Ch. 4 - Interlude - Ghost Story, System, Status Window

While the entrance ceremony proceeded in the courtyard, I was sitting in the classroom with Sunah and Gyeongwon. We spent the time chatting about various topics.

Of course, the delinquent girl was in the back, sleeping away.

In addition to the atmosphere in high school suggesting that one must make friends quickly, the camaraderie built up by escaping from a teacher to play hooky had helped the three of us to get closer and become friends.

We spoke of which apartment complexes we lived in, how far away our homes were from the school, what middle school we graduated from, how well we studied, and which cram school we attended, along with other topics along that vein.

After spending time talking about several common conversational topics, the entrance ceremony had come to an end. We could hear the students returning to the classroom.

Naturally, we broke apart, acting as if we had just gotten into the classroom.

Afterwards, we were told to wait in the classroom for a long time. This allowed me to sort out my thoughts.

Many different things had occurred, but they could be separated into three broad categories.

Ghost stories, the game-like system, and the fact that when I died, I returned to the past.

First, ghost stories.

It seemed likely that the incident I had just experienced was a ghost story that had been physically realized.

The incident followed the plot of the ghost story, and behaving like the characters in the ghost story allowed me to survive.

Of course, ghost stories on their own were just pieces of fiction spread around by other people. There could be several different versions of the same story, so while the main points were still the same, some of the minor details could differ.

However, what was most important was that the ghost stories were happening in real life.

This was the simplest way of explaining the situation.

Second, the game-like system.

There existed a game-like system window that only I could see.

This system could provide me with help and information about what was occuring around me.

The first message window warned me of the fact that an unknown being, called the Demon King, would revive in three years' time. Also, the message window had emphasized the ‘ghost story’ in the situation that I had just encountered.

Until now, I had just briefly skimmed the contents because I didn’t understand what was going on. I needed to properly read through the messages I received from then on. Especially the Ghost Story Points, understanding level, the Status Window, and the other words that had been emphasized recently.

Ghost Story Points.

…Was it something similar to experience points? Or, since they were called points, would they be something similar to in-game currency?

Understanding.

It seemed to be a stat that went up the more I discovered about an individual, or understood their personality.

When Sunah herself told us that her actions were slow, the level of understanding increased.

When I felt that Gyeongwon was the type who liked to show his intelligence or show off his knowledge, the level of understanding increased as well.

Finally, the Status Window.

It was stated that the Status Window was unlocked, but how to use it? Hmm……

Using the same method as when I opened and closed the tutorial message, I used my will to call for the Status Window in my mind.

‘Status window!’

Pop.

《STATUS WINDOW

Name: Lee Joon

Age: 17

Title: Main Character

Disposition: [Two-Faced] NEW!! Click to Expand

Special Ability: None

Quirk: Last Second Cramming.》

I admired the status window in my mind. It felt like a character stat window from a game.

The name and age I could understand immediately. My disposition was two-faced… does it mean that my personality was two-faced?

The message window told me to click, with a ‘NEW!!’ alert attached to it, so I clicked on the button to expand the window. However, when a very long page popped up I immediately closed it again.

‘It’s way too long… I should go through this slowly when I get back home.’

I wasn’t sure about the Special Ability and the Quirk.

Was it something similar to a skill?

Regardless, it felt very much like the character stat window or information window from a game.

‘Can I use this on other people?’

I turned my head slightly and stared at Sunah, who was sitting right next to the wall.

Sunah was staring blankly at her desk as she fidgeted with her fingers.

‘Yoon Sunah, Status Window!’

Poof.

《STATUS WINDOW

Name: Yoon Sunah

Age: 16

Title: Dirt Spoon

Disposition: ??? NEW!! Click to Expand

Special Ability: ???

Quirk: ???

Understanding: 5/100》

[Your understanding of the target character is too low. Please interact more with this character to obtain more information.]

[T/N: A Dirt Spoon is a phrase that originates from the idiom, 'born with a silver spoon in your mouth'. A person born with a ‘dirt spoon’ is someone from a very poor and lacking background and family.]

It must have been because it hadn’t been very long since I'd become friends with her.

A message stating that my understanding was too low had shown up.

Unlike my own Status Window, her Disposition and Quirk were all question marks.

I tried pressing the ‘NEW!!’ message next to the question marks under Disposition.

Click.

[Disposition: ???

Her actions are slow.]

It was only the one line from when Sunah had stated that her actions were slow.

It seemed that later, when I found out more about the individual, more information would slowly fill in.

This time, I turned my head around and stared at Gyeongwon.

Gyeongwon was reading some unknown, very thick book.

‘Ahn Gyeongwon, Status Window!’

Poof.

《STATUS WINDOW

Name: Ahn Gyeongwon

Age: 17

Title: Pro WikiWarrior

Disposition: Explanation Character. NEW!! Click to Expand

Special Ability: ???

Quirk: ???

Understanding: 20/100》

[T/N: Pro WikiWarrior is a reference to a Korean meme which translates literally to “Turn off Namuwiki.” The meme is a reference to a certain keyboard warrior’s tendencies to get all of their information from Namuwiki (the Korean equivalent of wikipedia) and acting as if they are an expert, despite the possible misinformation or mistakes on the wiki.]

In Gyeongwon’s case, my understanding of him was much higher than that of Sunah.

That must have been why, under Disposition, it was written ‘Explanation Character’ instead of just question marks.

Click.

[Disposition: Explanation Character. Thinks he’s smart, and enjoys situations where he can flaunt that. His speaking tone is hard, as if he is an expert.]

‘Just as I thought.’

It was written exactly as I had evaluated in my mind, and my understanding of him had increased greatly in response.

This time, I took a look at the delinquent girl, who was still sleeping at the back.

The quest condition was that I needed to make three friends.

I wasn’t really sure why, but the system must have registered that girl as one of my friends.

‘How in the world is she my friend?’

It was a bit unbelievable, but I tried calling up the Status Window anyway.

“……”

Now that I thought about it, I didn’t even know her name.

However, I was determined to see her Status Window. I called up her Status Window with all of my will.

‘Delinquent Girl, Status Window!

Poof.

《STATUS WINDOW

Name: Lee Jinhee

Age: 17

Title: Backseat Delinquent Girl

Disposition: ???

Special Ability: ???

Quirk: ???

Understanding: 0/100》

[Your understanding of the target character is too low. Please interact more with this character to obtain more information.]

‘I knew it…’

Since I knew nothing about her, of course there wasn’t much to see.

‘So that scary looking girl’s name is Lee Jinhee.’

That was information that I had no prior knowledge of, but it was clearly written on the Status Window. What did this suggest?

Did that mean that the Status Window transcended beyond the information I knew? If that was the case, there was one thing that bothered me.

Sunah’s age was written as 16.

‘We were born in ‘03, seventeen years old……’ Even those born in the early part of ‘04 would have already hit seventeen. Did she attend school early?

If I could check this point out later, I could confirm whether or not my guess about the status transcending beyond the information I knew was correct.

I had roughly finished checking out the game-like system, and I finally had to think about my life restarting, over and over.

The first thing that came to mind was a time loop.

I think I had seen it before, in some science fiction novels.

Regression, reincarnation, or time loops.

It seemed like whenever I died, I was returned to the time right before the entrance ceremony.

‘This might get annoying……’

Returning to the entrance ceremony every time I died… what could be the meaning behind this?

Even if I tried thinking over it right then, I wouldn’t have been able to understand.

I decided that I would have to die a couple of more times before I could get the hang of it.

‘Why are things like this continuing to happen to me…?’

While I was thinking over things, a middle-aged man with a rotund stomach walked into the classroom.

He introduced himself as the homeroom teacher, and stated that he hoped we would have a good time.

‘Three years. Three years of high school life has started for me… again.’

I had studied to the point of life and death for three years in order to take the standardized tests, but now my three years of high school were going to start all over.

‘F*ck…’

I was so preoccupied with ghost stories and the Demon King and whatnot that I hadn’t properly thought about other aspects of the situation. Now that I had properly thought things through, I realized that I was going to have to repeat some very annoying moments.

Even having to repeat admissions for a single year would ruin most people’s personalities, but to think that I would have to repeat three full years again…

Haah… [T/N: Sooneung Exams are the standardized tests taken in Korea for college admissions. It is basically the Korean equivalent of SATs in the United States. One major difference is that it is only available once a year, so if you fail it miserably, you have to repeat the admissions process again next year.]

“I will now hand out the printed announcements. For each row, take a sheet and pass the rest to the person behind you.”

At the homeroom teacher’s words, the students sitting at the front of each row came up to the teacher’s desk to receive a pile.

“On the back of each sheet, the rules and regulations are written out. Alcohol and cigarettes are not allowed, and the dress regulations, such as hair length, are written down. Be sure to check it thoroughly. You wouldn’t want to be at a disadvantage.”

The middle-aged and balding homeroom teacher was using formal speech with the students, who were much younger than him.

[T/N: The teacher has been using formal speech, which is usually used to speak with your elders to be very polite. It is very uncommon for teachers to use formal speech with students. This formal speech is lost in translation.]

The homeroom teacher handed the piles of paper to the students.

I received the pile of announcement paper, took a sheet, and passed the rest to the person behind me.

I thought the sheet would contain the typical boring stuff, like congratulations, the history of the school, and the rules and regulations, so I didn't even bother reading it.

My brain was already busy trying to sort out the bizarre happenings so far, so my brain was already overloaded.

Whether it was words, knowledge, or information, I did not want to put anything into my brain for at least a while.

‘My mentality is on the weaker side, afterall.’ I had felt this to my core when I had studied for the standardized tests in my last life.

Although my mind wasn’t bad, because my mentality was weak I was the type to get sick of things quickly when forced to focus on something for a long time.

In fact, I was the type of person to react quickly in real time, depending on the situation. My genetics must have all been poured into being quick to react to a situation.

During exams, I only knew how to cram at the last second.

Because of this, I was able to handle school tests well in a short time, but on the standardized tests—where I needed to study continuously, over longer periods of time—I couldn’t help but do poorly. That was why the university I was accepted to was just so-so.

I was able to react quickly to any situation that happened suddenly and solve those issues, but I did not have the capacity to do anything that involved consistent effort over a long period of time.

‘I want to get home quickly and rest……’ In the current situation, rather than discover more about what was going on, I wanted to go and get some rest.

It couldn’t be helped, since my brain was already oversaturated.

‘... Now that I think about it, since I returned three years into the past, my home must still be my old house. It’s been a while.’

Murmur, murmur.

Suddenly, the sound of some of the classmates whispering amongst each other could be heard.

They were exchanging uneasy gazes as they began to look at each other.

‘… What’s happening?’

It was an unusual atmosphere.

At that time, the school broadcast system came to life.

[The broadcasting room has an announcement. It has been confirmed that the rules and regulations announcement sheet that was just distributed to everyone was printed out incorrectly. We will be collecting all announcement sheets immediately. We repeat, we will be collecting the distributed printouts with the rules and regulations on it. Each homeroom teacher is to collect every single printout, with no exceptions. That is all.]

Murmur, murmur.

Following this, the homeroom teacher, who seemed to have received some sort of instructions, hurried back into the classroom.

“Ah, it seems that the printout was printed incorrectly. Now, let’s have the students in the back come forward as they pick up each sheet.”

Wanting to find out what was on the printout, I lifted it up to read through it. However, the student who was collecting the printouts just grabbed it right out of my hands.

He must have mistaken it for me holding it out so that it would be easier for him to collect the sheet.

‘What was written on the sheet that has everyone reacting like this?’

I had ignored it because I found it annoying, but now I regretted not even skimming through it once.

Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t have friends or anything.

I could easily find out by asking my newly made friends, Gyeongwon and Sunah. Shortly after.

“Sorry. I thought that the information would just be the typical stuff, so I didn’t bother reading it.”

Gyeongwon responded in a straightforward manner.

“……”

Then Sunah, who was seated next to him, responded shyly.

“I read it. But they took it back quickly, so I don’t remember it too well……”

Oh!

“Do you remember what was said on the printout? What was printed out incorrectly that made everyone whisper about it?”

After I asked that question, Sunah began to scrunch her brows as she tried her best to remember.

“Honestly, there weren't any mistakes in the printing itself… But there were a few weird lines in the content……”

“Weird lines?”

“That is……”

Seemingly unable to put into words properly, Sunah opened and closed her mouth a few times without being able to speak.

“Most of the information was normal, but in between some of the rules… It was written to not meet a certain woman……”

“A woman?”

Gyeongwon and I responded simultaneously. A woman?

Why would the girl pop up in the middle of the school rules?

“It said to be careful if you ever meet a certain woman……”

“A certain woman?”

“Ummm, the laughing woman? I think that was it……”

A laughing woman?

“If we meet a laughing woman in the school, we have to be careful?”

Sunah tried very hard to remember, but soon her expression became disheartened.

“Sorry, there was also a line about how to be careful around her… but I can’t remember what it was……”

Be careful when you meet a laughing woman at school.

Was that really a part of the school rules?

“......”

“Do you think someone was playing a prank?”

As I slowly looked at Gyeongwon and asked him this, it looked like he was deep in thought.

“Well, it could be a prank. But it seems like this is based on the recently popular ‘manual ghost story’.”

“Manual ghost story…?”

Ghost story!

Again, the words ‘ghost story’ popped up!

“It's a ghost story that recently became popular on the internet, but it's a story about a plain looking announcement flier with some unexplainable and bizarre warnings hidden within. Is it your first time hearing about this?”

Manual ghost story……

Comments