Chapter 23
Ghost Commotion
The moment I heard that our night-watch post would change, an unexpected sense of crisis hit me.
Three weeks still remained before we could leave boot camp, and during those weeks we’d have to keep standing night guard—
not at the nearby auditorium anymore, but at the distant ammunition depot.
That, I absolutely could not accept.
I suddenly had a very strong reason to solve this problem no matter what.
The simplest way was to prove that the thing terrifying the trainees wasn’t a ghost at all.
But how?
Not easy.
It’s not like I’m some kind of exorcist.
While I was racking my brains, Seohwan let out a deep sigh.
“If only someone would stake out the auditorium and check once and for all whether a ghost is really there.”
At the word stakeout, my ears perked up.
“Exactly. That’s the only way, isn’t it?”
“Huh? What is?”
Pointing toward the auditorium, I said,
“Seohwan, let’s catch it ourselves—the ghost.”
His silent scream went on for a while.
Of course, Seohwan’s immediate reaction was, “Over my dead body.”
If we really ran into a ghost, he figured he wouldn’t sleep for days.
Truth be told, I might be the same.
But climbing that mountain every night for three weeks?
That sounded even worse.
So I decided to bet on “there is no ghost.”
Which meant—
“Jun and you, I need your full cooperation.”
After dinner, back at the barracks, I quietly continued the plan with Seohwan, who was sitting beside me.
“Why do you need us?” he grumbled, still full of complaints.
I knew he’d hate the idea. He’s easily spooked.
Sure, I’d rather do it alone, but that’s impossible in the army.
Too many issues—especially this one:
“The drill instructors check on us at random times. We need a lookout.”
My rough plan: leave Jun at our usual guard post, station Seohwan at the auditorium entrance,
and I’d sneak up to the second floor to identify the ‘ghost’ that appeared every hour or so.
Seohwan tilted his head.
“Why put Jun and me in those spots?”
“So one of you can warn me when a D.I. shows up.”
With two lookouts, we’d spot an inspection much faster.
If only we had radios like the instructors—but we’re just trainees.
No gear, so we use our bodies.
“Seohwan, you hate night hiking too, right?”
“Of course. Jun too. Everyone groaned when they heard we might be reassigned.”
But we couldn’t collectively refuse orders.
This is the military. Our code demands obedience.
So the only choice was to solve the cause ourselves.
“What about Jun?”
“He’s in.”
“Haah…” Seohwan sighed, then finally said,
“Fine. I’ll do it!”
“You could’ve just said that earlier.”
There was no prize quest or anything, but I was determined.
That’s how much I hated those night climbs.
Before dawn, we saluted Instructor Park Gil-young and reported for duty.
He gave us a sharp warning.
“I’ll be checking in. The last shift got caught napping and got punished together.
Don’t let that happen again.”
“Yes, understood!” we shouted.
As Park walked off, Jun clicked his tongue.
“Those guys who nodded off? Still doing extra drills, I hear.”
“What, even now? Their shift ended ages ago.”
“Yeah, the head instructor was furious.”
Seohwan looked at me, uneasy.
“Hey, Geumseong… are we really…?”
“We’re doing it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
He was thinking what I already knew: if we got caught, it would count as abandoning our post—
a worse offense than slacking off.
That meant military discipline camp, maybe even confinement.
But as long as we didn’t get caught, we’d be fine.
“And wouldn’t it be better to clear this up now
than spend three weeks shivering every night?
Right, Jun?”
The two of them went silent, then finally Seohwan clenched his jaw.
“Alright. Let’s do it!”
“Yeah,” Jun agreed. “As long as we don’t get caught.”
Perfect attitude.
We left Jun at the regular post and headed for the auditorium.
On the way Seohwan whispered,
“But Geumseong, how will you even get in? Isn’t it locked?”
“The door is. But—”
I pointed to a distant window. Clack.
“The window isn’t.”
“Unbelievable. The army pretends to be thorough but has gaps everywhere,” he muttered.
I told him to stand guard and slipped through the window with my flashlight.
The second-floor hallway was darker than expected.
Dusty floorboards squeaked with every step.
Shining the light near a window, I spotted faint marks—
tiny prints, far smaller than a human’s.
“Could these be…?”
Just then, a loud crash! came from the second-floor storeroom.
My shoulders jumped.
Was it really a ghost?
From below, Seohwan called anxiously,
“You okay, Geumseong?”
“Yeah… for now.”
Heart pounding, I turned toward the noise—
and something leapt out.
Meow.
…A cat.
A very familiar one.
“Jam-Tiger,” I muttered.
It was the striped cat we often saw near the mess hall.
Completely unfazed, it strutted past me and headed for a window
overlooking the trainees’ guard positions below.
From down there, with those glowing, reflected eyes—
“Yeah, that would look like a ghost.”
Now I knew the truth.
Seohwan poked his head inside.
“You alive in there?”
“Don’t kill me off. I’m fine.”
“The ghost? What was that noise?”
“This guy.”
I held up the hefty Jam-Tiger for him to see.
Seohwan’s jaw dropped.
“That was the ghost?”
“Yep.”
“How the heck did it get in?”
“Probably slipped in during the day when the door was open and hid until night.”
After I set the cat down, it shot me a glare as if to say Tch, caught,
then darted off toward the mountain.
“Shouldn’t we show it to the instructor?”
“No need. The evidence is there. We’ll just explain.”
When Instructor Park heard that the “ghost” was really Jam-Tiger, he asked sharply,
“How did you figure that out?”
I calmly gave my prepared line.
“I saw the cat sneak in through the window and later watched it sitting in the upstairs window, looking down on us.”
“Hmm. I’ll check for paw prints tomorrow,” he said, nodding.
“I’ll report to the head instructor. Good work. Get some rest.”
“Yes, sir!”
Back in the barracks, I lay down, sure the ghost incident was over—
until something unexpected happened.
[Hidden Quest “Unmask the Ghost” completed.]
[Reward: 10,000,000 won added to total.]
Oh, nice!
Thanks to Jam-Tiger, I was one step closer to my 1 billion-won training-camp goal.
