nine words

Source: from '신비하고 무서운 이야기' app



I recently started to live by myself.

It was pretty difficult to get this room of the apartment, but in the end I finally settled in.

Then one day, at 1 o'clock at night.



I was watching the TV in the living room.
My cell phone and the house phone started ringing at the same time.
I answered the house phone first.


I could hear the relieved voice of my friend.

"What's up?"
"What a relief, you're not asleep you... Did you get a weird text message?"

"Text message?"

"Hm, how should I describe it.... It's written in English..... Didn't your cellphone ring?"

I checked my cellphone.




There was a message.
It was written like so:

-------------------------------------
1em#g:2t4diks%7wmhtxrcb&j
¥7mdyvbqak+luh_/qyv3jmp!
8mhxgbfme"q5gxgqnb??
hil9kmzxyutrobhjg22wzd*gj&hi-ur>vzx

I'll give you ten minutes. Find my message....
START!
HINT: nine words
-------------------------------------

It was from an unknown number.

"... I did get a message."
"I got mine at 12:57. I wonder what this is? It's really weird, but I want to find the answer. I guess I have about 5 minutes left..."

"Then let's solve it together."

We talked over the phone to solve this problem together.

I got a thought that maybe we shouldn't worry about it, but another part of me said that I had to solve the problem.



The time is 1:02.
We were still stuck.
We couldn't figure it out.


It just seemed like someone had mashed the buttons on the phone.
All the hint we got that it was 'nine words.'

"Do you think you know?
"Not really... But the hint says that it's 9 letters. Maybe there's something that's 9 letters in the text?"
"It seems like it...."


1:07.


"Ah... It's game over for me..."

I guess my friend had passed his 10 minutes.
That moment, I could hear someone pressing the doorbell over the phone.

"Did someone come...?"
"In the middle of the night? No way... Is it because of this text?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Just look through the viewhole. It'll be fine as long as you don't open the door."
"Okay... I'll come right back after checking."

My friend put down his phone and went to the front door.


1:08.


The friend didn't come back.
What happened?

I wonder....


But I only had 2 minutes left myself.
I decided to pour all my energy into solving the problem.
I knew that there wasn't any special meaning into the time limit, but for some odd reason, I was extremely anxious.

I focused on the 9 letters that my friend had talked about.
In the text, I had to find a 9-letter word.

1:09.





I had one minute left.
I was sweating and my heart was thumping hard.
But even so, I kept myself together.


I focused entirely on the cellphone screen.

And I found it..

The answer was in the numbers.

In the text, there was exactly 9 numbers.
But we couldn't figure out anything other than that.
At that moment, as if someone had guided me, I saw the answer.
It was the letters behind the numbers.

So the first letter after the number 1 is e, the next letter after is 4, etc.

And so I found the answer.





e s c a p e n o w


escapenow... Escape Now.



I was devastated.
My friend still didn't come back.

Is it because he wasn't able to escape before the 10 minute time limit?
I no longer thought that this was a prank.
When I looked at the clock, it was exactly 1:10.

I had no time!
I had to escape....

I ran towards the front door.



But the moment I touched the handle, I stopped.
What if the murderer was right behind the door?...

But I'm still going to die.


I gathered my wits and opened the door.
Thankfully, no one was there.

It's not too late!


I didn't lock the door and just ran outside.
I ran down the stairs and started going towards the nearest convenience store.
I felt that I would be safe there.

In the small neighborhood, my footsteps echoed.
I can escape.
I'm safe.


When I was but a corner away from the convenience store, a text came.
Could it be from my friend?
Did he send a text message because I didn't answer my phone?



I opened my cell phone.
The number was same number from 10 minutes ago.
It was written like this.




G A M E O V E R


Then from the back, someone grabbed my shoulder.












[This morning, two corpses were found. One had his right arm torn form his shoulder, and another was discovered without his head in his apartment's front door.
The two were gripping their cellphones tightly, and had the same message from the same number...]