Chapter 5
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Diary
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Diary
Thud.
Footsteps.
Thud, thud. Thud.
Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud.
Thud. Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud.
The sound of footsteps was incessant.
The heavy thuds grew closer.
The security guard appeared in the main entrance hall.
‘Please, just go away...’
I held my breath and curled into a ball.
I watched the outside through a small hole in the cleaning supply closet's door.
Thud, thud, thud.
The guard wandered endlessly around the main entrance. It seemed he was looking for someone.
‘Of course, it's me.’
He would never dream I was hiding in a cleaning supply closet.
Now, it was a battle against time.
I waited in silence for the guard to leave.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
How much time had passed?
He should have given up and left by now, but the guard showed no signs of leaving.
He just kept pacing in circles, lingering in the main entrance.
‘When is he going to leave...’
Thanks to him, I saw no opportunity to get out of the closet.
My back was starting to ache from staying hunched in such an uncomfortable position.
I carefully tried to shift my posture.
He won't hear this, right?
The moment I leaned slightly to the side, a creak echoed from my backside.
Creeeak!
The old, rusty metal box boasted the worst durability imaginable.
The slightest movement produced a sound that could shatter eardrums.
I'm fucked!
Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud. Thud. Thud, thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
The guard came running at a terrifying speed.
I instinctively gasped.
‘Hngh!’
I stopped breathing, afraid he might hear me.
The guard's footsteps were right in front of me.
Thud, thud.
I was in a standoff with the guard, separated only by a scrap-metal door.
My tongue was bone dry.
The cramped, enclosed cleaning supply closet was filled with years of settled dust.
Even breathing was a struggle.
The guard lingered, looking around the closet with no intention of leaving.
My heart pounded wildly every time he passed in front of the door.
‘Ugh.’
Suddenly, my throat tickled.
I had inhaled too much dust from hiding for so long.
It felt like the dust had seeped into my very lungs.
My throat began to itch.
The dust crept all the way up my gullet.
I tried to hold it in, but I was at my limit.
“Cough, cough!”
I coughed up a mouthful of old dust, feeling like I was developing pneumonia in real time.
And I knew.
I was well and truly fucked.
Thudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthud.
A chill ran down my spine.
Time seemed to slow down.
I slowly brought my eye to the crack in the door.
And my eyes met the guard’s as he stood right in front of the closet.
“Shit!!”
Startled, I tumbled over with a clatter.
The impact sent a creaking sound echoing through the hall.
The guard voyeuristically watched my display.
Then, a slow smirk spread across his lips.
It was an expression I’d never seen before.
Seeing it made my heart sink. I froze on the spot.
The thought of fighting back didn't even cross my mind.
‘I have to move...’
My body wouldn't listen.
The guard grinned and leaned in closer. And then,
-Creeak
The closet door slowly opened.
The guard greeted me with a pleased smile.
I couldn't resist. Like a frog before a snake, I felt the reality of my death.
The moment I tried to move my stiff legs—
-Snap
I felt something vital in my head snap.
My mind grew distant. My body went limp, without the strength to even lift a finger.
Slowly, my vision faded to black.
[You have died.]
[Restarting from checkpoint.]
**
...I opened my eyes, still slumped over my desk.
“...”
The classroom was pitch-black.
The clock pointed to exactly 12:00, and the notebook open on my desk was just as it had been.
It was a perfect match with the situation from moments ago.
Time had turned back, just like before.
As I sat there blankly, the ticking of the clock brought me back to reality.
“Hoo...”
My heart was still pounding. The guard's grinning face flashed before my eyes.
“Fucking bastard...”
My head felt like it was twisted in knots.
I patted myself down to check for injuries, grateful to be alive.
It seemed that whenever I died, I returned to this point at 12:00 sharp.
A save point, perhaps.
I happened to pick up the notebook lying on the desk. A message popped up.
[You have acquired the Diary.]
I opened it to the first page.
A number was written in red text.
[00:00]
‘So this was it.’
It must have signified the save time.
The fact that I returned to the classroom at 12:00 every time I died proved it.
I brought up the Diary's detailed description.
[Diary]
【Can be used to record your journey so far. Requires Ink to use.】
[You do not have any Ink.]
‘So I need an item called Ink to save.’
It seemed like something I could find naturally as I searched the school.
If I could only save using Ink, I'd have to be careful about when I did it.
‘This is going to be a pain.’
I needed Ink to escape the school smoothly.
I stood up, deciding to find the Ink first.
The classroom scenery came into view.
The densely packed desks.
The lockers, covered in red paint.
The class bulletin board, plastered with notices.
It's actually nice to see it all again.
It was all so familiar now.
Since I already knew the puzzle's solution, there was no reason to go through that ordeal a second time.
‘It was around here... Found it!’
I searched the desks, retracing my memory.
I quickly found the recorder hidden deep inside a desk.
[10319 Jin Dayeon]
Just like before, I saw the name tag on it, but I didn't care at all.
Even if it belonged to a female student, my actions were justified.
It was necessary for survival.
Putting my mouth on a classmate’s recorder in the middle of the night was the only way I could survive.
This Jin Dayeon girl would probably nod in understanding if she heard my story.
‘If you have a problem, come to the classroom and tell me yourself.’
I felt completely justified.
I immediately put the recorder to my lips.
The first time is the hardest; the second is easy.
Covering the holes in sequence, I slowly blew into it.
“Hooo~”
Screeeech!
A shrill noise echoed through the room.
And a moment later,
-Clank
The back door's lock clicked open.
I checked to see if the guard was there, then cautiously slipped out of the classroom.
I felt a subtle sense of déjà vu.
I took a shallow breath to calm my nerves.
Hoo, hoo.
I could clearly see what was about to happen. The scene was still vivid in my mind.
‘I won't let myself get caught so pathetically again.’
I steeled myself, recalling the guard's beaming, grinning face.
I set out, determined not to be found this time.
**
Thud. Thud, thud, thud.
Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud.
‘Go away, just go away...’
The footsteps rang in my ears like tinnitus.
I curled up and squeezed my eyes shut.
The guard passed by the cleaning supply closet. Thankfully, he didn't spot me.
Even after that, the guard continued to circle the area, sniffing around.
He seemed to be searching for someone with great intensity.
‘Go away while I'm asking nicely, you bald bastard.’
I cursed at him to get lost.
At that, the guard tilted his head.
It wasn't because of my curse.
He twisted his head around, as if puzzled that he couldn't find me.
Finally, the guard turned his back.
He took a step, then another, and at last, he left the main entrance.
Thud, thud.
He disappeared down the west wing corridor, probably thinking I had escaped to the other side.
‘Oh, he's leaving...!’
Whatever he thought, it was fine by me.
I prayed desperately for him to get the hell out of the main entrance as quickly as possible.
Thud... Thud...
The footsteps grew more distant.
Still, I didn't let my guard down.
I waited, holding my breath until the guard had completely vanished.
‘Is he gone?’
The footsteps had completely faded.
Silence finally fell over the main entrance.
Only then did I emerge from the closet.
“Cough, cough!”
I started coughing violently the moment I got out.
I spewed out a lungful of aged dust that had settled deep inside me.
My throat was raw from how much dust I'd inhaled.
After a fit of coughing that brought tears to my eyes and snot to my nose, I finally came to my senses.
‘That was a close call...’
The experience of being in the cleaning supply closet was the absolute worst.
It felt like I'd boarded an express train to pneumonia.
In games, characters hop into lockers or trash cans without a second thought.
Reality, as expected, was different. My whole body ached from being hunched over for so long.
“Hoo...”
I stretched lightly and took a deep breath.
The clean, fresh air outside filled my lungs.
Somehow, I had narrowly escaped death.
‘Do I have to hide like this from now on?’
Having to squeeze into a cleaning supply closet every time the guard popped up would be quite an ordeal.
I prayed I wouldn't run into him anytime soon.
Now, where to go?
I worked out the stiffness in my body and checked the main doors.
Bound by a heavy chain, the doors wouldn't budge.
Escape was impossible unless I cut through it with something like bolt cutters.
Did that mean there were bolt cutters somewhere in this school?
In Tsukuru games, the protagonist always has a final objective.
In Ao Oni, it's the front door key.
In The Witch's House, it's the potion that dissolves the roses.
Exploring a building to progress towards a final goal is the typical story structure of a Tsukuru game.
In that case, the final key to escaping this school was the bolt cutters.
Would they be in a storage room or something?
I considered where bolt cutters might be kept.
That's when I noticed the map on the main entrance wall.
[Building Directory]
It showed a simplified layout of the main building.
I scanned the directory.
A storage room, the most likely place for bolt cutters, was located in a corner of the basement.
‘The basement?’
After getting a rough idea of the location from the map, I headed for the nearby stairs.
But I couldn't go down to the basement.
...It's blocked.
The basement stairs were blocked by a shutter.
A perforated metal sheet stood firmly in the way.
As if that weren't enough, it was also padlocked.
Getting into the basement like this was impossible.
I should have known.
Disappointed, I rattled the useless padlock. A sticker on its surface read ‘Basement Stairs.’
To open the firmly shut shutter, I needed the basement stair key.
Why is this so complicated?
There were so many things I had to do.
I organized my current situation in order.
‘To escape the school, I need to cut the chain,’
‘To cut the chain, I need bolt cutters,’
‘To get the bolt cutters, I need to go to the storage room,’
‘To go to the storage room, I need to go down the basement stairs,’
‘And to go down the basement stairs, I need the basement stair key.’
‘Fuck...’
I had a long way to go.
The mountain of tasks ahead was suffocating.
I felt a strong urge to just give up on escaping and everything else.
But I had to survive.
It was all something I had to endure.
Reluctantly, I checked the building directory again.
The layout of the first floor was laid out before me.
I scanned for a place that might have the basement stair key.
‘The teachers' office?’
The teachers' office was a place dozens of teachers used every day.
It seemed plausible they'd keep a spare emergency key there.
‘I can't be sure, though.’
Even as I guessed, I was half in doubt.
But I had almost no other options.
As long as there was even a slim chance, I couldn't just pass it by.
I had to pin my hopes on the teachers' office.
‘Well, I'll find out when I get there.’
I headed for the teachers' office.
I prayed desperately that the guard wouldn't jump out on the way.