Irreality
Late dawn.
That is, around four o'clock.
While everyone else was asleep, I clicked the mouse with eyes wide open.
In the dark room, the monitor glowed alone.
A file had just been placed on the desktop. After careful deliberation, I opened it.
[Irreality.exe]
Irreality.
A legendary horror RPG Maker game said to have been made by an anonymous user in Japan during the 00s.
These days, computer graphics have advanced and countless AAA horror games are springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, but
the blocky pixel graphics unique to RPG Maker and the eerie, bizarre atmosphere struck my taste dead-on.
Since I had started seriously enjoying RPG Maker games, I felt like I'd played pretty much every horror game worth playing.
Masterpieces like Ao Oni and The Witch's House, of course, and even minor overseas games I played by running them through translators.
That was why 'Irreality' was the ideal game for me.
No matter how much I scoured horror communities, only hushed rumors existed. A mystery in and of itself—a game with not even play videos, let alone photos.
Yet this mystery and mystique instead stimulated my curiosity, and I had spent the past few years tracking it down.
Domestic communities and all sorts of overseas sites—I had searched them all for traces of 'Irreality.'
Then, amidst that, I finally grasped a lead.
It was about a week ago. By chance, I discovered a blog reviewing Irreality posted by some Japanese user.
Unfortunately, the post had been taken down long ago, but the blog address remained.
Through that address, I mobilized every translator at my disposal to send an email.
One day, two days, three days.
While waiting endlessly, it was only around yesterday that I received a reply.
[No Subject]
[Sender: Anonymous]
[Attachment (1)]
The reply contained just a single file, without a single word. It was Irreality.
It was suspicious that they'd only sent a game file, but I didn't care.
My heart fluttered at just the thought of being able to play Irreality.
Filled with excitement, I opened the executable.
[Warning!]
[Do you wish to run Irreality?]
[This file may contain a virus.]
I brushed aside the virus warning lightly and pressed the Yes button.
A black program window exuding a bleak atmosphere popped up.
I kept my eyes fixed on the monitor, brimming with anticipation.
The creepy program blinked a few times as if something might appear out of nowhere, then suddenly turned off.
Thud.
The darkened monitor illuminated my face pathetically.
"...What the hell."
Even when I ran it again, the result was the same. The program cut off dead before it could even start.
After wrestling with the program for about thirty minutes, I finally confronted reality.
The game program wouldn't open.
It wasn't a simple error—it had been like that from the start.
Contrary to its grandiose name, Irreality.exe was nothing but an empty shell.
"Ah."
I'd been properly hooked.
The unidentified file sent by Anonymous was merely bait to reel in a big fish like me.
Thanks to that, my heart that had soared with anticipation plummeted into the abyss in an instant.
Some crazy bastard living in Japan had ruthlessly trampled the heart of a desperate person.
'I just wanted to try the game, why the hell would you do that...'
Beyond the monitor, I saw a pitiful face.
It was truly the gloomy countenance of a dead man.
You wouldn't see this expression even if you stole candy from a baby.
That was how aggrieved and haggard I was.
Fatigue rushed in suddenly. I splashed water on my face, desperately holding onto the thread of sanity.
'They didn't plant a virus in the game file, right?'
I felt like a complete idiot—the me from a few minutes ago who had brushed aside the warning so easily.
Only after running the antivirus program several times did I finally come to my senses.
Fortunately, there was nothing seriously wrong with the computer. The game file didn't even contain a virus.
It was an empty shell made solely to mess with me alone.
"Ugh, seriously."
A crushing wave of disillusionment washed over me. Furthermore, my curiosity about Irreality had completely died.
I muttered softly and collapsed onto my bed.
I didn't want to search for 'Irreality' anymore.
My past self who had gone through hell just to play a game felt like nothing but an idiot.
The long-awaited 'Irreality' only left behind emptiness.
**
School hours precariously close to being late.
I barely arrived at the classroom. With sluggish steps, I sat down quietly at my seat.
Staying up doing useless nonsense until 4 a.m. had left me exhausted beyond measure. The fatigue accumulated from the all-nighter hit me all at once.
My eyelids began to slowly close.
I flopped right down onto the desk.
It's not like the world would end if I slept a few hours.
And so, I fell asleep as usual. And before long, my eyes opened.
Not because someone woke me up—I woke on my own.
For some reason, not even the teacher woke me up today. Thanks to that, I seemed to have slept straight through. After sleeping deeply, the fatigue had completely vanished.
It was probably around lunchtime.
I raised my stiff body and stretched. At the same time, I felt an enormous sense of déjà vu.
A strange current flowed through the classroom. The atmosphere was different from usual. Only then did I hurriedly look around.
"What the hell."
Strangely, the classroom was already dim.
Saying the lights were off didn't fit—the curtains were wide open. It wasn't just the classroom; the hallway and outside the window were no different.
It was simply dark.
Like the dead of night.
'Dead of night?'
I hurriedly checked the clock hanging on the classroom wall. Unfortunately, the hour hand was pointing at 12.
Exactly 12 o'clock.
Of course, it wasn't noon.
12 a.m.—which meant I had opened my eyes only in the dead of night.
So no one really woke me up?
I had already sized up the situation. Clutching my throbbing head, I grabbed my bag.
While hastily packing my bag, a notebook caught my eye. It lay blatantly open on the desk, impossible to ignore.
Had I used this as a pillow?
My memory was hazy.
Anyway, on the notebook left open all alone, unintelligible numbers were written.
[00:00]
I don't remember writing something like this.
Puzzled, I soon dismissed the distracting thought.
I didn't have time for this. I grabbed my bag and quickly dashed toward the back door.
-Clack.
The door didn't open.
It was locked tight with a padlock. After trying a few more times, I gave up on opening the back door.
But don't you usually lock classroom doors from the inside?
The back door's locking mechanism was engaged on the inside, not the outside.
Doubts arose at the incomprehensible situation.
Still, escaping the school was the first priority, so I didn't pay it much mind.
Even if the back door was locked, there was still the front door, right?
I naturally headed toward the front of the classroom. However, the front door was the same.
The padlock was locked facing outside the classroom. Unless someone opened it from the outside, getting out through the front door was impossible.
With both front and back doors locked,
I finally realized my predicament. I was literally trapped inside the classroom, unable to move an inch.
Is this a dream?
At the nonsensical situation, I was dumbfounded. I was pinching my cheek and fumbling against an innocent wall when a message floated in the air.
-Swish.
[Tutorial initiated.]
[Escape the classroom within the time limit.]
[Reward: Status Window]
[Failure Penalty: Death]
[Time Remaining: 10:00]
'Huh?'
I blinked blankly at the game-like contents.
Tutorial, reward, failure penalty.
A window like a game quest. Along with it, a timer was operating near the bottom.
[Time Remaining: 9:48]
It seemed I was supposed to escape this classroom within the time limit. I couldn't grasp what it meant at all.
A situation too realistic for a dream, yet too unreal for reality.
Wondering what this was, I fell into a daze. Even so, the timer kept ticking away.
[Time Remaining: 9:13]
The moment the time ran out, it felt like something bad would happen. Reluctantly, I looked around the classroom.
The classroom scenery was quite different from usual. There weren't many things that had visibly changed, yet an eerie atmosphere lingered.
First, I checked what stood out the most. It was the lockers.
Heading to the back of the classroom, I saw rows of tightly packed lockers lined up neatly.
One of them caught my eye.
The locker in the middle was exceptionally red, unlike the others.
It was smeared haphazardly with red, as if factory paint had been poured over it. Moreover, it was locked tight with a padlock.
Come to think of it, a few weeks ago,
there had been a theft in the next class, and we'd been warned to take good care of our belongings.
After that, some kids had started locking their lockers with padlocks.
It must be one of those guys' lockers.
Still, if a locker looks like that, it'd be too creepy to use.
Apart from the lockers, there wasn't much strange about the classroom. Most of the desks were empty, perhaps.
That was all I'd glanced over, so whether it was accurate was uncertain.
I also searched the teacher's desk drawers and behind the TV where back door keys might be, but came away empty-handed.
The timer was soon running out.
Perhaps to signal that time was running out, its color turned dark red.
Yet still, no proper means of escaping the classroom appeared, and,
[00:00]
finally, the time limit announced its end.
I'd been anxious that something terrifying might happen when the timer ended, but nothing of the sort occurred.
'I was scared for nothing.'
I inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Then, a dull vibration sounded from somewhere.
It came from the hallway direction. My relieved expression froze solid. I carefully turned my gaze toward it.
'Is someone there?'
I peeked my head out slightly past the window. The hallway was as pitch-black as the classroom.
From afar, I heard heavy treading footsteps. And in the distance, I saw the silhouette of a robust man. He was walking this way.
It was too dark to see well, but the light from the fire hydrant and the green light of the emergency exit served as light sources, faintly illuminating him.
A shabby and unsightly blue uniform and cap. A flashlight held in his right hand.
'The security guard?'
Judging by his attire, he was the dedicated security guard you see one or two of in every school.
Seeing him walking around the school at this late hour, he seemed to be on dawn duty.
A face I saw every day on my way to school—I was glad to see him. Just as I was about to call out to him and ask for help, I stopped short without realizing it.
'That's strange.'
For some reason, the security guard felt different from usual. Unlike the mornings when he always greeted me with a gentle face, his expression was stiffly frozen.
It was frozen to a bizarre degree, beyond the expressionless face a person normally made. Rather, I even sensed a deeply unpleasant scowl.
The guard walked thudding toward the classroom.
It was bizarre and horrifying, like watching a moving mannequin.
I instinctively crouched down. Rather than revealing my presence, the urge to hide came first.
The footsteps gradually drew closer. Afraid my breathing might be heard, I covered my nose and mouth.
I pricked up my ears and focused all my nerves toward the hallway.
'Did he pass?'
Before I knew it, the footsteps had stopped.
Since I was hiding in the blind spot beneath the window, I couldn't tell what was happening outside.
I relied solely on my senses to guess the situation.
Presumably, the guard had passed by without noticing me.
'Let me check.'
I slowly peeked my head out slightly past the window. And I couldn't contain my shock.
The guard was waiting right in front of the window, eyes wide open.
As if he already knew I was hiding in this classroom.
The moment I raised my head, my eyes met with the guard standing blankly before the window. The bloodshot red eyes, as if blood vessels would burst, were unmistakably glaring at me.
"Shit!!"
Surprised out of my wits, I fell backward. The impact sent a row of nearby desks toppling with a clatter.
Even amidst that, the guard never took his eyes off me.
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