Ghost Story Club

“You misunderstood the concept?”

“Yes, I perhaps mistook the concept of the game-like system. This game-like system seems to have the settings of simulation games… or some kind of tycoon-like, or business simulation game. In my opinion, like the MineCraft we’re playing right now.”

[T/N: Business simulation games, also known as economic simulation games or tycoon games, are games that focus on the management of economic processes, usually in the form of a business. Source: Wikipedia]

Simulation.

Tycoon.

“Explain in detail.”

“Listen carefully, President.”

Spreading both of his hands in an exaggerated manner, Dukhun began to explain enthusiastically.

“The system does have elements to help you grow stronger, however, such feats are limited as an individual warrior. The only way you can spend the points on you is through gaining abilities, and even they are limited although those are the points you worked hard to gain.”

“….That’s right.”

“On the other hand, as the club president, you have already raised the club’s level to LV.5. And it has been confirmed that you can raise the club’s level further and accumulate more growth, right?”

“…Yeah.”

3 special abilities and 300 points are the limit of my own abilities.

From then onward, gaining more abilities doesn’t make me stronger. It only allows me to match different combinations for each situation based on the three slots.

On the other hand, the level of the club would steadily increase as I invest more points into it. So far, the system hasn’t announced any limitations for the growth of the club, or how much I can update the club.

“If we consider all the facts, Lee Joon is indeed the hero who will defeat the Demon King. However, the system limits your abilities so that you can’t be a warrior with extraordinary abilities who does everything by himself. Doesn’t it seem like the system wants you to have the role of a ‘leader’ rather than a powerful hero?”

“…Hmm. I think now I understand what you meant when you said you misunderstood the concept.”

At the discussion, I suddenly couldn’t help but remember a game I used to play called RollerCoaster Tycoon.

[T/N: RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of construction and management simulation games about building and managing an amusement park. Source: Wikipedia]

In this case, it should be Ghost Story Club Tycoon.

Straightening his posture, Dukhun began to slowly analyze the situations we went through before and unravel what he had organized.

“This is why I think, this game-like system that suddenly appeared to President, it definitely doesn’t seem to have the sensibility of game concept of the current generation, but-”

“Wait a minute.”

I couldn’t help but interrupt Dukhun who was explaining things rapidly.

“What is the game concept of the current generation?”

“Without a doubt, the games of the current generation revolve around the concept of being OP (Overpowered).”

Dukhun clenched his thick fists as he exclaimed.

“The hero overcomes all the hurdles in his way and becomes strong by himself. He steps on the people who are thorn in his eyes and only gathers allies who are loyal to him. That’s the kind of game concept which is trending these days.”

“Really?”

Hearing it from Dukhun, I suddenly felt the game concept of today’s generation was indeed like that.

“And the name of the final boss, the Demon King, also sounds too lame. Such characters don’t appear in the current fantasy world games.”

“So Demon King isn’t featured as the final boss these days? Even in fantasy setting games?”

“Exactly.”

Dukhun nodded firmly.

Giving it a bit of thought, I realized he wasn’t entirely wrong. I never gave this thing much thought because I thought the concept was familiar to me. However, I also hadn’t encountered any recent games with a character like Demon King.

“Characters like Demon King are completely treated as cowshit these days. The current trend is ‘ancient beings who can destroy three thousand worlds with one sneeze’. Such majestic characters are considered the final boss.”

“Hahaha.”

I laughed at the exaggerated description of strength.

“How is it possible to destroy worlds like that? Are you joking?”

“It’s true.”

Dukhun said with a serious expression, putting shame on my amused self.

Power balance between the hero and the opposite party seemed to be an inherent problem in games with this genre.

“However, the President’s game-like system is completely different from that. It has no similarity with the trend of the current generation. Rather, it has the feel of being very, very old-fashioned.”

“How old?”

“The 90s.”

“… Before I was even born.”

I was born in 2003.

“Is there a reason you think it’s very old-fashioned? Aside from it having simulation or tycoon game elements?”

“Of course. Try to remember the message that appeared in front of you on the day of the entrance ceremony.”

“Wait a minute. I need to bring the panel in front of me to remember it properly.”

Pop.

『Congratulations on your acceptance at Nakseong Highschool, the school of secrets and mysteries. Uncover the shaddy secrets hidden within the school, and fight against urban legends and ghost stories of the campus in order to earn points and unlock special abilities. Additionally, you must gather comrades to prevent the resurrection of the Demon King’s before graduation. 

The world is in your hands.』

The message, which I had seen many times, both in my previous life and this life since the entrance ceremony, once again appeared before me.

As I read the whole thing carefully once again, I wondered if there was still more to look into.

“When you read the message carefully, doesn’t it say to gather allies and comrades to fight the final boss?”

“Yeah. But why so?”

“You still don’t seem to understand. The very act of telling you to gather allies is the concept of old-fashioned games.”

Dukhun leaned his fat body towards me with sparkling eyes.

“As I have said earlier, it is trendy nowadays for the main character to be OP and defeat all his enemies all by himself, squashing people beneath his feet like bugs. It looks like the President hasn’t heard the slang word ‘kill before they become the protagonist’.”

[T/N: Not too sure but, “히전 죽” seems like a shortened or a coined term that stands for “히로인이 되기 전에 죽입시다!” which translates to ‘Let’s kill the characters before they become heroes!’

“히전 죽” is an abbreviation or slang derived from this longer phrase, used humorously or colloquially to convey the idea of eliminating potential hindrances (like characters that could take the spotlight away from the protagonist) early on in the story.]

“What does that mean?”

“Kill the obstacles before they hinder the hero and become the protagonist!”

Kill the obstacles before they hinder the hero.

“In every fantasy setting stories, the author mercilessly erases the existence of the characters who could hinder the plot in any way and only create situations that would help the protagonists grow on their own. With that, they not only create an OP character but also eliminate the amount of screen time for other insignificant characters. That’s what they’re called ‘God. Like. Character’.”

I was speechless for a moment.

I felt like I had caught a glimpse of the exceptional world of otakus, who are immersed in their delusions and stuck in their imagination, which ordinary people like me couldn’t understand.

“This game-like system encourages you to gather companions from the beginning… not to mention, it considers you a hero and the Demon King your opponent? That’s really, really a concept which existed a very long time ago. For example…”

Dukhun pondered for a while before opening his mouth.

“…A Japanese game called Final Fantasy which was released in 1987. The game had the story about a hero saving the world. And the hero also starts his journey with three companions.”

[T/N: Final Fantasy is a fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). The first game in the series was released in 1987, with 16 numbered main entries having been released to date. Source: Wikipedia]

1987.

That was 32 years ago.

“That….is a long time ago.”

“That’s right. Most of the games where you have to gather companions and play with friends are from that generation. Such games deeply implement the old sentiment of ‘sticking together’.”

While we were discussing, Gyeongwon, who was passing by with a cart behind him suddenly stopped beside us and asked.

“Why aren’t you guys working?”

“Ah, Gyeongwon-kun. Chottomate. We’re having an important conversation.”

[T/N: Chottomate (チョトマテ) is a Japanese word which means, ‘wait a moment’.]

“Hmph.”

Although he didn’t say anything, Gyeongwon began grumbling as he passed us by.

I had originally thought of resting just for a bit but it seemed like I had rested for too long. So I slowly got up from my sitting position as I asked Dukhun.

“So? Now I understand that the system had an old-fashioned concept. But will knowing it benefit me?”

“Of course.”

Dukhun nodded affirmatively as if it was obvious.

“It’s very important to understand the method of the President getting stronger. You can’t grow stronger by your own abilities, but by the assistance of people around you, and by improving their abilities. What do you think that means?”

“….Well?”

“You need to defeat the Demon King. I’m not sure how you’re gonna do that but I believe this task should require a lot of people.”

People!

“Gathering allies, creating a club, recruiting subordinates… Even the expansion of the clubroom, which the President thought was useless, is a concept of expanding the ‘territory’. Do you understand?”

“The system is the one that is guiding you in the direction which will help you gather most people in the most efficient way. Why? Because according to the concept of the previous generation, a warrior never wins alone. He needs to form his ‘hero party’ and defeat the enemies along with his subordinates.”

“Hero… party…”

“The Ghost Story Club is your ‘guild’, which you have to lead with utmost sincerity. Such a concept and classic sensibility only existed in the old days. Moreover, you must occupy the ‘territory’ which is the school, ghost stories are the ‘monster’ you fight, and the ‘evil force’ you have to guard against should be the teachers. Ultimately, preventing the resurrection of the Demon King and reaching the ‘happy ending’. All of this would have to be done by ‘The warrior’, who will also save the world. And the person is none other than Lee Joon, the guild master.”

The conclusion that was only possible by Dukhun as he encompassed countless game knowledge sounded absurd to me.

Although I still had my doubts, my head naturally nodded in gratitude at the thought-provoking opinion.

“I think I understand the concept a bit now. Thank you.”

“You are welcome, we should go back to work now.”

“Yeah.”

Ending our discussion, we slowly headed towards the rest of the members who had been working diligently while we chatted.

We had already planted the foundation of the house. Our two-story brick house was almost at the verge of completion.

Hayoon’s character, which looked more cute than her usual elegant appearance, was crouching down and piling up the bricks. When we approached her, she glanced at us.

“Did you two have fun talking?”

However, her tone was as calm as usual even while inquiring us.

Feeling apologetic, I answered with a stammering voice.

“Yeah, well… we did. Sorry for being late. Get some rest. We’ll do the rest of the work.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Gyeongwon, who had been pulling a cart full of building materials, stopped next to Dukhun and asked.

“Are you finally done talking?”

“Yeah. I’ll do the rest, so you can ‘rest’.”

“I was going to do that even if you didn’t say, anyway. Here.”

Leaning against the brick wall that we just built, Hayoon tilted her head and began drinking some water. Gyeongwon passed the cart to Dukhun, like passing the baton in a relay game before sitting in a similar position to Hayoon. I left the members there and headed to where Sunah was baking clay to make bricks.

“Joon…”

Sunah’s small round face was covered with soot from the furnace. She glanced at me, who approached her, with her soot covered face and hopeful eyes.

“Sorry, Sunah. I was having an important conversation with Dukhun so I was late.”

“Yeah, it’s okay…”

Sweat dripped down her blackened face at the heat from the furnace. It seemed like baking clay, although looks like an easy job, was harder than searching for building materials.

“Ugh, it’s hot.”

“I’ll do it from now on. Go get some rest.”

“Okay…”

Squinting her eyes, she tried to wipe off the soot from her face as she headed to a nearby shaded area.

I took the place where she sat in front of the furnace and began baking again. While my hands were busy shaping and baking clay, my mind was lost in thought.

‘It wouldn’t make much of a difference even if I spent all the points on myself now.’

With my current abilities, it was an easy feat for me to solve more ghost stories than the one I currently had in mind.

And after solving more ghost stories, I could get a new special ability.

However, even after facing countless hurdles together, I had never thought of levelling up the members till now.

‘I’ve decided.’

The members’ were slowly losing enthusiasm to join my dangerous mission whenever I wanted. The continuous toll of ghost stories and their everyday lives must have made them exhausted to the core.

Therefore, after solving the current ghost story, I’ve decided to use the 200 or so points I had saved for not knowing where to use them, on my subordinates who had experienced countless life and death situations with me and assisted me in solving ghost stories without much questions.

As work progressed, we set up the foundation by laying bricks on the floor. To make the beams, we cut down trees from the nearby forest. With additional woods, we processed them before laying them down to create a wooden floor.

“Be careful!”

“Shit.”

Although we were building a two-story house, since it was a sandbox game to begin with, all we had to do was combine the blocks and tiles together and the structure of various things would appear on their own.

It certainly was much easier than constructing a house in real-life. However, because we had to start from scratch, like gathering materials from the ground and making bricks, it still was a considerable amount of work to us.

In particular, lifting materials up to the second floor was most difficult because the stairs couldn’t hold heavy things. Therefore, we even crafted a primitive pulley using wood and rope to lift up the heavy equipment.

“It’s the window. Pull.”

“Haish!”

As Gyeongwon and I pulled the rope from below, the window that was tied up to the end of the rope began rising to the second floor along the rope.

“Shit.”

Dukhun, who was standing on the second floor, grabbed the window we just raised and began setting it up.

Sunah was putting glasses on the window frame and Hayoon was busy installing the railing on the stairs outside.

“Okay, done.”

“Whew.”

Finally, after a day of hard work, a small two-story brick house with stairs leading outside, ending at the border of the southern part of the world, was completed.

As I requested, the door was attached to the transparent wall that was the border of the world. Since the entrance was at the other side of the transparent wall, we could only see the boring back of the house standing from our position.

“Too bad that we can’t see the front side of the house, even though we’ve finally finished building.”

“Right…”

At the fact that they couldn’t view the house from the front because of the transparent wall, the members muttered with a slightly disappointed look.

I encouraged them as I patted Dukhun and Gyeongwon on the shoulders.

“Well, we’ll be crossing the border in a while. So we can see the front side of the house soon.”

“Hmm…”

After saying that, I went into the living room through the window at the back of the house.

“Everyone, come inside, hurry.”

“Yeah.”

“It looks cozy.”

“Seems pretty comfortable for something that was built in a hurry.”

The interior, which was built in a hurry but with utmost care, appeared to be like an old house that you would only see in foreign movies.

The furnace which we used to bake clay and make bricks was also dragged inside. After a bit of modification, we changed its shape a bit and installed it as the fireplace to keep the house warm.

“The house looks like it came straight out of the Three Little Pigs storybook.”

“Yeah… a brick house with a fireplace built by the last pig…”

The members entered the house one by one through the window and began muttering things as they looked around.

Some simple furniture, like a bookshelf, was built by Sunah and placed inside. A small picture frame stood on top of the bookshelf. Such decor truly made it feel like someone actually lived in the house.

“Hayoon, please spread the mat. Let’s all sit down and rest for a moment.”

“Yeah.”

Perhaps because the house was built on a grassy field with pastures, when we were doing the construction, a flock of sheep passed by us.

At that time, we captured a few sheeps and got wool from them. With the obtained wool, a white woollen carpet was made.

Hayoon took it out from the corner where she kept it after making it and spreaded it in the middle of the living room.

“Huuu, thank you.”

“Let’s take a break.”

“Haaa.”

We all gathered near the fireplace and warmed ourselves by the fire.

After a long day of strenuous work, the members all appeared exhausted. As they all sat beside the fire warming their exhausted bodies, they started to feel drowsy.

“I feel sleepy after working hard for so long.”

“Me too.”

We worked hard the entire afternoon.

Now we were sitting in the living room of the Western-style brick house we made and warming ourselves by the fire.

A pleasant silence passed by as the members all remained quiet, resting for a while.

When I was convinced that the members had enough rest, I slowly opened my mouth amidst the sound of crackling of the wood in the fireplace.

“Where do you think we are right now?”

“Huh?”

The members, some of whom had their eyes closed, looked at me curiously.

Sunah seemed like she almost fell asleep. Raising her head, she began wondering for an answer.

“Well, inside the brick house we just built.”

Gyeongwon, the guy who always carried an air of being a young master of a rich family answered while sitting cross legged on the floor. His gentlemanly appearance seemed nowhere to be found as he answered in a matter of fact tone.

“Where is that brick house?”

“Hmm.”

He raised his head as he pondered. Something seemed to flashed in his eyes but in the end, he only fixed his posture and crossed his arms as he answered once again.

“Well, at the southern end of a huge grassy field.”

Instead of answering, I nodded.

Holding both my hands near the fire, I was also quietly warming my body like the rest of the members.

Surprisingly, the flame was warm.

“Then where is that huge grassy field?”

“Well.”

Gyeongwon shrugged before answering.

“Since the name of the world is ‘Lee Joon-2nd Round,’ I guess it’s a land somewhere in that world.”

“Where is that world?”

“In MineCraft.”

“Where is it?”

Gyeongwon slowly opened his eyes wide as if realization finally struck on him.

The endless green grassland was visible beyond the living room window.

“On the computer. In an internet cafe…”

With a start, he stood up with a blank expression and hurriedly looked around at the unfamiliar view.

“…What? Computer?”

Dukhun also looked around and tilted his head with a puzzled look.

“Huh?”

Sunah blinked slowly and wiped away the drool at the corner of her lips.

However, only Hayoon’s expression remained unchanged. It seemed she was already aware of the fact this whole time.

“Shit.”

While the members were slowly coming to realization, I got up from my seat and slowly started walking to the entrance.

“Prez, Prez. What’s going on…”

Creak- Creak-

The unfinished wooden floor creaked at every step I took. If it was in real life, the construction workers would have checked the house’s sturdiness and cleaned it thoroughly before letting people move in. However, we had built our house on a whim, so construction materials were scattered at every corner of the house.

Leaving a trail of footprints on the dusty floor, I stood in front of the entrance.

“Prez, Prez?”

Instead of answering, I slowly grabbed the roughly made doorknob, crafted by amateur hands and pushed the door open.

Creak-

The wooden door opened wide at the light push.

Lights from outside poured in as soon as the door was opened, dazzling our eyes, almost leaving us blind.

“How…”

Gyeongwon blinked with a blank look on his face.

“It was supposed to be blocked by the transparent wall…then how…”

“Joon?”

The puzzled members slowly followed me and gathered in front of the door.

To answer their doubtful hearts, I quietly nodded.

“Congratulations on successfully crossing the border and entering the game world.”

After I finished speaking, Gyeongwon looked down at his arms, legs, and body with a surprised expression. He seemed unable to believe that he truly was living, breathing in a game world.

“Uh, when…?”

“Let’s go.”

Rather than answering him, I raised my chin and signalled him forward.

“Beyond the edge of the world.”

Beneath the dazzling light that shone on our bodies through the wide open door.

The members all followed me and took one step at a time, crossing the border, toward the light with blank faces.

With my comrades behind, I quietly headed to the other side of the transparent wall, to the Far Away Land.

#include〈stdio.h〉

int main (void) puts (“Welcome to Far Away Land!”)；

return 0；

HEIID

Far Away Land!

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