Chapter 2
『Chapter 1. The Nightmare Corridor begins.』
『Please select players from the list.』
『You can select up to 4 players.』
Ever since the status window appeared, it felt like a game situation.
The word 'player' made it even more so.
But "Nightmare Corridor"?
Just the name gave me an ominous feeling that made me swallow hard.
It doesn't seem good at all, no matter how you look at it.
Isn't there a more detailed explanation?
As I tilted my head in confusion, more detailed text appeared before my eyes.
『One day, when you opened your eyes, you found yourself lying in a dark corridor.
Terrible sounds come from that pitch-black corner, and an ominous presence draws ever closer.
You had no choice but to move to survive and escape this strange situation. Eventually, you reach shocking secrets and bizarre taboos...』
...It really does sound like a game description.
If we're talking genres, it's a horror game.
The number of selectable players is 4.
The names in the player 'list' were all people whose faces I knew.
Could I make these 4 people participate in this horror game called "Nightmare Corridor"?
It was natural for my heart to race with excitement at this unfamiliar situation.
I had been longing for something like this to happen for the past two months.
Something extraordinary that would completely shatter my daily routine.
Although there wasn't the "Hypnosis App" I had hoped for, I couldn't afford to be discouraged, or I'd never escape my punching bag status.
Recently, Yang Juhee had said, "Young-won, you live with just your mom, right? And she comes home late every day?" while trying to ask about my home address.
My house becoming a hangout for thugs?
Absolutely not!
I'll protect my home and my daily life.
After much deliberation, I dragged the names I knew well from the player list to fill the slots.
『Kim Geonho』
『Yang Juhee』
『Jung Sojin』
After considering various factors, these three had to be included.
That left one more slot to fill...
I scanned the names on the list.
Among them was the most familiar name.
After thinking so hard I thought I might lose my hair, I filled the last empty slot with a name.
『Ha Young-won』
It was my name.
It might be somewhat reckless, but if 'something' were to happen because of me, I felt I needed to see with my own eyes what would unfold and what the results would be.
Also, although I had been avoiding it in many ways, I might find out why this strange "Status Window" appeared before me.
I was particularly concerned about the part in the Nightmare Corridor description that said, "Eventually, you reach shocking secrets and bizarre taboos..."
"Well... so what happens now?"
There were still 20 minutes left before lunch break ended.
In this leisurely time, I looked around, trying not to miss even the slightest change.
But had I been overthinking?
Nothing happened until the end of lunch break.
"......"
There really were no unusual occurrences.
If I had to point out something that bothered me, it was that even after lunch break ended and class started, the delinquents of Class D like Kim Geonho and Yang Juhee didn't come back to the classroom.
While it wasn't too unusual for Kim Geonho to skip class, it was strange that Yang Juhee and even the class president Jung Sojin were missing class.
Wasn't Sojin extremely sensitive about her grades and school records? Even for a delinquent, Juhee seemed to manage her grades quite intensely.
Tap tap-.
The Korean history teacher, dressed in hanbok, tapped the podium with a danso and asked,
"Does anyone know where these kids are? Try calling their phones. I can understand Geonho, but our class president Sojin and Juhee skipping this Korean history class is unthinkable?"
Originally, it was school policy to collect phones, but due to a female student's disappearance at the beginning of the semester, our school now allowed autonomous use of phones without collecting them.
Some students tried calling the absent students, but no one answered.
The students didn't return to the classroom even as the next period began, or even by the time school ended.
***
"Hey, Ha Young-won. You tattled to the teacher, didn't you? Saying I was bullying you?"
Thwack!
As I came to my senses from the pain of being hit on the back of my head, I saw the small tyrant Yang Juhee frowning at me.
"You're trying to ruin my school record and mess up my life on purpose, aren't you? You pervert!"
"What!? No, what nonsense is this? Why am I a pervert?"
Wham!
Before I could finish speaking, Juhee's fist hit my chest.
My breath was knocked out, and I let out a scream.
"Agh!"
Someone might say I'm overreacting for a sturdy male student to be hit by a girl my age, but that's something someone who hasn't been hit by Yang Juhee would say.
I was a slightly delicate literary boy among the male students─.
It was only natural for me to cry when hit by the delinquent Yang Juhee.
"Ha Young-won! You're trying to ruin my life, aren't you? I know everything! You bastard! Give me back my life! My life! I just wanted to succeed and get out of this hellhole of a home!"
Wham, wham wham-!
Yang Juhee punched my body repeatedly.
I felt like I was going to pass out and desperately tried to explain myself.
"...What are you talking about! Why would I ruin your life? I didn't do it!"
"Really? You swear?"
"Really! I swear!"
Swish-.
Only then did the merciless punching stop.
However, Yang Juhee was still furious like a demon, with horns seemingly growing on her head.
"Still, don't you think it's your duty to take responsibility for my life? Be a man and take responsibility."
"Responsibility? What responsibility?"
"You pervert! You always looked at my legs! Because of you, I've become dirty. Take responsibility! You even confessed that you liked me before! You said you liked me, right? Well, I like you too, Young-won!"
Yang Juhee suddenly rushed towards me.
The fragrant scent of her cosmetics wafted over me.
For someone who had spent three years in an all-boys middle school, it was an overwhelmingly stimulating female scent. Our notorious Yeongji High School was always full of such scents.
I felt the blood rushing downwards in an instant, and my whole body felt like it was melting. Yang Juhee throwing herself at me, how could this be happening!
Perhaps because of that thought, my brain rapidly cooled down.
"Ah, shit, this is a dream. I knew something was off."
No, this wasn't just a dream.
It was clearly a wet dream!
"No! If this continues, I'm really screwed!"
I desperately tried to grasp my senses.
Then, I felt my consciousness rising as if a submarine deep in the sea was surfacing at full speed.
"Gasp!"
I let out a huge scream and shook my body.
When I came to my senses, I was lying on a futon in a dark room.
"Haa..."
My body was drenched in sweat as if I had a nightmare.
But what mattered now wasn't that, but whether I had a wet dream or not.
After quickly checking my pants and underwear, fortunately, they were just wet with sweat, and the dreaded incident hadn't occurred.
"Did I sleep without changing out of my uniform? No wonder I had such a terrible dream sleeping so uncomfortably."
I had the talent to prevent wet dreams by exerting superhuman willpower when I felt one coming on. Honestly, it was an impressive skill.
It became a severe trauma when I had a wet dream in middle school, and my mom, who came to wake me up in the morning, kept asking, "Our Young-won has become an adult? What kind of dream did you have? Was it a naughty dream? Who appeared in your dream?" and teased me for a week.
"Ah, damn. This really sucks... I was too busy to do it yesterday... But still. I did it the day before yesterday, and already..."
Why, don't men's wet dreams have a cooldown period?
Unlike women's menstrual cycles, there's supposed to be a total volume that builds up, right? Wasn't it supposed to not happen until that was full?
I found it quite strange that it had already filled up.
"That was a close call. Why did I have to dream about that of all things..."
Maybe I had this dream because I secretly looked at Yang Juhee's legs up close yesterday.
"That wicked girl. She must have shown her legs on purpose to make me have a wet dream. She must have shortened her skirt just to torment me. What a psycho."
I cursed Yang Juhee as if cursing my parents' enemy as I headed to the living room.
Since I was already awake, I thought I'd get a glass of water...
"What the hell is this─?"
When I opened my bedroom door and went out, the world was a pitch-black tunnel.
The living room of our run-down, cramped two-room villa, where cockroaches occasionally appeared, was nowhere to be seen, and a dark corridor greeted me instead!
"Oh, shit... I'm really screwed."
For a moment, I wondered if someone had kidnapped me while I was sleeping and locked me in a strange room?
But I wasn't stupid.
I immediately realized that this situation wasn't normal.
Although I wanted to understand the situation in more detail, that didn't seem to be the most important thing right now!
Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle-.
The bell sound coming from far away felt particularly strange and ominous!
"Advice!"
I decided to use the 'advice' feature from the status window, which could be used up to twice a day.
I lost the only point I had left after opening the shop, but it didn't matter.
『Advice from 《Broken Clock》: The Nightmare Corridor has hiding spots like cleaning supply closets and lockers where you can avoid the horrors for a certain amount of time. I wonder who prepared these things?』
Hiding spots!
Pat-.
As I felt my way through the dark corridor, I touched something that felt like a rusty iron door. This must be the cleaning supply closet the advice mentioned!
Clank, creak-.
The stench of rotten rags from the cleaning supply closet I quickly hid in was so terrible it felt like it would twist my nose off-.
Jingle, jingle, jingle-.
In front of me, hiding in the cramped iron cage, something I could never have imagined began to pass by.