The Eldritch Files

As the space around him became illusory and weightless, the real world collapsed and dissolved.

Everything was reassembled. Han Su felt as if he had passed through layers of bizarre space. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself on the familiar school bus. Before him, the dilapidated and sinister Ancient Castle was slowly opening its gates.

He glanced around. He couldn’t see Wei Lan, confirming that he had returned to the Ancient Castle alone.

’It seems that even though she was affected by the Mechanical Fragment, Wei Lan only remembered the time she was kidnapped.’

He silently closed his eyes, organizing his thoughts.

’So, I can now confirm that this Mechanical Fragment is indeed related to my kidnapping.’

’This Mechanical Fragment is accumulating power. Whenever it has enough, I get kidnapped back to the past. The Flashing, happening again and again, getting closer and closer... is it because the fragment is accumulating power faster and faster?’

’Then, if the Mechanical Fragment can accumulate power faster and faster, can I make it accumulate slower and slower?’

This was a very important question, but for now, Han Su could only put it to the back of his mind.

Right now, he had only one goal.

...

Up ahead, in front of the Withered Steward, Han Su still did nothing, merely observing in silence.

His gaze quickly locked onto this loop’s focus: the key!

The process of finding the key this time was surprisingly smooth. Han Su took less than a minute to look towards the far end of the long dining room, at a translucent monster wearing a black top hat and wrapped in a black formal dress.

This monster was different from the others. Her form wasn’t solid; one could see the faint scenery behind her through her body.

She was like a non-existent ghost, leaving only a projection of herself in this world.

And because of this, the key hanging from her body was more conspicuous than it had ever been before.

It was...

’The Ghost Princess?’

Han Su’s heart skipped a beat, but he did a good job of hiding his flicker of excitement.

There were seven monsters in the first-floor dining room: the Withered Steward, Lady Meat Horn, the Half-Doctor, the Pale Giant, the Pig-Headed Butcher, the Worm Monk, and finally, the most inconspicuous of them all, the Ghost Princess.

Compared to the other monsters, she had a delicate and gentle temperament. She floated about silently, not speaking, lacking a strong presence.

Even Han Su would sometimes subconsciously overlook her existence.

But upon seeing the key on her, various detailed memories about her immediately surfaced in Han Su’s mind.

He had already prepared many of his plans for this run in advance; the only variable was the key.

He could only observe who had the key and then formulate and execute a plan on the spot.

Now that he had confirmed it was with her, a bold thought surfaced: ’This is worth a try.’

Because he had succeeded in snatching the key from her before...

And her floor always seemed to have some good things that had long since disappeared from the rest of the Ancient Castle...

Lowering his head imperceptibly, Han Su hid the sharp glint in his eyes, put on a vacant expression, and quietly waited for the monsters at the dining table to pick children to take upstairs. Afterwards, the Withered Steward and the hunchback locked him and the remaining children in the cellar.

He waited patiently, sitting in a corner to conserve energy until nightfall.

When he once again heard the child of Secretary No. 2 start bragging to the other kids, and once again saw the black cat appear and lazily disappear, he knew it was time.

As the buzz-cut kid drew a crowd of children whose gazes held a mixture of feigned and genuine awe and hope, Han Su slowly stood up, walked in front of the timid group, and spoke with a serious expression:

"I can get you all out of here!"

"But first, you have to listen to me."

"..."

The group of children froze, turning to stare at him blankly, blinking their eyes.

"Listen to you about what?"

Before the other kids could react, Secretary No. 2’s buzz-cut son jumped out. Thinking Han Su was challenging his position as leader, he yelled, "You all have to listen to me! Only then will I have my dad rescue all of you! I command you..."

"To hell with your commands!"

Han Su turned and slapped him across the face.

"Your family used its power and influence to get my older sister, my younger sister, my older female cousin, and my younger male cousin killed, and I haven’t even settled the score with you yet..."

He hadn’t forgotten how the kid had snitched on him to the Withered Steward last time.

Han Su beat him particularly hard this time. His small body displayed a frightening ferocity. Not only did he knock the boy to the ground in two hits, but before the kid could cry out, he stepped on his neck, pulled off a pair of socks, and stuffed them into his mouth.

Still not satisfied, he pulled off the boy’s own belt, tied him up, and tossed him into a corner, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at trash.

Having dealt with him, he turned to the other children, who were clearly stunned with fear, and said:

"You have to trust me. I’m actually an upperclassman sent by our teacher to rescue you."

"In about three minutes, that door up there will open. When it does, I need to go out and get the key from our teacher. After I have the key, I’ll go to the third floor, to the rotating conference room on the west side of the corridor. There will be adults waiting for us there to take us away."

"The path to the conference room is: go out from here, head toward the kitchen, and under the cupboard on the right, there’s a dumbwaiter shaft going up. Climb it, don’t make a sound, go up two floors, climb out, squeeze through to the right, and push open that door."

"After I get the key, I’m not coming back down. It’s too dangerous."

"So, whoever is at that spot, I’ll take them with me. Anyone who won’t go can stay here and get eaten by the monsters."

"..."

He repeated himself twice, explaining it as carefully as he could to make sure the children wouldn’t forget.

In his heart, he knew these children might not be brave enough. He deliberately let his gaze sweep over a few specific faces, making it seem as if he were speaking directly to them.

Through his observations, he had identified these few as the most capable among the children in the cellar.

He chose the third floor, which seemed the most dangerous, because he calculated that the Half-Doctor would be having fun with the hot-tempered kid right about now. She looked extremely fast and was the most dangerous, but he had confirmed several times that she wasn’t really interested in anyone else.

Of course, it didn’t matter if the children failed to escape.

To succeed, you always need a backup plan.

If the kids below caused a huge commotion, it would actually help him by creating a diversion upstairs.

That way, he would have a chance to save the person the Ghost Princess took to the ninth floor...

"Did you get all that?"

Han Su said all this in one breath, then looked at the children before him.

Most of their expressions were still dazed. The eyes of several were filled with nothing but confusion and fear.

The buzz-cut kid in the corner, however, started whimpering.

Han Su walked over, kicked him again, and turned to the other children. "Remember, whether you escape or not, do not untie this bastard. Got it?"

"I’ll tell you one more time. Those who can understand, remember it. Those who can’t can just wait for the monsters to eat you."

"..."

Just as he finished the second repetition, a sudden, clattering ruckus erupted outside the cellar, followed by the THUD of a heavy object falling. Then, the cellar door opened silently. Beside it sat a proud black cat.

Its gaze was cold, casting a haughty look down into the cellar...

WHOOSH—Han Su shot up and out of the cellar, startling the cat, which had been striking a pose.

"Good Duke, let’s go! Take me to the eighth floor to find the key..."

Han Su exited the cellar, deliberately leaving the door wide open. He gave the children one last, deep look, then turned and walked briskly toward the kitchen.

He could have taken the children upstairs with him, led them to the conference room, and then gone to steal the key. It might have seemed safer, but he didn’t have time to fully convince them. Forcing them to come along would likely cause trouble.

His countless experiences had proven that moving through the Ancient Castle with children was far more dangerous than going alone.

So, whether they escaped or stayed was up to how brave they were.

Right now, the most important thing for him was to get the key.

So, as he walked toward the kitchen, he anxiously hurried the black cat named Duke.

Duke, however, seemed taken aback. It sauntered around lazily and only ambled toward the kitchen after Han Su had urged it several times. Deciding it was too slow, Han Su simply picked it up. In the kitchen, he grabbed a steak knife, then ducked and squeezed into the dumbwaiter shaft inside the cupboard.

This time, he followed the dumbwaiter shaft, climbing straight up two floors and pressing his ear to the wall to listen:

From the other side of the corridor came the gleeful shrieks of the Half-Doctor and the furious curses of the hot-tempered kid.

"Safe!"

Han Su climbed out of the dumbwaiter shaft. Tiptoeing, he first quietly turned left and went to the rotating conference room to confirm that the path he’d told the children about was viable. Only then did he exit through the door behind the conference room, sneak to the stairs, and ascend to the fourth floor.

Floor by floor, using either secret passages or spaces between walls, Han Su’s painstakingly acquired memories proved useful.

Step by step, he methodically approached his target floor like a ghost, without attracting the attention of any monsters.

Ascending nine floors was a considerably long journey, yet it turned out to be his safest one yet.

During the entire ascent, he hadn’t even used Spell 01.

Not until a chilling aura enveloped him did Han Su emerge at the end of the ninth-floor corridor.

He saw that the place was covered in cobwebs and dilapidated utensils. Candles only as thick as a thumb, with flames the size of peas, struggled to illuminate the gloomy floor.

"Fire..."

In this hellish place, the moment Han Su saw the flame, he felt a surge of excitement. ’I can finally see it again...’

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