I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

Even though we’d stuffed talismans into our ears to block the sound, the majestic chorus still dug persistently into our heads.

We opened the dining hall doors and stepped inside.
Just like the cathedral itself, the dining hall was large and spacious. The moment we entered, an appetizing aroma pricked at our noses and swirled all around us.
The smell of freshly baked bread and warm soup.

But there was no way a cook would actually be in this empty dining hall.
The fact that these delicious food smells were drifting from an abandoned kitchen only made the place feel even more eerie.
“The sound’s getting louder. Let’s move fast.”

At Shun’s words, we didn’t delay and immediately began searching the dining hall.
Beneath the long tables, inside the pantry tucked in the kitchen corner, even within the massive commercial-grade fridge. But the suspect was nowhere to be found.
It seemed like the dining hall was another dead end.

That was when it happened.
“Pfft...!”
Right beside me, Park Sunja—who’d been searching the kitchen with me—suddenly burst into laughter.

She was normally composed and rarely showed emotion, so I asked her, puzzled, why she was laughing.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Huh? Me?”
Park Sunja looked at me with an utterly calm expression, as if I’d said something strange.

But at that very moment, she started chuckling again—“Pffft, hehe...”—and this time, her shoulders began to shake from the laughter.
“...”
My expression hardened.

Even with the talismans blocking her ears, she’d ended up being affected by the singing.
She was laughing without realizing it—and didn’t even seem aware that she had laughed.
“Go back.”
I spoke in a low but firm voice.

“Huh? Minjun, what do you mean...?”
“You’re under the influence of the song. We made a promise, remember? If something felt off, we’d fall back immediately.”
“But I really feel fine…”
Park Sunja gave me a bewildered look, clearly not understanding.
She seemed to believe she was perfectly normal.

But her pupils were slightly unfocused, and her lips were still curled into a faint smile.
“No, I’m, heheh, really... fine...”
“As team leader, that’s an order. Return to the entrance right now and wait with Hanbit. This is for all of us.”
Eventually, Bora stepped in, and Sunja reluctantly nodded and headed out.

With Park Sunja withdrawn, that left only me, Bora, and Shun in this bizarre cathedral.
We headed toward the convent—the last unexplored location.
It felt strange to step into a classically forbidden area for men. But as soon as we opened the door and stepped inside, the chorus that had tormented us rang out even louder and clearer.

“This has to be it. Please, let them be here...”
Bora murmured, and we quickly began searching the convent.
The interior was more ordinary than expected.

It consisted of a simple prayer room and a few small bedrooms, presumably used by the nuns. Given the humble layout, it didn’t seem like there were many places to hide.
Bora winced at the steadily intensifying song and spoke.
“It’s getting worse. If the suspect is here, they must already be affected and showing some kind of abnormal behavior…”

I agreed.
Even Han Sora, stationed farther away, had been affected. So had Park Sunja and even Hanbit, who had strong mental fortitude.
There was no way an ordinary criminal could withstand this.

That was when it happened.
Shun, who had been silently scanning our surroundings behind us, suddenly walked over to the entrance of the convent, shut the door, and locked it.
Then, as if that weren’t enough, he crushed the heavy iron latch with his bare hands, warping it completely.

Now, the door couldn’t be opened from the inside.
“...Shun?”
Standing before the blocked door, Shun turned to us and spoke in a low voice.

“Now… neither the criminal… nor us… can leave.”
“Why did you do that?”
“...I don’t know.”
His eyes had lost their usual clarity and now looked vague and unfocused.

Bora was the first to speak, her voice sure and annoyed.
“Looks like Shun’s been caught too.”
“Yeah.”
“Otherwise, he wouldn’t seriously think that flimsy door could contain us.”
She was right.

I could rip the latch—no, the whole door—off with my own hands. The fact that he thought that was enough meant his reasoning had already been compromised by the song.
There was no more time to waste.
Bora and I exchanged a look—and at almost the same time, we rushed at Shun.

He tried to resist, but in his mentally dulled state, there was no way he could take on both of us at once.
“Subjugation talisman!”
He didn’t even react to Bora’s talisman—something he would’ve normally been wary of. Without me needing to step in, Bora’s talisman alone took him down.

Seeing that, I casually ripped the door off its hinges.
CRACK.
“Ugh… my body...”

Slumped under the effect of the talisman, Shun groaned. I hoisted him onto my shoulder, and we made our way toward the cathedral.
Now, with just Bora and me left, we pinned our last hopes on the main sanctuary.
But what awaited us there wasn’t an empty hall—but strangers.

“Hey...”
At the highest altar of the cathedral stood a choir that hadn’t been there before.
And among the choir members, I saw two painfully familiar faces.

Hanbit and Park Sunja—whom I’d told to return to the entrance.
“Urgh!”
Shun writhed in my grip. I let him go, and he collapsed to the ground—then began slowly stumbling toward the stage.

The subjugation talisman was still stuck to him, meaning he shouldn’t have been able to walk—but he didn’t care.
All the choir members stood with hollow eyes, gazing into space.
And then they began to sing.

“Ugh...!”
But what came out of their mouths could no longer be called a song.
It was a blend of tortured screams, incomprehensible shrieks, and howls of rage.

Those horrid noises battered our minds directly.
The dissonance, leaking through the talismans in our ears, slowly gnawed away at our sanity.
“...Over there...!”

Among the choir, I spotted a man who—like Hanbit and Sunja—wasn’t wearing a robe.
He looked like his legs were about to give out at any moment.
His eyes were bloodshot, and a line of blood trailed from one ear.

That must be the suspect we were looking for.
“...Minjun, I’m sorry.”
Then, standing beside me, Bora turned to look at me.

Her eyes were filled with sorrow—and resignation.
Then she, too, screamed—“Aaaaargh!”
As if answering the grotesque chorus.

Now, truly, I was the only one left.
Was it the effect of the song? Or something else?
As fear of what had happened to my teammates tangled with the chorus of screams and dread pressing in from all directions—something odd began to stir within me.

So loud.
So irritating.
I was annoyed. Annoyed at this phenomenon that had twisted my comrades. Annoyed at the noise.

The fear started to ebb.
That annoyance—at first a spark—soon flared into uncontrollable rage.
Slowly, very slowly, I walked toward the platform where the choir stood.

As I reached out to pull back my teammates and the suspect, the choir members all snapped their eyes open and stared directly at me.
“SKREEEEEEE—!”
They shrieked louder than ever, as if trying to curse me.

And something in me snapped.
Without hesitation, I chopped the throat of the nearest choir member with the edge of my hand.
THUD.

They collapsed with a soft groan rather than a scream.
One after another.
Every time I struck someone’s neck, the infernal noise dwindled—naturally, and very effectively.

Soon, the cathedral was no longer filled with their wailing, but with dull thuds and my ragged breathing.
“Haah… haah…”
How long had I been swinging my hand like that?

Just as I reached for the throat of the last remaining member, I saw a face—Hanbit’s, frozen in terror.
Like cold water dumped over my head, my boiling rage instantly evaporated.
I finally came to my senses—and realized what I’d done.

“Cough...”
“Kh… cough, cough…”
Looking around, all the choir members who’d been shrieking moments ago were now clutching their necks, collapsed on the floor.
The majestic chorus had been replaced with dry, painful coughing.

The suspect was among them too.
Thank god—truly—thank god I snapped out of it just before I laid a hand on Hanbit or Park Sunja.
They, too, seemed to have broken free from the song’s mental assault. Meeting my eyes, Hanbit let out a sigh of relief, still holding his throat.

“...That was terrifying.”
“You were smiling so brightly while hitting their throats…”
“If you’d been just a little later, I might’ve...”
“Ahem, ahem!” I fake-coughed loudly and started moving to clean up the situation.
I grabbed the suspect—still coughing on the ground—and slung him over my shoulder roughly.

“Okay, mission’s over. Let’s get out of here quick. Who knows what else might happen if we stick around.”
Trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, I headed toward the alley entrance we’d come through.
The others followed in silence. I could feel their eyes burning into my back—but ignoring it was the best option.

Once we stepped back through the alley, the familiar scenery of the real world greeted us.
Just in case, I turned around.
The bizarre cathedral and ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) the narrow alley that had trapped us were completely gone.

Only the ordinary walls of some apartment buildings stared back at us.
“Maybe the monsters doing the singing disappeared because they couldn’t sing anymore?”
“...”

At Bora’s comment, I looked away again.
All that was left now was to go home.