Ghost Story Club

mony during the incident.]

[Yes, that part is still a mystery.
The strongest hypothesis seems to be that how fast one escaped the scene was what determined life or death, but it turns out some individuals who escaped the scene first were killed as well.]

[So you’re saying there are other variables apart from just how fast one escaped from the scene first, right?]

[Yes, that’s what I believe.]

 

  After that I stayed in the hospital for a few more months in quarantine.
I had to go through blood, urine, feces tests, endoscopy, MRIs, even parasite tests.
After that I had a few Q&A sessions with a scary bear-like detective before I was allowed to leave.

  The contents of the sessions were usually related to how the situation progressed or if anything seemed off, but to me it seemed like the government didn’t really have a clue about what happened that day either.

 

 

•  •  •

 

3 years later.

I lay down on my bed, before the day of my graduation.

  In the end the government couldn’t find out the reason the incident occurred.
The whole area of Shinlim was completely locked down due to concerns that there may still be traces of the virus.
Our family had to move without even getting to pack all of our possessions.
Though, the government still gave us a lot of support, and provided us with a new home just above the Hangang river.

‘Huh, I thought the government would be pretty incompetent, just like in the movies.’

  I was even a bit moved by how effortless the whole process was.
I almost had to take a gap year because I stayed in the hospital for so long, but the bureau of education already had a plan to quietly move me to a new school.

  Apart from having occasional nightmares about my family’s heads exploding, I had no trouble getting accepted into a pretty decent university after studying for 3 years.

  And today, the day before the graduation.
I was reading the message that appeared in front of me that day again, for the first time in a while.

 

  [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 lay there in my bed thinking about the floating message while waving my hand through it.

 

‘···So in the end what was this message all about.’

  The message could appear or disappear in front of me according to my will.
I was putting off from opening it because it gave me flashbacks of that horrible day.

But opening it now, the day before graduation, I feel a bit restless.

  I was able to make some friends at my new school, though not too many.
I went into a book club too, but the quota given by the quest objective didn’t fill up.
What was this message, seriously.

I slowly fell asleep while having those thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[It is graduation day.]

[The demon king has been resurrected.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beeeeep—

Sometime in the night, not long after I fell asleep, I suddenly woke up because of a high pitched beeping sound coming from the emergency warning alert on my phone.

[Safety Alert Message: 02:30 am Parameter breach alarm for the Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Area.
Residents are advised to prepare for emergency and evacuate according to the authorities.]

A rather flat-toned message was blinking on my phone.

 

What?

 

What’s going on.

Was there an earthquake or something?

My heart started beating rapidly.

I’ve seen these kinds of messages from the government sometimes pop up during natural disasters, but none of them have been as serious as this one.

I quickly turned on an internet app.
I clicked on the live search ranking, and the first results that come up were.

 

Seoul city massive creature Seoul city kaiju appearance Seoul city unidentified beast

.

.

  In the calm dark of the night.
In contrast to the quietness of my house, the internet was currently overwhelming with emergency news and new reports on what was going on.

  I was taken aback, and tried to log on to my most frequented social media site.

 

[To any one of you living in Seoul.
Stay in your homes and DON’T LEAVE.]

[It’s moving near the abandoned Shinlim area rn.
It’s much taller than an apartment··· is this even real??]

[To those living near Seoul, I’ll be praying for you.]

 

The more I read, the harder my breaths became.

“Hah, haah ······.”

What is happening.

Should I wake up my parents? Shit, what do I do······.

I didn’t even have to wake my parents up, as I hear murmuring from all around our apartment as the other residents started panicking.
Dad woke up from the noise and opened the door and walked out from his room.

“Jun, what’s going on······.”

“Not sure dad.
I just woke up too.”

Our family headed out to the balcony to check where the loud noises were coming from.

  Despite it being late at night, I saw numerous households from the other buildings turning their lights on.
People were poking their heads out from their windows and muttering amongst themselves.

  I also opened the balcony window to see outside, but it was pitch black.
All I could make out was the Hangang river, flowing with black currents.

“Young man! L, l, look·· Look over there! Over the river!”

The ajumma from the balcony next to us urgently called out.

  *TN: Ajumma is a term used to describe middle aged women in Korea.

  It wasn’t just the house next to us.
The upper floor, lower floor··· Most of the residents were looking in terror at something in the distance.

Some even let out a scream in fright.

 

“W, what in the world······.”

“What even is that······?”

 

  What were they looking at? I looked over at the direction the ajumma was pointing at, somewhere over the forest of skyscrapers that were built along the river.
I saw a towering shadow moving somewhere beyond the neon lights of the city.
It was difficult to make out its shape due to the backlight.
All I could see was that it was a bipedal creature.

 

It was ··· colossal.

 

  That huge mass of something was slowly moving somewhere.
I suddenly realized where the thing was standing.
Since it was over the river I had some trouble measuring the distance, but the direction was certain.
Plus intuition was telling me I was correct.

  The location the colossal creature was standing at was the school I almost attended 3 years ago.

 

Nakseong High School.

 

Then, my life ended in a way I couldn’t comprehend.

 

 

[BAD ENDING – The price of turning a blind eye]

Conditions

Run away without clearing the tutorial. Don’t do anything until the Demon King is resurrected.

 

 

[Beginning regression.]

[Loading······.]

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.

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『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.

 

  I woke up from death, just after I witnessed the monster the day before my graduation.

  What I could see was a familiar message and a place that I never wanted to think of again.

That school.

  I was back on that day 3 years ago, when I was waiting for the entrance ceremony in the classroom.

bzzt-

[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…]