I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

Thud, bang, slam!

In case you’re wondering what that noise was, it was the sound of the docent ramming his head against the door we were blocking with our entire bodies.

“Did you lock it properly?”

“Yes. As long as he doesn’t manage to break it.”

And Jeong Dohyeon had just firmly secured the door.

“Then where are we?”

“Who knows. It looks like we entered Exhibition Hall 2, but…….”

It was too dark and the place was too narrow to properly make out the interior.

Judging by the position of the walls I could see nearby, it seemed that this room was barely as wide as a hallway.

Thud, tap. Thud…… tap.

A strange sound was coming from the door at the opposite end, whose outline I could barely make out.

It couldn’t be the docent.

After all, he was right behind us.

“Looks like there’s something there.”

I had barely finished saying that when the lights came on with a Flash, revealing a fist-sized phenomenon jumping toward the doorknob.

“Hanmu, it’s that hand!”

> !!

The black hand was in this room.

It seemed to want to get into the next hall, but the knob on the closed door was small and round, so it couldn’t manage to turn it and simply kept jumping over and over in front of the door.

“After all the trouble you caused us! Got you!”

Without wasting an instant, Jeong Dohan ran toward it and caught the black hand while I snatched my phone away from it.

> !! !! !!!

The hand twisted violently, refusing to let go of the phone, but dream on.

It’s mine.

“How is it? Does it work properly?”

I turned on the phone as a tsunami-like sense of relief washed over me.

A new strategy had appeared in the app that I hadn’t been able to see before.

“Haah, yes.”

[Completion Condition: Exhibit a work in Exhibition Hall 3.]

It is recommended that you listen carefully to the audio guide and appreciate the works according to its instructions.

All works in this exhibition are participatory exhibits.

All works are magnificent and deserve to be respected.

If you are an employee, ■■■ ■■ ■■.

“After making Hanmu suffer so much. Here, a knuckle to the head. Another knuckle.”

“Hyung, what do we do with this hand?”

“Can’t we tie it up properly and lock it somewhere? It seems like a weak anomaly.”

While I checked the app, the twins discussed what to do with the black hand they were holding firmly captive.

That was something I could take care of.

“Give it to me. I’ll throw it away.”

“How are you planning to throw it away?”

Like this.

I forcibly shoved the black hand into a regulation garbage bag I carried in my bag and tied a knot.

[Tool Enhancement: Garbage Bag] activated automatically, and the entire bag was collected on its own.

[👍)]

Did you like that?

Why does this thing seem more and more alive?

“Wow, what was that? Where did it go? Is that magic?”

“It’s a basic ability any cleaner has.”

“No way…….”

Unlike Myeong Haebin, these two were definitely looking at me as though they thought I was some kind of weirdo.

At times like this, the best thing to do was act completely shameless.

“It just works.”

“Just works? Out of nowhere? Wasn’t there some kind of trigger, or did you come into contact with some anomaly……?”

“Yes. It just works.”

I stared directly into Jeong Dohyeon’s eyes with the stubborn expression of someone who would be absolutely impossible to reason with.

Not long afterward, he seemed to give up and shook his head.

“Yeah, yeah. As if there weren’t already enough weird people in this world. Let’s hurry to the next hall. There doesn’t seem to be anything here.”

Beside the door that the black hand had desperately tried to open was a metal plaque.

[Exhibition Hall 3 ->]

Audio Guide

Hadn’t we just entered Exhibition Hall 2?

This hallway didn’t look anything like an exhibition hall.

With that thought, I turned the knob.

It fit perfectly in my hand, although it seemed a little small and soft.

On top of that, it had rough lines resembling tiny blood vessels……

Wait.

Is this not an ordinary doorknob?

The moment I realized it and tried to let go, the door began moving rapidly along with the entire wall, widening the room that until then had barely been as wide as a hallway.

“Hanmu! What did you do?!”

“I really didn’t do anything!”

I just turned the doorknob!

Clack, slap, clunk!

As the walls shifted, the space appearing behind them began rearranging itself until it formed something resembling an enormous house.

It was like one of those perfectly decorated model homes.

Gleaming furniture perfectly aligned and bright lights designed to highlight the interior.

However.

The legs of what should have been an ordinary table were pale human thighs.

The stand of a lamp was formed from a pelvis and a spinal column.

The piano keys were dozens of human fingers.

All the furniture, assembled entirely from human body parts, was covered in dismantling markers.

“I thought that place earlier seemed way too narrow…….”

“Looks like all of these are works.”

“Dohyeon? Hanmu? Hanmu, Dohyeon.”

Jeong Dohan began frantically tapping our shoulders.

“What is it?”

The moment I turned toward him……

Crack.

The door we had firmly closed began to splinter.

A peach-colored, nailless finger suddenly appeared through one of the cracks.

“Things without value, must be disposed of, out of sight…….”

“!!!”

The sight was so terrifying that I nearly screamed.

Could he break through the door?

A door at least six centimeters thick with his bare hands?

“Hanmu, Hyung, get out quickly. Hurry!”

“Even though the door moved farther away, it didn’t disappear. Over there!”

We began running between the furniture filling Exhibition Hall 2.

Whoosh!!

However, the furniture abandoned their positions and silently blocked our path.

“What the hell is wrong with these things?! Move―!”

“Hyung!”

A chair shot out from the kitchen and crashed into Jeong Dohan.

“Urgh!”

The chair rammed into Jeong Dohan at a speed comparable to a car accident and, without slowing down in the slightest, continued racing across the entire room.

“I’ll get him off!”

I wanted to grab Jeong Dohan and pull him off the chair, but it was moving too fast for me to stop it alone.

It would be the same as deliberately throwing yourself in front of a moving car.

“It’s going too fast to stop! Hyung, just jump off!”

“I think he lost consciousness from the impact!”

The chair, with Jeong Dohan slumped over it, headed straight toward the dining table.

Perfectly aligned along the edges of that table were the distal phalanges of fingers or toes.

‘If he crashes into it at that speed, he’ll break several bones at the very least! He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t end up with a hole in his abdomen!’

Then I saw the back of the chair.

A metal plaque with its name was attached to it.

[A Harmonious Dinner – Chair 1]

Audio Guide

Does the audio guide explain the works?

Then I have the [Dictionary].

If I look up the name of the work……

I can probably get information.

“Dohyeon, I need you to buy me a little time.”

“How……? All right.”

As though he had made up his mind, Jeong Dohyeon threw himself without hesitation at the chair speeding toward the table.

‘I didn’t mean for you to buy time to that extent!’

Crash!

Jeong Dohyeon’s shoulder slammed into the side of the chair moving at full speed.

“Urgh!”

The chair, whose frame was constructed from human bones and whose upholstery was made from the victims’ clothing, shattered and scattered fragments everywhere.

A cloud of ashes that had served as the cushion’s stuffing rose into the air, preventing me from clearly seeing what was happening.

Jeong Dohyeon?

No, what had happened to Jeong Dohan?

“Urgh, cough, cough……. What the hell happened……?”

Jeong Dohan, who had regained consciousness from the impact, walked out while supporting Jeong Dohyeon.

“Are you both okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s just……. Urgh. It wasn’t as sturdy as I thought.”

“Dohyeon, your shoulder…….”

A bone fragment was deeply embedded in Jeong Dohyeon’s shoulder, which was completely covered in ash.

It seemed the chair had shattered when it collided with him, and one of the fragments had lodged deep inside.

“……I’m fine. I hit it with my left side.”

Jeong Dohyeon answered indifferently and yanked the fragment out.

The piece of white bone became stained with his blood, and the blood that had been trapped inside the wound suddenly gushed out.

Jeong Dohan clicked his tongue, grimaced, and pressed hard against Jeong Dohyeon’s shoulder to stop the bleeding.

“Why did you do something so reckless?”

“If I hadn’t, you’d be split between Jeong Do and Han by now. Hanmu, did I buy you enough time?”

Instead of answering that it had practically been the same thing, I moved my stiff fingers and typed a term into the [Dictionary].

: A Harmonious Dinner – Chair 1｜

[A Harmonious Dinner – Chair 1]

Component of [A Harmonious Dinner] – [The Human Body Turned into a Tool], belonging to Exhibition Hall 2 of [Human Exhibition: On the Infinity of the Human Body].

The Human Body Turned into a Tool?

A Harmonious Dinner?

Then…… what if I searched for this?

: A Harmonious Dinner｜

[A Harmonious Dinner]

Component of [The Human Body Turned into a Tool], belonging to Exhibition Hall 2 of [Human Exhibition: On the Infinity of the Human Body].

It is composed of a table, one human, and Chairs 1, 2, 3, and 4, but the harmony can easily be broken.

So that was why it had taken Jeong Dohan.

Was it planning to embed him into the table and turn him into part of the work?

“It looks like this work is called [A Harmonious Dinner].”

“Harmonious? That name is way too good for it.”

“And also……. Hmm.”

At some point, without making the slightest sound, the shadow of a piano that had approached us was cast like a still life.

[A Harmonious Dinner] wasn’t the only work with its name engraved on a metal plaque.

“I think all of these things can move.”

I was certain.

Both because some of the furniture had already moved and because of point number 2 in the app.

All works in this exhibition are participatory exhibits.

Bang!

— Aaaaaaaah―!

The piano lid, decorated with human teeth, slammed shut violently.

The keys made from protruding fingers were crushed, and the vocal cords connected to the inside of the piano vibrated, producing a scream.

As though that had been a signal, the bulbs made from eyeballs on the lamps with spinal-column stands began flashing blood-red light, while a table fitted with human feet struck the floor with enough force to leave dents.

“We can’t fight all of them! Run like your lives depend on it!”

“Dispose, dispose……!”

To make matters worse, the docent, whose head had been half-destroyed while breaking through the door, finally managed to get through and reach Exhibition Hall 2.

We desperately began forcing our way through the furniture, jumping over it as we ran toward the far end of the room.

“Now I understand why the Rats took two weeks. Is it really still this difficult after all the dismantling markers they put on everything?!”

“It must’ve been even more horrible before!”

“Cuckoo.”

From the opening of the pendulum clock where a cuckoo bird should have appeared, a pair of lips suddenly emerged and pronounced the sound in a human voice.

Then the reddish lips opened wide as though trying to bite me.

“Watch out!”

Thanks to Jeong Dohyeon pulling me away, the cuckoo snapped at the air right beside my ear with a Snap and quickly shot back inside the clock as though attached to a spring.

“There’s nothing normal here! I’m opening the door!”

“Wait!”

I grabbed Jeong Dohan by the back of his neck and pulled him away before feeling around the hinge area instead of the knob.

“Hanmu! What are you doing?!”

Earlier, I had simply thought the knob I grabbed was strange, but now that I looked at it again, it was obvious.

An abnormally small sphere with tiny blood vessels that could be felt across its surface.

It wasn’t a doorknob.

They had painted an eyeball to make it look like a knob.

This was [Human Exhibition: On the Infinity of the Human Body].

Here, they used the human body to create the works.

If even this door was a work constructed from human parts, where would its name be?

[Exhibition Hall 3 ->]

Audio Guide

Why would something that appeared to be nothing more than a sign have an audio guide?

I had already found the answer to that question.

I hadn’t been able to check because the furniture had started chasing us before I could even turn off the screen, but the phone inside my pocket was probably displaying something like this:

: Exhibition Hall 3 ->｜

[Exhibition Hall 3 ->]

Component of Exhibition Hall 2 of [Human Exhibition: On the Infinity of the Human Body].

It is also a door leading to Exhibition Hall 3.

The correct position of the knob is indicated in the title.

“I found it!”

I pressed the center of the door, exactly at the position symmetrical to the existing knob.

The panel that had camouflaged itself as a normal door sank inward and revealed another hidden knob made from an eyeball.

‘It’s a little unpleasant, but…….’

If I grab this knob and push……

‘It opened!’

A space completely different from Exhibition Hall 2 appeared on the other side.

We practically fell over one another as we threw ourselves inside.

Thud!

After spitting us out one after another—me, Jeong Dohan, and Jeong Dohyeon—[Exhibition Hall 3 ->] closed.

It took our eyes a little while to adjust to the darkness of the new space.

“What about the docent? Isn’t he chasing us?”

“You’re pretty heavy, could you get off me……?”

“Is this Exhibition Hall 3……?”

“Haah, haah……. Could all of you shut up?”

It seemed all four of us were safe.

Hmm?

Four?

There were only three of us.

I raised my head toward the place that voice had come from.

Team Leader Jo was there, sitting with his back against an empty exhibition platform while breathing heavily.

One of his arms had been torn off at the shoulder.

How the hell had someone who arrived before us using the easy route ended up like that?