Chapter 239: Beat the Ghost to Death?
March 20th, Overcast.
They say the lake behind the old school building is 'unclean,' but I didn't believe it.
But during free time in P.E. class today, I really saw something.
There was a figure standing across the lake wearing an old school uniform. Their wet hair was plastered to their pale face, a dripping hand constantly beckoning to us.
Ono said it was a senior who went missing a few years ago, named 'Zang' (The Hider).
They all say that 'Zang' is still waiting for someone to look for him...
March 23rd, Rainy.
During evening self-study, I heard footsteps in the hallway—very light, very slow. Squish. Squish.
I secretly peeked out the back door.
A figure dripping with muddy water was looking into the classrooms one by one, pressing its face against the doors. It seemed like he was looking for someone.
When he reached our classroom door, he suddenly stopped moving.
I quickly pulled my head back, my heart hammering in my chest. Then, a raspy voice drifted through the glass, coming from a face pressed flat against the window, staring through hollow eye sockets.
"It's... your turn to look for me..."
March 25th, Night.
We found last year's old newspapers.
"Shimada, a third-year student at Yongye Middle School, went missing during an in-school Hide-and-Seek game... His body was found in the lake three days later; suspected accidental drowning."
The boy in the photo wore square-framed glasses and had a very shy, gentle smile.
But the report stated that his posture when found was incredibly strange.
His arms were stretched rigidly forward, his eyes wide open and staring, as if he were still desperately looking for someone...
March 26th, Early Morning.
I had a terrible dream.
In the dream, I was also playing Hide-and-Seek. I covered my eyes, counting to thirty before starting to look.
While searching, I walked into the dark woods behind the old school building and saw a person sitting alone on a wooden bench by the lake.
I happily ran over and patted his shoulder. "Found you!"
He slowly turned his head—
His entire face was swollen and sickly pale from being waterlogged. His eyes were two empty black holes, but his mouth was stretched into a grotesque, tearing smile.
"Amazing... Now, it's your turn to be the ghost."
I looked down at my hands. They were dripping with cold, murky water too...
April 1st.
He has entered.
He is always playing Hide-and-Seek.
He starts looking when he counts to one hundred.
Must not be seen by him.
Must not make a sound.
Especially don't let him touch you.
If he pats your shoulder, then—
The diary ended there. Or rather, it wasn't a natural conclusion; the jagged edges of the binding indicated the following pages had been violently torn out.
"So, we need to play Hide-and-Seek with that ghost named Zang?"
A tall boy broke the heavy silence, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.
"Not necessarily." Haruto leaned against a nearby desk, his tone entirely too casual for the grim atmosphere. He shook his head slowly.
The tall boy furrowed his brows, clearly struggling to follow the logic.
Kaguya chimed in, a faint, elegant smile playing on her lips as she smoothed out a crease in her skirt. "Zang has already been found. The owner of this diary started dripping water just like Zang did. So, clearly, the diary owner is the one who took over the role. He is going to be the ghost."
She paused, her dark eyes sweeping over the nervous players. She smiled again, the expression holding a hint of dark amusement. "Of course, there's another possibility: everyone who gets caught will turn into a ghost."
Hearing this, the tall boy's face drained of color. His posture stiffened immediately.
The surrounding players shifted uneasily, the temperature in the room seemingly dropping a few degrees.
"Does that mean there are two ghosts chasing us now?" someone muttered. "And with every person who dies, the number of ghosts increases by one?"
"I'm just saying it's a possibility," Kaguya said, waving her hand dismissively as if discussing the weather rather than a deadly curse. "Didn't you read the diary carefully? On March 26th, after the diary owner touched Zang, he said to him, 'Now it's your turn to be the ghost.' So, it's highly probable that the diary owner became the new seeker, while the original ghost is now hiding along with us."
As Kaguya's words sank in, a suffocating silence descended upon the group once more. The idea of a ghost hiding among them, or lurking in the same shadows they were supposed to use for cover, was paralyzing.
"Then... then what are we waiting for? Let's hide quickly!"
A girl with twin ponytails broke the quiet, her voice trembling so violently it sounded like it might shatter. She clutched her sleeves, her eyes darting toward the dark hallway.
"No," a man wearing a thick down jacket interjected, shaking his head firmly. "We definitely have to hide, but we can't afford to miss any clues right now. The most critical thing is to find the blood words prompt and gather information related to what happened back then."
"Blood words? We've already found it." Kaguya spread her hands in a relaxed gesture.
The normal players blinked, a collective breath hitching in their throats. Their expressions rapidly shifted from dread to sheer relief. Even the way the girl with twin ponytails looked at Kaguya softened considerably, replacing her earlier panic with desperate gratitude.
Haruto casually pulled out his phone, swiping the screen to pull up the photos of the blood-red text he had taken earlier in the Teaching Building. He turned the screen toward the group.
"We didn't have time to look closely before," the man in the down jacket muttered after a moment of tense silence, leaning in to read the glowing screen. "We heard those screams outside and rushed out immediately."
He read the text, his brow furrowing. "The time limit... from midnight until dawn?"
"The mission is confirmed, so why waste more time? Let's find a place to hide quickly!" the girl with twin ponytails urged, her panic rising again as she looked at the clock.
The tall boy sighed helplessly. He leaned over, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, and whispered an explanation. "We can't all hide together. This is Hide-and-Seek; we have to hide separately."
"That's right," Miko nodded, her golden eyes serious. "Hiding in a large group is incredibly dangerous. Only by spreading out can we minimize the risk. If the opponent has some kind of area-of-effect or tracking ability, we could all be caught in one go. It's best to split into pairs and hide separately."
The girl with twin ponytails opened her mouth to argue, but the tall boy gently covered her mouth. He offered the group an apologetic, strained smile. "My girlfriend and I will be a group."
The man in the down jacket looked around at the remaining players, then checked his watch. "There are still six hours until midnight. Let's use this time to look for more clues."
With a silent agreement, the players scattered, returning to their original positions to continue tearing the rooms apart for anything useful.
Haruto slipped his phone back into his pocket and began moving down the corridor alongside Miko, Kaguya, and Rin Setsu. However, after a few steps, he noticed the rhythmic crunch of boots trailing right behind them.
"Something the matter?" Haruto stopped, turning his head slightly.
Miko and the others halted as well, turning to face the intruder.
It was the man in the down jacket. He held his hands up in a placating gesture, forcing a polite smile. "Let's introduce ourselves properly. I'm Andre. Don't worry, I mean no harm. I just want to see if anything was missed near the blood words. You guys seem... experienced."
Haruto merely raised an eyebrow, while Kaguya didn't even bother to ask further, her attention already drifting to the peeling paint on the walls.
Seeing the lack of objection, Yotsuya Miko stepped up and politely introduced the members of their side, keeping the details brief.
The newly formed group of five handled back to the Teaching Building, their footsteps echoing softly in the desolate halls. They soon arrived at the exact spot where the blood words had materialized.
Andre stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he carefully examined the glass-covered bulletin board on the wall. He leaned in, trying to decipher if there were any hidden indentations or secondary messages beneath the crimson streaks.
Suddenly, a sharp CRACK shattered the quiet.
Glass exploded outward, raining down onto the linoleum floor.
Miko and Rin Setsu jumped, startled by the sudden noise.
Haruto stood there, his fist casually pulling back from the shattered pane. Without a hint of hesitation, he reached through the jagged hole and tried to rip the blood-stained notice right off the corkboard. It wouldn't budge. It was as if the paper was glued to the fabric of reality itself.
Unbothered, Haruto pulled a colored marker from his pocket, popped the cap off with his thumb, and tried to scribble over the bloody text to see if he could alter the rules. The ink simply slid off the paper, leaving no mark.
Seeing this blatant, almost disrespectful testing of the instance's boundaries, everyone immediately understood what he was doing. He wasn't scared of the curse; he was probing the system's structural integrity.
Andre stared at Haruto, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock and deep admiration. He hadn't encountered a player who treated a deadly supernatural warning like a faulty piece of office equipment before. He clearly lacked experience in this specific brand of madness.
With Andre added to their ranks, the group's search progressed at a much faster pace. Moving with mechanical efficiency, they swept through the classrooms, offices, and storage closets. In about two or three hours, the entire Teaching Building had been thoroughly checked, leaving no desk unturned.
It was now 8:30 PM.
The agreed-upon meeting time for all the players was 9:00 PM.
With a little time to spare, the five of them ventured outside, conducting a brief sweep of the nearby small woods where the shadows grew thick and twisted. They searched until the clock nearly struck nine, then rushed back to the designated meeting point in the courtyard.
The others were already waiting there, shivering in the cool night air.
The middle school wasn't exceptionally large. Eleven people searching diligently for three to four hours was more than enough to cover the entire playable area.
While Haruto's side hadn't uncovered anything new in the woods, the other groups had hit the jackpot, returning with crucial items and a terrifying new piece of information.
They dropped four heavy, woven fishing nets onto the ground. Alongside them was another crumpled page of the diary.
No, upon closer inspection, it wasn't a continuation of the previous diary entries. It read more like an independent, system-generated clue left behind by a previous victim.
The messy handwriting stated a grim rule: For every person the ghost catches, its movement speed increases by 10%.
But it was the final line that changed the entire nature of the game. It was a hidden rule, scrawled in frantic, heavy strokes:
In the last ten minutes of the game, if you cover the ghost with a Ghost-Catching Net and beat it to death, you can end the game directly.
[Inorin's Note:
Hey guys, hope you're enjoying the novel! A quick Power Stone, comment, or review really helps the story grow and keeps me motivated.
Hate waiting for updates and cliffhangers? You can skip the line, avoid all those annoying ads, and binge 50 chapters ahead by supporting my work here:
🌐 Read on our site: Search for Elysian Reads on Google or Check the link in my Webnovel Profile bio!
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters & Ad-Free): Search InorinTL on Patreon
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]