Just in Time
Snow began to fall from the sky.
White flakes, as soft as goose feathers, drifted gently down, settling on the ground, rooftops, and eaves.
The city's streets were silent.
The trees, stripped of their green leaves by winter.
Stood like rows of giants on either side, stretching their clawed branches, looking down at the road.
In the still air.
A figure with a large backpack.
Quickly sped past!
Leaving behind only.
The light from the flashlight tied to the bicycle's handlebar.
And the faint sound of music fading away...
"Currently, I'm only three kilometers away from Tran Hung Dao High School. Getting closer means something is likely to happen."
Hoàng Tuân calculated silently in his mind.
He had been traveling from Nam Hoa Tower for about an hour now.
Besides the pale hand that appeared on the bridge.
He had encountered eerie things three times in total.
Unlike the hand blocking his way, thanks to the danger predictions through the novel panel and the disc, he had bypassed those places without much effort.
"The interval between the appearance of the next victim is getting shorter and shorter, currently at twenty-one..."
Hoàng Tuân frowned.
Listening to Dương Khánh Vĩ communicating with him through the crystal ball.
"The public's mood is a bit unstable, some have resisted persuasion, sneaking out of Nam Hoa Tower and dying on the way."
"I haven't kept track of how many people have left."
"When you arrive, keep a steady pace. Don't act rashly, if you encounter any danger, you must avoid it in time..."
Only Dương Khánh Vĩ's voice was lingering in his ears.
It must be said.
Although Dương Khánh Vĩ seemed quite odd, when the time came, he truly prioritized seriousness.
Along the way, as Hoàng Tuân rode.
He could constantly hear Dương Khánh Vĩ updating him on the surroundings.
Only now, his voice was a bit breathless.
Hoàng Tuân estimated...
Soon, he might not be able to endure his injuries any longer.
He wondered if this fool had asked anyone to treat his wounds urgently...
"By the way, turn off that stupid music player of yours. It's really annoying. I can't hear the environment around you clearly," Dương Khánh Vĩ told him.
"Such dramatic music, and you ask me to turn it off?"
Hoàng Tuân carefully observed his surroundings, replying nonchalantly.
"Hurry up! Don't be stupid."
Dương Khánh Vĩ urged.
"Got it..."
Even Hoàng Tuân felt it was time to get down to business, not wanting to lose his composure, so he put his hand in his pocket and turned off the music that had accompanied him along the way.
Right, the mp3 was running out of battery...
After turning off the music.
The sound of the bicycle's axle turning became very clear.
The rustling of branches in the wind.
Also reached Hoàng Tuân's ears.
In his view.
Not far away, a familiar old residential building appeared, the lights on its floors already off.
Standing like a giant in the cold night, amid the windy, snowy sky...
Unconsciously.
Hoàng Tuân's cycling speed slowed a bit.
He looked up, his gaze falling on the nearly invisible window frames through the dotted, rusty security bars...
"I wonder... Mom, what are you doing now..."
"Based on the usual time, she should be sleeping by now."
That gentle and beautiful figure.
Appeared in Hoàng Tuân's mind.
He couldn't help but think of the night he walked out of the classroom where a movie was being shown...
The person wrapped in a thin shirt.
The woman standing at the classroom door, bringing him a bowl of rib soup...
According to his mother.
He and his sister were gluttons, always eager to eat anything.
She was usually a nagging woman.
That night, she didn't let him go easily.
She insisted on telling him for a long time, "Study hard, so you won't regret it in the future, and you'll have a stable job."
Until the end of the movie screening in the classroom.
She disappeared at the school gate with her frail back...
"It would be great if you were really my mother."
Hoàng Tuân recalled the couple who had abandoned him.
If possible.
He really wanted a complete family...
Enjoying his mother's nagging, seeing his father's seriousness, and having a lively, mischievous sister always protecting him...
Unfortunately.
None of it was real.
None of it belonged to him.
Including his mother's love, which was only because he was "parasitizing" on the "Hoàng Tuân" of this world.
In the end.
He was quite jealous of that boy...
Well.
Even if it didn't belong to him.
At least he had owned and experienced it, which was enough for him.
Alright.
Actually, he was no longer a teenage boy.
What he had to do.
Was to do what an adult must do...
Hoàng Tuân pushed aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind, shook his head, and sped up again.
Passing by the residential area where he had lived for half a year...
He came quietly.
Now he needed to leave quietly.
He shook his sleeve casually.
Not taking anything that belonged to him...
...
Squeak, squeak.
The sound of rubber brakes rubbing against the wheel.
Hoàng Tuân parked his bicycle precisely next to the gate of "Tran Hung Dao High School."
Above him.
Was the old sign hanging over the school, inside the campus full of eerie things...
The security booth was also empty.
Only a few unread newspapers were placed next to a radio.
The school gate was locked, so Hoàng Tuân could only enter through the security booth.
"Be careful, the atmosphere here is heavy with eeriness, you must be cautious at all times."
"I understand."
Holding the axe in his right hand, Hoàng Tuân stepped through the threshold of the security booth.
He glanced at the current situation in the school.
The road covered with snow melted on the pavement, looking a bit wet.
The teaching building was right ahead and could only be reached by going around the playground and the garden.
To the left was the dormitory building.
But since there were no students.
Laundry was no longer hung on the dormitory hallway as before...
Not far from the principal's office.
Was the conference room and computer room, where school leaders often held meetings or worked.
Just a few steps in that direction.
Would lead to the medical room.
That was where he encountered those terrifying bugs...
Compared to before.
"Tran Hung Dao High School," now shrouded in dark clouds, truly looked like an abandoned school described in ghost stories.
People couldn't help but imagine.
In a dark corner, a woman with black hair covering her face would suddenly appear...
"It's so dark, just looking at this, I feel a chill down my spine."
"Yeah, I don't remember the school ever being like this, why does it look like this now?"
"Is someone hiding in the bushes on the right? I always feel like there's an eye there..."
"Be careful, brother, you can't die."
"..."
The crowd gathered at Nam Hoa Tower.
At this moment, after seeing the scene of "Tran Hung Dao High School," everyone was whispering.
In the campus now covered by dark clouds.
Even the images seen through the crystal ball made them feel a bit scared.
In addition, the current light source was only the flashlight in Hoàng Tuân's hand.
It led to poor visibility and easily made people fearful of the indistinct places...
…
"The source of the curse, where is it..."
Hoàng Tuân shone the flashlight to one side, when the white light directly illuminated a certain corner, a black shadow suddenly flashed across his vision, moving to the other side he couldn't see.
"Black cat?"
"It should be. In horror stories, black cats are always considered omens of disaster..."
After the shadow rushed past.
Hoàng Tuân didn't think much about it.
In general.
If there was really something eerie about it, it would be dangerous to run over and check.
The location of the curse source ending the story.
Wouldn't be so straightforward, guiding him clearly like that.
"Starting from the medical room. That's where the bugs were bred, and it's quite close now..."
Hoàng Tuân decided.
Lifting his foot and heading to the side path.
In general.
This medical room gave him a different feeling from other places, not sure why he encountered those terrifying bugs here...
The harsh sound of a door handle being gently moved could be heard.
Holding the flashlight in his left hand, Hoàng Tuân pushed the door that had been locked for who knew how long.
Before him.
Was a dark hallway where he couldn't see his fingers...
In his memory.
Hoàng Tuân vaguely remembered the medical room being on his left, just a little over ten meters down the hallway.
Not too far...
"Huh? When did these appear?"
Hoàng Tuân's flashlight shone on the concrete wall, and he was surprised to see the wall covered with strange graffiti.
Like a mischievous child's prank.
Adding some color to the wall...
However, the graffiti appeared very peculiar, with the basic colors of the patterns being red and black, depicting various strange humanoid creatures.
If not looked at closely.
One might think something was stuck on the wall...
"Wait, besides the ugly drawings, are there words?"
Dương Khánh Vĩ reminded from the other side.
He spoke to Hoàng Tuân through the crystal ball, indicating that there were streaks like writing in the upper left corner of the graffiti.
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, Hoàng Tuân shone the flashlight there.
Four faint blood-red characters suddenly appeared before him.
"Do not enter?"
"What does it mean?"
"Is it a warning?"
Hoàng Tuân looked at the four characters.
He pondered over it.
At the same time, to be cautious, he opened the novel panel and checked.
[Hoàng Tuân stood before the door and carefully stared.]
[He saw the reminder.]
[He was thinking...]
[Shush!]
[Do not disturb.]
[Something else is coming...]
[It will cut off his head...]
Seeing this.
The door that had been open behind Hoàng Tuân suddenly closed with a bang!
He didn't even look back.
He immediately squatted down.
At the same time.
Hoàng Tuân felt a stream of air pass over his head!
He immediately rolled forward, trying to create distance from that thing.
"What?"
As soon as the roll ended, Hoàng Tuân hurriedly turned to look behind, wanting to see what the eerie thing that wanted to cut off his head was.
However.
When he turned back.
Under the flashlight's beam, there was nothing, except for the tightly closed door and an empty space...
"Invisibility?"
He glanced at the novel panel.
Immediately felt a tingle on his scalp.
[He couldn't see...]
[Hahaha!]
[Of course, he couldn't see it!]
[Although it moves very slowly.]
[But it can hide...]
[It will tear him apart!]
[It will grab his legs and rip him apart like tearing bread!]
Hoàng Tuân immediately stepped back.
Just seconds after he took that step back...
Where his legs had been.
Suddenly, two bloody handprints appeared!
"This is bad."
Hoàng Tuân felt the temperature of the disc in his pocket had risen to a level he had never felt before.
He guessed.
That thing was probably standing right in front of him...
Ignoring the bloody warning on the wall, Hoàng Tuân suppressed the frenzy of bugs in his body, immediately got up and ran down the hallway!
Everyone was watching his situation now.
When unnecessary.
He didn't want others to know he had those eerie bugs...
Based on previous speculations.
It was likely that the cunning bugs did not belong to the curse source, and if they were taken for research, it would be even more troublesome.
Since there was still a path to take.
He also noticed that the thing's movement was very slow in the novel.
Just try it first.
Even without that invisible thing, he guessed he would have run in after standing outside and thinking!
Getting up and running!
The entire movement was smooth and swift!
In the hallway, Hoàng Tuân's footsteps echoed continuously...
When he reached the medical room door.
He heard a noise coming from the door.
"Slow is good, it’s manageable..."
Hoàng Tuân didn't hesitate much.
He directly opened the wooden door of the medical room and stepped inside.
At the same time, he pulled out the gourd mouth that Dương Khánh Vĩ lent him, which could make the eerie thing temporarily lose its target...
Then stayed silent.
...
"What is he doing?"
"I don't know, I didn't see anything except the door inexplicably closing and two bloody handprints appearing."
"I just saw him suddenly squat down and roll, then start running after a moment of hesitation..."
"Hey, did you notice the position of the bloody handprints? Weren't they very close to him? Does it mean something is watching him, but it’s just not visible?"
"Seems like it..."
"Is there really something?"
"..."
Dương Khánh Vĩ listened to the discussions in the crowd.
Also felt the situation was bad.
Due to excessive blood loss.
His whole face was extremely pale now, as if he would faint any moment.
"Hoàng Tuân, did you find anything?"
Dương Khánh Vĩ asked through the crystal ball.
But Hoàng Tuân did not answer him.
He remained squatting motionless before the medical room door, even turning off the flashlight...
...
In the hallway.
The rustling sound continued.
Hoàng Tuân only listened to the sound getting closer to the medical room door...
The gourd Dương Khánh Vĩ gave him.
Had a time limit of about five minutes.
Previously, he had asked while riding on the road.
That was.
He only had to wait five minutes.
When that thing left here, he could go out...
"Five minutes should be enough, that thing is getting impatient searching for me."
Hoàng Tuân silently squatted by the door, thinking.
However.
Just when he felt relieved.
The medical room where he was.
A man's coughing sound came from the hospital bed...