Chapter 18: Main character (IV)
Dan Woo looked toward the patterns of lotuses and butterflies suddenly engulfing the entirety of Cha Hwa Rim. The motif of two and three was still predominant, as the tattoos of two butterflies and one lotus flower covered her arms, body, and legs.
"This is the real Cha Hwa Rim?" he muttered as a torrent of unfamiliar memories, emotions, and voices drilled into him.
He looked down at the object still in his hand—a slick black phone with the information of the Skeleton in a Closet game reflected in her eyes.
"What an irony," she muttered.
Before all this, before all the death, despair, and suffering, there was only a game.
The Skeleton in a Closet game.
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Dan Woo, wearing the shell of Cha Hwa Rim, was still dazed, gazing at the unfamiliar app that had weirdly installed itself on his phone. He looked at the beautifully made interface as a message popped up.
"Welcome, Cha Hwa Rim."
Soon enough, a set of five cards appeared before her.
The girl at the front of the class continued,
"...The game has two parts: the first part, the investigative phase, and the second part, the voting and authentication phase. As I said before, on the main interface everyone has a unique character card, and within that said card it holds your reputation points, your plausible actions, your role, and your five skeletons."
Skeletons.
Dan Woo looked toward the five cards before him.
"These cards are your lifeline, as they determine whether you live to see tomorrow."
Dan Woo, who had barely been paying attention, perked up at the sentence.
"Did you say that the cards determine whether you see tomorrow?" Dan Woo cut in.
The scholarly girl gazed in Dan Woo’s direction before she continued.
"The objective of the game is to make sure the skeletons remain in the closet. Otherwise, the skeleton will devour us whole."
Dan Woo was confused by the cryptic words.
"What do you mean?"
"You will understand soon."
The girl then got out of the podium and went back to her seat as everyone looked through their phones with mechanical unsettling movements.
Then suddenly, the sound of a war siren blared throughout the entirety of the school, startling Dan Woo, yet the other students remained calm.
Soon after, a cold feminine voice filled the entirety of the school.
[The Investigator has used their ability on Cha Hwa Rim. One of her secrets has been exposed.]
Before Dan Woo could digest the information of what had just happened, a wave of malevolent energy washed over her, making it hard for her to breathe as a freezing chill descended upon her. She heard unintelligible whispers as her body stiffened, and she felt something slither across her skin. Then, just as fast as it came, it disappeared.
In its place was the presence of blank ink on her skin.
What was going on?
Dan Woo couldn’t make heads or tails of what had just happened. She gazed again at the streak of black on the back of Cha Hwa Rim’s hands. There was a kind of pull, a weird dance of energies.
Dan Woo turned back to the phone to look at the app.
There was a notification that had popped up.
[The secret, "Cha Hwa Rim is attracted to women," has been exposed. One of your skeletons is out of the closet.]
Dan Woo was unsure what he was looking at. He now wished that he had paid better attention to the rules the girl was explaining.
Before he could even do anything else, another notification popped up.
[Reputation points deducted. -1, -1, -1...]
It continued ringing, buzzing through the area, before another blaring air raid siren blasted through the PA system.
[Cha Hwa Rim’s reputation points have reached zero.]
He turned toward the other students in hopes of getting any information. He first looked at Im Nari, ready to get information from her. Yet when he called out to her, there was nothing.
He then looked toward the other students, but whenever he tried to talk to anyone, no one responded to him. Soon enough, the other students began talking among themselves, ignoring every word uttered by Cha Hwa Rim.
She turned back to the screen. Maybe there were answers hidden somewhere within the app.
In front of her now stood a character card with the name Cha Hwa Rim.
Within the card was the name, and right next to it was the role: Whisperer / Instigator.
Right below that was her reputation, which now sat at zero.
Then below those were five cards—three dubbed Real and two Fake / Shields. On the two shield cards there was only a blank space, while on the real cards she could see that one had been exposed, bearing the secret:
"Cha Hwa Rim is romantically attracted to women."
The other two held only question marks.
As she gazed upon the words on the exposed card, she felt the blot of ink on her skin begin to crawl, as if it were growing. The feeling was painful, as though a hot knife was being traced across her skin.
As this happened, patches of memories that were not her own started to crop up, like fragments of another identity that couldn’t be understood.
She felt her vision blur as she continued to gaze at the screen, barely able to make sense of anything.
Then another loud air raid siren pierced through her daze, returning clarity to her, only for another message to blast through the PA system.
[The Prosecutor has used their ability on Cha Hwa Rim. One of her secrets has been exposed.]
The second card that had been holding a question mark just moments ago was now filled with new information.
A notification immediately popped up.
[The secret, "Cha Hwa Rim is a murderer," has been exposed. Two of your skeletons are out of the closet.]
[Warning. If the third skeleton comes out of the closet, it’s game over.]
Game over?
[You have been marked for the hunt.]
Another message immediately popped up as a timer started to count down.
5:47:05...04...03... to the hunt.
"Another fucking timer?"
The words suddenly left Dan Woo’s mouth in a manner that felt foreign—not his way of speaking, nor Cha Hwa Rim’s.
He quickly sent Cha Hwa Rim’s delicate hands to his mouth.
Did he just swear?
In front of everyone?
He noticed he had been standing at the front of the class, and, more bizarrely, the two dots of black had now turned into two tattoos of blooming lotus buds.
What was happening?
He couldn’t help but exclaim as he gazed at the body that now felt even more foreign. It had changed. He had become slightly taller.
But before anything else could happen, he turned back to the phone screen before him.
His fingers quickly tapped the shield.
He didn’t know what it meant to have a game over, but he didn’t want to experience any of that.
Immediately, a window popped up.
[Shield activation in progress. State your false secret.]
He didn’t know what to put, but fearing that someone else might use an ability before he decided, he typed the first thing that came to mind.
[Your false skeleton has been logged.]
He felt a wave of relief as the notification glowed.
Now for his next step.
He looked toward the face of Im Nari before walking over to her and grabbing her by the hand.
"We need to talk."
He said as he led her out of the classroom.