How a Veteran of the Urban Legend Gallery Survives – Chapter 24

In the darkness without a single breeze, the smartphone screen lit up coldly. Silence enveloped my ears.

I examined the satellite image of S Village that Kang Hana had sent, zooming in with my finger. As my fingertip brushed the cold screen, the village’s outline became clear.

‘How bizarre.’

It was a perfectly round clearing, unusually neat for such a remote mountain area. It looked like a giant plate had been flipped over, or as if someone had drawn a perfect circle with a massive compass.

What was even stranger was the village’s structure. Except for the entrance blocked by rocks, the entire village was densely surrounded by trees, spaced evenly like a fortress. Apart from the path leading to the entrance, it seemed nearly impossible to enter or escape from the outside.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

Kang Hana’s voice came from the darkness. The cold light of an LED flashlight illuminated her face. Unlike her usual black suit, she was dressed more casually.

“I was thinking the village’s layout is a bit odd.”

“I thought so too. Normally, mountain villages like this form naturally according to the terrain…”

Kang Hana paused and looked around.

It truly seemed as if someone had deliberately designed it this way. From the satellite image, S Village appeared completely isolated deep in the mountains.

A cold wind blew, sending a chill down my spine.

It wasn’t just the cold. Years of reading horror stories told me something sinister was here.

The flashlight beam swept over the village’s old houses. Shadows flickered wherever the light touched. Most were old hanok houses, likely built before the Korean War. Thick gray moss covered the roofs, and the plaster on the walls was peeling in places.

The doorknobs were all rusted, and weeds overgrew the yards. It seemed like no one had lived here for a long time. Yet, every house had electricity.

The leader of Team 3, who was walking ahead, stopped. The sound of his hiking boots stepping on the damp soil echoed. The smell of earth brushed my nose.

“Here it is.”

The Team 3 leader pointed to a house with a red tiled roof. It was larger than the other houses, and the gate looked sturdy. The clean tiles and neat plaster walls stood out.

This was the village chief’s house, where the missing Team 3 members had last been seen.

Knock knock knock-

As we knocked on the gate, the sound of creaking floorboards and footsteps came from inside. Moments later, an elderly woman with white hair opened the door.

The old woman looked up at us. A sharp glint flashed from her deeply wrinkled eyes. Then, she suddenly frowned.

“What business do you have coming to this tiny village in the middle of the night?”

Some team members flinched at her shout, but the Team 3 leader, seemingly used to such situations, calmly stepped forward. The sound of his shoes stepping on the stone pavement cut through the quiet night air.

“Sorry to bother you, but we need a moment of your time.”

“What kind of time at this hour when everyone’s asleep…”

The village chief scanned us with an annoyed expression. Her face clearly showed suspicion at the sight of fourteen people visiting in the middle of the night.

“Two weeks ago, three people—two men and a woman—came to this village for a trip.”

At the Team 3 leader’s words, the old woman’s sharp gaze grew even more intense.

“So?”

Her unfriendly attitude was irritating, but the Team 3 leader calmly continued.

“They’ve completely lost contact since then. Do you happen to know their whereabouts?”

The old woman closed her mouth for a moment. Moonlight illuminated her wrinkled face. Some emotion seemed to flicker through her deep wrinkles.

“I don’t know. Why are you looking for them in the first place?”

“I’m their supervisor. Do you really not know?”

At the repeated question, the old woman shouted again with an angry expression.

“I said I don’t know. So stop asking.”

She cut off the conversation firmly.

“The sun’s already set, so you all can sleep in the empty house. Don’t ask any more questions.”

It seemed like the conversation was over. Most of the team members were about to turn away.

I stepped forward and asked the old woman.

“Can I ask just one more thing?”

At my voice, the old woman turned her head. Her wrinkled face was filled with fatigue and irritation.

“The missing employees left a final message…”

I hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Do you know what ‘the god who smiles differently’ means?”

For a moment, the old woman’s expression stiffened. She looked at my face once, then said:

“Leave the village as soon as morning comes.”

“Huh?”

“Leave the village.”

I tried to stop her as she turned to go back inside, but she had already closed the gate. Her pale face flashed briefly through the closing gate.

She was an old woman with a strange aura. Like a typical rural person, she seemed cranky, and it was clear she wasn’t fond of outsiders.

Further conversation seemed pointless. We decided to stay in a house with a blue plate roof at the village entrance. The D-class personnel headed to the village hall under Team 3’s supervision.

The old floor creaked as we stepped on it. The damp smell of old wood stung my nose. Dust was piled up on the floor, and the air was musty.

While Moon Jinwook and I cleaned the floor with wet wipes, Cheon Seungsoo inspected the house. Long shadows stretched across the walls as the flashlight beam swept over them.

“It’s chilly.”

Cheon Seungsoo muttered as he opened a closet. The old hinges creaked as the door opened. Fortunately, there were a few blankets and mats. Though they smelled slightly moldy from age, they were better than nothing for the cold night.

“We should eat something first.”

Narae pulled out instant noodles from her bag. Luckily, the kitchen had an old gas stove, and the water, electricity, and gas were all working.

“Jinsun? Who bought these noodles?”

“Me.”

At Narae’s words, Moon Jinwook clicked his tongue.

“Jinsun is too bland… At least you could’ve bought Shin Ramyun.”

“I can’t handle spicy food.”

It was true. Narae, who cried over even mildly spicy food, was a complete spice wimp, despite being a decades-old fox spirit.

It felt like the epitome of an MZ office worker to unify the team’s menu to her taste, but since Jinsun was at least edible, I quietly added the soup and noodles to the boiling water.

“Doesn’t this feel weird?”

Kang Hana stirred the boiling noodles with chopsticks as she spoke. The soup splashed onto her hand.

“What does?”

“The villagers. Most of the houses we passed had their lights on, but there wasn’t a single person outside.”

Her words made everyone pause. Only the sound of the boiling noodles filled the silence.

Cheon Seungsoo nodded.

“What’s even stranger is…”

He paused and looked around.

“The houses are all empty. The one we’re staying in, the village hall—there are signs people lived there, but no one’s around.”

“It’s like everyone left overnight.”

Moon Jinwook added. The sound of boiling noodles briefly filled the silence again.

Cheon Seungsoo turned to Narae and asked:

“Narae, what do you think? Anything strange or off?”

Indeed, as a decades-old spirit, Narae might have noticed something. But Narae slurped her noodles and shook her head.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“The village chief, the whole village atmosphere—even with my spiritual senses, nothing feels off.”

Nothing feels off even with spiritual senses…

Suddenly, I remembered a story from the horror gallery by Hikiko. Truly ancient evils, hundreds or thousands of years old, could remain completely undetected even by spiritual senses.

The night deepened. Occasionally, the sound of birds chirping could be heard outside.

After eating the noodles and roughly cleaning up, we started pulling out the mats and blankets from the closet to prepare for an early morning investigation.

That’s when it happened.

Thud-

A white envelope fell out of the closet. Dust rose into the air.

“This is…”

I picked up the envelope.

The texture of the paper felt familiar.

Opening the envelope, I found a folded A4 sheet. Unfolding it, the following was written:

-If this letter has been found, it likely means something has happened to me. And it means the Foundation has come to S Village to search for me and my missing colleagues. The events I experienced here over the past two weeks are too lengthy to write in full, but I can at least leave some advice for my successors. In case this letter is found by others, I’ve hidden letters throughout the village, so if you search carefully, you’ll find them. Lee Sungho, Assistant Team Leader, Catastrophe Foundation Field Investigation Team 3.

As expected, the letter was left by a missing member of Field Investigation Team 3.

What on earth happened here? The handwriting grew increasingly erratic, as if he had been in a hurry, perhaps chased by something.

I slowly turned to the last page. The moment I saw the three lines written there, a chill ran down my spine.

-P.S. If anything happens, try to pull the corners of your mouth and smile as wide as you can.