Ch. 71 - Tenth Ghost Story - Minecraft's Herobrine (4)

“Okay. I think we're almost done.”

As we all worked hard to complete building the walls of the shelter, which would provide us safety from the monsters that would appear at night, night had befallen us.

According to the game’s day/night cycle, a day had already passed.

“It’s dark.”

“Wait a moment.”

Taking out various items and equipment from his inventory, which also looked like a bunch of hexagonal blocks, Dukhun combined them and made a few torches.

After that, he went around the corners of the shelter and hung them on the wall. As light was added in the dark space, the surroundings brightened a little.

Finishing all the work, Dukhun exhaled a deep breath of relief.

“You did a great job, Dukhun.”

“Thank you for working hard.”

At the sincere gratitude and compliment of the members, he coughed in embarrassment before opening his mouth.

“As I've said earlier, I’ve only played the game a few times with my online friends a few years ago. So I've no idea what to do next.”

“But since you’re the only one who plays most games among us, how about you continue to guide us?”

“Ah, ah, I guess I'll do so.”

Before long, all of us huddled together, sitting around a circle. We had our focus fixed on the large character of Dukhun.

“Talking so loudly like this in an internet cafe is embarrassing. Everyone, put on your headsets. From now on, I'll be explaining things through the microphone.”

“Okay.”

At his instructions, the members fumbled around their seats, finding their headsets and putting it on. Since some of them, like Sunah and Hayoon, never played before, they had a bit of trouble adjusting the sound on their microphones.

“Hello, hello, can you hear me?”

“I can hear you.”

“Everyone, gather around.”

The character of Dukhun seemed to suddenly gain a voice as he instructed us through the microphone. However, we all knew that in reality, we were sitting right next to each other so we didn't really need to gather.

But since we all were connected to the game and our characters were representing us, we gathered around Dukhun's large character like a bunch of baby chickens.

“Let me remind you of the first thing for which we started playing the game. Our purpose is not to enjoy the game but to find ghost stories. Currently, I'm thinking of how to use some cheat keys by watching some videos on the internet.”

“Oh, that’s an excellent idea.”

“But, if we want to search for the ghost stories which Ahn Gyeongwon mentioned earlier, just know that it’ll take a long time even if we use cheats.”

“Yeah.”

Among all of us, I was the only one (except Dukhun) whose character was standing still as I answered through the microphone. The characters of other club members either stood crookedly or started jumping up and down as they answered.

It seemed they still weren't able to control the function properly.

“Alright then. Which ghost story do you want to start with first, President?”

① Legend of Herobrine

② Ghost story of Netherworld

③ The Edge of the World

“Hmm.”

Remembering the three ghost stories that Gyeongwon mentioned earlier, I started pondering on which one to start with first.

After thinking for a while, I realized that each ghost story was going to take an incredible amount of time just to find them let alone solve them. As Dukhun had said earlier, it truly is going to take a while.

The first ghost story was the Legend of Herobrine, which was related to the mysterious appearance and doing of an NPC that exists in the game.

His existence was literally an unknown being.

We had no idea how and where he would appear, how to search for him or if he truly existed. If we really want to solve the ghost story, we would have needed to search through the vast world of the game.

In the ghost stories mentioned by Gyeongwon, he was said to build strange structures for no reason particularly, leaving traces of his existence as if he was calling for them. However, we had just started playing the game and still were in the beginners section. It would be a huge trouble for us to search for his traces now.

Moreover, we weren't familiar with the game's environment and structures. We would not be able to distinguish which structure was originally built in the game or which structure was built by him.

It was going to take an awful amount of time just to chase his traces. Therefore, I decided to put it aside for now and focus on the other two ghost stories.

The second ghost story was the appearance of ‘Netherworld’ and the third one was ‘Edge of the World'. In the case of these two ghost stories, we had definite locations and methods.

"Netherworld or the Edge of the World, is it possible to use teleportation skill for either of them?"

"Let me check... I think it's possible to use the teleportation cheat."

Staring at his phone's screen, where perhaps he was searching for cheat keys on the internet, Dukhun answered affirmatively.

"The coordinates of where you are now and the coordinates of where you want to go. If we know the coordinates of both our current place and our destination, it's possible to use it."

"Hmm, then."

To make the Netherworld appear, we must revert back to the old version after entering the Underworld. This ghost story had a specific location and method which we couldn't ignore.

But finding the pirated version was already hard enough. It would be even more difficult to find the old version.

Considering the pros and cons, I decided to go for the Edge of the World.

“How about we go to the Edge of the World first?”

A world that stretched beyond the map of the world, a different world situated beyond the border.

“Okay. But it's not possible to go beyond the boundary line because I can’t input coordinates of a place that exists outside the limit of the map. However, we can teleport right in front of the edge. After reaching the place, we will be blocked by a transparent wall, so you’ll have to find a way and go around and around again until you find a hole or something similar to pass through the transparent wall. Is that okay?”

“Well, I believe it's way better than chasing the traces of a ghost NPC that we don’t even know exists, right?”

“Ah, as the President wishes.”

Leaning back on his chair, that somehow held his large body, he asked everyone.

“Everyone. Do we have an 'agreement'?”

“……”

“Before you guys agree, let me be clear, this is dangerous. Even I, who has fought countless battles of life and death, are getting anxious with sweaty palms. So if there's anyone who's unwilling, this is the best and only opportunity to say ‘I quit’.”

Perhaps they felt awkward and embarrassed to speak on the microphone, so they answered by moving their characters. But because they were also inexperienced in controlling the functions, their characters stood up and sat down again, as if agreeing to Dukhun's words.

“Does that mean you all agree?”

“We have no other choice. Agree.”

“Me too…”

“Agree.”

“Yare, yare… there's no way to back down now, is there? Then I think it would be better to start making preparations.”

Saying that, the large character of Dukhun started drawing a square on the wall of the shelter, which we just built using mud.

“Basically, the world of MineCraft is square shaped like this. Since there are five of us, I think it would be better to split up and each go east, west, south, and north.”

“But even if four people go east, west, south, and north, one more person will be left.”

“Yoon Sunah seemed to be the only one extremely bad at controls. I believe it's better if she accompanies someone.”

It seemed Dukhun was like a typical highschool boy who is awkward around girls and had no immunity against them.

Each time he called a girl's last name, he would always include their first name.

[T/N: In case anyone is unaware, Koreans also put their family name before their own name, just like Chinese and Japanese.]

Hearing those words, Hayoon, who had been quiet until now suddenly turned her head and proposed calmly.

“She can go with me. We girls will stay together.”

At those words, Sunah's body stiffened as she stayed quiet.

Even the expression on her face hardened.

At the proposal offered with friendliness, a strange atmosphere, which we couldn't comprehend, seemed to flow amidst the silence.

“Do you want to go with Hayoon? What do you say?”

Even after Dukhun's urging, Sunah kept her mouth shut and bowed her head. Her lips seemed to quiver as she stayed still despite someone asking her.

In the end, seeing her not answering, I took off my headset and asked quietly.

“Sunah, what’s wrong?”

“Just…”

Sunah showed a hesitant expression, avoiding looking at me. It seemed there were a lot of things she wanted to say but was unable to express them.

Beside her, Hayoon stared at us with her usual calm and expressionless face.

These two were not only deskmates but also members of the same club. Then why does there seem to be a distance between them?

‘…Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen them together except for when they're in the classroom and have to sit beside each other. Not to mention, I haven't ever seen them talking either.’

At Sunah's hesitation, Hayoon opened her mouth, staring at Sunah's frozen expression.

“You don’t want to?”

As if she had turned into a statue, Sunah's expression further hardened.

Sensing that the atmosphere between the two were becoming strange as time passed by, I quickly stepped forward, offering my opinion instead.

“Well, if you don't want to, you can come with me. We're sitting beside each other anyway.”

Only then did Sunah quietly nodded as if relieved.

For a moment, Hayoon stared blankly at Sunah's side profile, as if she couldn't comprehend for a moment that she was rejected by her own deskmate. Then slowly, she turned her head and fixed her gaze on the monitor again.

‘What? Why?’

Although I knew Sunah was introverted by nature and had a timid personality, she always seemed to communicate well with me. However, I was astonished at her sudden change of behaviors, which I couldn't understand for any reason.

‘No matter how much she wanted to tag along with me, her behavior just now was extremely rude.’

A friend right next to her was offering her to stay together quite nicely, but she just simply ignored her, throwing away the consideration of that person.

‘Is Hayoon okay?’

Out of the corner of my eyes, I sneakily glanced at Hayoon’s expression.

Hayoon’s face had the same calm expression, as if what had occurred now has nothing to do with her.

She didn't seem to pay any attention if there were people who disliked her or didn't like her company. Perhaps because she was mentally strong, such incidents seemed to have no effect on her.

However, no matter how mature Hayoon was or how timid Sunah was, rejecting the friendly offer of a friend was being extremely rude of her (Sunah).

Was it because of her low self-esteem? Or lack of communication skill? Or her disposition of being a yandere?

…. Doesn't matter what the reason had been, I couldn't accept her behavior just now.

‘I’ll have to make sure to have a chat with her regarding this next time.’

“Okay, I'm going to put in the coordinates. Everyone, stand in a line in front of my character.”

If we were to go by foot, it would have taken over 800 hours to reach the edge of the world. That's why, to save both time and energy, it was an excellent strategy to use the teleportation skill.

While we lined up, Dukhun prepared the teleportation array to activate the cheat.

“Here, stand here.”

At his constant urging, the four of us made a line in front of Dukhun's large, fat character.

“Who’s in front of me now?”

“It’s me.”

“Okay, four-eyes. Go north and get Kim Il-Sung’s head.”

[T/N: Kim Il-Sung was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as Supreme Leader from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994.]

Swish.

“Next?”

“Me.”

“The prettiest girl in the city, In Hayoon. Go explore the vast west.”

Swish.

“President and Yoon Sunah. Is there anywhere specific you want to go?”

“....Anywhere.”

“Oi. You just answered what I asked. Then go south.”

Swish.

“...And I’ll go east to find Yutkuri.”

[T/N: Yutkuri is an internet fan character originating from the East Project, which is a series of fangames. The word originally meant ‘slowly’, ‘leisurely’, etc..]

Swish.

As the last teleportation array was activated and Dukhun's large character disappeared, the once crowded shelter became empty. With Dukhun gone, the members of the Ghost Story Club scattered to the east, west, south, and north, searching for the edge of the world.

Whish, whish, humm, humm.

'...Are we in a summer forest?'

As soon as we opened our eyes, a forest full of lush green trees stretched beyond the horizon with cicadas chirping loudly appeared in our vision.

Green and brown hexagonal tiles indicated that we were in a vast wood.

"Sunah? Where are you?"

"Here..."

At my call, Sunah's character walked up from behind me.

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): Mic testing. Mic testing.]

All of a sudden, a message appeared in front of us from Dukhun, the admin of the server and floated up to the top of the screen.

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): I didn't send you guys directly at the border fearing that you guys could get stuck on the transparent wall or return to the original place from where I sent you. The places I've sent you are just a bit further away from the border. Walk straight in the direction you just landed.]

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): And of course, if any of you finds something, let others know.]

“Okay.”

Since the place I landed was the southernmost end, I guess I should just walk south.

“Let’s see, the direction is…”

As I started walking, I checked the ‘S’ written on the minimap hovering in front of me indicating South, and started walking straight in that direction. Behind me, Sunah's character tagged along.

Mmmm, hummm.

While walking, I couldn't help but look around the tall trees, enveloping our shadows.

A few rays of sunlight poked through the thick leaves that were blocking the sky above and shone on the ground, creating a picturesque view.

“The graphics don't look that bad now that I take a closer look.”

“Yeah, it really feels like I’m in a forest…”

Seeing all the hexagonal blocks the first time, my impression of the game was extremely low. I was someone who is used to seeing high-level graphics on other games that I played. However, the environmental elements like sunlight, water, and shadows, all surprisingly created a life-like experience.

Except for the hexagonal tiles indicating the ground, the other natural elements were implemented quite realistically.

The sight that stretched before our vision, created by combining the impressionability of the old generation and the technology of the current generation, was truly praiseworthy.

‘The art of this world is vast. Even with the strange combination of hexagonal blocks and natural elements, the background that appears is quite splendid.’

At the sight before me, I couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Crunch, crunch.

We walked down above the hexagonal tiles to the path leading south. Our feet stepped on the fallen leaves, creating a pleasant sound as we both walked in silence.

Bump.

“…Huh.”

However, our characters suddenly bumped onto something when we tried to walk forward.

The path through the endless trees could still be seen in front, it was clearly visible in front of our eyes. But our characters couldn't walk forward at all, as if they were being blocked by a transparent wall.

“I can't move forward.”

“Me too…”

Even if I pressed the forward arrow key as hard as I could, I couldn't move forward even an inch.

Beside me, Sunah tried to jump forward and somehow cross the transparent wall.

However, she ended up bumping onto the wall strongly and bounced back. Both of us stood there blankly as we stared at the vast green forest just beyond the wall.

“I guess this is it. We've reached the edge of the world.”

“Yeah ”

Amidst the world made of hexagonal blocks.

There stood a transparent wall, separating the players from crossing the border and exploring the world beyond. We had reached that border, the southern edge of the world.

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): Have you all arrived?]

“Yeah. We’ve arrived.”

“Me too.”

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): Walk along the transparent wall using the border as your guide until you find a hole of some sort. Stay vigilant. Look beyond the transparent wall. If you discover something strange, let us know.]

“Okay.”

Dukhun instructed us to follow along the transparent wall.

If we moved along the wall, we might discover a loophole in the game program somewhere which we could use to get through.

However, since there was a chance of us failing with this strategy, we decided to observe the scenery beyond the edge of the world. We might discover something strange or suspicious just as it was mentioned in the ghost story.

‘It doesn't seem like an efficient solution. I guess it's gonna take a lot of time.’

As I pondered on a more effective method, Sunah and I walked along the border, through the endless vast forest surrounding us.

“Did you notice anything different?”

“No, it’s all the same…”

Even after we walked for a while, nothing particularly unusual entered our eyes so far.

Along the narrow path that seemed to stretch endlessly, we could only see more and more trees around us, enveloping us like a fortress.

“…The sun is already setting?”

Before we knew it, the color of the sunlight shining through the leaves had turned slightly red. The afternoon sun tilted to the west, bathing the surrounding in an otherworldly orange light.

As I thought, the sun was setting beyond the forest.

“It seems the proverb, ‘the sun sets early in the mountains’ is true.”

“But it’s a forest…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

[Admin (Oh Dukhun): Night is approaching. Big carnivorous spiders and zombies might start appearing. So carry a torch everyone.]

Torch!

“Zombies…”

At the mention of zombies, Sunah showed a frightened expression.

As realization dawned over me, I figured that I should have taken one of the torches that Dukhun had created and randomly placed around the shelter.

“Do you know how to make it?”

“Wait a minute. I think I’ll know the method once I look through the process.”

Opening my inventory window, I looked through the process and materials that listed the crafting methods for various items and started searching for the method of crafting a torch.

“Let’s see. First, we need wood.”

“Here!”

With a loud exclamation, Sunah hit the piece of wood lying on her feet before picking it up.

Then, the piece of wood suddenly disappeared and a brown wooden tile, probably the wood she collected appeared on the inventory.

[You have obtained the wood.]

“Okay, so the first step is…”

After processing the wood I obtained, I crafted a wooden crowbar, and shared the item with Sunah.

“This crowbar will help you mine coal.”

“Coal?”

“Yeah. After digging up the coal, we need to rub it on a stick to make a torch.”

“Where are we gonna get the coal…..?”

“Ah.”

While pondering for the way to get some coal, I turned my head slightly and looked at others’ monitors to see how the other members were preparing for the night.

Dukhun was wandering through a desert, a place where the sun doesn't seem to ever set so he didn't need to prepare for the night. Gyeongwon had somehow crafted a wooden boat and was crossing a vast sea.

He also didn't seem to need a torch.

Hayoon seemed to enter a cave in a snowy mountain. As she walked, several torches hanging on the walls came into view. They seemed to have probably formed naturally.

‘Everyone’s busy with their own way. But we're in a forest, so we need to get coal…’

Although the survival element itself was created by a system, it had some features quite similar to reality.

With my witty sense, I could somehow understand that it would be difficult to get coal in a forest.

‘Hmm, I don’t want to bother Dukhun to use a cheat key again…’

I’ve already bothered him enough.

“I don't think we can find it anywhere, Sunah. Let's just keep walking for now. Since there are two of us, we can probably defeat a few monsters even if they attack.”

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