Strange Game - Anime Mashup

The next second after the scream,

The woman bolted out of the classroom, her steps frantic.

"Chiharu, wait for me!"

"Don't be afraid!"

The man who seemed to be her boyfriend chased after her, his face pale and drenched in fear, terrified of being left behind.

The frantic movement of the couple drew everyone's attention.

"Ahhh…"

A shrill howl echoed, jolting the remaining group into action. They took off running, their instincts screaming at them to flee the terror behind them. Fujibayashi Ryou, face drained of color, turned swiftly and dashed toward the classroom door.

Rushing to be first, none dared to linger.

But just as she reached the door, Ryou stopped abruptly. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw Lin Ye still standing there, motionless, as if caught in a trance.

"Lin-kun, hurry!"

She clung to the doorframe, her voice sharp with urgency. Yet Lin Ye remained rooted to the spot, unresponsive. Gritting her teeth, she ran back into the classroom and grabbed his wrist firmly.

In that instant,

The timid girl summoned every ounce of courage within her, though the mere sight from the corner of her eye made her legs tremble in fear.

Lin Ye finally allowed himself to be pulled by her, his pace quickening as they joined the fleeing group.

As they rushed out of the classroom and into the dimly lit hallway, Lin Ye's thoughts were elsewhere.

The moment the black-haired girl in the blood-stained school uniform had turned to face him, he had attempted to use his time-stopping ability. He scrutinized her every detail, even tried to touch her—first with a nearby book and chalk, then with his own hand.

But there was nothing.

She is a ghost.

He couldn't touch her. But then, can she touch him?

Lin Ye debated testing the theory but ultimately decided against it. If this spectral figure—this "weird" entity—initiated contact, the results were unlikely to be in his favor.

Outside the classroom, the hallway stretched into darkness. Only a few flickering lights from distant rooms offered faint illumination, casting unsettling shadows across the silent school building.

"Thud, thud, thud…"

The couple who had been running in front stumbled and half-fell down the stairs, finally reaching the first floor.

"Quick! We need to get out of here!"

A frantic voice rang out.

But Lin Ye's calm, steady tone cut through the panic.

"I suggest you don't run off aimlessly."

His words reached the group as he and Ryou caught up to them.

"Huff, huff, huff…"

The group was panting heavily, their faces pale with dread.

A man in a sweat-soaked tracksuit managed to speak between gasps.

"What—what just happened? What's going on?!"

"Why…why are we here?"

"That woman—she was a ghost! She has to be a ghost!"

The questions came tumbling out in rapid succession, each more desperate than the last.

Lin Ye, unshaken, stepped forward. His voice was even, though it carried a weight that demanded attention.

"As I suspected, we've been dragged into a strange game."

His words silenced the group for a moment.

A strange game.

The phrase was heavy, filled with dread and the unknown.

"You mean those urban legends?" someone asked, their voice quivering.

"That can't be real! This is impossible!"

The disbelief was palpable, though their trembling hands betrayed the fear they all felt.

Lin Ye's gaze swept across them.

"Whether you believe it or not, we're involved now. If you want to survive, you'll need to stay calm."

His composure unsettled the group. After all, they had just seen a ghost—a bloodied apparition!

"You…you've done this before, haven't you?"

Lin Ye gave a small shrug.

"A little experience."

The group stared at him, their desperation now tinged with a sliver of hope.

"Then tell us—how do we get out of here alive?"

A tall, muscular man stepped forward, glaring at Lin Ye. His voice was laced with aggression, as though blaming Lin Ye might solve their predicament.

Lin Ye sighed audibly, his expression unreadable.

"There are always people who fail to grasp their situation and waste everyone's time."

"What the hell are you talking abou—!"

Before the man could finish, Lin Ye moved. In an instant, the tall man crouched, clutching his stomach in agony.

"Ahhh!"

His scream echoed down the dark hallway.

"Kosuke! Kosuke!"

The bespectacled man next to him—his apparent friend—rushed to his side, panic etched across his face.

"You didn't have to hurt him!"

Lin Ye's gaze was cold and unwavering.

"He was the one who wanted to escalate things."

The others stood frozen, their fear now split between the ghostly apparition and Lin Ye himself.

"I don't have time to waste on pointless arguments or posturing," Lin Ye said flatly.

Ryou, standing slightly behind him, looked at him in awe. The calm, almost ruthless Lin Ye before her was a far cry from the person she thought she knew.

Perhaps, she thought, this dangerous situation had forced another side of him to emerge.

After a few tense moments, the tall man recovered enough to stand, though the hatred in his eyes was unmistakable. He stayed silent, however, knowing that retaliation would be futile.

"So, what do we do next?"

This time, it was one of the women who spoke.

"I-I'm Chiharu Miyata. Nice to meet you…"

Her voice trembled, but her fear of Lin Ye had turned into reluctant respect.

"I'm Lin," he said simply.

"L-Lin-san… I'm Kawasaki Yasunari," the flat-haired man added hastily. "Chiharu's boyfriend."

The others introduced themselves one by one.

The tall man was Sawano Kosuke, and his bespectacled friend was Honda Kazuya, a self-proclaimed otaku.

Lin Ye nodded, already forming a plan in his mind.

"First, we need to gather clues and figure out how to clear this level."

"C-clear the level?" Chiharu stammered. "No, we can't do that! We should just run away!"

She pointed toward the school's exit.

"If we leave this place, we'll be safe!"

Lin Ye shook his head.

"First, this isn't the real world. If you run away, you won't return to where you came from."

"Second, strange incidents usually impose restrictions. You can't escape the area."

"And third…" He gestured toward the windows. "Look outside. It's pitch black, with no light or features. Do you think that's normal?"

Chiharu stared out into the void, her confidence waning.

"If you still want to try running, go ahead. I won't stop you," Lin Ye said coldly.

No one moved.

The group exchanged uneasy glances, their fear outweighing their desire to flee.

Just then, Chiharu's voice broke the silence.

"She…she's here…"

The group turned in unison, their eyes wide.

Down the hallway, a figure appeared.

Blood-stained and motionless, the girl stood.

And then, she moved.

"Boom..."

"Boom..."

The bloodstained figure moved slowly toward them, each step of its slender body resounding heavily in the dark night.

The yellow-haired girl trembled uncontrollably.

Compared to the ghosts she had seen in movies before, this one was even more terrifying!

"No, don't come any closer,"

"Run!"

A chill surged from the soles of her feet to her forehead.

Without hesitation, the tall man turned and bolted.

"Kazuya, run!"

Though he couldn't worry about others, he would never abandon his friends.

"Thud, thud..."

The tall man grabbed his good friend Kazuya and dashed up the stairs.

"Wait, wait, let's—"

The yellow-haired girl hurried to catch up, her boyfriend close behind.

In just a few seconds, the four of them had fled entirely.

"Lin-kun, we should—"

Ryou turned to follow the others, but Lin Ye grabbed his wrist.

"Let's go! She... she's coming,"

Fujibayashi Ryou grew more anxious by the second.

"Let's go this way."

Lin Ye pulled Ryou toward the second floor but didn't follow the group led by the yellow-haired girl.

"Aren't we going with them?"

To Fujibayashi Ryou, staying with a larger group seemed safer.

"There's no point. We need to gather clues, and we can't rely on them right now."

If the group managed to stay calm instead of panicking, Lin Ye wouldn't have minded working together.

Based on their reactions, though, he decided to let them act independently.

Their chaotic behavior might even trigger more rules for him to analyze and uncover useful information.

"Besides," Lin Ye continued, "the more people there are, the higher the chances of being found."

"Wait, what?" Fujibayashi Ryou was stunned.

"Well, what if they come for us first? Smaller groups aren't exactly invisible!"

"Don't worry. I'm here, Ms. Fujibayashi. I'm practically a professional in situations like this," Lin Ye said confidently.

His words gave Ryou a small sense of relief.

At that moment, Lin Ye stopped in front of a classroom on the second floor.

"Class 2, Room C," he muttered, flipping the light switch.

The room lit up brightly.

It was astonishing that this abandoned school building still had electricity.

"Let's see if there's anything unusual."

"Alright."

Ryou entered cautiously, his uneasy gaze darting around the classroom.

The room, unused for a long time, was blanketed in a thin layer of thick dust. A faint, musty smell hung in the air.

The desks were empty, no books or belongings in sight. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing of interest.

After two minutes, the two had searched the entirety of Class 2, Room C.

"Mr. Lin, I didn't find anything useful," Ryou admitted.

"Let's move on to the next room."

The entire school building was within their search scope. Lin Ye concluded that any clues wouldn't be hidden too intricately—nothing requiring excessive scrutiny of corners or the backs of blackboards.

When they reached the door to Class 2, Room B, Lin Ye tried to open it but found it locked.

"Click, click..."

The handle refused to turn.

"It's locked. We'll need a key."

Ryou glanced nervously down the hallway, terrified that the ghostly figure might appear.

"Move aside," Lin Ye instructed.

"Alright."

Lin Ye stepped back, then raised his leg and delivered a kick.

"Boom..."

"Boom..."

The door didn't budge.

From the solid resistance of the door, Lin Ye realized it was like kicking a concrete wall—unyielding and impossibly sturdy.

"Breaking in by force isn't going to work," Lin Ye muttered.

He turned his attention to the glass windows on the classroom doors.

Taking a step back, he threw a punch at one of the panes.

"Thud..."

The impact reverberated, but the glass didn't even crack.

"This classroom is either an unexplorable area or an impenetrable barrier in front of us, which reduces the area we need to search," Lin Ye concluded calmly.

Ryou could understand the logic, but she couldn't shake the unease at how Lin Ye treated this life-threatening scenario as if it were a game.

"This room can only be accessed with a special tool, most likely a key, which might contain crucial information," Lin Ye continued.

Ryou's anxiety lessened slightly at this deduction. If finding the key was their next task, at least they had a direction.

"Let's head to the next classroom, room A," Lin Ye said, moving swiftly down the corridor.

The classroom door to 2A was also locked.

"Ahhh!" A blood-curdling scream tore through the silence.

"Don't come near me!" a frantic voice yelled. "It's all your fault! You said this place was safe, but now we can't escape!"

The sound came from above, the fourth floor, Lin Ye deduced, recalling the layout of the building. Judging by the direction of the noise, someone had been cornered.

Ryou's hand instinctively flew to her chest as her heart raced. Lin Ye's earlier theory appeared to be correct—the female ghost prioritized attacking groups of people.

Meanwhile, on the fourth floor, the four panicked individuals faced the blood-soaked ghost.

The tall man, sweating profusely, was unconsciously shoved to the front.

"Hey, hey, hey…" he stammered. "Don't come closer! We've done nothing to you. Just let us go, and we'll leave peacefully."

The ghost did not respond. Her footsteps grew louder and closer, each echoing with a sense of finality.

"Think of something! Quick!" one of them shouted.

"Tall guy, do something!" another urged. "You said she was just some creepy girl, didn't you?"

The tall man's trembling hands clenched into fists. "Fine! I'll distract her. Kazuya, get ready to run!"

With a deep breath, the man abruptly grabbed the yellow-haired girl and rushed toward the ghost.

"AHHH! Let me go!" the girl screamed, realizing what he intended to do.

Her boyfriend, Kawasaki Yasunari, yelled, "Stop it, you idiot! Let her go!" But his fear rooted him in place.

As the tall man hurled the struggling girl toward the ghost, he made a break for it. Yet, just one step into his escape, something wrapped around his legs—thick strands of bloodstained black hair. He fell to the floor with a thud.

"Help me! Kazuya, save me!" he cried, terror flooding his voice.

The yellow-haired girl scrambled to her feet, too shaken to help, while her boyfriend had already fled. Only Kazuya hesitated, torn between guilt and fear.

"I'm sorry," Kazuya whispered at last, succumbing to his fear. He bolted, leaving his friend to his fate.

The tall man's cries grew more frantic, his body ensnared by the ghost's hair. Pain shot through him as the strands began slicing into his skin, tearing him apart piece by piece. His desperate screams faded into silence, replaced by the eerie creak of the building.

~~~

Downstairs

Lin Ye and Fujibayashi Ryou stood before the locked door of room A. The sound of the classroom lock clicking open broke the tense silence.

"The door…" Ryou stammered, pointing at the now-unlocked handle.

"Yes," Lin Ye said, his tone somber. "It's open. The reason might be have something to do with them."

It is estimated that someone is dead.

After a participant died, the sealed classroom door was opened? Isn't this a disguised way of letting them kill each other?

Lin Ye pushed the door open cautiously, flipping the light switch. The classroom lit up, revealing a scene not unlike the other rooms they had searched. Desks and chairs were covered in dust, and the air was heavy with the stench of mildew.

"Let's look around for clues," Lin Ye instructed, scanning the room carefully.

Suddenly, a faint sound crackled through the room's old radio system.

"Beep…"

A girl's voice came through, soft and distorted. "Kuroshima-san is so pretty, and she's such a good student… I'm envious…"

Static interrupted parts of the message. "...I wonder who'll fall for her… He'll definitely be lucky…"

"No one in this school is good enough… Maybe… a handsome transfer student…"

The broadcast ended abruptly, leaving behind an eerie silence.

Lin Ye's eyes narrowed. "This is a clue," he said. "Class 2 room A seems to have access to broadcasted information. Let's see if the other classrooms have similar setups."

"Okay," Ryou replied, trying to keep up with his pace as they searched for more hints.

~~~

As Lin Ye and Fujibayashi Ryou returned to the first floor, they spotted the three remaining members of the original group huddled together, their faces pale with terror.

"The tall guy," Lin Ye began, "is he dead?"

Kazuya hesitated before nodding shakily. "Y-yes. The ghost got him…"

Lin Ye's piercing gaze made Kazuya squirm as he recounted the events. "We were trapped on the fourth floor. She caught him with her hair… and then he was gone."

Lin Ye tilted his head thoughtfully. "It seems the ghost only targets one person at a time," he mused aloud.

The three survivors exchanged nervous glances. If that was true, their chances of survival just improved—provided they stayed vigilant and didn't want to attract the attention of that ghost.