I'm a Supporting Role in a Horror Game, Don't Kill Me

After returning to my room, I summarized the results of my long-awaited excursion. First, I went through the diary I got from Green Mason and the items I found on the street. Arviche Green wrote her diary more thoroughly than expected, but a quick look through it revealed nothing noteworthy. It was just a fragmentary diary, such as how I struggled to live with my aunt every day and how going to Rearmond Mason made me feel burdened. Aside from that, I went through all of Arviche’s belongings, but I found nothing particularly suspicious.

‘I don’t think this will explain why I was targeted by a serial killer.’

I was going to throw away all the things I brought from Green Mason, but for now, I just put them all together in a corner of my desk. These are the things I brought back from my long trip to Green Mason, and I was wondering if I could find out more. After organizing the remaining items that were useful when working on likability, I changed my clothes and lay down on the bed. When Luke came back, he would be watching me again. It would have been nice to look around this house a bit before that, but I had a hard time exploring the entire park from early in the morning, so I couldn’t stand the rush of sleep. As I forced myself to close my eyes without opening them, my consciousness became increasingly blurred.

Gradually, little by little.

Thanks to falling asleep early, I fell into a light sleep in the middle of the night. Perhaps because of that, a faint sound in the middle of the night tickled my ears. If you concentrate and listen, it seems like you can’t hear anything, but as soon as you try to fall back into sleep, you can hear a very faint crunching sound. At some point, I suddenly woke up, feeling like I was about to wake up, with goosebumps all over my body. I opened my eyes and listened in a completely dark room. For some reason, when I consciously tried to listen, I couldn’t hear anything.

‘But it was definitely the sound I heard while playing hide and seek.’

I rolled my eyes as much as I could in the dark. The weather was so cloudy that I couldn’t tell the time by looking out the window. I turned on the lamp and got up. The small cuckoo clock in the room said it was exactly past midnight.

“…I thought I fell asleep lightly, but I slept for quite a while.”

I approached the window and looked outside, but it seemed like the carriage and horses had all been taken inside for maintenance. I couldn’t tell if Luke was back or not. Did he come back? Even if he had come back, it was so late now that he would have gone to bed. No matter how much I thought about it, the answer was to just stay still, but my mind kept running to the basement.

‘Normally in horror movies, the person who is curious is the first to die.’

But I felt like I would miss a crucial clue if I didn’t check.

‘Furthermore… If you hear a sound that you haven’t heard before, you might know that the door that was always closed may be open.’

I bit my lip, eventually slipping my feet into soft slippers and walking out the door wearing a white robe over my one-piece nightgown. The hand holding the lantern was shaking, and the light and shadows illuminating the hallway also swayed. I was nervous because the walls and carpet kept looking orange because of the lamp. I felt like someone was going to suddenly appear and grab me by the back of my head at any moment, so I flinched and kept looking in all directions. But even if I listened carefully, I could not hear the sound of the chains that I had heard while I was sleeping again.

‘…Was it a dream?’

If that’s the case, he had already left the room. I had no choice but to walk down the stairs through the quiet hallway of the mansion, clutching the lantern in my hand as if my back was being pushed. Even when I got to the first floor, I was very nervous and listened, but I couldn’t hear any sound. My heart was pounding like crazy.

In the game, it was treated as if it were just a ghost story. The only information I had was a ghost story I heard at a tea party. Actually, I have been to the Rearmond Mason basement. When playing a game as a player.

‘There was nothing back then.’

It was a point in the future much further than now. Just before entering the final scene, a large fire broke out in the basement of Learmond Street, and an event was held to allow access to the basement, allowing officers to watch the investigation. The basement I saw at that time was completely black and completely burned down. It was surprising that the pillars supporting the ceiling were still intact, so much so that there was nothing left but ashes, so much so that it was impossible to guess what was there. I didn’t have any doubts at that time. It was just a barrel, and there was a lot of stored oil and firewood, so I believed the story that it was because of those things that made the fire burn more brightly and ended up like this. But now that I thought about it, there was nothing so suspicious about it.

‘…But what if it’s really a kidnapped citizen being held in the basement? What if they are missing? If someone doesn’t save them, they…’

I shrugged my shoulders as I remembered the basement, where everything had burned down to the point where nothing was left but soot. I know where the basement door is, and I know there’s something suspicious going on inside… Leaving this alone…

‘…Instead of solving it myself, should I report it to the police?’

Even though Luke and the police are very close, if there is proper evidence, they may be able to arrest him right away. Then, you might be able to go straight to the true ending.

‘…What if it does and then nothing happens? Wouldn’t it be better to check what’s going on and report it for a proper investigation?’

This was true even when thinking about the numerous certificates of appreciation left in this mansion. They won’t even dispatch you just by reporting something suspicious. You should definitely capture the scene of the incident and take a picture of it. This was probably the place to use the Polaroid camera that was only in the inventory.

‘…Of course, the only way is for me to go alone.’

I suppressed my pounding heart and took a small breath. This is Kim who came all the way here. And… I wanted to clearly confirm the reality of Luke. Above all, if it weren’t for now, at this time, I wouldn’t even be able to hear the faint sound I heard. You never know when another opportunity will come. I didn’t get lost because I had been down this road several times. However, my heart was pounding like crazy when I passed through the wide central hall on the first floor with no place to hide.

‘If I run into someone… What excuse should I make? Should I say I’m sleepwalking? Or say that I was taking a walk on a moonlit night?’

After thinking of all kinds of excuses, I took off one earring and put it in my pocket. It was an earring bought by Luke. I thought that if I made an excuse that I was looking for that, no matter who I met, they would understand. Because it’s an expensive item. But I didn’t think that excuse would work if I ran into someone in the middle of the night, carrying a lantern, in a corner of the house, far away from the drawing room or entrance. But fortunately, I never had a chance to use such a flimsy excuse. We didn’t encounter anyone until we reached the green door leading to the basement.

It rattled.

I tried pulling the door slightly, but unlike usual, instead of the usual feeling of the latch being stuck, I felt the wooden door opening unevenly. For sure… I thought maybe the door was open. So I went down there and did it.

‘But it’s really open so I don’t know what to do.’

I bit my lip tightly as I endured the skin growing on my arms.

‘You came this far. Come down for a moment… Let’s just see what we have.’

Since I could hear the sound of chains, it was clear that whatever it was was chained to. I took a deep breath and opened the door. There was pitch black darkness on the way down. It was dark inside the mansion we had walked through so far, but it was not completely dark due to the faint moonlight and small lanterns lit here and there. However, from the beginning of the basement stairs, it was complete darkness without even a small light.

Gulp, I was drooling.

‘…How do I get here?’

The heartbeat was so fast and loud that I thought I could hear it with my own ears. When I held out the lamp and shined it, the stairs leading down to the basement became dimly bright. I saw a very narrow and deep staircase, which seemed like a shortcut to the underworld.

‘Since I’ve come this far, and since the door has been opened, I still have to go.’

– Even though I thought that, I couldn’t stop walking when I saw the black, open-mouthed hole in front of me.

‘Even if I die, I won’t be able to go here.’

It was a moment when I was fighting fiercely alone.

Grrd, grrd.

At that time, the faint sound of chains was heard again. I didn’t mishear it in my sleep. This time it sounded much clearer, and I was certain it was coming from beneath the darkness I was standing facing. Suddenly, I remembered the faint, desperate voice I heard hiding next to the red rose bush, saying, ‘Please save me.’

‘…shit.’

I held on to the wall with trembling hands and barely managed to get one foot off the stairs.

One step, one step.

Squeak-.

“Hi!”

Even if it wasn’t so, I would be scared to death, but every time I stepped onto the stairs, the old tree screamed. It was around the time I went down the twenty stairs, barely able to control my heart that felt like it was going to explode.

Squeak-.

It’s not the sound of the stairs I stepped on. I suddenly looked up from the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs, I heard the sound of another old staircase creaking–not the one I had stepped on.

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