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

Chapter 273: Easy Clear [3]’Wait, wait, wait...

’ Clara rubbed her head, the world around her beginning to tilt as a sharp migraine pressed in.

The pain swelled until it blurred her vision, and for a moment her balance gave way, leaving her stumbling on unsteady feet.

"Hey, hey...!

" If not for the Section Chief helping her, she would’ve probably fallen over.

"Are you okay?

Med—" "No, I’m fine.

Don’t call for them.

It’ll make the situation worse.

I’ll be fine in a few minutes.

" Clara rubbed her head again, forcefully pushing the pain away as she collected herself.

Despite her best attempts, the pain was intense.

It took a total of ten minutes for her to fully get back to normal as she sat down on the ground, gulping down the bottle of water that the Section Chief had managed to provide her.

"Are you feeling better?

" Hearing the Section Chief’s words, Clara nodded.

"...

Yes, a bit.

" The migraine wasn’t hurting as much.

But it was still there.

Lingering at the back of her mind.

"Okay, get some rest.

While I do want to ask you more about the situation, I’ll save that for later.

I’ll go talk to the agents for now.

If you need anything, send me a message or call for me.

" Seeing her feeling better, the Section Chief decided to give her some space as he stood up and left to check on the other recruits while also talking to the bureau agents.

Clara’s eyes traced his silhouette for a moment before she closed her eyes and thought back to the situation.

’The number of people that we needed to rescue was eleven.

I’m sure of it.

’ They had all been provided with the profiles of the people that they needed to rescue in advance.

She was sure about this fact.

’...

In the last moments, I counted sixteen people.

There should’ve been fifteen of us.

’ Did she count the Jester by accident?

’No, that’s unlikely.

The Jester had entered beforehand.

’ In that case...

’An extra person had entered?

’ Clara swallowed silently, feeling the hair on her skin slowly starting to rise as a cold chill pressed down on her back.

Who...?

Who could’ve possibly entered?

Clara swallowed yet again.

Despite the chaos of the situation, she was almost certain that she and her team would’ve realized it if an extra person had appeared.

In fact, she wasn’t the type to forget something as simple as them being sixteen in total.

Normally, she would’ve realized that there was an extra person.

The fact that she didn’t notice didn’t make sense to her.

Was this a mistake due to tiredness?

Or...

was there more to it?

’No matter how much I think about it, I can’t seem to recall anyone that I don’t know inside of that room.

’ Clara prided herself on her memory.

She could distinctly remember all the faces in the room.

And yet— There was not one single face that she didn’t recognize.

’How did that make sense?

’ The more Clara thought about it, the more the migraine that had been lingering at the back of her mind started to resurface.

It was also amidst her thoughts that she lowered her head and stared at the small camera attached to her uniform.

’It’s a good thing that I’ve got this here.

’ Clara turned her attention towards the Section Chief.

He was still busy talking to those from the bureau.

She quietly pursed her lips before taking out her phone and loading the Guild App up.

Following this, she connected the phone to the camera.

A video began to play shortly after.

It was an extremely long one.

Thankfully, Clara only needed to see the ending as she skipped to that very moment.

’Here.

’ She stopped right at the part she remembered.

Right before she started running for the door.

In that moment, she could see it clearly.

The sixteen figures that she remembered counting.

’I knew it.

This wasn’t a mistake.

’ Her heart raced momentarily.

She then pressed play.

The video continued.

—Run!

Quickly!

—Don’t fall behind!

Quickly run!

She could hear the muffled sound of her own voice from the video.

The steps that followed her behind too.

She heard it all.

But that wasn’t what she cared about.

What she cared about was the sixteen people.

Clara looked at the back of all of them, and she found herself unable to tell who the extra person was.

They all felt familiar to her.

Why...?

Clara sped up the video.

It was the moment right after she entered the room.

She saw the massive shadow cast behind her, the hand slowly raising to stab at her.

She could hear the sound of her own breath leaving, and her body growing tense.

But it was also in that moment that she saw the profiles of everyone present.

Clara counted again.

’One, two, three...

seven, eight...

twelve, thirteen...

sixteen.

’ All were present.

Clara paused the video there and raised her head to look into the distance.

Where the other fifteen people were gathered.

She slowly began to match their profiles with the one in the video.

’He’s here.

She’s here.

He’s here.

He...

’ Her voice stopped.

A young man with freckles, black hair, and deep brown eyes...

He wasn’t in the group in the distance.

Clara’s throat tightened as she studied him.

He wasn’t in the group in the distance.

Not like in the video.

Clara looked back at it.

She felt certain that she knew him, and yet...

The longer she stared, the less certain she became.

Her skin prickled, her chest pulled tight, and the air around her started to feel suffocating.

Her breathing quickened.

Without realizing, her finger pressed down on ’play’.

The boy’s head turned.

His eyes locked onto the camera.

And then, slowly, he smiled.

*** "Uergh!

" The moment I regained a sense of myself, the first thing I did was puke in the nearest trash can.

"Uerghhh—!

" Despite my best attempts at holding back, I couldn’t stop myself.

My stomach acted on its own as I started to puke my entire soul out.

All the trauma and experience of the gate came crashing down on me all at once as I began puking.

I thought I had gotten used to it after everything that I had experienced.

But I was wrong.

It was even worse this time.

I puked not out of fear, but out of trauma.

My mind was simply trying its best to restore my sense of self.

"Haa...

Haa...

" I didn’t know how long I had puked for.

By the time I had stopped, I felt extremely weak as I slumped down on the ground.

I stared blankly at the ceiling above me.

The lights flickered faintly.

...

I had gotten sick of the sight above me.

I had seen it far too many times.

"H-haa.

" The puking wasn’t the worst part of it all.

The worst part of it all was trying to detach my mind from everything that had happened.

Everything felt numb to me at the moment, my fingers twitching, and my emotions all over the place.

I understood that it would take some time for me to return to normal.

Forcing myself up, I took out my phone and checked the date.

Inside the gate, I couldn’t figure out what day it was.

But now that I was out, this should no longer be a problem.

’I hope it wasn’t for too long.

I hope—’ My heart sank the moment I pulled down the calendar.

Twenty days.

A total of twenty days had passed since the hourglass had flipped.

My heart sank at the realization as I forced myself up and connected my phone to the Wi-Fi.

"Shit...

" The more I thought about the situation, the more anxious I became.

I had been gone for a total of twenty days.

I was almost certain that the Guild had started looking for me.

Kyle was probably the same.

Perhaps even a manhunt.

’My face might be all over the papers.

’ I bit my nails whilst I connected my phone to the internet.

And just as I began to panic, I paused.

"Eh...?

" The expected flood of messages wasn’t there.

Instead, it was strangely silent.

I opened the browser and looked for my name.

Besides a few things about my game, there wasn’t much at all.

"Wait, what?

" I scratched the side of my face.

"So nobody noticed?

" Frowning, I looked at my phone.

I double checked to make sure, but it really did seem like nobody noticed my absence for twenty days.

This...

"I’m not that anti-social, right?

"