Surviving in an RPG Maker Horror Game

Step.

Footsteps.

Step step. Step.

Step step step. Step step step.

Step. Step step step. Step step step.

The footsteps don’t stop.

The sound of steps keeps getting closer and closer.

The guard appeared at the main entrance.

‘Please, just go away…’

I held my breath and curled up.

I was peeking through the tiny hole in the door of the cleaning supply closet.

Step step step.

The guard wandered aimlessly through the entrance hall. As if he were searching for someone.

‘Obviously, me.’

He would never guess I was hiding in the cleaning closet. Now it was just a matter of time.

I only had to wait until he left.

Step step step step.

How long have I been here?

By now, he should’ve given up and left, but the guard didn’t go anywhere. He kept circling around, patrolling the entrance hall relentlessly.

‘When will he leave…?’

Because of that, I couldn’t find the right moment to leave the closet. My cramped position was starting to take its toll. My back hurt.

I tried to shift slightly, very carefully. That shouldn’t give me away, right?

I leaned a little to one side, and in that instant, something creaked under my butt.

Creeeak!

The old, rusty, beat-up metal cabinet let out a deafening screech from the slightest movement.

‘I’m screwed!’

Step step step. Step step. Step. Step step step step. Step step step step step.

The guard came running at full speed. A gasp escaped me from the shock.

‘Hup!’

I held my breath so he wouldn’t hear me.

I could hear the guard’s steps right in front of me.

Step step.

Only a sheet of rusted metal separated us. My mouth was completely dry.

The inside of the cabinet, cramped and sealed, was saturated with years of accumulated dust.

Even breathing was hard. The guard didn’t seem to be going anywhere. He kept circling around the closet.

Every time he passed by the door, my heart skipped a beat.

‘Ugh…’

Suddenly, I felt a sting in my throat.

I had inhaled too much dust while hiding for so long. It felt like the dust had clung to my lungs.

My throat began to itch. The dust reached the roof of my mouth.

No matter how hard I tried to hold it in, it was useless.

“Cough cough!”

I coughed hard, spitting up dust like I had real-time pneumonia.

And I knew. I was really screwed.

Step step step step step step step step step step step step.

A chill ran down my spine. Time seemed to slow down.

Slowly, I brought my eye to the gap in the door.

And then, I locked eyes with the guard, who was right in front of the cabinet.

“Shit!!”

I was so startled I fell backward with a loud crash. The closet shrieked as it echoed all around.

The guard watched the scene as if he were enjoying it. Then, he smiled—a crooked grin.

I had never seen him make that expression. The moment I saw his face, my heart sank. I froze completely.

I didn’t even consider fighting back.

‘I have to move…’

But my body wouldn’t respond. The guard walked up with that twisted smile and leaned in toward me. Then—

Creeeak…

The closet door opened slowly.

The guard greeted me with a satisfied smile.

I couldn’t resist. I felt like a frog facing a snake. I could feel death looming.

When I barely managed to move my stiff legs—

Crack.

It felt like something vital in my head snapped.

My mind went hazy. My body collapsed, unable to move a finger.

My vision gradually went black.

[You have died.]

[Restarting from checkpoint.]

***

···My head was resting on the desk, but I opened my eyes.

“···.”

The classroom was dimly lit.

The clock read exactly midnight, and the open notebook on the desk was just as before.

It matched perfectly with the scene from a moment ago.

Time had rewound, just like before. As I sat there in shock, the ticking of the second hand brought me back to reality.

“Huuuh…”

My heart was still pounding. The guard’s smiling face lingered in my mind.

“That bastard…”

My head was a mess.

I patted myself down for injuries, and only then did I feel grateful to be alive.

It seemed that dying sent me back to midnight.

Was this a save point?

Suddenly, I picked up the notebook resting on the desk. A message appeared.

[You have obtained the Diary.]

I opened the first page.

A number was written in red ink.

[00:00]

‘So that’s what this is.’

It definitely indicated the save time. The fact that I returned to the classroom every time I died confirmed it.

I checked the diary’s detailed description.

[Diary]

【Allows you to record progress so far. Requires ink to use.】

[You have no ink.]

‘So I need ink to save.’

I would probably find ink while exploring the school.

If saving required ink, I’d have to use it sparingly.

‘That complicates things.’

To escape the school smoothly, I needed ink. I stood up, determined to look for it first.

The classroom came fully into view.

Desks lined up without gaps. Lockers splattered with red paint.

A bulletin board cluttered with notices. It felt almost familiar after not seeing it for so long.

Looking at it again, it only felt familiar. Since I already knew the solution to the puzzle, there was no reason to suffer again.

‘It should be around here… There it is!’

I rummaged through the desks based on memory. Deep inside one, I easily found the recorder hidden away.

[10319 Jin Dayeon]

Same as before, the name on the label didn’t bother me at all.

Even if it belonged to a classmate, my actions were justified.

It was a matter of survival. My only way to live was by playing a classmate’s recorder at midnight.

Even that Jin Dayeon would understand if she heard my story.

‘If she has complaints, she can come to the classroom.’

I had nothing to be ashamed of. Without hesitation, I brought the recorder to my mouth.

The first time had been tough, but the second was easier.

I covered the holes in order and blew gently.

“Huuuh~”

Beeeeep!

A high-pitched, screechy note echoed through the classroom. And a few seconds later—

Clack.

The back door lock clicked open.

I checked that the guard wasn’t nearby and carefully exited the classroom.

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu without knowing why.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

‘Huff, huff.’

I knew exactly what was coming. The image was still fresh in my mind.

‘I won’t let myself get caught so miserably again.’

Recalling the guard’s smiling face, I steeled my resolve.

This time, I wouldn’t get caught—no matter what.

***

Step. Step step step.

Step step step. Step step.

‘Go away, get lost already…’

The sound of footsteps rang in my ears like a buzzing drone. I curled up and shut my eyes tight.

The guard slowly passed in front of the cleaning closet. Luckily, he didn’t discover me. Still, he kept lingering, sniffing around persistently.

He seemed desperate to find someone.

‘Get lost already, you bald freak.’

I mentally cursed at him to drive him away. Then the guard tilted his head.

It wasn’t because of my curses. He seemed confused about not finding me, swiveling his head uneasily.

Finally, he turned around.

He took a few steps and started moving away from the main entrance.

Step step.

Maybe he thought I had escaped down the opposite hallway, because he headed toward the west wing.

‘Ohhh, he’s going…!’

I didn’t care about anything else.

I desperately prayed for the guard to disappear from the main hall, even just a second sooner.

Step… Step…

The footsteps gradually faded. Even so, I didn’t let my guard down.

I held my breath and waited silently until he was completely gone.

‘Is he gone?’

The footsteps ceased entirely. At last, the hall was completely silent.

Only then did I come out of the cleaning closet.

“Cough, cough!”

As soon as I stepped out, I started coughing uncontrollably. I spat out a ton of old dust that had accumulated deep in my lungs.

I’d inhaled so much dust that my throat burned. As I coughed over and over, tears and snot running, I regained my composure.

‘I almost died…’

The cleaning closet was a horrible experience.

It felt like I had boarded an express train straight to pneumonia. In games, you can hide in a closet or trash can without issue, but reality was different.

Being hunched over that long left my body in shambles.

“Ugh…”

I stretched gently and took in a deep breath. Fresh, clean air filled my lungs.

Somehow, I had survived that ordeal.

‘Am I going to have to hide like that every time?’

If I had to cram myself into that closet every time the guard appeared, I was in for hell.

I just hoped I wouldn’t run into him again for a while.

Now, where to? As I shook off the numbness in my body, I checked the exit door.

It was completely chained shut; it wouldn’t even budge. Without something like bolt cutters, escaping was impossible.

That meant somewhere in this school, there had to be a pair of bolt cutters. In RPG Maker-style games, there’s always a final objective.

In Ao Oni, for instance, it’s the front door key.

In The Witch’s House, it’s the acid that melts the rose.

The story progresses as the protagonist explores the building looking for the key item. In this case, the tool to escape the school was the bolt cutters.

Could they be in a storage room?

I thought about possible places that might have bolt cutters.

That’s when I saw a map on the wall of the main hall.

[Building Guide]

A simplified layout of the main building was marked.

I scanned the map.

The storage room—potential location of the bolt cutters—was in a corner of the basement.

‘The basement?’

Locating it on the map, I headed for the stairs near the hall.

But I couldn’t descend to the basement.

…It was blocked.

The stairs to the basement were sealed with a metal gate. A perforated steel plate completely covered the entrance.

To make things worse, it was padlocked. There was no way to get into the basement like this.

I saw this coming. Frustrated, I shook the padlock pointlessly. A tag read “Basement Stairs.”

To open the gate, I needed the key to the basement stairs.

Everything was needlessly complicated.

There were a thousand things to do. I mentally organized the steps I needed to follow.

‘To escape the school, I need to cut the chains. To cut the chains, I need bolt cutters. To get the bolt cutters, I need to go to the storage room. To get to the storage room, I need to access the basement. And to access the basement, I need the basement stair key.’

‘Damn it…’

There was still a long way to go. The sheer number of obstacles was suffocating.

I felt like tossing it all and giving up on escaping.

But if I wanted to live, I had no choice.

I had to endure everything. Reluctantly, I looked at the building map again.

I was able to visualize the layout of the first floor at a glance. I began searching for a place that might hold the basement stair key.

‘The teachers’ office?’

The teachers’ office was a place where dozens of teachers passed through daily.

It wasn’t unreasonable to think they might keep an emergency key there.

‘I can’t be sure…’

Even if I doubted it, I had no other options. As long as there was even a slim chance, I couldn’t ignore it.

All I could do was place my hopes in that room.

‘Well, I’ll find out when I get there.’

I made my way toward the teachers’ office.

Praying I wouldn’t run into another guard along the way.