Ghost Story Club

Chapter 40: Interlude – Q&A Session With Dukhun

[2019, March 18 | Monday, 06:35]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 436]

[Causality Rate: 10%]

After a pleasant weekend, it was Monday morning again.

Fortunately, I had a good night’s sleep.

Perhaps because I had a night of sound rest, I woke up earlier than usual feeling refreshed. Although it was Monday morning, I felt more energetic than usual.

‘Huhu, I still can’t decide.’

Lying on the bed in my room, I agonized to myself.

The 400 points that I had earned after resolving the A-rank ghost story for the first time, I wanted to invest them on something useful.

However, I couldn’t decide where I should use the point to make it a perfect investment.

‘Where should I use it? I don’t want to have any regrets after all is said and done.’

As I stared at the points hovering over me, I had considered all the opinions I had in my mind, such as using the points to gain new abilities, or enabling new abilities for club members, or raising the level of the club.

If I use the points on myself, my top priority would be to gain the ability ‘Joint Regression’. However, only a great stroke of luck could help me gain the ability at the first try.

I had memorised some of the skills that seemed useful when I used the points before to gain abilities. The one that caught my eyes instantly was ‘Joint Regression’.

As one can decipher from the name, it was a kind of ability that would enable me to regress back in time with someone.

In the A-rank ghost story, all the members of the club helped me resolve the incident. We all overcame the crisis by fighting to death together. But in the end, I was the only one who could remember the whole incident while others didn’t even know about it.

At first, I thought as long as we could beat the ghost story and save the world, I would have no problem. As long as everyone was safe and sound, I was okay with remembering and being burdened with all the memories alone.

But, what if it happened like that every time from then on? What if the ghost stories become stronger like the A-rank ghost story where I would need others’ help to resolve it?

We would all have to struggle together to get to the bottom of it and overcome the obstacles. But in the end, it would be me who was the only one who could go back in time to resolve it.

For me, it could never be a win.

The gap between my ability and the abilities of my members was getting bigger and bigger.

It was a battle that I had to fight for three long years. I had to handle all the ghost stories alone even if my members helped me more or less.

However, it was an ordeal that no one could handle alone. Especially for someone like me, whose only quirk was to use his wits and tricks at the time of extreme necessity.

I didn’t know what others’ thought.

But if I wanted to win, I would need to bring all of them together into this mess and grow stronger together.

Obviously I felt guilty for that, but…

I felt sorry for dragging my friends who were nothing but ordinary and led a peaceful life. But it wasn’t like I wanted to solve these ghost stories and want to become the President of a ghostly club either.

‘To save the world and maintain its peace, it would be okay to drag them into the mess in the name of self-defence, right? Even if it endangers their life, it’s okay as long as they grow strong, right?’

As I laid in my bed early in the morning and thought about all the possibilities, my mind went back to the ‘Joint Regression’ ability.

It would be best to overcome the ghostly stories together without everyone dying in the end or the world being ruined. But would things turn out the way I was thinking?

At least once.

If we could return the time back together just once, it would have been much easier to convince them the next time such an occurrence happens.

Or, just as people invest in cash games online for better profit, I could just invest in my members to enable their abilities and pray that they would grow stronger and help me in my future adventures.

But it was too dangerous for them.

Not only were the points valuable, I couldn’t let them risk their lives in any way.

Not to mention, I had earned all the points by sacrificing my life.

No matter how desperate I was for enabling new abilities for either me or my members, I couldn’t leave everything on the hand of luck.

Since that was the case, I could invest the points after the Ghost Story Club and raise the club level.

‘The System Store!’

I didn’t know what they sell there, but the system had this function called Store that would open when the club level reached LV.5.

Unlike the ability ‘Joint Regression’, which I may or may not be able to gain from the lottery, there were a lot of advantages in unlocking the Store. I could open the Store if I invest the points to level up the club.

Currently, the level of the club was LV.2.

Even if I use up 300 points to raise the club level to LV.5, there would still be 100 points left.

‘And with that 100 points, I might be able to buy something from the store.’

After considering all the options, it seemed investing in the club was simply the safest decision with no chance of losing money, I mean points.

However, there were also some disadvantages in the plan. I didn’t think raising the club level would help me in any way for the next ghost story.

Using all the points in the club meant enabling new features in the club.

The benefits that followed were additional functions such as increasing the space of the clubroom and adding more furniture.

On the other hand, if I decide to invest the points on me to gain new abilities, it would be somewhat risky knowing that I had no hand in the lottery’s decision. However, that new ability would be able to help me right away in the time of danger that I may or may not encounter in the next ghost story.

‘Huhu, what do I do?’

I had no intention of wasting my hard earned points.

If I invest in my ability, I would need to use almost all the points until I encounter the next ghost story and earn them back. And if I invest after the club, I would again need to use almost all the points and open the store which I was unsure of if it had anything useful.

Everything depended on luck.

‘My head hurts. I wish there was someone who knew well about games and could give me some advice.’

* * *

A while later in school.

Lunch time.

“Games? I think Dukhun probably knows about them better than us.”

“That guy?”

Gyeongwon calmly replied, seeing me showing a surprised look.

“How come you don’t know that even though he’s your deskmate? That’s what all otakus do or watch every day. All the anime and games have somewhat similar plots of going to a fantasy world and becoming stronger.”

“Ooho.”

Come to think of it, I noticed that most of the anime that Dukhun watched had similar settings. They were a bit like fantasy games, such as fighting with monsters and gaining strength.

“Thank you. But why don’t you play games?”

“I’m busy studying.”

The young master replied with a proud smile.

Seeing him so happy at his answer, I couldn’t help but think he was a nerd through and through.

After chatting with him for a while, I went back to my desk and asked Dukhun.

“Kuso, you thought I was only watching anime where beautiful girls wiggle their bodies? Are you sure you aren’t talking about your old days?”

“Uh, I’m sorry.”

“Just ask whatever you want to ask. This great master, with the blessing of Goddess Konosuba, would answer all your questions about fantasy games that. I. Know.”

Who is Goddess Konosuba?

[T/N: KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, often referred to simply as KonoSuba, is a Japanese light novel series written by Natsume Akatsuki and illustrated by Kurone Mishima. There’s an anime adaptation of the novel with the similar name. Source: Wikipedia]

I shook my head, trying to shake the unnecessary questions and asked what I was curious about.

“Then listen carefully. There’s this game that I’m playing these days.”

“What’s the name?”

“Well, the name… I don’t know. Actually, I can’t remember. Maybe because it was written in another language so I didn’t bother to read.”

“Is it an indie game?”

“Indie? Well, it seems so. Anyway.”

[T/N: An indie game, abbreviation for ‘independent video game’, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most “AAA” (triple-A) games. Source: Wikipedia]

I coughed briefly before I began my explanation.

“In the game, I would get a lot of points if I successfully defeated the enemies.”

“You mean score?”

“Uh, score. I mean, in the game they’re called points.”

“Hmm…then maybe they meant experience, not points.”

Dukhun tilted his head as he wondered, rubbing his chin. However, I continued my explanation without caring what he was wondering about.

“But I couldn’t understand where to use those points. I can use them on myself to strengthen my ability or unlock new abilities. On the other hand, I can also use them to unlock a new feature of the game which is the game store.”

“OwO~. Why are you thinking so hard about that? Joon-kun, I don’t think you’ve played a lot of games.”

“No, I do play a lot…”

The truth was, I’ve only played online games such as League of Legends or shooting games before. Therefore, I didn’t know much about games with fantasy settings except for some basics.

“Kuso, you shouldn’t think too much about it. Of course you should use the points to unlock the new feature of the game.”

Dukhun said in a confident way.

‘Huuu, new feature!’

“Why? Why should I use the points to unlock the new feature?”

“Yare yare.”

Dukhun shook his head as if he had caught me pretending to know about games.

Hurry up and tell me you hunk of meat. I’m so curious, huhu.

“It’s because when you’re at the early levels, it’s better to increase your options rather than just focusing on the possibilities of growing your strength.”

Increase my options.

“Hmm.”

As I pondered, I couldn’t help but admit that it certainly seemed the most reasonable option to unlock the Store function.

As Dukhun had said, rather than only looking around myself and lamenting on my options, I should think outside of the box and unlock new features to discover all the new things. It would be a wise move to think of other options again after discovering all the new features and then decide where to invest the points in the long run.

“I see. It certainly helped me a lot, thank you!”

“OwO~ for this master, it was a simple matter. Do you have any more questions?”

“I’m sorry, but can I ask why do you talk like that?”

The big body flinched for a moment before he started to scowl.

“I’ve answered everything I knew.”

Just as I had expected, he got angry.

“Sorry, but you’re bothering me.”

But why is he upset over such a simple question?

“I have a few more questions, can you also answer them? I’ll ask only two more.”

“OwO~ what a brazen deskmate I got there.”

Turning his head back at me, he nodded.

“Shoot.”

Since he had decided to listen to me, I thought that I should ask about everything that I had been curious about.

I started to think about how to ask him step by step.

At first, I had only encountered low level ghost stories. But the last ghost story was a high level A-rank ghost story. The low rank ghost stories were easier to solve compared to the A-rank ghost story where I had to go through a lot of hassle.

Even if I don’t know much about why It was happening, I could clearly understand that It was different from usual.

It felt like something or someone was attacking me deliberately.

‘No, it wasn’t just then!’

My whole life was a bit similar.

In my previous life, I spent three years at another school without encountering a single ghost story. Except for the revival of the Demon King at the night before the graduation ceremony, I led a life as smooth as butter, without facing any problems. However, this life of mine was completely different from my previous life.

‘Where should I begin to explain this?’

I organized the information in my head for a while before starting to explain.

“The game that I’m playing starts with a tutorial.”

Dukhun nodded quietly, indicating that he was listening.

“But there was a time when I didn’t finish the tutorial and escaped to another area. At that time, I played the game quietly and easily without much problems. But now that I’ve started the game again, I’ve finished the tutorial and I’ve started to do the quests properly. But for some reason, some enemies that I didn’t encounter the last time I played the game started to appear. It’s as if someone was deliberately interrupting me from finishing my quests.”

“Um? Interrupting?”

Dukhun frowned his eyebrows.

Although I tried to explain as best as I could, because I’ve hidden many details, the explanation seemed a bit vague.

“Tell me in detail.”

“So… the enemies just show up at an unexpected moment. Their appearance is sudden. Even if I don’t go look for them or attack them, they would pop out of nowhere.”

“Yare yare.”

Then, the big mass of meat sighed heavily with an exaggerated gesture.

“Do you know who is the final boss?”

“When I played it for the first time, I think it was the Demon King…”

“Then that makes sense. The Demon King is trying to get rid of the Hero.”

I couldn’t help the puzzlement that washed over me at his answer.

“He, a hero?”

When I asked again with a surprised look, Dukhun looked at my expression with narrowed eyes and simply said.

“If the Demon King is the final boss and you have to defeat him, then of course you are a hero.”

“Well, I see.”

Come to think of it, his explanation made sense.

No, it was quite obvious. I was just too blind to not notice it.

If there is a game whose goal is to defeat the Demon King, it is natural that the main character would be called a hero.

This fact was known by me through the arcade games that I used to enjoy in the past. The only online game I played was Nazo, which was a puzzle type game.

It would be perfectly natural if such a plot was the setting of a game as background story. But when it happened in real life and also with my own life, I didn’t think I’d be alive to enter college after overcoming all the hurdles.

‘But I’m a hero!’

However, that one word somehow made my heart pound like a child, excited for being called a hero by others.

‘I see. So the Demon King is the one who is attacking me.’

The reason why nothing happened in my previous life except for the head explosion of Nakseong High.

Perhaps because I had no intention nor the ability to stop the Demon King.

Therefore, the Demon King didn’t attack me either. Because I didn’t interfere in his plan and revival in any way, the Demon King was able to be revived smoothly when the right opportunity arrived.

But in this life, I was forcefully thrown into the world of ghost stories and fought with the ghosts to prevent the Demon King from reviving, just like it happens in any game. Not to mention, I also had a game-like system to accompany me and help me get stronger.

Because of this, the Demon King was also trying to get rid of me somehow.

If I compare everything to a game… the ghost stories could be considered monsters, my enemies in the game whom I had to defeat anyhow.

‘…I see. So that’s what is happening.’

The reason why I had encountered more than five bizarre phenomena in a short span of time was understandable.

“Oh! Just as I expected. Dukhun is the best!”

“Hmph!”

The big fella snorted with his nose raising high.

“Can I ask you one last question?”

“Hai hai. I’m listening.”

He looked like he wanted me to tell everything just so that he could flaunt his knowledge about games and get a compliment from me.

This time again, I started explaining the facts by substituting them into the game.

“You know, how it happens in games, if you die fighting the enemy, you can go back to the point right before you meet the enemy and try again. But the weird thing is, in this game, if you meet the final boss and lose, you don’t go right before you start fighting with the boss. Rather, you’re taken at the starting point of the game.”

It was this thing that I found the strangest.

If I encounter a ghost story and die without being able to solve it, I would be taken just before the ghost story took place.

But in my previous life, why was I taken to the entrance ceremony after dying?

“…2nd round?”

The big guy folded his arms and asked before looking at me with raised brows. I was dumbfounded at the sudden gesture so I couldn’t help but stutter a little.

“Uh. I mean, why do I go back to the starting point when I can’t defeat the Demon King? I’m curious about this.”

“OwO~ really? But what’s the matter with that though?”

“Isn’t it weird? Of course, if I go back to the time before I started to fight the boss, it seems reasonable. But every time I lose, I’m taken to the starting point to start all over again. Isn’t it normal if it’s the former?”

“Baka. It’s because that’s the ending.”

[T/N: ‘Baka’ is a Japanese word which means ‘Stupid’.]

The ending?

“Losing to the boss itself is also considered an option. It means that you have reached a bad ending and have to start from the beginning.”

“It could also mean you’ve entered a ‘New Chapter’.”

Strangely enough, the big guy knew about these things very well.

Perhaps it was because he had often tried playing otome games where you have to help beautiful girls to reach a happy ending, and they also have a lot of options and side stories, he had surprisingly good knowledge about various kinds of endings.

“New, new chapter? Tell me more about it.”

“Huhu.”

The break time was coming to an end.

Dukhun shook his head in regret and replied. Perhaps he was a little annoyed that I ate up all his free time that he could use to watch anime.

“That’s all I can say. It must be ‘2nd Round’. It means you have to use the experience and points of the previous round and start the game all over again. The end.”

After saying that, he put on his earphones and began to watch the anime called Konosuba.

When I peeked over, I could see a girl with long blue hair rolling in the screen.

‘New Chapter… 2nd round…’

I liked to play games, but I’ve only played a few online games so far.

I didn’t know if there was a definite ending in a game, or that I could chose my ending.

I was clueless about the settings of these kinds of games.

As a result, more questions naturally arose.

Did he mean not defeating the final boss could lead me to a good ending?

Did he mean that some gamers could make that choice and lose on purpose?

How the hell could it help them? Why the hell does it even matter?

“Huu.”

I shook my head with a tired sigh.

I had to ask more questions to get more information.

Whish.

I forcibly snatched Dukhun’s earphones from his fat ear.

“Hey, I’m really sorry, but I have one more thing to ask. Why is losing to the boss considered an option?”

Just as I had thought, Dukhun got angry at once.

“No! How dare you disturb my anime time!”

His anger was reasonable but I needed answers. Even if he beat me up, I wouldn’t have stopped pestering him until he answered all my questions.

“I’ll buy bread for you from the school cafeteria. So tell me.”

Perhaps surprised by my sudden offer, Dukhun’s round jawline trembled.

“You’re offering to buy bread for me?”

“Only for today. In exchange for answering my question.”

“Ahem.”

Suddenly, he began to giggle joyfully, like a teenage girl in love and began to mumble.

“I can’t believe that in my 17 years of life, me, who has always been the one delivering bread to other people, was finally being offered bread from a classmate? Hai– this chapter has finally appeared in my life~ This kind of thing happens-”

“Answer.”

Who knew what the guy was mumbling about. Not understanding a thing he was saying, I couldn’t help but ask in a stern tone, stopping his daydreaming.

“To reach a good ending.”

“….I see. Thank you.”

Again, his answer was a bit confusing which I couldn’t understand right away.

But there was something I had understood from the information he gave.

The Demon King.

A giant monster that was sleeping under the school.

The monstrous creature. The final boss. The Demon King.

It wasn’t just buried under the school.

It was also constantly attacking me, interrupting my smooth life by sending various obstacles on my way.

I had been standing on top of the sleeping Demon King, and also made a base called Ghost Story Club.

An invisible fight for blood was unfolding secretly between me and the Demon King within the school.

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