I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

The cafeteria door was fogged up with hot steam that had a faint pinkish tint.

The students entered that place, which looked suspicious at a glance, as if they were moving along a factory conveyor belt.

‘How the hell can that be called a cafeteria?’

I felt the stiffness that had kept me from moving even my fingers until a moment ago gradually begin to disappear.

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had regained the ability to move, because Myeong Haebin carefully grabbed the sleeve of my uniform.

“Boss. Should we escape?”

Yes.

If we were lucky, maybe we could escape.

However, I could feel a chilling gaze coming from the cafeteria behind us.

“…I don’t know.”

The Nutritionist was standing in front of the cafeteria door, dressed entirely in white with a mask of the same color, leaving only her eyes visible, which gave off an unsettling gleam.

Normally, seeing a nutritionist standing there like that, the natural assumption would be that she was there to greet the students coming for lunch.

Then why did I have the feeling that she was watching to make sure none of us escaped?

‘She’s watching us.’

Maybe because she wasn’t looking toward the cafeteria door.

She was watching the line.

I didn’t know whether the Nutritionist strictly belonged to the category of Professor in this place, but I had no intention of finding out.

“Stop getting distracted and follow me.”

Team Leader Yong’s voice was filled with tension, his jaw clenched tightly.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t only because Team Leader Yong had ordered us to.

With the line practically pressed against the wall, escaping without being noticed was nearly impossible.

So I went in, mentally preparing myself for whatever I might find.

But the inside of the cafeteria was even more grotesque than I had imagined.

As though they were imitating a real school, the students seemed to have sat wherever they wanted.

However, every one of them kept their backs perfectly straight at a ninety-degree angle, said exactly the same words, and began eating in exactly the same order.

— Thank you for the meal.

— Thank you for the meal.

— Thank you for the meal.

Every time a spoon entered and emerged from those completely hollow faces, a dark red liquid spilled out.

And then they began expelling blood.

From those mouths, noses, eyes, and ears that were impossible to distinguish from one another.

Because of that, the cafeteria tables, chairs, and floor were completely covered in blood.

The metallic stench was so intense that it was difficult even to breathe.

‘I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.’

It was a sight I couldn’t bear to look at.

But I couldn’t look away either.

Eventually, our turn came, and I picked up a stainless-steel tray.

A mushy, soggy mass of rice.

Side dishes that looked as though they had been made from some kind of mixed and fried entrails.

And a thick soup.

All of it ended up on my tray.

It was impossible not to feel nauseous.

“Ugh…”

Hold it in.

No.

I can’t draw attention.

I think I moved forward following Team Leader Yong with my eyes practically fixed on his back.

Without looking at the tray.

Without looking to either side.

I simply kept walking.

But when I sat down, I reached my limit.

“Ugh!”

“Ah, do you want to switch seats with Haebin?”

“That’s not the problem…!”

Team Leader Yong had chosen a spot slightly away from the anomalous students.

The problem was that it was between two corpses.

In other words.

There was an actual corpse next to Team Leader Yong.

And another one next to me.

Instead of waiting for me to close my mouth after I froze in horror, Team Leader Yong turned the head of the corpse that remained completely motionless with its face buried in its tray and opened its jaw.

“Did that person… belong to the Exploration Team?”

“Yeah. Check the one next to you too. Inside the mouth.”

Both corpses were wearing familiar uniforms.

The corpse next to Team Leader Yong was so emaciated that it looked like nothing more than skin stretched over bones.

The one beside me had dark red dried blood around every opening in its head, as though it had bled from every single one of them.

“Why do I have to look inside his mouth?”

“Here.”

Team Leader Yong handed me a rolled-up piece of paper.

[Do not consume lunch before lunchtime ends]

It was a piece cut from an A4 sheet of paper, with letters that looked as though they had been typewritten.

“It’s the cause of death.”

“But how did this appear here?”

“Don’t you have a capsule?”

A capsule?

What the hell was that now?

When he saw that I didn’t respond, Team Leader Yong opened his mouth and pulled one of his cheeks aside.

I thought I could make out something resembling a blue pill beside the outer side of his molars.

“Ah, right. Since the Cleaning Team’s office still isn’t ready, Boss hasn’t received one yet.”

“Do you have one, Haebin?”

“I belong to the Cleaning Team now too. So no. It’s an item supplied by the company.”

“We just call it a capsule. When you die, the casing dissolves and your cause of death appears written on it.”

So the cause of death of the man I had seen when we first entered the school had also come from one of those capsules.

“It’s meant to prevent the next person from making the same mistake. Though, well, if your entire head gets blown off, there’s not much you can do.”

Thanks to the death of someone whose name I didn’t even know, we now knew that failing to leave that cafeteria in time meant death.

It was a difficult feeling to describe.

“Hurry up and check it. More students are coming.”

“Do you want me to do it?”

“No need.”

The anomalous students who had received their lunch were approaching us in search of empty seats.

If I wanted to act naturally, I had to check the corpse beside me as quickly as possible.

‘It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen a corpse. Calm down.’

When I cleaned hoarder houses, every once in a great while, I would come across one.

And between yesterday and today, I had already lost count of how many I had seen.

‘Excuse me.’

Even so, I closed my eyes for a moment to pray for his rest, then carefully opened the corpse’s jaw.

Clack.

The rigid jaw opened with a dry sound.

Beside the molars was a half-dissolved capsule, mixed with blood that had not yet coagulated and saliva.

[School Lunch]

That was what the achievement said.

Eating lunch and escaping could cause irreversible physical damage.

Were the injuries mentioned there caused by eating the food?

But if you ended up dying, that could no longer be considered simply irreversible.

No.

I suppose death also fell into that category.

“What does it say?”

Just then, the students who had just arrived sat down all around us.

So I simply passed the note from the capsule to Myeong Haebin and sat with my back straight, trying to act naturally.

— Thank you for the meal.

I suppose we at least had to imitate them.

I glanced to the side, and my eyes met Team Leader Yong’s.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Thank you for the meal!”

Haebin caught on to the situation and said it after us.

Fortunately, no one seemed to find our behavior strange.

At least I could breathe a little easier.

The person beside me had died because he hadn’t eaten before lunchtime ended.

That meant that, at the very least, we weren’t required to eat immediately after receiving the food.

“Did you check everything?”

It seemed possible to connect the two notes to the circumstances in which those two people had died.

“Then the one next to me ate the lunch, while the one over there saw him and decided to hold out without eating until he ran out of time.”

“So the result is the same whether you eat or not.”

We put our heads together and began carefully observing the cafeteria.

The Nutritionist was still outside.

Students continued entering without pause.

The cafeteria had limited space, and those who completely emptied their trays stood up and headed toward the tray return area.

There was a Professor there.

‘Why is that Professor there?’

There was no way to know.

Every student tapped their empty tray twice against the tray return area before walking past him and leaving.

“Hanmu, I have a good idea. What if we leave without eating?”

“The Professor is watching.”

Hadn’t there been graffiti in the Practice Room saying something about whether they were sure they could hide the leftovers?

“Ah!”

Myeong Haebin’s eyes lit up as though an idea had just occurred to her.

And without the slightest fear, she tapped the anomalous student sitting beside her a couple of times.

— ?

The student turned his head toward Haebin as blood ran down his face.

But she didn’t even flinch.

“Hey, they gave me too much food. Could you eat some for me?”

— ……

The entity stared at her in silence and then turned his head back toward his tray.

No one knew whether that meant he accepted or rejected the request.

But Haebin scooped up an enormous spoonful of the deep-red rice.

Though calling it a spoonful was an understatement.

It was practically half the plate.

And she placed it on the student’s tray.

“Thank you so much!”

Seeing that, I whispered to Team Leader Yong.

“Is it okay for her to do that?”

“I didn’t have time to stop her. Be ready in case something happens.”

Be ready?

And how the hell am I supposed to do that?

However, unlike us, who watched her with the concern of someone watching a child playing near the water, the anomalous student simply began eating while blood continued running down his face.

But apparently, it was too much food.

He left about half of it and stood up to join the line leading to the tray return area.

“Hey. How could you just give food like that to an anoma— to a student you don’t even know?”

“Because the students at our school are nice. I thought that if I asked politely, maybe he’d help me. Hehe.”

It had been the same in the classroom.

The anomalous students always remained silent and seemed like obedient scarecrows.

It wasn’t as though I didn’t know that.

“But did he really have to accept it just like that?”

“Hanmu suddenly raised his hand in the classroom too!”

“That’s true. Hanmu did something similar too.”

That had been an emergency.

Though I couldn’t deny it either.

Wait.

Was Team Leader going to distance himself now after conspiring with me?

“Forget that and look over there. The student is leaving.”

I gave that irritating duo a displeased look, sighed, and pointed with my chopsticks toward the tray return area behind Haebin.

What would happen?

The student walked over there with his tray and tried to throw away the leftovers like the others did.

However, the ‘Professor’ standing there approached and stopped him.

They seemed to exchange a few words.

Then the entity left the line, returned to a nearby empty seat, and began forcing himself to eat what remained.

“Looks like you can’t leave any food.”

“But it doesn’t look like they punish you for trying.”

Was that why the corpse beside me had ended up eating?

Because they hadn’t allowed him to leave without finishing his food.

“At least it looks like we can give it to other students. Let’s do that.”

Before I realized it, only thirty minutes of lunchtime remained.

Our location wasn’t exactly favorable either.

There were corpses on both sides of our seats.

And we had three trays to empty.

I still didn’t like the idea, but.

“Let’s split up. Find other empty seats and meet up afterward.”

“Okay. Ugh, why is there so little space in here?”

“That’ll be better. Hanmu, see you later.”

The second hand on the clock continued moving.

The three of us stood up naturally and decided to take different empty seats scattered around the cafeteria.

“Can I sit here?”

— ……

The anomalous students didn’t respond.

But I was starting to get used to it.

Twenty minutes remained.

Of course, I had no intention of eating.

So I simply moved my spoon around slightly while looking around before speaking to the anomalous student sitting beside me.

“I think they gave me too much. Do you want to eat some of my rice?”

— ……

The student’s gaze shifted toward me.

Good.

It was no different from what Haebin had done.

Then I would take the opportunity to discreetly pass him my food.

Slide.

However, the student pushed his tray to the opposite side, moving it away from me.

Why?

— ……

His head slowly moved up and down as he looked at me.

He seemed to be saying.

You really can’t even finish that much?

The truth was, the food looked so grotesque that I had taken very little rice, since it was the only thing you could serve yourself.

“My stomach doesn’t feel very good today. Do me a favor.”

But the entity wouldn’t give in.

On the contrary.

He quickly finished all his food, abruptly stood up, and left.

‘How picky.’

In my head, I had already imagined myself passing him all my food and calmly leaving the cafeteria.

While I was thinking about what other method I could use, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.

“Hanmu, I’m leaving first.”

“Already?”

Myeong Haebin was standing there with a completely empty tray and an awkward smile.

“I wanted to leave with you, but they told me I have to get up because I need to clean. I’ll wait for you outside, so come quickly, okay?”

She seemed to want to say something more.

But the student behind her gave her a small push in the back with his tray.

With no other choice, Haebin moved away from me.

I watched her pass through the tray return area without absolutely anything happening.

She really had emptied her entire tray.

The image of the Exploration Team member’s corpse, whose mouth I had barely managed to pry open to retrieve the capsule, appeared before my eyes again.

‘Don’t dwell on that. You’ve always managed on your own. Focus.’

If I had my cleaning bag, I could have put all that grotesque food into a garbage bag, pretended I had finished it, and walked out.

But because my body had moved on its own, I had arrived there completely unarmed.

Fifteen minutes remained.

Lunchtime was drawing to an end.

There were fewer and fewer students in the cafeteria.

And my tray remained exactly the same.

I hadn’t touched absolutely anything.