Ghost Story Club

[2019, Mar. 08 | Friday, 11:35]

[Lee Joon - Number of Attempts: 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 110]

[Causality Rate: 8%]

‘Huuuu… Why is time crawling by so slowly?’

It was Friday. After fourth period was lunch, and after that it would be time for the first club activities period. I’d been eagerly waiting for it!

I started to jiggle my leg in anticipation as I waited for the lesson to end.

The national history teacher—who wore a hanbok—was spending an unnecessary amount of time raging about the recent trend in the universities’ exams, where they no longer reflect topics on national history.

Through the small window on the classroom door, I could see that some of the other students had gotten out of class early and were rushing towards the cafeteria.

“Also! Those Japanese bastards would settle down on our country’s lands and dampen the spirits of our……”

‘Fuck, just end the lesson already……’

Ding Dong Ding Dong~♬

As soon as the bell rang, I joined many of the restless male students as they slammed the door open to rush to the cafeteria. The teacher's upset expression suggested there was more to be said on the subject, but the students seemed to think that eating lunch was more important than national history.

I dashed down the hall to try to get to the cafeteria quickly. SunAh and GyeongWon quickly followed behind me.

“Let’s eat lunch quickly and go to the clubroom to hang out!”

“Huhu. You have to keep up appearances, club president!”

GyeongWon replied while adjusting his glasses. SunAh just smiled brightly in response.

I looked into SunAh’s eyes and nodded, making SunAh giggled a bit.

The three of us began to speed down the hallway when someone ran by even quicker, bypassing us and entering the cafeteria first.

It was our homeroom teacher.

The three of us sat side-by-side as we ate, and we could see many delivery workers moving around through the cafeteria window.

The fifth and sixth periods were Club Activity periods. As the club activities were fully independent and those periods were set aside for clubs by the school, many of the seniors seemed to have ordered food to their clubrooms via delivery rather than going down to the cafeteria.

Possibly because she was a bit jealous, SunAh had stopped eating and was staring blankly at the delivery workers.

“Next time we should order food, too. Since we have our own clubroom and all.”

“Yeah!”

As the three of us were leaving the cafeteria to head to the main building, a message suddenly popped up in front of my eyes.

[S-rank Special Ability: Goddess of Luck is preparing to trigger.]

[The System is currently adjusting reality.]

“……?”

The message window disappeared just as quickly as it popped up.

I looked around in confusion, but I didn’t notice anything different. I just shrugged and entered the main building.

“Wow! What is this line?”

As soon as we entered the main building, we could see a long and winding line of students. What was so important that such a long line would form even during lunch?

“It looks like all of these students are here for the interview with the book club.”

GyeongWon replied after adjusting his glasses. After we followed the line to its starting point, we could see it started from the library. Unlike most normal clubs, the book club was in charge of running the library as well, making it popular for those wanting authority.

Even after graduation, if you were on close terms with the head librarian you could use the library at any time. Purchasing new books every month was also one of the book club’s duties, so members could add books to the purchase list the way they wanted.

Because there were so many benefits to being a part of the book club, there were many people waiting for interviews even though it was right before the Club Activities Period started.

“Those fools. They should have joined our Ghost Story Club instead.”

I mumbled under my breath as we passed by. The two laughed when they heard me.

“We would have to get famous first, since we don’t have any achievements yet. Let’s slowly nurture our club, prez.”

Then, a large male student called out to us after seeing us pass by.

“Uh… umm… Lee Joon?”

“Yeah?”

The bundle of weight was my partner, Oh DukHun.

“You know the club you made before… is there still room?”

Although he was waiting in line for the book club, he was looking around as he asked me about seat availability. GyeongWon and SunAh were surprised by this situation and started to check out DukHun. Although I was wondering what this was about, I nodded and answered honestly.

“Yeah, there’s still room. Why?”

“Is there… a way I could still join?”

“The Ghost Story Club?”

DukHun nodded vigorously.

“Didn’t you say that you were going to join the anime club?”

DukHun replied hesitantly.

“Things didn’t go well there……”

Did he get rejected? I did think that the anime club would be a perfect fit for him. No wonder he was waiting for an interview with the book club.

‘Oh well.’

I answered him in a refreshing manner.

“Of course you can join. Do you want to?”

“Y-yokatta~!

T/N: yokatta is Japanese for “that’s great”.

DukHun shouted in joy. The students around him began to glare at DukHun.

“I’ll be joining, Mr. President~!”

“Don’t add the ‘Mr.’, it makes me feel like a company president.”

Our club was a newly made club. At that point, when gaining just one more member made a huge difference, there was no reason to stop a person from joining the club.

“I’ll add your name to the roster and give it to the teacher, so you can head straight to the fifth floor once Club Activities Period starts.”

“Hai~! Wakarimashita~!”

T/N: Hai means “yes” and wakarimashita means “I understand” in Japanese. Whenever this guy speaks, I feel like a jtl X.x

Just as DukHun was about to run down the hall after leaving the line, HaYoon—who had just finished her interview—was leaving the room.

Crash-!!

“Uwaaaaah! Sumimasen~!!”

T/N: Sumimasen means “sorry” in Japanese.

The massive DukHun had crashed into the slender HaYoon. HaYoon was smothered by fat so quickly that she was pushed away before she could even scream.

It was at that moment…

Poof-

[S-rank Special Ability: Goddess of Luck has triggered.]

* * *

* * *

The books that HaYoon held were flying in the air.

“Oh. OH.”

I tried to catch some of the books flying through the air, but the moment I put my body forward, my center of mass was unbalanced. Possibly because the student in charge of cleaning that day was overzealous, the floor was much more slippery than usual.

“Oh no. Ack!”

As I slipped onto my stomach, I could feel my feet rise into the air and hit something.

“Ack!”

GyeongWon let out a cry of pain.

Pow-

“Kyaaak!”

As GyeongWon was knocked over by my foot, he accidentally headbutted SunAh and her scream echoed through the hall.

“Ack!”

“Ugh!”

Crash-

Crash-

“Kyaaak”

“……”

Pow-

Crash-

The four of us performed a slapstick comedy scene that would have been perfectly in place in some trite old comic.

With exaggerated motions, the four of us all collapsed. Somehow, I managed to remain conscious, but even that was fleeting after SunAh’s shoe somehow covered my mouth and smothered me.

“D-daijoubu desuka?!”

T/N: Daijoubu means “alright” in Japanese, and desuka means “are you” in Japanese.

GyeongWon was being smothered by his own sleeves and HaYoon was being smothered by her hair.

While DukHun was running around at this egregious accident, he slowly disappeared from my fading sight.

[S-rank Special Ability: Goddess of Luck has been consumed. The ability has disappeared.]

.

.

.

[You have come across and survived the B-rank Ghost Story - Dream within Dreams.]

[You have earned 15 Ghost Story Points.]

[You have exerted great wit and instead repelled the Dream within Dreams!]

[You have earned 70 Ghost Story Points.]

[You receive 10% Bonus Points for each Club Member who contributed.]

[Contributing Club Members: Ahn GyeongWon, Yoon SunAh.]

[The 17 Bonus Points will be added to the 85 Ghost Story Points gained.]

[Current Ghost Story Points: 110 +85 +17]

Bam badam~♪

[Current Ghost Story Points: 212]

[You have earned sufficient Ghost Story Points! By spending Ghost Story Points, you can gain special abilities and speed up your growth or unlock the abilities of your club members! You can also increase the abilities of the club and upgrade your clubroom!]

***

“My gosh……”

I couldn’t help but laugh at myself as I kept my eyes closed. After waking up from the dream within a dream within a dream within a dream, my consciousness felt crazy.

Still, I could feel the memories rushing back to me. I could remember everything. So, this was what had happened in reality.

When GyeongWon had said that I wouldn’t believe him, he was absolutely right.

“Urrrrgghh.”

As I slowly opened my eyes again, I could see the ceiling of the school come into view.

“……”

As I got up again, I could hear the others waking up as well. Next to me were GyeongWon and SunAh.

“Ahem.”

“Huh? This place is……”

HaYoon was also awake, and she was looking around soundlessly.

“This place is… in the school.”

“Yeah, it's the hallway.”

“Yeah……”

It was the school hallway on the first floor of the main building. In front of us, there was a line of students standing in front of the library.

Farther down the hallway, I could see that DukHun was running to find a teacher.

We quietly gave each other looks, trying to confirm the situation.

“No way.”

GyeongWon started mumbling to himself, as if he were flabbergasted.

“Did we just collapse?”

“I think we did.”

HaYoon replied as if she were exhausted. It had felt like we had spent an eternity in those dreams, but to think that only ten seconds had passed. If we had spent an hour collapsed like this, we might have spent months within the dreams.

“Joon……”

SunAh was also mumbling as she looked at me.

I nodded as I looked right back at her.

“Glad to see you, SunAh.”

“Hehe……”

***

“Is this your clubroom?”

A young, female teacher was just standing in front of a random clubroom door, shouting in a powerful voice.

“No, teacher. It’s this way.”

“Aha.”

The teacher turned towards our clubroom door and walked over.

“Why is it in such a weird location? Rather, was there a room like this here?”

It was a face that I had seen a couple of times. I saw her during the entrance ceremony once. And in the bathroom once.

“Anyway, nice to meet you! I will be your advising teacher, Jang HwaEun. If you have anything you need for your club activities, feel free to come to me. Something like driving you guys around for any outdoor activities, for example~! But for this to be a Ghost Story Club, how peculiar.”

The lady in her early thirties, exuding healthy charm, introduced herself as she chuckled to herself.

‘Her Title stated she was an Old-Maid Teacher. I wonder if it’s true?’

[Your understanding of Jang HwaEun has increased by 10.]

I guess I knew the answer to that.

“Wheeze, wheeze. The anime club was a trap. The delinquents just called their club that and would just beat up anyone who showed up to join…… (ToT).”

“… I see. Well, please take care of us DukHun.”

Even though the day wasn’t even that hot, DukHun was already sweating buckets. Next to him was a female student who looked to be in a bad mood. JinHee was crossing her legs with a frown on her face.

“Your name was… JinHee, right? Although you were dragged in here against your will, please take care of us.”

“Yeah.”

JinHee answered curtly and cut me off.

Next to her was HaYoon, who we had been able to convince to join us since she had been rejected from the book club. She was gracefully sitting in her seat with her hands placed on her knees. As there were not enough chairs, SunAh and GyeongWon were standing next to me.

I had written ‘Ghost Story Club’s First Club Activity Period: Self Introduction’ on the whiteboard, and we had been going around introducing ourselves, all six members.

Ahn GyeongWon, who lived to be called smart.

Yoon SunAh, the poor student who lacked self-esteem.

In HaYoon, who seemed to hide something beneath her politeness.

Oh DukHun, the ultimate anime stan who was in charge of the club’s mass.

Lee JinHee, the vicious and charismatic delinquent girl.

Teacher Jang HwaEun, the beautiful woman in her thirties who enjoyed sexually harassing the students.

And me.

Although I had been labeled as two-faced due to puberty, the only thing that I was actually good at was using my wits and tricks.

The club president, Lee Joon.

“Welcome to the Ghost Story Club. I’m glad that all of you joined.”