Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 744: VILE – 303 [7]

“Alright, let’s summarize the situation.”

Tak! Tak! Tak!

I typed everything on the open file in front of me.

Mara Balle, Seat 27, claimed an invisible girl sat in her chair and answered when her name was called. Mara was then supposedly withdrawn by phone, but her mother later denied making the call and said Mara had gone missing.

Tak! Tak—

My fingers continued to dance across the keyboard as I summarized all the information.

After Mara disappeared, Elon Ward, the little boy, temporarily moved from Seat 26 to Seat 27. He claimed to have met Mara outside and said her skin was unusually warm. He later followed someone who looked like Mrs. Vale, even though the real Mrs. Vale was elsewhere.

Tak!

For a moment, my finger paused.

I continued to stare at the words in front of me as my mind drifted back to the events from a moment prior.

The more I studied the situation, the weirder it felt to me.

I continued.

By October 18, the entire class was marked absent. Mrs. Vale’s body had been removed from the school, yet her voice could still be heard teaching inside the classroom.

“…Another ghost, maybe?”

No, ghosts aren’t real.

Probably an anomaly. Or the classroom?

But how did it come to?

By now, it was clear that anomalies weren’t exactly ‘random’. Anomalies didn’t just appear out of thin air. There was a reason for it, and I had a feeling it likely had to do with ‘Hell’.

Tak! Tak!

During the anomaly, I personally confirmed that something invisible still occupies Seat 27, answers as Mara, touches, moves furniture, and seems bound by classroom rules. I’ve also noticed Elon’s handwriting resembles the note found at Mara’s desk.

I paused once more.

This was the most unsettling aspect.

Why was his handwriting the same as the notes that I found?

What was the correlation between the notes and him?

“I know he’s involved, but to what extent? Is he the one who caused her disappearance?”

I nibbled my lip, trying to make more sense of the situation.

Eventually, I highlighted a certain part.

“The biggest missing clue is what happened on October 17, right before the entire class disappeared.”

October 18 was when they disappeared.

This was the biggest clue.

“If not for the fact that I don’t have any connection here, I’d go look for any missing cases that dated back to October 18. That would probably help me out with the situation more. If I investigate the true location of the events, I might be able to find out more.”

There was a deep and sinister secret hiding behind VILE – 303.

One that I had a feeling was hiding something deep.

“…The thing I want to know is if I can solve this here, or I have to get out.”

I looked towards the locked door, and my lips pulled up a bit.

“It doesn’t seem like I will be able to get out anytime soon, anyways.”

Six hours had already passed since I had been trapped here. The others were probably looking for me, but since they had yet to be here, it was very unlikely that they were going to find me anytime soon.

‘Right, the only way for me to get out at this point is to just wait for my nodes to recover.’

I touched my head.

The pain had subsided quite a bit, but I still could not feel my nodes.

I’d normally be worried about something like this, but strangely, I didn’t quite feel that worried. In fact, I wasn’t all that bothered inside as I kept glancing at the clock at the end of the room.

‘…It’ll be a while until it becomes midnight again.’

There was food and water in the fridge, thankfully, which should last me a while. It was normal for me to spend a lot of time in this room. A fridge was a necessity.

For that, I wasn’t all that worried about lasting for a while here.

The issue would be that food was limited.

‘I hope my nodes recover by then.’

Reaching for my pocket, I popped another pill, hoping it would help me in some way.

I looked around the room and decided to lean back against my chair as I shut my eyes to get some sleep.

My thoughts drifted to the case even in my sleep.

“October 17…”

Just what in the world happened on that day?

***

“Have you seen him at all?”

“N-no… He was like, he told me to, like… go to you guys and come back. I did that, and Jordan was here too, right?”

“Yes.”

It had been a sleepless night for a certain squad.

Listening to Mia’s and Jordan’s recount, Joanna rubbed her forehead. They had been moving the entire night around the old Guild in search of their Team Leader, and yet, despite looking in every nook and cranny of the place, they weren’t able to find anything at all.

It was as if he had disappeared completely from the face of the earth.

“Ah, this is giving me a headache.”

Joanna rubbed her forehead again.

She wanted to report the situation back to the Guild or the people at the BUA above, but she also understood that the moment she did that, things would spiral in a bad direction. The reporters would quickly dive into the news, and public opinion on Seth would spiral even further.

“What should we do?”

At Mia’s question, Joanna’s gaze fell on Seth’s old office.

Her lips parted. “Have you checked every nook and cranny of the office?”

“Yes. There’s nothing there besides the door that leads to… the torture chamber.”

Everyone flinched the moment the words left Mia’s mouth.

Right, the torture chamber.

“Is it still closed?”

Normally, the torture chamber was closed from midnight to six in the morning. Those were the times when they weren’t supposed to go.

Mia nodded.

“Yes. I’ve checked already. Even now, it’s still closed.”

“….Hm.”

Joanna’s brows furrowed.

‘Based on what Mia told me before, he told them to leave and get us to come back to him in his office. Given that he’s gone and the door is closed, the answer is obvious.’

“He’s locked in the torture chambers.”

It wasn’t Joanna who spoke.

Instead, it was Ariel as she looked in the direction of the torture chambers.

Her words made the rest look in the same direction as Joanna sucked in a cold breath.

It wasn’t just here. Everyone had long connected the dots.

‘If he’s truly been there, then…’

“I think he’s fine, to be honest.”

It was Ariel who spoke again.

“…I don’t think he’s the type of guy who’d suffer from something like that. What I’m more curious about is why he isn’t out yet. The door’s clearly locked, but even we can’t open it. Something is clearly wrong with the situation.”

“Let me make a quick call.”

Joanna reached for her pocket and scrolled through the Guild’s contacts before finding a certain name.

‘If we can’t open it from here, then maybe from the other side?’

She dialed the number.

A soft voice responded not long after.

—Hello?

“Ah, senior.”

Joanna’s voice contained hints of respect as she answered the phone.

“There’s been a situation. It’s like this…”