!”
“RUN! RUN NOW!!”
“Open the door! QUICK!”
The group rushed toward the front door, avoiding the figure blocking the back. But—
It was too late.
“Over here—AAAHH!”
The person opening the front door collapsed in shock.
Standing in the doorway was another smiling student.
[Sae Kwang Technical High School]
This one wore the same name tag and had neatly cut bangs.
“Go around it!”
“Move! MOVE!!”
They tried to sprint past the smiling student. And then—
Flicker.
The figure at the front door disappeared from view.
Screams echoed from the hallway.
And then, one by one, the screams were silenced.
“…”
“…”
A dreadful, suffocating stillness.
Labored breathing and distant wails punctuated the heavy silence.
I took a deep breath and spoke, scanning the classroom.
“Let’s move slowly. We’ll check if anything is moving while we head toward the doors, both front and back.”
“A-a-alright…”
Looking no different from frightened high schoolers, the adults in the room trembled and shuffled backward from the doors.
“…”
Of those who had awoken in this room,
Half had fled, their fates unknown. The other half remained frozen in place, too paralyzed to move.
No—“remained” wasn’t the right word. They were stuck, unable to act.
And I stood among them, thinking silently to myself.
“We’re screwed.”
Missed Timing
Before the curtains plunged the room into total darkness, I should have sprinted out to grab an emergency flashlight, gather essentials, and find a place to hide.
“I missed the timing.”
The realization that Braun wasn’t with me had thrown me off, delaying my judgment.
Meanwhile, others in the room began piecing together the situation.
“This… this is that thing, isn’t it?”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t know? The kind of monster that can’t move while you’re watching it!”
“You mean you know what this is?”
“Of course, I do! Haven’t you seen it? The kind where if you look away, it follows you! As long as we keep our eyes on it, it can’t move!”
The person, their voice strained with fear and excitement, kept rambling, throwing out theories.
Maybe we all read some cursed text file. Perhaps we were trapped in a game. Or maybe this was some kind of possession.
Normally, people would dismiss such absurd claims, but the group, now panicking, listened intently.
I’d seen this play out before—groups descending into fear-induced chaos. And the conclusion they arrived at was as simplistic as it was reckless.
“Then we just have to attack it before it attacks us!”
“What?!”
“If we try to run, it’ll just keep chasing us! Didn’t you see what happened to the people who left? Hurry! Before the lights flicker again!”
“Ah!”
As if hypnotized, people scrambled to find weapons in the empty classroom. Brooms, chairs, mop handles, box cutters—anything they could wield.
This isn’t good.
This path would lead straight to the most common bad ending.
“Wait, please let me—”
Before I could finish, someone clamped a hand over my mouth.
“…!”
I nearly lashed out, but I stopped myself, realizing that escalating the situation would only make things worse. Slowly, I turned to see who had silenced me.
I recognized the face immediately.
“The government worker?!”
It was Ryu Jaegwan, the Disaster Management Bureau officer I’d met at the mountain lodge. His hair was shorter now, styled to match the appearance of a high schooler, but his features were unmistakable.
Where was he sitting all this time?
No, that wasn’t the point right now.
Of course! Government officials can enter too!
This wasn’t one of those ghost stories Dreamscape Inc. had already “secured and contained.”
Meaning, encountering personnel from other organizations was entirely possible.
Still, wasn’t it a bit much to run into the same agent again? Talk about dedication to the job.
“If you promise not to scream, I’ll let go.”
I nodded seriously, and he released me without another word.
“Whew.”
“You really do have a knack for getting caught up in these situations, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Let’s just leave it at that.
“And that person earlier—what they said is partially correct.”
“…”
“Keep your eyes on that student figure at all times. Do not look away. Blink one eye at a time if you must. And when the lights go out, lower your head immediately. Also…”
He leaned in, quietly whispering the instructions.
“They’re extremely sensitive to sound.”
Right.
The figures reacted strongly to screams, curses, or any loud noises.
“Do not raise your voice. Under any circumstances.”
I gave him a small nod.
“But… are we really going to let them attack it?”
“Your safety takes precedence. Helping others comes later.”
His tone was firm, almost practiced.
“In supernatural disasters, always assume total casualties for those involved. Act accordingly.”
“…”
This was textbook Disaster Management Bureau protocol.
“Contain or destroy the ghost story to prevent future incidents.”
It was the trolley dilemma in action—sacrificing one to save five, with no hesitation in pulling the lever.
“I’ll signal when it’s time to escape. For now, just follow what I’ve told you.”
“…Understood.”
Arguing with him here would be suicidal. For now, I bit my tongue.
Meanwhile, the others were already approaching the student figure with their improvised weapons.
“Damn it,” I muttered under my breath.
Still, I needed to play my part convincingly. For that, I posed a question, feigning uncertainty.
“But isn’t this just a dream? If we die here, wouldn’t we wake up…?”
It was the classic “escape through death” trope found in many nightmares. When faced with death in a dream, you wake up.
At first glance, it might seem like the quickest solution would be to end it all. But that wasn’t the case—not here.
There’s something we need.
“…That’s true, but there’s a condition.”
Of course.
“A condition?”
“Yes. Do you see the name tag on that figure?”
He pointed to the mannequin-like student.
“You must die while holding that name tag to wake up ‘normally.’ If not…”
Failing to meet the conditions meant being permanently tied to the ghost story, becoming part of In the Shadows of Darkness.
“You’ll be subjected to... unpleasant consequences.”
“…”
“There are additional conditions for a safe escape, but I’ll explain as we go.”
“Wait, we’re sticking together?”
“Yes.”
Hold on.
The look on my face must’ve betrayed my hesitation because Ryu Jaegwan tried to reassure me with a strained smile.
“Don’t worry. There are other agents here as well. Someone will make it through.”
Other agents?
The Disaster Management Bureau had sent multiple people?
“So this is a properly overlapping investigation…”
I racked my brain for exploration logs that matched this scenario, but before I could recall anything, the situation escalated.
“Die, you monster!”
The others finally launched their attack on the student figure.
Surprisingly—
Crack.
“Ack!”
“It’s bleeding…!”
The “student” reacted like a normal human. Blood spurted, bruises formed, and bones audibly broke.
“Ahh!”
“What do we do now? Oh, shit…”
“Damn it.”
A chill ran down my spine, but the government agent remained unfazed. With a subtle gesture, he motioned for me to move toward the front door.
“Let’s use this opportunity to—huh?”
Just then, figures appeared on the brightly lit central staircase outside the door.
“…!”
Three or four silhouettes ascended, their footsteps eerily silent.
They all shared one thing in common:
They were wearing strange animal masks.
“Staff members!”
And not just any staff—I recognized one of them immediately.
A bull mask.
“Jang Heowoon!”
A rookie from Team Y, whom I’d worked with during the amusement park ghost story.
“They must’ve been reassigned to a general team.”
It had been a while since I’d seen them. I hadn’t kept up with personnel changes recently, given how chaotic things had been for me. But it seemed they’d survived three months unscathed.
“I’m genuinely glad to see you’re okay.”
But next to them…
Someone far less welcome.
A black goat mask.
Baek Saheon.
“…”
They must’ve woken up in the same classroom. Both of them adhered to the company’s safety guidelines: always grab and wear the masks when entering a ghost story.
“I wish I had mine too.”
I needed to assess my items and use them to maximize my survival chances.
For now, it would be better to part ways with the government agent and join the staff.
“Uh, sir—”
“Dreamscape Inc…!”
“…”
Crap.
“Be careful. If you encounter people in animal masks and suits in a place like this, do not acknowledge them.”
The agent’s voice dripped with contempt as he glared at the masked group.
“They’re from that disgusting pseudo-company. Avoid them at all costs.”
“…”
“Their employees are unethical psychos. You must stay vigilant.”
“…Understood.”
Absolutely.
Absolutely!
I couldn’t let them realize who I was.