Thick, dark blood was splattered all across the inside of the stall, with a puddle by the drain that seemed to have been blocked by something.
I looked straight into the hollow eye sockets of the bloodstained skull grinning up at me.
…
…Ugh.
I gagged.
Bile rose up in my throat, and I turned and just barely made it to one of the sinks before throwing up.
Fuck.
You think you can brave it all. You think that if you've made up your mind, and know what to expect, you'll be able to keep up a calm façade through it all.
But, after all, I was only human.
My life up until very recently had been fairly ordinary.
I'd never seen something so horrible before.
I retched again, my throat burning painfully.
'…newbie…' I heard Aron explaining to the others behind my back.
After I finally rinsed out my mouth and turned back around, I noticed that no one else present seemed to be judging me.
'I pissed my pants when I saw my first one,' one of the guys I didn't know offered with a shrug.
Aron nodded too, his lips pursed.
I guess everyone here had had a similar response at first.
That knowledge didn't exactly make me feel any better.
Aron started shrugging off his t-shirt while talking to one of the other three that he seemed familiar with. 'What's with the cooperation for this one?'
'Got discovered and paid off by a wealthy newbie who just passed his testing phase. The job's to bring him through his first actual instance,' the tallest of the piercing group said.
'Oh? Which one?' Aron asked, raising a brow at the other two as he started changing into the uniform.
One of them raised a hand and pointed at the corpse in the shower.
'That one.'
'Shit.'
…
Yeah. Ok. I didn't feel like getting into the shower either.
I also started getting changed outside.
'What about that one?' Tall Piercing asked about me. 'Your charge?'
'Nah. Testing phase newbie. He also has information. I figured we could exchange.'
'Testing phase… fuck. There was another one in the room next to ours. The guy was going crazy, so I had John here knock him out for the night. As far as we know, there are eight players on this level; two to each room.'
'That's seven accounted for, then. If the last one is also a newbie…'
'Then this instance is gonna be tough as hell.'
'We should find him. But before that, let's exchange info,' Aron said, his tone suddenly businesslike. He gestured at the corpse. 'First, how did you screw up so bad, Mason?'
Tall Piercing – Mason – sighed. He ran a hand down his boyish face.
I was suddenly struck by the realization that these people probably weren't actually teenagers.
Just like me, they simply appeared that way to fit their 'role' as students in this instance.
'He was fine last night. He was rooming with John here,' he said, jabbing a thumb at one of his companions.
John took over. 'He already knew to sleep through the first night. He was fine until very early in the morning, when he woke us all up by jumping off his bed and screaming about the room being haunted. He ran out into the corridor alone.' John sighed. 'I should've followed, but one of the guys from this world held me back, telling me I shouldn't be suicidal like him.'
'Whatever he saw probably broke his mind. Poor Johnny…'
'Poor us. We entered a dangerous instance for him, and now we won't even get paid for our trouble!'
'Dude, he's dead.'
'…'
'Well, anyway. I guess one of the rules is to not go anywhere alone. Until we know whether it's timebound, we should just always stick with someone, whether a player or someone from this world. You next.'
Done securing my tie, I stepped forward and said, 'Another rule's to be asleep, or at least pretend you are asleep, at night.'
Once again, I narrated what I had seen.
John frowned.
'That's probably what Johnny saw. He must've been too afraid to move until it left, which was when he woke us up and raced out of the room. Damn. I, too, had been wondering about those marks on the ceiling…' he said.
'I wonder if there's just one creature that goes from room to room, or several that show up everywhere at once,' Mason added. 'Anyway, good to know newbie.' He nodded at me, then turned to Aron. 'Speak.'
Aron flashed him a grin, then said, 'Contained setting. All-boys boarding school. A bunch of people were implicated in some kind of crime that was covered up. Next thing you know, the campus is cursed, with students and faculty dying left and right.'
'The administration's still forcing things to keep running and turning a blind eye. The era seems to be from before the invention of cell phones and the internet. The only telephone lines were cut immediately after the cover up, and all the cars are also out of commission.'
I frowned slightly.
'Then I guess the goal is to figure out what the cover up was, and who this curse leads back to,' Mason said, scratching his chin.
'And then what?' I asked. I'd been wondering about this. 'How do you end an instance?'
'In this case, conclusion,' Aron said. 'There must be a conclusion. One could, for example, do the righteous thing and bring to light whatever was covered up, thereby appeasing the curse. One could also ignore that bit and just figure out a way to thoroughly destroy whatever is causing this.'
'Of course, that's just the case for this type of instance,' John chimed in. 'There are some with set goals and a deadline, and others in which your only objective is to survive to the end of a set number of days.'
'Got it. Thanks.'
I had to admit; these guys were a lot nicer, and far more helpful than I'd expected.
I guess it made sense that people looked out for each other, though.
Someone you helped might return the favor in a future instance. Besides, it's not like there seemed to be any reason for competition –
'Nuh-uh, newbie.'
I looked up to see Aron smiling at me. He seemed to have read my mind, because he continued, 'Most of us are just trying to survive here. However, not every player can be trusted. Keep that in mind.'
'What do you mean?'
'Survive this one, and your system will tell you more,' Mason interrupted before Aron could speak.
'Hey, um…'
While we'd been conversing, the third of the piercing trio, the only one whose name I didn't know yet, had been examining the corpse in the shower.
He stood up, carefully discarding the pencil he'd been using to lift up the tattered uniform and examine the remains.
'This wasn't done by a single creature,' he said in a soft voice. 'The bite marks vary slightly in size. Ranging from about an inch in diameter up to three max. He was eaten by multiple, small creatures, starting from the head-down.'
The guy sighed. 'It's not much comfort, but since the head and neck were attacked first, I do believe he went fast…'
Mason tightened his jaw, nodding.
'Thank you, Sheila.'
Oh?
I blinked.
Turns out the third dude was actually a chick.
'It's set in an all-boys' school,' Aron reminded me teasingly. He seemed to have read my mind again. 'We're all teenage boys here.'
'That's not saying much. Your brain will be stuck as a teenage boy's even if you manage to make it to eighty someday,' Mason muttered, rolling his eyes.
'Well, since we're not getting paid anymore, we might as well start focusing on trying to not die unnecessarily,' John said. 'C'mon. We should check out what's going on in class.'
…
…
It was strange to be back in a classroom.
Much stranger that it was in an environment like this.
All around me were haggard, ashen faces with dull, staring eyes.
When I found my desk, and placed my bookbag on it, the boy sitting in front of me jumped, startled. Even after realizing it was just me, he remained skittish.
I noticed another boy mindlessly scratching something into his notebook. There were a couple others nearby who were biting their nails – one to the point that his fingertips were bloody.
When the teacher walked up to the podium, he didn't look any better. And when he finally started reading from the textbook in front of him, it was clear he wasn't actually expecting anyone to be listening.
The unusually large number of unoccupied desks probably served as a stark reminder of what was going on at the school. And yet, everything continued on as though it was a regular workday.
I tried to strike up a conversation with some of the guys around me, hoping I'd be able to dig up some information.
It was to no avail.
It seemed no one dared speak openly of what was going on.
Diiing~ Diiing~
When the old-fashioned bell chimed to signal the end of class, I sighed and packed up my things. I'd already marked my attendance for the day.
I'd much rather be working on figuring out how to end this instance.
Before I could stand up, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
Aron.
'C'mon,' he muttered. 'Let's go take a look at the staff quarters.'
'Thought you'd never ask.'
I wasn't under any delusion that this seasoned player had taken me under his wing. In matters of life and death, the only way a normal person would be willing to take on additional risks was if they'd also get something equivalent in return.
À la that piercing trio who'd been offered large sums of money in exchange for taking care of that poor, dead guy.
So, no. I knew Aron was only bringing me along to satisfy the rule of not going anywhere alone.
I didn't mind. That worked out well for me too.
We'd keep each other company and each do our own thing.