Crackle, crackle.
A deafening silence flowed through the living room. Amidst the silence, except for the crackling of the wood in the fireplace, no other sound could be heard.
In front of the wooden door, the members of Ghost Story Club were standing in a threatening pose. I, the President, stood at the front with the axe raised above my head. On my right, Hayoon had her crossbow aimed at the closed door.
And the other members stood behind me, each of them holding miscellaneous objects as a weapon. Even our breathing seemed to have stopped at the nerve-wracking situation.
In the silence that was neither comforting nor rewarding to us, time flowed by. Eventually, after a few minutes, Gyeongwon, who was standing behind me, approached me on the left and whispered in a sotto voice.
“Why aren’t they coming in?”
“I don’t know. Let’s wait for a few more moments.”
While maintaining our stance of attacking the moment we encountered those people, we waited for a few more minutes, trepidation rising in our hearts.
However, not even a fly entered through the door. Even the noise of those unknown beings copying our conversation couldn’t be heard. Everything just turned quiet all of a sudden, as if those voices we heard were just our auditory illusion.
Only the crackling sound of a burning firewood entered our ears in the pin-drop silence. In the end, feeling a bit impatient, I stepped toward the door, my movement cautious.
“I’ll go out. Cover me.”
“Be careful.”
Stepping onto the wooden floor, I walked to the door, being extremely careful not to make a single creaking sound.
Then, with the speed of a snail, I pushed the door open, holding the doorknob.
The wooden door opened soundlessly, a result of my extreme cautiousness to not make a sound.
“No one seems around.”
Poking my head through the small opening, I looked around everywhere my eyes could venture, attempting to perhaps get a glimpse of the intruders. However, as far as my vision stretched, only the endless green pasture and the small hill which we climbed and found our house were all I could see.
As the evening began to approach, the sky had darkened a bit. But the vast green land in front of the house still appeared to be the same.
“No one? But we definitely heard some noise just now…”
Gyeongwon muttered as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead in anxiety and uncertainty.
I opened the door fully, and let my eyes wander through every corner of the vast pasture, then nodded to the members, indicating them to come forward and take a look.
At the corner of my vision, the tip of Hayoon’s arrow appeared, still aimed at nothing particularly.
“Let me take a look…”
Hayoon approached the door beside me, her steps cautious and calculating.
In a similar manner to mine, she also poked her head through the door and looked around. And just as I had expected, nothing out of the ordinary entered her eyes either.
Taking a step back, I was about to close the door and turn around to enter the house and instruct some things to the members.
However, before I could cross the threshold, my gaze collided with the eyes of the members of the Ghost Story Club, hiding in a row right behind the open wooden door.
With their eyes wide open as if astonished, the five of them stared at me. Mirroring their expression, my own eyes opened wide, as if they were about to pop out of my socket at the sudden appearance of us. To be honest, rather than their appearance, it was the way all of them were stuck on the wall that astonished me the most.
Hayoon seemed to have an extraordinary sixth sense as she immediately sensed something was wrong and swiftly twisted her body towards the back of the wooden door. Her step, which was about to retract into the house, quickly passed the doorframe as she aimed the crossbow she was holding behind the door where my gaze was stuck.
Clang.
“We have appeared again.”
“What should we do, Prez? Should we kill ourselves with the glass of the window before they barge in through the door?”
“As I’ve said before, only endless pastures are around. There’s no place to hide. We’ll be discovered soon and chased down to be eaten like meat.”
“Why aren’t they coming in?”
“I don’t know. Let’s wait for a few more moments. I’ll go out. Cover me.”
The people, or rather the beings copying our movements began to converse among themselves. However, their words came out faster than us, ordinary people, and seemed more like meaningless muttering without intonation.
Hayoon clenched her teeth and fired the crossbow she was aiming at those strange beings.
Clang!
Thump.
The arrow flew through the air and hit the neck of the fake Hayoon, who was also stuck to the wall with the fakes of us.
However, even after an arrow pierced its neck, the fake Hayoon didn’t move an inch.
“President! What’s going on!”
The members, who had been standing behind me, saw me and Hayoon standing still and staring behind the wooden door, and immediately realized that something was wrong. Quickly approaching us, they asked in a loud voice.
“Sunah, go down and search with the others, why are you bothering me? Hayoon, please shoot an arrow at Sunah’s head with your crossbow.”
“Okay Hayoon. Let’s go down and search together. Don’t behave like a fox and seduce my Joon.”
“Try to understand the situation. Don’t be jealous unnecessarily. It’s okay. The real Sunah is a coward and a beggar who doesn’t even have money to go to an internet cafe.”
Without hesitation, I quickly raised the axe at hand and took a threatening stance.
While I took my stance, Hayoon bit her lips and took another arrow from her waistband. However, before she could aim and shoot, the fake Gyeongwon suddenly opened its mouth.
“You have to think of a way to get us out alive, Prez. You have to take responsibility for using us like this. For using us like your puppets. You use the Ghost Story Points for your own comfort and luxury even though we all fought with our lives on the line and earned them. You eat whatever you want while starving us and making us work like dogs. Don’t say shit like turning the time back.”
“Shut up! What the hell are you guys!”
I swung my axe in the air threateningly as I demanded strongly.
“What are you! Tell me!”
The members all rushed to me from the living room, trying to figure out who I was threatening and asking.
At the same time the members approached me, the fake members, who were stuck to the wall, all stretched out their arms forward. As if they were puppets, their legs bent in an odd angle as they separated themselves from the wall of the house.
And before I could comprehend what was happening and come to my senses from witnessing something so bizarre, the fake members jumped out of the wall and started running. Their movements aligned as their arms and legs moved in perfect sync.
Kang-!
Without wasting any time, Hayoon’s arrow flew through the air and landed on the large back of the fake Dukhun who was also running away. However, just as the fake Hayoon didn’t show any reaction when the arrow hit its neck, the fake Dukhun also didn’t stop and continued running.
“P, P! Prez! Who are they!”
“Catch them! We must catch them!”
I hurriedly followed the fake members who were running away and chased after them. But their speed was incredible and soon there was a big gap between us.
It was as if the developers had input the commands into the characters all at once. The five fake members all ran in a harmonious sync without a single error, each of their steps in a perfect coordination.
“Huff, huff.”
“Haaa, huff.”
Eventually, we couldn’t chase them down and collapsed in the middle of the plain. Those fakes were ridiculously fast, it was impossible to chase them with our human speed.
We watched as the fake members of the Ghost Story Club ran and quickly became dots beyond the horizon before disappearing into the distance.
“We missed them, huff, huff.”
“Let’s go back… Haa… Haa…”
* * *
“The house is exactly the same as the one we built. And those things also look similar to us…”
We returned to the house and stood in front of the front door as I muttered.
Suddenly, I remembered the body of the fake Sunah which should be lying on the second floor and decided to check on it.
“Guys, let’s go to the second floor first before we go in.”
“Why?”
Sunah tilted her head with a confused expression.
“There was also a fake Sunah among those who ran away earlier. It shouldn’t have appeared since Hayoon had already caught the fake Sunah and shot it with an arrow when we first searched the house.”
“….Hmm, I see. Then let’s go check it out.”
After the members all agreed, we climbed the wooden stairs, leading to the second floor, nervously.
Carefully opening the wooden door, we peeked inside before stepping in. The body of the fake Sunah was still lying on the floor with an arrow lodged in its head.
“It’s sickening…”
Sunah turned her head away as if she felt sick witnessing her own body lying on the floor with an arrow stuck in its head.
“What do you think this possibly implies?”
Quietly examining the body, I asked the members.
“One fake was already killed, but another fake appeared…”
“There might not be just one fake, but many more.”
Gyeongwon muttered with a thoughtful look as he stroked his chin.
“Could it be that they’re our ‘replica’?”
Dukhun also muttered beside him.
“I don’t know what’s happening… but the house, and us. It seems like we’re all being replicated.”
“It might be dangerous to explore any further, Prez. Let’s go back.”
Gyeongwon suggested with a solemn look.
“I’m not saying this because I’m scared like before. I’m saying this because I think we’ve stepped into a pretty dangerous situation which may affect us in reality.”
“…Yeah, I think so too.”
Is he finally admitting that he panicked and acted like a jerk after entering the Far Away Land because he was scared?
However, I had no intention of going back since no useful information was found so far.
“Let’s go back to the first floor for now. It’s a bit disgusting to keep talking next to a corpse.”
“Yeah.”
Soon, we went back down to the first floor and entered the house once again. Gathering in the living room, we took our seat around the fireplace.
I took a deep breath before opening my mouth.
“But I’m sorry, in my opinion, we should continue exploring this place a bit more.”
“Hmm.”
This time, Gyeongwon showed a thoughtful look instead of being angry.
“Can you tell me why?”
“Of course.”
I cleared my throat as I started explaining.
“For now, we haven’t found out anything, nor eliminated anything. Since we came all this way, if we go back now empty handed, our efforts will have been in vain.”
Just for this ghost story, we started playing the game from scratch, learned how to control our characters and searched for the edge of the world, and even worked hard to build a house in the end…
Although there were times when our thoughts and opinions didn’t align, we still came a long way.
Going back now is just akin to throwing all our efforts into vain.
All that would greet us was just an empty internet cafe.
“We have worked so hard, so it’ll be a shame to give up and go back. There has never been a time when it wasn’t dangerous to go back.”
“But.”
Slowly looking at the expressions of the members, who looked a bit hesitant, I opened my mouth again.
“However, that doesn’t mean I’m just asking you to meaninglessly sacrifice yourself.”
“Hmmm….”
“The world will face a catastrophe in 3 years, so it’s imperative for you to follow me in the fight. Besides, won’t the time turn back if I die anyway? I think it’ll be horrible to live the same life and go through the same experience again.”
Perhaps because I had lived a life before and also died many times, death doesn’t seem to faze me. However, for the members, it was their first time encountering such phenomena as they fight, risking their lives.
“None of you have to accept that kind of obligation.”
The members silently agreed, as if they had been thinking about this all along, even if they hadn’t expressed it outwardly.
I nodded in satisfaction as I realized they understood it as well.
It seemed I successfully avoided the trouble of them rebelling.
“Instead, I think I should reward each of you for your contribution.”
“Reward? What reward?”
I nodded.
“The points we’ll be getting after resolving this ghost story, I promise to spend all of them on you.”
The members showed a surprised look at my declaration.
“Even if I have to convert it into money, it’ll be several hundred thousand won per person. Not to mention, the system also has a function where I can spend points to raise your level. I don’t know how it works, but I think you’ll definitely gain some kind of skill with it.”
“Hoo.”
Dukhun stroked his chin as if he was intrigued by the offer.
“Can we get all the skills that the President has, like the Lip Reading one?”
“…I guess I’ll have to try it to find out. I haven’t leveled any of you up yet.”
“I see.”
Dukhun slowly nodded.
At my declaration of a possible reward, the atmosphere around the members slowly began to change. For the first time in a while, they seemed a bit enthusiastic.
The members all were interested in the offer.
“Of course, as I’ve mentioned earlier, you can either receive money or a skill as a reward instead of leveling up. 1 point is worth about 10,000 won.”
“Hmm, not bad.”
Dukhun showed extreme interest.
It seemed Hayoon also didn’t expect it. Although her expression didn’t change, she crossed her arms and nodded at the unexpected amount.
Since all of their attention was on the reward, I decided to suggest a much better offer to the guys.
If they’re offered a big reward right after a small reward, which fell on them like a big pie from the sky, the effect will be twice as great as the original expectation. It was human nature to be enthusiastic about bigger rewards than the ones they originally received.
“And on graduation day, after we all save the world from the Demon King, I’ll reward you guys something bigger. I will use the power of the system and help you guys win a lottery of 1 billion won.”
“For real?”
At the sudden and unexpected offer, the expression of the members changed rapidly. As if they were asking, did I hear something wrong?
The expressions of the members who had been tallying the rewards of hundreds of thousands of won until just now slowly hardened.
“Of course, assuming that we successfully defeat the Demon King and achieve a happy ending.”
“….Prez.”
Gyeongwon asked with his eyes open and jaw trembling.
“You are not kidding, right?”
“I’m not.”
Although I replied affirmatively, I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Why wouldn’t it be possible?”
The expression on everyone’s face gradually changed as realization dawned over them.
“Oi, oi. Are you serious…!”
“Joon… Can you really do it…?”
“Oh my god.”
I nodded while looking at the excited members.
“I believe it’s possible. I can turn back time anyway. So I can see which lottery, bitcoin, or stocks will win in the future.”
“Eeeeeeeeeee!”
Dukhun suddenly let out a loud scream, not being able to contain his excitement.
“That’s craaaazyyyy! I believe you!”
Starting with Dukhun’s brain-splitting and ear deafening scream, the excited atmosphere gradually heightened.
“Actually, I’ve thought about that a lot, but I couldn’t say it because I was afraid it would be too obvious. Who would have thought the President would mention it first.”
“Joon…”
Sunah’s eyes were practically shining.
“Tondemoyattojanaika! I’m gonna follow you everywhere from now on!”
[T/N: Tondemoyattojanaika (トンデモヤットザナイカ) is Japanese which means ‘it’s unbelievable’, ‘it’s incredible’, etc.]
As Dukhun’s enthusiasm began to sour, he began to jump in his seat. I made a gesture to calm him down and try to gather my compusure in the heated atmosphere.
“Three years later, it’s what I’ll do three years later. I don’t plan on doing the lottery thing right now. Besides, according to the current law, minors can’t buy lottery tickets or receive winnings. It’s against the Juvenile Protection Act.”
“From Prez’s explanation, it seems you have thought it through.”
Smiling, I waved my hand at Gyeongwon who gave an expression as it f he had figured out what I was thinking.
“Why don’t we ask the detective or the teacher, Joon? They could buy us a lottery ticket right now…”
“No. Although we all have been through a lot of hurdles and witnessed many life and death situations, but in the end, we’ve only known each other for a little over a month. I can’t trust you with such a large sum of money yet. And like I said before, it’s not that I can’t, it’s that I don’t plan on doing it right now.”
“Why don’t you plan on doing it now?”
“Because we don’t need money right now.”
In a convincing voice, I tried to reason them.
From my very first regression, I had been thinking and planning this. All I needed was neatly organize the information in my head before delivering them to the members.
T/N: In case the readers are confused, the door to the house opens to outside, not inside. And the stairs leading to second floor is also on the outside, not inside.
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