Chapter 3 — The Horror begins! A pop quiz!
Inside the classroom, students sat at their seats, seemingly waiting for their teacher to arrive.
Both Akira and the stiff Sakura arrived inside the class only to find that they were the last students to show up.
Seeing two empty seats in the middle of the class, Akira immediately pulled the stiff girl beside him without hesitation.
He had a feeling that standing there like a gaping fish wasn't a good idea. As for why Sakura was stiff, you might ask?
Akira looked at his 'classmates' and cursed inwardly, 'Is this some sick joke!?'
The students inside the class were like the ones in the hallway, carrying multiple life-ending injuries on their bodies.
However, while that scene in the hallway had made Airi uncomfortable, it wasn't enough to make her — who had survived these horrors before — freeze up in shock and unease.
What truly made her freeze were the faces of the so-called students themselves.
Black long hair, fox-like eyes, a cold expression, and a small frown that made the lack of flesh on her face more pronounced—
Horikita Suzune.
Green-brown hair, a gentle smile held up by stitches, and a handsome face filled with bloodstains—
Hirata Yosuke.
A sleazy smile, an ugly expression, and a face that could be mistaken for a monkey's butt, with its only positive aspect being its lack of speech—
Yamauchi Haruki.
These were the few he could actually name from memory, but he could see exactly why she was shaken.
Every single entity here
Had the face of a student they knew.
Whether it was someone they knew in passing or a classmate, it didn't seem to matter.
Akira took a deep breath and steadied his racing heart. 'Calm down, it's just familiar faces. A trick to mess with our perception.'
Akira finally calmed himself down, shoving away the feeling of wrongness he felt when he looked at the disfigured faces of his fellow year mates.
Akira sat down, the trembling girl sitting to his right. "Calm down, Airi. These classmates aren't the ones you're thinking about."
Akira was careful with his wording. Though the hints only mentioned not forgetting to associate themselves with the identity of a student of Start Anew Academy,
Akira felt that even mentioning Advanced Nurturing High would bring major problems. After all, what was given were hints, not rules. They show you the way, not the destination.
He looked at the entities mimicking the appearances of their schoolmates before turning to the girl who had already regained her composure and said gently, "Remember who you are. You and I are students of Start Anew Academy now."
Sakura Airi, hearing his words, nodded without resistance. She understood the underlying meaning: 'This isn't Advanced Nurturing High School, and nothing here besides them was actually real. She shouldn't lose composure and shouldn't forget her current identity.'
Both had already adjusted their mentality. No need to worry about something so trivial — after all, their schoolmates were alive and well back at school.
Why should they be so tense?
This is a rare moment to relax, so before they did anything dangerous they should—
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Just then, footsteps outside the classroom rang out. The classroom, which had already been quiet, echoed with the clicking of high heels.
Akira looked curiously towards the door, expecting to see a teacher from ANHS, but was stunned to see a completely different person.
Yes, person.
The figure that entered the class had neither injuries nor seemed to be surrounded by an eerie presence.
She had a slim figure with even body proportions in a simple woman's business suit, long legs wrapped in black stockings, and high heels that screamed 'I am a Queen!'
She was beautiful.
She smiled gently at the students, not caring at all about their appearances, and walked to the podium. "Morning, everyone~ Today's the weekly pop quiz~ I hope you're all ready."
The teacher clapped her hands cheerfully. "Don't forget the rules~ No talking and no cheating. If you get less than 80 points... hehehe~"
The teacher seemed to be normal, so there was nothing to worry about. Well, besides the rest of what she mentioned, maybe.
Akira watched as the 'students' shuddered at the words. He looked at Sakura beside him, who shrank the moment 'pop quiz' was said, and could only think that quizzes are hated everywhere.
Before he could voice his encouragement towards Airi, two papers materialized in front of his desk. After a glance, he noticed they were an answer sheet and a question paper.
Akira considered himself decent in academics. Since this dungeon was based on a school,
He felt that he'd pass without much difficulty if it was a normal test.
However, with just one glance at the question that appeared, he felt like the test had given him a sucker punch.
His intelligence seemed to have been insulted in six different languages, and he felt like laughing at the absurdity of it all.
*Question 1*
What is 1000 - 7?
Akira looked at the paper closely, tilting it like it was some ancient script. He didn't believe that a trial in an Eerie dungeon would be this simple.
Just his first experience was enough to make him understand: these 'games' were made to make the players suffer. The difficulty was between hard, harder, and fucking HARD.
Easy and normal? Sorry, we don't know or understand such a setup.
....
So... what the hell is this?!
1000 - 7? What the hell was this?! This was a fucking dungeon, a place where he couldn't guarantee his survival.
Despite how casual he and Airi acted, both knew how dangerous this place was.
Just because they chose not to panic didn't mean it was any less dangerous!
So how the hell does this 'dangerous place' have such a simple trial?
Is it possible that just because they're only entering, the difficulty was adjusted to toddler difficulty?
...Bullshit?!
The toddlers themselves are annoying monstrosities here, so how the hell is the difficulty so easy?
Akira looked to his side, instinctively trying to rationalize the situation with Airi, when suddenly—
Akira shivered.
He felt a chill run down his spine.
His eyes turned to his left side and met a smiling face inches from his own... the gaze of this entity, who moments ago was at the podium, bore into his soul as she purred, "Don't forget the rules, no talking and no cheating~"
.....Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!
Close, too close, too fucking close!
He turned back to his paper, the pen trembling as cold sweat dripped down his temple.
This place seemed to have some effect on his cognitive functions. Despite the fact he knew this was a dungeon and how dangerous it was,
Despite seeing the glaring problems like how the students shuddered when the pop quiz was mentioned, he still accepted everything, telling himself it's because of the dungeon and not thinking further. Acting like this was normal.
Why?
He didn't know, but he was starting to understand the type of malice this room projected.
He thought of the classmates in here, all familiar faces, and realized: the Eerie entity of this dungeon could influence his perception.
Otherwise, how would it know exactly who he had met in ANHS? Akira had first thought that it had projected every person from his grade, but after he carefully recalled what he had seen, he realized that there were people from other grades in this class too.
Manabu Horikita at the front desk, with his glasses covered in crimson blood.
Miyabi Nagumo, with half his face covered in shadows, his expression locked in pain and fear.
Asahina Nazuna, her skin littered with burns.
And not only that, it seemed this place was able to pry information, possibly memories, to simulate a familiar environment to make him lower his guard
As he turned the paper, he found something that caught his interest immediately.
Hints!
Akira's eyes lit up! The question sheet—
_Flip._
*[ Pop Quiz Hints — Student Copy ]*
*Hint: 1* No talking or cheating.
*Hint: 2* As long as your name is on the paper, it's yours.
*Hint: 3* If you get less than 80 points, 'staff' will 'collect' you.
*Hint: 4* The answer you write is not graded. The answer you believe is.
*Hint: 5* This classroom has 32 desks. Count them. If you count 33, you are sitting in the extra one.
Akira stared at Hint 2. As long as your name is on the paper, it's yours.
He looked up. At Horikita's corpse. At Hirata's corpse. At Yamauchi's corpse.
All of them had papers on their desks. Papers with names on them.
He finally understood the survival method.
Kill the students in class and take their paper without looking up or talking.
If his name was on it, it was his. He didn't need to solve 1000 - 7. He needed to make sure his name was on a paper that scored 80+.
And the only way to get another paper was to kill the 'student' holding it.
No talking. No looking up. Just kill, take, write your name.
The teacher giggled at the podium. "You have 10 minutes~ Start now~"
---
Akira's hand drifted to his bag. His fingers brushed wood.
Nicole's Favourite Pencil.
He'd looted it last dungeon. Standard HB, chewed eraser, but the graphite was cursed. Pierces anything you aim at, if it doesn't block. Nicole Tokage used it to put her caretaker through his throat for telling her "no drawing after midnight."
Limitation: it can't pierce if it's blunt.
He ran his thumb over the tip under the desk. Sharp. For now. One stab. Maybe two if the lead holds. Then it's just wood.
He looked at the 'students.' Horikita's corpse, two rows up, one seat left. Answer sheet on her desk. Name: Horikita Suzune at the top.
Hint 2: As long as your name is on the paper, it's yours.
The survival method was clear now.
He doesn't solve 1000 - 7. He kills the entity, takes the paper, writes Yotsuya Akira on it. Without talking. Without looking up.
Because if he looks up to aim, that's 33 desks. Hint 5: That's the extra one. That's death.
If he talks to coordinate with Airi, that's cheating. Hint 1: That's death.
If the entity blocks the pencil, it fails. That's death.
If the pencil goes blunt mid-stab, it fails. That's death.
The teacher giggled at the podium. "You have 10 minutes~ Start now~"
The 'shhhk' of pencils on paper filled the room. Except Akira and Airi. Airi's pencil was down. She'd followed Hint 6: If your handwriting changes mid-test, stop writing immediately. She wasn't writing because she had 0 points and knew it.
Hint 3: 'Staff' will collect you.
The back door creaked. The janitor stepped in. Mop dripping red.
Akira didn't look up. He gripped Nicole's pencil under the desk, tip pointed up.
Akira felt his heart pounding. His heart beating loudly in anxiety. He took a deep breath and gripped Nicole's favourite pencil tightly
He remembered the layout. Horikita, two rows up, one seat left. If he lunges blind, angles 45 degrees, he hits her chest. If she doesn't raise her stitched arms, the pencil goes through.
If the lead snaps, he's disarmed before he can grab her paper.
He exhaled.
And moved.
The pencil flew with his hand.
No sound. No scream. Just a wet thock as graphite slid through stitched flesh and desk wood like paper.
Horikita's corpse didn't block. It couldn't. Its arms were still miming writing.
Akira kept his eyes down. Reached forward, blind, fingers scrabbling until they hit paper. He dragged it back to his desk.
'Horikita Suzune' was printed at the top in neat handwriting.
He put the pencil to it, right over her name, and wrote. 'Yotsuya Akira'.
Hint 2: As long as your name is on the paper, it's yours.
The pencil didn't change his handwriting. Hint 6 safe.
He set the pencil down. Sharp tip now coated in black-red. Probably blunt now.
He didn't check.
The teacher clapped. "Oh~ We have a passing grade~"
The janitor stopped walking. Turned. Stared at the empty desk where Horikita's corpse sat slumped, a pencil through its sternum.
The janitor's head snapped toward Airi. The mop hit the floor with a wet slap. Red tracked across the tile as it started forward.
Hint 3: If you get less than 80 points, staff will collect you.
It seemed Airi had answered and got less than 80 points!
Akira didn't look up. Hint 1: No talking or cheating.
But the hints said nothing about throwing.
His hand left Airi's. Found the back of his chair. And he heaved.
The chair didn't fly. He didn't stand. He just shoved, hard, with his legs.
Wood screeched against tile. The chair shot backward, blind, and caught the janitor mid-step.
CRACK.
The janitor staggered. Not a scream — it didn't have a mouth — but the sound of wet cloth tearing. The mop handle splintered.
The classroom went dead silent. Even the 'shhhk' of fake pencils stopped.
"Oh my~"
The teacher's voice was honey and razorblades.
Akira felt her shadow fall over him. He still didn't look up. Hint 5.
"Yotsuya Akira," she purred, reading his paper. "80 points. You pass~"
Her finger tapped his desk. Once. "Students who pass may exit. Now."
It wasn't a suggestion.
Akira stood. Didn't look at Airi. Didn't look at the janitor, who was pulling itself up, one leg bent backward. Didn't look at Nicole's pencil, now clutched in Airi's white-knuckled hand.
Hint 1: No talking.
He walked. Each step felt like wading through concrete. Clack. Clack. Clack.Not his shoes. Hers. She was following him to the door.
He stepped into the hallway. The door clicked shut behind him.
Silence.
Then it started.
Thump.
Thump.
CRASH.
Something heavy hit a desk. Something wet hit the wall. A sound like a pencil going through meat, then snapping.
No screams. Hint 1 made so that Airi couldn't scream even if she wanted to.
Akira leaned against the wall and waited.
He counted seconds. Got to 60. Started over.
One minute. Two. Three.
At four minutes, seventeen seconds, the sounds stopped.
At six minutes, the door opened.
Airi stood there. Pale didn't cover it. She was the color of paper. Her school blazer was gone. Her white shirt was soaked through at the shoulder, black-red spreading like ink.
In her right hand: half of Nicole's pencil. The lead was gone. The wood was split. Blunt. Useless.
In her left hand: an answer sheet.
Name at the top, crossed out in shaky letters. 'Yamauchi Haruki' written underneath.
She still didn't speak, likely still feeling the need to follow hint 1 subconsciously
She towards him and buried her face into his chest. No sobs were made but his shirt was faintly soaked and her body trembled violently
Akira started his way towards the cafeteria
Akri fell in step beside him. He didn't ask if she was okay. Didn't look back at the classroom which was closing behind them, the gazes of those entities pouring into their backs.
The door clicked shut behind them.
From inside, the teacher giggles. "Next~ Who wants to try for 80 points~?"
End of Chapter 3