Interlude – Ghost Story, System, Status Window
While the entrance ceremony was happening at the playground, I spent time chatting with Seonah and Gyeongwon in the classroom.
Of course, the bully was still sleeping in the back as always.
In addition to the atmosphere of just starting high school and making friends quickly, we were able to get close quickly because of the shared sense of fellowship that we were messing around without the teachers knowing.
Which apartment do you live in, how long does it take to get to school from home, which middle school did you graduate from, how much did you study, and how much you go to academy, etc.
While we were talking about these and other things that students would normally share with each other, I heard the sound of students coming up after the entrance ceremony was over.
We naturally fell apart again and looked away as if we had just sat down.
After that, the waiting in the classroom continued for a long time, and I was able to slowly organize my thoughts.
Many things happened, but I could sort them out into 3 categories.
Ghost stories, a system that looks like a game, and going back to the past when I die.
First, the ghost stories.
Perhaps the incident I just experienced was a ghost story appearing in the real world.
The contents of the event were similar to how it happened in the ghost story, and I was able to survive by acting like the characters in the ghost story.
Of course, ghost stories were literally stories that floated around, so there were several versions of the same ghost story, although the core plot was the same there were differences in details.
But anyway, the conclusion was that the ghost story happened in reality.
That was the most simple answer.
The second one is the game system.
First of all, there is a game-like system window that is only visible to me.
And this system seems to be giving me various information to help me understand the reality I am facing.
In fact, the first message window that appeared told me that a mysterious creature called the demon king would revive on the day of the graduation ceremony three years later, as well as mentioning in advance the phenomenon of the ‘ghost story’ that I had encountered.
I couldn’t understand it until now so I had just glanced at it and then ignored it, but now I think I need to take a closer look at its contents.
In particular, several words such as the ghost story points, understanding, and status window mentioned just now.
Ghost story point.
… Was it like experience? Or was it a concept like game money since it says it’s a point?
Understanding.
It seems to be a number that goes up when I get to know something about the other person or figure out their personality.
In fact, when Seonah informed me that she usually reacted slowly, my understanding of her improved.
This was because even when I guessed that Gyeongwon was the type of person who brags about knowledge or puts forward smart things, my understanding went up.
And the status window.
It says it’s been unlocked, but how do I use it? Hmm…
I tried calling out the status window in my mind just like how I opened and closed the tutorial message according to my will.
‘Status Window!’
Paaat-
《Status window》
Name: Lee Jun
Age: 17
Title: Main character
Tendency: [Two sided] NEW! ▷ Click to expand
Special ability: None
Quirk: Cramming*
(*T/N: Cramming refers to basically rushing to get a job/studying done just before an event (ex. a test))
Oh ho, I admired it from inside.
It was like a character stat window in a game.
It didn’t have to say my name and age, but my tendency was two-sided… Does that mean that my personality is two-sided?
It said, ‘NEW!!’ and that I should click on it to expand it, but since a long message appeared I closed it back down.
‘It’s too long… I’ll slowly read through it when I go home later.’
I had no idea what special abilities and quirks were.
Was it like a skill?
Anyway, after examining it for a bit, it was similar to the feeling of a character stat window and information window in games.
‘Can I use it on other people too?’
I turned my head around and looked at Seonah who was sitting by the wall.
Seonah was spacing out as she watched her fingers wriggling at the desk.
‘Yoon Seonah, status window!’
Paaat-
《Status window》
Name: Yoon Seonah
Age: 16
Title: Dirt Spoon
Tendency: ??? ▷ NEW! Click to expand
Special ability: ???
Quirk: ???
Understanding: 5/100
[Insufficient understanding of the target person. Get more information by interacting with this person.]
Maybe it’s because we just became friends.
A message came to mind saying that there was a lack of understanding.
Unlike the status window about me, both the tendency and quirk were question marks.
I clicked on Seonah’s tendency that had question marks with the words ‘NEW!’
Click
Tendency: ???
– She is slow to act
The one line Seonah said earlier about how she was slow to react
It seems that the more I know about the other person, the more it would say about them.
This time, I turned to look behind her and looked at Gyeongwon.
Gyeongwon was reading an unknown thick book.
‘An Gyeongwon status window!’
Paaat-
《Status window》
Name: An Gyeongwon
Age: 17
Title: Professional Offline Wiki
Tendency: Explanation Freak ▷ NEW! Click to expand
Special ability: ???
Quirk: ???
Understanding: 20/100
In the case of Gyeongwon, my understanding was considerably higher than that of Seonah.
Perhaps that’s why the tendency was properly marked as ‘Explanation Freak’ instead of question marks.
Click
Tendency: Explanation Freak
– He thinks he is smart and likes situations where he can show it off. His way of speaking is also hard like the style of an intellectual.
‘Just as I thought.’
It was exactly what I had assumed earlier.
Was it because he had a personality that’s easy to understand?
It was written the same way I assumed it, so my understanding had improved significantly.
This time, I looked at the girl sleeping in the very back seat.
I was asked to make a total of 3 friends in the quest.
I didn’t know why but it seems the system window had recognised her as my friend.
‘Oh, my. Why am I her friend?’
It was amazing, but I called the status window for now.
“……”
Come to think of it, I didn’t know her name.
However, I shouted inside with the will to look at her status window.
‘Bully girl status window!’
Paat-
《Status window》
Name: Lee Jinhee
Age: 17
Title: The bully girl in the back seat
Tendency: ???
Special ability: ???
Quirk: ??
Understanding : 0/100
[Insufficient understanding of the target person. Get more information by interacting with this person.]
‘As expected…’
I didn’t know anything about her so the results weren’t surprising.
‘By the way, the name of that scary-looking girl was Lee Jinhee.’
That was something I didn’t know at all, but what did it mean to have it written in the status window?
Did this mean that the status window works beyond my understanding?
Then, there was one other thing that bothered me.
It wrote 16 for Seonah’s age.
‘We were born in 2003 so we are 17 years old…….’
It’s been a while since the early years program was abolished, so did they enter the school quickly?
If I check this out later, I think my hypothesis that the system works beyond my understanding will be confirmed.
I’ve roughly looked at the game system, and now it was time to think about my repeating life.
The first word that came to mind was time loop.
I think I have seen it a few times in sci-fi novels.
Regression, past life, or time loop.
Whenever I die, I seem to go back to the entrance ceremony.
‘It gives me a headache……’
Every time I died, I was back at the entrance ceremony… What did that mean?
Even if I thought about it right now, nothing came to mind.
So I would probably have to experience it a few more times before I could fully grasp it.
‘Why is this happening to me all of a sudden……’
As I was thinking about this and that.
A middle-aged man with a protruding belly entered the classroom.
He said he was the homeroom teacher and introduced himself hoping that we would get along well for a year.
‘3 years. My 3 years of high school life started again.’
I studied to death for three years and took the CSAT, but my three years of high school began again.
‘F*ck……’
Whether it’s ghost stories or a demon king, absurd events took place one after another and I didn’t think about it at first, but when I look back on it, it’s actually quite troublesome.
There are so many people who throw away their personality even if they retake a year, but to retake three years… Haaa…
“Then I’ll give you the printed version of the guidebook. The person in front of each row gets it and passes it back.”
At the teacher’s words, the student in front of each row went to the classroom table.
“On the back of the paper, there are rules such as alcohol, smoking, and required hair length, read it carefully so you don’t get hurt.”
The middle-aged, bald homeroom teacher who used honorifics at young students, started distributing the printed materials.
I took a print from the person in front of me and handed the rest backwards.
I didn’t even read it because it seemed like it was the obvious stuff with the school history and rules written on it.
My head was already dizzy because of trying to organize and accept the strange phenomena from earlier.
So for the time being, I didn’t want to think of anything, whether it’s text, knowledge, information, or whatever.
‘Because I have a weak mentality.’
In my last life, just studying for the CSAT gave me pain.
It’s not that I had a bad brain, but I was mentally a bit premature, so I tended to get tired of doing something for a long time.
The type in which all genes are engulfed in fast-moving baby hair depending on the moment-to-moment situation.
When it comes to exams, I lived my whole life without doing anything but cramming.
Thanks to this, I did well on the exams by memorizing things in a short period of time, but in the CSAT, where I had to study continuously for a long time, I was terrified, so I got into a university in a mediocre place.
I tend to solve things that are just around the corner somehow by rolling my head quickly.
In the end, it was not possible to succeed by constantly cramming.
‘I want to go home and rest……’
Even in this situation, rather than wanting to find out more, I felt like I wanted to go home and rest.
My brain capacity was already saturated, so I couldn’t help it.
‘… Come to think of it, if I went back to 3 years ago, my house must be our old house. I should draw a picture.’
Murmur-
Suddenly, I heard the sound of my classmates whispering.
Our classmates looked at each other and exchanged anxious glances.
‘…What?’
An unusual atmosphere.
Then, the school broadcast rang out.
[Ah, a notice from the broadcasting room. It has been confirmed that the rules book that was just distributed to you was printed incorrectly, so we will promptly retrieve it. Again informing that. We will retrieve the prints with the school rules that were just distributed to you. The homeroom teachers of each class are requested to collect the prints again without leaving anyone out. That’s all.]
Murmur-
Then, the homeroom teacher hastily received something and rushed back into the classroom.
“Ah, the rules print is wrong. This time, let the student in the back give it to the person in front of them.”
I was wondering what was happening, so I picked up the paper to look at the print, but I took my print at the same angle that the student collecting them in front of me heard me.
He seemed to think I was holding out to make it easier for him to collect.
‘What was written on it?’
I didn’t read it because I was being lazy, but I regretted it thinking that I should have atleast skimmed through it.
But it’s not like I didn’t have any friends.
If I ask Gyeongwon and Seonah, whoI just met today, I could find out what’s going on.
And after a while.
“Sorry. I didn’t read it because I thought the contents were obvious even if I did read it.”
Gyeongwon sighed softly.
“……”
Then Seonah next to me hesitantly said to me.
“I’ve read it, but I can’t remember the details since I quickly rolled it up…”
Oh my!
“Do you remember what it was about? What was wrong with the print that made everyone buzz?”
When I asked, Seonah furrowed her eyebrows as if slowly recalling her memories.
“Actually, there was no problem with the printing… there was just some strange content in it……”
“Strange content?”
“That is……”
Seonah opened and closed her mouth several times as if having a hard time explaining.
“The rest of the content was normal, but among the school rules… it said that you can’t meet with a girl…”
“A girl?”
Me and Gyeongwon asked at the same time.
A girl?
Why was a girl specifically mentioned in the school rules?
“If you meet a certain girl you should be careful…”
“What kind of girl?”
“Um, a smiling girl? I think…”
A smiling girl!
“Be careful if you meet a smiling girl in school?”
Seonah thought about it again, and then she frowned.
“Sorry, there were instructions on how to be careful… but I can’t remember that…”
Be careful if you meet a smiling girl in school.
Was she saying there was something like among the school rules?
“……”
“Who was playing around?”
When I looked at Gyeongwon and talked to him, he looked like he was deep in thought.
“Well, it could be a joke. But my first thought is that it seems to be quoting a popular manual ghost story.”
“Manual, ghost story……?”
Ghost Story!
The word ghost story was mentioned again!
“It’s a ghost story that recently became popular on the internet, but it’s the kind of story that contains a mix of bizarre and unknown warnings in seemingly ordinary notices. Have you ever heard of it?”
Manual ghost story……
T/N: Actually at the end it would probably be better to say ‘smiling woman’ but they are first years in high school so I figured girl was a better term than woman.