Ch. 10 - Interlude - Open Ability

‘Sunah must have waited a while.’

When I checked the time, fifteen minutes had passed since the break had ended.

I had only been facing the monster for around twenty minutes.

Although I thought that I had spent a long time fighting the monster, it hadn’t actually been long at all.

Since my sight and hearing had been blocked, my other senses became that much sharper. It made the twenty minutes feel much longer.

After a short walk, I reached the wall. After climbing over it, I could see Sunah shaking.

“Sunah, did you wait long? Sorr—”

“Who was it?”

Sunah asked me that question, her face pale from fright.

“Who was it that cursed at you in such a harsh way……?”

“Huh?”

Sunah was shaking in fear.

Of course.

Although she was on the other side of the wall, she could still hear the sounds from where she was standing.

I couldn’t hear her because I had blocked off my hearing, but the Laughing Woman must have said a lot.

“It was just someone sick in the head. I’m alright. I just got back from chasing them off.”

“… It seems so. It was weird… She was laughing… As she cursed a ton… about you……”

“Yes, you’re right. Even though it was my first time seeing her.”

Actually, I hadn’t heard her at all, but I played along for her sake.

‘… At this point, I might be able to just tell her the truth?’

I couldn’t really come up with a decent excuse as to why I had left Sunah here to do something in secret, but if she had heard everything, I thought maybe I could just reveal the truth.

Of course, I would only reveal the truth to the point that it would be realistically understandable.

“Sunah, do you remember the warning yesterday? The one in the school announcement handout?”

“Yeah……”

“It might be that it wasn’t a mistake in the printing. This morning, during break, I was looking out the window when I coincidentally saw a very creepily laughing woman skulking about behind the school wall with a boxcutter.”

Sunah looked at me with a worried face.

“So, because she looked suspicious, I came here to check it out.”

“Why did you do something so dangerous…? You should have just told a teacher……”

“I should have. Hahaha.”

I laughed in an embarrassed manner and scratched my head.

“I should have just done that. Right? Still, I chased her off properly, so she won’t be able to come near the school anymore.”

“… She left?”

“Yeah, she left.”

Sunah’s face went red.

She avoided my gaze, and as she looked to the side she asked a question.

“… You didn’t get hurt?”

“I’m alright. Completely fine.”

I swung my arms in a circle as a joking gesture to show that I was fine.

Soon the serious expression on Sunah’s face broke and she began to laugh with me.

“… Dummy.”

“Hahaha.”

“You brave dummy……”

I felt great, but I could only laugh because I was embarrassed.

“Good work.”

“Haha, not at all.”

She said I was brave! She told me good work!

Even though I had tricked Sunah, who didn’t know a thing, into being a lookout!

I felt a mixture of exuberance, embarrassment, and a pinch of guilt.

‘… Hehe.’

The words acknowledging me made all of the stress I felt that day fly away, and I couldn’t help but feel proud.

That’s right.

I felt proud.

“Thanks. And truthfully, because you were here with me…”

Sunah tilted her head as she looked at me, laughter still lingering on her face.

“I thought, if something happened, you could go and let someone know. That was why I was able to check things out without being too worried.”

Instead of answering, she began to giggle.

“On another note, it’s already been quite some time since class started. What should we do?”

When I said that, Sunah suddenly exploded with laughter.

“Ahahaha, Ahahaha!”

Unlike the shy giggling she usually did, it was a different, feel-good sort of laughter.

“Why, why are you laughing?!”

“Ahahaha, hahahahaha. It’s just… we cut class once again. Ahahahaha.”

Seeing Sunah’s body shaking in laughter this time, I couldn’t help but also feel great, so I began to laugh with her.

“You’re right! Kekekeke.”

After laughing for a long time, all while hitting each other on the shoulders from time to time, we returned to the main building.

I had a feeling that we had become much closer and friendlier than before.

***

“Where did you two go? You’re really lucky that the homeroom teacher told us to think of what club we wanted to join. He left after dumping some printouts on us. You guys were really reckless.”

Gyeongwon spoke to us in a reprimanding tone once we returned to the classroom.

“Well, things just happened.”

Luckily, it seemed like there was no class during this period.

Was it because it was still early into the year and the teachers needed to make adjustments to the schedule?

Under the guise of self-study, I could see our classmates chatting with newly made friends or playing games on their cellphones.

When I found my seat by the window, I saw that Dukhun was, naturally, wheezing heavily as he watched his anime.

‘Think of a club to join?’

As I thought over what Gyeongwon said, I could see a sheet of paper on my desk.

It was a printout with a list of club names and brief introductions to each of them.

The moment I decided to take a look—!

Pop.

A message window appeared before my eyes.

『You have checked out the list of clubs within the school, but there were no clubs that caught your interest. You have decided that, since it came to this, you would make your own club.』

[You have received a quest.]

《QUEST - TUTORIAL

Make a Ghost Story Club.

Reward: Manage Club Menu unlocked, 10 Ghost Story Points, Clubroom.》

“Wh-what?”

A quest window suddenly appeared.

I was stunned.

I hadn’t even read the list yet. Who was it that decided that I wasn’t interested in any of the clubs…?

‘I’m a bit shocked.’

Including the time that eerie message popped up when the tutorial started, the system seemed to progress the story on its own in whatever way it wanted.

For now, I took a seat and browsed through the printout.

Maybe because the school actively supported club activities, the first thing explained on the sheet was that every Friday afternoon, there would be no classes and that the time was reserved for club activities.

And, in order to prevent students from playing around by claiming they weren’t in a club, there was a rule stating ‘one person, one club activity’, meaning that everyone was required to be a part of a club.

After browsing through the list of clubs, at the very bottom there was a space to write down a name and a new club that you wished to create.

‘Do I have to write it down here?’

While I was thinking, the homeroom teacher suddenly opened the classroom door and entered, chuckling.

“It’ll be lunchtime soon. Did everyone decide on the club you wished to join? Since I gave you plenty of time, I will be collecting the handouts~”

‘A-already?’

“The people at the back of each row, please walk up and collect the other’s sheets along the way~”

Damn.

Because I had just begun checking out the printout a moment ago, I hadn’t even properly looked through the entire thing.

Thinking I had no choice, I decided to do as the quest window said and wrote down my name and ‘Ghost Story Club' as the club I wished to create.

Soon after, the bell signaling the start of lunchtime rang out.

As I walked from the main building to the cafeteria mixed in among the students, I could see the teachers guiding some of the students.

In this school, in order to not become cluttered, I heard there were hallways that connected to the cafeteria on each floor.

As I couldn’t see any upperclassmen, they may have been traveling to the cafeteria through a hallway on a different floor.

“New students are to eat on the first floor of the cafeteria. Second years on the second floor, and third years on the third floor~”

After following those words and heading to the cafeteria, I could see that it was no different from the usual cafeteria at most other schools.

There was enough room for the entire grade to sit, which would be about three hundred students.

Tables and chairs were distributed throughout the place.

After looking around briefly, I got in line, received a food tray, and filled it up with rice and side dishes.

‘Stir-fried vegetables and sausage. Seems tasty.’

Often called ‘YaSau’ for short, it was a popular menu wherever you went.

[T/N: Korean for vegetables is ‘Yache’, so they shortened the name by taking the ‘Ya’ from vegetables and ‘Sau’ from sausage.]

After seeing the sausage, I suddenly felt really hungry.

Because the Laughing Woman had killed me two times and I had regressed twice, it felt to me as if I hadn’t eaten for four hours longer than the others.

Of course, since my body was restored to its previous state each time I returned, I was actually feeling the same level of hunger I would have normally. Still, I felt famished after seeing the food.

Murmur, murmur.

As three hundred students were gathered on the same floor eating lunch, I had lost Sunah and Gyeongwon in the crowd.

Some of the new students were determined to eat with their friends and were moving about, trying to weave through any space they could, but I didn’t feel the need to go out of my way and cause trouble. That in mind, I decided to just sit down at a reasonable spot and eat.

As I carried my lunch tray full of food, slowly moving around, I found an empty seat. Dukhun was sitting next to it.

‘……’

That b*stard. I didn’t know if this was fate, but he kept getting put with me.

‘Well, I guess it's better than having to eat between two students I don’t know at all.’

Dukhun had his earbuds in, even as he was eating.

After sitting next to him, I listened in on the sounds seeping out of the earbuds.

From the sound of a high pitched girl rambling Japanese words, I could tell it was some anime song.

Like that, I ate lunch and came back to the classroom.

I still had about thirty minutes left until lunch was over.

During that time, I decided to try using the Ghost Story Points I received before.

‘Main Screen.’

《MAIN SCREEN

[2019, March 5th | Tuesday, 12:32 PM]

[Lee Joon - Number of Attempts: 2,

Progressing in Tutorial]

[Ghost Story Points: 105]

[Causality Rate: 4%]

Status Window

Manage Club (Locked)

Statistics

Settings》

‘Hmmm.’

At some point, I had hoarded 105 points.

The message window before had stated that I could use those points to gain abilities.

‘Huh? Causality Rate? It also went up. What does this stat do, really?’

I wonder when I will learn about it.

‘Number one. Status Window click.’

Pop.

《STATUS WINDOW

Name: Lee Joon

Age: 17

Title: Main Character Disposition: [Two-Faced] Click to Expand

Special Ability: 1. None

2. None

3. None

Quirk: Last Second Cramming.》

‘So I can use the points to purchase special abilities here?’

I pressed the first space labeled ‘None’.

Pop.

[Currently, the first ability slot is empty. You may use 100 points to unlock an ability.]

[Unlock Ability(100) / Go Back]

‘It costs a hundred points?’

My head began to hurt.

Although I have never used them before, and didn’t know their value, I had only gathered this many points after going through several deaths.

And although I didn’t know the other uses for points, thinking of how I would use all of the points in one go made my blood run dry.

‘Man, this feels like a waste.’

Thinking about it, in mobile game tutorials they often gave players expensive cash items and forced them to use it during the tutorial.

Well, I had to use them. So instead of having second thoughts, I decided to use them all and pressed the button.

Pop.

[Spending 100 Ghost Story Points. You unlocked your first ability.]

Then, a 16 bit melody began to play.

Several words spun past the first slot, as if it were a slot machine.

♪ Tada Tan, Dada Tan~ ♫

‘… What’s this? Is it random?’

This could be called what the mobile games often called random pulling systems—'Gacha'.

[…y - Life Design - Identity Forgery - Lip Reading - Jo…]

♪ Tada Tan, Dada Tan~ ♫

Spin.

[…fe Design - Identity Forgery - Lip Reading - Joint Regression…]

Spin.

[…ty Forgery - Lip Reading - Joint Regression - Fast Walking…]

Spin.

… What kind of ability was Fast Walking?

It couldn’t literally be the ability to walk fast, right?

‘It isn’t even running fast……’

I definitely couldn’t start off with such a useless ability.

At that point, I was just praying for a good ability to be chosen.

♪ Tada Tan, Dada Tan~ ♫

[…Lip Reading - Joint Regression - Fast Walking - Detachment - …]

Spin.

Please, please!

Soon, the spinning began to noticeably slow. It was going to stop soon.

Spin, Spin.

[…ding - Joint Regression - Fast Walking - Detachment - Go...]

‘F*cking fast walking bullsh*t, get the f*ck out of here!’

♪ Tada Tan, Dada Tan~ ♫

Spin.

I couldn’t bear to watch any longer, so I closed my eyes and waited for the melody to stop. Only then did I open my eyes.

What I saw was…

[…sion - Fast Walking - Detachment - Goddess of Luck - Speed Eating - …]

♪ Tada Tan, Dada Tan~♫

[You have obtained Special Ability: Goddess of Luck.]

《GODDESS OF LUCK

Rank: S-Rank

Trigger Condition: Automatic

Ability: After calculating the entire situation and determining the moment that you would receive the most benefit, a large amount of luck is instantaneously activated. This is a consumable skill that disappears once activated.》

“Wow!!

I got something that seemed amazing.

An S-rank special ability!

Although the fact that it was a consumable skill slightly bothered me, even if we took that into consideration, the fact that it was a S-rank ability meant that the ability was amazing!

‘I was lucky.’

I nodded my head in contentment and spent the rest of the afternoon in a good mood.

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