Chapter 4: The First Boss

It was true that I was 178 cm tall in my first year of high school. After that, I grew only 2 more centimeters to reach 180, and then I stopped.

And around that time, I really did have to pick up trash for community service. But transferring schools? That was an event I couldn’t recall. The setting, a mix of reality and fiction, felt oddly unsatisfying.

No, more importantly.

Who is this guy? Does he normally remember details like a friend’s height from a year ago, their birthday, or favorite food?

As someone who constantly confuses even his family’s birthdays, I couldn’t help but get chills from Seo Yi-han’s rambling answers.

He even knows my favorite food. According to him, we must have been quite close in the setting…

But his overly affectionate attitude made me feel an inexplicable sense of rejection. Yoon Soo-ah, too, brushed her arm and spoke.

“Hey, are you stalking Jae-yoon?”

“Soo-ah, you know this much about Bo-bae too, don’t you?”

“I don’t know Bo-bae’s height from a year ago or her favorite food. Bo-bae, do you?”

“No…”

Han Bo-bae also shook her head, agreeing with Yoon Soo-ah. Seeing their startled reactions, it seemed my discomfort was only natural.

At some point, Kim Ji-ho had hidden behind Yoon Soo-ah, cowering. The sight made me feel an impulse to punch him. What did I ever do to him?

Having constantly shouted “Kill Kim Ji-ho” and “Abandon Kim Ji-ho” while playing the game, I couldn’t view him favorably.

We had just finished the second boss fight, but even in that short story, Kim Ji-ho’s trolling had shone brightly.

For example, he abandoned Han Bo-bae, who was caught by the Aegwi, and ran away. He screamed while running away, attracting all kinds of miscellaneous ghosts.

Once, he almost fell down the stairs while running alone, and Seo Yi-han caught him. At that moment, I cursed loudly and threw my phone, shouting why he saved him, letting him crack his head.

And Yoon Soo-ah, who saw him abandon his close friend Han Bo-bae, grew to hate Kim Ji-ho. Thanks to that, the atmosphere was the worst. It was also Seo Yi-han’s role to smooth over the tension.

Recalling Kim Ji-ho’s infuriating trolling gave me a splitting headache. Now that I’m inside the game, it’s as clear as day that I’ll get caught up in that mad ghost party.

Let’s abandon him.

The conclusion came immediately. I’m not a magnanimous person like Seo Yi-han, so I have no confidence in clearing the game with such a troll. Whether he lives or dies, he’ll figure it out on his own.

More importantly, the prologue part was about to end, and the time when the school turns into a den of ghosts was approaching. That was a bigger problem.

Except for my appearance slightly changing the prologue story and Seo Yi-han’s personality becoming a bit odd, the beginning of the game had passed smoothly.

Suddenly, like in many games or novels, a hope sprouted that if I completed the final boss battle and the characters escaped the school, I might also escape this game.

Maybe I would return to just before being hit by the truck? Or it would go like, ‘When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar white ceiling…’

I was dead, and this is a dream before going to the afterlife… That was the most likely scenario, but including such assumptions made it too gloomy, so I set it aside for now.

“We’re preparing for the festival, right?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“First floor of the cafeteria. The high school is divided into the old building and new building, and the new building is divided into the main and annex…”

“What’s he muttering about by himself?”

“I don’t know…”

“Jae-yoon hit his head hard because of me earlier…”

I must look crazy. But it doesn’t matter. After all, once the game ends, I won’t see these guys again.

Steeling myself, I carefully organized the necessary materials and farming locations for the second boss I had cleared.

Honestly, the first boss? Just go to the cafeteria and find the braised ribs. Skip that. For the second boss, I had to search the entire school to find that damn family photo, but now I remember exactly where it is.

The problem was the four bosses I hadn’t beaten yet.

The trailer video clearly said there were six boss fights. That means there are four boss fights ahead that I don’t know about…

To avoid spoilers, I hadn’t even joined the official cafe, so I didn’t even know the names of the remaining ghosts. If I knew their names, I could use my mother’s various bits of knowledge to deal with them somehow.

As I groaned, Seo Yi-han’s arm draped over my shoulder, he brought his face close to mine.

“You’ve been acting strange since earlier, Jae-yoon. Should I call an ambulance…”

“I said I’m fine. No nosebleed, so why a hospital?”

I pushed away his handsome face with my palm and replied coldly.

Seo Yi-han yielded easily but murmured, ‘Still…’ and took out his phone from his pocket. He fiddled with his phone a few times and tilted his head.

“Huh? Why does it say out of service area?”

“Mine too.”

“So does mine.”

“What’s going on?”

As they each took out their phones and expressed confusion, I also pulled out mine.

The phone, which should have been smashed along with my body by the truck, was perfectly fine. The model had changed, though… And sure enough, my phone also showed “out of service area.”

Seo Yi-han, who had sneakily glanced at my screen, confidently reassured everyone that there must be a problem with the base station. But I knew that wasn’t it.

If we were trapped in the school and had to cause a ruckus, what fun would it be if the phones worked?

The producers, with that malicious idea, had made all the characters’ phones useless and signaled the full-scale appearance of ghosts.

That is, it was time for them to come out.

No sooner had I thought that than the hallway lights flickered and then went out completely.

As if signaling with darkness, an unsettling sound of something being dragged, *cheo-eok cheo-eok*, and a smacking sound of *cheop cheop* began to echo from the hallway.

At the same time, strange letters floated before my eyes, dazzling with red letters, as if I had activated a virtual reality game.

[Player ‘Lee Jae-yoon’, welcome to the late-night school!]

[Hide from the ghosts and search for clues to exorcism to escape!]

[Hint: Ghosts cannot detect humans who do not exhale. Ghosts sense light.]

Seeing the red text, I finally felt the reality that I was inside the game.

Yes, in a way, this is also a virtual reality game. If you remove the word ‘virtual’ in front of it. In virtual reality, getting caught by ghosts would just end in game over, but here…

Would I die? Or restart? Since such advanced technology as a system has appeared, I wish it would give me a clear answer to my questions.

But in front of me was silence. The window that had been blinking slowly to get my attention disappeared, and no matter how much I spoke inside, it didn’t appear again.

I muttered a fierce curse and looked around. Everyone seemed to sense that the strange sounds from the hallway were ominous. They were all on edge.

Yoon Soo-ah, with her naturally fierce eyes wide open, was staring intently at the classroom door. Han Bo-bae was on the verge of tears beside her.

Kim Ji-ho had somehow squeezed himself into a corner of the classroom and was desperately tapping his malfunctioning phone. It seemed he hadn’t given up hope that the phone would work.

Seo Yi-han, too, had a cold, hardened expression and was looking in the same direction as Yoon Soo-ah. I had thought he had a gentle impression, but seeing him serious like this gave off an inexplicable sense of force.

As I lifted my knee to approach the source of the sounds, Seo Yi-han extended his arm, which had been around my shoulder, as if to block me.

“Move.”

“We don’t know what it is; it’s dangerous. Don’t go near, okay?”

Is this something to ask with such a desperate expression? It’s me who’s going closer, and me who’s in danger.

And I’m the one who understands the situation best here, the one with the basic knowledge, and the only one who can handle things to some extent.

“And you, aren’t you in danger? Move aside.”

I chuckled, pushed his arm down firmly, and crept toward the classroom door. Seo Yi-han let out a deep sigh as if to be heard and followed me nervously.

I raised my index finger to signal everyone to be quiet, turned off the light switch on the wall, and pressed my ear to the door.

The darkened view sharpened my hearing. Holding my breath, I focused on the sounds from the hallway.

There were whispers, pained groans, giggling laughter, and the incomprehensible sounds of the dead. And dominating all those sounds, a widely echoing smacking sound.

Right outside. The first boss, the Aegwi.

Along with various miscellaneous ghosts, the boss monster had appeared and was roaming the hallway.

And in the game at this time, the poor characters, who hadn’t received the system’s advice to stay hidden, opened the door out of curiosity and Han Bo-bae almost had her leg bitten off by the Aegwi.

That trauma left her trembling throughout the game, unable to function properly.

“Outside… outside… there’s something… Am I the only one hearing this?”

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