Thirty

Sebastian was no longer civil and decided to shed all cordialities with the teacher. After all, even though he was currently in the body of his 17-year-old self, his mind was actually 21 years old.

He had already experienced the ways of society and knew how to deal with these kinds of people.

These people would be needlessly stubborn and would rather die than give up an inch of their authority.

Even though Seb was all alone.

Even though he was a little crazy.

Even though he would rather accept some shady invitation from a place called PURGATORY than try to continue dragging on his purposeless existence.

His experience was not to be underestimated.

"Mr Li, whatever your response is to that question. Do understand that life is not a game. Once it is lost. There is no coming back."

'Though I can always respawn after a failed attempt, this is just a simulation. It won't last forever. '

By using these bold words it was unclear whether Sebastian was trying to convince himself or the teacher.

Either way, they should do their job.

Mr Li sighed in response.

He picked up his glasses and put them back on his face.

"Nice Speech MISTER Sebastian Alaister!"

Clap! Clap! Clap!

There was clear venom in his words this time.

He turned his wrist to check the time on his wristwatch before turning back to look at Sebastian.

"To answer your questions… No, I do not know what either of those things are like."

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

"What I do know… is that there are still five minutes left before my class ends…"

"… and I am not going to give up One. More. Second."

"Now, PLEASE! Sit down. I will not have you disrupting my class one more time."

Sebastian sat down in resignation.

It was like talking to a brick wall.

Useless

As he sat down, he was also relieved from the collective stares of all 30 students.

Their backs were all straight.

They didn't speak a word.

Their faces were devoid of any sort of emotion.

All they did was stare

unceasingly

persistently

hauntingly

.

.

.

"Hey, Josh…"

"Yes, Sebastian… To be honest you were kinda cool and a little scary back there."

"Thanks… Also didn't you say that you had friends in this class"

*BANG!*

"Yes... Yes, I did say that didn't I?"

"You did. Can you please try asking them what the hell is going on?"

"Well to be honest… None of them seems to recognize me at all. All they do is stare. It is really weird…"

"Yes, they haven't uttered a single word since we came into this class."

.

.

*BANG!*

.

.

"Hey, Seb…"

"Yes, Josh…"

"If I die today… can you promise me one thing?"

Seb turned to stare at Josh's face.

No matter how stupid he acted there is no way he didn't realise by now that their own class was probably being shot up at this very moment.

*BANG!*

"Yes, you can…"

Seb was being unexpectedly gentle.

It was as if all the irritation and annoyance he had shown earlier when interacting with Josh had just been a sham.

Seb smiled at Josh and prodded him on.

"What is it?"

"N-No matter what happens, Seb."

*BANG!*

"Go on Josh"

Seb kept on smiling.

"Don't forget me…"

It was like a thunderstorm violently came into existence within Seb's mind.

Seb turned his face away from Josh and replied in a low volume.

"I will not forget you, Josh."

Was he telling the truth, or was it a lie?

Perhaps it was something only time could tell.

Time, that they didn't have.

*BANG!*

Seb stared at the unmoving backs of all the other students in the classroom and found himself filled with an extreme sense of frustration.

How could they just take this?

The teacher might be crazy, but that didn't mean they had to join in as well.

This was clearly a matter of life or death!

In the end, it was 30 of them to one of him.

Couldn't they even stand up for their own lives?

He had only been next to Josh for a brief period of time and yet he was already started feeling a wide range of emotions.

Emotions that had all dried up during his long period of loneliness.

Emotions like rage.

Emotions like indignation towards the injustice they were facing.

Irritation towards the fact that the usually lively Josh was whimpering stupidly in depression.

"I have had enough of this."

Seb muttered angrily under his breath before deciding to stand up again.

"Ahem! AHEM!"

The teacher put down his marker again and just stared at Josh.

"I am talking to the rest of you stupid commerce assholes. Do the lot of you have no damn backbones? Only a COMPLETE IDIOT will choose DEATH just to STUDY a little more."

The teacher glared daggers at Seb before suddenly glancing away and saying.

"You shouldn't have said that…"

However strangely enough…

This time…

His voice wasn't filled with anger.

It was filled with fear and resignation.

He slumped down onto the chair.

He had the expression of a defeated man.

"Remember, you brought this onto yourselves."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth Sebastian and Josh felt chills running down their spines.

No, it wasn't because they were afraid of the teacher.

What scared them was something far, far worse.

30 pairs of eyes had turned around to stare at them.

30 necks were twisted into their directions while their backs remained ramrod straight

And finally…

30 twisted grins had been pointed at them.

Of course, other than the grins it wasn't that different from the previous situations.

Except…

When the phrase 'their necks were twisted was used'.

The literal meaning was implied.

In other words.

Those sitting in front of the duo

Had their necks twisted

.

.

.

A

Hundred

And

Eighty

Degrees.

.

.

.

Something no living human could ever possibly do...

Their eyes started releasing streams of blood in place of tears.

The feeling of being stared at by the now empty sockets of these abominations was so intense it made one's skin crawl.

It felt as if worms were crawling up one's throat and your stomach was going to burst open.

And to make things worse, they had finally chosen this moment in time to speak up.

Their twisted grins squirmed and morphed. They opened their jays wider than any living being would reasonably do and started to laugh eerily.

"HEE! HEE! HEE!" "HEE! HEE! HEE!"

The shrill sound of their laughter was reminiscent of nails scratching across the blackboard.

"YOU SAID WE WERE STUPID!"

When they spoke, it was one at a time.

"YOU SAY THAT DEATH WAS A STUPID CHOICE"

Randomly switching between speakers among the 30 of them.

"YOU SAID THAT THE STUDYING IS NOT IMPORTANT!"

It was impossible to predict which one of them would speak up next

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT!"

The voices of each individual were different

"BAD! VERY BAD! YOU MUST BE PUNISHED!"

But they were all high pitched and had a hair-raising aura to them.

"YES! YOU MUST BE SHOWN THE TRUE WAY!"

Just listening to it filled one's mind with chaos and erased all thoughts of resistance

"YOU MUST JOIN US!"

This time the one to speak was the abomination right in front of their seats, startling Josh into falling out of his chair.

"AAH!"

Perhaps they found it funny for some reason that they started laughing even louder

"HEE! HEE! HEE!" "HEE! HEE! HEE!"

Then they stopped laughing altogether for a moment and proceeded to stare silently at the duo with their empty sockets dripping with blood.

The situation didn't last for long, however.

They all started to chant together in unison.

"JOIN US!"

"JOIN US!"

"JOIN US!"

"JOIN US!"

"JOIN US!"

"JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!"

.

.

.

It was as if they were conducting a ritual.

The more they chanted, the faster they got.

The faster they got, the more they chanted.

.

.

.

Seb felt like his eardrums were going to burst.

It was as if the abominations or ghosts were trying to kill him just by their voices.

It wasn't a foolish attempt though as just hearing their voices made him lose control of his thoughts and sanity.

As the chanting got faster, Seb's thoughts got slower.

He stopped hearing the distant sounds of gunshots, he stopped hearing Josh's rapid breathing next to him.

.

.

.

It looked like he was going to die again...

He was already getting tired of it.

Maybe, maybe it would be better to just join them.

Become an existence that is neither dead nor alive.

Just going through the motions without having to think about anything...

ever again...

at least... he wouldn't have to suffer again.

.

.

.

"FUCK! I won't join you guys! I am not going to spend the rest of my existence studying! I NEED TO PLAY MY VIDEO GAMES!"

Of course, this voice belonged to Josh and not Sebastian.

In the end, he ended up bringing Seb back from his daze.

While Seb had almost fallen, Josh had managed to stay strong.

It's said that idiots cannot catch colds, was something similar happening here?

Seb couldn't help but suppress a shiver.

'Damn it! I almost gave in... If I were to fall like that, will there even be any other attempts after this?'

He would probably just get consumed by the tutorial, deemed unfit for entering the realm.

Nothing but fodder for Purgatory's pet dream demons.

That would be too pathetic.

It seems that he had still somehow underestimated this tutorial.

There was death in every corner, even the slightest misstep could lead to a dead end.

Sebastian looked up again, he realized that the chanting had stopped after Josh lashed out at them.

Instead, the undead abominations were all scowling at them.

"YOU REFUSE TO JOIN US!"

They seemed severely offended at that prospect.

Sebastian couldn't help but laugh in helplessness.

It turns out that the teacher was probably being held hostage by the students.

Bring forced to teach a bunch of undead students who would kill him if he dared to stop.

Scary...

'He was probably trying to help us back then...'

Seb turned his attention back to the abominations in front of him.

"SINCE YOU REFUSE TO JOIN US! DIE!"

In an instant, all 30 students disappeared from their seats into thin air.

The last scene that he managed to witness before they got pounced on by 30 shadows.

Was the clock striking 1:57.

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.

.

.

.

.

.

"HEE! HEE! HEE!"