School (1)
“Hahaha! I wondered if you’d really show up, and here you are!”
Damn it.
I’d wondered too, and sure enough, I really did end up running into the school idiot.
“Yeah, whatever. Explain the situation here. The things I need to watch out for, what kind of weird thing this place is, that sort of stuff.”
“Seriously? You look older than me. Why are you talking down to me?”
“What does that have to do with anything when we’re both students?”
“...Fair enough?”
The school guy scratched his head hard and pulled over a chair to sit down.
God, this still wouldn’t feel right.
A grown man who looked like he should be called Contractor Kim wearing a school uniform.
If this wasn’t a haunting, what was it?
“We’re safe for now, so sit tight. The test just ended a little while ago.”
“Come to think of it, you said there’s a test every day. Did you do okay?”
“Barely hanging on~ English is just total bullshit, man. One word looks like another, the pronunciation’s all over the place, ugh. Hey, Daejang. You good at studying?”
“So-so.”
I was confident.
Confident I’d fail.
Back when I was in school, I hadn’t exactly had much interest in studying, and after graduation I’d forgotten almost everything ages ago.
Honestly, I was more worried about the test than the weird thing.
“Tsk tsk... Should’ve studied more, then.”
“That’s rich coming from a thirty-year-old repeat student.”
“Still, I’d say I’m better than you. The books you need are in the lockers in the back, so just go study first.”
“What studying? I’m going straight to killing the weird thing and clearing this place.”
“Oh, right! Daejang, you can kill weird things!”
The school guy shot to his feet, then dropped to the floor and clutched my ankle with both hands.
He looked up at me with desperate eyes.
“Please take me with you! Please? That shopping mall! If you get me out of here, I’ll do anything, seriously! Huh? Don’t leave me behind!”
“Hey, let go. That’s disgusting!”
“I’m begging you, for real! My one dream is to sleep through the night in peace!”
“I said let go already!”
If this had been some woman clinging to me and whining, that would’ve been one thing. But for a middle-aged guy to be doing it like this was a brutal hit to the soul.
Come to think of it, maybe this school guy was the weird thing.
The thing that doesn’t belong, hiding inside the ordinary.
What could be more unnatural than a grown man in a school uniform?
“You serious? That’s a promise, right?”
“If I want to no-clip, I have to kill the weird thing anyway. After that, follow me if you want, or stay here and use this as a safe zone. Up to you.”
“I’m sick of studying!”
So he wanted to follow me. Whatever. Just tell me about this level’s janitor thing.
“But the janitor is seriously strong. You sure you’re okay?”
“It’s still just a humanoid, one single target, right? I’ve taken down worse.”
“Ah, hey, give me a weapon too! I’ll fight with you!”
“Hmm... I’ll think about it and maybe lend you one.”
All I had to lend was Black Moon.
The bracelet was a little iffy to call a weapon.
I could give him Black Moon and have him use the hammer, but handing over my own gear felt off.
It was like giving a stranger the rope holding up my life in the Backrooms, where one wrong move meant you were dead.
“What was your ability again?”
“Existence Erasure. While I hold my breath, I disappear, like this.”
The school guy in front of me vanished as if he’d only been an illusion.
I couldn’t feel a single trace of him, not even the slightest sign of his presence.
When I spun around, Black Moon already raised toward the finger tapping my shoulder, the black blade touched the school guy’s Adam’s apple, and he hiccuped in place.
“Hic-”
“Damn it, you could’ve just appeared in front of me. Why sneak around behind me and try to scare me like that?”
“Shit, does that mean you can just swing a sword around like that?”
“How am I supposed to know what might happen in the Backrooms? The fact that there’s another person here is weird enough, so don’t go scaring me for no reason.”
The school guy rubbed his throat, pouted, and went back to his chair. What the hell was wrong with this middle-aged man? Why was he acting all sulky?
“Honestly, I don’t know much about the janitor. I’ve only seen him from time to time when I was hiding and happened to pass nearby.”
“You said you tried to take him down once.”
“Yeah. And I almost died. I smashed him with a chair, but he didn’t even budge. The chair turned into scrap metal, though. He chased me like a maniac, and I barely got away by burning my ability.”
“How did he attack?”
“He just kept trying to grab me with his hands... Ah! He was insanely strong, so desks and everything else just flew around like paper.”
“Hmm. So the attacks are simple.”
Then this wouldn’t be anything too hard compared to Spider Woman.
Compared to those threads that stuck to me like maggots and were dangerous one strand at a time, a single janitor was easy enough to carve apart.
And at least I’d made it here without missing the exam window.
“Right, instead of this, I should brag on the gallery!”
“Come to think of it, where the hell were you using the gallery?”
“There’s a computer lab. Come on.”
Oh, plenty of computers.
The school guy must’ve been on the gallery before coming here, because one of the screens was already open on the forum page.
Could I use this from the side too, maybe?
“This one turns on too. And it shows my account.”
“I can’t wait to see how much that Hotel bitch loses her mind.”
“Stop poking at her for no reason. She keeps doing her whole menhera thing in my comments.”
“Just keep it moderate.”
That did not look like a face capable of moderation at all.
All fired up, the school guy started typing with one finger.
...So he wasn’t a middle-aged man. He was an elder?
“I’m actually pretty fast, you know. I just don’t know my way around computers since I’ve been farming.”
“That sounds like a perfect fit for GuinongiDab.”
“I don’t sit at the same table as people who look down on farming.”
Was this some kind of rural territorial crap?
The school guy had said he was thirty, but based on his face and the way he acted, I felt like I needed to raise that number a bit.
As expected, the gallery treated SchoolBuddy Haunt’s words like complete bullshit.
Well, even the person involved was wondering whether this was reality, so what could you expect?
I had something else to ask now.
Was that Backrooms level that rough?
Still, Jemmin, who knew a lot more, was better than this middle-aged trouble magnet.
That SchoolBuddy bastard had managed to survive by taking the tests and staying alive, hadn’t he?
For a student, how hard could it possibly be?
What mattered first was coming up with a strategy to deal with the janitor.
“Take this for now.”
“Oh... this thing’s gorgeous. You’re giving me this sword?”
“Lending it. Your ability is basically invisibility, right? While I tie the janitor down, you hide, then come in from the side and bring the blade down on his neck.”
“M-me...? His neck?”
“...Forget it. Hand Black Moon back. I don’t trust you.”
“No! A man should be able to do at least that much! You can trust me!”
“Hmm......”
I still didn’t trust him.
Should I just keep Black Moon myself and lend him the bracelet?
But if the janitor got wary halfway through, that would be a disaster, and a hide-specialist like SchoolBuddy really would be best suited to the neck strike.
If I wanted to make a surprise attack, it was awkward to switch positions now.
Let’s keep the setup as is for now. If it comes to it, I can always use the hammer myself, so it’s better to split the weapons.
Just as I was sorting out my thoughts, ding-dong-dang, the school bell I hadn’t heard in ages rang out.
“Ah, it’s dinner service. Come on, let’s go. We have to check the report cards, and you’ve got to eat the meal no matter what.”
“You said before that you can just ignore the surroundings and eat, right? Only the students who fail disappear... but you didn’t fail, did you?”
“I actually did well this time. I was worn out from being chased yesterday, but weirdly enough my head felt really clear.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
And so we went back to the classroom, walking over to the blackboard where the report cards were posted.
The students’ names were glitched out to match their faces.
Could I try killing these weird things too, maybe?
“...Uh......”
“Huh? Why... shit, don’t tell me?”
“...W-what do I do? I think I... might’ve filled it out wrong......”
29. ̶□̶□̶□̶
30. ̶Kim ̶Gwak-cheol ̶
This idiot SchoolBuddy had failed.