As Jin-hyuk moved in that player's direction, his own location started to move in the game, which was not possible as the game had no access to location or physical activity.
A chilling breeze crossed him, making him vibrate with the coldness that he had never felt before, the unsettling coldness like he's in a north pole.
Gulp!
Jin-hyuk gulps and takes a big sigh. The curiosity had taken over his fear, and he slowly headed towards the direction of other players to a bigger hallway.
His sneakers were hitting the ground and echoing an unusual sound in that quiet area. It seems like no one has visited here in years.
Ugh!
He coughed, the dust getting in his throat as he entered a room full of junk and wastage from construction. The settled dust spread in the whole room as Jin-hyuk disturbed their idle state.
Where did he go?? Jin-hyuk turned and moved to be out of there, his heartbeat raced, indicating that there was some unseen danger.
Whish...
A voice rang in his ear, and he saw a black shadow running to the other side of the room.
"W—Who's there!!?" Jin-hyuk's breath hitched and a layer of sweat on his face with his eyes moving in every direction. He curled his toes and started running from there.
Beep! Beep!
A sea of notifications started flowing in his phone. He took a quick glance, and his pace not just slowed but froze.
His brain stopped processing any movement as the signals of the eye's vision of the message reached there.
[Alert: A player is within range of 0 meters!!!]
The other icon of player location was overlapping Jin-hyuk's own.
He glanced around in that empty hall with the wall on his right and door in front to be out of the stairs.
In that emptiness, the voice of Jin-hyuk's panting was louder. He felt a cold breeze.
Suddenly, in that breeze, Jin-hyuk felt a warm breath against his neck.
His breathing stopped as he could hear the breathing sound near his neck. He slowly turned towards it—
THUD!
A sudden force pushed him against the wall, the push so sudden and heavy giving no time for reflexes.
A big hand was pressed on his wind pipe, stopping his wind flow. He looked down and saw a person whose eyes, height were same as his nose.
His eyes met the others, the intense gaze staring at his soul.
The guy had a familiar black hoodie and a familiar aura.
Jin-hyuk looked at his face. It was Je-wook.
Glare!
"Why are you following me?" Je-wook snarled, glaring at him. His voice felt like a cold void itself, the foggy voice against chilling breeze like ice water pouring onto wood.
5'11" Je-wook looked up at Jin-hyuk, "What do you want?" His voice hit straight in Jin-hyuk's soul.
Jin-hyuk muffled, his oxygen supply being cut off by the pressure of Je-wook's hand.
Was Ha-yoon saying the truth? Jin-hyuk grabbed his hand, pulling it away from the neck.
BEEP!
Suddenly, both of their phone vibrated in their pockets with a loud noise, enough to cause pain in the ear.
"What the fuck?" Je-wook stepped back, letting go of him now to check on that irritating sound.
Jin-hyuk coughed, inhaling more oxygen in his lungs and glared at him, What a sadist!!
Je-wook brought out his phone to see the notification from 'The Blank Space' :
[ Returning to play zone… ]
[ Leaving in 10… 9…. 8… 7… 6… ]
He looked at Jin-hyuk and shook his head vigorously, seeing him glitching like a character. "What the—"
[ 5… 4… 3… 2… ]
His voice started breaking, and his body vibrated with rhythm to phone, and his head spun before darkness consumed his vision.
[ 1… 0… ]
[ Loading… ]
***
STEP! STOMP!
The principal office had turned into an interrogation room with a chill atmosphere and all getting goosebumps even— Moon-ssam.
The principal was stomping around the room, her every step echoing louder than previous.
STOP!
Her steps halted, and voice echoed, "You gave any idea. What trouble did all of you guys cause?" her voice surprisingly in normal octave.
"Our school's reputation is on the line!!" she said, bringing out her phone to show them the live clip of the fight.
"Wow! There are so many likes." Hyun-bin's eyes shone, as saw the engagement it got in just 30 minutes and had 100K views.
The principal's face turned bright red with anger, "You—"
PACE… STOP!
Yi-jun appeared there, panting heavily from running fast.
"Ma'am!!!" He muttered, his words muffling along with his exhaling.
"What happened now??" The principal smacked her head, her eyes closed but her ears sharp.
"The girls... the girls... the girls are fighting!" Yi-jun stammered. His words hit like a dagger to the principal's remaining reputation.
He added quickly, "I—I tried to stop them, but—"
She sighed and bolted on her heels to that site with Moon-ssam and the boys after her.
"Let go!" Mi-na screamed. She was being restrained onto the ground by Ye-rin.
Slap!
Just a few meters away, Yoo-ra slapped Chae-woon, and her brain went blank with ears ringing bell.
Chae-woon shook her head vigorously and lunged at Yoo-ra's neck, wrapping herself around it like an octopus.
"Bravo!" Jae-in jumped. She kept hyping, standing near the open window to the alleyway.
"Go for it! Chae-woon!!" she smiled, turning towards Soo-ah.
"Who do you think will win?" she tapped on her head, calculating the moves dynamic.
"We should stop them!" Soo-ah stepped back, her face lost colour seeing the intense brawl.
Shoo... Grab!
Jae-in quickly grabbed her arm and laughed, "Let them be. You know, it's years of build-up." She recalled those bullying from Yoo-ra.
"STOP!!!" A loud voice cut through the hyping and hit straight to them.
The principal stomped near them, but the years of tension had made their vision linear.
The principal began to tear them apart. "I said stop!" But Chae-woon and Yoo-ra wouldn't budge an inch.
She sighed and divided for rattling Mi-na and Ye-rin, fighting like snakes.
"Let go of each other!" The principal forced them apart, but they won't let go.
"Take this bitch!" Mi-na snarled, swinging her hand in the air towards Ye-rin's face with all her force.
SMACK!
Everyone's soul stopped moving for a microsecond as the loud smack filled alleyway.
"Shit! Clean sweep." Sang-gu muttered with mouth wide open with a mystified smile.
Mi-na and Ye-rin let go of each other as their eyes turned towards the victim of slap which was the principal herself.
That alleyway turned in utter silence, Mi-na's heart rushing and jumping out from her chest.
"Sorry! Ma'am," Mi-na's words trembled on her lips. She swallowed her saliva to rinse dry throat.
Ugh... Ugh...
The principal coughed, her face redder than red, "It's okay!" Her words calm along with gaze.
Is it the calm before the storm! Ye-rin panicking, her hands sweaty and hair looking like mess.
The principal turned towards the audience of students and bellowed across the alleyway, "EVERYONE! TO THE CLASS. NOW!!"
Her voice thundered and everyone bolted to their respective place.
She looked at the fighters, "Do you need an official letter?" she glared at the girls.
They quickly disappeared to their class 'Grade 3-A', followed by principal and Moon-ssam.
BREEZE...
A cool breeze from outside brushed against those standing faces.
"So tell me what's happening here? Why're everyone fighting?" She asked, her gaze landed upon whole class and stuck at Chae-woon.
"Ahh.. She first pushed Ye-rin!" Chae-woon pointed towards Yoo-ra and stomped.
Yoo-ra rolled her eyes and hissed under her breath, "You two deserve that."
The principal thundered, "Be quiet!" her gaze sharpened at Yoo-ra.
"And what were you guys doing in that restricted area?" Her eyes darted towards the boys. The temperature of room dropped a few degrees.
All of their heads were hanging low, and not a single one hissed.
Sigh!
The principal let out a long sigh in that immense silence.
"Okay! As no one's saying anything—" She pointed at every single student.
"I want all of your parents here tomorrow before 10 AM, or the consequences will not be good!!" She stomped on the ground and turned on her heel to outside, holding her stinging, bruised cheek.
Turn!
Everyone's narrow eyes turned towards the chaos gang with furious look.
"Why're we getting dragged in your mess!?" Da-hye slammed her book on the desk and jumped from her seat.
"Shhh…" Moon-ssam put his finger on lip and stopped the chirping in class.
"Thank God! Bio ma'am wasn't here!" Seo-hee took a sigh of relief, her hand resting on her chest.
PACE!
The bio teacher appeared there, pacing like speed of sound as couldn't miss the opportunity laying in front.
"What happened?" She shouted, her smirking smile can be felt through her voice.
After hearing about fight from Moon-ssam, she turned towards the class.
She leaned forward, hovering between Yi-jun and Chae-woon's position of their desks.
"Chae-woon!! You fought!?" She looked at her right side, at her.
"I thought 'Grade-3-B' is bad, but this class is way worse!" She pointed at them, but her eyes were looking at their homeroom teacher Moon Kang-jae.
"I need to talk to you, Moon-ssam!" She whispered, her eyes rolled towards the student, and headed to outside.
"Yes!" Moon-ssam said, blinking hard and following her steps outside.
Inhale…
He inhaled a deep, calm breath before facing his senior.
"Moon-ssam! I'm very disappointed in you." She turned on her heel, cutting his pace just in front of the door.
She intentionally did it to humiliate him in front of students and teachers in the next classes.
"You're their homeroom teacher. It shouldn't be happening under your care." She added, mockery was straight up visible in her tone.
"I'm sorry, Sunbae-nim!" Moon-ssam bowed a little, his eyes closed and breath a little unstable.
Tsk!
"So pretentious! She's acting like her 'Grade-3-B' are saints." Da-hye sighed, seeing the holier-than-thou attitude of her teacher.
"Hay! Where's Da-eun and Ha-yoon!?" She whispered to Tae-joon standing in next desk.
"They're in infirmary… with Jin-hyuk!" He replied back with side-eyeing Joon-young. There's still blaze in his eyes.
"What? What actually happened??" Da-hye almost jumped from her seat, her eyes wide and mouth open.
Tae-joon didn't say anything as it's sensitive for Da-eun, and Joon-young still holds the key of those clips.
I can't act on impulse. I need to come up with a strategy. Tae-joon priorities Da-eun's emotional and physical safety first.
"Jin-hyuk! In infirmary! Is he okay?" Seo-hee's face turned deathly pale, her heartbeat dropping exponentially.
I'm 99.99% sure she likes him. Ha-rim thought, processing Seo-hee's panic mode in her mind.
Seo-hee turned towards Tae-joon and asked with her ear, fluttering, "What happened to him? Did he fight too—"
BEEP! BEEP!
A sudden synchronized beeping of notifications in everyone's phone cuts off her words.
All took out their phones. A flashing red alert pinged from 'The Blank Space', and those phones were vibrating against their steady palms in sync.
[ Alert : System error detected… ]
Seo-hee read the notification and glanced at Ha-rim, What's this??? The whole room echoed with the beeping sound and flashing red lights, reaching every corner.
[ Player entry initiated!!! ]
Thud!
A loud thud screeched through the beeping, grabbing everyone's attention.
Jae-in had fallen from her desk and was lying unconscious on the floor with no body movement.
Her body was glitching the same as her phone, and just after her Yi-jun hit the floor in the same manner.
Everyone jumped and screamed. The teacher heard the screams and quickly paced inside leaving their conversation unfinished.
Their eyes almost popped out from their skull as they saw students falling unconscious one by one.
"What's happening??" The bio teacher muffled. Her brain couldn't make any sense out of the situation.
The students hit the floor. Ha-rim's head lolled back with eyes fluttered shut.
"Ha-rim!" Seo-hee touched her back, and her head hit the desk. Seo-hee's breath trembled.
Her vision blurred, and a sharp voice rang in her ears just before her head spun and she felt as if someone had put hundreds of elephants on it.
Thump!
She hit the desk, her hand freely swinging in air and mind completely blank with an endless darkness beneath shut eyes.
[ New World Creation completed… ]
[ Player loading initiated! ]
[ Error : Room… 66 ]
[ Welcome to ' The… Blank…Space ' … ]
[ Loading… ]