Today is the last day of the Mathayom 5 (Grade 11) exam. So, I and three other friends agreed to go play games at the house of Nat, one of the groups. As soon as class was over, we walked straight to Nat's house. We chose to walk instead of taking the car because Nat's house was not too far from the school. Just walk and have a short cut along the back road to get there.
After walking for about ten minutes, we finally arrived. Nat managed to open the gate before leading the three of us in. The nature of Nat's house is a three-story detached house. Surrounding it is quite a lot of living space. There is also a swimming pool on the side. It looks like Nat has a well-founded status.
As soon as I entered the house, I looked around. The living room was decorated in a modern style with a luxurious black sofa placed in an L shape, a glass table and a fifty-inch TV mounted on the wall. Next inside is a staircase to the second floor. Behind the staircase is a laundry room and a door leading out to the back of the house.
"I'll go get the PlayStation first. You guys are waiting here."
We sat waiting for Nat in the living room while chatting for a while. Soon Nat came down with a PlayStation. Nat managed to set up the machine with us helping pick it up. While we were setting up our gameplay, out of the corner of my eye I suddenly saw something walking past the back of the stairs. I looked up but saw nothing. I suspect must have been seen mistakenly.
More than three hours had passed. I turned to look at the clock hanging on the wall and saw that it was now six o'clock in the afternoon.
"It's already six o'clock. Guys, do you want to go back?"
I turned to ask my friends, but no one seemed interested in what I had to say. Paek said while concentrating on the game in front of him.
"Where are you going back in such a hurry, Beer? It's only six o'clock."
"By the time I get home, it will be late. You know that traffic around here lasts until 10:00 p.m."
I tried to convince my friends, especially Paek, who lives in the same area as me.
"If you're afraid it's going to be very late, you can sleep at my house. There is no one here today."
"Tomorrow is the end of the semester and I'm going to sleep at a friend's house for a day. What's going to happen?"
Fah and Nat added. I want to sleep over. But I don't know why I suddenly felt bad like that. Moreover, I can't go back alone because during this period my father and mother must go out of province on business, so I must sleep over at Paek's house. Simply put, if Paek stays over, I must stay over.
Fah and Nat added. I want to sleep here. But I don't know why I suddenly felt bad like that. Moreover, I can't go back alone because during this period my father and mother must go out of the province on business, so I must sleep over at Paek's house. Simply put, if Paek stays over, I must stay over.
Time passed and it was now 9:00 p.m. We moved up to Nat's room on the second floor to take a shower and get ready for bed. While we were sitting in the room, my eyes suddenly caught sight of something in a box on the top shelf. I stood up from the bed, walked over to the bookshelf and took it out to find that it was a game disc with bright red letters saying Help me the game, save me from bullying.
"What are you looking at?"
Nat leaned over and looked at what I was holding before taking it from my hand and looking at it.
"What kind of game is that? I've never seen it before. Where did you get it from?"
I pointed at the cardboard box at the top of the bookshelf. Nat looked up and followed his index finger.
"Not familiar at all"
"Isn't it yours?"
"No, I remember I never bought the game disc." Nat frowned before looking at the game disc in her hand.
While we were standing and looking at the game disc, Paek suddenly walked in and joined the conversation before suddenly taking the game disc in Nat's hand.
"Hey, this is a horror game. play it?"
Paek turned around and asked with an astonished expression, unlike me who looked like he wasn't okay. I tried sending the sign to Nat but it didn't seem to work. Nat agreed before leading Paek straight to the computer, with Fah and me joining him later.
Nat took the game disc out of the box before inserting it into the computer. There was a notification displayed on the computer screen that the game disc had been inserted. Nut moved the mouse and pressed install the game. While waiting, we sat and talked while Fah, who was free, picked up a game disc and flipped it over.
"On the back of it, someone wrote that it was forbidden to play with it."
"Let me take a look."
Paek reached out and took the game disc from Fa's hand. I, who was standing behind Nat, secretly leaned forward to look, out of curiosity. The letters on the back of the box in an almost faded red marker read: Do not play.
A notification from the computer caught our attention and made us turn around to look. A window pops up saying that the game has been successfully installed.
Nut moved the mouse and pressed the button to enter the program before a window popped up. It was a black screen with red letters showing in the middle of the screen that said Help my game. As soon as Nut pressed the button to start playing, suddenly a loud sound sounded, presumably the sound of the game's soundtrack. But its sound could not be called a song because it sounded like something rubbing against each other to the point of pain in the ears, and it also had a shrill sound.
Soon the screen changed to an image of a character standing in front of the school fence. Nat moved the chair he had to sit comfortably in before grabbing the mouse and keyboard and forcing the character to follow the path the game had specified. Beside the screen, there was a subtitle displayed, presumably, this was just a tutorial.
We were glued to the computer screen, watching Nat play. The story of the game is like we are students studying here but we don't have any friends and have been bullied by friends at school. In which we must force the characters in the game to escape from the bullies or we will die.
The story may sound simple, nothing more than a normal horror game, but for me, when I heard the story, I had goosebumps all over my body. I feel like if we don't pass the game, we'll die like it would be us playing ourselves.
After finishing the lesson, Nut got up from his chair and changed to Paek to play instead. While Paek was playing the game, Nut and I moved to sit at the foot of the bed while playing on the phone. We were sitting and talking while the lights suddenly turned off, causing the computer and air conditioner in the room to turn off as well.
"What? The power went off?"
Everyone averted their eyes and turned to look at the light bulb. Nut got out of bed before trying to press the switch, but no matter how he pressed it, the light wouldn't turn on.
"I'll go look at the breakers first."
Nat took off to go look at the breakers before I asked him to join me.
"I'll go with you."
Nat and I left the room and walked straight to the breakers in the storage room. I picked up my phone and turned on the flashlight to shine it on Becker. Nut began to check the breakers one by one and found that the wires seemed to have been chewed up by something and almost broke. They assumed it was a rat.
Nat disappeared into the storage room for a moment before coming out with a roll of black electrical tape. Nat started wrapping the wires and checking to see if the lights were on. It turned out that only some of the lights were on.
"Why doesn't it all stick?"
I turned to Nat who was busy checking the breakers.
"Oh, some lights run on different lines. You ask them if the lights on the second floor are on or not.". I moved the hand that was holding my phone before pressing into chat to talk to the two of them while still having to shine the flashlight on Nut. Soon, a notification sound sounded along with a reply message. I pressed open the chat and read the message that Sky sent.
"Fah said that the computer is on but the lights in the room still aren't on."
Nat nodded before turning to check the breakers. Meanwhile, while we were still concentrating on checking the electricity and breakers, we suddenly heard a scream coming from the second floor. Nat and I rushed up to the second floor and as soon as we opened the door, we were shocked. Because the picture we saw was Paek holding his neck and screaming in pain.
Nut and I went straight to Paek but were taken aback again because Paek's side was blue, sitting with his neck folded, eyes wide open, mouth open, and his body covered in mysterious blood.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Nat swears in utter shock before slowly moving to shake Fah awake.
"Agh!!!!"
Peck began to scream again before letting out a final gasp and falling still.
"Peck!!! Peck!!!"
I shook my body and called out to him, but when my hand touched my chest, I was shocked because Paek's heart had stopped beating.
"You…Fah…he dead."
Nat turned to talk to me with tears in her eyes. I heard this so I walked towards Fah who was in the chair next to me before slowly reaching out to feel his pulse and finding that it was no longer beating.
"They were just teasing, right?"
Nat said in a trembling voice. I looked at my two friends who were lying completely still. My head is completely white now. At first, I thought that maybe these two were teasing us.
The howling sound from the computer caused us to turn around and see the screen image change to an image of a character standing in front of the school fence like at the beginning of the game.
"Nut, please turn off the computer first."
Nat turned off the computer, but Nat's expression suddenly changed.
"What is wrong, Nat?"
I turned to ask when I saw Nat's expression begin to look bad. But before I could walk in, my eyes suddenly saw something standing next to Nat. It was a black shadow shaped like a large person holding Nut's hand that was holding a mouse.
Nat slowly turned around with a look of help in her eyes. Suddenly, a character in the game started walking along the path. I turned to Nat and rushed towards him to stop him, but the black shadow suddenly pushed me away.
No matter how many times I tried to stop Nut, I was always pushed out by that dark shadow. At one point on screen, the character appears to be being attacked by another character in the game.
I shouted to Nat to regain consciousness, but Nat just cried before saying a sentence.
"I can't stop. It said…I must finish playing."
I heard this and frowned. while remembering the sentence that Nat said Suddenly, an image flashed back into my head when I saw the letters on the back of the game disc that said, "Do not play". At that time, I felt like I was starting to put something together. A warning before starting the game said that we had to help the characters survive the bullying or we would die and that Dark Shadow was forcing Nat to play the game, which probably meant that Dark Shadow might have encountered such a situation and created that game. "Nat, you do as I tell you."
"Are you going to help me?" Nat said in a trembling voice.
"Yes"
I pushed myself up and sat up before focusing on the computer screen. It seems like the characters in the game are now locked in a place that one would expect to be a bathroom.
"Nat, you broke the bathroom door."
Nat nodded before forcing the characters to break down the door, but it seemed like they couldn't break it.
"Beer can't break the door."
"Let's see if there's anything around there that can break the door."
Nut forces the character to search for things in the bathroom before finding something that is a long stick.
"Beer, I meets iron"
"Let's break the door down with that thing."
"You, have someone following."
"Run, don't stop."
"Which way should I run?"
"Teacher's room or Student discipline office room is fine."
Nut forced the character to run down to the second floor, but at that moment the character who was chasing him through something at his head. At the same time, Nat cried out and had to take one hand off the keyboard.
"Nat!! Don't let go."
"but…"
"Don't let go or we will die."
Nat nodded in agreement before returning to controlling the character in the game. Finally, the character arrived in a room that looked like a teacher's room, causing the other characters who were running behind to retreat.
The story in the game progresses until it reaches a period that is assumed to be during physical education class. A young man in gym clothes stands next to a pool and is suddenly pushed into the water. The characters were struggling in the pool, Meanwhile, Nat's expression seemed to change, like he was about to suffocate, like he was drowning.
"Nat, force him to swim to the center and press the device to release the collected sounds."
"GASP!"
Nat looked like he was about to say something, but he felt like he was about to run out of breath. I stood up and rushed to grab Nat's hand before pressing the button to force the character to press the emergency transmitter immediately. The screen soon cuts to an image of a teacher and other students running toward the pool before the teacher jumps in and saves the young man in time. The story continues until the end of the three male students who bullied the young man in the story, are expelled from school and sent to a juvenile detention center. As for the young man or character we controlled, he survived the bullying and returned to live a peaceful life.
The text on the screen shows "You are Free" which means you are free. At the same time, Nut began to breathe normally again. Nat took a deep breath and removed his hands from the keyboard and mouse before leaning back in his chair with relief. I looked around and saw that the dark shadow had disappeared. Paek and Fa, who at first were in a condition no different from dead people, suddenly revived and cried out in fear.
After the incident that day, we made an appointment to make merit the next day and bring the CD to be destroyed in a ceremony. As for the computer, Nut had it cleaned and sold to a computer shop because he said he didn't want to keep it to reinforce the bad events of that night again.