Akira opened his eyes. As he sat up he looked at the surroundings with sharp eyes
Moving his legs, he got off the dust covered bed with minimal effort. He checked his clothes for the equipment he had stored and clicked his tongue when he felt nothing, 'I'm not even surprised'
He took another look at the surroundings, this time analysing the place and trying to see what he could find useful
The place had dim lighting and was in poor condition, it consisted of one bedroom, kitchen and bathroom
Besides some expired noodles and school supplies there was nothing in the entire dorm besides a set of school uniform, a school bag and school ID with his name on it
Taking his phone out, he also found out that there was no reception and besides being able to check time, he seemed unable to use other functions of his phone terminal, "Guess there's goes my only way to get in touch with Airi"
Akira sighed rubbing his head and went towards the doorway leading outside, but as he reached it the familiar voice of the Eerie game ringing in his head on again
[ The game's first hints have been delivered
Happy game to all players in this dungeon~]
He felt his hand grabbing onto a paper and looked to find what seemed to be hints
Before he could read them the voice of the Eerie game rang again
[ Welcome to Start Anew Academy! ]
[ Congratulations! You're one of the 6 lucky players selected for this dungeon run! ]
[ The objective of this dungeon run is to survive 3 days! ]
[ Good luck to all players! ]
Akira had spent about 4 minutes checking the hints regarding this dungeon
Unlike the one he was in 2 weeks ago with Airi, this one seemed to emphasise hints more than the previous one, where they just had to survive that cursed house
Hearing the voice of the Eerie games surprised him somewhat.
After all, last time it only spoke when congratulating them on surviving, it had not done anything else.
Akira pondered before concluding it had something to do with either the difficulty or the number of players
Last time he and Airi simply had to survive the haunted house filled with eerie entities acting as children for 6 hours
Besides hiding and running from the entities the entire time, they only killed one entity during the last minutes of the dungeon in a desperate situation
Now he could see that while this dungeon had similarities with the previous one they were in, it had a way higher level
The
[ Dungeon hints:
Hint: 1 All students must be out of their dorms before 07:00 AM and back to a dorm with their assigned number and name by 07:00 PM
Hint: 2 No one is allowed to smoke or drink in the school building. If you find one or suspect one of doing so, report to a teacher or staff immediately and they'll come to take the said person for disciplinary action
Hint: 3 Remember who you are! You are a student of Start Anew Academy! The rest does not matter! Only this identity is important and must be used to identify oneself. Whenever identifying oneself being a student of Start Anew Academy must not be forgotten!
Hint: 4 There are only two dorm buildings in this school, for first and second year students respectfully! There are no other students grades besides those two nor are there any other dorm buildings
Hint: 5 If a student is not from the 1st or 2nd year immediately find an excuse to leave! This school only has 2nd and 1st years as students
Hint: 6 If you are in the ***** **** ******** you must ****** the ********* before the ******** arrive
Akira stopped reading as he noticed the increasingly unclear writing on the paper he was holding
He put it into the school uniform pocket he found himself wearing when he woke and continued his way towards the door
Opening it, he found a dimly lit hallway awaiting him as he walked out he checked the room number
Number: 47
Tenant: Yotsuya Akira
Akira took note of his room number before he went deeper into the hallway, his objective to meet with Airi
In this dungeon the game had said there were a total of 6 players
Akira didn't want to even guess what players would do if they realised their lives are hanging by a thread, with one mistake being the difference between life and death
Creek!
Akira, who had just passed the first dorm to his right stopped. He didn't want to open the dorms as he didn't know the sequence consequence of such actions and would rather they open the doors themselves
If it was Airi, he'd be happy to meet up with her early. If it is another one of the players he wouldn't care but if it was....
Seeing the person who walked wearing a school uniform similar to his with a gentle smile that was similar to ichinose's, Akira found that he couldn't relax at all.
Because the 'gentle' student staring at him with bright eyes held its head with its hands. Akira decisively took 2 steps back, his posture shifting tensely and his left hand going into his left pocket
The entity, seemingly confused by his guardedness wore an awkward smile and walked past him and towards the end of the hallway
Akira breathed a sigh of relief. He stared at the back of the decapitated student going to the end of the hallway and sighed with conflict
This entity was the first 'kind' one he had ever met. After all the ones he usually saw attacked the moment they perceived his presence
Akira had always been exposed to the supernatural, even before these Eerie games began to surface he and twin sister had unlocked something called yin-yang eyes
These eyes lead them to develop their black circles from lack of sleep. Akira mildly wondered if his sister Yotsuya Miko had experienced the so called Eerie games herself
Akira frowned in concern. Unlike himself, while Miko had strong mental fortitude, she was still a normal high school girl
Although due to an incident that happened last year, she and him don't exactly see eye to eye anymore, she was still his sister. He didn't want her, already cursed to endure the evil spirits of the real world, to be thrust into this mess called the Eerie games!
Akira quickly caught himself, suddenly having his mind filled thoughts of his sister had made him temporarily forget where he was
He focused his attention and started walking again. His steps were not quiet and his pace was slow
More 'students' got out of the rooms as he passed their rooms, all headed towards the end of the hallway
Akira vaguely felt he should follow where they were going. After all, he, like the entities of this building shared a common identity. Students of Start Anew Academy
According to the earlier hints, he should be heading to the school building. Although Akira couldn't see what the hallway which was filled with dark miasma led, seeing the 'students' all head there meant he would eventually have to go there himself
Whether to investigate or to leave this place, either reason was enough but first he had to check what he could find here
He didn't rush, making sure that he had walked the entire floor he turned back and knocked on all the doors that hadn't opened before saying he was a student of Start Anew Academy
After all, the special hint emphasising identity seemed very important. The writer had strongly insisted that he must mention his identity as a student of Start Anew Academy while inside this dungeon
So Akira chose to be cautious, he wouldn't be the stupid type of person who'd test what would happen if he didn't act accordingly with the rules of the Eerie games. After all, he was playing with his life!
Akira moved from one to another without rush repeating the same procedure until
"Akira-kun?" A tense voice asked cautiously
"My name is Akira Yotsuba, a student of Start Anew Academy, let's go to school classmate."
The door swung open before a pink missile flew into his arms. Sakura Airi hugged him tightly, "Woo woo woo, this place is so creepy, Akira-kun! It's even creepier than the last one, I was scared to death when I realised you weren't here! Which golden thigh was I going to hold if you weren't here!"
Yotsuba Akira pushed the girl who had been genuinely scared but is now fooling around off him
He really didn't know how this girl, originally so thin skinned could become so shameless in less the 2 weeks
Was it really caused by that life and death situation?
And what did she mean with 'which thigh golden would she hold'?
Akira turned to Airi, "Did you come into contact with any other player?", Sakura shook her head in denial, "Besides opening the door at 07:00AM, I did nothing else.
After seeing those shadows disappearing in the hallway I didn't dare open it again!" Sakura said her face a little pale
Akira thought silently, when he first woke up the time on his phone was 06:58AM, which according to the rules was a time where everyone was supposed to be in their dorms
Sakura said she opened the door at exactly 07:00AM as she wanted to meet quickly with him and caught the attention of figures shrouded in the shadows disappearing
Presumably, it was for this reason that students weren't allowed outside their dorm rooms before 07:00AM
Akira patted Sakura' a pink hair and smiled , "Good thing you are the same as me, cautious about your actions, if you'd run into the hallway blind you'd likely never have the chance to act so shameless"
The pink haired girl hugging him said nothing but silently let go of him and looked away
Akira didn't have to look at her to know she was blushing
'This girl'
He took a step towards the direction of hallways end, footsteps followed him without him saying anything, "Did you read the Games Hints?" He asked the girl behind him
Sakura following at his back and paying attention to the surroundings, answered his question, "Yes though I couldn't read what was in written in hint 6 continuing downward"
Akira without looking back asked Sakura to tell him the rules she read but before he could finish saying his sentence, he found a familiar paper being held in front of him
Akira looked at it and saw that it was the hints of this dungeon run. As he read through them he noticed that they're were the same hints though they're written in different order
"Thanks, I think I understand now, it seems we just have to survive these three days in this dungeon." Akira held the sheet of hints in front of Sakura and continued, "The way to safely do that is to act like the 'students' for this dungeon named Start Anew Academy"
Akira looked Airi in the eyes, " Where is your school equipment?" Sakura blinked before smiling stiffly, noticing the bag on his shoulder and uniform he was wearing she turned to her room, 'room 53', with a "Please wait a bit" before entering the form room
2 minutes later, Sakura emerged clothed in the uniform and carrying her bag. Both she and Akira were headed towards the miasma. Sakura, though a bit scared didn't hesitate to follow Akira when he mentioned where they were
She had been carried in the previous dungeon and though the had managed to acquire a few cursed tools in the previous dungeon, she had no delusions that she could handle this one
Akira looked at the miasma, and without hesitation, directly stepped inside it along with the girl beside him.
Almost immediately after stepping in both felt as if their bodies were failing, all their senses stopped working and a cold sensation travelled up their bodies
Akira despite not seeing anything continued forward while holding the hand of his companion. He moved forward despite the fact his body couldn't even tell left or right
And just as he was wondering if the path would stretch on forever, he felt light entering his eyes. The transition between abyssal black and shining white made his eyes shut tightly
This pain!
Was comparable with a Mangekyo Sharingan backlash
Yotsuya Akira slowly opened his eyes and took a look at the completely unfamiliar scenery around him and the still critically damaged Sakura
She was crouching down, holding her face with both hands covering her eyes. Akira vaguely caught phases like "it burns" and "too bright" from the pinkete
He looked at the school corridor filled with students walking and talking about, without a care in the world.
Akira noticed that unlike the ones in the dorms these ones didn't have any sort of injuries on them. He turned to Sakura and raised a brow in suprise
'Black lace? huh, colour me surprised'
Because she was crouching and the school uniform had neither safety shorts the legendary white cloud to obscure his vision, Akira saw exactly what was underneath Sakura's royal curtain
Seemingly sensing his gaze, the girl looked up only to find him staring at the sheet of game hints with intense focus
She laughed and spoke dryly, "That sheet is upside down, or are you trying to see if the hints will change if the paper is held differently" The sarcastic tone didn't seem to register as Akira nodded firmly
Akira looked at the girl glaring at him and said righteously, "As expected of my partner, able to so easily see through my thought process"
With that both he and Sakura headed towards the only classroom that was open in front of them, with Akira ignoring the mumblings of "pervert" behind him
As the two of them entered the classroom, four other figures in another space sat inside a dorm room
Ichinose looked at the people in front of her and couldn't help but put on a bitter smile, " It's seems I'm not the only one who ended up in this place, huh"
The other two didn't have the energy to comment, only looking towards the only person who had a relatively calm expression
Ryuen, who felt their gazes clicked his tongue in distaste but still spoke, "Heh it seems the shadows in the hallway did a number on you huh? As expected of the defects of class D "
He continued his voice growing more mocking, "Even if this is a haunted place or whatever, having such a hopeless look without even trying to find a solution is pathetic. At least I, Ryuen Kakeru, would never- "
Just as Ryuen was about to finish speaking, a cold presence filled the room. Goosebumps rose atop their skin and a chill ran down their spine. Before he could react, his body flew out the form room towards the hallway
His previous bravado was gone and the only thing that was left were the screams of his disappearing figure
End of chapter 2