Chapter 10: "It" Appears

Yara sat in her seat, her eyes slightly dazed.

She looked back at Jon's empty spot, where the desk still bore faint marks from the prank graffiti that had been wiped off. The words had been nothing but insults.

A pang of discomfort hit Yara's heart.

Those same people who had firmly excluded Jon from the Halloween party during the day.

Now praising him and even defending him.

It was clear to her now—they knew everything all along.

Yara finally understood why Jon never bothered to defend himself. To people who are convinced you're wrong, every word of self-justification sounds like mere excuses.

Yara was one of the few who knew the full story behind the cat-abuse incident involving Jon.

She had wanted to explain on his behalf, but Jon had stopped her every time.

Later, she realized Jon did it to protect her.

Those stray cats had contracted feline panleukopenia.

The mother cat had died, leaving only a few kittens.

The survival rate for feline panleukopenia is nearly zero, and local pet hospitals refused to take them in.

Jon had brought the remaining kittens back to the dorm, feeding them goat milk formula, hoping for a miracle.

But, against his wishes, the kittens all died.

Jon buried them in the woods behind the school, but someone took photos and posted them online, accusing him of being a cat-abusing pervert.

The situation escalated, and the school had to step in for an emergency investigation, eventually clearing Jon's name.

However, some students, knowing Jon's affluent background.

Insisted that he had bribed the school authorities and that the school was merely covering up for him.

Yara knew the truth because she worked part-time at that pet hospital.

When she saw Jon decide to help the kittens on his own, she had intended to assist, which is how she gradually got to know him.

She realized he was actually a kind person.

In the classroom, the students were excitedly discussing Jon.

They were even planning to throw him a victory party when he returned triumphantly...

Only Nora's expression was peculiar. She bit her lip as she watched the live feed.

If Jon's life weren't so closely linked to her own, she would have wished for him to die right then and there!

…

Meanwhile, in Player 2's instance.

Player 2, Tony, arrived in front of the cellar, looking disheveled.

His head was wrapped in a bedsheet, soaked with blood, although the bleeding had finally stopped. Tony was also wrapped in a blanket. "Damn it, gotta get a fire going first."

Tony looked at the rules on the paper, knowing that the cellar was definitely dangerous, but he had no other choice.

His body was losing heat, and if he delayed any longer, he might suffer from hypothermia.

Since gazing at the red light of the ranger station and experiencing death and revival with his body covered in long hair, he had been in a weakened state.

He had searched the cabin for medicine but found none.

If he could light the fireplace, he could warm up and have some hot food, which would certainly help.

Wrapping the blanket tighter around himself, Tony picked up the candleholder and descended into the seemingly bottomless cellar.

Tony descended about a dozen steps before he started feeling something was off. Frowning in confusion, he muttered, "Damn it, is this cellar really this deep?!"

He quickly turned around and realized that the entrance to the cellar had disappeared!

Both in front of him and behind, the candlelight couldn't penetrate the pitch-black darkness.

A shiver ran down Tony's spine.

Initially, he had been nonchalant about this game.

He had volunteered to be a player because he enjoyed watching horror movies and thought he had a strong stomach for fear.

He believed he couldn't possibly be scared.

Plus, with each player having three lives, passing the game shouldn't be too difficult...

It wasn't until this moment that Tony was willing to admit he was wrong—very wrong.

After dying and reviving once, his condition had noticeably worsened.

If he died again, real death might not be far off.

"Rules, follow the rules to survive!" Tony leaned against the wall and frantically started searching his memory. He remembered there was a rule related to the cellar.

Upon reading Rule 6, Tony suddenly realized.

illusions, these are all illusions!

The cellar must have an end, he just needed to keep going down to get out.

...

Five minutes later.

Tony was now leaning against the wall, looking utterly desperate, turning his head back and forth constantly.

He felt something was closing in from the endless darkness.

The echoing footsteps behind him seemed to multiply, and it felt like eyes were watching him from the stairs below.

At that moment, he heard his classmates' voices in his ears.

"Tony, calm down!"

"Just do what we said: put down the candleholder, close your eyes, and keep walking down!"

"This place isn't dangerous, you can definitely get out!"

Tony's classmates, having seen Player 1, Jon, break through so easily, thought they could save this precious communication opportunity.

After all, Jon had taken only two to three minutes to discover he was trapped and successfully break the perceptual interference...

But they noticed that Tony seemed to be trapped in a loop.

If he continued in this state, his mental condition would surely collapse, and that would be troublesome.

Hearing his classmates' voices, Tony's eyes lit up immediately.

It was like he had grabbed onto a lifeline. He nodded urgently, "Okay, I got it!"

Tony continued to descend, not realizing that continuously breaking the rules had already severely polluted his perception.

He put down the candleholder and was just about to close his eyes.

He heard a creepy noise behind him.

"Click-clack-clack-clack-clack—"

From the upper hallway, it sounded like metal scraping against the walls, getting closer and closer.

Tony's heart skipped a beat. He had just closed his eyes when he snapped them open again, turning back with the candleholder.

Emerging from the darkness behind him, "it" appeared...

It was a horrifying humanoid creature.

Its face seemed to have been vertically sawed in half, with a tongue split like a reptile's.

Its entire body was an eerie dark brown, covered in various scars.

The creature held the axe that had previously appeared in the mirror, and it began to chase after Tony.

Seeing this, Tony raised the candleholder and began to run down the stairs like a madman.

"Ahhhhhhh—"

Even with two more lives left, his fear of death drove him to flee desperately.

Tony used the candleholder to set the blanket he was wrapped in on fire and then hurled it behind him.

But this did not slow the creature down, it continued to chase after Tony at a terrifying speed.

...

Meanwhile, in Tony's classroom.

His classmates watched the live stream, unable to hold back their curses.

"What a useless idiot! Dumb pig! We clearly told him the right way to do it!"

"Dammit, and he calls himself a horror movie expert. He's ruined everything, we're doomed!"

"Stop complaining and think of a solution!"

"What solution? We've already used up our only free communication attempt!"

Suddenly, the Black Goat at the front of the classroom stood up, and the entire room fell silent. Underneath the Black Goat's head was the corpse of a female teacher. Its voice, however, was identical to the Black Goat from Jon's class.

The creature placed its hand on an old rotary phone on the podium and said, "As I mentioned earlier, your free communication attempts are used up. Only paid attempts remain."

The bespectacled class president asked, "Could you please explain further?"

The Black Goat scanned the room with its gaze. "A voluntary sacrifice can earn you one communication attempt. If the player successfully clears the game, the sacrificed individual will be resurrected."

"After all, if you fail, you all die together. If you win, you get to come back to life. It's actually quite a fair trade."

The Black Goat said with a smile. "So, is there anyone brave enough to make a little sacrifice for the group?"

It glanced at the live stream, Tony seemed to be nearing his limit.

The creature chasing him was getting closer and closer.

The atmosphere in the classroom became oppressive. At such a moment, no one wanted to die prematurely, even though everyone would die in the end if they failed...

True self-sacrifice is always rare.

Suddenly, a small-framed boy stood up. Under the stunned gazes of his classmates, he walked up to the podium.

Looking at the Black Goat, his voice trembled, "I'll make the call."

"Please." the Black Goat said, stepping aside.

The boy sat down and had just picked up the phone when the Black Goat behind him reached into his chest and pulled out his heart, munching on it like an apple.