Ch. 3 - First Ghost Story - Broadcasting Announcement (3)

[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 expressed their annoyance as they started heading out of the classroom. I was just sitting there in a daze.

As most of the students began to leave, there were only a few dawdling students and me left when I suddenly recalled something.

‘Now that female teacher will come and chase us out again…’

Three years had already passed since that day.

But perhaps because the memories of that day are unforgettable, I could still recall every detail as if it were yesterday.

Just like I remembered, footsteps could be heard in the hallway. The young teacher discovered us still in the classroom and stopped to pop her head in.

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

“......”

After hearing those words, I looked around the classroom to discover three students other than me still present.

One was a small, puppy-like young girl who still looked as if she were in middle school.

The second was a small, nerdy looking boy with glasses and looked like he belonged to a prominent family.

Finally, sleeping on the desk at the very back was a female student with bleached blonde hair.

Those three students were still there.

“Now, let’s hurry up and go out. Also, wake up the kid in the back.”

The teacher crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway, as if to show that she wouldn’t leave until she saw us leave the classroom.

The puppy-like girl and the bespectacled boy were glancing at each other and stalling.

No matter who you asked, the girl in the back looked like a delinquent. Both the bleached blonde hair and the unnecessarily poofy and embellished puffer jacket screamed delinquent.

‘It looks like both of them are afraid of waking that girl up.’

I sighed. What was it like in the past? I think she would wake up on her own if we waited a bit. My mind drew a blank, since it had been three years. However, the faster I interacted, the faster the memories would return.

“... I’ll wake her.”

I spoke in the direction of the two who were dawdling and made my way towards the back.

No matter what, I had lived three years longer than these kids. I was the one who, before I returned to this time, had already finished high school and got into college.

Although the girl was exuding an air of ‘don’t bother me’, the so-called hierarchy amongst delinquents was laughable to me.

“Uh, uhm, ah… Ah, uh, uhm… Uh…”

But why was I stuttering so much?

I cleared my throat and tried to speak again.

“Ah, uhm……”

Ahem.

“Uh, excuse me… the teacher asked us to leave now……”

Because of the lack of response, I courageously tried poking her jacket. It was then that the scary girl finally raised her head with a frown.

The four of us finally followed the teacher out into the hall.

‘Damn… If we continue on to the entrance ceremony like this, things will play out in the same way……’

We couldn’t keep going on like this. I couldn’t have my head explode, nor could I run again to the point of fainting. I needed to make some sort of change, but what was I supposed to do?

Of course, my first thought was that I should first avoid the entrance ceremony.

‘But how?’

The teacher was also heading to the entrance ceremony. Since our destinations were technically the same, it would be weird for me to slip out in a different direction.

I tried to brainstorm methods of skipping out and hiding somewhere, and of course ended up pretending to be sick.

“Uh, excuse me. Teacher?”

“Yes?”

She had to turn around to face me, as she was heading down the stairs first.

“I’ve always had anemia since I was little… If I stand for a long time or stay in the sun too long, I often faint, so……”

“Is that so?”

After observing me for a bit, she responded.

“But you don’t look that thin?”

“The truth is, people are often misinformed. Anemia has nothing to do with body weight……”

“Really?”

She once again started to slowly observe me as she considered this.

“Is it that bad? You don’t think you can last through the entrance ceremony?”

This was my chance, so I began to act weaker.

“Yes, especially this morning. I was feeling a bit dizzy… I think it will be a bit dangerous for me to stand outside in the sun……”

I tried to add a bit of nuance by claiming that I was already feeling unwell. I swayed and furrowed my brows.

After seeing the uncertainty in her eyes, I took the opportunity to add a few more words.

“If I leave now, it would be difficult for me to come back in because of how many people there are… and if I were to collapse, my mother would come and throw a fit……”

I added the suggestion that if something happened, the issue would be exacerbated.

Would she be able to handle that? And truthfully, it didn’t really matter to this person whether I attended the entrance ceremony or not.

It was just that she discovered us on her way to the entrance ceremony. She didn’t particularly feel the need to make sure that we actually attended.

The teacher once more observed me from head to toe before nodding and making a decision.

“I see. I’ll take you to the infirmary then. You probably won’t know where it is, so I will lead you there. You can just rest there during the entrance ceremony.”

“Thank you very much.”

It seemed like I succeeded.

“You three can’t go wandering off. You must attend the entrance ceremony. Okay?”

“Yes…”

After a listless reply, the three headed towards the courtyard. The delinquent’s grimacing face was a slight treat.

After the teacher dropped me off at the infirmary, she made her way back towards the courtyard. I pretended to rest on the bed briefly, and when no one was watching I went back to the classroom.

‘As if I’ll just calmly wait in bed for my head to explode.’

I have to find something to change the scenario… I have to find a change.

A turning point!

And then a thought came to mind. In my past life, while watching TV in the hospital, didn’t the experts emphasize a difference while exchanging opinions?

[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.]

In actuality, during the first try, my head exploded despite escaping the school. I barely survived the second time because I had run farther away.

I heard that someone who had run just as far as I did had died of a head explosion. Just running far and quickly wasn’t the only reason for survival.

There has to be another reason.

‘What would it be… Why was it that I was able to survive?’

Slide.

Deep in thought, I opened the classroom door and saw an unexpected situation. It had looked like the three from before who had left for the courtyard had returned to the classroom.

The young girl, the bespectacled boy, and the delinquent girl… Those punks were back in the classroom, just sitting around.

What was going on?

“Why are you guys here?”

“Ah, umm……”

When I asked, the young girl stuttered for a while before pointing at the delinquent girl and answering.

“That is, we were going to go… but she suddenly went back to the classroom and we followed……”

During the time that the teacher had brought me to the infirmary, as there was no more supervision, the delinquent must have nonchalantly returned back to the classroom.

And it seemed like the other two just went along with her……

“You guys are more audacious than I thought.”

“That is……”

The girl was noticeably flustered. I know that she is the same age as me, but her looks and her actions reminded me of someone younger than me.

Was she nervous because, unlike me who seemingly had a reason, they were just playing hooky? Even so, there was no reason to be that flustered.

‘I’m also in a similar situation.’

Since it came to this, I decided that I should speak with them and try to find some clues in their words. Unlike my usual reaction, I said my greetings first.

“I’m Lee Joon. My name is a single character.”

A bit hesitant, the girl responded with her name.

“My name is Yoon Sunah…… .”

In a diminishing voice, she barely added ‘nice to meet you’ before her face blushed red. It seemed that she wasn’t used to speaking with people.

Afterwards, the bespectacled boy greeted me in a hard tone.

“I am Ahn Gyeongwon. Is it okay for you to be here when you are anemic?”

I called him ‘bespectacled boy’ on my own since he was wearing glasses, but to think his name literally had the word ‘glasses’ in it… [T/N: AhnGyeong means glasses in Korean. His name could technically be saying “Glasses One”]

“Yeah, I’m fine. The anemia was just a lie.”

“What?!”

The bespectacled boy, Gyeongwon, shouted in surprise and the young-looking Sunah chuckled quietly to herself.

“I don’t think it’s us who are audacious, but you.”

“Well… it just happened.”

Although I couldn’t help but wonder why his tone was so hard, I just passed it off as one of the new students deciding on an image.

The delinquent girl in the back had no thoughts of joining in the conversation, so she remained sleeping face down.

I asked Gyeongwon and Sunah some questions in hopes of learning some possible clues.

“But why were you guys trying to stay in the classroom in the first place?”

“I was……”

Sunah mumbled quietly first.

“Late, because I am usually slow……”

“... I see.”

It seemed like there was no particular reason. It was then when it happened.

A message popped up in front of my eyes.

[Your understanding of Yoon Sunah has increased by 5.]

[Detailed information can be seen after you unlock the Status Window.]

‘This is another game-like system that I’m not too sure about……’

As I stared at the message while pondering, Gyeongwon responded.

“I was reminded of the school broadcast announcement ghost story, so I didn’t go……”

“What?”

“The broadcast announcement ghost story. Since there was a blackout.”

After seeing my confused expression, Gyeongwon continued to explain a little more.

“One day, there was a blackout in the school, when suddenly a broadcast announcement sounded. Everyone was told to gather up in the courtyard. Don’t you know this ghost story? It was a very famous one, didn’t you know?”

“Ghost story……?”

Ghost Story.

To think I’d hear those words here. I pulled up the message window.

『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……』

The words that I’d seen numerous times as I repeatedly died: Ghost Stories.

Did that have something to do with the situation now?

“... Sorry, but could you explain it to me in more detail?”

“Huh?”

Seeing my sudden earnestness, Gyeongwon was temporarily startled.

“What part do you want to hear in more detail?”

“That ghost story, I want to hear all of it.”

“Hmm……”

At first he looked around in worry, but soon he nodded his head and began his story, as if reciting it from a book.

“One day, during the after school self-study time, there was a sudden blackout in the school. The students were surprised at first because it suddenly became dark, but an announcement was broadcasted soon afterwards. Because of the blackout, there were plans to let the students go home early, so they were to gather in the courtyard.”

Gyeongwon seemed to be the type that enjoyed bragging about their knowledge. He was able to tell the story in a clear, flowing manner, without any awkward pauses.

[Your understanding of Ahn Gyeongwon has increased by 10.]

[Detailed information can be seen after you unlock the Status Window.]

At some point, Sunah quietly got closer and focused on the story.

That announcement broadcast’s ghost story went like this:

An announcement tells people to go to the courtyard because of a blackout.

The students were excitedly packing their stuff to go out to the courtyard, but the first ranked student in the school continued to sit there.

The second ranked student asked the first ranked student why he was just sitting there. And then the first ranked student answered,

‘How can an announcement be made during a blackout?’

“……”

I quietly waited for the next sentence before I spoke up.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s the end. First time you heard it?”

“No, I think I might have heard of it a long time ago……”

It was in ‘Scary Stuff is Just my Style’, I think?

[T/N: ‘Scary Stuff is Just my Style’ is a very old and famous comic book series in Korea that had lots of short stories. The series had scary stories as well as funny ones under the name ‘Funny Stuff is Just my Style’. This comic series started in 2002.]

I think I read something similar in a book once.

“There is nothing more after?”

“Yeah, it just ends here.”

“... I see.”

After seeing my serious face, Gyeongwon coughed once and began to speak a bit more.

“But there are a lot of different versions of this story. In one version, the first and second ranked students looked out the window to see that the courtyard had become a sea of blood…”

The courtyard had become a sea of blood.

Focusing on those words, I asked a question.

“What happened to the first and second ranked students? Did they survive?”

“I’m not sure. But going by the flow of the story, I think they would have survived. I wouldn’t know exactly, even if you asked me. It’s not like it's a story that really happened, it’s just a scary story.”

Gyeongwon laughed as he responded, probably because he thought I was digging uselessly into a silly story.

“Why are you taking this scary story so seriously…?”

And he laughed. Again.

“Aren’t you also not leaving the classroom because you took that story seriously?”

“Well, it did bother me a bit, but that wasn’t the main reason why I didn’t leave.”

Although Gyeongwon was slightly embarrassed, it seemed like a good opportunity to brag about how smart he was, so he began speaking a lot more.

[Your understanding of Ahn Gyeongwon has increased by 10.]

[Detailed information can be seen after you unlock the Status Window.]

“I was thinking that if the school was in a blackout, all of the microphone and other equipment wouldn’t work, so the teachers would just send us back to the classroom.”

Was he suggesting that he didn’t want to needlessly walk back and forth?

“So, I was thinking it would be easier on me to just stay here sitting.”

“... I see.”

In other words, he didn’t want to bother moving around. He didn’t really have a serious reason as to why he decided to stay here.

“But what do you think about the fact that the speakers actually worked, despite the blackout?”

At least it seemed like Gyeongwon knew a bit more than I did. I asked the question that just popped up in my head.

Although we could say that it was just a part of the story, the speakers had in fact worked during a blackout.

I wonder what had really happened.

“Hmm, that is……”

He started to think after hearing my question.

He began to grimace and scrunch his brow before answering.

“Maybe the source of the electricity for the speakers is different from the other parts of the school?”

“...Really?”

“It’s just a guess. I wouldn’t know for sure.”

The source of the electricity was different?

Was that possible? Well, I wasn’t an electrician, so I wouldn’t know.

But I thought that it was wrong to bring in some vague scientific reasoning to that bizarre and abnormal occurrence.

Later, there would be unexplainable explosions of people’s heads, so there was no way that the bizarre occult wasn’t involved.

I summoned the message window again and read it once more.

『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……』

Ghost stories.

Those words continued to bother me. Were they related to the incidents that were happening around me?

‘If that’s the case……’

The fact that the broadcast announcement could be heard, despite the blackout, could have been because of its relation to the ghost story.

If the incident that would soon occur, ‘The Case of Nakseong High’s Serial Head Explosions: Over 300 People Dead!’, and the ‘School Broadcast Announcement Ghost Story’ were connected, then the method I could try out first was simple.

I just had to sit in the classroom like the first and second ranked students did in the ghost story.

That was how the two in the story had survived.

“Excuse me…”

Sunah suddenly spoke up hesitantly.

“I also thought it was a fun story…”

What was that, so suddenly?

Sunah shared her thoughts on the story a beat late. I had thought she was a bit slow, but to be this slow?

‘Ah, so that was why.’

I had been staring at the message window deep in thought, so I didn’t notice, but Sunah was right behind the message window that was floating in front of me.

I might have been staring at the message window, but from SunAh’s perspective, it would seem like I had been staring intently at her.

So that was why she had hesitantly presented her thoughts.

“Sorry, sorry! I wasn’t staring at you to force you to answer!”

“Okay……”

It was at that moment that, from the window, we could hear the headmaster begin his speech.

“Ah, to the newly admitted students of Nakseong High School, whom I love,”

The headmaster was starting his speech with a chuckle, unaware of what could soon happen to him.

If the same thing were to happen as before, he would be unable to finish three sentences before his head exploded.

“I welcome you.”

I really hoped that this method, just sitting here, would work.

“First, I congratulate you all for your acceptance into the school.”

Please……

“I am this……”

Badump, badump.

“school’s……”

“Headmaster……”

“Shin Moonhyeup. Our Nakseong High School was established in 1984, and has seen its share of prominent students graduate over the past forty years. Our school is steeped with deep tradition and a great history. At the same time, we hope to provide you with the correct mindset, one that will allow you to succeed in the 21st century global society and connect with the ubiquitous network that you will need in the future. We hope that as students here, you will……”

I was alive!

I had survived!

[You have come across and survived the D-rank Ghost Story - School Broadcasting Announcement.]

[You have earned 5 Ghost Story Points.]

The messages appeared simultaneously, right in front of my eyes.

“Huuuu… Damn.”

My mind seemed to be swept clear of worries. With that, it was finally over!

Someone just had to calmly remain seated in the classroom, but to think of all the bullshit I had tried before!

‘Until now, none of the newly admitted students were able to remain in the classroom……?’

Soon, I realized why.

The female teacher.

That damnable teacher had roamed the halls and forced all of the students remaining in the classrooms to leave……

While I was a bit stunned at the reasoning, as I was released from the tension I could feel my body finally relax.

Facing my third possible death, both my body and my mind had been extremely tense. I had thought that, like the story, everyone outside would die.

Maybe it was because it was only the tutorial. It could possibly have been because there were many versions of the story, like Gyeongwon said. But it didn’t happen.

Regardless, with this, the situation was finally solved.

‘To think that all I had to do was calmly sit here like this… Huuuu.’

I couldn’t help but think I was a bit dumb……

Possibly because Sunah and Gyeongwon weren’t the type to curse much, when I had suddenly shouted ‘damn’ they had been a little startled. However, they seemed to just let it subtly pass by.

As soon as my mind cleared, more messages began to rapidly pop up.

[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. However, after the entrance ceremony you feel that ‘this school does not seem ordinary.’ And these anxious thoughts refer not to simple criminal cases, but other crazy and bizarre situations. Regardless, it is the first day of the next three long years. You reluctantly accept this anxious feeling.』

《QUEST - TUTORIAL

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

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

[You have cleared the quest.]

[You have earned 10 Ghost Story Points.]

[The Status Window has been unlocked.]

Although several game system-like messages popped up rapidly, I didn’t have any remaining energy to check them out.

“I bet you guys have no idea what I just went through.”

“……?”

The two students gave me weird stares.

Not caring what the two thought, I let out a sigh and nodded my head. And so, I decided to spend my time speaking with the two newly made friends right in front of me.

There was nothing better for my mental health than spending time with friends, chatting about useless things.

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