Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 748: Analysis [1]

Yes!

A smile almost crept onto my face as I stared at the completed analysis, but the rapidly approaching footsteps wiped it away before it could properly form.

Step! Step! Step!

“…Right. Maybe later.”

I pushed myself forward and ran, finally able to stop looking back now that the analysis was complete. The teacher followed closely behind, its footsteps bouncing through the corridor alongside mine until the sounds started to overlap.

I’d already gotten a good enough look at its face.

The burned skin.

That mouth.

I didn’t need to see any more of that stuff.

Bang!

Something struck the wall behind me hard enough to send a vibration through the floor, and a long shadow briefly stretched beside mine before disappearing.

‘Has it gotten faster?’

Or was it me that had gotten slower?

Either way, I couldn’t keep running forever.

My eyes moved from one classroom window to the next as I passed them. Most showed nothing besides old desks and darkness, but eventually I caught sight of several small figures sitting in neat rows.

Children.

‘There.’

I immediately changed direction, grabbing the handle and slipping inside before pulling the door shut behind me.

Clank!

The teacher was already outside.

Its frame moved across the narrow window before abruptly stopping, and almost immediately afterward, the handle shifted beneath my palm.

“…!”

I let go and turned towards the classroom.

By now, the sight before me was disturbingly familiar. Rows of children sat facing forward with their exercise books open, while near the back of the room stood the same empty chair waiting between two occupied desks.

Seat twenty-seven.

I hurried towards it as the door started opening behind me, pulled the chair back, and sat down.

Almost immediately, every child who had been watching me turned towards the front.

The footsteps entering the classroom slowed.

Step.

The cycle repeated.

“…”

I placed my hands flat against the desk.

The teacher walked past the rows without coming for me, its behaviour changing so abruptly that it almost felt as though I’d stepped into an entirely different anomaly. Only moments ago, it had been tearing open pods looking for me.

Now it calmly moved towards the front.

Tap. Tap.

“Open your books.”

Paper rustled around me, and I did the same.

‘So it really is the seat.’

Whatever governed this place, sitting in Mara’s position made me part of the classroom. Whether the teacher genuinely believed I was her was another matter entirely.

For now, I wasn’t going to complain.

As the children started writing, I picked up my pencil before bringing the completed analysis back into view.

—-

[VILE-2217 — “The Teacher”]

[Classification: Unknown]

[Target may now be used inside the Gate Development System]

[Expand]

—-

‘Let’s see what almost got me killed.’

I selected the option.

—-

[VILE-2217 — “The Teacher”]

Type: Anomalous Entity

Status: Active

Observed Behaviour:

— Displays extreme aggression toward individuals outside classroom assignment scenario.

— Prioritizes classroom routine once assigned seating conditions are fulfilled.

— Highly responsive to sound, movement, and direct observation.

— Capable of detecting external analytical interference.

—-

‘This confirms it. So long as I’m in the classroom with the children, I’ll be fine.’

Most of it confirmed things I’d already learned the hard way.

The wording around classroom assignment was interesting, but another section appearing beneath it immediately drew my attention away.

—-

Physical Analysis:

— Humanoid structure heavily altered.

— Extensive thermal damage present across facial tissue, scalp, neck, and upper torso.

— Severe carbonization detected around mouth and respiratory passage.

— Injury pattern indicates sustained exposure to open flame.

— Respiratory traces indicate subject remained alive during exposure.

—-

My pencil stopped against the paper.

“…Alive?”

I read the final line again.

Then the meaning properly registered.

‘It was burned alive.’

For several seconds, I forgot about what was happening around me.

The face I’d seen through the camera returned to my mind, except now it was considerably harder to dismiss as nothing more than the grotesque appearance of an anomaly.

The burns weren’t simply what the monster looked like.

They were the result of the teacher burning alive.

‘But is it just the teacher?’

My gaze instinctively moved towards the front of the classroom, checking all the children around me. Unlike the teacher, none of them seemed to have that burned look.

Then..?

My brows furrowed together as I caught a glimpse of the teacher from the corner of my eye.

‘One of the clues said that her voice continued issuing instructions from inside even after the incident.’

I’d never found anything explaining what happened after.

“…”

“Continue your work.”

The familiar gravelly voice carried through the classroom, and a faint ‘ah’ escaped my lips. For some reason, knowing about the burns made the voice sound different.

I stared down at the exercise book.

‘Was that what happened to you?’

Had Mrs. Vale been burned alive before whatever happened to Class 3-C?

And if so…

Who had done it?

More importantly, what had happened afterward for this thing to still be standing at the front of the classroom?

Step.

The teacher started moving between the desks.

I immediately dismissed the panel.

The questions could wait for later.

I had to get through this for now. With my nodes still not working, I had no choice but to follow along with the scenario.

I worked through the exercise as the footsteps gradually approached, but having seen the teacher properly made the situation even more nerve-wracking.

Step.

The teacher stopped beside Elon.

His pencil continued moving as though there wasn’t a monster standing over him.

A few seconds later, its shadow shifted onto my page.

“…”

I kept writing.

One long finger eventually entered my vision and stopped beside a calculation I’d completed.

My eyes followed it.

“It’s wrong.”

Oh…

[x + 5 = 10. What is x?]

Oh.

I erased the answer and corrected it while the finger remained pressed beside the page. Only once I finished did the teacher pull its hand away and move towards the next desk.

I waited until the footsteps were further away before releasing the breath I’d been holding.

‘It really does just keep teaching.’

That was the part I found hardest to understand.

Mrs. Vale had died.

Someone had still heard her giving instructions afterward.

Now I was sitting in Class 3-C while something with the face of a person burned alive continued teaching the same children.

There had to be a connection.

I just didn’t know what it was yet.

The lesson eventually ended, and once the teacher’s footsteps disappeared into the corridor, the children stood and began filing outside.

I followed them.

From there, everything settled back into the pattern I’d already learned.

The corridors changed.

Another staircase appeared where a wall had previously been; the children entered another classroom, and I took Seat 27 again before the next teacher arrived.

Whenever I had the chance, I continued searching.

Nothing useful changed.

October eleventh.

Mara’s withdrawal.

October twelfth.

Elon claiming he’d spoken to her near the treeline.

October thirteenth.

Elon following someone he believed to be Mrs. Vale despite the real Mrs. Vale being elsewhere.

October fifteenth.

Mrs. Balle denying that she’d ever withdrawn her daughter.

October sixteenth.

Elon returning to Seat 26.

Then…

There was nothing else.

Every record I found skipped directly to October eighteenth.

Class 3-C — All absent.

“…”

I slowly turned another page before returning to the previous one.

The seventeenth was still missing.

There was no attendance sheet, disciplinary report, classroom note, or anything else indicating what had happened that day.

Yet sometime between the sixteenth and eighteenth, everything had fallen apart.

Mara was already gone.

Elon had been moved back to his original seat.

Mrs. Vale had somehow ended up dead on the landing.

And if the analysis of the teacher meant what I thought it did…

She may have been burned alive before her body was found.

‘October seventeenth.’

My eyes remained fixed on the gap between the records.

Whatever happened here…

It probably happened then.

Small fingers suddenly wrapped around my wrist.

“—”

I froze and looked down.

There was nothing beside me.

The pressure remained for another moment before slowly loosening, leaving my skin untouched.

“…Again?”

I rubbed my wrist, almost tempted to use my glasses, but held myself back so that I wouldn’t attract the attention of the teacher.

I looked back towards the missing date, but a distant footstep from the corridor stopped me from searching further.

Step.

“…Later.”

I returned the papers and followed the children into the next classroom.

The remaining hours passed without another major discovery.

I attended lesson after lesson, searched whenever the teachers disappeared, and kept a close eye on Elon whenever he was near me.

He never responded.

Neither did I find anything new concerning Mara.

It was almost frustrating how many clues I’d collected while still knowing so little about what had actually happened.

By the time I checked my watch again, however, there wasn’t much longer to go.

[05:59]

“…It’s almost time.”

Elon sat beside me, quietly filling another line inside his exercise book while the teacher stood at the front.

My gaze lingered on its silhouette.

‘Burned alive…’

The thought lingered in the back of my mind.

If that really was connected to Mrs. Vale, then the missing day was even more important than I’d originally thought.

Flick! Flick!

The lights above flickered.

The classroom gradually blurred around me as the old desks, chalkboard, and children disappeared, replaced by the familiar layout of my office.

When I looked towards Elon again, his chair was gone.

So was he.

[06:00]

I leaned back and rubbed my face.

“…Made it.”

Several of the pods remained open from the teacher’s search earlier, while two of the cameras had been completely destroyed.

At least I’d gotten something out of it.

I knew more about the teacher now, and possibly a little more about what had happened to Mrs. Vale.

But the main questions hadn’t changed.

What happened on October seventeenth?

Where had Mara gone?

What exactly had Elon seen?

And how had Mrs. Vale’s voice continued teaching after she’d died?

My gaze eventually moved towards the office door.

“…”

Right.

There was still that.

I stood and crossed the room, wrapping my hand around the handle before pushing it down.

Click.

Nothing.

My brows slowly furrowed as I tried again, putting considerably more force into it this time.

Yet again, the door didn’t budge.

Outside the window, the corridor had returned to normal. There were no endless hallways, children, or teachers left behind.

Everything looked exactly as it should.

Except for the fact that I was still trapped.

I pulled once more before eventually letting my hand fall from the handle.

“…Is something going on outside?”