Hell’s Handbook - Chapter 320

Chapter 320 Moment Between Life And Death

Su Jin believed that there was no Challenge that led to a dead end. No matter how difficult it was, an escape route existed. It was just that many owners became panicky after they started a Challenge, so they could hardly even think straight, never mind try and find the solution to the problem at hand.

The man in bandages opened the ward door very easily. After he opened the door, he returned to his bed to feast on the three food items he had obtained.

Su Jin kept the three fragments carefully, then walked out of the ward. The lights from the ward were dim, and the corridor wasn’t lit with white fluorescent lights either. They were incandescent lamps that glowed a dim yellow and made the atmosphere more horrifying than it should.

Under such circumstances, it was hard for Su Jin to even differentiate one direction from another. Thankfully, there was a map of the hospital along the corridor, so Su Jin quickly confirmed which direction he should take.

The corridor was completely silent, so each of Su Jin’s footsteps sounded thunderous to him. He tried his best to tread lightly. Given the nature of the Handbook, there was no way it would let off an owner during such a time. Danger could strike anytime.

He walked past a fire emergency box and noticed an axe inside. He did need a weapon right now, so he wasn’t going to just walk past the axe.

After opening the box, he picked up the axe and tried swinging it. The weight was perfect. Just then, he heard a clattering noise from somewhere further upfront.

His heart skipped a beat as he ducked into a nearby toilet and peeked out to see what was making that weird noise.

In no time, he spotted it. It was a very skinny monster that looked like a spider. Or rather, it looked like a human who grew a spider body. The lower body resembled a spider, but with only four legs, while the upper body was a human body wearing a nurse’s uniform.

The monster would stop at every ward, open the ward door, then stretch its upper body into the ward. The clattering sound was caused by the monster banging into the tungsten lamps from being too tall.

Su Jin dared not even breathe too loudly as he slowly moved backward. That monster was definitely not a friendly one, so retreating temporarily was the best thing to do now.

Clonk! As Su Jin moved backward, he accidentally knocked into a small pail next to the sink. The pail was only as high as his calf and had been placed in a corner, so Su Jin didn’t notice it.

The moment he hit the pail, Su Jin cursed inwardly. The monster had clearly heard the noise as well. Loud clattering sounds came from the corridor as the monster made its way to where Su Jin was at high speed.

Su Jin kicked the door of the female toilet, then turned and ran quietly into the male toilet. He hoped the noise would mislead the monster.

He opened the door to the male toilet by just a crack and leaned against the wall as he peeked through the crack. He needed to know where the monster was headed. By this time, the monster had already dashed over. Its large body was very nimble, and its upper body was muscular, but its face looked like a cricket’s and there was a sharp bone in its mouth.

Su Jin’s kick worked. The monster ran straight into the female toilet and Su Jin immediately ran out from the male toilet, and ran as fast as he could. Hiding in the male toilet could stall for some time, but it was dangerous. If the monster realized it had been tricked and proceeded to run into the male toilet, he would have nowhere to hide. He would be doomed if that happened.

His footsteps were especially loud in the quiet corridor. The monster dashed out of the female toilet again when it heard Su Jin’s footsteps, but luckily, its body was bulky and it had more trouble running along the narrow corridor than Su Jin, its head constantly slamming into the lamps above it. At the same time, Su Jin ran like a dog gone mad and didn’t even care which way he was running, as long as it was clear. In less than a minute, he shook off the creature.

He ran and hid himself in another toilet, panting heavily as he clutched the door handle. After becoming an owner, it had been a long time since he felt so physically exhausted. He felt like his lungs were on fire.

After waiting for a while, he made sure it was safe and came out from the toilet. He cautiously walked down the corridor to find the map of the hospital and confirmed where he was before letting out a long sigh of relief. He had been pretty lucky. If he had run in the opposite direction, he would have to run a long way back.

He was now not too far from the cafeteria, but knowing that did not make him happy at all, because he could see that he had to cross an open area to get to the cafeteria.

“If I run into a monster like that in an open area, it’ll be too hard to get away.” Su Jin frowned. That monster moved very quickly and was merely hampered by the narrow, turning corridors, and that was how he managed to escape. But if he ran into the same monster in an open area, he wouldn’t be able to outrun it.

Su Jin looked at the axe in his hand and licked his lips. There was no other choice but to just go for it. He couldn’t possibly just sit around and wait to die.

He walked down the corridor and came to a door. He gripped the axe more tightly, then held his breath as he stepped out of the building. The hospital was very large and the wards were about a hundred meters or so from the cafeteria. If he ran with all his might, he would probably need 15 seconds or so, since he was carrying something.

He had two options. One was to hold his breath and slowly make his way across, while the other was to just make a run for it. If he made his way across slowly, he might avoid unnecessary battles with monsters, but if he took too long to do that, other dangers would pop up. Dashing across would reduce the time needed by a lot, but it would attract the attention of those dangerous monsters hiding in the darkness.

While he was still weighing his two options, he suddenly heard a familiar clattering behind him. That monster had actually caught up with him. He didn’t have a choice anymore. He had to just make a run for it.

Once he had decided, he didn’t hesitate and dashed right out. But the moment he left the building, his body shuddered all over. The open area was so cold, he could see his breath as he exhaled. At the same time, the horizon turned red.

Su Jin looked up to see a blood-red moon in the sky. The last time he saw one like that, it was on the Island of Mistakes when Miyamoto Tooru appeared as a host for the Bloody Sakura Sword. He had a bad feeling about this.

He didn’t get too much time to think. A man wearing an apron appeared in front of the entrance to the cafeteria. He wore a white mask with a strange expression, like a piece of abstract art.

But what made Su Jin wary of this man was the knife and frying pan in his hand. It seemed like if he went too close, the man would attack him.

At the same time, he didn’t have any other choice. The monster behind him was not easy to deal with either. He raised his axe, thinking that if the man tried to stop him, he was going to just swing the axe at the man.

However, just as Su Jin came close, the man suddenly threw some sort of powder at him. The red powder gleamed in the red moonlight as it flew toward Su Jin, and a spiciness hit his nose.

“It’s chili powder!” Su Jin was caught off guard. He needed a lot of oxygen to sprint, so his mouth was wide open as the powder hit his face. Tears and mucus immediately covered his face as a natural reaction to the spiciness of the powder.

He endured the awful effects of the chili powder and told himself that he had to make it across the open area. The sound of the monster’s footsteps behind him were closing in.

He forced himself to open his eyes, confirmed where the man was standing, then raised his axe and swung it at the man. He didn’t think he could possibly kill the man like this, but he just hoped it would buy him enough time to run past.

But Su Jin had been a little too naïve. As Su Jin’s axe came toward the man, the man raised his knife. Su Jin felt the weight in his hands decrease as the knife sliced through the axe cleanly and the head of the axe flew a good distance away.

Su Jin gasped and wondered if he was going to die just like that in a single-person Challenge. He had made it through so many difficulties, yet this was how everything was going to end.

No, he refused to give up. He stopped running, because he realized that the man had not moved a single step toward him. Perhaps the man was not able to move out of a certain area by design. If that was the case, then his only threat was actually that monster behind him.

By the time he thought of this, the monster had caught up. The hurried and heavy footsteps of the monster sounded like it was going to shatter the ground, but Su Jin did not move. He was waiting, waiting for the monster to come closer.

“Now!” Su Jin rolled to one side and he could feel a strong wind blow past his ear. The chili powder made it hard for him to open his eyes, but he was sure the monster had pounced toward him.

Pfft! There was a muffled sound, followed by what Su Jin felt was rain, except that this rain smelled a little foul and it was warm. The rain washed away the chili powder on his face and he was able to somewhat open his eyes a little more. The first thing he saw was that the monster had been sliced into two.

The monster had been sliced into half horizontally, so while the lower half was lying motionless on the ground, the upper half was struggling to crawl toward Su Jin. Its insect-like mouth kept opening and closing and it looked really gross.

This monster’s will to live was really strong. Despite being sliced into two, it still managed to get to Su Jin, grabbed hold of Su Jin’s leg, and opened its mouth wide.

Su Jin gripped the broken handle of his axe and stabbed it into the monster’s mouth. He used all the strength he had and the handle pierced right through the monster’s head.

“Screeech! Screeech!” The monster convulsed in agony as it held onto Su Jin’s leg and tried to climb upward to attack Su Jin. But Su Jin kicked it in the chest and it flew backward.