Occupational Hazard

I was accidentally dragged into a live-action horror game, only to find my boyfriend, who’d been missing for a week. He was dressed in a stunning red suit, clearly the groom in a wedding. I dug a piece of chalk out of my pocket, chucked it square at his head, and asked sweetly, "Honey, you said you were on a business trip. You failed to mention you were getting hitched." The live chat feed exploded, everyone eagerly awaiting my gruesome death. 【This newb has a death wish. That's the #1 ranked BOSS in the game. His kill count could circle the server three times.】 【I can't watch. She's going to be ripped to shreds.】 Who would have guessed the BOSS would execute a perfect three-foot slide-and-kneel, grabbing my leg. "Babe, I swear, you've got it all wrong! This is just work!" My boyfriend had been out of reach on a "business trip" for a solid week. I was frantic and had already filed a police report. After school, I finished packing up my students' homework. The moment I stepped out of the classroom, the world dissolved. The hallway of Westview High morphed into a towering stone maze. 【All players, please be aware: You have entered the Horror Game.】 【Current Dungeon: The Harvest Rite.】 【Difficulty: SSS-Class.】 【The village of Black Rock Creek, nestled in the mountains, worships the Shepherd. Every year on March 3rd, they hold a Harvest Rite, offering human sacrifices to ensure a bountiful year. This year, twenty 'tourists' have arrived...】 【Objective: Leave the village. Alive.】 【Players: 20】 【Role: Tourist】 【Good luck, players.】 The area erupted into chaos. Some people were calm, others were hyperventilating. It was easy to tell the difference between the veterans and the newbs. "Where are we? How did I get here?" "Is this some new kind of VR prank?" "Let me go home! LET ME GO HOME, WAAAAH!" The screaming and crying were grating, giving me a massive headache. A veteran player eyed the rookies with a sneer. "This batch is low-quality. They're already breaking down." "Why are there so many newbs this time?" "An SSS-Class dungeon with this many newbs? They're just free points for the house." The noise was so overwhelming my teacher-mode activated on instinct. I roared: "Chatter, chatter, chatter! What is this, a field trip? You're louder than my sophomore homeroom! Quiet!" The clearing fell dead silent. Nineteen people, thirty-eight eyeballs, all staring at me. I suddenly remembered this was not, in fact, Westview High. I rubbed the back of my neck, embarrassed. "Ah, sorry about that. Occupational hazard. As you were, as you were." A chat feed flickered to life in the sky above us. 【Who else just got PTSD flashbacks to high school?】 【You can't fake that 'disappointed teacher' voice. She’s gotta be at least 20 years in.】 【Hello, Teach. Goodbye, Teach.】 【No, but seriously, she shut them all up. That was impressive.】 The veteran players looked awkward, seemingly annoyed they'd been cowed by a newb. A guy I'll call Brock, with a face that looked permanently stuck in a sneer, scoffed at me. "Nice power trip. Never seen a newb try to pull rank so fast." Others chimed in. "Seriously, who does she think she is?" "Watch her piss her pants the second a real monster shows up." "She won't even live long enough to see the BOSS." A sharp, clear voice cut through the insults. "That's enough! How dare you speak to my teacher that way! If you don't have anything nice to say, shut your mouths." At her words, the other vets, looking annoyed, actually went quiet. 【Whoa, it’s 'The Sorceress,' rank #3! No wonder this dungeon is SSS-Class.】 【The newb knows the Sorceress? And she's protecting her?】 【Even with the Sorceress, this is a tough clear. The BOSS is 'The Shepherd,' the #1 player killer. The body count on that guy is legendary.】 I looked at the girl the chat called "The Sorceress." She was maybe seventeen, eighteen, with her hair in a high ponytail. Wait a minute. That was my star student, my class TA, Maya. I gave a weak laugh. "Maya? You're here too? Any idea what's going on?" Her voice was exasperated, as if she was wondering how on earth I got dragged in. "Ms. Weaver, this is a horror game. People only get pulled in if they have a desperate, overwhelming wish. If you clear a dungeon, you get points. Points can grant wishes." "And if you fail?" "You're 'erased.' You die here, you disappear in the real world. No one ever remembers you existed." I suddenly understood why she was here. Maya's mother has late-stage cancer. She doesn't have much time. I'd seen Maya crying in the halls. If there was even a sliver of hope, of course she'd take it. I leaned in close and whispered, "Can you see those... text boxes in the sky?" "Of course. That's the chat feed. It's one of the few lifelines the game gives us. We can get information from the audience." "Ms. Weaver, stick with me on this one. I'll protect you." Being shielded by my own student was a little embarrassing, but I was clearly out of my element. I nodded. "Thank you, Maya." 【Man, I wish I had a high-ranker adopt me my first time.】 【With the Sorceress protecting her, her survival odds just shot way up.】 【Doesn't matter who's carrying you. A noob is a noob. They always find a way to die.】 The system voice returned. 【Task 1: The Maze.】 【Black Rock Creek is sealed. The entrance is a labyrinth built centuries ago. It contains idols of the Shepherd. The villagers believe the maze is blessed, protecting them from outsiders.】 【Objective: Clear the maze in thirty minutes, enter Black Rock Creek, and attend the Harvest Rite.】 【Warning: Beware the idols. Touching an idol will result in 'Conversion.'】 【Good luck.】 The maze was made of gray, crumbling stone. There were no lights inside. It was a dark, gaping maw, like a beast waiting to swallow us. Maya grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. The others followed close behind. Our lives were on the line, so all twenty of us decided to stick together. 【I'd love to help the Sorceress, but the top-down view is just fog. Can't see a thing.】 【Duh. If we could just give them the map, it wouldn't be an SSS-Class dungeon.】 【Sorceress, watch the idols! They move when you're not looking at them!】 【If you touch one, you get Converted!】 Maya nodded, acknowledging the chat. We rounded a corner and—BAM—an idol was right there. A total jump scare. If Maya hadn't yanked me back, I'd have walked right into it. The player behind me wasn't so lucky. He couldn't stop in time and stumbled right into the stone statue. He didn't even have time to scream before he, too, turned to stone. 【Player Mike has failed the task. He has been Converted.】 【Remaining Players: 19】 I stared at the new statue. It looked... vaguely familiar. The people behind us slammed on the brakes, tumbling into a pile. Someone scraped their knee, and blood spattered on the ground. The maze groaned. The walls began to shift. 【Blood on the floor activates the maze. That's a hidden mechanic, it's not supposed to happen this early.】 【This group has the worst luck. F. Paying respects in advance.】 The system chimed in. 【Maze hidden mechanic: 'The Hunger' has been activated.】 【The maze will now shift every five minutes. Idols will spawn every three minutes. 'Locals' will also spawn randomly. A Local may guide you, or they may kill you.】 【Reminder: You have thirty minutes. Failure to exit in time will result in you becoming part of the maze.】 I scrambled up, putting my hand on the wall to steady myself. The texture was wrong. It was... moving. Like it was breathing. It wasn't hard stone, but soft and warm, like human skin. It was sticky. My skin crawled. A scream ripped through the air. A man's entire lower half was being absorbed by the wall. The stone made a wet, chewing sound. I snatched my hand back. 【HOLY HELL THE MAZE EATS PEOPLE?!】 【How else do you think it moves? Touch the walls for too long and you're lunch.】 【Why wasn't that in the warning?!】 【SSS-Class, genius. They have hidden death traps. This isn't a tutorial.】 The players all exchanged panicked looks and started pulling out various items and tools. But it was no use; players kept getting Converted by the idols. We ran for what felt like an eternity, only to find our path blocked by another Shepherd idol. It just stood there, motionless, covered in moss that smelled like a damp basement. I glanced down for one second, and when I looked up, it had jumped ten feet closer. Its carved smile seemed wider, more like a caricature. Maya looked pale. She was running out of attack items. The system's countdown began. 【Warning. Ten minutes remaining until maze lockdown.】 【Remaining Players: 15】 【This is just bad RNG. A narrow path and an idol spawn.】 【And the maze just shifted. It's a dead end behind them. They're trapped.】 【RIP.】 I was just... so annoyed. I fished a chalk nub from my pocket and winged it at the statue. I wasn't trying to do anything; I was just venting. "Block, block, block! That's all you do! You're worse than the 405 on a holiday weekend!" 【...Is the newb insane? She's talking to the statue.】 【She thinks this is school? That's a monster, not a kid in detention.】 【Can we please vote-kick mentally unstable players?】 Brock, who was clutching some kind of explosive talisman, rolled his eyes at me. "If you're gonna have a mental breakdown, don't do it here, lady. What's that little bit of chalk gonna do?" But the idol's serenely carved smile... slowly... turned... down. It looked... upset? Gray pebbles started to chip off its face, like it was crying. Sobbing, the idol began to shuffle to the side, slowly clearing the path. Its turtle-like pace just made me see red, reminding me of every student who ever dawdled in the hall. "Hustle! Hustle! Don't dawdle! I want to see you run!" The idol suddenly tucked and rolled, careening down the hallway at high speed. 【???】 【Did that statue just... obey her? Like a dog?】 【Hold on, I'm going to go stand on my head. This can't be real.】 【You guys don't actually believe she scolded it into moving, do you? She must have hit a secret trigger.】 【This newb... she's got something weird going on.】 Everyone, including the hyper-critical Brock, was staring at me like I'd grown a second head. We pushed forward. The players who had been glued to Maya's back were now slowly drifting behind me. The maze shifted again, and the players at the tail end were cut off. As we walked, I saw a figure at the next intersection. It was a young girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen. She was wearing strange, rustic clothing, and her bangs were so long they completely covered her eyes. She was holding a bizarre, curved knife, which was dripping blood onto the floor. 【Warning. Three minutes remaining until maze lockdown.】 【Remaining Players: 12】 The girl, dragging her bloody knife, started walking toward us. 【Oh, their luck is just the worst. That's Lily, the 'Butcher's Daughter.' She's a mini-boss.】 【Don't let her size fool you. She's killed five people in the last three minutes. Doesn't even ask questions.】 【I'll bet a bag of chips only the Sorceress and Brock get out of this.】 Everyone froze. I looked at the girl, clenching my fists. I tried to hold it in. I really did. I couldn't. THWACK. I slapped the knife out of her hand. I then reached into my bag, pulled out a small elastic hair tie, and swept her greasy bangs up, tying them in a ridiculous sprout on top of her head. "Young lady, you are too young to be this gloomy." "We show our faces. We are bright! We are presentable!" "If you showed up to my school like this, you'd get sent straight to the office for violating the dress code!" The chat feed was just a stream of question marks. 【Challenging the mini-boss. She has guts, I'll give her that.】 【Can I borrow some of her confidence? Asking for a friend.】 【This NPC is a literal psychopath and the teacher is disciplining her. If she lives, I will... I will finally do my taxes.】 【I think she has a plan. She has to.】 Maya instantly jumped in front of me, shielding me. The little girl, Lily, sniffled. Her eyes, which hadn't seen proper light in ages, squinted and teared up. Exposed, her face was just... confused. The "Sprout" on her head made her look like a dazed cartoon character. After a long, stunned silence, she just... whispered, "Oh." 【Huh? She's fine?】 【Am I hallucinating? The psycho-killer kid didn't kill her.】 【This is the same kid who was shanking players a minute ago!】 【Okay, tax guy. Pay up.】 My professional instincts were now completely overriding my survival instincts. "What's your name, honey? What grade are you in?" "I'm... I'm Lily. I... I don't go to school." Don't... go... to... school. The words echoed in my head. This was 2025. This was America. A kid not in school? I grabbed Lily's hand. "Take me to your village. Now." Every child deserves an education! This truancy was unacceptable! She looked at our joined hands, then at my face, clearly confused by my sudden fiery passion. Finally, she just nodded. "Okay." Brock, who had been bracing for a bloodbath, just gaped. "Huh?" Chat: 【?】

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