Decoding the Ghost Stories in Fantasy

Chapter 5: The Dangerous Naram Noona in My Heart  

When you create a new document in a program, a blank white page appears.  

By typing, adding tables, images, shapes, and charts as needed, a document is completed.  

When I looked at a carefully made and completed document, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.  

Ordinary people resembled a completed document, whereas I resembled a blank white page.  

When I first joined the research facility, a series of precise tests confirmed that my physical age was in my twenties.  

Director Jung Yong-jin personally verified that my genes were no different from human genes and that my body was identical to that of a human.  

He had concluded that, aside from my bizarre abilities, I was no different from an ordinary person.  

If, as he claimed, I truly was just an ordinary person, then where had my origins disappeared to?  

Ordinary people typically have parents, siblings, and friends.  

As time passes, they build memories and experiences, shaping their values.  

Though my physical age was in my twenties, there was nothing inside me.  

People carry something within them, like a completed document, but I could not even remember something as simple as my own name.  

I was a new document.  

Not even a single line of text had been written on me, let alone tables, shapes, images, or charts.  

Half the reason I had been excessively obedient to the research facility for the past year was because of this absence of origin.  

Emptiness leads to despair, despair leads to suicide, but an immortal who cannot die has no choice but to live in submission to fate.  

I was killed while cleaning the isolation rooms of the Phantom Species, revived only to be scorned as a monster, and, without denying it, accepted it all like someone who had lost their mind.  

That was me, Woo Seo-ho.  

"Ah, hello? My name is Kang Naram! So you're the infamous 138! I thought you'd be s-scary... but you actually look pretty normal, contrary to the rumors!"  

My meeting with Naram Noona was purely for work-related reasons.  

Though I possessed the same abilities as the Phantom Species, I worked as a janitor and was allowed a certain degree of freedom within the facility without being locked up in an isolation room.  

Because of that, I always needed a supervisor.  

That role fell to Naram Noona.  

"Do you understand Korean? I've never heard 138 speak before… Can you speak English?"  

"Watchawasai?"  

"?"  

"Nǐ chī fàn le ma? Tā mā de shǎ bī! Wǒ xǐng bā zhī zhī! Chào nǐ mā?"  

Honestly, I found it bothersome.  

So far, the only reason people had ever shown interest in me was either because they found me disgusting or because they were curious about me like some kind of oddity.  

Thinking that Naram Noona was probably talking to me with the same mindset as someone observing a zoo monkey, I couldn't bring myself to feel any positive emotions.  

So I ignored her, spouting random lines from Hong Kong movies I had seen.  

"Bù shuō zānghuà."  

This woman... spoke fluent Chinese at a native level.  

"Wǒ zài wèn nǐ yīcì. Nǐ jiào shénme míng...?"  

"I don’t know Chinese…."  

As she continued firing off rapid and fluent Chinese, I quietly muttered a response.  

Then, Naram Noona smiled like a ray of sunshine.  

"I knew it! You do speak Korean! Ahem, let me introduce myself again. My name is Kang Naram. Nice to meet you, 138. Let’s get along for the next month!"  

Naram Noona was like the waves.  

I was nothing more than a wrecked ship drifting on the sea, swept away by the raging currents.  

How many men in this world would refuse a handshake from a woman who was both as adorable as a small animal and as stunning as a celebrity?  

Holding someone else's hand... was this warm and comforting.  

That day, I understood human warmth for the first time.  

Throughout the past year I spent with Naram Noona, there were countless memorable moments.  

Instead of the desolate name "138," she gave me the name Woo Seo-ho.  

She filled my blank mind with knowledge and, since I could never leave the research facility, helped me imagine the outside world through photographs and stories.  

Even if she helped me out of mere pity, it was inevitable that I would develop feelings beyond simple fondness for the only person in this world who was kind and warm to me.  

My frozen heart began to melt.  

I had never been particularly interested in other people, but once I realized that my heart pounded every time I was with Noona, I was certain.  

I was an ordinary person.  

Whenever I found myself alone with Noona, I felt as cozy as someone burrowing under a blanket to sleep.  

I fell in love with someone I liked.  

I slept.  

I ate meals.  

I was just a young man with strange and unique abilities, perhaps a little colder than most.  

The moment I truly fell for Naram Noona came on a night when the sky was densely embroidered with stars.  

"Are you okay?"  

"What?"  

"If the researchers find out you tampered with my choke, they won’t just let it slide…."  

"I-it’ll just look like a simple malfunction. Don’t worry too much. And if—if we do get caught… well, we’ll think about it then. A-anyway, let’s drop the gloomy talk here, Seo-ho! Look up at the sky! Isn’t it beautiful?"  

Despite her delicate and fragile appearance, Naram Noona was a person of remarkable resolve.  

She wasn’t always like that, but in moments where she felt something absolutely needed to be done, she became as recklessly brave as a medieval Viking.  

I stared at the sparking choke with a grim expression.  

Then, just as she said, I lifted my head to gaze at the night sky.

Massive stars, composed of dust and gas, were sending signals across an immense distance.  

Gazing at the signals of the stars, which looked like white dots, ancient people named them after heroes from mythology.  

It was undoubtedly a beautiful sight, and sharing it with Naram Noona made it an even happier moment, yet I couldn’t understand it.  

There was no reason for Noona to take the risk of damaging my choke just to see this view.  

Curious, I asked.  

"Anything done in secret is always fun. It has thrill, and it’s exciting. Of course, laws and ethics must be followed. But this isn’t a crime worthy of death… right?"  

"You’re releasing an immortal monster into the open. That is a crime worthy of death."  

"Seo-ho, you’re not a monster, you’re a person. And it just seemed suffocating for you to always be locked inside the facility. I—I think a little bit of rebellion like this is fine by my standards."  

It was certainly enjoyable.  

Unlike the times I occasionally looked up at the sky from the trash yard, this had thrill and excitement.  

I nodded in agreement.  

"You’re like it."  

I moved my finger toward the night sky. From Noona’s perspective, it must have looked like I was pointing at the giant moon.  

"Wh-wh-what? Hearing that out of nowhere makes me blush…."  

"Noona, unlike me, you have a lot."  

Naram Noona, who had been covering her face with her palm in embarrassment, suddenly froze.  

"You were born into a privileged family that every Korean envies, you have an impressive education, a home under your name, a loving family and friends, and memories."  

The vast space before my eyes was filled with countless celestial bodies, drifting clouds—if all of that were erased with a giant eraser…  

Then, at last, the empty darkness, resembling me, would appear.  

"That’s why I said the night sky resembles you. You are filled with so much. That’s why, unlike me, I think you’re as grand as the night sky."  

The night held a mysterious power.  

It cast a strange spell on me, making me say unnecessary things.  

For a moment, I wondered if I was using Noona as an emotional dumping ground, but my worries were meaningless.  

"Then, starting now, you can fill yourself up little by little. If you think of it that way, someday, Seo-ho, your heart will be filled with countless celestial bodies, just like that night sky."  

"And Seo-ho, what do you mean you have nothing? Noona is right here beside you. If you say that, I’ll get sad~"  

Naram Noona smiled like sunshine.  

"If it’s still difficult, Noona will help you. Hehe."  

I thought Noona was a magician.  

She had cast a powerful spell that made it impossible for me to look away.  

From that moment on, the blank white canvas no longer felt empty.  

If something was missing, I just had to fill it in.  

"Haa… Haa…"  

I arrived at Zone 0.  

The once orderly office-like space was now a complete wreck.  

Documents and office equipment were strewn across the floor. Here and there, the corpses of researchers lay scattered.  

I began walking toward the emergency evacuation zone where Naram Noona would be waiting.  

The emergency evacuation zone was designed to protect staff members (excluding Rank 4 personnel) in the event of a disaster caused by the Phantom Species.  

I knew the details were written in the manual.  

▶ R-1 – Emergency Procedures for Evacuation  

Access Level: Grade 3  

▼ Evacuation Procedures  

Access Denied  

▼ Evacuation Routes  

Access Denied  

▼ Evacuation Facilities  

Access Denied  

The Paranormal Research Facility did not consider Rank 4 personnel as staff that needed protection, so I was never given the full details of the manual.  

A question lingered in my mind.  

How could humans possibly handle a disaster caused by the Phantom Species?  

Even though the Phantom Species could be contained within the facility through isolation procedures, it wasn’t something that could be controlled entirely by human intelligence.  

If it were, then there would be no reason for researchers and Rank 4 personnel to die during experiments.  

However, as soon as I saw the bizarre phenomenon unfolding before my eyes, some of my doubts were resolved.  

Every time I cleaned Zone 0, I had seen the tightly shut hatch of the emergency evacuation zone.  

The white hatch had disappeared.  

In its place stood a massive stone door.  

On the surface of the door, a writhing, black slime-like substance slithered around.  

The slime moved in a distinct pattern, and it looked eerily like creatures biting each other, bleeding.  

At the center of the door hung a human head.  

It was positioned just like the severed head of an executed corpse.  

"Phantom Species…"  

I did not know this one.  

None of the documents I had access to contained any data on a Phantom Species like this.  

As I stared up at the door in a daze, a familiar voice called out.  

"Seo-ho, are you there?"  

It was Naram Noona’s voice.  

Naturally, I couldn’t say a word.  

Anyone would freeze if a severed head at the center of the door suddenly spoke to them in the voice of the person they loved.