Ghost Story Club

CH 2

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

It was the first day of highschool.

I was staring at the wall, seated in class while waiting for the entrance ceremony.
Suddenly, I heard a sound effect accompanied by a message that popped up in front of me.

『Welcome to Nakseong High School, a school filled with mysteries and secrets.
Uncover the dark secrets hidden within the school, and fight against urban legends and myths to earn points and unlock special abilities.
Then, gather your companions and stop the resurrection of the demon king before you graduate.
The world’s fate is in your hands.』

→ If you click you can move on to the next page.

“·····?”

It was like a message pop up from a video game.

I was momentarily taken aback and looked around my surroundings, but none of the other students were paying attention to me.
They were all either on their phones or were chatting amongst themselves.

“······.”

I was wondering what the message meant when the speakers announced to the students that the entrance ceremony was soon to begin.

[Hello students.
This is the broadcasting room.
Currently there is a power outage within the school and thus we can’t broadcast the ceremony through the monitors in-class.
For this reason the entrance ceremony will be held at the field at the front of the school, so all first years should gather at the field.
Once again, this is the broadcasting room…]

The other students in the class all stood up whilst complaining.
I also absentmindedly stood up and followed them to the corridor.
On the way I still wasn’t able to take my eyes off the message in front of me.

I tried putting my hand forward but it passed through the letters as if they didn’t exist.

‘So it’s a hologram····?’

I think I’ve seen something similar in movies.

Once again I checked to see if anyone else could see the messages, to no avail.
I concluded that apparently this message could only be seen by me, and went out into the field.

• • •

On the field the teachers were going around and checking to see if everyone was in line.
I blended into the line of students from my new class.

These days most ceremonies were done through TV broadcasts instead of in person, so I could understand why students were complaining here and there.

The fussing quieted down when a man who looked to be the principal stood up to the podium.

“Ah ah, can you hear me? Okay good.
New students of Nakseong High School, I welcome you with open arms.
Well, first thing’s first, I sincerely congratulate you on your entrance to this prestigious school.
I am the principal ······.”

With that word, as the principal put on a serious face as he tried move on to the main part of his speech , his head suddenly exploded.

A fountain of blood burst from where his head used to be, and some pieces fell here and there.

“······.”

The audience grew quiet, while only squishing sounds could be heard.

The headless, still standing corpse of the principal began wobbling and coated the podium with blood.
In the end the corpse tilted and fell over.

“Kyaaaaaaaaa-aa!”

“Wh..
What?”

After the short delay the students finally started screaming.

Some grew pale and lost strength in their legs, while others pointed at the podium with their fingers.

The teachers were facing the students while being next to the podium, and so couldn’t catch what happened to the principal until they heard the commotion from the field.

“P··· principal······?”

“Mr.
Kim! Call 119 right away!”

“Are you alright? What in the world is happening!”

Some of the teachers who approached the podium had a weak stomach, and turned their heads while almost throwing up.

Many first year girls cried, lost strength and flopped down on the floor, or helped each other up despite not knowing each other, while the boys stared at the podium in disbelief or were checking their surroundings with wide eyes.

At that moment, something even more horrendous occurred.

Splat-

A strict looking middle-aged female teacher who was giving out orders to the other teachers near the podium suddenly had her head blow up.
In a consecutive domino-like blast, starting from the people nearest to the podium, more heads started exploding.
It didn’t take long for a red mist to form around the front.

“Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

At this point everyone ran away screaming.
Even those who didn’t realize what was going on with the principal and were just looking around in naive curiosity were making terrified faces and were being swept away by the crowd of running students.

Splat- Splaat- Splat-

I was also running like crazy, bumping into other students along the way.
The target was the school entrance.
Even whilst running, I continue to hear sounds of things blowing up and rolling along the field.
It was the sound of the headless bodies rolling from being unable to counter the lasting inertia that lurched the former students forward.

Huff, huff, huff·····.

I was out of breath.

“What the fuck······.”

I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew I had to run away.

As the early students approached the gates, I heard shouting coming from the janitor who was on security duty.

“Hey! What’s going on there! Where are you all running off to when the entrance ceremony hasn’t ended!”

The man apparently didn’t understand what was going on, as his face turned red while he bellowed at us.

“Hey, stop right there! You think I’m joking?? Hey you little bastards, didn’t you hear me? Go back!!”

The distance from the gates to the podium was about the length of the whole field.
The dirt cloud produced by 300 students running at once obscured the janitor’s view on the whole situation.

‘Fucking hell, though you should at least realize that dozens of students running at once usually means something is off······.”

A bunch of students who seemed to be from the sports clubs got ahead of me, running at a breakneck speed.
The first row of athletes body-slammed the janitor and reached the entrance.

“Yeowch···!”

The janitor tumbled on the ground and got covered in dust.

The few athletes who made it to the entrance realized that the gates were locked, and after shaking them a few times, climbed over the gates and escaped.

“Hey! Fucking hold it!”

The janitor stood up again and barked.

Soon the area become a mess, as the janitor angrily pulled at the students who were trying to escape over the gates.
Meanwhile, some girls who lacked the athletic finesse to climb over the gates cried out to the janitor.

“We’re all about to die! Heads were exploding in front of us! You have to let us out please!”

“What is this nonsense you’re saying! Go bring your teachers! Where are the damn teachers!”

The janitor had a pretty solid work ethic, as he refused to let the students out until the teachers arrived.
He continued to grab the bottoms of the students trying to go over the gates and pulled them down.

Splat-

While all of this was happening.
At about the middle of the field.

The students who were running too late were being decapitated rapidly.

Those that were left soon turned hysterical.

“Janitor you piece of shit! Open the fucking gates!”

“What? Did you just say a piece of shit? Hey you! Come here!”

The janitor pulls out the student who was swearing by the collar , and starts slapping his cheek.

Slap- Slaap-

The janitor’s only pitiful leftover identity in life seemed to be on the noble task of guarding the school gates.
Thus he continued to grow hot headed.

“Aaaaack! I can’t stand it! Open the gates you fuck!”

Even the students who weren’t able to go over the gates turned back and began assaulting the janitor.

“Open the damn door! Give us the key!!”

The stalwart attitude of the janitor finally began to waver as he noticed the wave of students running in his direction, and he starts to back away.

“Euk, what is this? What’s going on huh? You fucking youngsters······!”

“O.
Pen.
the door you absolute turd! Open it now!”

“Give us the key! The keey!!”

The mist of blood was creeping closer and closer.

As one of the students tries to reach for his pocket to find the key, the janitor twists his body rapidly to hide it.

The girls started to grab the janitor’s head and scratched it like crazy, while the boys slammed his shoulders with their fists or kicked him with their feet.

Slam- Slam- Slam-

“Kuuuuuk! Aaaaaaaack!”

The janitor screams in pain.

The students use violence to find the key.

The front gates were pandemonium.

“Gaaaaah! Guuuuh······.”

“The key! Come on already!!”

Despite his skin getting all scratched up by the female students, the janitor STILL manages to retain his pocket.

It was a terrible, frustrating situation, but was a good thing for me instead.
Thanks to the commotion, the edge of the front gates had a spot left to climb.

“Huff, huff······.”

I quickly arrive at the front gates, latch on to the edge, and start to climb over.
The iron bars composing the gates were slippery, but my survival instincts kicked in and I used every ounce of strength I had left.

I somehow managed to finally get over the gates.
Now all that was left was to land on the sidewalk outside.

“Hup!”

The moment I turned my body to jump off.
I realized the range at which the heads exploded arrived just in front of me.

I could still see the janitor, who was being beaten to a pulp by the angry mob of students.
The students weren’t focused on getting the key from the janitor anymore, and were instead obsessed with eliminating the janitor instead.

In a life or death situation like this, the desperation that the students felt had become twisted into a wild streak of violence directed at the singular obstacle stopping them from survival.
The students were slamming the janitor’s head while their faces grew more and more terrified.

“Diee! Dieee! Why did you interfere huh! Die goddammit······!”

“Uuk, cough, kuuuh···.”

Soon even the heads of the janitor and the students surrounding him blew up.

And just under me.

It also finally happened to the students who were still climbing the gates.

‘Fuck!’

I reflexively jumped in the opposite direction and landed.

‘I finally escaped!’

And just as I was about to sprint again.

I felt my head bloat up.

‘I···I thought you were able to survive if you stepped out the school..’

I was caught up in all of the running that gave the illusion that the area outside of school was a safe zone, but all of it was just based on instinct.

It wasn’t the way to survival.

I felt the strange and painful sensation of my head continuously inflating like a balloon.
Then, after a large boom I lost consciousness.

[You have died.]

[Restarting at the checkpoint.]

[Loading······.]

Flick-

• • •

→ If you click you can move on to the next page.

When I woke again I was back in the class.

The other students were all either on their phones or were chatting amongst themselves.

“······.”

What just happened.

Just a moment ago I was caught up in a grotesque situation, and had my head blown off while trying to escape out of the school.

How am I still alive?

I still clearly recall the 300 students running across the field, and the smell of sweat and all of the insanity and the fountains of blood.

Was it all a dream, or did I go back in time······.

“What··· What is happening······.”

I was blankly looking around me, and noticed the last sentence of the hologram message that I wasn’t able to before.

→ If you click you can move on to the next page.

···Though I still couldn’t comprehend what was going on.
I felt that everything was related to this message.

‘You’re telling me to click huh? How?’

I tapped the blinking sentence with my finger as if I was using a touchscreen.

Flick-!

It seemed to be the answer.
The screen changed, and new sentences popped up.

[Beginning the Tutorial]

『You are a normal, rather reserved student, who isn’t particularly good at anything nor has much charisma.
Thus you have had a pretty boring school life until now.
Today is the first day of your three years at high school.

For others today may be very exciting, but for you it’s business as usual.
But after experiencing the entrance ceremony, you have a creeping feeling that ‘this school is far from normal’.
This ominous feeling may foreshadow that the events that you’ll experience here are not those of simple criminal nature.

And instead are something more insane, and of the paranormal kind.

Anyway, today is just the first day of your long and treacherous 3 year journey.
You don’t pay much attention to hunch you have, and let it pass.』

[You have received a quest.]

Make three friends in order to create a club.
(Currently 0/3) Rewards: 10 Ghost Points, and the unlocking of the status window.

“······.”

I reflexively let out a silent ‘whoa’ from my mouth.

How am I supposed to take in this information.

Quests, tutorials.
It all seemed like ··· video game jargon?

While I was gathering my thoughts while reading the messages over and over again.
The speaker turned on once more.