It was written in English, though the handwriting was so messy that it was hard to read. It took Saya a moment to decipher its meaning: "There are seven keys, each one will cleanse an embodiment of the original sin...?"
DING!!!
Just as Saya finished reading the sentence, a sudden sound, like a doorbell ringing, startled her. Almost instantly, a small, semi-transparent blue panel appeared right in front of her.
[Congratulations, Player #309, for discovering a clue. Hidden Quest Activated: Clue Hunt.]
[Clue Hunt: This is a world filled with horrors and living nightmares. The only thing a mere weakling like you can do is struggle to survive for as long as possible. But don't lose hope yet, as countless clues have been scattered in various places throughout this school. Some will show you how to escape, while others will teach you how to survive here. Will you seek them out and uncover the secrets of this place, or will you sit and wait for death? What will your choice be?]
[Reward: ???. Penalty for failure/abandoning quest: None.]
[Current Progress: 1/10]
Saya stood frozen, staring at the floating panel. It wasn't until the panel dissolved into white mist and disappeared that she finally reacted.
Huh? What just happened? That was... a quest log, right? She needed an explanation... Why did a quest log just appear? This isn't a game… Wait, HP bar, level… Earlier, she had been too stressed to even register those things… Is this really a game?
Impossible! Completely absurd! She could smell the thick scent of blood in the air, feel the dampness in the atmosphere. Her feet were sinking into the fleshy floor. The exhaustion weighing on her muscles, the pounding of her heart—everything was too real. If this were a game, it was far too realistic.
Saya fell into deep thought. Then suddenly, she remembered two words: VR. A virtual reality game…? Could she be inside a game like that? Kidnapped by some underground organization or even aliens for some kind of advanced technology experiment? It sounded ridiculous, but then again, nothing about this situation was normal from the start.
So far, everything Saya had experienced was fatigue, pain, and despair. Those feelings were all real. But… what about death? Would that feel real too? Maybe if she died, she would wake up and realize this was all just a game… Maybe… Damn it, Saya had never hated that word more than she did now—"maybe". No certainty. No guarantees. And she wasn't willing to take that risk.
But… if this place followed the logic of a game… then there was still hope. Saya had already been teetering on the edge of collapse. Just one small push could determine her fate. Fortunately, what she found wasn't despair but hope, a tiny sliver of hope in this hellish nightmare. It was small, barely enough to hold onto, but enough to push her forward. Right now, all she needed to do was think of this as a game and play along.
"Think, think. You're a genius, aren't you? If this is a game, what should you do?" Saya closed her eyes and focused.
Alright, let's analyze this from a player's perspective, like holding a controller and deciding the fate of the character… This is a first-person horror puzzle game with RPG elements, set at the highest difficulty. The map is unknown and there's a BOSS outside—maybe even multiple BOSSES—and the character is only level 1. The first priority…
Assess the situation! This's third floor. Above is nothing but the rooftop. Below are monsters. The exact location of the monster is unknown, and it's moving around constantly. If she wandered aimlessly, she'd likely run into it and that would be Game Over. So, the first objective: avoid that thing. Second objective: gather supplies. Food, water, maybe even a weapon… Anything that could improve her chances of survival.
With that in mind, Saya began tearing through the classroom.
She searched every backpack, looking for anything useful. Water was abundant, many students had brought bottled water in their bags. She even found a few bento boxes that were still edible. Without hesitation, she grabbed an empty backpack, dumped its contents, and stuffed in several water bottles and bento boxes for later.
Continuing her search, Saya found a roll of duct tape, a sewing kit, a flashlight, a compass, a wireless microphone from the teacher's desk, and several phones. Random junk, but they might come in handy somehow—at least, she hoped they would. As for weapons, all she had were the same pair of scissors from earlier and a compass... Pathetic. She doubted these would do anything to that centipede monster, but holding them made her feel a little safer.
Objective two: complete. Saya had taken everything useful in the classroom. Now for objective three: finding clues.
In truth, the clue hunt quest itself was already a clue. It told Saya that there were ten clues hidden in the school and that some of them would reveal a way to escape. That was all she needed. Forget the quest, if she could get out of this hellhole, that would be reward enough.
"But first, I need to find a way past that centipede…" Saya rubbed her chin. This was a major problem. That thing was massive, at least several meters long, easily stretching across most of the hallway. Its body was covered in hundreds of eyes, giving it a perfect 360-degree field of vision—no blind spots. Worst of all, she had no idea where it was, making it impossible to avoid.
She needed a way to fix that.
"Wait… I have an idea! I really am a genius!"