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

Chapter 758: A changed lunatic [1]

“Elon?”

The boy remained at the doorway.

His expression was the same as always. His face remained pale and empty beneath the weak classroom lights as his gaze drifted away from me and towards Mara.

She had gone completely still the moment he appeared.

For several seconds, none of us moved. The silence inside the room suddenly felt heavier than before, especially with Elon standing there and Mara seated quietly in Seat 27, her fingers still pressed against the edge of her skirt.

“…You’ve finally started to move.”

Elon’s eyes finally shifted towards me.

Then, after a short pause, he spoke.

“You’re still here.”

My brows furrowed.

“You’re finally starting to talk?”

He didn’t answer.

Of course, he didn’t.

Still, the fact that he talked was progress.

His gaze shifted back to Mara, and there was something in the way he looked at her that made the back of my neck prickle.

Mara slowly stood.

Her eyes never left Elon.

“Is he somehow involved in your situation?”

I asked Mara, but she took a small step backwards, her attention suddenly moving towards the corridor behind him.

That was when I heard it.

Step.

My expression changed.

The teacher.

‘What? Why is the teacher coming here?’

This wasn’t where the next class was supposed to be held…

Mara’s face tightened.

“Wait.”

She looked at me one last time.

“You need to leave the seat.”

“What?”

“Don’t let it answer for you.”

Her little voice whispered into my ear, leaving me somewhat at a loss. I understood the meaning behind her warning, but what I didn’t understand was Elon’s involvement in all of this.

Why was he here? And why was he finally talking?

Step.

The sound was closer now.

In the time it took for me to blink, she was gone

What?

All that greeted me was the sight of the empty chair and desk before me.

“…”

My gaze snapped towards Elon.

He was already walking away.

“Seriously?”

I followed him into the corridor, keeping my voice low. I didn’t want to be overheard by the teacher. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be close.

“What’s your involvement in all of this?”

I didn’t know if it was a smart decision, but I felt the need to speak to him. It suddenly felt as though I was getting closer and closer to the truth. At the same time, it also felt as though I was getting closer and closer to getting absorbed by the anomaly.

“Why are you suddenly showing up and talking? What is happening to me?”

Still nothing.

My patience was starting to run thin, which wasn’t being helped by the fact that my head was really hurting. I had ignored it for now, but it was really starting to bother me.

I caught his shoulder.

The moment my fingers touched him—

“—!”

Pain exploded through my body.

I staggered back, my grip disappearing instantly as something deep inside me twisted.

My nodes!

For the first time in days, I could feel them. Unfortunately, I immediately wished I couldn’t.

They felt as though someone had reached inside my body and squeezed them together, forcing a burning pressure through every channel connected to them.

“F-uck…!”

My hand pressed against the wall as I tried to breathe.

It suddenly felt as though my entire head was burning, the colors around me shifting between red and blue.

‘W-what’s going on?’

Looking around, the world felt as though it was spinning. The colors continued to shift, and for a moment, it felt as though I was changing between the Butcher’s vision and the sunglasses’ vision.

Hot, cold. Hot, cold.

The nodes pulsed painfully within my skull, each throb growing louder and louder inside of my mind.

Then—

“…Seth…”

Something whispered in the air.

My head lifted, my gaze drifting towards Elon.

“Did you say something?”

He stared at me.

His lips remained still.

Then—

“…come here…”

Another whisper brushed against my ear.

“Huh? Who?”

Then another from somewhere behind me.

“…don’t answer…”

I slowly turned.

“What? Where…?”

The corridor was empty.

“Look here.”

“….Over here.”

More voices followed, overlapping beneath the hum of the lights. All of them said different things, but if there was one thing they had in common, it was that they…

All sounded like me.

“…this is annoying…”

“…what the fuck…”

“…come on…”

A lot of them were words I had said before.

Not recently, either.

I pressed both hands against my ears.

Stop. Stop…

That did absolutely nothing.

It was there that I realized… The whispers weren’t coming from the corridor. They were inside my head.

“I really am starting to lose it…”

I staggered back, my grip disappearing instantly as something deep inside me twisted. My breathing became uneven as my head continued to throb. For a moment, the hallway blurred, and I caught sight of a figure standing at the far end.

It was me, wearing the same clothes and the same face, simply standing there and watching until I blinked and it was gone.

“…Great.”

Wonderful.

Exactly what I needed.

Elon was still looking at me, and for the first time, his empty expression looked almost sympathetic.

That somehow made it worse.

“Don’t just stare at me. If you know something, say it.”

His mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Instead, one of the whispers spoke over him.

“…Too late.”

His voice entered my mind, his lips sealed as he looked at me.

My blood ran cold.

I straightened slowly.

“Too late for what?”

No one replied to me. All of a sudden, I started to question if the voice had even been real to begin with.

Then something appeared in front of my eyes.

A translucent panel.

——

[External Funds Received]

[1,000,000]

——

“…?”

I stared at it.

Another notification followed almost immediately.

——

[External Funds Received]

[2,000,000]

——

For a moment, the voices disappeared from my attention completely.

Three million.

My eyes widened briefly before I suddenly started laughing to myself.

“…Ah, this is getting really bad.”

I was starting to see things. I was starting to really lose it.

And yet—

‘This is just what I needed.’

I reached forward, gaining access to the ‘Gate Developer Mode’. Before I knew it, my hand started moving on its own.

***

Kyle heard the vehicles before he saw them.

Several engines approached from the road leading towards the abandoned school, their sound growing louder until the first black vehicle appeared through the broken gate.

Zoey looked towards him.

“They’re faster than I expected.”

“…I know.”

Kyle shoved his phone into his pocket and watched as three vehicles stopped near the entrance.

The doors opened almost immediately.

Six people stepped out.

None of them looked like ordinary support personnel.

Kyle recognized two.

That alone was enough to irritate him.

The first was a tall man with short silver hair and a long coat bearing the insignia of the Hoarding Department. Beside him stood a younger woman with dark red hair tied high behind her head, her eyes moving over the school with obvious disinterest.

The others spread out behind them, looking over the surroundings whilst talking amongst themselves.

One of them laughed at something another said.

Another barely even glanced towards the damaged school before checking his gloves.

It didn’t seem like they were taking the situation very seriously.

If anything, they looked as though they had already decided there was nothing here worth worrying about.

The silver-haired man approached first.

“Kyle.”

His tone wasn’t unfriendly.

That somehow made it more irritating.

“I heard that you were in need of help.”

His gaze drifted towards the school.

There was a brief pause.

“…This is what you needed help with?”

Kyle’s expression stiffened.

The man stared at the entrance for another moment before slowly shaking his head.

“Seriously… It always ends up like this somehow.”

A faint smile appeared across his face.

“I thought you guys had changed for a moment, but I guess not.”

He glanced back towards the others.

“Looks like we have to clean up after you guys again.”

A few quiet chuckles followed from behind him.

His gaze moved towards Zoey, then towards the damaged entrance behind them.

“We’ll take over from here.”

Zoey’s eyebrows rose.

“…Excuse me? What do you mean by taking over?”

The woman beside him gave her a faint smile.

“You’ve already done enough. There’s nothing left for you to do. Just let us handle it since you guys obviously can’t.”

Her tone was dismissive as she spoke.

“The Section Chief wants both of you back at headquarters while we handle the situation. Given how much time you’ve wasted here, it’s obvious that we need to take over.”

Kyle took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down.

“You don’t know what’s inside.”

“We’ll manage.”

“You haven’t even heard what we found.”

“We were briefed on the way.”

The silver-haired man’s expression barely changed.

“If there was anything important, I’m sure it was included.”

Kyle took another deep breath.

He was really starting to lose his composure.

Then again, it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to this situation.

The crew before him was one of the most elite within the Guild, known simply as the ‘Clean Up’ crew. They were in charge of cleaning up after missions that the Guild deemed impossible to clear by the squad originally dispatched.

They were the type to brute-force anomalies into containment. They were also sent whenever the Guild deemed a team to have failed.

And they never seemed to let anyone forget it.

“Give me the documents.”

Claude stretched his hand in Kyle’s direction.

Kyle didn’t react.

Claude waited.

His smile slowly deepened.

He almost seemed amused.

The woman with red hair sighed.

“Don’t make this difficult.”

Kyle’s jaw clenched, but he eventually relented, taking out several files and documents he had filled out along with Zoey over the past few days and handing them over.

Claude took them without even looking through them.

“Wasn’t so hard, right?”

He smiled, patting Kyle on the shoulder.

Kyle’s fingers twitched.

Claude had already turned away.

He whistled to his crew before heading towards the school.

“We’ll take it from here. Do go back if you can. You won’t be needed here anymore.”

Kyle and Zoey didn’t get a chance to say a thing before the six of them entered the school.

A short silence followed between the two.

Zoey continued staring at the entrance before eventually looking towards Kyle.

It was just as her lips parted that Kyle spoke.

“…Just wait a bit.”

He took a deep breath, feeling something stir in his chest as he stared at the school.

The irritation slowly faded from his expression.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

His gaze remained fixed on the entrance.

Isn’t that right, Seth?