Midnight Patrol: The Cursed Rules
On night duty... ugh. I'd dozed off before I knew it. Checking the clock, I hurriedly grabbed the duty log and jumped up from my seat.
"What's the rush, sir?"
"It's time for the night patrol. Tsk. I meant to finish reading the log before patrol started, but I fell asleep..."
"Why not just skip it? Ghost stories might pop up, and patrolling at night without knowing anything is dangerous. Skipping one night won't raise any flags."
"No choice. I'll read the log while patrolling. And like I said in club time, if a real ghost story shows up, we have to resolve it before anyone else notices."
Elaine seemed opposed to patrolling without prep, but we couldn't just skip it outright. I dragged the dawdling Elaine along, grabbing the lantern and duty log before it got any later, and stepped out of the duty room.
Click. Closing and locking the door behind us, the surroundings were plunged into total darkness. Unlike the brightly lit city streets of my past life even at midnight, Hifnia's tech hadn't reached modern levels yet. The only light sources were the lantern in my hand and the moon hanging outside the windows.
"Talk about atmosphere."
"We're out now, but... what exactly do we do on night patrol?"
"Dunno. The detailed route and tasks are supposed to be in the duty log..."
Ignoring Elaine's worried voice trailing behind me, I flipped open the duty log and shone the lantern on it.
"Hmm. This part's the handover log, next page is the academy map, and... ah, found it. Night patrol rules. Let's see..."
The moment I found what I was looking for, I nearly dropped the lantern in my hand.
"Kyaa! What's wrong?!"
"Oh no..."
I realized it the instant I read the night patrol rules page. We were already smack in the middle of a ghost story.
"This... is definitely a ghost story, right?"
"Yeah. No normal person writes patrol rules like this."
My head spun, but part of me felt relieved. Now that's more like it for the Paranormal Investigation Club.
"But... what kind of ghost story is it? I've never seen this one before."
"Ha. You don't know every ghost story? Don't worry. I do."
Elaine, unusually, tilted her head without spotting the ghost story type from the rules. Luckily, I knew this one.
Manual ghost story. Also called rules ghost story—this was huge in my past life, 2020s Korea. In some ways, more famous there than here.
"...You know this ghost story?"
"Surprised I know ghost stories? Looks like I'm better at this one than you. I'll take the lead."
And so the night patrol began.
Manual ghost stories give a manual of rules. Horror peaks from imagining what happens if you break them. To amp fear, rules are detailed yet baffling, consequences vague or omitted for maximum creepiness and mystery.
Counter? Simple yet hard: follow the manual exactly. It baits imagination to kill mysteriously but offers survival rules amid the weirdness.
Exiting the duty room, I faced the first classroom with some tension and opened the door.
"Just check around here? Ugh, creepier than I thought."
"Yeah. Patrolling dark spots with just a lantern? Twisted hobby for a ghost story."
Rule 3: Check every room, lock doors.
"Can't we just peek and bail?"
"Nah, can't risk it."
Rule 4: Anomalies get a talisman. No details on consequences, but nothing good.
"Not like you to miss basics. Thrown off by an unknown story? Won't be much help like this."
"Ugh... I'll focus from now on."
"Haha. Good. Stay out of the way and work hard."
With Elaine here, midnight patrol felt doable. Alone? Scary as hell. Glad she came.
I scanned the dark classroom carefully with the lantern. After a thorough look, one issue hit me.
"But even for anomalies... how do we know what's anomalous?"
A chair out of place? Chalk smudge on the board? We'd waste limited talismans arbitrarily.
"Ah! Sir, is that it?"
Elaine spotted something and called me over. There, a chair writhed like a living thing—covered in twitching flesh.
"So this is an anomaly..."
I grimaced at the fleshy, squirming chair but inwardly sighed in relief. Obvious weirdness—no missing it.
I pulled a talisman from the log's last page and pressed it to the glistening flesh-chair. It stuck like glue; the writhing stopped instantly, reverting to a normal chair.
"Eww. Whoever sits here tomorrow's in for it."
"We'll resolve the ghost story before then. It'll be normal again. No worries."
"..."
"Good job anyway. One down. Check for more."
"Ah, yes."
We circled the room but found no other anomalies. Locking up, we finished the first room.