Ch. 2 - First Ghost Story - Broadcasting Announcement (2)

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains depictions of excessive gore. Readers, please be advised.

[The broadcasting room would like to inform all students that the school is currently experiencing a blackout, so the electricity is not working. Because television transmission is impossible, the entrance ceremony will be held in the courtyard. New students are to gather there. Once again, the broadcasting room would like to inform…]

The students, who were originally planning on spending the time during the entrance ceremony on their phones, expressed their annoyance at the news that they would have to go out to the courtyard. But they still slowly began to get up.

“......”

I didn’t get up from my seat. I just sat there, overwhelmed by my thoughts and worries.

If I just followed them out of the room and down the corridor, wouldn’t the same situation just repeat itself?

Everything was occurring the same way it did before.

The announcement that alerted all students to go to the courtyard because of the blackout, the scene of the students leaving in annoyance……

If I thoughtlessly went to the courtyard for the entrance ceremony, would my head just explode again?

‘What the hell is this? Really……’

I just sat in the classroom and sighed repeatedly. Once most of the students left, the classroom grew quiet. The chairs of some of the students lingering behind clattered.

One male student and two female students remained. One of the female students was seated in the back, head down.

That was how three students other than me were left in the classroom.

I was still sitting there, unable to do anything.

A young female teacher soon stopped by after she spotted us still in the classroom from the hall.

“Why aren’t you guys and gals heading out?”

“......”

I reluctantly packed my shoe bag, and the other students who were loitering around also packed their shoes and headed outside.

***

“Ah, to the newly admitted students of Nakseong Highschool, whom I love, I welcome you. First, I congratulate you all for your acceptance into the school. I am this school’s Headmaster……”

And with those words, the Headmaster’s head exploded.

‘F*ck.’

F*ck. F*ck…

I cursed as I immediately began sprinting towards the front gate.

The other students were still just standing around murmuring or screaming at the sight of the tittering Headmaster; none of them were running away like I was.

‘I’m in the front!’

This time, I was running at the head of the crowd.

After that, the heads of the people near the headmaster began to explode. As the courtyard began echoing in screams, the students finally began running away.

Gasp, gasp.

I was in the front at first, but because of my lack of athletic skills I could feel the athletes quickly catching up behind me.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp.

‘Gasp, gasp… F*ck…’

Even if I kept running like this, there was no guarantee that I would survive. My head could still explode even after I escaped the school grounds, just like last time.

But I needed to worry about that after I got out of there. Way up in front, I could see the security guard blocking the students and shouting at them to go back.

‘Gasp, gasp… Please, just…’

I started cursing quietly to myself.

When I ran away last time, there was chaos because there were a lot of students. Because of the timing, I had been successful in sneaking over the front gates.

But this time, I was running near the front. With my shoddy athletic skills, the guard was sure to target me. Running near the front actually put me at a disadvantage.

‘What do I do? F*ck! Gasp, gasp……’

‘What do I do, what do I do?’

With the threat of death looming, my brain worked its hardest to come up with a solution.

‘Let’s incite all of the students!’

I slowed down and shouted so that everyone could hear me.

“The front gates are locked shut!”

I shouted again, to the point my voice went hoarse.

“The front gates are locked! The guard has the key!”

“Uaaaahhh!”

“Mister! Open the gates! Quickly!”

“Open the gates quickly-! Aaack-!”

As heads exploded around them, the students had lost all reason. Their survival instincts had kicked in, so they all clamored that they had to handle the security guard first.

“The security guard has the key! We have to catch him first!”

Originally, the students had ignored the guard as much as they could as they flopped around, trying to climb over the gates.

However, this time—since I’d instilled the idea ‘the gates are locked’ into their minds first—the students had registered the gates not as a path of escape, but as an ‘obstacle’ that needed to be opened up.

“Mister guard! Open the gates! Quickly!”

The students that had been in the front with me started to hurriedly crowd towards the security guard. The guard was still strong for his age, as he had smacked away some of the students as he shouted, but that wouldn’t matter much against the larger numbers of students.

“What are you guys doing, you crazy b*tches? Why are you gathering around and stirring up shzt? Go get the teachers, the teachers!”

“Guard, you b*tch! Open the gates!”

“F*ck! Open the gates! Open the gates, you crazy b*stard!”

Using the gap I had created by inciting the students and the guards into a fight, I was able to climb over the front gates after the athletes.

Taking care to make sure that my pants did not get caught on the iron bars on top of the gate as I swung my legs over the top, I was able to see that the wave of head explosions had only reached about halfway across the courtyard.

At the same time, I could see the guard’s face being scratched up by the female students’ nails.

‘I’ve escaped much faster than I did last time!’

Without much more to see, I jumped off the gates in the direction of the outside. In the distance, I could see the athletes that reached the streets had grabbed some of the passing people and caught their breaths.

“Police, please call the police, the police…… .”

“What happened? Student, are you alright? Gather your wits, student!”

“Police… Pol… ice…… .”

The last scene I saw as I collapsed was some man hurriedly pulling out his cell phone to contact the police and the figures of some passing people beginning to crowd around.

‘Ah, should I have asked him to call for an ambulance…? No. What can an ambulance do when their heads have already exploded……’

It seems that, when a person is very flustered, they end up worrying about things that don’t matter.

Those were my last thoughts before I fainted.

***

When I woke up, I was in patient clothes.

Seeing the white ceilings and people moving around, I understood where I was. I was in the hospital.

My mom and dad were sitting with haggard faces until they noticed me waking up. Seeing me awake, they began to cry as they hugged me.

“Oh, my dear son… how could this happen…?”

“I was worried that you would never wake up… How are you feeling?”

“Mom, Dad… You should be at work now, why are you here…?”

“Oh, you poor thing. How is that the issue right now? You collapsed…”

Not long after, the doctor came by and explained that the reason I had collapsed and lost consciousness was due to extreme shock.

Other than that, my body showed no signs of anything wrong.

‘... Did I survive?’

Suddenly, the atrocious memories began to flood back in.

When I tried to explain to my parents that

‘Their heads suddenly exploded, and…’, they said that they already knew. It was all over the news, and everyone was in a panic because of the incident. The government would debrief everyone soon.

As I watched the television while I recovered in the ward, the situation became more clear.

[The Case of Nakseong High’s Serial Head Explosions: Over 300 People Dead!]

‘... Three hundred people.’

The number of newly admitted students at the entrance ceremony should have been a little over three hundred. Except for a few escapees, everyone had died?

“......”

No matter which channel I went to, it was all over the news. While I had lost consciousness, the entire country must have been speaking about what happened.

The news anchors on each channel all looked dismayed as they read off the prepared scripts.

[On the fourth of the month, at around 9:30 AM, a disaster occurred in Seoul’s Gwanak District, at Nakseong High School. Over three hundred people were killed in this disaster, with no clear cause of death. It is said that all bodies found at the site were missing their heads.]

[According to police investigation, Headmaster Shin—aged 59—as well as 14 school employees and 293 newly admitted students were killed. Fortunately, a dozen or so students have survived and are…]

The other channels were similar.

The news depicted the police moving the bodies covered in white sheets from the crime scene. Other channels invited experts on air, who were giving their opinions and theories on what happened.

[There were no explosives, firearms or chemicals discovered on the site. When considering this fact, we suspect an act of terror involving either viruses or some other bioagent caused this incident.]

[Then what is the difference between the survivors and the victims? It was revealed that the survivors were also at the site at the time of the entrance ceremony.]

[Yes, that point is quite the mystery. Originally, it was thought that the speed with which the people escaped was very important, as most of the students who escaped the school grounds survived. However there have been reports of some of the students who escaped still dying.]

[There must have been some other condition besides simply escaping the scene quickly.]

[That is what it seems.]

I was quarantined at the hospital for a few months afterwards. From parasite testing to blood tests, urine tests, feces tests, endoscoptomies, and MRI…

It was only after all sorts of tests and several interrogations from a bear-like investigator that I was discharged from the hospital.

The topics during the interrogation usually revolved around what occurred during the incident, as well as any suspicious points I may have noticed. However, from the mood, I was able to tell that even the government had no clue as to where to start for this bizarre incident.

***

Three years later.

I was laying still in bed as graduation day neared.

In the end, the government was never able to discover the cause of the incident. They decided that a virus may have remained in the entirety of the ShinLim Neighborhood, so they decided to seal off the entire area.

My family wasn’t even allowed to pack all of our belongings before we were forced to leave. The government provided us with an apartment unit across the river and also provided some compensation.

‘In movies, the government is often depicted as very inept in these situations.’

Instead, they were so thorough in helping with the move as well as in transferring schools that I was a bit moved.

Although I was almost held back a year because of the months I had spent at the hospital, the department of education had already been prepared. I was able to transfer properly, without any hiccups.

While I did occasionally have nightmares in which my family’s heads exploded, I was able to focus on my studies over the past three years and I was accepted into a decent college.

It was the night before my graduation ceremony.

It had been a while since I read the message that had appeared in front of my eyes that day.

[Tutorial - Entrance Ceremony]

『As a plain and timid student, with nothing you are particularly good at and nothing about you that is particularly charming, you have spent your school life in a dull manner. Today is the first day of your three years in high school. Other students may be nervous or excited about today, but you had no expectations…』

《QUEST - TUTORIAL

Make three friends to create a club. (Current 0/3)

Reward: 10 Ghost Story Points, Status Window unlocked.》

I began to think as I laid in bed, waving my hands at the message floating in the air.

‘... I wonder what this message was about.’

The message could appear and disappear in response to my will, though I did keep it hidden to try to forget the horrible incident that occurred that day.

Now that I checked it out again, the day before graduation, it was very confusing.

In my new school, although I cannot say that I made many friends, I was still able to make a few close friends. I joined the book club and made friends, but the quest requirements continued to remain unfulfilled. What was this message?

After considering it for a while, I ended up falling asleep.

[It is now the day of Graduation.]

[The Demon King has revived.]

Beeeeeeeep!

In the middle of the night, not long after I had fallen asleep, my cell phone began to sound with an emergency warning message.

[2:30 Safety Announcement Text: A state of emergency has been declared in the Seoul, Incheon, and GyeongGi regions. Citizens are asked to ready supplies and evacuate the cities as soon as possible.]

A matter-of-fact toned message was visible from the flashing phone screen.

What is this?

What is happening?

Is it an earthquake?

My heart began to pound. Although these alerts did happen during natural disasters, it was my first time seeing a situation this bad. I grabbed my phone and quickly went on the internet.

When I checked the real time popular search bar, the first thing I saw was:

1. Unknown Monstrous Figure in Seoul. 2. Monster Appearance in Seoul. 3. Unidentified Lifeform in Seoul.

It was the middle of the night, inside the dark and quiet house.

Unlike the feeling of dread that quietly spread, the internet was loudly spreading urgent news. In a hurry, I tried logging onto the social media site I frequented.

[I’m warning the poor b*stards that live in Seoul. Never leave your house.]

[I am currently moving around near the sealed off ShinLim Neighborhood. It’s big. Really big. Like, much larger than an apartment building big.]

[To those living in the capital, may you rest in peace……]

The clamoring comments of the people on the internet continued. The more comments I read, the rougher my breathing became.

“Huuu… Huuu……”

‘What happened? Should I wake my parents? Damn, what do I do……?’

I could hear shouting. Even without waking my parents up, the apartment complex began to become noisy. Other people had woken up because of the situation.

My father opened his door after all of the noise woke him up.

“Joon, what’s happening…?”

“I don’t know. I also just woke up.”

Our family went out onto the veranda to check out the source of the clamor.

Despite it being late at night, we could see some of the windows in the apartment complex flicker on. Others came out to their verandas to check outside. I checked outside the veranda, but all I could see was darkness and a bit of the waters of the Han River.

“Joony! O-o-o-over there… Look over there! Across the river!”

The lady next door shouted at me as she stared out from her veranda.

It wasn’t just the lady next door.

The people from the floor above, the floor below, everyone in the apartment complex were looking outside and asking about what they could see. The ones who could see more clearly began to scream in horror.

“Wh-what in the world…?”

“What the hell is that……?”

What are they talking about?

I followed the lady next door’s finger and tried to see across the river at the forest of buildings. Beyond black waters of the Han River were the neon signs of the forest of buildings.

In between, one could see a giant shadow move around.

I could not make out exactly what it was because of some of the stray lights. All I could see was something that walked on two legs.

The dark silhouette moved amongst the city lights.

It was huge.

Really huge.

As the unidentified being was moving around slowly, I suddenly remembered where that area was.

It was across the river, and my sense of distance was not perfect. But it was definitely in that direction. My sixth sense was telling me I was absolutely right.

The place where that giant unidentified lifeform was standing was Nakseong High School, where I had attended three years ago.

And then I suddenly died, in a method I could not comprehend.

[Bad Ending - The Price of Ignorance]

《Conditions

1. Running away without clearing the tutorial.

2. Doing nothing until the revival of the Demon King.》

[Starting Regression]

[Loading……]

***

『Congratulations on your acceptance at Nakseong Highschool, the school of secrets and mysteries. Uncover the shady secrets hidden within the school, and fight against the legends and ghost stories of the campus in order to earn points to unlock special abilities. Additionally, you must gather comrades to prevent the resurrection of the Demon King before graduation. The world is in your hands.』

Click for the next page.

Right in front of me was a very familiar message, and a place that I never wanted to be reminded of ever again. I had just woken up from a mysterious death, after seeing the monstrous figure right before my graduation. School.

I was back in the classroom of Nakseong High, waiting for the entrance ceremony… just like three years ago.

Crackle.

[The broadcasting room would like to inform all students that the school is currently experiencing a blackout, so the electricity is not working. Because television transmission is impossible, the entrance ceremony will be held in the courtyard. New students are to gather there. Once again, the broadcasting room would like to inform…]

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